Imagine a conspiracy theorist talking about how they think Cap is still alive and out there somewhere and they’re like ‘yeah but what if his super serum stuff kept his body ALIVE in the ICE and he’s been WORKING FOR THE SECRET MILITARY EVER SINCE-’ but everyone else is just like ‘shut up lol’
okay sorry to add but
What if it was Tony?
His huge project for college is This Theory, and who better to cover it? His own father worked with Cap, and it’s kind of a “Screw You” to his father, working on a Captain America project, something Howard never thought he could do.
He has hours of research put in, a paper carefully proofread and academically professional thanks to vetting by Rhodey, and–
Tony gets laughed out of town. He can’t be serious, right? There’s no way a human would actually survive for seventy years. What about nutrition intakes? Temperatures? Cap may be enhanced, but he’s not Perfection (no matter what Howard would slur late at night).
But Tony still has it. Occasionally, it’ll get brought up on interviews.
Flash forward decades later, and Cap comes out of the ice.
It is literally all over Tony’s twitter:
“GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT ASSHOLES?????? GUESS. TAKE A WILD GUESS.”
He has the link to the paper on his Instagram, shoves it in his asshole-former professor’s face who told him he was wasting his time.
Tony is thriving and best of all?
Steve is the same way. He’s petty, he likes proving people right, and so he tweets about the paper a couple months later, saying: “I know I live with a genius, but wow! He knew about me before any of you!”
So, let’s run through some of the Avengers and how they would carry children. Because why not.
Steve Rogers: Sling on his back. He’s already used to having the weight of his shield there, and in a combat situation the baby is automatically covered by the shield.
Tony Stark: Would build a baby-carrying robot. The robot flies and has a force field. It immediately starts kidnapping children. Tony abandons the baby to fight it. Do NOT trust Tony Stark with a child.
Bruce Banner: Would buy a papoose because it looks practical, would use it because he likes feeling the kid against him.
Clint Barton: Canonically has children. Probably carried a bassinet. Has definitely run into trouble trying to juggle all of the things in his hands and also the baby.
Natasha: The cool aunt to Clint’s 3 kids. Uses a papoose because she wants her hands free to corral the children while still keeping ahold of the baby. Has promised Clint that, if necessary, she can kill a man while holding 3 children. He trusts her to only do so if she has absolutely no other choice.
Thor: Shows up with his own bassinet. It’s gold and flies. During combat situations it closes an armored shell and plays soothing music so the child doesn’t get scared. He plays with the child constantly.
T’Challa: Carried Shuri in a sling often when he was younger and responsible for her, even while exercising. Has done it at least once since then to prove he could still carry her through an entire obstacle course. She refused to get down and he spent 2 hours hauling her around. Nobody makes any comment on the situation.
Vision: Has downloaded every parenting advice book in existence. Calls Wanda for help 10 minutes in. Never successfully takes the child anywhere on his own.
Peter Parker: Can create a papoose out of webbing in under a second when needed. It even comes with extra neck support. He is extremely good with kids, to the surprise of no one except him.
Bucky Barnes: The unofficial Avengers babysitter. Can spot all dangerous objects in a room in under a second, put up with uncomfortable questions for hours without snapping, and loves having the nails on his left hand painted. Has a whole supply of baby gear that he chooses to fit the situation, including a variety of carry methods depending on what the child prefers and the specific situation. Leave your kids with him when you go on the run, he’ll take out a Hydra death squad to keep them safe and then make sure they eat their veggies before bed.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Actually brought a toddler into combat and left him basically unsupervised while they fought a giant monster. Still better parents than Tony Stark.
personally I like to think steve’s birthday isn’t actually July 4th but someone asked him when his birthday was when he was doing his little show tour thingy and he just said it as an accident and/or a panic response in a bid to seem even more patriotic and everyone believed him and now it’s like 100 years later and he’s too deep in the lie to back out now bc he knows all the avenger’s would fucking publicly roast him if he admitted july 4th wasn’t actually his birthday- like he would literally never live that down- so he lives his life in fear that some bitch ass historian is gonna find his birth certificate and expose him
avengers: happy birthday, steve!
bucky, eyes narrowing: what the fuck your birthday isn’t until-
steve, holding back tears: shut up
Bucky tries to hand him a birthday card one cold December day, and Steve tackles him out a window before anyone else can see what he’s holding
Bruce: What was that crashing noise?
