Story: "Hairpins" Part 10
Mar. 12th, 2014 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithSorry for the delay, my loyal fans, and thanks to the folks who asked if everything was okay here. Tuesday evening got eaten by locusts. Thursday Friday is also likely to get eaten by different locusts. I'll keep up posting as best I can.
This story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," and "Green Eggs and Hulk."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, JARVIS, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanova, Bruce Banner.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: This story is mostly fluff, but it has some intense scenes in the middle. Highlight for details. These include dubious consent as Phil and JARVIS discuss what really happened when Agent Coulson hacked his way into Stark Tower, over which Phil has something between a flashback and a panic attack. They also discuss some of the bad things that have happened to Avengers in the past, including various flavors of abuse. If these are sensitive topics for you, please think carefully before deciding whether to read onward.
Summary: Uncle Phil needs to pick out pajamas for game night. He gets help from an unexpected direction.
Notes: Service. Shopping. Gifts. Artificial intelligence. Computers. Teamwork. Team as family. Friendship. Communication. Hope. Apologies. Forgiveness. Nonsexual ageplay. Nonsexual intimacy. Love. Tony Stark needs a hug. Bruce Banner needs a hug. #coulsonlives.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29.
"Hairpins" Part 10
Phil was doing SHIELD paperwork in his den, with soft classical music playing in the background, when JARVIS chimed for attention. "Our order for game night has arrived," JARVIS announced. "Do you wish to claim it in the lobby, or shall I direct it up here?" The tower had central reception and processing areas, connected to service ways filtered through increasing layers of security, so that supplies could be routed where needed without intruding on personal space.
Along with the package from the pajama company came a basket of less urgent mail and a white cardboard carton that opened to reveal a piece of New York crumb cake. "I didn't ask for brunch," Phil said, although it smelled so delicious that his mouth watered. He hated the thought of sending it away. "Somebody else's order must have gotten mixed in with mine."
"The delivery is correct," JARVIS said. "You have not yet consumed anything more than coffee today. Studies indicate that early-morning meals improve performance. A snack service is also available if you state your preferences. Stark Industries protocol includes the provision of food from tower supplies to encourage healthy eating habits in employees."
"I'm not --" Phil began, but he was, because Tony had insisted on hiring all the Avengers when they first moved in with him. He didn't trust SHIELD to provide for them. They all had salaries and benefits through SI now. Phil had been startled to discover that 'Avengers Tower' accorded each of them partial ownership of the building, primarily their own apartments, although Bruce also had lab space in his name and some of the other specialty areas were shared across various team members. "All right, fine, I'll take a break for brunch."
The crumb cake tasted even better than it smelled, pale fluffy cake under a generous layer of big crispy crumbs that burst in his mouth with a warm cinnamon flavor. Phil hummed in appreciation. The tower maintained contracts with several local bakeries, as well as what its own cafeteria produced, so there was never a shortage of fresh bread and pastries. Phil licked his forefinger and pressed it to the bottom of the carton to catch the last few delectable crumbs.
Next he picked up the package and checked to make sure that both sets of pajamas matched the specs provided for them. They did. Then his gaze fell on the address label. He had routed the order through several bounce accounts so that it could not be traced to him, but the last one pointed to his current address.
Phillip J. Coulson
Avengers Tower Apt. A6
Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
His hand brushed over the padded yellow envelope and the white label, following the lines of crisp black ink. "Our order..." he murmured thoughtfully.
There was only one name on the label. Phil had picked out the pajamas himself. He hadn't asked Natasha or Tony for input, wanting to surprise them. Nobody else had been involved, except for some assistance from JARVIS in weeding out the inappropriate search results.
* * *
Notes:
New York crumb cake is a local specialty, related to a coffee cake and popular for breakfast or brunch.
Most people do their best when they eat breakfast regularly. Breakfast conveys many benefits. Conversely, skipping breakfast can have a negative impact on school or job performance. While Phil doesn't have the slow-starting metabolism of Tony or Bruce, he is very busy -- a key reason why people often skip breakfast. In that case, having someone offer tempting items is an effective route to better eating habits.
