Story: "Hairpins" Part 15
Mar. 24th, 2014 12:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis 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. Skip to Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20.
"Hairpins" Part 15
Phil sighed. He picked out a handful of least-unlikely botanical patterns and saved them. Then he cleared the page again. "How about ordinary kiddie things," he said.
JARVIS obliged by calling up a fresh set of images. Unfortunately the selections here tended to be overly gendered, something that annoyed Phil in general when shopping for his littles. The prevailing blue palette was fine, but not the endless array of soldiers, cowboys, and knights. The subtle implication of conflict undercut the desired sense of comfort. Phil did not think that Bruce would like pajamas decorated with trains or backhoes any better. Judging from the sluggish rate of suggestions, neither did JARVIS.
"This doesn't feel right," Phil admitted. "Bruce doesn't have many positive memories of childhood. I'm not sure reprising that would help."
"It may be that we are approaching this from the wrong angle," JARVIS said. "What does Bruce get out of game night?"
"Safety," Phil said at once. "It helps him feel more secure about his place in the team. He's learning to express his emotions, now that people respect them. He likes being allowed to hide if that's what he needs."
"Protective camouflage," JARVIS murmured.
Phil shook his head. "No, Bruce hates the Army. We can't put him in camo."
"I was referring to cryptic coloration as it appears in nature, allowing animals to blend into their environment," JARVIS clarified. "For example, female birds often have drab plumage to disguise themselves while nesting."
"Bruce likes to blend in," Phil said. "He dresses to deflect attention from himself. Sometimes he acts as if he wants to sink into the carpet and disappear."
"He also avoids observation as much as possible -- not just on a physical level, as with shying away from cameras, but also on a psychological level," JARVIS said. "Bruce dislikes it when people try to read him. Sir is the only person who seems able to coax him out of his shell."
"At least they have Candyland," Phil said. Not long after the team moved into the tower, Tony had redesigned part of the lab space so that he and Bruce could share it. He also printed out an enormous sign with the title in classic candycane font, which he hung above the main door. It dated all the way back to some in-joke that Tony and Bruce had shared on the Helicarrier.
Phil flipped back to the collection of images he had of Bruce's clothes. Most were solids, but there were some with subtle patterns of stripes or dots, along with several soft plaids.
"Plaid is a traditional pattern for sleepwear," JARVIS remarked. "Children tend to dress in bright colors, but Bruce would probably prefer something quieter. The lines of a neutral plaid would blend into an indoor environment rather well."
"Good idea," Phil said. "Pull me some samples." The screen filled with fabric swatches in shades of brown and tan, similar to clothes that Bruce had worn in the past. Soon Phil found a nice mellow caramel. "Given Bruce's tendency to go through clothes quickly, we should probably pick more than one."
* * *
Notes:
Gendered clothes for children are a fairly recent phenomenon. This can restrict gender fluidity and cause problems for children. At this stage, Phil does not know what potential landmines he just avoided, but Bruce has some serious and deeply buried gender issues thanks to Brian Banner's A+ parenting, as seen in "Dolls and Guys" Part 10. Several of the Avengers are a little gender-variant in certain regards.
Gendered toys raise similar issues, hence Uncle Phil's resentment. They illustrate and enforce gender roles, causing difficulties for boys and girls alike. Note that Uncle Phil stocks the toy cabinet primarily with gender-neutral toys such as blocks and board games. Where there are gender-associated toys like dolls and trains, he encourages everyone to play with all of them, not split up by gender. There are only two girls in the group, and Natka isn't very girly; Betty is more likely to wind up playing girl things with Steve, Bruce, or Tony who all have different feminine aspects. Browse some good choices in gender-neutral toys.
Blending into a crowd is a useful skill for travel and survival. There are tips for blending in, avoiding attention, and not getting picked out of a crowd. (Notice the repeated advice on wearing drab, plain clothes.) This is what allows Bruce to thrive in foreign lands, as well as locally, and to elude capture most of the time.
