Writing Challenge Day 27

What I wore today:

Well, today was a day off which is usually a day that I don’t get out of my pajamas, but today I did get out of my pajamas! Dad and I went to the Monroe Aquatic Center today. I wasn’t sure if two piece bathing suits would be okay so I just decided to use the other facilities today. I re-launched my Couch to 5K program. I think I’m in slightly less bad shape than I was when I started it last time because I do walk around some for my job. Since we went to work out, I changed out of my shirt and sweatpants and into workout shorts, a sports bra, and a tank top. I have one of those wicking racerback tanks. It’s blue with a couple of silver, reflecting looking lines. My tennis shoes are mostly bright pink which is fun and I like them a lot. When I got home, I changed into a yellow t-shirt because the tank was a little too cool once I wasn’t exercising. I also wore my blue hoodie that has “Don't Insult My OTP or I'll Do Something That Allows Me To See A Thestral” on the back.

Writing Challenge Day 28

The word/phrase you use constantly:

There are a lot of things I say all the time, some I probably don’t even realize I’m doing, but I’ll list a few I know are a regular part of my vocabulary.

Perfect.

For real though.

Fair enough.

Right?

Thanks yo.

How’s it going?

You doing okay today?

Spy School Didn't Cover This

Title: Spy School Didn’t Cover This
Characters: Darcy Lewis, Natasha Romanov, Jane Foster
Genre: fluff, meet-cute
Fandom: Marvel Movie Verse
Summary: Natasha Romanov doesn't quite know what to make of this woman yelling at her about iPods.
Rating: PG
Pairings: Natasha/Darcy
Warnings/Spoilers: None.

Disclaimer: *I make no money from this and I mean no disrespect or harm. I am not damaging profits for those who do own the rights in anyway*

If I could thank shanachie_quill enough, I totally would.

Big Damn Table prompt: “Do-Over”

( Read On )

"If you are here to steal my iPod again, I swear to Thor and the Gods of Asgard that I will find a way to make your life hell for as long as you breathe and long into your afterlife."

 

Natasha felt herself blink a few times and glanced around the room that reminded her of hospital waiting rooms, except it was dustier. Eventually she looked into flashing gray-green eyes that reminded her of the ocean in a thunderstorm.

"Excuse me?" Natasha had been accused of some terrible things in the past, and she'd been guilty of most of them, but this was definitely new. Maybe clarification would help. Maybe Natasha had just misheard.

"Oh, don't play with me. I know you're part of SHIELD. And I'll have you know that Jane's research has been cleared by the head honchos of your sketchy government agency and you can't just come in here and take her stuff again. Especially not any of my personal devices which don’t have any research on them anyway!"

Natasha briefly wondered how a normal person would react. Insulted? Confused? Irritated? Natasha's chances of being truly normal had been destroyed the moment the Red Room had taken her in. But she had spent a lot of time studying people. It was important to understand them if you were going to be able to manipulate them into giving you what you wanted. And she was very good at understanding people. Usually.

However, she didn't think being confronted by a curvy, delectable, civilian over an iPod was something her training had ever covered.

"You do know that SHIELD really isn't a thing anymore, right?" Natasha asked after a pause.

"Ohhh, that's just what you want us to think. You think you can come in here and just take her stuff all over again. Jane is friends with some of the Avengers you know. Thor is very fond of her. So you just think about that before you go taking anything."

"Is that right?"

"Yes! It is!" the woman huffed, and the pink in her cheeks flushed darker. Natasha was torn between flicking the woman on the nose and kissing her.

"I don't think anyone has seen Thor in a couple of years. Also, who still uses iPods? Doesn't everyone just listen on their phones?"

"So, you’re here to take my phone then?" the woman poked Natasha in the shoulder, hard, and Natasha couldn't help smirking. This woman was electric, and Natasha’s nerves were damn near sparking from the contact.

"Oh, here you are, Natasha," Jane's measured voice pulled Natasha's attention from the woman directly in front of her.

"Yes, Jane. You said you thought there was something we ought to see?"

"It's something new, and I suspect not good. I have files for SHIELD, or whatever it is you’re calling yourselves these days. And another set for Tony. Oh, and I have a set for Banner too in case he shows up soon. The pattern is very unusual, and I think his mind would be a great one to help us work out whatever it is that we're looking at."

“I don’t know what makes the government more nervous, the fact that the Hulk exists or our inability to track him down,” Natasha sighed.  

“Damn. Well, I’ll go grab those files. Do you need anything else while you’re here? Oh, Darcy, did you find the specifications for the neutrino detector Chicago sent?”

“Yeah, here.” Darcy handed Jane a stack of papers Natasha hadn’t realized the young woman was holding. It wasn’t like her to miss that kind of a detail, but she’d been so distracted.

Jane left the room, presumably to grab the files.

“Couldn’t she have just emailed you what you need?”

“Maybe. But the files are large and… very classified. She’ll be giving me something like encrypted flash drives. Only fancier, I’m sure.”

“How does it feel being the equivalent of an armed mailman?”

Natasha snickered. No one had been willing or brave enough to be this brash with her since Tony Stark thought he was dying. “You know, I wasn’t interested in your phone or iPod or whatever when I walked in here, but you’re certainly tempting me to take something of yours just for fun.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Darcy was about the same height as Natasha, but the former Red Room agent had trained to appear taller when she needed to, and her boots gave her a bit of an extra lift Darcy’s converse sneakers didn’t. Natasha used those things to get right into the other woman’s space and then grinned. Clint always told her she looked like a shark when she made that face.

