#dreamsverse

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Captain America (Movies), Thor (Movies) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Darcy Lewis/Steve Rogers Characters: Darcy Lewis, Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Nick Fury, and my usual pack of OCs Additional Tags: Series, Sequel, despite the title this isn't a songfic, Dreamsharing, this part of the story is more about the romance than anything else, more tags to be added as the story goes on - Freeform Series: Part 5 of I am Here, and I am Ready

Summary: Summer in New York has been described in many ways: exciting, sweltering, vibrant, reeking from the pits of hell, exhausting, lively, and, as crazy as it makes people, it’s home. It’s also the backdrop for the growing love story between Steve Rogers and Darcy Lewis. There’s a little laughter, a little angst, a little magic, and a little romance. Basically, it’s time to bring things out of the dreamscape and into the waking world.

Chapter summary: New roommates, adventures with pigeons and falling tasers, defective DoomBots, encounters with Avengers who aren’t Captain America, and an absolutely guileless Nick Fury who has no hidden agenda. Not at all.Yeah, it’s just an average day in the greatest city in the world for one Darcy Lewis. Who isn’t paid nearly enough to deal with this.

Woo /o/ My current Art Fight attacks so far. I... don't know if I'll be able to do more because of what's suddenly happening in my life but I'm glad I got to do some /o/ I'd love to do more though. I've only done a few from my personal list of what I had wanted to do and I'd love to do more random character ones QAQ. I guess we'll see what happens.

Here yes, Hello \o/

I also have been feeling the strong desire to return to 2012 MCU fandom lately, for all obvious reasons, and so these cracky little ficlets in the Dreamsverse take place over the summer of 2012, a younger, more innocent time for my babies.  Although, admittedly, I’m totally pulling some characters from the more recent Marvel movies, definitely inspired by a post from @anais-ninja-bitch of late that spurred on some amazing headcanons.

There are a lot of OCs in this verse, and I’m hitting the ground running with them, so if you want to learn a little more about them, you can find the rest of the Dreamsverse at AO3.  If you don’t want to read through five long stories though, here’s what you need to know: 1) recently established Shieldshock where Darcy and Steve are neighbors in Brooklyn 2) Darcy has a LOT of roommates 3) No one knows Steve is Captain America, because his public identity is still secret (oh, it was a more innocent time then, and I’m a total sucker for a secret identity…).

Day 1 - Taser Mishaps

“This will not end well,” Barrett says.  His face is pinched with worry, and if the wary expression didn’t give it away, the way his fingertips keep tapping out a staccato beat on the worn windowsill say plenty, also.

Steve looks up at Barrett from his perch halfway down the steps between the fire escapes.  There’s already a rough edged rip in his t-shirt where the wrought iron had snagged it, the flaps peeling away to reveal a slice of his muscular chest.  Beyond that, the slight claw marks in his skin were showing up nicely red against his pale flesh.  “I realize that,” he replies with all of the patience he can muster up, “but what choice to do we have?”  His other hand has a thick rope wrapped around it, the other end of which is wrapped a few times around Darcy’s waist, just for extra safety purposes.

“Dude, it’s not my taser; I won’t get arrested for having an illegal weapon in this state!”

“Will you two shut up!” Darcy calls back over her shoulder, reaching around to adjust the rope and stop it from digging into her skin.  “The pigeons are getting even madder.”

Crackfic week, day two: an unexplainable predicament to explain.  Follows directly on from yesterday’s Dreamsverse ficlet, which can be found here.  All the necessary notes for understanding the Dreamsverse can be found there also, especially the whole summer of 2012 and secret identity bits.  These are incredibly fun to write, and they’ve been a great balm for the soul these days, so all love to @dresupi for coming up with this idea.  Un-beta’ed and definitely not quality checked, because I am tired and this isn’t getting posted to AO3 just yet.

Someday I’ll write out how Darcy ended up being friends with Monica Rambeau in the Dreamsverse, but that won’t be today.  Today is for cracky goodness.  More author’s notes at the end of the ficlet, because spoilers. ;)

Day two - an unexplainable predicament to explain

It’s one of those days when Darcy is infinitely grateful she’s an office temp, because it means she’s not obligated to be upright and moving at the crack of dawn, unlike most of the people she knows.  The bad thing about crashing at Steve’s apartment after a night full of various suspect cocktails, however, is that there’s that one ray of blinding sunlight coming through the window that manages to drive a spike of pain right into her cranium.  She groans lowly, pulling Steve’s unoccupied pillow over her head to block the rest of the world out.

Darcy fully blames the judicious application of tequila the night before for her current state.  She and Jess had dragged Monica out to welcome her to the apartment, and they’d ended up at a hole in the wall bad somewhere on Smith Street, pounding back more shots than any sane person should.  Things got a little blurry after that.  At least from what little Darcy can recollect.  There may have been some wandering about, attempting to find the right subway station, she thinks.  Then there was also, possibly, an encounter with a police officer.  She remembers the blue uniform at least.