Healthy snacks can be a valuable part of a nutritious food plan. Various snack delivery services such as Graze or Nature Box offer a selection of tasty nibblements that are good for you, with various themes or delivery schedules. Avengers Tower simply does the same thing in house, letting people indicate what kind of snacks they like and when they tend to get hungry. For a minor increase in the food budget, Tony gets higher performance and much happier workers. Things like this are why nobody has much success poaching employees out of Stark Industries.
There's a list of New York superhero addresses, including the Avengers Tower address. Local color can make for excellent writing if you know what you're doing, and sometimes Marvel does a brilliant job of this. I am still in awe of the fact that they researched NYC demographics and used that to set the new Spiderman's race as Hispanic/black.
[To be continued in Part 11 ...]
This story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," and "Green Eggs and Hulk."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, JARVIS, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanova, Bruce Banner.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: This story is mostly fluff, but it has some intense scenes in the middle. Highlight for details. These include dubious consent as Phil and JARVIS discuss what really happened when Agent Coulson hacked his way into Stark Tower, over which Phil has something between a flashback and a panic attack. They also discuss some of the bad things that have happened to Avengers in the past, including various flavors of abuse. If these are sensitive topics for you, please think carefully before deciding whether to read onward.
Summary: Uncle Phil needs to pick out pajamas for game night. He gets help from an unexpected direction.
Notes: Service. Shopping. Gifts. Artificial intelligence. Computers. Teamwork. Team as family. Friendship. Communication. Hope. Apologies. Forgiveness. Nonsexual ageplay. Nonsexual intimacy. Love. Tony Stark needs a hug. Bruce Banner needs a hug. #coulsonlives.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29.
"Hairpins" Part 10
Phil was doing SHIELD paperwork in his den, with soft classical music playing in the background, when JARVIS chimed for attention. "Our order for game night has arrived," JARVIS announced. "Do you wish to claim it in the lobby, or shall I direct it up here?" The tower had central reception and processing areas, connected to service ways filtered through increasing layers of security, so that supplies could be routed where needed without intruding on personal space.
Along with the package from the pajama company came a basket of less urgent mail and a white cardboard carton that opened to reveal a piece of New York crumb cake. "I didn't ask for brunch," Phil said, although it smelled so delicious that his mouth watered. He hated the thought of sending it away. "Somebody else's order must have gotten mixed in with mine."
"The delivery is correct," JARVIS said. "You have not yet consumed anything more than coffee today. Studies indicate that early-morning meals improve performance. A snack service is also available if you state your preferences. Stark Industries protocol includes the provision of food from tower supplies to encourage healthy eating habits in employees."
"I'm not --" Phil began, but he was, because Tony had insisted on hiring all the Avengers when they first moved in with him. He didn't trust SHIELD to provide for them. They all had salaries and benefits through SI now. Phil had been startled to discover that 'Avengers Tower' accorded each of them partial ownership of the building, primarily their own apartments, although Bruce also had lab space in his name and some of the other specialty areas were shared across various team members. "All right, fine, I'll take a break for brunch."
The crumb cake tasted even better than it smelled, pale fluffy cake under a generous layer of big crispy crumbs that burst in his mouth with a warm cinnamon flavor. Phil hummed in appreciation. The tower maintained contracts with several local bakeries, as well as what its own cafeteria produced, so there was never a shortage of fresh bread and pastries. Phil licked his forefinger and pressed it to the bottom of the carton to catch the last few delectable crumbs.
Next he picked up the package and checked to make sure that both sets of pajamas matched the specs provided for them. They did. Then his gaze fell on the address label. He had routed the order through several bounce accounts so that it could not be traced to him, but the last one pointed to his current address.
Phillip J. Coulson
Avengers Tower Apt. A6
Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019
His hand brushed over the padded yellow envelope and the white label, following the lines of crisp black ink. "Our order..." he murmured thoughtfully.
There was only one name on the label. Phil had picked out the pajamas himself. He hadn't asked Natasha or Tony for input, wanting to surprise them. Nobody else had been involved, except for some assistance from JARVIS in weeding out the inappropriate search results.
* * *
Notes:
New York crumb cake is a local specialty, related to a coffee cake and popular for breakfast or brunch.
