ysabetwordsmith | Poem: "Against His Own Shield"

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Poem: "Against His Own Shield"

This is the second freebie for the April 5, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from

moongoddessgirl. It also fills the "Obstructive Bureaucrat" square in my 4-1-16 card for the Archetypal Characters Bingo card.

"Against His Own Shield"

The more Steve found out about
SHIELD, the less he liked it.

He found out that it had absorbed
the Strategic Scientific Reserve,
which he could remember as
the somewhat shady source
of Project: Rebirth.

Regrettably its scientific reputation
had fallen right into the latrine,
Steve discovered as he read
Dr. Foster's scathing critique.

He knew that there were problems --
he'd found the Phase II weapons
during the Chitauri incident, after all --
and it bothered him to see just
how deep the cracks went.

A lot of lies, a lot of murder.
Cloaks and daggers and
all that standard spy stuff.
Torture. Slavery.

It turned his stomach.

Everyone expected him to toe the line,
because he was Captain America,
but the thing was, everyone had
forgotten how many rules he'd
had to break to get there.

Steve liked rules, he really did,
but only if they were good rules,
fair rules. The Nazis had been
pretty big on rules too, only they
didn't care about the good part.

So he'd learned to be careful
about which rules he obeyed,
because not doing that led to
"just following orders."

Somehow it still surprised people
when he spoke out against
the things going wrong.

Honestly, it's like nobody even knew him.

You'd think they would have read
the books. There were enough of those.

Agent Coulson just smiled when
Steve stormed out of an office or
blew his stack over something
unearthed in the paperwork.

He had read the books, all right.
Agent Coulson always did his homework.

It was Agent Veeble who finally
put the last straw on the camel's back.

Steve had been digging into
the history of the Winter Soldier,
and not taking "That's classified"
for an answer anymore.

So when Agent Veeble refused
to release the paper-only copies
of certain things that had happened
to the Winter Soldier in SHIELD custody,
it was Captain America who leaned
over the desk and said clearly,

"Son, if you don't open that file cabinet,
I will open it myself, and there won't
be much cabinet left when I'm done."

"You can't do that," Agent Veeble whimpered.
"This is SHIELD property. You don't
have the proper clearance."

Captain America unlimbered his shield
and bounced it against the metal floor
with a deep, resonant bong. "This is
my clearance," he said. "Or did you
forget where the name came from?"

The bitterness of the contradiction
struck him all over again, how badly
the agency had turned out despite
the hope that Peggy Carter and
Howard Stark poured into it.

This was not what he sacrificed himself for.

That was when Assistant Director Hill
came in and assessed the situation.
"What's going on in here?" she asked.

"Oh, thank God you're here, ma'am!"
exclaimed Agent Veeble. "He's trying
to get into the secure files about
the Winter Soldier. Make him stop."

"I'm not here to make him stop,"
said Assistant Director Hill. "I'm
here to make sure that he doesn't
drop you down one of the engines."
Her fingers tapped at the keyboard,
and then she unlocked the cabinet.
"Or deliver a speech that melts
what little brain you have."

"I wouldn't drop him down an engine,"
said Captain America. "Those things
are fragile and really hard to fix."

Assistant Director Hill did not laugh,
but one corner of her mouth twitched.
"Good luck with the files," she said.

Even a cursory glance was enough
to tell Captain America that SHIELD
was even more of a wreck than he'd
thought, and that it was going to take
a lot of time to go through the mess
and figure out how to clean it up.

So he hefted one drawer under
his left arm and another under
his right arm. He might as well
go back to Avengers Tower where
he could do the research in comfort ...
and more safety than here.

"What's with Captain America using
his spear against his own shield?"
Agent May asked in a dry tone.

"It's not 'my' SHIELD,"
Captain America said,
"but it will be."

* * *

Notes:

The idiom 自相矛盾 (zì xiāng máo dùn), which literally means to use one’s spear against one’s shield, evolved from this story.
-- Chinese Idioms

Maria Hill: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?
Grant Ward: Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
Hill: And what does that mean to you?
Ward: It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield."
-- Agents of SHIELD

The above conversation, while flippant, is in fact true based on another conversation in canon.

