I'm pretty sure my fingers are going to mutiny after the shitload of embroidery I've done over the past few days, but my jacket will officially be awesome forever.

I hate the cold, but it's hard not to feel badass when you're wandering around dressed like James Sunderland, regardless of what you're doing.

Is it just me, or do holidays get progressively less and less exciting the older you get? Talk about depressing.

You know what I'm really excited for? The end of Daylight Savings Time! Enjoy your extra hour of sleep, everyone!

That and ACen. It's going to be spectacular, I can already tell--especially if all the amazing people I met on Hetalia Day are there (you know who you are). :D
Plus I'm finally going to get to cosplay Germany. Yesssss, uniforms.

Gosh, it's been nearly a month since I last updated this thing, and definitely more than that since I updated with anything of real substance vis a vie mi vida. This shall be corrected promptly.
Since, you know, I'm in college and all now, and interesting things have almost happened to me several times.
But first, a very enthusiastic hello to my all my cool new friends from the Hetalia friending meme! Come on in, grab a chair, there's plenty of room for everyone. There's coffee in the carafe by the door, and dinner will be served directly after the presentation.

I've been here for almost three weeks (we really did start late, huh?), and it has been a trip and a half--in the best way possible--but also a huge adjustment. For the longest time, I didn't think it was ever going to be any better than waking up in a strange room full of familiar things. But it's been such a blast. My classes are great, and I've met so many vastly different people, with all these varying experiences and points of view and personalities that my head is spinning. I have also already discovered a little indie coffee shop in downtown Evanston that is my new favorite place ever--they have these weird Trivial Pursuit-esque trivia cards on all the tables, and they're so old that I haven't even heard of half the people they mention. It's excellent. Some friends and I went there the other day to work on an essay for our seminar together (that never got done, incidentally), then ended up wandering around downtown, looking for someplace to eat that was open at 2am that wasn't fast food (that never happened, either), getting ourselves thoroughly lost in the process. In the end, we ended up getting french fries at Burger King, taking naps in the lounge of a friend's dorm building, then watching the sun rise over the lake. It was breathtaking.
I've also been into Chicago twice already--once to go to the Harry Potter artifact exhibition (so amazing; I bought a Time Turner necklace and regret nothing), and once to go to a slam poetry event called the Elephant Engine High Dive Revival, and it was completely inspiring and enlightening and invigorating and amazing. Stuff like that makes me so gleeful. However this latter experience also taught me the hard way that the L line back to campus stops running at 2am. The friend I went with and I ended up on a bus that promised to take us at least a little closer, but which actually dropped us off at the next stop on the line just in time to watch the train depart before quite unceremoniously abandoning us on the dark streets to fend for ourselves against the swarming ranks of vulturous Evanston taxi drivers. My friend and I ended up hoofing it a mile and a half back to campus. This, too, was breathtaking, in its own sort of way (ie I am out of shape).
But I'm here to learn, aren't I? My classes are excellent. My freshmen seminar counts as two courses, so I'm only signed up for two others: German 101 (Ich haiβe Erin! Ich bin Studentin an der Northwestern Universität. Wie geht's?) and Highlights of Astronomy. The courses were signed up for according to a certain schedule, and no one could sign up before their appointed times. By the time my allotted time rolled around, all of the other courses I was looking at were filled up. So, I'm a history major without a single history course at the moment. Should be interesting. I've also got a job at the concert hall, on the tech crew. I just got back from my first shift, now, actually, and the concert was a pianist playing a ton of Chopin, which made me impossibly excited.
The one down side? It rains here all the time. I was expecting it to get cold, but no one told me about the rain, and I got caught unprepared, again, yesterday whilst wearing my wool sweater and shoes made out of flannel and not much else--almost exactly the same outfit I was wearing when we had our Freshmen class trip to Six Flags (which was beastly when they weren't closing down all the rides) and the heavens opened up on us. It rained again today, but I had an umbrella and proper footwear. I'm learning! And I can't wait until it's cold enough to snow. I have two friends from California, and we're taking them shopping this weekend for cold-weather gear, as they are woefully ill-prepared.
Anyway, to sum it up, I love it, here. I haven't had much time to write anything that isn't homework, which is driving me sort of crazy, but I'm sure things will settle down, soon, and I'll get used to the wild schedule. Plus, the people, the place, and the things that I'm learning are all amazing.

The food's not half bad either.
Anyway, I've got work early tomorrow, so I'm out. Take care all.