Camouflage lets creatures to fade into their environment using multiple techniques. Here are some examples of protective camouflage in animals. Birds can adapt their camouflage, and often the females have dull colors for nesting safety.
Candyland is a game with editions in 1949, 1978, and other years. This box for the 1978 game shows the candycane font. Tony and Bruce would probably recognize this version, hence Tony's reference to it in The Avengers.
Plaid is a popular pajama pattern for children and adults.
Read about the symbolism for the color brown.
[To be continued in Part 16 ...]
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. Skip to Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20.
"Hairpins" Part 15
Phil sighed. He picked out a handful of least-unlikely botanical patterns and saved them. Then he cleared the page again. "How about ordinary kiddie things," he said.
JARVIS obliged by calling up a fresh set of images. Unfortunately the selections here tended to be overly gendered, something that annoyed Phil in general when shopping for his littles. The prevailing blue palette was fine, but not the endless array of soldiers, cowboys, and knights. The subtle implication of conflict undercut the desired sense of comfort. Phil did not think that Bruce would like pajamas decorated with trains or backhoes any better. Judging from the sluggish rate of suggestions, neither did JARVIS.
"This doesn't feel right," Phil admitted. "Bruce doesn't have many positive memories of childhood. I'm not sure reprising that would help."
"It may be that we are approaching this from the wrong angle," JARVIS said. "What does Bruce get out of game night?"
"Safety," Phil said at once. "It helps him feel more secure about his place in the team. He's learning to express his emotions, now that people respect them. He likes being allowed to hide if that's what he needs."
"Protective camouflage," JARVIS murmured.
Phil shook his head. "No, Bruce hates the Army. We can't put him in camo."
"I was referring to cryptic coloration as it appears in nature, allowing animals to blend into their environment," JARVIS clarified. "For example, female birds often have drab plumage to disguise themselves while nesting."
"Bruce likes to blend in," Phil said. "He dresses to deflect attention from himself. Sometimes he acts as if he wants to sink into the carpet and disappear."
"He also avoids observation as much as possible -- not just on a physical level, as with shying away from cameras, but also on a psychological level," JARVIS said. "Bruce dislikes it when people try to read him. Sir is the only person who seems able to coax him out of his shell."
"At least they have Candyland," Phil said. Not long after the team moved into the tower, Tony had redesigned part of the lab space so that he and Bruce could share it. He also printed out an enormous sign with the title in classic candycane font, which he hung above the main door. It dated all the way back to some in-joke that Tony and Bruce had shared on the Helicarrier.
Phil flipped back to the collection of images he had of Bruce's clothes. Most were solids, but there were some with subtle patterns of stripes or dots, along with several soft plaids.
"Plaid is a traditional pattern for sleepwear," JARVIS remarked. "Children tend to dress in bright colors, but Bruce would probably prefer something quieter. The lines of a neutral plaid would blend into an indoor environment rather well."
"Good idea," Phil said. "Pull me some samples." The screen filled with fabric swatches in shades of brown and tan, similar to clothes that Bruce had worn in the past. Soon Phil found a nice mellow caramel. "Given Bruce's tendency to go through clothes quickly, we should probably pick more than one."
* * *
Notes:
Gendered clothes for children are a fairly recent phenomenon. This can restrict gender fluidity and cause problems for children. At this stage, Phil does not know what potential landmines he just avoided, but Bruce has some serious and deeply buried gender issues thanks to Brian Banner's A+ parenting, as seen in "Dolls and Guys" Part 10. Several of the Avengers are a little gender-variant in certain regards.
Gendered toys raise similar issues, hence Uncle Phil's resentment. They illustrate and enforce gender roles, causing difficulties for boys and girls alike. Note that Uncle Phil stocks the toy cabinet primarily with gender-neutral toys such as blocks and board games. Where there are gender-associated toys like dolls and trains, he encourages everyone to play with all of them, not split up by gender. There are only two girls in the group, and Natka isn't very girly; Betty is more likely to wind up playing girl things with Steve, Bruce, or Tony who all have different feminine aspects. Browse some good choices in gender-neutral toys.
