Story: "Up the Water Spout" Part 7
Sep. 12th, 2014 12:22 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," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk,""kintsukuroi," and "Little and Broken, but Still Good."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Natasha Romanova, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Betty Ross, Bucky Barnes.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Mention of human trafficking and nonconsensual drug use. Slightly offstage sexual violence. Dubcon/Noncon.
Summary: Sometimes the Black Widow needs to hunt, and sometimes she needs help settling her personality afterwards. Uncle Phil arranges an extra ageplay session.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. BAMF!Black Widow. Black Widow is creepy. Spiders. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Nonsexual ageplay. Caregiving. Competence. Girl stuff. Toys and games. Gentleness. Trust. #coulsonlives
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. Skip to Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12.
"Up the Water Spout" Part 7
Uncle Phil brought out a handful of hula hoops, most of which actually belonged to Steve, relics of his exploration into fads that he'd missed while under the ice. First came a stack of hoops in plain primary colors and assorted sizes. Steve had quickly figured out that, at his size, he needed a big hoop. The heavy rainbow-colored hoop with ridged interior was his current favorite, intended for fitness training. The novelty hoops with spirals of holographic and glow-in-the-dark tape had been a whim. They had inspired Tony to make the last hoop, some sort of clear material with multicolored lights inside, which thanks to the Stark Industries logo were probably not ordinary LED and had seemingly infinite battery life.
Phil scattered the hoops on the floor. "All right, pick one and give it a whirl."
Betty stepped on the rim of a yellow hoop, deftly flipping it upright. She set it around her waist and began twirling it with expert grace.
"Does it matter which I pick?" Natka asked.
"Actually, yes," Phil said as he sorted through the choices. "The bigger the hoop, the slower it moves, which makes it easier to manage. The ideal size should come about to your waist when you stand it on the ground." He demonstrated with one of the holographic hoops.
Natka tried a few, then settled on a red one. "How do I make it spin?"
"Like this," Phil said, flipping his hoop neatly around his waist. He gave a quick thrust and twist.
The hoop clattered to the ground.
Both girls giggled.
"It's been a long time since I did this," Phil muttered. He picked up the hoop, determined to try again. His aikido master had made him spend a month learning how to hula hoop, to teach him the importance of circles and spirals. Phil concentrated, put the hoop in motion, and managed to keep it going for a few seconds before losing it again. "Drat."
"Here, it works like this," Betty said to Natka. "Hold the hoop around your waist. Throw it sideways to start it. When the rim touches your belly, push forward. When the rim touches your butt, push backward. You have to move fast." Betty suited actions to words, spinning her hoop. "It's just physics. Now you do it."
Natka tried to follow the instructions, but dropped the hoop. She picked it up again without hesitation.
Phil abandoned the lightweight hoop and tried the fitness one. He couldn't keep it going either. The darn thing weighed at least ten pounds. "What the ...?"
"That one is Steve's favorite, remember?" Betty said. "Just pull the sections apart and dump out the extra weights. It's a fitness hoop but the tubing only weighs about three pounds."
Phil twisted carefully to pop the arcs apart and spill the little lead balls inside another hoop. Without them, the hoop performed beautifully for him.
"Yay!" Betty said.
"I used to be actually good at this," Phil said, concentrating hard on his hips. The hoop whirled around him in slow, elegant arcs.
* * *
Notes:
Hula hoops are fun to spin. Read instructions or watch a video. There are games, activities, and tricks too.
See a hula hoop size chart and explore what size hoop to buy. Plain hoops come in assorted sizes. Fitness hoops are heavier. Many types of luminescent hoop are available. LED hoops are cool, though nowhere near as cool as Starktech.
Aikido is a martial art based on circles and spirals. Any kind of curving motion can be useful for training yourself to think in curvilinear ways.
[To be continued in Part 8 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Natasha Romanova, Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Betty Ross, Bucky Barnes.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Mention of human trafficking and nonconsensual drug use. Slightly offstage sexual violence. Dubcon/Noncon.
