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Day 3: Gaming/Watching a movie
It was obvious Steve was in dire need to catch up to popular arts. He’s been out for about seventy years, and most references used around him required explanation. The problem was, he didn’t particularly want to bother anyone with such a task, so Steve had to find his own means to fill in the gaps.
First, he thought, music. Music had become fairly easy to acquire through iTunes and other online services and streaming. All he’d need now was someone or some source to tell him what to listen to and what to avoid. This was solved in the form of a middle aged man he met at the local record-shop. The man had abundance of knowledge in the field, and was happy to provide a list of ‘most significant artists and pieces to listen to’, set conveniently in order of publication and popularity. Why did he not ask the internet instead? Well, call him old fashioned, but he still preferred to see the person he was talking to, so he could assess his reliability up front.
With the issue of music out of the way and his iTunes hard at work on acquiring that material, Steve turned to investigate the issue of books. Seventy years of books proved to be an overwhelming amount of material, most of which seemed irrelevant and useless. Eventually Steve decided to purchase an eReader and use ratings to choose his books. He had read most of the classics already, and was partially surprised to find nearly nothing was added to that list since the forties. Still, there had been some significant writing since, he was sure, and he decided to focus on one genre at a time, to avoid the overwhelming effect of having hundreds of books in his to-read list.
The more intimate issue of visual arts was something he hadn’t the courage to look into yet. He’d have to do it eventually, he knew, but… Well, before the war, everything had been so innocent, and then the parades, the stupid money-begging, the shell-shock… He feared how that may have manifested in the paintings of the time, in the sculptures and worst of all - in photography. He didn’t think he was ready for that quite yet.
“What about movies?” Tony asked him as they were leaving SHIELD HQ one day after a debrief. They had spent very little time in the same place ever since the cave incident, only meeting when there was a mission or a common enemy to fight. Steve had just told Tony about his projects and the genius immediately asked about movies. That made Steve look down with a small, resigned smile.
“I’ve always enjoyed a good movie.” he admitted, “but…” how could he explain this in a way Tony could understand? Even back in the ‘40s, he was used to going to the movies alone. Bucky was always busy training or flirting, and then he was gone, shipped off to fight in the front line and Steve was left in the mercy of publicity executives. He saw new movies as they came out, but now so many years have passed, so many premiers and how could he even hope to catch up with no guidance? He’d looked through IMDB, but there was just no way of telling what was worth his time and what wasn’t, even with the rating system and everything. Besides, he really didn’t want to do this specific catching up on his own. He felt alone enough as it were.
A long moment of silence passed and he glanced at Tony, who was giving him a surprisingly intense look. He didn’t know what to say, and looked away the next moment.
“Gotcha. When do you have time? I’ll drop by with something from my collection, you’ll take care of the snacks.” Tony seemed easy enough as he said that, giving Steve a fake smile. Steve, however, gave him a long, contemplative look, until that easy, fake smile fell from Tony’s face and he shifted in place. “What? I’ve a collection, you know. Call it an apology for what I said … before.”
“Which of the things you said? The part where you said I couldn’t hope to understand what you were talking about or the implication that I might do something indecent to you in your time of weakness?” Steve asked, his tone of voice bordering a harsh snarl. Tony flinched at that, literally taking a step back, and Steve sighed, looking away. “It’ll take more than one movie, Stark.” he said, his tone hiding a smile, but just enough to let Tony suspect it was there. “Tomorrow, seven o’clock.” he said, giving Tony a long look to see if the man understood what he was saying. “You better not be late.” He added when Tony nodded shortly, and tried not to dwell on how it resembled other conversations in his past. The past… Was not something he could get back to, even if he wanted to.
“Right, you slave driver, seven o’clock.” Tony huffed and then eyed Steve’s motorcycle as they approached it. “You should drop by at the workshop sometime. We can tweak this, make a beast out of it.” he commented idly, patting the handles.
“I will consider that.” Steve said, mounting the bike and starting it. “See you tomorrow.”