Blending into a crowd is a useful skill for travel and survival. There are tips for blending in, avoiding attention, and not getting picked out of a crowd. (Notice the repeated advice on wearing drab, plain clothes.) This is what allows Bruce to thrive in foreign lands, as well as locally, and to elude capture most of the time.
Camouflage lets creatures to fade into their environment using multiple techniques. Here are some examples of protective camouflage in animals. Birds can adapt their camouflage, and often the females have dull colors for nesting safety.
Candyland is a game with editions in 1949, 1978, and other years. This box for the 1978 game shows the candycane font. Tony and Bruce would probably recognize this version, hence Tony's reference to it in The Avengers.
Plaid is a popular pajama pattern for children and adults.
Read about the symbolism for the color brown.
[To be continued in Part 16 ...]
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 05:59 pm (UTC)Because those two items were some of the first heavily marketed, nationwide convenience foods. They were also heavily advertised, from what I've seen in magazines of the day, with only cigarettes having a bigger ad share. (Especially, cigarette ads took up more space per ad.)
I'm from a slightly later generation- my Grandfather was one of the classic WW2 vets looking to settle with family in suburbia after he mustered out-- but my interest in history woke sometime in my twenties and has been ravenous ever since.
Thanks for the details, Peoria. Trying to imagine my grandfather as Steve's age, suddenly jumping an entire lifespan forward tends to skip over the details we overlook, like color ads in magazines and color print in newspapers.
-Sarah-
(no subject)
Date: 2014-03-27 06:18 pm (UTC)Steve fits right between my Grandmothers. We'd be a weird mix of Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers and "Did you just give up?"
That books come with color pictures of paintings, that'd be big. Steve may have read the Everyman series, though I bet those books he pulled out at bootcamp represented more than we can imagine, and might have been castoffs or some such.
Yes...
Date: 2014-03-28 07:06 pm (UTC)I imagine Steve as a big Norman Rockwell fan.
>> Steve fits right between my Grandmothers. We'd be a weird mix of Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers and "Did you just give up?" <<
*chuckle* My grandparents too, and I have a very strong imprint from them. I could walk into a room with Steve, and five minutes later he'd be plastered all over me to soak up the familiarity. I've had things like that happen so many times.
>> That books come with color pictures of paintings, that'd be big. Steve may have read the Everyman series, though I bet those books he pulled out at bootcamp represented more than we can imagine, and might have been castoffs or some such. <<
I suspect that Steve haunted the thrift stores and used book stores, went dumpster-diving, and otherwise scrounged everything he could. It's why he was so hypersensitive to the wagon issue: "Is that ALL you think I'm good for?" Ouch.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-28 07:21 pm (UTC)I think Steve and Peggy are coming at something from different vectors.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-29 05:36 am (UTC)Of course. That's always hard.
>> I think Steve and Peggy are coming at something from different vectors. <<
Different lines, same plane. They each had people underestimating and dismissing them, but for different reasons -- his size, her sex.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-29 06:03 am (UTC)I think she was excited that he got actionable intel while completing an extraction. Trained people hash that often as not.
The Howling Commandos are a better use than the intended infantry of Supersoldiers and it works because he's fit enough and wily enough.
Tony takes awhile to figure out Steve too is a learning 'machine'. Howard was a little selective in what he noticed and recounted.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-29 08:09 am (UTC)Yes. Of all the changes, that's the one Steve appreciates the most, and Bucky too.
>> I think she was excited that he got actionable intel while completing an extraction. Trained people hash that often as not. <<
Yes. Peggy would appreciate that about Steve.
*chuckle* There's a moment coming up in "Hairpins" where Phil has a similar realization about JARVIS compared to fully trained agents.
