31 Plays in 31 Days, #6 - “History Book”
Aug. 6th, 2022 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11More fan fiction, from Forever Captain, though not from the story I’m currently working on.
I mentioned once admiring a fan fiction writer I discovered in high school for how she would write in what she called “hooks”— little details that at their first inclusion didn’t mean much, with significance that wasn’t figured out yet, but could be picked up and expanded upon in later installments. I’ve never been particularly good at it, but I took a stab at it in a recent piece of Forever Captain.
In The Hemingway Trip, which deals with Steve wrestling with what he should do with his knowledge of the future when Howard Stark comes to him feeling ambivalent about his wife’s pregnancy, I tried to lay in such a hook. Steve and Howard have a conversation that takes it for granted that Steve recently had to deal with a fairly significant rift between him and his kids that he had to work through. I thought it added interesting dimension, and though I don’t have it fully figured out, I think it would make the most sense that they would struggle with finding out about his former life. I think he and Peggy would know they had to tell their kids eventually, but in the interest of putting it behind him and allowing them to lead a normal life, he would put off too long— and they would find out for themselves. And it would bother them, for a lot of reasons, beginning with how they kept from them as long as they did.
I don’t know if it would happen the way I depict it in this scene. It references a way Steve himself wonders about in the text of an earlier fic, so that may be too on the nose. But it’s a bit of noodling to start that idea when I have time to get to it.
Day #6 - History Book
From Forever Captain
By Phoebe Roberts
Schenectady, New York, 1968
ELIZABETH CARTER, Grant and Peggy Carter’s daughter, 18
JAMIE CARTER, Grant and Peggy Carter’s son, 15
~~~
(ELIZABETH is curled up with a history textbook, looking concerned. Her little brother JAMIE barges into the room.)
JAMIE: Hey, do you know where the bike pump is?
ELIZABETH: What? No, I never touch it. Now go away, I’m busy.
JAMIE: With what? Are you still doing homework? Hey, that’s my book, not yours.
ELIZABETH: You didn’t miss it.
JAMIE: I would have! What are you even doing?
ELIZABETH: I had to look something up. American history is freshman year, so I needed yours.
JAMIE: What do you mean, what are you looking up?
ELIZABETH: Look, I’m not ready.
JAMIE: Not ready for what? Let me see—
ELIZABETH: No!
(He grabs at the book, but she holds it out of his reach. Finally she sighs, then takes an index card to cover up the captions, and then turns the book around so he can look at a picture.)
ELIZABETH: Okay, okay. I needed the Second World War unit. I wanted to see if they had a picture of this guy.
JAMIE: Some soldier’s enlistment photo?
ELIZABETH: Take a look. Who does that look like to you?
JAMIE: Jesus… Dad? Is that Dad?
ELIZABETH: Jamie. That’s Captain America.
JAMIE: What? No.
ELIZABETH: Look!
(She takes away the index card and points.)
JAMIE: I… never noticed that. That Dad looks like him. That’s weird.
ELIZABETH: Yeah. I never noticed it either. Until… you know how Dad and I were at the protest on Sunday? There was this one kid with a sign, with Captain America’s picture on it. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and for a second, I thought it was… well, Dad.
JAMIE: So that’s what you wanted to look up? If they really do look the same?
ELIZABETH: Well… like you said. It’s weird, right? And… that’s not all. You ever notice that Uncle Howard calls him Steve sometimes? Why is that?
JAMIE: Oh, yeah, I asked him about it once. He said Dad reminds him of, well… him. Captain America. Because he knew him. During the war.
ELIZABETH: Mom knew him too, you know.
JAMIE: She did? She never told me that.
ELIZABETH: Me either. I only know because of Uncle Howard.
JAMIE: How come? You think that would be a big deal. He was a hero when he died.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, bringing down a bomber that would have taken out some cities.
JAMIE: Wow, really? I didn’t know that. We haven’t gotten to that part in history class yet.
(ELIZABETH opens the book and reads.)
ELIZABETH: “Pictured: the Howling Commandos, a team of special operatives during the Second World War, led by the single veteran of the Project Rebirth Program, Captain America, born 1917 as Steven Grant Rogers.”
(There is a long pause as ELIZABETH and JAMIE look at each other.)