(End transmission)

Did someone say more fic? No? Well, how embarrassing for me, then. I've been doing a ton of writing recently, and since I am far too lazy to get myself a fic journal (and, really, why would I even need one? I've already got a perfectly good journal here), I'm posting a bit more of it for...posterity, really, but who knows? Maybe it'll bring someone some joy. And so, I present to you with much pride, Chapter One of my newest WIP; Watch the Skies, my Axis Powers Hetalia Superhero AU. Because, come on, who doesn't want to read a story in which America is literally the hero?

Title: Watch the Skies (part 1/?)
Genre: Drama/Romance
Author/Artist: three guesses
Character(s) or Pairing(s): (In this chapter) England, America (with some one-sided US/UK), France, Canada (with some slight France/Canada), and China. More characters will be included in later chapters.
Rating: PG-13 for some language
Warnings: AU
Summary: For three years, the police of Axis City have had a hesitant, unspoken truce with the resident Alliance of Superheroes. However, when an up-and-coming politician sparks a war between the two, Detective England Kirkland must allow himself to be the villain in order to save the Justice system, and the people, he has sworn to protect.

( It's half past six in the morning, and Detective England Kirkland is still sitting at his desk... )

I need to get a liiiiife.
Enjoy! :D

I went to drop off my sister at BU this past Monday, so now my sister's gone, practically all of my friends are gone, and I am sitting all alone here in Rhode (wtf, Firefox, I spelled that correctly) Island for another two weeks with nothing to do but prep work for college. Seriously. I already have work, but I'm still at home. I call shenanigans.
I've been filling up my time avoiding said work, mostly. That and writing fanfic, which I will probably pester all you darlings with later. Aren't you lucky. Finished Silent Hill 2 twice already, and, in my desperation for another SH fix before I can afford any of the other games, actually watched the movie on youtube. That was a trip and a half. It was similar--and I do use that word loosely--to the first game, I'll give it that, except for the part where it really wasn't anything like the first game. Harry Mason was replaced by a woman who is married to Sean Bean and, save for the freaky-ass baby monsters, (and that janitor thing I'm pretty sure they made up) all of the monsters in the movie were from Silent Hill 2. I'm also pretty dern tootin' certain they used the soundtrack for Silent Hill 2 as well. It's like Silent Hill 2 got drunk and knocked up some awful, generic, and very slutty horror movie, and their spawn went on to impregnate Silent Hill 1.
Like I said, a trip and a half.
Also watched a movie called [REC] with my brother; it's in Spanish, and there's an American remake of it called Quarantine, which I've also seen. [REC] was easily three times scarier.
Bought a Captain America shirt at Old Navy, today, as well as a snazzy military jacket. And, yes, I do plan on finding a website that makes custom patches and sending them pictures of the patches on James Sunderland's jacket, thank you for asking.
Other than that? I have the single most unexciting life ever.
I NEED TO GET TO COLLEGE ALREADY.

So, in a continuing effort to put more fic on this journal (because why not?), I present a little something that I wrote ages ago as a birthday present for a certain somebody (;3). I dug this one up about 10 seconds ago in a mad attempt to breathe life into the Good Omens thread on /coq/, as it deserves to live, IMO, and it's an example of my writing that I'm actually almost proud of, so.
As you probably expect, it's unrepentant Crowley/Aziraphale and hopelessly slashy.
Enjoy!

( Ineffability and Effort )

...and I have come to the conclusion that you should all go watch Axis Powers Hetalia right now. Even with a good amount of sleep (6 hours! a new record!), this is still one of the most hilarious, colorful, wacky shows I've ever had the pleasure to experience, and it retains a fair sense of historical accuracy, which, frankly surprised me a good deal.
So here. I will do you all the favor of sending you to a page that has links to all 26 episodes, all of which are only 5 minutes long. They even come in little easily-digestible, bite-sized pieces! This show is so considerate of your schedules and your attention spans, guys. Show it some love in return. Personally, I'm not positive that this site is 100% reliable, as I watched them partially on a youtube channel and got the rest from Google searches, but either way its spectacularly easy to find them.
What are you waiting for?! It's better than I can say, I can promise you that. And I guarentee that you will be laughing your ass off within seconds.
Plus, just look at how cute my icon is. Chibitalia/Holy Roman Empire all the way. (It'll make sense when you watch it...sort of.)
Watch, laugh, and love it, my friends. I'm sure you will.
Happy watching!

