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“Texts from Avengers Tower”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~

Summary: “There are a lot of great things about being on a close-knit team like the Avengers. The group text chains aren’t one of them.

The short video versions of the collection of funny conversations in text messages between the cast of the MCU.”

~~~

Previous Video Texts )

This text: The wilds of Canada, 2026. An unknown number to Logan. “Since were best buds blood bros heteroflex life partners now ur gonna b hearin from me aaaaaaaaaaall the time.”

~~~

23. - “Hundred-Way”




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~~~
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I made another kind of nice dish out of odds and ends in my kitchen this week. A while ago, my dad’s partner taught me how to make halupkis, a Ukrainian dish made from rolling ground meat in cabbage leaves and slow cooking them in tomato sauce. It’s very tasty, but kind of labor intensive to make, so I don’t do it very often.

This week, I was trying to throw something together substantial without a ton of work, so you wouldn’t think I’d go to a dish like this. But I noticed I had some leftover cabbage, tomato sauce, and grape tomatoes, and some ground turkey meat in the freezer. I didn’t feel up to the wrapping process, but I figured I could throw all that together into something nice. So I diced an onion, defrosted the turkey, and chopped up the cabbage and tomatoes into rough chunks. These I sautéed on the stovetop, then simmered it all in the tomato sauce with a few more seasonings until it gelled into a nice halupki-inspired mix. I served it over egg noodles, and though it wasn’t a very photogenic dish, I thought it came out quite good!



I like cooking this way, tossing together various tasty things and simmering them in a pot. I call them mooshes, and while they’re hardly fancy and certainly not to everyone’s taste, I find them comforting, and enjoy how easy they are to cook.
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Made something kind of interesting while trying to throw something together for lunch today. Wanted to dress up that boil-in-the-bowl dry ramen for something quick. So I threw in some frozen mixed veggies we had in the freezer, and made a quick sauce out of odds and ends we had in the kitchen. Some white miso paste, teriyaki sauce, a spoonful of peanut butter, a little of the starchy noodle water, and a dash of sriracha in Bernie’s. Crumbled in some peanuts for crunch; would have scrambled an egg if I’d had a little more time.

But it came out pretty tasty, which pleases me because I’m not great at improvising things like sauces— particularly outside of the Italian-peasant, French-country cuisine style my knowledge is based in. I’ll have to remember this next time we want a real bite at home but don’t have a lot of time. Bernie liked it, at least, so I’ll consider that a success. ☺️

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This October marks two years since Bernie and I moved in together at our current place in Newton. It’s been a wonderful change for me, living with Bernie after spending almost seven years long distance, and into a better space that feels more like mine after eleven years in my old place with roommates. I’ve been very happy there, but it’s only recently that we’ve finally reached a point where I feel like we have the house arranged and furnished the way I wanted it.

For a long while now, my dad has been planning to downsize to be able to move out of and sell our childhood home. It’s been slow, since he was still working full time until this past summer, and I think the emotional weight of moving onto the next life stage has had significant impact. But he offered me my pick of a lot of the furniture, and there were a number of pieces I wanted to move up to my place. The biggest one was, of course, the library shelves, a beautiful set of eleven wood segments that held Dad’s collection from the Easton Press, handsome leather bound books he’s been building up over the course of the last twenty years. I’ve always loved them— I think Dad went to the trouble with them so my brother and I could grow up around beautiful books and develop our respect for them —so I’d been hoping to bring them North since I moved.

The problem had been, however, convincing Dad to just let Bernie and I move them. I think he still thinks of me as the child I used to be who was too spacey to take good care of her things, so he kept trying to get us to use professional movers. Which then were all either too cheap and do a bad job or too expensive and screw us. It took a confluence of events plus Bernie carefully explaining a moving plan before he let us just do it ourselves. However, when he finally changed his mind, we weren’t expecting to do all that labor the weekend we went up to visit, so the enormity of the job threw our schedule into a tailspin we’re only just now digging ourselves out of. But it means we finally, finally, have the shelves we’ve been saving space for in our house for the last two years.



They’re really beautiful, particularly the set we’ve filled only with the nice leather books and tasteful art objects we’ve put in the living room. It makes for such a wow when you first turn in from the doorway. I’ve always had this fantasy of living in a home that didn’t make me feel like a college student just figuring things out, and finally the living room space fits that.