>> The Howling Commandos are a better use than the intended infantry of Supersoldiers and it works because he's fit enough and wily enough. <<
Agreed. They're my favorite kind of team to field: picked men, each with his own specialties. The Avengers are the same kind, which is why Steve does well at leading them ... after he's got his feet under him again.
>> Tony takes awhile to figure out Steve too is a learning 'machine'. <<
Yes, that's true, although it shows by a few stories in when Tony actively starts teaching Steve things instead of taunting him.
>> Howard was a little selective in what he noticed and recounted. <<
The clue, he had it not.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-29 12:08 pm (UTC)Yeah, Tony gets someone he doesn't have to untrain.
Clue runs from Howard.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-30 07:23 am (UTC)I don't know. He's done a LOT of studying, but he's missing 70 years of world history. I suspect that Steve is partly following a program that Phil and JARVIS helped him design to catch up, and partly looking up things as they snag his attention. Same goes for Bucky.
>> Yeah, Tony gets someone he doesn't have to untrain. <<
I'm sure he loves that, along with the sheer attention. Steve's natural exuberance is charming, once he gets over being self-conscious about tech.
>> Clue runs from Howard. <<
*laugh* Oh, how I wish I could draw. Clue done up as a Jessica-Rabbit-esque woman, smacking him across the chops and saying, "Unhand me, you cad!"
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-30 11:29 am (UTC)Washington had raiders. They waged a guerrilla war in their backwoods against hired troops that probably couldn't believe they were fighting at the edge of the world.
The Civil War is a great case study of what doesn't and occasionally does work, and it is a great tragedy that trench warfare got a second chance with officers that kept throwing men and not getting their read.
Clue is wearing a lab coat, buttoned over a short skirt.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-31 07:22 am (UTC)Ah, okay.
>> There is a limited amount of tactical writing through him being frozen, and clearly it's nothing basic prepared him for. <<
Steve got cheated of his training, in large part. They're lucky he came in with the wits to do the job.
Tch. What I would have given for a boy like that in most of the wars I ever did fight, nevermind what shape his body was in. We could've thrown him in a wagon if it came to that. Though I allow it would've taken even me a few weeks to talk his fool head out of his ass regarding the importance of differing contributions.
>> Everything I know of how to fight a war I've gotten through history, or through writers who also were history buffs. Talk about low bars, I'm probably better than an WWI English lieutient. <<
Heh. Yeah. Don't be fooled by the packaging. Knowledge weighs nothing.
>> Washington had raiders. They waged a guerrilla war in their backwoods against hired troops that probably couldn't believe they were fighting at the edge of the world. <<
Honestly the style is closer to certain Native American ones. I can't imagine how the heck Steve could've got that in New York, but in the field? Any Windtalker who crossed paths would have seen him for what he is, and shared tactics.
>> The Civil War is a great case study of what doesn't and occasionally does work, and it is a great tragedy that trench warfare got a second chance with officers that kept throwing men and not getting their read. <<
Too true.
>> Clue is wearing a lab coat, buttoned over a short skirt. <<
*laugh* Love it.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-03-31 04:39 pm (UTC)How this all is conveyed in the movie is the work of many and viewers bring their own pattern recognition to bear.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-04-01 07:38 am (UTC)That makes sense too.
>> How this all is conveyed in the movie is the work of many and viewers bring their own pattern recognition to bear. <<
Yes, all the layers are complex: the canon, the moviemaking team, and the audience.
Yes...
Date: 2014-04-13 09:37 pm (UTC)Good points.
>> I'm from a slightly later generation- my Grandfather was one of the classic WW2 vets looking to settle with family in suburbia after he mustered out-- but my interest in history woke sometime in my twenties and has been ravenous ever since. <<
Sooth. That's some of my background too.
>> Thanks for the details, Peoria. Trying to imagine my grandfather as Steve's age, suddenly jumping an entire lifespan forward tends to skip over the details we overlook, like color ads in magazines and color print in newspapers. <<
It's something I use. I've always had a strong affinity for that generation.