EDIT: 27 Episodes!
My bad. This episode and chock-full of Germany, too, so don't miss out! :3

EDIT the second: My bad again. Episode 27 is actually, apparently, Episode 1 of the illustrious Season 2! Which is really very exciting.
Speaking of, have a link to Episode 2 of said illustrious season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HN16Zx9zIQ
Because I love you all quite dearly.

Also, go watch Eddie Izzard do some stand-up. I am sort of in love with him at the moment.

Why is it the plants that you don't want that grow the most quickly? I must've weeded a week ago, and already my backyard is a jungle, again, complete with prehistoric-sized insects. It's like I live in a freaking bio-dome or something. Anyway, my mom's been cracking down on the no-chores-no-allowance thing, which, honestly does make sense, so after the dentist (I just had a cavity filled, so for the rest of this story imagine me with half of my face completely numb), my siblings and I changed into our adventuring gear and pioneered into the wilderness, armed with spades and, in my case, a sick pair of floral old-lady gardening gloves. The weeding itself wasn't so bad, although trying to pull out a million tiny plants with truly beastly roots from amongst rocks is not something I would willingly choose to spend time doing. It was the bugs. I HATE bugs. As soon as they find their nasty way into my house, I get this sort of Righteous Anger thing that turns me into the Incredible Hulk of the bug-killing world, and I have no problem smacking them with my bare hands. But when I'm outside, for some reason, I feel like I'm surrounded behind enemy lines, and every moving black speck freaks the hell out of me.
And it certainly doesn't help that my backyard has recently become the base of operations for an army of MASSIVE earwigs, which I have some traumatizing memories of from my childhood (ie WAKING UP WITH ONE ON MY FACE).
But, anyway, I was a weeding machine, I killed a fair share of nasty wee beasties with my trowel, and in general I kicked Mother Nature's ass. However, while weeding around the pool, my sister and I had a conversation about how much we'd like to go swimming. We knew we'd have to clean the pool, but we weren't sure how bad it was, so we pulled down the stairs and ascended to check it out.
Oh god. Not only was it the same mottled, cloudy green as a split-pea-soup-and-horse-manure milkshake, the surface of the water was alive with squirmy mosquito larvae that, quite frankly, looked like big sperm. This was my face.
I then spent nearly an hour with the pool net, scooping out load after load of the nasties, along with all the other disgusting detritus that was lurking about, including these ugly white worm things that looked like something out of a horror movie, with legs just in front and these massive eyes. And the little fuckers swam, they literally dove deeper into the pool to get away from the net and then resurfaced to laugh at me. A couple of times I almost fell in going after them, and I suspect this may have been their intention. Honestly, I made so many living things in that pool angry that, if I had fallen in, I doubt I should ever have come back out.
I'm pooped, now, and I still feel itchy all over. I'm going to play Bioshock.
Peace and love, all. May your days be merry and earwig-free.

( Please to has click me with you mouse. :3 )

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you Hetalia: Axis Powers!

Or Axis Powers Hetalia. I'm not positive.

No, I don't have the slightest hint of what's going on, but it's colorful and vaguely historical, so I'm in.

Hands up if you can tell that I haven't slept since yesterday.

God and Bob and Baby Jesus, I hope this is a series...

Have you ever read a fanfic that really sort of sticks with you? One that is just so good that it rivals its source material/ could fit right into the source material without anyone noticing that something was fishy? Well, I was on tvtropes.comlast night (I've heard people talk about how it devours your life, but I never knew the full extent to which this is true until I realized that I'd been on the site for three hours without stopping) and, whilst playing that game of -follow-the-link, which is the main means of navigating that site, I came to the entry for Mind Rape. At the end of the entry, they gave examples of this trope in TV Shows/Anime/Movies/Literature/etc, and, in this particular instance, from FanFic. The link they gave was to The Very Secret Diary, a story that chronicles the time in The Chamber of Secrets during which Ginny is communicating with Tom Riddle through the diary/Horcrux (is that a spoiler? Oh well.). It basically consists of their conversations, and shows how Tom got gradually more and more manipulative and powerful, until he's basically in complete control of Ginny. Tvtropes gave it as the fanfic example of Mind Rape, mind you, and it is very obvious why. However, it is also a damn fine piece of writing, and I recommend it without hesitation.
Just, you know, in case you needed a little more Mind Fuckery in your day.