The Strategic Scientific Reserve was a forerunner of SHIELD, the two agencies spanning Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier among others.

"Just following orders" has appeared both as an entertainment trope and as the Nuremberg defense in history.

Captain America is famous for his hard-hitting speeches. Here's one about how America is nothing but what people make of it, one on tolerance vs. discrimination, and one about standing up for what's right.

Agent May has a dry wit.

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OMG YES. Steve is so SWEET and so aware of what makes good rules--he comes off WONDERFULLY here. And Hill is gr9.

>> OMG YES. <<

\o/

>> Steve is so SWEET and so aware of what makes good rules--he comes off WONDERFULLY here. <<

He is a favorite of mine. Most of the time, I find him easy to write. But the speeches -- those are more of a challenge. They have to be epic lines, even when he's just doing tidbits like this and not the whole hog. So I'm really glad it worked.

>> And Hill is gr9. <<

I have enjoyed playing her up during her occasional appearances. I think she has a lot of potential.

Steve. <3
I think he showed remarkable restraint with his opponent here.

Hill is being a good boss. Protect your employee, but get the work done.

>> Steve. <3 <<

Yay!

>> I think he showed remarkable restraint with his opponent here. <<

Well, he tries not to take a shotgun to a roach.

>> Hill is being a good boss. Protect your employee, but get the work done. <<

Protecting both of her employees, really.

This is great. I love it when people remember just how revolutionary Steve really is! I especially enjoy the image of using the shield again SHIELD which to me really speaks to how disconnected SHIELD has become from its roots.

>> This is great. <<

Yay!

>> I love it when people remember just how revolutionary Steve really is! <<

Me too. I think that Steve prefers to follow the rules, but if you push him too far, he'll choose what is right over what is expected.

>> I especially enjoy the image of using the shield again SHIELD which to me really speaks to how disconnected SHIELD has become from its roots. <<

:D It's like what happened in the scene where Cap and Phil first met: you can't protect against something that is inside your defensive line because it was already there before your defenses were built. They're helpless against Captain America.

what a great entry into this awesome series. I love to see Steve coming into his own and making his own moral decisions on what is right and wrong
This whole series has been a wonderful ride i will continue to enjoy as long as you treat us with its presence. In earlier works you said you had the next installment of coming in from the cold Please understand I love anything in this series just curious if the next part of that Tuesday is coming soon. thank you again for a great work

Every word. Every pause. Every empty pixel of thinking space around it.

It made me cry. I'm going to go deal with that while I try to find any BETTER alternative for May's "I wish it were canon" post...Nope. Nothing at all springs to mind even as a direction to SEARCH. May I?

>> Every word. Every pause. Every empty pixel of thinking space around it. <<

Aww! <3

>> It made me cry. <<

*hankie*

>> I'm going to go deal with that while I try to find any BETTER alternative for May's "I wish it were canon" post...Nope. Nothing at all springs to mind even as a direction to SEARCH. May I? <<

I would be honored.

I have been fascinated by the MCU origin of SHIELD, and gravely disappointed by the later iteration of Secretly Hydra In Every Last Department. 0_o But I love the way that Steve can get under people's skin, and especially, people who look up to him -- because there is no protecting yourself against someone who was there before the walls were ever built. So it's a mess. That's fine. He'll clean it up. Because that's what Captain America is for.

"Secretly HYDRA in Every Last Department" do you mind if i start using this? Just among my friends, id never steal to publish. But that's so rich!

As to wishing this were all canon, I have long decided that I will reject canon and substitute this. I will becoming here to balm my Civil War feels. Much prefer this rundown of Civil War anyways.

~KishiKeahi

I posit that some areas were least likely to harbor HYDRA, either because HYDRA looked down on the positions or because the 'natives' weeded out the bad seeds/suborned them back to proper mission.

