February 1, 2013
"What the hell," Bellona whistled when Clint Barton slapped down a heavy binder before her and Natasha Romanoff and then tossed several rectangular plastic cases which she was informed were known as DVDs and had movies on them, on top of the binder. "It was only twelve years."
"Yeah well if you had to choose any twelve years to be in cryo, you chose the worst," Clint announced, dropping into the chair across from her in the large gathering area of the Avengers Tower. "Pop culture has exploded. I'm probably not the best to be explaining all this to you seeing as I can't keep track of it myself. There's a new social media platform every week."
"What is 'Snapchat'?" Bellona ignored his drivel and had begun flipping through the binder he'd tossed before her. Despite her accidentally burning half the flesh on his arm off a few months ago, Clint was the only Avenger who could give her mouth a run for its money, as a result they'd formed a bond which Tony claimed could only be forged between two "sarcastic assholes".
"I've heard about that too," Steve said, jogging down the stairs to join the group. "I don't get it."
"I explained that to you, Rogers," Natasha sighed, leaning back in her chair and giving the Captain a disappointed look.
"Something with pictures, but you said all the other…. What are they called, social media? Have pictures too, so what makes them all so different?"
"Wait the world was supposed to end on December 21, 2012?" Bellona interrupted, "according to the Mayans? What the hell? Who comes up with this stuff?"
Natasha closed her eyes and let out an almost inaudible groan. Then she reached forward and took the binder from Bellona's hands. She flicked it back open towards the beginning as the blue-eyed girl had opened it up at random, and pushed it across the table to where both Steve and Bellona could see it. "Barton and I spent almost two weeks making this for you so you wouldn't have to stop at the sight of every novelty and ask an inordinate amount of questions. Use it."
"Geez okay, mother," Bellona grumbled but her grin betrayed her tone as she turned her attention to the binder before her.
Bellona finished scouring the binder before Steve, as she found herself well acquainted with the events that happened between 1945 and 1991. She shuffled through the absurd pile of movies Clint had dumped upon them, with the claim that they were required to watch all. She had watched four of them when she whipped out the cellphone Tony had given her and dialed Clint's number.
He picked up the phone without speaking, the way he always did when he didn't know who was calling.
"It's me," Bellona said, twisting her braid around her fingers and watching the paused movie screen from one of the leather couches.
"Is this going to be a stupid question because-"
"No it's not this is a serious problem, well I wouldn't call it a problem, but it's serious. Like questioning one's identity serious."
"What?"
"Okay, hear me out now. Do you know that scene in Mulan where the general's son shoots the arrow to the top of the pole — no, shut up, this is a legitimate question — can you can do that?"
"Are you serious?" Steve's voice came from across the room, he was attempting to Google something he'd come across in the binder but had heard Bellona's request and found it ludicrous.
"He hung up on me," Bellona tossed her phone across the couch where it bounced against the arm and tumbled down onto the cushion. "Son of a bitch probably can't — wait!" The phone had buzzed, sounding an incoming text message. Bellona lunged across the couch and snatched up her phone, opening the message immediately.
"Oh…. My God…."
"What?" Steve rose from the table and approached the couch where Bellona had flung herself.
"Look," she was almost unable to control her laughter as a shaking hand held up the phone for him to view the picture Clint had just sent: it was a telephone pole with a lone arrow sticking out of it from the top.