Happy reading!

p.s. Did I mention how bomb the new Harry Potter movie was? Because it was the best of the movies so far, albeit different from the book rather markedly at points. Maybe this is just because I don't really remember the sixth book? I guess I'll just have to re-read it. Later days, all.

( GODDAMIT TORCHWOOD; SPOILER WARNING--DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN CHILDREN OF EARTH, YET! )

Here, it's dangerous to click alone. Take this:


You'll need it.

Oh, god, because I totally need to like another German musical, right?
Ah, well, too late. So, show of hands--who remembers the book Rebecca that we had to read/had the option to read for school a while back (or was it that my sister had to read it, and I ended up reading it because it sounded creepy and awesome)?
I remember adoring the book--it was like a creepier, more haunting version of Jane Eyre (which I did enjoy, mind you) with a more appealing male love interest, IMO.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. As it turns out, the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, also known as United Stages Vienna (the same people who commissioned the Elisabeth musical from the same creators), also commissioned a musical version of Rebecca. So of course I checked it out. And of course I have fallen absolutely in love with it. I am perfectly justified, I think. Sure, there is no homosexual subtext between attractive personifications of Death and pretty blonde princes, but the music is amazing, and Uwe Kroger (the original Death) plays Maxim DeWinter! And I adore him, not least because he resembles John Barrowman to an odd degree at certain angles, especially with the dark hair he has in this role.
Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAv1Gr9Nq8
Embedding disabled by request, agh.
This is one of my favorite songs by far--it's called, creatively enough, "Rebecca," and it's sung by Mrs. Danvers, who is here played by Susan Rigvava-Dumas.

She is so completely amazing I cannot even handle it.

But the best thing about this musical--well, maybe not the best thing, as the musical itself is really the best thing--but something absolutely spectacular?
IT WILL BE COMING TO BROADWAY IN THE SPRING OF 2010 IN ENGLISH.
I may wet myself.
There are English demos of some of the songs on youtube, including some sung by Pia Douwes, the original Elisabeth. This one is translation of the one above:

(The video in this one is from the 1940 Hitchcock film, but the song is what's important.)
Another favorite of mine, also sung by Mrs. Danvers, oddly enough, is Sie Ergibt Sich Nicht, which is haunting and creepy and fantastic.
Here in the original German:

And here translated and sung by the wonderful Ms. Douwes:


I cannot wait to see this on the Broadway stage. I'm already trembling with anticipation. My Spring Break? Yeah, I'll be spending that in New York. Anyone care to join? XD

I swear, I am going to have to learn German for the musicals. But, considering that Broadway hasn't given me anything to strike my fancy since Grey Gardens, what else is a girl to do, hm?

p.s. Wy oh why does there also have to be a Jane Eyre musical that seems promising but that I cannot watch because James Barbour plays the role of Rochester?! Oh, god, he has such a good voice, I am starting to remember why I had such a thing for him. XD

Besides gaining like twenty pounds, anyway. Words cannot describe how much I will not be wearing a bathing suit anytime soon.
I've been sleeping an inordinate amount, especially in the days after my grandmother and two cousins left, and I've gotten through the first two seasons of 30Rock and the first 12 episodes of the third season. That show is hilarious; if you haven't checked it out, you really, really should.
Spent some fifty dollars on books the other day--two books of poetry by Sylvia Plath, and two by Allen Ginsberg, and they are all completely amazing. I would love to make a living as a poet; it must be incredible. Really, I just want to live a life that inspires poetry that people are willing to pay money to read. I also got a book called Hero by Perry Moore--I went over to the "young adult" section and picked one at random, as I felt I needed a nice, easy read to take a break from the non-fiction bender I've been on. XD Plus, there was an endorsement by Stan Lee on the cover, which just completely sealed the deal. I didn't actually read the back of the book until I got home, (I know, risky of me, huh? XD) but when I did, this is what it said:


"The last thing in the world Thom Creed wants is to add to his dad, Hal's, pain, so he keeps secrets. Like that he has special powers. And that he's been asked to join the League--the very organization of superheroes that spurned his father. The most painful secret of all is one Thom can barely face himself: he's gay.
But becoming a member of the League opens up a new world to Thom. There, he connects with a misfit group of aspiring heroes, including Scarlett, who can control fire but not her anger; Typhoid Larry, who can make anyone sick with touch; and Ruth, a wise old broad who can see the future. Like Thom, these heroes have things to hide, but they will have to learn to trust one another when they uncover a deadly conspiracy within the League.
To survive, Thom will face challenges he never imagines. To find happiness, he'll have to come to terms with his father's past and discover the kind of hero he really wants to be."