Most people do their best when they eat breakfast regularly. Breakfast conveys many benefits. Conversely, skipping breakfast can have a negative impact on school or job performance. While Phil doesn't have the slow-starting metabolism of Tony or Bruce, he is very busy -- a key reason why people often skip breakfast. In that case, having someone offer tempting items is an effective route to better eating habits.
Healthy snacks can be a valuable part of a nutritious food plan. Various snack delivery services such as Graze or Nature Box offer a selection of tasty nibblements that are good for you, with various themes or delivery schedules. Avengers Tower simply does the same thing in house, letting people indicate what kind of snacks they like and when they tend to get hungry. For a minor increase in the food budget, Tony gets higher performance and much happier workers. Things like this are why nobody has much success poaching employees out of Stark Industries.
There's a list of New York superhero addresses, including the Avengers Tower address. Local color can make for excellent writing if you know what you're doing, and sometimes Marvel does a brilliant job of this. I am still in awe of the fact that they researched NYC demographics and used that to set the new Spiderman's race as Hispanic/black.
[To be continued in Part 11 ...]
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-14 11:39 am (UTC)Now that I think of it, canonically Tony had a parade of interchangeable f**k-toys, or he had people with whom he had a semi-professional relationship. I think the only exception to that was the young boy from IR3, and I'm not so sure you couldn't call that one professional kind of.
I wonder if Tony even knows how to have a conversation with someone he's not working with, manipulating in some way or trying to seduce. Must be lonely in some ways.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-16 06:07 am (UTC)Yes, that makes sense.
>> Want to bet H.R probably has a whole little department beavering away just for him. <<
No doubt, and that's where you get sent if you fuck up, in hopes that either Tony will fire you or drive you to quitting. Any kind of Tony-duty in SI is either the best promotion you could ever hope to get ... or a one-way trip to Siberia.
>> Now that I think of it, canonically Tony had a parade of interchangeable f**k-toys, or he had people with whom he had a semi-professional relationship. <<
Yes, exactly.
>> I think the only exception to that was the young boy from IR3, and I'm not so sure you couldn't call that one professional kind of. <<
Tangentially professional, because without Tony's job they never would have met, and what did Tony do but rope the kid into garage/lab support.
>> I wonder if Tony even knows how to have a conversation with someone he's not working with, manipulating in some way or trying to seduce. <<
Probably not. I suspect he may have a short list of "small talk" lines that he memorized due to parental pressure. He doesn't really know how to socialize, just schmooze, flirt, pitch, or otherwise manipulate. Game night has been a tremendous help in terms of giving Tony experience with casual, personal interactions. He has probably cobbled it together from childhood memories of a few play dates and hanging with Edwin Jarvis. You can see how Tony still stalls out in team conversations sometimes; he's better at talking up his projects or someone else's than what he's feeling or what's going on in the world.
>> Must be lonely in some ways. <<
Tony spends most of his time in his head, concentrating on projects. When he comes down, he can be achingly lonely. That's a key part of what spurred him to make DUM-E and the rest of his botfamily, and to glom onto Bruce so fast.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-16 09:54 am (UTC)Although, Tony does have some rudimentary social skills, and bags of charm when he wants. So who knows.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-16 08:33 pm (UTC)Too true.
>> Although, Tony does have some rudimentary social skills, and bags of charm when he wants. So who knows. <<
Tony is good with people if there's a point of interface and he has a reason to be charming. If he doesn't respect them and/or doesn't want something from them, it's a disaster, because he doesn't really have "be nice to people" as a standard setting.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-16 03:09 pm (UTC)Only the best return. They're the ones that line was meant for. Occasionally they recondition some of those "lost causes" so they stop channeling Dogbert's dystopia.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-16 06:57 pm (UTC)* People who somebody thinks might actually be good at managing Tony in some regard.
* People who are such a pain in the ass as to make people want them gone, but for some reason not easy to fire directly.
* People who are great at their work but have seriously offended someone (or everyone).
Ideally, the ones who are more trouble than they're worth will get filtered out. Tony has a very sharp eye for spotting and promoting people who are terrific in some way, but not conventionally pleasing.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-18 01:07 pm (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-24 04:40 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-24 04:50 am (UTC)