It was nice to be back in New York, Steve thought, after touring the whole country with the Star Spangled Show. Even better, once the show was done here, they were going overseas – not into combat, but at least it was a start. It made him cheer up just to think about it, and he maybe threw a little extra flair into the show every night, took a little extra time at the stage door.
“What’s your name?” he asked, crouching to get on eye-level with the little girl who had been patiently waiting behind several taller, pushier people.
“Ruth,” she said shyly, offering him her autograph book.
“Lovely name,” he replied. “Did you like the show?”
She nodded. “I liked the dancing.”
“You gonna be a dancer when you grow up?”
“Nuh uh,” she said.
“What’re you gonna be?”
“A judge,” she said.
“Yeah? You gonna make sure justice is done?”
She nodded soberly.
“Well, Ruth, you gotta study hard, you know that, right?” he asked, as he signed her book. “I expect to see you on the bench someday.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, stepping back, and another handful of kids surged around her. Cute kid.
2012:
Steve had always liked Civics in school, but when you had to catch up on seventy years between your last history class and the present, it could get a little overwhelming. On the other hand, celebrity was good for something; when he’d been working on memorizing the names and major cases of the Supreme Court justices, Tony had said, “Well, do you want to meet them?”
A couple of long phone calls and a few weeks later, Steve passed through a LOT of security, down a hallway, and into a courtroom; it was early in the morning, ahead of the open public hours, and the room smelled like coffee. A tiny bird of a woman in a black gown was standing in front of the seating box.
“Captain,” she said, as he shook her hand.
“Justice Ginsburg, right?” he asked. “It’s an honor, ma’am.”
“I feel the same,” she said, and there was something very familiar about her smile. “I wanted to get here a little earlier than everyone else, to speak to you in private.”
He was opening his mouth, about to ask why, when she reached into a pocket of the robe and took out a battered leather book, the kind kids used to collect autographs in.
“I don’t suppose you remember, you must have signed a lot of autographs,” she said. “But back in the war, just before you left for overseas, I went to see your bond show.”
Steve looked down. Scrawled on the page was his clumsy signature and, in slightly better lettering, To Judge Ruth. Study Hard!
He looked up at her, eyes wide. “No, I remember – I asked if you wanted to be a dancer and you said no, you were going to be a judge.”
“You were the first adult outside of my family who didn’t sneer at a girl wanting to be a judge,” she said.
“Well,” Steve said faintly. “Guess you must have studied.”
“Captain America said he wanted to see me on the bench. Couldn’t very well let him down,” she replied, and Steve laughed.
Okay can we talk about Mercutio and Benvolio for a minute please?
Mercutio does not actually die on-stage. He is stabbed by Tybalt, makes a few puns and the odd dick joke (as one would), and then asks Benvolio to help him “into some house”. They go off-stage and Benvolio re-enters a few lines later (suspiciously few, in fact) to report Mercutio’s death.
Benvolio himself then promptly disappears from the play at the end of the scene.
Headcanon that Mercutio’s death was faked and that he and Benvolio are sitting happily on some tropical island together, sipping cocktails and making out.
Dad jokes honestly have this amazing way of perpetuating themselves across time and space, and I have an example from my own life that warms the cockles of my cold, dark heart.
So, when I was fourteen, I went on a cruise of the Baltic Sea with my best friend’s family, and one of the few American families I met laughed when I told them that we were from near Washington, DC. They said they had a long-running family joke about DC– once upon a time, they had gone on vacation there and thought it was funny how everything started with the word ‘National.’ While exploring the National Mall, they saw a beautiful gold-domed building slightly off the beaten path, near the National Gallery. Figuring it was an important monument or museum, they went off the Mall and up the road to explore. When they got there, they saw it was a Starbucks. The dad paused, and then said, “Well, I guess it’s the National Starbucks.”
Apparently, the whole ‘National Starbucks’ become a joke with them, I imagine the kind of dad joke that the dad reflexively makes every time anyone mentioned Starbucks or something like that.
Well, let me tell you, ever since I first heard that story, almost ten years ago now, I point out the “National Starbucks” whenever I’m on the Mall with friends and family and recount the tale. It’s become one of MY reflexive dad jokes, and I know that If I ever have kids, they’ll probably start saying it, too. Maybe the probably 30+ people who have heard me tell the story will do the same.
Not long ago, I was out with friends, and we were thirsty, so one of my friends recommended, “Why don’t we go to the National Starbucks?” Everyone in the group knew what she meant because they’d all known me for awhile. I just love that this weird unfunny inside joke from some random family from New Jersey who visited DC ONE TIME has spread to my social network in DC. Dad jokes are immortal.
In closing, spread the word of the National Starbucks next time you’re in town.