Tony, fiddling with something: Barnes just got tackled by Cap, because today is his actual birthday.
Bruce: How do you know?
Tony: My dad remembered it more than mine
Bruce: but you and Barnes threw him a huge party on the 4th of July this year.
Tony: Yeah, seeing him squirm about lying to the public is the best part of our country’s birthday.
museum curator, watching steve waltz into the smithsonian, the memory of having the stolen cap america authentic howling commando era uniform returned dirty and ridden with bullet holes still fresh in their mind: hide the VALUABLES
steve, reaching over the rope to poke at something on display: it’s my goddamn stuff???
I’M SAYIN’, every single level of management at the Smithsonian must have had an extensively well-documented migraine after dealing with the colossal shitshow raised by such thrilling items as “sock (woolen)” pulled from the pack of one “Rogers, Steve G., 1918 – 1945 lol whoops he’s back″
like i said in my initial reblog… all the people building stories out of this make me laugh with delight, but smithsonian & dc museum people adding their tags give me LIFE
… also steven grant rogers would be KIND and COURTEOUS to the front-line museum staff and not ask them stupid questions and you will pry that headcanon from my cold dead hands thankyouverymuch
oh steven grant rogers is KIND and POLITE and CONSIDERATE to front-line museum staff, he will politely move himself to the side so he doesn’t cause traffic issues if he gets recognized and a couple kids want pictures, he apologizes to security for causing a scene (he didn’t mean to! he thought his baseball cap disguise would work, bless him). he returns his maps (sweet and so unnecessary but then one of the volunteers can take a map captain america used and will probably sign for them back to their grandkids so that’s nice). the docents LOVE him; he’s both a Nice Young Man and also from Back in Their Day.
the collections and conservation staff however have sworn a blood oath of pure vengeance against him and nothing he ever does will change their minds. the textile conservator (we’ll call her lorraine) who had to restore the old captain america suit spent THREE YEARS OF HER LIFE on that stupid thing and it’s still too unstable to ever exhibit again. lorraine went through FIVE INTERNS, two of whom CRIED ON HER. she had to spend a fourth year making a replica because everyone was writing their representatives that the captain america suit wasn’t on display and they MADE HER DO IT.
like if steve thought any debrief in wwii he ever had sucked lol try lorraine, who has given up trying to catalogue what the fuck happened to that piece of shit suit and finally tracked down his cell phone number after six months of this hell project out of sheer bloody mindness and desperation and tricks him into her office through a series of absolute goddamn lies about idk public programming or some shit that steve might actually care about and then corners him and makes him give her a play by play of what, exactly, the fuck he did to that suit.
cuz, okay, listen. blah blah save the world blah blah, but steven grant rogers* stole a priceless museum artifact, bled on it, set it on fire, dropped it into the potomac, dragged it (WHILE WET) through river mud and god knows how many plants and bugs and microbes, got melting plastic and metal and shrapnel and other people’s body juices and skin and hair embedded in it–the only reason he lives is because he can give the full and accurate account of what the fuck he did to it and answer questions of how the fuck it can be slightly, slightly unfucked. not saved! not made to look like it was! certainly not able to be put on a mannequin and exhibited again! but like she can get some more of the mud and that chunk of charred plastic out maybe. otherwise, lorraine would have murdered that dumb bitch in a fit of justifiable rage, and no amount of charming “sorry ma’am”s would fucking save him.
Has anyone written something about the Marvel Universe’s multiple PhD holders discussing their academic experiences? Because I would read the heck out of that.