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America Chavez (starsandhearts) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-04-03 21:08:00

Entry tags:

america chavez (616), gwen stacy

WHO: America Chavez and Gwen Stacy
WHAT: The girls are back in town
WHERE: At that there convention
WHEN: April 3

So she'd checked out the doors a few times since she and Kate had gone through, looking for things that might help them get back, for things for Kate, and just some sort of idea of how to get back. But this was something else, she'd heard around town that the doors were acting strange lately so she thought she'd check it out - see if maybe it meant something had changed about it all.

And it was with that plan in mind that she'd set out to go check it out on her own, maybe she could find a way out of it all and if she did she'd come back and get the others, but first she wanted to see on her own. Failing in front of Loki had been enough for her ego, so if she was going to fail again she'd rather do it on her own.

But as she approached the house at the edge of town there was someone else clearly on her way there as well. America wasn't sure initially if she should say something, but decided maybe a buddy wouldn't be a terrible idea - you know if she wanted to go through. "You planning on taking a trip through the doors?" She asked as they grew nearer.

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starsandhearts
2019-04-07 07:14 am UTC (link)

America was glad to hear that Gwen wouldn't judge her because after she saw the shirt with the Young Avengers on it she knew she needed it. Maybe she could find some Hawkeye merch too, she'd love to have a shirt dedicated totally to Kate, just - her bff deserved representation. "This might be a problem, how much stuff are we actually going to be able to get and not make it weird." Because Gwen was right, she wanted all the shirts too, especially when she saw that a lot of them came in different cuts.

"We're going to have to really investigate this place, and see all our options." There were rows upon rows of booths, there were these here in front of them that obviously had a lot of shirt options, but there were other things too along the way and America found herself wanting to see it all. It was the first time she'd come through the door and not felt totally disappointed by what she'd found.

"Yeah," She nodded, "That's Billy and Teddy," She pointed to the two dorks first, "And that's Loki, he just showed up recently, have you met him yet? Don't trust him whatever you do, he can seem charming but he's usually working an angle. And that's Noh-Varr, he's kind of full of himself but good to have a tight spot. And of course Kate." She felt an ache looking at them all together and happy like that. It had been a long time since they'd worked together like that, and would probably be even longer before they had the chance to reunite. "I'm getting this." Even if she never wore it and only looked at it, she needed to have it.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-07 07:34 pm UTC (link)

Gwen knew the arc reactor shirt was definitely going to be a purchase. She could doctor it up, maybe cut the neckline out to make it more off the shoulder and then knot the bottom to fit it to her torso, or she could just leave it as is and keep it a little baggy. But that was definitely happening. The only issue was, what if she found another one she liked better at another booth? Well, maybe she'd just get that one too. There were no rules that said how many Iron Man shirts she could own, and somehow she didn't think Mr. Stark would mind.

She turned her attention to the shirt America had agin and looked at each face she pointed out. Gwen liked hearing about the lives others had outside of the town, and who they were connected to, especially if there were other versions of them in town. It was really interesting to see connections some might have with a version of one person, but another version might not know them at all. That, actually, seemed to be her situation. "You definitely should get that one," she said. While not always the most in-tune with emotions, Gwen could tell that shirt meant something to America. And because of that, she absolutely had to have it. If she hadn't, Gwen would've gotten it for her.

"So maybe we should get these, and then go to the next one to see what else we can find. Oh!" She held up another shirt that had a cartoony looking image of a female Captain America. "That's my Cap! Not the big muscly handyman back in town."

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starsandhearts
2019-04-07 08:31 pm UTC (link)

America nodded, "Yeah I will." She agreed, it was something she hadn't expected to find when they'd stepped through the door together, but now that she had she realized it was something she'd needed. A reminder of where she'd come from and that they still needed to try and get back, getting too comfortable back on the other side of the door couldn't happen. But this was a nice distraction for now. She felt better than she had in a little while.

"I think you're right," She agreed, pausing when something caught Gwen's eye, and then seeing a shirt with a female Captain America, not the girl dressed like a dancer she'd seen earlier, but dressed like an actual Captain might be and America couldn't help but love seeing that. "Oh wow, this is really your Cap? That's amazing." She could just imagine how cool that would have been for people to grow up knowing what someone like a female Captain America had done. It sounded like Gwen was from a pretty cool dimension.

