31 Plays in 31 Days, #3 - “Sides”
Aug. 3rd, 2021 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11Haha, I was a clever boots and figured out a way to get around my own rules! I mentioned recently how my writing slowed down as it often does when I go into production for something. I have some fan fics that I was going along at a very good clip on for several months that I want to make sure I finish, but that is ill-suited for this challenge because it’s designed for drama, not prose. I could change the parameters, but it will either make a lot more work or make it a lot less interesting to post, because it takes more words to make a presentable, readable piece of prose.
But! It occurred to me if I have a dialogue scene in the story, I can draft it as if it were a play. It will need editing, and expansion in the form of narration on the action. But all these 31P31D need fixing up to one level or another, and it’s still useable work that can count for both purposes! Behold as I have circumvented my own arbitrary and largely pointless rules! CALL ME LOKI ‘CAUSE THE TRICKSTER GOD AIN’T GOT NOTHING ON ME.
So this is from “The Favor”, one of the shorter, theoretically quicker to make Marvel pieces I started based on the sudden striking of an idea. It fits into the larger series I’ve been working on, one that follows Steve Rogers’s journey that leads him to going back to the 1940’s and retirement from being a superhero. This piece is from much, much later in his life, after Peggy died, and focuses on Tony Stark’s point of view, who doesn’t know the whole story. So it’s told as if Tony has an old family friend, Peggy’s widower who he knows as Uncle Grant, reach out to him for a favor, asking him to build something that he can’t ask for from anybody else. The story runs on a particular dramatic irony, that the audience knows something about Grant that Tony doesn’t. I enjoyed writing that little disconnect.
This takes place about a year after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Grant’s been dealing with the loss of his wife of sixty years, and Tony’s struggling with feelings of guilt and uncertainty over his role in the conflict with Steve. He doesn’t exactly doubt his own position, but he feels lousy being the guy having to lead the charge against Captain America as a war criminal, particularly because the man’s respect and good opinion had come to mean a lot to him, and because his dad cared about him so much. He’s carrying that around and is kind of craving some sort of absolution from somebody he looks up to. That underlies much of this scene.
I think my Granddad owned this exact jacket, if not this entire outfit.
Day #3 - “Sides”
From Forever Captain:
Part 6 – “The Favor”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
TONY STARK, Iron Man, in the wake of the Sokovia Accords and the breaking of the Avengers, 47
GRANT CARTER, Peggy Carter’s widowed WWII vet husband, 110
Avengers Compound, 2017
~~~
(The front bell rings, and TONY answers the door to GRANT.)
GRANT: Hey, kid.
TONY: Good to see you, Uncle Grant. Sorry it’s been so long, I… I should have reached out.
GRANT: You’ve had a lot on your plate. I didn’t want to bug you.
TONY: How you been holding up? Really?
GRANT: (deep breath) Oh, you know. We were lucky— to have each other as long as we did. And I’m glad she’s not suffering any more. But it’s not easy, that’s for sure. I never was quite right without her.
(Pause.)
GRANT: So. I understand you’ve got something to show me.
TONY: Yeah, yeah, come in. So, after all this work I put in, you going to tell me what you need it for? You better not just be going to a costume party or something.
GRANT: It’s a gift, if you must know. For somebody who really ought to have it.
TONY: Geez, when did you become such a hell of a gift giver? As I recall, you gave me a copy of Midnight’s Children last Christmas. You sure your friend wouldn’t like some of those nice steaks you send in the mail instead?
GRANT: Yep. Hey, did you ever read that book?
TONY: I was going to get around to it. But then somebody dropped a commission in my lap that ate up all my free time. My birthday’s in May, for future reference. Just in case you got an in with Ferrari to build you something special.
(Tony leads Grant into the workshop.)
TONY: Gotta say, really never thought you’d be the one asking me for something like this.
GRANT: I guess you never know where life is going to lead you.
TONY: That’s for damn sure… never thought I’d have to lead the charge to make Captain America a war criminal. But here we are.
GRANT: (Sighing) I am sorry about all that.
TONY: Not your fault.
GRANT: Seems I’ve brought it up for you.
TONY: Yeah, that’s not hard these days. When you’re tearing down a historical icon.
(Pause.)
TONY: You had to have met him at some point, right?
GRANT: A few times. He came to the funeral, remember.
TONY: Jesus, what was that like?
GRANT: About like you’d expect. Worse for him than it was for me, but he had respects he wanted to pay. We’d met before then, though. Peggy felt like it was the right thing to do.
TONY: She felt sorry for him, huh?
GRANT: I felt sorry for him, truth be told. But it was… too strange. Thought keeping it to a minimum would be easier on the both of us.
TONY: She let you get away with that?
GRANT: Mostly. She kept trying to invite him to Thanksgiving.
TONY: (chuffing) Jesus. So… what did you think of him? Really?
GRANT: Hoping I’ll take sides, huh?
TONY: Well— you agree with me, don’t you? Registry is a public good. Do you really think anyone with that much power, and with the consequences that serious—
GRANT: I know you did what you thought was right. I could never fault you for that. But you’re not asking about my opinion of your politics, are you?
TONY: So you do think I’m an asshole. Like everybody else.
GRANT: No, Tony. I don’t think you’re an asshole. (chuckling) Not for that, at anyway.
TONY: (Grumbling) Is that too much to ask? From maybe the one guy who doesn’t jizz himself over Captain America?
GRANT: Hey. Language.