The other shelves are in my office and Bernie’s on the second floor; we don’t have any one space big enough to display them all together the way my parents did. But we needed the extra storage space, as even with the new books, the shelves enabled us to unpack some our of own books that had been sitting in boxes since we moved in. It feels good to have finally dealt with that stuff.

It also helped me make the upstairs room that is supposed to be more office feel more comfortable and complete. But I will talk about that in my next entry.
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I am quite late with this, but as I have been absolutely slammed for the last two months, it’s been something of a theme for the whole challenge. Still, I wanted to make sure I do as I always do, and give an assessment of what I made over the course of the month’s writing.

This year’s challenge was easy in some ways and hard in others. I’ve consistently found the process most useful and productive when I had a project to work on, and so I used much of it for drafting pieces for Mrs. Hawking part 8, which Bernie and I have recently dug into. I made a fair bit of progress, though we still have enough questions about how it’s going to work that I expect the scenes I generated to need a ton of editing. Still, I’m happy for the forward movement on the project. I also returned to Dream Machine, which I haven’t touched in a while, and did a few more new Little Monsters and Texts from Avengers Towers bits, so there was a noticeable focus on comedy. Didn’t write as much other fanfic as I expected, or more than one or two bits of anything else.

I am disappointed to report, however, that for the first time in thirteen years, I failed to finish all thirty-one pieces before the end of the month. I’ve been dealing with some focus issues for a while now, but the real problem is the last handful of months have been totally slammed. Between work, chores, and family obligations involving travel, I lost a ton of time that led to me falling behind. I know it doesn’t really matter— this is a challenge I’ve arbitrarily set for myself, with rules that only I care about, and I ended up doing the same amount of writing in the end that I always do. But I feel kind of bad that my perfect streak of all that time is a little tarnished.

As I was drafting it, I felt like my quality varied a lot. I remember being very frustrated with some pieces, while others came very easily. Looking back through what I wrote with a few weeks’ distance, however, I’m actually pretty pleased with the general level of these pieces. The character voices seem on point, the jokes are strong where there are jokes, and I managed to give some meaningful character motion in the vast majority of the scenes. That’s actually not half bad, even though I know everything will need a lot of editing, both stylistic and functional. I really do strongly believe that you need to just get SOMETHING on the page, no matter how bad, as the first step to making something good.

The breakdown of projects I wrote for:

Hawking part 8 - 14
Texts from Avengers Tower - 3
Dream Machine - 4
Little Monsters - 6
Gentlemen Never Tell 2 - 1
Forever Captain - 1
Witchy - 1

And the breakdown of characters I wrote for:

1. Nathaniel Hawking - 9
2. Beatrice Hawking - 8
3. Clara Hawking - 7
4. Victoria Hawking - 6
5. Mary Stone - 6
6. Leah Lucchesi - 4
7. Twyla Boogieman - 3
8. Draculaura - 3
9. Venus McFlytrap - 3
10. Frankie Stein - 3
11. Ghoulia Yelps - 3
12. Heath Burns - 2
13. Josie Carraway - 2
14. Meryl Dresden - 2
15. Derek Kaplan - 2
16. Joanna Kerrigan - 2
17. Spectra Vondergeist - 2
18. Clawdeen Wolf - 2
19. Bucky Barnes - 1
20. Meredith Barry - 1
21. Clint Barton - 1
22. Lagoona Blue - 1
23. Abbey Bominable - 1
24. Peggy Carter - 1
25. Devon Chambers - 1
26. Zach Barry - 1
27. Cleo de Nile - 1
28. Ryan Dresden - 1
29. Gwen Galway - 1
30. Justin Hawking - 1
31. Reggie Hawking - 1
32. Logan - 1
33. Megan May - 1
34. Catty Noir - 1
35. Nate Reyes - 1
36. Barbie Roberts - 1
37. Steve Rogers - 1
38. Thor - 1
39. Toralei Stripe - 1
40. Arthur Swann - 1
41. Sam Wilson - 1
42. Wade Wilson - 1

Forty-two characters is a fairly large number, even for me. Last year I only wrote for thirty-six, thirty-seven the year before, and thirty-four the year before that. I averaged about three characters a scene, though most of them only had two while the largest maxed out at seven. I’ve always found it tougher to manage larger-cast scenes, so I’m surprised at how many there were this year to skew the average.

