museum curator, watching steve waltz into the smithsonian, the memory of having the stolen cap america authentic howling commando era uniform returned dirty and ridden with bullet holes still fresh in their mind: hide the VALUABLES
steve, reaching over the rope to poke at something on display: it’s my goddamn stuff???
I’M SAYIN’, every single level of management at the Smithsonian must have had an extensively well-documented migraine after dealing with the colossal shitshow raised by such thrilling items as “sock (woolen)” pulled from the pack of one “Rogers, Steve G., 1918 – 1945 lol whoops he’s back″
like i said in my initial reblog… all the people building stories out of this make me laugh with delight, but smithsonian & dc museum people adding their tags give me LIFE
… also steven grant rogers would be KIND and COURTEOUS to the front-line museum staff and not ask them stupid questions and you will pry that headcanon from my cold dead hands thankyouverymuch
oh steven grant rogers is KIND and POLITE and CONSIDERATE to front-line museum staff, he will politely move himself to the side so he doesn’t cause traffic issues if he gets recognized and a couple kids want pictures, he apologizes to security for causing a scene (he didn’t mean to! he thought his baseball cap disguise would work, bless him). he returns his maps (sweet and so unnecessary but then one of the volunteers can take a map captain america used and will probably sign for them back to their grandkids so that’s nice). the docents LOVE him; he’s both a Nice Young Man and also from Back in Their Day.
the collections and conservation staff however have sworn a blood oath of pure vengeance against him and nothing he ever does will change their minds. the textile conservator (we’ll call her lorraine) who had to restore the old captain america suit spent THREE YEARS OF HER LIFE on that stupid thing and it’s still too unstable to ever exhibit again. lorraine went through FIVE INTERNS, two of whom CRIED ON HER. she had to spend a fourth year making a replica because everyone was writing their representatives that the captain america suit wasn’t on display and they MADE HER DO IT.
like if steve thought any debrief in wwii he ever had sucked lol try lorraine, who has given up trying to catalogue what the fuck happened to that piece of shit suit and finally tracked down his cell phone number after six months of this hell project out of sheer bloody mindness and desperation and tricks him into her office through a series of absolute goddamn lies about idk public programming or some shit that steve might actually care about and then corners him and makes him give her a play by play of what, exactly, the fuck he did to that suit.
cuz, okay, listen. blah blah save the world blah blah, but steven grant rogers* stole a priceless museum artifact, bled on it, set it on fire, dropped it into the potomac, dragged it (WHILE WET) through river mud and god knows how many plants and bugs and microbes, got melting plastic and metal and shrapnel and other people’s body juices and skin and hair embedded in it–the only reason he lives is because he can give the full and accurate account of what the fuck he did to it and answer questions of how the fuck it can be slightly, slightly unfucked. not saved! not made to look like it was! certainly not able to be put on a mannequin and exhibited again! but like she can get some more of the mud and that chunk of charred plastic out maybe. otherwise, lorraine would have murdered that dumb bitch in a fit of justifiable rage, and no amount of charming “sorry ma’am”s would fucking save him.
imagine bucky barnes stealing his jacket back. and making adjustments for his new arm
IMAGINE THAT LORRAINE
Omg this post is the best that has ever happened to me during a subway ride!
I don’t even go here, and I love this post
As a museum worker it actually rather baffles me that his things ended up in the Smithsonian, because the US Forces actually have a SHIT TON of their own museums and having dealt with those Mo Go’s on both sides of the conversation I just cannot envision them giving it up.
I CAN see each of those museums trying to argue for custody though. Nation museum of health and medicine? Steve was a science experiment in healthy soldering it totally belongs to us! Marine Corps museum? Steve was the first Marine OBViously give it here! NAW FUCK YALL IT BELONGS IN THE ARMY MUSEUM. WHICH ONE? WHAT DO YOU CARE GIVE IT HERE.
So like. Clearly the Commandos quietly split Steve’s things up amongst their own and smuggled them home. As they died, they sent their own belongings along to each other, until only one was left with all of these trunks of memories and memorabilia and loss, and he’s gotta be thinking, fuck the army what has it ever done for us or Steve and then he wills it to the National Museum of American History, whose PR officer has a freaking field day and the advancement team only sees dollar signs and meanwhile the conservatives are bemoaning the fact that these priceless treasures have been sitting all wadded up in a trunk being subjected to horrible humidity and temperature fluctuations and don’t get me STARTED on the IPM-
Anyway that’s why they’re at the Smithsonian and not one of the Armed Forces museums.
1. I love how many fantastic additions this post has gained since I last saw it.
2. Everyone saying “the Smithsonian would never surrender Steve’s artifacts, or if they did it would only be after years of lawsuits and paperwork”: listen. LISTEN. You’re not wrong about the strength of the Smithsonian’s presumable legal claim, but also, the Smithsonian is approximately 60% federally funded. What do you think would happen if Captain Motherfucking America held a heartfelt press conference where he spoke about the magnitude of his personal loss and how he’s being denied even the comfort of his old sketchbook drawings of the people he knew and loved? The Congressional switchboard would MELT DOWN under the flood of outraged calls from constituents, and the budget-conscious Smithsonian leadership would personally fist-fight the curatorial staff and then SIT on them while Steve strolled out whistling with boxes of his stuff under his arms.
antipathy for real people in favor of fictional characters is nothing new but telltale laying off 250 employees and cancelling the last of the walking dead games sure did bring it to the forefront
like this is how fucking bad it is but sure you wont get your $60 game about people shouting and being unpleasant at each other near some zombies and thats the real heartbreak
i want rhodey to be pumping himself up while being war machine like he usually does and then tony’s just like “rhodey you’re still on the comms. we can all hear you you fuckin dork”
Bold of you to assume that Tony wouldn’t be like “yeah you got this, honeybear! No one is as awesome and badass as my platypus. Kick their ass, sweetcheecks!” And Rhodey being all embarrased while the team laughs