The STRIKE teams on the other hand were perfect host environments.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I never really thought about the connection between Steve's shield and the renaming of the organisation. But honestly, it has Peggy written all over it. Duh!
I love Steve's stubbornness and determination to stick to what's right, never mind what the "rules" say. He's wonderful. And Maria Hill stepping in was cool too.
Also... AGENT MAY!!! I love May! I know she has nothing to do with the Avengers and probably won't be featured again, but... YAY! She was there!
Cap's little comment about how engines can be hard to repair was funny. I bet Agent Veeble didn't think so though... :D

Unrelated, but 'obstructive bureaucrat' plus 'superheroes' just makes me think of some mole in the supervillain bureaucracy who does good purely by being as big a pain in the ass as possible when supervillains are trying to say, pay their union dues.

And the supervillains couldn't even get rid of them when they find out, because WHAT A VILLAINOUS WAY TO BE HEROIC!

That would be awesome. Feel free to prompt for it some time.

"Everyone expected him to toe the line,
because he was Captain America,
but the things was, everyone had
forgotten how many rules he'd
had to break to get there."

Shouldn't it be:

but the thing was, everyone had

Very good poem!
:^)

I'm glad you liked this.

Lovely. I especially liked the comment about Phil having read all the books. ^_^

~Anony-Mouse

I'm glad you liked this.

Of course Phil is a reader, he is the biggest nerd ever.

There was a little bit towards the end of Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD where Phil learns just how much Garret 'misunderstood' SHIELD. It sort of was the three legged table of how Peggy's agency became a mockery.

Yeesh. I wanted to like Agents of Shield, but I found it unwatchable. It's just got a terrible worldview.

Cleave and Cement I recently released a fix-it for the last part of season 2. Has Phil Coulson learning new skills, too.

The series and movies right now. Can't you guys write the series and movies and maybe novels I'd go to them and I'd buy them. (bunnigirl74)

>>The series and movies right now.<<

Thank you! :D

>> Can't you guys write the series and movies and maybe novels I'd go to them and I'd buy them. <<

I have, in the past, toyed with writing for comics. The way the industry is now, I find it actively off-putting. Hollywood has always been on my no-go list.

However! I still love the genre. So I made my own superhero series, Polychrome Heroics, which is now one of my most popular projects. If you like unsullied heroes such as Captain America, you might also enjoy Antimatter & Stalwart Stan or Officer Pink.

I assume HYDRA is going to be sorely disappointed in the end result of infiltrating SHIELD here...

LOL Steve has made HYDRA very sad. \o/

Also if he finds actualy HYDRA agents, they will need medical attention and SHIELD will need some new walls.

Steve has nothing on Barnes for making HYDRA rue their days.

These things are all true.

Now imagine JARVIS getting wind of this. Have fun trying to accomplish anything in a world where the Internet hates you, assholes.

This is why nowhere is safe for any line of Zola's code.

*cackle* That's in my notes. I mean really, to anyone who knows AI, the scope of JARVIS is obvious from what he can do. Zola isn't a digital native, he'd be as helpless as a diver in front of a shark.

I'm sure that JARVIS has the equivalent of disembodied code strings that troll about for Zola fragments.

That might be as helpless as a shark in front of a diver not looking to give belly rubs.

Assistant Director Hill did not laugh,

No, but I did. :)

The link to "America is nothing" has gone 404...

Thank you for reminding me about "no, you move." I needed that.

>> No, but I did. :) <<

Yay!

>>The link to "America is nothing" has gone 404... <<

Fixed, try it now.

>> Thank you for reminding me about "no, you move." I needed that.<<

That is probably my favorite Captain America speech.

Wow, that link you fixed... is right up there with Will McAvoy's takedown that opens _The Newsroom_...

The Supes bit *is* my favourite Supes EVAR, despite it being patently OOC for America's Favourite Boy Scout... maybe precisely because of that. Which is also why I've come to love pre-HYDRA Cap... he's willing to break, or at least bend like a pretzel, a few rules to do what's right. As evidenced in the "take'em down" bit in your center link on him, as well as your own story here.

Unsullied Heroes aren't just about following rules, but about doing what's right. Cap has seen where "just following orders" goes. 0_o

This is what made parts of Civil War so tone deaf, especially some of the lines they put in Col. James Rhodes' mouth. He knows just what war Steve is barely back from, and he knows that "the safest hands are still our own" isn't something Steve said lightly. Because that's exactly what Barnes wasn't permitted the seventy years he was the Winter Soldier.

