It Starts Out Like an A-Word (As Anyone Can See) (8092 words) by Amy
Chapters: 8/8
Fandom: The Avengers (2012), Sesame Street (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Elmo (Sesame Street), The Count, Telly Monster, Grover (Sesame Street), Big Bird, Murray Monster, Bert (Sesame Street), Ernie (Sesame Street), Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Thor (Marvel), Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson
Summary:

This fic is brought to you by the letter Y, the number 12, and the Avengers' decision to help fix what Loki and the Chitauri did to destroy parts of Manhattan. (Mostly that last part.)

::sniffles madly:: Goodness, the pollen is, um, very strong today, isn't it? ::sniffles more::

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Title: Your Gossip-Like Humour
Summary: The team is comfortable enough to tease.
Notes: The definition is lifted directly from http://m-w.com.

( Read more... )

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Mommies don't need more than four hours of sleep a night, right? ::yawns:: Ugh. Barak climbed into bed at 4ish and I haven't been able to go back to sleep. I eventually gave up and got up, but this means that I'm going to be unable to stay awake in a few hours.

My plan is to try and work now and then maybe actually take a nap once I'm falling asleep over my computer. If you can't beat it, join it?

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I wish I had time to do a complete description of MsC's wedding, but alas, I don't. However, it was a wonderful, if exhausting, day!

For the record, she's officially married. I know this because I signed the ketubah. I'm an official witness and everything :)

So I got down to Virginia at around 1:30ish and went up to the suite (which, BTW, was about the same size as the basic footprint of my house), where there was a flurry of hair being done and makeup and whatnot. Not long after, we decided to kick out the menfolk, who went down the hall to another room, where booze apparently was. (The look on MsC's face upon hearing that...well, I wish I had a photo.)

There was much primping and I was eternally grateful to MsC for not asking me to be a bridesmaid. Whew. I got to wear a comfortable dress and comfy boots. However, I worked for my privilege ;) I strapped on the trusty emergency bag that MsC had created, which pretty much had everything anyone might ever possibly need during the event, and lugged it around.

I helped MsC get into her awesome dress and supplied safety pins and scissors and whatnot when needed. I ran back up to the room to get the marriage license. I tracked down missing bridesmaids and wandering family members. I herded like a sheepdog. I made the executive decision that it was time for yichud to be over. Heh.

I carried MsC's shoes (and her mother's) so they could change out of heels. I had a fabulous time.

The funny thing is that my mother and Certain Other People (who are not my MIL, for the record) complained about my not being in the bridal party. Which kind of boggles my mind. Because if any of you were asked which of the following two roles I would prefer, I would expect 99% of you to get the right answer without any help:

1) Buy a pretty dress, sit while someone does your hair and makeup, then walk up the aisle on heels while everyone looks at you
2) Run like a madwoman around the place and be helpful to any member of the bridal party who needs something

Seriously? Which of you wouldn't have already known the right answer? Anyway...

I spent much of the ceremony staring at the chuppah, convinced it was going to blow away. Now, I had reason for this, because there was some concern that it might, so it ended up being duct taped (no joke) to the poles and the poles to the bases. However, what I recall other than the chuppah was lovely and I did some sniffling (although less crying than I expected).

I bugged the groomsmen during yichud and dragged MsC and hubby out. Then I went to grab some food before the cocktail hour was over and actually go talk to some other people :D Dinner was great with a great table of friends, whee! Avi took my parents home and I stayed 'til the bitter end to help break everything down, lug things back to the suite, etc. I got home around, uh, midnight?

I wish MsC and her new hubby long and happy lives :) I know they caught their honeymoon flight, so that's a good start.

(I know I'm forgetting some funny stories. I'm sure they'll come back to me when I've had some sleep.)

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Today is MsCongeniality's wedding! I'm so super excited :D She very kindly didn't ask me to be the matron of honor, who has to get her hair done and makeup put on and all that stuff. Instead I get to carry the emergency bag with the Tide pen and microfiber cloth and sewing kit. Much better :)

Did I mention that I'm excited? ::grins madly:: Yesterday Yael and I went down to the hotel and hung out with MsC and other folks, doing things like putting together table decorations and making a WalMart run.