You get three for the price of one today, because downtime at this temp job and EndGame have apparently kicked my muse into high gear.  So, here are some previews of three stories.

1) The EndGame what-if/fix it (for lack of a better term.  Maybe alternate ending is better?  Exploring what I thought would have worked better?  I dunno.  Regardless, it’s the end of EndGame my way).  Spoilers ahoy, and no ship in sight (yet.  I have plans for this universe):

“You spoke to the Living Tribunal, then?” a new voice breaks in, low and haggard and yet strong enough to resonate around the office.  Standing in the doorway is Thor, looking about as worn down as Steve feels right then, ragged and tired, like he’s only being held together by the merest of threads.

“And what’s the Living Tribunal when it’s at home?” Steve asks, because now they’re going well past his wheelhouse into the goddamn Marianas Trench, and the last thing he wants to do is drown in it.

“The judge, jury, and executioner of universal balance.”  Thor shuffles over to one of the chairs nearby the holographic image generators and kicks back, slumping down.  “What did he say to you?”

“That this universe, as it exists now, post decimation?” Carol shakes her head, “is unsustainable.  The balance has been wrecked so badly by what Thanos has done that within a generation, maybe two at the most, everything in existence is going to be reduced to space dust.  Something to be absorbed and dispersed around the universe that will come after this one.”

2) The next chapter in the Dreams series, three years after I posted the previous one.  I don’t even know where this came from, but I do know that crack week 2019 helped spur it on.  Yes, it’s nonsensical, but a desire to return back to 2012 fandom and characters and my two favorite romantic idiots trying to find their way in the world was an appealing one.  Darcy/Steve, which shouldn’t surprise anyone by now, especially if they’ve read the series (which you can find here if you’re interested).  This bit guest stars everyone’s favorite Hawkguy:

Darcy turns a corner, and crashes into a solid, human figure with an undignified yelp.  “Get down,” the human figure grunts out, clapping a hand on her shoulder.  So, she lunges to the side just as she feels a rush of movement behind her, followed by a twanging noise and a small explosion.  When she looks back, she sees that the DoomBot lurking behind her is now smoking on the floor, an arrow sticking out of one metallic eye.  She looks over to the other side of the hall to find freakin’ Hawkeye there, of all people, a fresh arrow nocked in the bow and aimed straight at her.

“Whoa.”  She quickly puts her hands in the air, because the crowning achievement of today would be for her to end up with an arrow in her gut courtesy of the Avengers.

“You won’t make it easy on me and say that you’re responsible for these runaway robots so I can take you in quietly and berate someone for their poor choice in friends?” Hawkeye says, pulling the tension on the arrow back just a little bit further.  He looks a lot different in his official gear from when she’d seen him on the street with Steve that one time, much more focused and intent on his mission rather than just another guy knocking around.  It’s an impressive change.

“Dude, I’m just a temp!” Darcy blurts out.  “My agency sent me here for a couple of days so I could scan in some payroll records!”  It takes a second for the latter half of Hawkeye’s statement to register, and she gives into the eyeroll.  “Look, SHIELD knows exactly who I am, especially after all the NDAs they’ve made me sign after a certain incident in New Mexico.  And even if I was going to take my revenge on the world, it wouldn’t be with a pack of defective DoomBots!”

Hawkeye’s about to say something else, when a cluster of Bots comes from either side of the hallway, effectively boxing them in.  “Aw, shit.”

“You think?!”  Darcy pushes herself against the wall, trying to get out of the line of fire as much as she can.

3) And, finally, an excerpt from a story that I’m working on in the Incrediblesverse, which is directly spurred on because of events in EndGame, even though there are no spoilers (and, tbh, I know already EndGame will never take place in this universe - in my head, the Incrediblesverse takes place in the 2014 timeline where Thanos is done and dusted and will never be an issue there).  This bit involves Steve and Natasha, although this story is deeply and undeniably ShieldShock over all:

Steve clutches Joey that much closer; he can tell he’s fascinated and not quite sure what to make of the newcomer.  It’s not exactly an unexpected sensation the first time someone meets the Black Widow, he knows.  “You coming to crash the party and tell me I’m marrying a spy, Director?”

“Not hardly.  Just offering my congratulations.”  Natasha crosses her arms over her chest, stepping into the light so Steve can see her fully.  “Besides, you know I’ve done my background checks.  Darcy’s perfect for you.”

“I’m hesitant to ask how long ago you found out, and how long you’ve been gathering your info on us.”

“Not as long as you’d think.”  She shakes her head, the look on her face full of pride, of all things.  “You and Bucky did a surprisingly good job of covering your tracks in the aftermath of your supposed ‘deaths’ over the last few years.  But, then a little birdie told me a long awaited celebration was happening, and I went from there.”

He knows his eyebrows are arching into his hairline now.  “A little birdie told you, huh?”