>> This is what made parts of Civil War so tone deaf, especially some of the lines they put in Col. James Rhodes' mouth. <<

Agreed.

>> He knows just what war Steve is barely back from, and he knows that "the safest hands are still our own" isn't something Steve said lightly. Because that's exactly what Barnes wasn't permitted the seventy years he was the Winter Soldier.<<

The treatment of James Barnes is an abomination and a blight upon the honor of America. And who has to clean up the mess? A black guy.

Oh ghod take it awaaaayyyy! >_<

Yet it's brutal in its honesty, too. This is what you get when you leave traumatized superheroes on duty 24/7 with no mental care. They tend to snap on you. I did not enjoy ~2 hours of domestic violence, but well, they certainly got where Marvelverse has been heading for the last several years.

There is a reason that in my AU Tony's taking some time for therapy since my Ultron story (a mess I've put right back on Hank Pym because Age of Ultron never sold the arc Bruce would have needed to be in that mess of motivation). Tony is too dangerous to be a hot mess.

I'd have much preferred the beat of Rhodey down and Falcon still can get in there and PARARESCUE. Because the whole Civil War was Tony being guilted and then smearing his issues onto everyone else.

Steve would have gone after anyone getting railroaded like Bucky. Yes, it was personal. So was not being summarily executed in the street only because of the press in a helicopter back in CA:TWS.

>> There is a reason that in my AU Tony's taking some time for therapy since my Ultron story (a mess I've put right back on Hank Pym because Age of Ultron never sold the arc Bruce would have needed to be in that mess of motivation). Tony is too dangerous to be a hot mess.<<

Very sensible.

>> I'd have much preferred the beat of Rhodey down and Falcon still can get in there and PARARESCUE. <<

If only.

>> Because the whole Civil War was Tony being guilted and then smearing his issues onto everyone else.<<

In his defense, that woman broke his face.

>> Steve would have gone after anyone getting railroaded like Bucky. Yes, it was personal. So was not being summarily executed in the street only because of the press in a helicopter back in CA:TWS.<<

It'd serve people right if they killed or drove off all their heroes and had to face the supervillains alone.

Meanwhile, over in Terramagne, most superheroes don't help by force. Brooklyn complained about power outages caused by Brooklyn Babe, so she stopped superheraing until they begged her to come back. Superheroes and supervillains have all left Rabid City, abandoning it to become the party town for whomever happens to be passing through.

Yes, she did and it makes me wonder just who expedited her presence in exactly that place and time. That he reacted by putting up the young man's picture like a poster child was Very Spot On in an arch manner.

In my AU, besides Tony getting therapy, Steve has networked with all the Fire and Ladder crews and most of the precincts. Alien invasions and smaller situations, people know what their part is in making for smooth securing of life and liberty.

Fortunately for everyone Steve has stubborn on speed dial, and no problem with the industrial bakery bags of kick ass.

>> Yes, she did and it makes me wonder just who expedited her presence in exactly that place and time. That he reacted by putting up the young man's picture like a poster child was Very Spot On in an arch manner.<<

Good point.

>> In my AU, besides Tony getting therapy, Steve has networked with all the Fire and Ladder crews and most of the precincts. Alien invasions and smaller situations, people know what their part is in making for smooth securing of life and liberty.<<

That makes sense. They'll get a lot more done if they're not in each other's way all the time.

>> Fortunately for everyone Steve has stubborn on speed dial, and no problem with the industrial bakery bags of kick ass.<<

LOL yes. I love that scene in The Avengers where he gives orders, the cops ignore him, he bashes the aliens, and suddenly everyone acts like Captain America is in charge.

Yep. Now the fire crews know that if Steve has a plan, they do it first, then can schedule the pancake breakfasts and chili cook offs. They also have done drills that aren't standard fire response and yet all too likely in NYC, hub of all weird evils.

In T-America, police and fire stations have regular practice sessions, and usually one day a month when interested citizens can join in. They get a lot of their recruits that way, not just for fieldwork but office jobs too. And the Activity Scouts host roleplaying performances to show different ways of handling a cape incident, with someone to play the Antagonist in a ridiculous green suit.