I'm sorry, are you telling me that I just inadvertently purchased a book about a gay superhero?! I literally stayed up all night finishing this. XD It was the perfect blend of hokey predictability, surprising poignancy, and thinly-veiled references to well-known superheroes--and the character development was great. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. God how I love books. But anyway. XD
Getting my laptop soon--hopefully--and I am too excited for words. I really want the Sims 3, as well.
Been getting some writing done, too, which has been nice. And Walter's back from the watch-shop!
My sister and I went to the supermarket yesterday, as we had nothing else to do. I bought a huge glass jar full of peanuts, and now I'm using it as a glass. It's awesome. I drank a jar full of soy milk yesterday, and I am just sad enough a person for this to be really exciting to me.
BUT! I finally got my hands on a copy of Formerly Known as the Justice League. I can't wait to read it.

Dear Writer's Block,

you are full of suck and fail, and I am really not all that fond of you at all. In fact, were I that sort of person, I would be inclined to go so far as to say that I pretty much hate you. Now that I do not have to focus on schoolwork 24/7, I would really love to get some writing done for funsies. However, you are currently sitting on my keyboard/fingers/pen/insert-writing-implement-here. You came to visit sometime back in flipping 2007. I think your kitchen is done being re-modeled; you can go home now. I need the guest room for other people.
I am kicking you out. Feel free to take your collectible Batman glasses and leftover Chinese food with you (but not the teapot, as I have grown quite fond of it).

No love, but plenty of enthusiasm,
Erin

p.s. Pleasepleaseplease go away and leave me alone and don't force me to have the landlord forcibly remove you because it will be messy and probably loud and the other people in the building will think I am a jerk.

So, in my quest to be even more of a massive dork than I already am--an accomplishment I wouldn't have previously thought was possible, really--I have not only discovered another (semi) historical musical, but one that is entirely in German. It's called Elisabeth, and it's about the wife of Austrain Emperor Franz Joseph I. Alright, consider my interest peaked. However, while searching for video of the musical (it's in German, yes, and that does mean that I can understand very little of what is actually being said, but the music is pretty great, and I am particularly fond of this little gem in particular;
It's called Die Schatten Werden La(one of those funny little a's with the dots above it)nger, and it is so cool. Also notice the slight homoerotic undertones? Yeah, I didn't even know about that when I first started looking into it. That was a plus.)
(Now, once you have watched/listened to that a couple dozen times--and you will, it is just that good, I am going to move on. Because, you see, I'm not writing this post just to share Elisabeth with you all--oh no.)
--and this is continued from up there somewhere, before the attack of parenthesis--I discovered the existence of something incredibly cool: the Takarazuka Revue. It's an all-women group of performers in Japan who put on, like, legitimate musicals. They've done Elisabeth, as well as The Scarlet Pimpernel and they (I'm assuming) wrote a PHOENIX WRIGHT musical, the concept of which is just so epic that I'm going to embed the video in all of its crazy Japanese glory:


So, yeah, basically this is just the coolest thing ever. Period. If I was Japanese, I would be willing to kill to be a part of this.
My opinion? We need to start an American version of this, stat. Hell, I'll start it. I know we've been talking about doing a an all-girl version of Assassins anyway. XD

AB '09; here's to:

feeling out of your Elephant
rap battles
"God bless America!!"
other people's internal monologues
Max and the Green Lantern
racing down escalators-temporarily-stairs in heels
wedgies in black (and yellow) vinyl
our quadruple wedding
Stargate
large ice cream cones
inadequate zippers
economy-size cranberry juice
Squeaky and Bonbo
snap-crotches
party hummus
being a 9.9
"My biggest fear in life is dropping my ice cream. And spiders."


And remember: it could be worse-you could be frog people.

Because of my father--who can name Admiral Archer's beagle off the top off his head (was it Athos?)--I've been a Star Trek fan since I was roughly six years old, and I used to stay up late/early every week day to catch re-runs of the original series at two in the morning.

So, logically, I've been wetting my pants in excitement for this movie since I first heard about it at ComicCon--and fought like a dog for the Spock poster, which, probably thanks much in part to the tiny outfit I was wearing at the time, now graces my wall. However, because I was in Georgia when it first came out, today was the first day I had any free time to go see it.