"Are other people here women where you're from? Iron Man?" She wondered, curious now that the idea had been put out there. She hoped a lot through the multiverse, but in the last couple of years she'd spent most of her time in one dimension in particular, always ending up back there even when she left. She hoped that would remain true, that she'd be able to find her way back to it soon.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-09 12:52 am UTC (link)

Gwen had gone from being totally creeped out to actually enjoying herself the longer they were there. She credited a decent amount of that to America, because if she'd been by herself she might still be kind of wary about all of it. She still would've checked it all out, but it woudln't have been nearly as enjoyable. For as up and down as they'd always been, Gwen did miss her girlfriends back home. It felt good to be hanging out with someone, even if it was a little premature to call themselves good friends at this point.

"Yup! That's Samantha Wilson," she said, nodding to the Captain America shirt. "My dad's a huge fan." She hung the shirt back up. Cool as it was, she might come back for it later though.

"We don't have an Iron Man," she said. "Tony Stark is just a rich guy who makes coffee and weapons. Hm, I guess I'm the female version of Spider-Man. I told you about Cap. I'd have to ask around to find out what other super-human-hero-type people might be the counterparts to the people in my world. There are some pretty cool people there. But there are also a lot of creepazoids and jerkfaces."

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starsandhearts
2019-04-09 02:44 am UTC (link)

"Samantha Wilson, oh wow." America couldn't help but love the sound of that, they had Sam Wilson in the dimension she spent the majority of her time in, but Samantha Wilson was a kind of change that America couldn't help but love hearing about. This place itself was pretty cool, but what she found that was maybe cooler was Gwen and the place that she was from.

So maybe her idea that everyone was just a woman where Gwen was from was a little bit of a generalization but she liked hearing that things were so different there that it wasn't just one variation on a million others of the life they were living in the dimension she was from. "There are a lot of those no matter what dimension you're from." She admitted with a laugh, "It sounds like you're from a pretty cool place though, I'll bet they'll come around eventually. I think most of us tend to have a little while where people aren't sure what to think of us. They used to be like that back when I was on the Teen Brigade." America explained, though it had been more like the official Avengers had trouble with them, but that was besides the point. "They just need a little time to get to know you."

It would be hard, America knew that much, but she had a feeling people would see that Gwen really was the hero she was trying so hard to be. After all, everyone loved Spider-Man, it only made sense they'd love Spider-Woman. "Come on, let's see what other things we can find, I am going to have to bring Kate through later and make sure she sees all this."

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-09 06:05 pm UTC (link)

"She's cool," Gwen on to say. "She helped me out of a scrape and I think she likes me, so, score one for Spider-Woman. You'd think if Captain America vouches for you that other people would get on board but, eh." She shrugged. The billboards, newspaper articles, police chases, and general disdain suggested otherwise. Murder accusations weren't exactly easy to overcome when it was so much easier to throw blame on someone. Gwen might not have taken it so hard if it was someone other than Peter. It still would've sucked, but being blamed for her best friend in the whole world's death was pretty shitty no matter how one looked at it. The worst part? She could handle randos hating on her. But the worst was hearing Ben Parker go off on Spider-Woman. May was less explosive about it but Gwen knew the feelings were the same. That was the worst part. They loved Gwen like a niece, but they despised Spider-Woman because they thought she killed their nephew.

Although she wouldn't wish hardship on anyone, it did feel comforting to know that in Starklandia she was surrounded by a lot of people who'd undergone the world being against them at one point or another. If not the world, then at least a group of people, and for the wrong reasons. She didn't feel as alone as she did back home and that too, was pretty foreign. Gwen operated better alone than she did with a team but maybe that was just because she wasn't used to anyone having her back. She liked having friends again though; that she did know, and she liked the idea of America being one of them.

"I definitely want to see Jan's reaction to all of this, too," she said, thinking another trip was in order later. She walked with America once they'd gotten their shirts, and moved on to another vendor. "Comic books?" She started flipping through them. "But these are people back in Starklandia. Why are they in these books?" She held up a few of them that had the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, and a few other people she didn't recognize on them.