“Your stuff is safe. For now.”

Instead of shrinking back, Darcy’s eyes narrowed to slits and Natasha could practically hear the “I’ve got my eye on you” screaming in Darcy’s head.

Jane came back into the room with a locked case but seemed oblivious to what had passed between Natasha and Darcy.

“Here.” Jane handed over the case and helped Natasha secure it to her wrist. Natasha also linked up the cuff and case to her wristband so that anyone who tried to grab it from her would get a pretty nasty shock. As aggravating as Natasha sometimes found Tony, he sure did come up with some very clever things.

“Thank you, Jane. It was interesting meeting you, Darcy.”

“Oh!” Jane seemed to sort of... jolt... where she stood. “I’m sorry; I didn’t properly introduce you. Natasha, this is my assistant Darcy Lewis. Darcy, this is Natasha Romanov.”

Natasha held out her right hand, the one that wasn’t currently handcuffed to a briefcase. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Lewis.”

Darcy’s hand came up automatically to shake Natasha’s, as the girl stared at Natasha. Her mouth kept moving as if it was about to make a word, but she didn’t say anything.

“Well, I need to get going.” Natasha finally said. “See you later, Jane. Darcy, it was interesting meeting you.”

Natasha turned and made her way through the glass doors of Jane’s facility back towards her jet and the men who stood guard.

“Wait!” Natasha swiveled to see Darcy dashing out the door. “You’re Black Widow? Like, the Black Widow?”

Natasha smirked.

“Wow, you’re prettier in person than you are on TV.”

Natasha smiled wide, and Darcy flushed pink, then groaned in obvious embarrassment.

“Can I get a do-over? Pretend none of this morning happened? Blame it on the fact I haven’t had my coffee yet?” Darcy asked.

“That depends,” Natasha told the young woman.

Darcy’s eyes narrowed again, and Natasha was glad to see the brashness back. “Depends on what?”

Natasha rolled her eyes at the implication she’d take Darcy’s phone. “I’m not asking for your phone, just your phone number.”

“My… phone number?” Darcy squeaked, blush traveling down her fair skin. Natasha wanted to see just how far that blush would spread and then chase it with her tongue.

“Yes. Your phone number.”

“Only if you promise to call or text within the next twenty-four hours.”

Natasha let out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and laughed. “Deal.”

Decision Fatigue and Schedules

It’s been a few days since I wrote a journal entry so I thought I should do one tonight. They do tend to help me, sometimes with life in general and sometimes with writing stories. It’s interesting how much writing out things can me process things. I’m sure that goes for a lot of people. All the books, articles, and blogs out there that are dedicated to journalling and encouraging others to journal are proof that there are a lot of people out there using this sort of thing as a tool for themselves in some way. 

 

There are so many things I want to do and so many projects I’d like to make happen. This isn’t anything new, of course. The difficulty sometimes is deciding which projects are really the important ones how much time are going to be dedicated to each. Part of my problem is that indecision (okay… and laziness) get in my way and I end up just playing games and watching TV instead of getting anything done on any of them. Sometimes you really do need to stop and just zone out for a little while. That is totally a valid thing. I do think, though, that we don’t need nearly as much recovery time than we think we do--as a general rule of thumb. Kind of like eating because we’re upset, or whatever, we rest out of not wanting to face something or fail at a goal we have. 

 

I was reading an article about how bad multitasking is for us because of how draining it is in our brains and how it actually means we’re doing more poorly at everything. Our brains, according to said article, can only focus on one thing at a time and so it has to make constant decisions about which thing to focus on--over and over and over again. It talked about something that I think it called “decision exhaustion.” 

 

Wikipedia (I know, but I don’t really want to get into proper research right now, but that’s a rabbit hole I don’t want to follow right now) says “decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making.” 

 

And apparently, we’re using our “decision-making energy” when we attempt multitasking. Which actually makes a lot of sense to me. I think about in the evenings when I think I want to write and I want to have something on in the background, and I end up spending close to an hour trying to pick something because I just can’t seem to. 

 

Other articles I’ve read mention how “willpower” is a very limited resource for anyone and that if you want to really make changes as far as quitting something or making a habit, you need to set your environment up in such a way as to support the said decision. Don’t just rely on willpower for getting out of bed in the morning, arrange your alarm clock and space so that you have to get out of bed to turn off the alarm thereby making it harder to just “hit snooze and roll over before going back to sleep.” 

 

I’ve also read that instead of making to-do lists, though those are helpful, that making a calendar/schedule for yourself is better. If you’ve planned out your time in advance, you don’t have to “find the time” for something during the course of the day. Good intentions are great, but most of the time intentions mean that you spend ten minutes writing when you had told yourself that you’d do thirty minutes just as soon as you finished x, y, and z and had a minute relax. 

I'm thinking that I could benefit from creating a schedule for myself. One that I make, maybe at the beginning of the week each week. Every week is a little bit different with different things happening. I know that surprises will still come up, and exceptions would still have to be made, but I'm usually pretty good at keeping schedules other people make for me (at least in a work or school environment) so making one for myself has potential to increase my overall progress and success in projects. 

Part of me wonders if this is just an excuse I'm using to buy a planner. I do love buying planners. Maybe I'll try some online apps first.