JAMIE: Grant?
I mentioned once admiring a fan fiction writer I discovered in high school for how she would write in what she called “hooks”— little details that at their first inclusion didn’t mean much, with significance that wasn’t figured out yet, but could be picked up and expanded upon in later installments. I’ve never been particularly good at it, but I took a stab at it in a recent piece of Forever Captain.
In The Hemingway Trip, which deals with Steve wrestling with what he should do with his knowledge of the future when Howard Stark comes to him feeling ambivalent about his wife’s pregnancy, I tried to lay in such a hook. Steve and Howard have a conversation that takes it for granted that Steve recently had to deal with a fairly significant rift between him and his kids that he had to work through. I thought it added interesting dimension, and though I don’t have it fully figured out, I think it would make the most sense that they would struggle with finding out about his former life. I think he and Peggy would know they had to tell their kids eventually, but in the interest of putting it behind him and allowing them to lead a normal life, he would put off too long— and they would find out for themselves. And it would bother them, for a lot of reasons, beginning with how they kept from them as long as they did.
I don’t know if it would happen the way I depict it in this scene. It references a way Steve himself wonders about in the text of an earlier fic, so that may be too on the nose. But it’s a bit of noodling to start that idea when I have time to get to it.
Day #6 - History Book
From Forever Captain
By Phoebe Roberts
Schenectady, New York, 1968
ELIZABETH CARTER, Grant and Peggy Carter’s daughter, 18
JAMIE CARTER, Grant and Peggy Carter’s son, 15
~~~
(ELIZABETH is curled up with a history textbook, looking concerned. Her little brother JAMIE barges into the room.)
JAMIE: Hey, do you know where the bike pump is?
ELIZABETH: What? No, I never touch it. Now go away, I’m busy.
JAMIE: With what? Are you still doing homework? Hey, that’s my book, not yours.
ELIZABETH: You didn’t miss it.
JAMIE: I would have! What are you even doing?
ELIZABETH: I had to look something up. American history is freshman year, so I needed yours.
JAMIE: What do you mean, what are you looking up?
ELIZABETH: Look, I’m not ready.
JAMIE: Not ready for what? Let me see—
ELIZABETH: No!
(He grabs at the book, but she holds it out of his reach. Finally she sighs, then takes an index card to cover up the captions, and then turns the book around so he can look at a picture.)
ELIZABETH: Okay, okay. I needed the Second World War unit. I wanted to see if they had a picture of this guy.
JAMIE: Some soldier’s enlistment photo?
ELIZABETH: Take a look. Who does that look like to you?
JAMIE: Jesus… Dad? Is that Dad?
ELIZABETH: Jamie. That’s Captain America.
JAMIE: What? No.
ELIZABETH: Look!
(She takes away the index card and points.)
JAMIE: I… never noticed that. That Dad looks like him. That’s weird.
ELIZABETH: Yeah. I never noticed it either. Until… you know how Dad and I were at the protest on Sunday? There was this one kid with a sign, with Captain America’s picture on it. I saw it out of the corner of my eye, and for a second, I thought it was… well, Dad.
JAMIE: So that’s what you wanted to look up? If they really do look the same?
ELIZABETH: Well… like you said. It’s weird, right? And… that’s not all. You ever notice that Uncle Howard calls him Steve sometimes? Why is that?
JAMIE: Oh, yeah, I asked him about it once. He said Dad reminds him of, well… him. Captain America. Because he knew him. During the war.
ELIZABETH: Mom knew him too, you know.
JAMIE: She did? She never told me that.
ELIZABETH: Me either. I only know because of Uncle Howard.
JAMIE: How come? You think that would be a big deal. He was a hero when he died.
ELIZABETH: Yeah, bringing down a bomber that would have taken out some cities.
JAMIE: Wow, really? I didn’t know that. We haven’t gotten to that part in history class yet.
(ELIZABETH opens the book and reads.)
ELIZABETH: “Pictured: the Howling Commandos, a team of special operatives during the Second World War, led by the single veteran of the Project Rebirth Program, Captain America, born 1917 as Steven Grant Rogers.”
(There is a long pause as ELIZABETH and JAMIE look at each other.)
JAMIE: Grant?
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