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starsandhearts
2019-04-09 07:04 pm UTC (link)

America huffed softly and nodded, "Sounds like it's hard to know what Captain America thinks of you in any dimension." It was one of those things about Cap really, their sense of right and wrong was kind of difficult to fit yourself into from time to time, at least in America's experience. But Gwen was right, you'd think if Captain America said you were okay things would be all good. "If Cap says you're good they'll come around, even if it takes them a little while to get their heads out of their asses." America was sure of that much, stigma might have surrounded Gwen initially for whatever reason but she was sure people would sort it out - and if Cap said she was good then that was enough for America, no matter which version of Cap had said it.

Wandering through the booths, America saw all sorts of little things that caught her eye, whether it was art or little charms, more shirts and covers for phones, and then Gwen found some comic books and America frowned when Gwen showed her the one she'd opened with Iron Man and Captain America, "How would they have these?" Fans made sense sort of, you know she knew people loved the Avengers back home, they followed their movements and stuff like that, so she could see how a convention could be a thing if people were just really big fans, but this was something else.

"Do you think this stuff actually happened?" She asked opening one of the comic books and finding more of the same, reading through a little bit of it, it looked like the Avengers were just coming together for the very first time, there was some kind of attack on New York that they had to stop. "I mean ... how would people even know about all of this to create it?"

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-11 04:41 pm UTC (link)

Gwen knew about things like comics. Hell, the Steve Rogers in her world wrote and drew comics for Captain America. But what she was seeing now was different. Or was it? If Captain America had comics where she was from, wouldn't it stand to reason that others like Cap would have them, too? It was just weird to see them in person. Also kind of cool. It made her want to look for comics about Iron Man and Spider-Man, to read stories people made up about them.

The creepy aspect of it all kicked in when America posed the real question. Did this stuff actually happen? Or was it just a fictional story? That was when it'd get tricky. "Well," she said. "My dad's collection of Captain America comics are supposed to be based on real stuff she had to deal with. But I dunno if that's true or just a gimmick to sell comics." She'd ask Samantha -- if she ever saw her again.

"Maybe we could get some of these and take them back to ask. But at the same time, we wouldn't know which version of Iron Man this is so even if Mr. Stark said no, it could be another Mr. Stark, right?" She frowned, then flipped through another stack. "Whoa! That's you! Or it's um, it's one of you! Maybe? Those are those cool looking peeps on the shirt you showed me, too." She held up a Young Avengers comic.

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starsandhearts
2019-04-11 09:10 pm UTC (link)

Well the Captain America stuff made sense he was a war hero, a propaganda machine from way back. So sure there were stories but they were embellished, made cooler and more intense to prove what America could do - but the rest of them? Anyone other than maybe Cap or even Iron Man? It seemed weird. But maybe it was the same sort of thing? They'd heard about the others and then make their own sort of embellished stories.

"Yeah that might not be a bad idea," She agreed flipping through an issue of an Iron Man comic trying to decide if the story sounded familiar or not until Gwen distracted her saying that she'd found America. "Wait me?" She dropped what she'd been looking at and stared at the cover that Gwen held up.

"Ay dios mio," Her eyes went wide because it wasn't just her and her friends on a shirt it was them on the cover of a comic book, she flipped it open and saw a story she recognized, not one of Iron Man's that she tried to piece together from the gossip she'd heard or news reports, but it was her and Loki standing outside Billy's bedroom. "Shit, this is real." She said quietly. "This is - I mean I did this," She flipped more quickly through the pages all of it directly from her life. "All of this."

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-15 06:26 pm UTC (link)

This was about the point where things started to get weird. And not weird in a cool, kind of entertaining way. No, this was weird border-lining on creepy. Gwen was not here for that. It wasn't really far-fetched to think that there might be people out there making comics and writing stories about 'heroes' like them and the others in Starklandia. As she'd said, the Steve Rogers from her world did it for Captain America and it was really popular. If people wanted to do that, to write stories and sell them then that was fine. Okay -- maybe she would've liked to have gotten a cut of the profits because hell, it'd be her in them. Well, it'd be Spider-Woman. Whatever. Not the point.

What was baffling was that America was telling her the things she was reading about did actually happen. Even that, maybe, she could explain because if the events that happened were made public someone could write about them. But what about pages that had private moments where the main person was alone? Or where conversations took place between them and only one other person? How did those details get in there? On top of that, there were comics that she was sure pertained to people from different parts of the multiverse. And they were all in one place.

"Uhh..." Gwen looked between America and the other stacks of comics. She gestured to the comic books. "This? This is a great big pile of nope. How do people know all of this stuff? Because if what happened in that is something that really happened to you then I bet that's the case for all of these and I don't even want to know why they're all together because most of us are from different universes."

