shifting realities

first day shifting (mcu)

i downed the mango smoothie in no time. it was heavenly and i could tell it was fresh. i realized i was still hungry which probably had to do with my metabolism so i told steve bye, cleaned up my plate, and grabbed a gold bar before i left the floor. as much as i desperately wanted to talk more with steve, i wanted to explore even more.

i walked back down the steel staircase and past the pool table. i went straight for the elevator and then realized i left my phone in my room. i wandered back trying to remember my way when i ran into tony. like i physically ran into him. i was flustered to say the least. he asked me where i was off to and i told him i was grabbing my phone and then i was going to walk into the city for the morning. he offered to come with so of course i accepted. i hurried back to my room, searched around for my phone, and then struggled to remember the password. my name. noted. the phone was stark technology but it was surprisingly easy to figure out. i realized tony was still waiting for me so i ran back down the hallway and to the elevator. we got in and he pressed the button for the bottom floor. the elevator ride was crazy long. this place is massive. when we finally got to the lobby, tony offered to get call for the car but i told him i'd rather walk. the tower is in midtown manhattan which is pretty much in the middle of everything. the address is 200 Park Avenue. think monopoly. we live less than a mile from central park and walking distance from like 10 coffee shops. we went out the front door and walked across the street to the first french cafe we could find. we walked in and i ordered and warm a chocolate croissant, tony ordered a black coffee like an absolute weirdo. we were already getting stares and we had only been in the shop for a minute. it wasn't like everyone was looking at once, but i did notice the murmuring about "tony stark and davern carter" i'm sure all of those people were millionaires or trillionares or whatever so i feel like it wasn't a huge deal.

the croissant was delicious. we through away our trash and walked out. my goal was just to run into one famous person that day. just one. we walked down a couple of blocks and stopped at a newsstand to grab the paper. i wanted to go to ess-a-bagel so i reached for my phone to pull up directions but then i realized i knew how to get there. left, right, left. when we got there we got into line. it wasn't too bad today thank goodness. i made eye contact with a girl behind us in line and then she tapped her friend on the shoulder and subtly pointed at me. i smiled and acted like nothing was out of the usual. after about a minute, the first girl made her way up to me and asked me if i was davern carter. i laughed and asked who that was and then told her that i was kidding. she got a picture with me and then we talked about my outfit and then we talked about her outfit and it felt like a normal conversation. we got to the front of the line and there was a new cashier than usual. usually alex was working on sundays and i was looking forward to seeing her in this reality but it was someone else. she looked up from the register and audibly gasped as she realized who me and tony were. she took our orders (locks and cream cheese on an everything bagel for me, bacon egg and cheese for tony, a dozen bagels to bring home for snack). after ordering she asked us if she could take a picture and of course we said yes. i looked amazing in the picture, photogenic to say the least. it was nice that while i felt famous people were still treating me like a human.

we ate the bagels on the way back to the tower. so good. amazing. better than any bagel ever.

the bagels made the whole elevator smell like garlic on the way up and it only took about five minutes before sam smelled them too. i through him a bagel and then brought the others to the pantry. i sat down in the chairs next to the bar. by now it was like 10:30 and by now the whole crew had woken up. steve gave us the schedule for the day and then everyone went their separate ways. we didn't have anything major except for poker night so everyone just kind of chilled. the only person needed to train was me. steve brought me up to the mission room which is where all the fancy tech stuff is. he debriefed me on the different mission protocols for about an hour. it was really interesting and i was a quick learner so it wasn't too hard. after that i decided to go to the training room and train.

i went into the simulator and tried using my air as a weapon. it was like a knife slicing through the sandbags set up. it was crazy.

after like 45 mins nat came down and we sparred for a bit. she has some crazy assassin moves that i was not expecting but i definitely held my own. i was strong, agile, and clearly well trained from my childhood at SHIELD.

an hour passed and i decided to go back to my room to shower and take a nap. i was expecting myself to be more tired after that but i have a boatload of stamina apparently. i got into my shower and turned on the water, expecting to have to wait for it to turn warm. instead, it was the perfect temp immediately. the water pressure was perfection, my shampoo and conditioner were custom for me, and i didn't have to shave. i could get used to this.

i got out of the shower, dried off, and sat down for the first time in a quick minute. i sprawled out on my couch and just tried to process everything from that day. i still had dinner and poker night but the day already felt like it had lasted a year. everything was incredible and so surreal. i felt proud of myself for not giving up and hyped to meet my friends and peter tomorrow. i read through the messages on the gc with anaya me alex and everything was normal. pia has texted me to send me a tiktok that was just an edit of me. i freaked. it was an actual velocity edit of myself. i took about 45 minutes to go through all my socials and figure out my vibe with my friends.

pretty soon the sun was setting and i decided to take the elevator to the roof to watch the sun go down. i took a picture and then posted a tiktok on the roof. it was weird to be verified on everything. the sun setting over the city was incredible. i felt like i was on top of the world. everything would just get better from there.

after sunset i went back to the main living room space for dinner but no one was there. i realized we ate dinners in the kitchen so i took the elevator up 4 floors. the whole floor smelled like heaven from the lobster and seafood we had that night. best meal ever hands down. everything was cooked to perfection.

after dinner i went to my room to get pjs and i realized i had a dresser on the left side of my bed full of pjs and underwear.

i put on a pair of plaid bottoms and a college t shirt and then i dominated at poker night. after that i went to bed but i was nervous i would wake up in my cr so i stayed up for a while. my bed was so comfortable and the perfect temperature. i slept like a rock.