I just started working in DC, so I need to find this and start doing this.
okay but please please tell me someone sat down and wrote after-mulan fic where some days li shang wakes up and rolls over and murmurs mulan’s name and reaches out for her only to hear “call me ping today” whispered back
and how everyone else not in the know thinks he has a wife and a secret army boyfriend and that he’s hiding one from the other
and someone tries to tell mulan and she just collapses laughing because they’re close but totally wrong
and li shang all the time just deals with it because he loves ping and he loves mulan and he doesn’t care what name he’s using or what gender he’s kissing as long as he can sneak one kiss a day
the dragon kind of creeps him out sometimes but it’s all cool
THIS MIDGARDIAN CHILD HIS GOOD TASTE! METHINKS PERHAPS WE ARE SEEING A FUTURE FEMALE WARRIOR!
My head canon is that each of the Avengers ends up with core group of fangirl/boys, like Natasha’s (or the one she acknowledges) are teenage girls mainly who see her as their hero, little boys love the Hulk, but Thor? Little girls between like the ages of 4 and 10, cause dude he is a Prince, who rides on a rainbow bridge, and is basically the fairy tale prince in real life. And Thor fucking loves it. His room at the Tower is just plastered with drawings they send him, and he tries as hard as he can to respond to each and every letter he gets.
HEADCANON ACCEPTED.
And Clint and Tony would try to tease Thor about it but he’s just so proud of all his little fangirls and of the drawings and other things they send him and he’s so earnest about it that Clint and Tony end up more than a little jealous.
I AM SO OKAY WITH THIS IDEA
and oh man I just picture him meeting one of his little baby fans and they have their own little baby mjolnir and he asks her if she’d like to hold the real one, and her eyes get all big because what?? only thor can hold mjolnir! she knows that!! So he crouches down next to her, gently holding her hand as it holds mjolnir so that even though he’s the one holding the weight, she gets to feel like she’s actually the one holding the hammer and her eyes go half as big as her whole head as grins all big and he tells her ”clearly you are worthy, little warrior!”
STOP IT
MY POOR HEART
IM NOT EVEN IN THIS FANDOM BUT THIS IS REALLY CUTE
Leia has, for various reasons, a very dubious outlook on classic Jedi training methods. This is not just because of various circumstances surrounding her son, she’s had this opinion for many years before his birth. But Luke was insistent when Ben proved Force sensitive and there was nothing Leia could say otherwise that had any documentation, any records, any proof.
(she’s concerned that her use of the Force might be considered Other, or Grey, or Dark)
It’s like this: the Jedi are unsubtle.
It’s like this: Moving a blaster’s nose a half centimeter causes the shot to miss by a feet. It’s much easier to make 5 blasters miss than to throw 5 Stormtroopers backwards.
It’s like this: when Leia speaks, she is Forceful. When she speaks to a room, she starts with nudges to make everyone listen, she slides in quiet elation at her words, she ends with encouraging a feeling of being able to do absolutely anything in the Universe.
And she lets her speech carry out the rest of the details, rather than her Force, she lets her people decide how to act, she lets choice finish their decisions and these decisions and choices lasts longer when she leaves the room than if she simply Forced someone to say, “I will do as you command.”
(she takes after her mother, she hears)
Leia wonders if that was how Palpatine caused her father to go Dark, and remains quiet when Luke trains her son.
And when Ben turns, she feels the reverberations, and can’t find it in her to blame Luke for it entirely.
(she wonders if she should have Spoken, or if it would have made things worse)
[[[because lol]]]
The base is collapsing around their ears, their TIE fighters are falling from the sky, and That Girl has come back with That Lightsaber and more training and for the life of him Kylo cannot hold his ground against her so he’s running but those are things he’s not examining too closely. Instead:
“HIGHLY TRAINED FIGHTERS, he says,” Kylo swears under his breath and dodges around more Stormtroopers, hoping they’d stall his pursuit. The Force tells him they don’t do a damn thing. “PICKED from a YOUNG AGE, he says, BETTER than CLONES, he says, THEN WHY CAN’T YOUR STORMTROOPERS HIT THE BROADSIDE OF A DEATHST–”
Hux suddenly skids to a stop. “She’s here.”
“WHO’S HERE?!”
“I don’t know what she has, the scientists can’t figure it out but when she’s around,” Hux staggers, panting, “at this point, no one can aim straight if she’s even on the same planet, let alone the same room and–”
“WHO?!” Kylo reaches out and grabs Hux by the throat, pulling him to his toes. “GIVE ME A NAME.”
A throat clears behind him.
“Ben,” His mother says.
Kylo freezes.
“Put that back where you found it. We need to talk.”
THIS EXPLAINS SO MUCH. How else HOW ELSE I ASK YOU could a whole pack of storm troopers fire down a narrow hallway and hit nobody?
Kimchi and Justice 