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starsandhearts
2019-04-15 11:43 pm UTC (link)

There was always someone watching, America was sure of that but like this? That felt impossible, especially to see it laid out exactly as it had happened like this. Maybe someone could tell a publisher their stories but it wouldn't have come out so exact, of that much she was certain, and this was exact. And it wasn't just her stories, there were others here too - stacks and stack and stacks of them, so many more than she or Gwen had time to look through today or even in a few days. It was overwhelming to see it all and know - or at least suspect, that inside each of these comic books were the true stories of someone else, maybe someone she knew, or maybe someone she'd never known but that her story was true lead her to believe they all had to be, it would be too much of a coincidence for it only to be true of the Young Avengers.

A big pile of nope was really a great way to describe it, it sent a chill down her spine thinking people reading everything about her life like this. Was everything in these books? Her moms? The Teen Brigade? Sotomayor University? It felt like too much. "Well it explains why people know us." She said after a moment, what it didn't explain was why they were there at all.

"I don't even want to think about how they got all of this, I mean are these people here watching us all the time? Do they get to look through the multiverse? Do they even know?" It felt like maybe they didn't after they'd been asked for pictures and to pose like that, like they were just pretending, no one looked at America and Gwen and suspected they were actually from these books. But it was still weird.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-17 11:22 am UTC (link)

Gwen really did not like the idea of someone out there knowing everything about them all. It'd be one thing if these comic books were written purely for entertainment purposes. That wasn't a big deal to her. Was she overly enthusiastic about it? No. But it made sense. People liked to sensationalize super heroes. It made her wish she could talk to Samantha back home and ask her if the stories Steve Rogers wrote about her were real or not. But she also kinda wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

Although she'd not really given any of them a thorough read just yet, some of the pages she'd skimmed showed conversations between people. Gwen was kind of a lone figure in her world. That is, most of her time spent as Spider-Woman, she was operating alone. And even when she wasn't being a Spiderling, she was by herself a lot because she'd shut out so many people in her life. If she were to find a comic about herself and saw pages with her inner monologue written and the words were actually true, well, that'd be freakish as hell and she'd definitely be well on her way toward panic-mode. Because seriously? Yikes. Why would anyone want to read her thoughts about extreme guilt and her craving for corndogs?

"I don't know," she said. "No one here seems to know we're.. them." She gestured by waving her hand at the books. "Maybe, er, maybe we should just look for more shirts and step away from the creepy unauthorized biographies."

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starsandhearts
2019-04-18 11:01 pm UTC (link)

It had been one thing to think that this was just a gathering of fans, fans of them as actual people but to think that they were fans of these books... these incredibly invasive books. Yeah Gwen was probably right about their next course of action. "Yeah," She agreed with a huff, "I think maybe that's probably the way we should play this." She could think about what all of this meant later, maybe she'd hope that the doors would stop sending them here and they could forget that this place even existed. You know other than having some shirts with their faces on them. But that she could handle.

"I think-" She said glancing around, "That I saw some food over that way, maybe we should check that out instead?" Because no matter what else was happening, food was safe, and well this was real actual food, not just snacks that had been stolen on trips through the doors or meat over fires. That was something she could appreciate.

She had to make herself put down the book she'd picked up - it was too strange seeing her memories being played out in detail like this.

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itsybitsyspidey
2019-04-19 06:26 pm UTC (link)

Getting away from those books was probably for the best. Gwen had thought about maybe getting a few to take back with her and ask those the comics featured if they recognized anything in them, but ultimately she opted against it. For one, it freaked her out. Personally, she didn't want to read any stories written about her because one, they were probably not written in the best light. Two, that was creepy because this wasn't her world. How did they know things like that if they weren't from her world? At first she thought maybe she was just being paranoid but the fact that America was skeeved out by it too solidified her in her decision to back up, step away from the books, and proceed to find sustenance instead.

Much better idea.

Stress eating sounded like a really awesome thing to do right now and she was all about it. It might make her suit a little uncomfortable for a bit until the food baby wore off but she wasn't worried about it. "Yep, yeah, we're totally doing that. I hope they have corndogs." That would definitely take some of the edge off. Nothing really said stress reliever like manufactured meat covered in deep fried batter on a stick.

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