#bruce barnes

Countdown to The Atticus McLaren Mysteries. 3/?

I know some of it just doesn’t make sense and all that but when I saw the post I really bloody had too!

The Post I Got Inspired By - Check It Out Please!

Master List

The Tower was home to:

Tony Stark,

Bruce Banner,

Natasha Romanoff,

Clint Barton,

Wanda Maximoff,

Vision,

Steve Rogers,

Bucky and

Pepper.

Four homeless cats have also adopted the tower as their home that makes the constant tower footfall as 26, and if Peter is staying over then 28. As you can imagine things as always been moved and there are always footsteps and things been broken.

The Avengers had no idea they were been haunted, if anything was broken they normally blamed a cat (if the person didn’t want to own up) or Bucky since he was getting used to his new Stark Industries arm.

Thursday (Thor’s day) was games night, everyone gathered around the table, monopoly sat in the centre. They started to play while they waited for the Chinese to arrive, and once it was they all gathered in the kitchen getting food and ate together at the table, when they returned to the living room, all the piece were scattered across the board and the money on the floor.

Mayhem a black cat with a white patch over his eye, (often referred to as Fury) was sat happily perched on the sofa back purring. Tony going over, “Look, Nick, we’ve talked about you going Godzilla in the game boards, it’s all fun for you but you have not idea had much work it is for us…” Looking at Tony with his big dark eye and purring, he stood running his face against Tony’s giving a purr and smashing him with his tail on the way past.

A couple weeks later Steve heard banging around in the kitchen but assumed it was Tony on a late night binge after finishing a project. The next morning the cupboard that was the cereal home, (Also home to cat food and treat) was wide open, boxes across the floor, cat food pouches scattered around the room. Twinkle got blamed this time, Bucky was tickling the cat as she sat on the counter. “You could have just woke us up if you where this hungry, you know that right! I mean my room has a cat flap and everything…” Kissing the head of the tabby female cat.

Another time, Bruce was happily showering, when he heard a smash. He stopped the water and wrapping a towel around himself snuck out the bathroom. On the floor was his broken glass that had his water in it, Maple, a Ginger female was peering over the side of the bed at the smashed glass. Bruce smile, “You really are naughty!” Tickling her head before going back to his shower.

This has been happening for months, no one thought a thing, hear banging in the night? That’s probably Bucky and Steve going at it like it’s the war again. Strange sound something like ‘ooohhh’ and ‘ooo’ Peter is probably playing video games past dark. Strange thumping sounds, probably Tony working on something since he can’t sleep. Metal clinking? Bucky getting a drink maybe. Scratching at your door, I mean three cats do live at the tower.

Clint doesn’t let the cats in his room, he has issues with cat fur which is fair enough. In the night he is woken up to scratching at his bedroom door, the ghost watching to scare him, annoyed and tired he leant down and picked up the training boot throwing it at the door with a thud screaming “No thank you!” Forcing the ghost to move on. The next day when Nat asked Clint at breakfast what all the noise was about that night he simply said. “One of the cats were trying to get in and I wasn’t in a great mood…”

Tony suffered from ADHD, he will move an item four times and still forget where he put it. In his birthing sweet he is forever moving tools. “Where the hell did my wrench go?” Slapping his hand on the table what’s he swears blind he placed it. Looking around it was back in the towel box, “bloody hell I need to stop doing that…”

The ghost was desperate for some attention. Just a little so it tried with Peter.

Peter slept thought ever clunk, bang and wush in his room so the ghost made a scratch down Peters' arm. The next morning when Tony asked about it Peter looked confused, “I’m not sure Mr Stark, one of for cats must have done it or something…” No attention was paid to it.

In the night Peter was woken to the sound of water running, getting up his shower was on. He swears it wasn’t turned on before bed. Turning it off and going back off to sleep. It happens four more times. Peter talks to Tony the next day. “The automatic showed in my bedroom keeps turning on and off by itself…” Tony nods, “if the seal around it breaks the steam gets in and fries the controls. I’ll replace them for you later today, don’t worry about it kid.”

Bucky’s TV would repeatable turn on in the night when he was trying to sleep. The tv earnt a screaming from Bucky after it turned on for the fourth time that night. “Oh Fuck off you piece of crap box!” Begrudgingly climbing out of bed and unplugging it from the wall. Climbing back into bed and muttering until he finally fell asleep. The next day “I bloody hate technology!” Causing Steve to just nod next to him.

Higher Quality on Youtube:

I’ll probably post some of the individual art here without the credits on it. I’ll definitely be posting them ALL on my art insta ( @ hopesartcastle ) including some sketches and concept art type things.

The Politics of the ‘Daodejing’

I travelled north to Bradford earlier this week to read from my versions of the Daodejing. For the first time a reader of Mandarin was present to read from something approaching the original texts. Bradford artist Yan Wang read beautifully as well as providing the evening with a couple of large banner-scrolls of chapters from the text. The whole evening had been organised by an old friend, Bruce…

The original post is here. Other posts in the verse can be found here.

"We're a team, right?"

Steve looked up in surprise. There were many words to describe the Avengers, but team wasn't always one of them. No matter what Steve always thought of them as his team, but he knew most of the others weren't quite as onboard about the idea as Steve was. Still, of all the people to ask a question like that, he hadn't expected it to be Bruce.

"Of course we are."

The doctor nodded, wringing his hands slightly, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"And that means we're there for each other, doesn't it?"

Steve's brow creased. He had an inkling where this was going, but Bruce usually managed to set him at ease, and the irony was not lost on Steve. "Yes, I suppose it does." He answered slowly.

Bruce nodded again. "Well...that goes two ways. We're here for you too. If you ever need it. Every Captain needs a crew don't they?"

Steve was at a loss for words, and Bruce seemed to sense that. He just smiled at Steve one last time before leaving the room, giving Steve the opportunity to mull over his words.