How I Met Your S.H.I.E.L.D Agent. Pt. 1

Go to New York and blend in -- the order seemed simple enough, and really it should have been for an agent of Maria Hill's caliber.  It was, however a bit of a challenge, the caveat being she had to hide in plain sight -- or in reality, public sight.  No one would suspect a highly visible on-screen reporter as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  She was skeptical, but orders were orders and Fury had his reasons, even if she didn't know what those reasons were.

She went to work immediately, picking up a job as a news anchor for a local station few people watched.  All the better to keep things manageable while she got her bearings.

She blended in easily, going out with her new co-workers to a local bar.  She wasn't typically a social person, but today, and for as long as she was under cover in the dirty, overcrowded pit of New York City, she would remember her training and pretend that she did.

Maria looked around the dank, noisy pub all the while being talked at by a co-worker.  She wished she could pull the .38 out of her hand bag and shove it down this lady's throat, but that would blow her cover.  Too bad, because she was sure it would get some silence.  Across the room standing by a bar was a man in a cheap brown coat trying desperately not to look like he was staring at her.

"Men..." She thought exasperatedly to herself. "Though on the other hand, maybe it'll help buy me a moment of quiet -- or at least a scotch."

Maria turned her attention back to her co-worker.

"Hang onto that thought.  Your drink is empty, let me get next round,".  Maria excused herself and made her way to the bar.

"Give me a shot of Glen McKenna and..." She paused for a moment to think, "a Long Island iced tea."

As she finished her order she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Have you met Ted?"

Upon turning she sees the man from earlier, cheap brown jacket and all.

"Let me guess, you're Ted,".

Ted smiled awkwardly back at her.

Maria sighed mentally and plasters on a smile deciding to play along.

"I'm Robin, Robin Scherbatsky,".

Welcome Week

The annual arrival of NYU's "Welcome Week" and this subsequent post about it means that I have reached an entirely new level of pathetic.

Welcome Week was something that was always somewhat of a sign of hope of a promising year for me through the past four years. Despite the fact that I barely participated in any of the activities it signaled a start of a another year at an institution I was in love with, a return of friends scattered across the world I hadn't seen all summer for another year and it was a signal for my return to Manhattan, a place that spelled freedom, home and direction all at once for me.

This year was going to be different because this year Welcome Week was not being held for me, meaning no new exciting year with professors and classes at the institution I had fell in love with, no return of friends scattered across the globe and no return to Manhattan, or for that matter, New York City. The real world, no matter how much I tried, could not be held off any longer. This year, like always, the start of Welcome Week signified the start of a new year, a year in which I was jobless, cut off from friends and directionless.

I had woken up this morning at 9AM with the full intention of getting onto the train and into the city to edit my film and maybe see some faces. However, upon waking at the scheduled time I just couldn't bring myself to get out of bed and go to a place that I no longer felt I belonged so I stayed in bed. At first I put up an admirable fight, telling myself that I would get up and take a later train in but I was doing nothing but lying to myself, I didn't have the will power to bring myself to my beloved estranged university.

The past week had been miserable, I had only managed to get myself up to go to Jury Duty (which I ended up sleeping during when I wasn't called into a courtroom, and even then I came awfully close) on Tuesday and then to my internship on Thursday (where I sat around and did nothing until the end of the day when I had to go and drop a package off uptown. Despite the fact that I had kept telling myself to write I ended up waking up well past 12PM each day, actually, more accurately, past 2PM each day and spending all my time beating "Star Wars Force Unleashed" for the third time and watching "How I Met Your Mother," which I had already watched. Additionally I'm sure there were moments of near yelling at the computer monitor as Ted did yet another stupid thing related to his love life. It wasn't pretty. As I said; pathetic.

For the past 3 months there has been a huge struggle for me to do just about anything. Despite all my big talks while I was in school about how you need to discipline yourself and work on your own projects no matter what you're doing I was unable to get myself to do anything all summer. I was unable to complete something even as simple as a page a day on my screenplay despite the fact that I had so much free time, I felt like a failure.

The worst part of it all was I knew I was making all the wrong moves, choosing the bad choices and taking that step that would ultimately lead me down that slippery slope. Eventually it got so bad that I couldn't even get myself out of bed. I think that's what giving up feels like; giving up is the worst feeling in the world. It's similar to the feeling of powerlessness you feel when events spiral beyond your control only its worse because at least then you know you've done all you could possibly have done but in this case you don't have anything because there's still more you can do; you're just not doing it.

I hope that is what giving up felt like because that would mean that I hit rock bottom and that the only place to go is up. However, whether its rock bottom or not isn't significant because ultimately it's up to me to fight my way back up otherwise the only place I'm going is where I've been for the past week.