Summary: Sometimes the Black Widow needs to hunt, and sometimes she needs help settling her personality afterwards. Uncle Phil arranges an extra ageplay session.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. BAMF!Black Widow. Black Widow is creepy. Spiders. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Nonsexual ageplay. Caregiving. Competence. Girl stuff. Toys and games. Gentleness. Trust. #coulsonlives
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6. Skip to Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12.
"Up the Water Spout" Part 7
Uncle Phil brought out a handful of hula hoops, most of which actually belonged to Steve, relics of his exploration into fads that he'd missed while under the ice. First came a stack of hoops in plain primary colors and assorted sizes. Steve had quickly figured out that, at his size, he needed a big hoop. The heavy rainbow-colored hoop with ridged interior was his current favorite, intended for fitness training. The novelty hoops with spirals of holographic and glow-in-the-dark tape had been a whim. They had inspired Tony to make the last hoop, some sort of clear material with multicolored lights inside, which thanks to the Stark Industries logo were probably not ordinary LED and had seemingly infinite battery life.
Phil scattered the hoops on the floor. "All right, pick one and give it a whirl."
Betty stepped on the rim of a yellow hoop, deftly flipping it upright. She set it around her waist and began twirling it with expert grace.
"Does it matter which I pick?" Natka asked.
"Actually, yes," Phil said as he sorted through the choices. "The bigger the hoop, the slower it moves, which makes it easier to manage. The ideal size should come about to your waist when you stand it on the ground." He demonstrated with one of the holographic hoops.
Natka tried a few, then settled on a red one. "How do I make it spin?"
"Like this," Phil said, flipping his hoop neatly around his waist. He gave a quick thrust and twist.
The hoop clattered to the ground.
Both girls giggled.
"It's been a long time since I did this," Phil muttered. He picked up the hoop, determined to try again. His aikido master had made him spend a month learning how to hula hoop, to teach him the importance of circles and spirals. Phil concentrated, put the hoop in motion, and managed to keep it going for a few seconds before losing it again. "Drat."
"Here, it works like this," Betty said to Natka. "Hold the hoop around your waist. Throw it sideways to start it. When the rim touches your belly, push forward. When the rim touches your butt, push backward. You have to move fast." Betty suited actions to words, spinning her hoop. "It's just physics. Now you do it."
Natka tried to follow the instructions, but dropped the hoop. She picked it up again without hesitation.
Phil abandoned the lightweight hoop and tried the fitness one. He couldn't keep it going either. The darn thing weighed at least ten pounds. "What the ...?"
"That one is Steve's favorite, remember?" Betty said. "Just pull the sections apart and dump out the extra weights. It's a fitness hoop but the tubing only weighs about three pounds."
Phil twisted carefully to pop the arcs apart and spill the little lead balls inside another hoop. Without them, the hoop performed beautifully for him.
"Yay!" Betty said.
"I used to be actually good at this," Phil said, concentrating hard on his hips. The hoop whirled around him in slow, elegant arcs.
* * *
Notes:
Hula hoops are fun to spin. Read instructions or watch a video. There are games, activities, and tricks too.
See a hula hoop size chart and explore what size hoop to buy. Plain hoops come in assorted sizes. Fitness hoops are heavier. Many types of luminescent hoop are available. LED hoops are cool, though nowhere near as cool as Starktech.
Aikido is a martial art based on circles and spirals. Any kind of curving motion can be useful for training yourself to think in curvilinear ways.
[To be continued in Part 8 ...]
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-09-13 11:00 pm (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-09-13 11:06 pm (UTC)Yep. Dried ink can be reconstituted by adding its carrier -- usually alcohol, water, or oil. All you have to do to identify the carrier is scrape out a bit of the dried ink and test what will dilute it.
Steve is more of a kitchen chemist than Tony or Bruce have quite realized yet.
>> all the things that are fussy. And on ends of butcher paper and squares of mismatched wrapping papers... <<
All the paper bags that things came in, especially places that used white instead of brown ones.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-09-14 12:15 am (UTC)seeing mostly small bags for tiny things.
Re: Yes...
Date: 2014-09-14 12:35 am (UTC)Re: Yes...
Date: 2019-06-02 07:13 am (UTC)I had a huge pile of cardboard that I was going to use for crafts, too, but I never ended up needing it and had to toss it when my neighbors gave me cockroaches.