Okay, only a few people here will get why this is hilarious, but MsC got a call from her father. So he's pretty much chair-bound, so he was on a medical transport down from Columbia to Chantilly and he leaves this message on her phone saying they've "gone the wrong way past the Mormon temple."

And she looks at me and Heather and says "How the hell can you go the wrong way past the Mormon temple on the way to Virginia?" And we're all "Fuck if we know!"

It turns out the medical transport had come down 95, then gone across the ICC to 270, then taking 270 to 495...at which point they got on the Beltway going east instead of south toward Virginia. ::headdesk:: I know that the Beltway is a circle, but it's a very big one. Trust me, you don't want to go around it in the wrong direction, okay?

Anyway, he made it eventually, as did everyone else and there was a big dinner for out-of-town folks and a few of us locals who MsC wanted there. It was good to spend some time with MsC, especially since today won't exactly be relaxing.

On that note, I'm off to do a tiny bit of work before I get going. See ya on the flip side!

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Title: Four Times It Was Bruce's Fault and One Time It Was Tony's
Summary: What is says on the tin.
Notes: My Tony Stark apparently has an extremely foul mouth. Sorry?

Everybody who's dealt with Bruce Banner for more than five minutes and isn't a moron knows that Bruce is a genius. Y'know, really really really goddamn smart. Almost as smart as Tony. And once they've been around a while, they figure out that Bruce is quietly a super funny guy.

But what most people don't realize about Bruce is that he's absolutely fucking devious. Tony loves that about him. Most of the time.

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As an antidote to yesterday's crankiness, I bring you: Otters who look like Benedict Cumberbatch.

You're welcome.

(Um, don't click on this if you're anywhere that people will look at you funny for laughing hysterically, because I actually laughed out loud at this.)

This entry was originally posted at http://mara.dreamwidth.org/180863.html, where there are comments. Please feel free to comment either here or there.

We all have topics that just set us off, right? Things that make us go "HULK SMASH" no matter calm we try to be. (Of course, we also all have people who can do that, but that's a separate issue.)

What makes you turn into a giant green rage monster? You can be as specific or general as you like. My list will look pretty familiar to anyone who's been reading this LJ for more than about a week ;)

(Obviously I'm not talking about the obvious items like murder, rape, child sex abuse, torture, genocide...those should make everybody so angry they can hardly see straight. I'm talking about things that might annoy one person but make another go ballistic.)

1. Anti-vaccine views such as "vaccines give kids autism", "vaccines are full of toxins", or "too much, too soon."

2. Anything whatsoever to do with creationism and intelligent design. I hereby present to you the human sinus cavity, reproductive system, gall bladder, and eye (it's installed backwards, upside-down, and with a blind spot!), so don't talk to me about design, unless you mean designed by a committee of blind, syphilitic monkeys.

3. Religion. Um...pretty much everything there ;) But most especially attempts to insert religion into secular life, force religious views on other people, etc.

4. Hardcore childfree insanity, along the lines of "nobody should ever have children" or "children should be kept at home until they're 16".

5. "Pregnancy is a happy, magical time! Every pregnant woman must glow as she bounds through her joyous existence! No frowning allowed!"

I'm trying to think if there are any other things that belong on this list. I can think of lots of irksome things but nothing else that makes me flip out to quite this degree. These are the items I can hardly be rational about because I just want to HIT SOMEONE.

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Title: That Cannot Command Himself
Summary: Shooting arrows as therapy only goes so far.
Notes: Spoilers for the movie. This isn't precisely what I had in mind, but the characters had other ideas and Clint said he was nobody's emo boy. So there.

( Clint stands at perfect attention the entire time Fury is talking to him. )

I really really really enjoyed the movie. It was exactly what I needed after, y'know, everything. Fangirls are awesome and make movie-going even better :)

Feel free to squee in comments, but I'm not in the mood for any of the legitimate criticisms (oh, Joss) or the illegitimate ones (people are really saying Natasha didn't do anything????). In a few days I'll be able to be rational, but right now I want to be in a happy fannish place because I need that.

( Spoilers within, albeit in very incoherent form )

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