Have you seen how there are actual trainings so people in urban environments know how to keep people stable until EMTs arrive? In one place it started because a nurse's daughter had a shooting victim pop up needing help. They've now got the EMTs trained to tell when the civilian is actually in the right place and how to smoothly swap so they don't have to get told that "I can't move, he's got an artery open so you need to deal" Cause that's a lot to put on someone already outside their wheelhouse.

Followed the link to the Civil War speech about "standing up for what's right".

Noble sentiments, ... BUT... the scenario below is not at all hypothetical. Rather, it is drawn directly from my lived experience, earlier in this decade, in this country.

I was once in the position of being that tree, which sought to take root along the bank, only to be told that if I did, they would dump poison in the water upstream of me, such that it would saturate my roots and kill me. I retracted those roots, and survived.

Later, as part of the same fluster cluck, I planted roots again, and this time, told them to BRING IT. They did. However, because of the technically illegal but morally right action I took, of choosing to respond to a request for contact by the person named in a No Contact Order levied against me by the court, in less than an hour, that person and I sorted out the misperceptions and misunderstandings behind a particular situation - and they subsequently went to bat for me, against the legal juggernaut. My having responded to that request for contact landed me in water that was not merely hot, but scalding -- my probation officer officially wrote a recommendation for a minimum of 90 days jail time. At the subsequent hearing to decide my fate, the person "on whose behalf" the state was taking what it felt to be appropriate action stood up in court and requested, of their own volition, that they and I be permitted to have contact via email, and was immediately told by the prosecuting attorney, "Unacceptable!"

I found - and still find - their response, UNACCEPTABLE. In order to avoid (further) jail time, where the combination of imposed diet and lack of medical care could have permanently RUINED my already compromised health, had I been forced to endure such conditions for even 30 days, let alone longer, I made sure I was never again caught being non-compliant. But my willingness to uphold law, based solely on a bully's say-so? GONE. DEAD. EXTINCT, from that appalling moment in a King County District Courtroom in November of 2013.

I have noticed that alongside the large cluster of supervillains and minions who are abuse survivors, there's another large cluster who used to be law-abiding citizens until someone shattered their trust and caused them to walk away from society.

Can't say as I blame them. Nobody wants to stay with someone who mistreats them.

Hugs offered. On Other Book, I was getting involved in a discussion about how inconsistently and badly the decisions are made, by other people, for medical procedures like C-sections. I have seen the difference between those for a white woman and an African American woman. Serena Williams just HAD to talk the hospital through appropriate procedures. https://qz.com/1177004/serena-williamss-terrifying-childbirth-story/

Your situation seems like one that needs a mediator or someone with a clue in interpersonal skills, instead of the State and courts. :-( People get killed who had a No Contact Order against their soon to be murderer, and you are getting legal proceedings for the "protected person" contacting you and speaking on your behalf. We really need better options for this.

Yeah, I read the Serena Williams story too. SCARY, that! It's certain she would have died if she wasn't already on top of her own medical situation. Proves the point I've made (many times) elsewhere, that one *MUST* be (or have) a passionate advocate for one's own health. BTDT, it sucks rocks thru a straw.

"Better options" for the situation I survived would start with the law not being so insanely tilted. It may be different in other states, but the laws on the books here say that I can be charged with a FELONY if I respond to contact initiated by the protected party. In other words, PP can phone, text, or email repeatedly, whenever they choose, but if I respond, in any way, *I* am the one at whom all the fecal matter is flung. FUCK that, and the horse it rode in on.

That's if the woman gets a choice at all. In addition to the usual round of bullying and molestation, some hospitals have an explicit policy that they make "reasonable efforts" to obtain consent and then cut the woman open by force. Which means no woman in that facility has choice or can consent; only most of them are brainwashed into thinking they do.

Imagine the outrage if anyone did that to men.

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Poem: "Against His Own Shield"

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loving this

I wish this were canon!

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Ace-fan

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*laugh*

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Fixed!

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So much better than:

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in extremis

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laugh