(Pause.)
GRANT: But I’ve told you before, kid. You never have to worry what I think of you.
(Pause.)
TONY: You just say that ‘cause I’ll make shit for you.
GRANT: Yep. Ain’t about to mess that up. So… can I see it?
But! It occurred to me if I have a dialogue scene in the story, I can draft it as if it were a play. It will need editing, and expansion in the form of narration on the action. But all these 31P31D need fixing up to one level or another, and it’s still useable work that can count for both purposes! Behold as I have circumvented my own arbitrary and largely pointless rules! CALL ME LOKI ‘CAUSE THE TRICKSTER GOD AIN’T GOT NOTHING ON ME.
So this is from “The Favor”, one of the shorter, theoretically quicker to make Marvel pieces I started based on the sudden striking of an idea. It fits into the larger series I’ve been working on, one that follows Steve Rogers’s journey that leads him to going back to the 1940’s and retirement from being a superhero. This piece is from much, much later in his life, after Peggy died, and focuses on Tony Stark’s point of view, who doesn’t know the whole story. So it’s told as if Tony has an old family friend, Peggy’s widower who he knows as Uncle Grant, reach out to him for a favor, asking him to build something that he can’t ask for from anybody else. The story runs on a particular dramatic irony, that the audience knows something about Grant that Tony doesn’t. I enjoyed writing that little disconnect.
This takes place about a year after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Grant’s been dealing with the loss of his wife of sixty years, and Tony’s struggling with feelings of guilt and uncertainty over his role in the conflict with Steve. He doesn’t exactly doubt his own position, but he feels lousy being the guy having to lead the charge against Captain America as a war criminal, particularly because the man’s respect and good opinion had come to mean a lot to him, and because his dad cared about him so much. He’s carrying that around and is kind of craving some sort of absolution from somebody he looks up to. That underlies much of this scene.
I think my Granddad owned this exact jacket, if not this entire outfit.
Day #3 - “Sides”
From Forever Captain:
Part 6 – “The Favor”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
TONY STARK, Iron Man, in the wake of the Sokovia Accords and the breaking of the Avengers, 47
GRANT CARTER, Peggy Carter’s widowed WWII vet husband, 110
Avengers Compound, 2017
~~~
(The front bell rings, and TONY answers the door to GRANT.)
GRANT: Hey, kid.
TONY: Good to see you, Uncle Grant. Sorry it’s been so long, I… I should have reached out.
GRANT: You’ve had a lot on your plate. I didn’t want to bug you.
TONY: How you been holding up? Really?
GRANT: (deep breath) Oh, you know. We were lucky— to have each other as long as we did. And I’m glad she’s not suffering any more. But it’s not easy, that’s for sure. I never was quite right without her.
(Pause.)
GRANT: So. I understand you’ve got something to show me.
TONY: Yeah, yeah, come in. So, after all this work I put in, you going to tell me what you need it for? You better not just be going to a costume party or something.
GRANT: It’s a gift, if you must know. For somebody who really ought to have it.
TONY: Geez, when did you become such a hell of a gift giver? As I recall, you gave me a copy of Midnight’s Children last Christmas. You sure your friend wouldn’t like some of those nice steaks you send in the mail instead?
GRANT: Yep. Hey, did you ever read that book?
TONY: I was going to get around to it. But then somebody dropped a commission in my lap that ate up all my free time. My birthday’s in May, for future reference. Just in case you got an in with Ferrari to build you something special.
(Tony leads Grant into the workshop.)
TONY: Gotta say, really never thought you’d be the one asking me for something like this.
GRANT: I guess you never know where life is going to lead you.
TONY: That’s for damn sure… never thought I’d have to lead the charge to make Captain America a war criminal. But here we are.
GRANT: (Sighing) I am sorry about all that.
TONY: Not your fault.
GRANT: Seems I’ve brought it up for you.
TONY: Yeah, that’s not hard these days. When you’re tearing down a historical icon.
(Pause.)
TONY: You had to have met him at some point, right?
GRANT: A few times. He came to the funeral, remember.
TONY: Jesus, what was that like?
GRANT: About like you’d expect. Worse for him than it was for me, but he had respects he wanted to pay. We’d met before then, though. Peggy felt like it was the right thing to do.
TONY: She felt sorry for him, huh?
GRANT: I felt sorry for him, truth be told. But it was… too strange. Thought keeping it to a minimum would be easier on the both of us.
TONY: She let you get away with that?
GRANT: Mostly. She kept trying to invite him to Thanksgiving.
TONY: (chuffing) Jesus. So… what did you think of him? Really?
GRANT: Hoping I’ll take sides, huh?
TONY: Well— you agree with me, don’t you? Registry is a public good. Do you really think anyone with that much power, and with the consequences that serious—
GRANT: I know you did what you thought was right. I could never fault you for that. But you’re not asking about my opinion of your politics, are you?
TONY: So you do think I’m an asshole. Like everybody else.
GRANT: No, Tony. I don’t think you’re an asshole. (chuckling) Not for that, at anyway.
TONY: (Grumbling) Is that too much to ask? From maybe the one guy who doesn’t jizz himself over Captain America?
GRANT: Hey. Language.
(Pause.)
GRANT: But I’ve told you before, kid. You never have to worry what I think of you.
(Pause.)
TONY: You just say that ‘cause I’ll make shit for you.
GRANT: Yep. Ain’t about to mess that up. So… can I see it?
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