A Red Carpet Blunder (Patreon)

As the stars of Avengers: Endgame were readying up for the promotional cycle, two in particular found themselves the victims of a blunder by a young intern with the Marvel promotional team. It certainly hadn't been the intention of Chris Evans nor his co-star and good friend Jeremy Renner to find himself in the other's body but that was the situation they fell into due to the intern's careless use of some supposed game that had been in beta testing. What was eve worse was that after the offending app had switched their bodies the intern's cell phone had broken and nobody could find the app anywhere to download!

While the two men were good friends and had learned a lot about each other over the past nine years of working with Marvel, neither had ever anticipated a situation where they would have to 'play' the other. Of course as actors it wasn't exactly out of their wheelhouse but being Chris Evans was a whole different wheelhouse for Jeremy than playing Clint Barton was. There were certain demands in life that simply weren't present on a film set and Jeremy was having to play the role twenty-four-seven. At first it was been incredibly difficult and almost nauseating but there were times - especially after they had stumbled through the first few weeks - were he almost forgot about the swap and his true identity entirely. In those moments he saw himself as Chris Evans and it was scary to think about what that possibly meant for the future. He did his best to put it out of his mind but it continued to linger, causing the older man to question what he really wanted. What would the best case scenario be for resolving their unique situation?

Of course Jeremy would be a fool if he said there were no positives to being in his co-stars body. Chris was taller and packed a whole lot more muscle on his body than Jeremy ever had in his life and it was kind of fun having so much mass to play with, especially as he got to experiment with his strength. Chris really was a real life Captain America, acing every workout and earning the admiration of everyone around him. Just being able to military press and squat more than he ever had in his life had adrenaline pumping through Jeremy and it was during those moments that he found himself slipping into Chris' persona and had to remind himself who he really was.

Chris on the other hand was finding other benefits to being in the older body of his co-star. Being something of an old soul himself, Chris was relieved to discover that there were far less expectations of him in Jeremy's body and more often than not he was left alone to go about his business as he pleased. Without the near-constant workouts he had built into his schedule Chris had plenty of time to read the books he'd been meaning to get to for ages and could even indulge in a pizza or two, something he'd always feel guilty about doing in his own body in case it hampered that superhero physique he worked so hard for. Jeremy didn't have to care about being at such extreme measurements though and it allowed Chris more freedom with his diet than he'd experienced in a long time.

Like his co-star though, Chris had begun to notice those moments where his mind drifted and he found himself thinking like Jeremy and even remembering things that belonged to his friend's memory. It was concerning but also strangely fascinating for the actor who felt like Jeremy's body had far more to offer than most might presume. He was still handsome and well-toned but there was no expectation for him to maintain an almost impossible musculature that had even left him miserable at times. Still, as exciting as he found parts of the situation, Chris was just as eager to return to his body as Jeremy was. It would make for a great story in the future that they could muse over but both were certain that after almost a month in each other's body it was time for them to return to their normal lives.

Unfortunately the intern who had been responsible for their initial exchange had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth after failing to show up to the Marvel Entertainment offices one day. With their only lead suddenly gone, the execs at Marvel were at a loss with what to do with two of their biggest stars currently occupying the wrong body. "You'll just have to hold on for a little longer," one of the top producers told the two actors in a sit-down meeting with them, "We're working as hard as possible. I'm confident we'll be able to fix the two of you right up soon enough... but it's probably likely you'll be doing the Endgame promo as each other. That's not going to be a problem, is it?"

The two men shared a look, both silently acknowledging the changes in their personas that they had been experiencing since the switch that had only grown stronger in the previous days and weeks. There was a chance that they didn't have much longer before they lost themselves to their new identities completely and that both terrified and excited each of them in different ways. Jeremy could already see himself continuing to pump iron in Chris' body and even enjoying his co-star's popularity with younger women while Chris contemplated the opportunities for more mature acting roles and a more peaceful life that could possibly follow. Were those positives really worth losing their own identities for?

Unfortunately neither man had a choice in the matter. The promotional tour for the next Avengers movie would be starting imminently and they'd be strapped in for the next month at the very least, attending premieres and giving interviews as each other. It had, in many ways, quite literally become the role of a lifetime for the both of them. All that was left for them to do was accept the inevitability that by the time they walked the red carpet in Hollywood they would truly become the other man for good - an endgame of different sorts for the two Marvel heroes!