fandomhigh | Summer Shenanigans, May 25, 2022

The park today looked like an insane person with a ridiculous love of bunting had been allowed to go absolutely nuts setting up mazes.

(In related news, Beaker had been consulted for ideas.)

There were four main areas ~~of concern~~: a maze with four wheelie recycling bins set before it; a series of folding tables with a variety of fruit and implements on top of them; two large fences with roughly 300 rubber ducks perched on top of them (and a velvet rope 100 feet away from it); and a final maze of bunting with a chair in the center of it.

In the center of all of this mess was a large shed with a closed door.

Anakin looked extremely pleased with himself as he leaned against the Table o' Terrible T-Shirts.

"Welcome back!" he yelled into his bullhorn. "I am pleased to see such enthusiasm for our weekly community building activities."

Sure, let's go with that interpretation. "Today we have several new obstacles for you to master! The specifics of each shall be made clear-" well. Clear-ish. "--as we move to them. The team with the most number of points wins! Listen for your names:"

TEAM NIGHTMARE CLOWNS
Steve R
Steph
Graham
Jo
Scott
Lana
Danny

TEAM 'MERICA
Clare
Tony
Sakaki
Connor
Goose
Vi
Liz

TEAM CHICKEN ON THE BEACH
Libby
Margo
Duke
Cara
Billy
Miguel
Irene

TEAM UNICORN BATTLE CAT
Travis
Sidon
Beaker
Rey
Summer
Stark
Steve M

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Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god. It was one thing to be told Captain America was here, and another to see him right here in the flesh and wearing a matching hideous shirt.

Though, he did indeed have a point. What the hell was with the Jesus shirts?

"Oh, hey!" Scott said, in that awkward I'm-so-trying-to-be-casual-look-at-how-casual-I-am way that did exactly the opposite of conveying how casually someone felt about something. "Hey! It's good to see you, uh, Cap."

Or should he have called him Steve? Wanda and Tony both had. And Scott belatedly remembered that, shit, Steve was probably from a completely different universe, anyway, and maybe he should have taken that into account?

"You must be Scott," Steve said with a friendly smile. "Wanda and Tony mentioned you."

"Yeah, and I totally just realized that you don't know me yet," Scott admitted, rolling his eyes self-deprecatingly as he thrust out a hand. (Note to self: shake it a normal amount. You didn't get do-overs often!) "Sorry. I think you're gonna eventually meet me through Fal...Sam?"

Not so much a question as a sort of uncertainty about using these people's given names, still. He was just lucky he didn't know Wanda had gotten herself kind of a codename or he'd be feeling awkward about potentially using it, too.

"Sam Wilson?" Steve checked, shaking Scott's hand. "Are you a vet too, then?"

"Nah, he and I just ran into each other once," Scott replied, totally ending the handshake after a normal amount of shaking. Hell yes, do-over complete. "Unless you mean an animal-style vet, in which case...I am also not one of those. Electrical engineer, mostly."

And cat burglar, but you know. If people didn't already know that, he didn't feel the need to lead with it.

"I leave all engineering to Tony," Steve said with a grin, "which is how the dog now has a hoverpack, so maybe I should rethink that--"

He shook his head. "Anyway. What brings you to Fandom? Not that I ever mind another Avenger showing up."

Even if it was one he didn't know! Steve was big into teambuilding.

"Oh, I'm not really an Avenger -- I mean, not officially," Scott hastened to explain, even if it wasn't really necessary. "I just got kinda pulled into a thing with you. And that thing didn't go great for everyone, so I'm here instead of on house arrest."

A pause, and then, "I'm really new to this multiverse thing, sorry for the, uh, vagueness."

"I appreciate the vagueness," Steve said with a grin. "I don't want to accidentally learn something and doom us all!"

Because what were the odds of that, right?

"And I'm sorry helping us out led to house arrest," he added earnestly. "That seems...harsh."

"Less harsh than some," Scott said, again keeping it kind of vague. "Me and the other guy with kids -- oh, wait, you know Clint, I can say who -- got the house arrest option rather than straight up jailtime or going on the run to Europe or something."

Like...other people he could mention.

"We were just kind of...super on the news," he added, making a little face. "You know how it goes."

"I do know how that goes," Steve said, making the same sort of face. "I could go the rest of my life not watching Sokovia crash again in slow motion."

That was incredibly helpful in terms of placing where Steve had come from in time (what a weird thing to think), and Scott looked grateful for it.

"The slow motion is so cruel," Scott sighed. "If it makes you feel better, I'm the thing that crashes in slow motion when they repeat footage on CNN, in the case of this whole vague thing."

"Oh!" Steve said. "Was this the 'sometimes Scott gets really big' thing Wanda mentioned?"

He could see that making for compelling slo-mo.

"Okay, Scott only gets really big sometimes," he agreed, emphasizing the last word, "because getting really big knocks my ass out for days. Mostly I get really small. Or, well, that's also a sometimes thing, but a more frequent sometimes."

He was babbling. Goddamn Captain America.

Steve nodded like he had any idea at all how this worked: maybe something like what Jan did in Tony's world?

"Well, hopefully we won't need either around here," he said earnestly.

"Are you here on vacation, too?" Scott asked, a little curious about what on earth the guy leading the Avengers was doing on a little island like this one. "Ir...Tony mentioned that he was kind of taking a break after some shit happened in his universe."

Which was, as it turned out, not Scott's universe just at a different time? And this Tony was slightly taller or shorter or something?

"Fury sent me here when I woke up from the ice," Steve said with a wry smile, "to teach 20th Century American history to high school kids--" Fury was hysterical, "--and I've stayed here in between crises at home."

It was so much better than his DC depression apartment, Scott.

"That seems like a waste of your...Captain America-ness," Scott said without thinking, then immediately looked abashed. "Sorry! I just mean -- you teaching high school history feels like a punchline. Are you still doing it?"

Scott would so take that class. Not a thing he needed to say aloud.

Steve shook his head. "Tony and I are teaching paintball this summer," he said. "Last semester we did a combination of engineering and baking--Tony took the lead there."

Summer Shenanigans, May 25, 2022

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