Favorite scenes? I thought I did pretty well this year, so I liked a lot. I enjoyed writing for Beatrice Hawking, with her enthusiasm for learning undercover work and managing her privileged background, such as in #23 - Just Powder and #25 - Tweenies.

#23 - Culture Not Costumes is a really funny Little Monsters bit, as is #19 - Relatable. I was also glad I was able to work out #14 - Special Ability, since I was chipping at that joke for most of the month. I’m fond of #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles if only because it’s a serious contender for weirdest thing I’ve ever written.

I also ended up really liking #31 - Derek in Hell, since it’s one of those scenes that I didn’t know where it was going to go until I wrote it. In fact, the only scene I don’t really like is #30 - In Murder’s Path, which doesn’t add anything to its larger piece and was the first of the two scenes I had to write past the end of the month.

Favorite lines? Lagoona’s weird, weird mini-monologue in #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles. Beatrice’s too-enthusiastic recitation of her melodramatic invented backstory in #25 - Tweenies. Nathaniel’s titular line in #24 - Got the Morbs. There’s some cute back and forth between Justin and Reggie in #17 - Let Me Tell You.

So, yeah, a lot of good came out of the exercise this month. Even if I was a little late getting it all done.
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Finished. Late, but finished. Thank God.

This is a Dream Machine bit that doesn’t have any paticular place yet. It’s based off of a fight Bernie and I have on a regular basis. With some polishing, it could be quite funny. But for now, just glad I’m done.



Day #31 - Derek in Hell )
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Well, for the first time ever, I didn’t manage to finish all thirty-one plays in the allotted month. That’s pretty disappointing, but the past two weeks were just brutal. I’m going to finish anyway, just to complete my list.

I also don’t really like this scene. It continues directly from #28 - Mr. Parkhill, but again it doesn’t really tell us anything new, and Clara’s presence doesn’t really capture the nuance I want her character arc to have. But maybe I can salvage something from it.

Damn, I’m mad at myself for not finishing in time. :-/


Photo by Mark Edwards


Day #30 - “In Murder’s Path” )
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This needs a lot of refining, but I'm rushing to make the deadline. Was especially tricky because technically I've drafted a version of this scene before, a long time ago, but I basically threw all of it out because my conception of it shifted so much as I developed the story to this point. But at least it means it counts as a new scene under the rules of the challenge I've set for myself, as I did not refer back to the old draft.


Photo by Jacob La Rocca


Day #29 - Not Prepared )
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Hmm, not sure about this one. It’s from Hawking 8, taking place after #25 - “Tweenies” and #27 - “Lord Love a Duck”, but while it may have some character and structural benefits, it doesn’t establish anything we don’t already know at this point in the story. So I don’t know if it will end up in the final draft. But at this point, I just really need to draft to finish the damn challenge. I’ve only got a few more days to catch up.


Photo by Mark Edwards


Day #28 - Mr. Parkhill )
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Fighting to catch up because I’m so behind. But this is from Mrs. Hawking 8 again, some time after #25 - “Tweenies” when Beatrice is undercover. The logic as to how the scene fits into the larger structure is still a bit off, but again, good raw material. A little something to raise the stakes of the case.



Day #27 - Lord Love a Duck )
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Ugh, I am so tired. I am so behind. This is so stupid. But at least it’s catching me up.



Day #26 - Two Sets of Tentacles )
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Here’s more from the next Mrs. Hawking play, specifically the part where Beatrice goes in undercover as an in-between maid to gather some information for the case. I want to show her learning curve, as she balances her training with her own particular idiom for approaching undercover work. I also like the idea of seeding a character who will become important later as someone Beatrice connects with on this mission. This scene is currently kind of non-specific (as my first drafts always are) and definitely too rushed, but I think there’s a lot of good character here.


Photo by Mark Edwards


Day #25 - Tweenies )
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Argh, I've fallen behind again. Bernie and I went home this past weekend to help my dad around the house, packing up stuff, moving furniture, since he's planning on eventually downsizing. We ended up moving the beautiful library shelves and books up to our place yesterday, which while welcome, was not initially part of the plan! I'm happy since I wanted them for ages, but it meant I didn't have time to write my daily scenes.