Long story short? I approve. Oh god I approve. Reasons? Explosions in the first minute and a half, lines straight out of the show--Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a physicist!--excellent casting, great plot, oh, and Leonard-frickin-Nemoy.



And have I mentioned how hot Kirk is? Because he is really hot.
Even Spock is above the usual level of attractiveness. Which really messes with my psyche, as he was my childhood hero, and I really do not need to have the hots for him. >.>

Flew back from Georgia at the butt-crack of dawn this morning--longest flight of my life, though really I was probably the best-rested member of the team. Mock Trial Nationals were a blast, even if our lack of preparation time (ie; we got two weeks with the case while everyone else had five) left us with a rather unfair disadvantage. I enjoyed being a lawyer immensely, especially when it meant making up some half of my cross examinations on the spot based on the evidence the other team had introduced. I do not, however, love walking around--and riding crowded public transportation--in the heat and humidity of Atlanta in heels and a wool suit.

But how awesome was that aquarium?!?!

Getting back into the swing of school is going to be an adjustment--between having the swine flu, mock trial and Cabaret I've missed so much class that I am almost frightened to go back to class, and I have at least three tests to make up--one being the Math Test of Certain Death and one being the Chapter 29 test for AP Euro. Oh, and have I mentioned that I have my AP Psych exam in two days and have barely had time to study at all?

And yet, I am enjoying myself. My little brother's Confirmation was today, and afterward we went out to eat with a bunch of related familial beings, and I was treated to having my legs put to sleep by my little cousin, who insisted on coming over to sit on my lap to watch my brother play Mario Kart. It was wonderful.

I ought to get some sleep. Anyone remember sleep?

Internet!

God, I turn my back for three seconds and you let the Watchmen kinkmeme get up to 29 pages?!

What in heaven's name were you thinking?!

On the inside, I'm crying, because I will never have the patience to go through all of them.

I guess I'll...just go do homework or something.

Responsibility sucks.

I spent all day Tuesday watching the entirely of Cycle 8 of America's Next Top Model on Oxygen.

I've spent the past two days (roughly) lounging in bed, coughing. (For those of you who were wondering, I've got an upper respiratory infection with some mild inflammation in the lungs. I got an inhaler. :D)

I haven't done any actual schoolwork since Thursday.

After having little or no access to the internet for the past three weeks, I have given up on ever catching up on my flist.

I've finally given in and gotten a facebook. I still love lj more. :3

Now, I've been a huge superhero fan since I was little, but recently I've been wanting to get into comics in a bigger way, and, for some reason completely beyond me, I decided to start this endeavor with the Marvel Civil War series. (Formerly Known as The Justice League and I Can't Believe it's Not The Justice League are next on my list; Blue Beetle FTW!!!)



Well, honestly, I'm pretty sure I started here because the series looks really, really cool. But there's nothing like endeavoring to enter into the comic book universe to make you realize how little you know about comic books in general. I felt particularly intelligent when I was kneeling down in front of the shelves at Borders, staring at the twelve million different volumes of Civil War with absolutely no idea where to start. Cue me turning to my brother.

"Which one is first?"

He kneels down next to me and points. "The one that says 'Civil War'."

"They all say 'Civil War'!" I reply despondently.

My brother looks at the shelf. "Well, yeah, but see how they all have, like, subtitles? Like how that one says 'Front Lines'? That one just say 'Civil War'. That's how you know it's first."

"Oh...why does that one say 'Iron Man'?"

"That's from Iron Man's perspective. That one says 'Captain America' because it's from his perspective."

"That's awesome! Is it the same story? Can I get that one?"

"Well, you could get that one, but I would get, you know, the first one first."

"Alright, so I'll get that one. What about the other ones? Does it matter what order I go in? It has to matter, right?"

"I'm not sure. I...don't think...so..."

"Which one does Captain America die in?"

My brother looks at me like I have just asked him about Spiderman sprouting wings and learning Russian. "That doesn't happen in Civil War. That's in a separate thing. It's called 'The Death of Captain America'."

Cue me being totally lost.

So, in the end, I bought the first volume, and the Iron Man and Captain America ones, but I feel this might require further research. But I'm halfway through the first volume, and loving it desperately.

Plus, the two-page spread where Spiderman unmasks totally puts me in my happy place in a very unwholesome way. om nom nom nom nom