So here's my effort to catch back up. This scene immediately follows #22 - "Just Powder" and is an effort to include the idea that since Mrs. Hawking accepted the physical end of her detective career in In the Bones, she's fallen into a bit of a depression. She's not been doing much work, and spends a lot of time hiding feeling sorry for herself. The events of this play will make her confront that and decide how she wants to move forward. I may need to change the specifics of the previous part of the scene to make that totally compatible with this, but I really like exploring this direction.

Also, I get to use the fabulous Victorian phrase "got the morbs".


Photo by Mark Edwards


Day #24 - “Got the Morbs” )
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I can’t take credit for this idea; this was based on a suggestion from Bernie. He’s just acquired a 3D printer, and he’s offered to make accessories for me to use when customizing dolls. Yesterday we made a cool wolf’s head cowl that I thought I could use for a “Red Riding Hood, wolf hunter” doll, and that’s what made him suggest doing something with Halloween costumes. It resulted in a pretty damn funny joke. 😆

This image is a little misleading, but I think the gag herein is better…



Day #23 - Culture Not Costumes )
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Okay, this turned out kind of cute. Another bit from Mrs. Hawking part 8 that still needs work, but has a decent idea at the core of it. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it when I forced myself to dig into it today— late in a valiant struggle to get caught up —but bits of it kind of came together. I think I will have to adjust some of the details for logic reasons, but the dynamics are pretty good. Just goes to show, sometimes when you make yourself just write something, you can surprise yourself with what comes out of you. 😆

I noticed I haven’t written much with Hawking herself yet for this challenge. Her scenes are taking more time to come together, I guess.


Photo by Mark Edwards


Day #22 - Just Powder )
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Bleh, not happy with this one, but I'm struggling already and falling behind. But I just got to crank something out. It's a possible early-dramatic-form-draft of a scene for that prose story I've been scribbling, about a little girl in New England learning witchcraft from her aunt.

I've changed Maggie's name to Megan, for reasons.



Day #21 - The Wand )
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It's late in the day, but it's still the 20th, so I'm technically still caught up!

This is another little bit of a Captain America fan fiction scene that I wrote as a drama, but could definitely use as the first draft of a prose fic. That technique often helps me get started. It's just a silly little moment, coming out of my personal preference for clean shaven Cap as opposed to bearded, which influences why I write him that way in my by-now pretty extensive post-Endgame series Forever Captain. I guess it's an attempt to find an in-character justification for it. There isn't a lot to this, but it could make for a cute little one shot that I could stick in the continuity of their early married years.

I guess there's also a tiny nod to that awful look Chris sported when he was performing Lobby Hero too.



Day #20 - Bearded )
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I came up with this today while I was out running errands. It made me snort-laugh out loud in a grocery store, so I figure that's something.

Also, remember-- it's not the length of the piece, it's how you use it. ;-)



Day #19 - Relatable )
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Blargh, I'm a little behind. But I should be able to catch up today. Anyway, this is an early scene of Mrs. Hawking 8, where Clara approaches Mary upon her return to London, asking her to take on a case for a family she knows. I'm also trying to use the early part of the scene to subtly establish some things on Clara's mind early on, but no so obviously that it tips my hand as to where her story is going. Right now I'm not sure if I achieved that, so this scene is a little weak. Not to mention the fact that we still need to figure out a lot of the details of the case, which is always one of the hardest parts of writing a Hawking play.

This also kind of runs into the problem of Tory being about fives years old at this point. Wrangling a child onstage, particularly one so small, is no small order. But maybe this scene could work because we could make a little lump in the bed to believably represent a little girl.


Photo by Mazz Mazzacano


Day #18 - One Mother to Another )
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Last night I caught my stat counter when it reached 100,000 hits, which is a pretty exciting milestone. It's not anything crazy; as you can see I've had a profile on AO3 since near the beginning of the site, and I've got things posted that I wrote back in the early 2000's, so it's taken me quite a long time to get to this point. But I've written some good stuff, stories I'm very proud of. And honestly nearly half of those hits are on one piece, which far and away is the most popular thing I've ever written. I try not to base my esteem on my own work by how many people read it, but looking at this makes me feel good. I'm glad there are those out there who have enjoyed reading my stories.

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