#snooglepoot

[sineala]

Steve did what with Emma..?? 👀👀👀

Okay, so. No one actually says any of this in so many words but it seems to be what they're heavily implying: Steve and Sharon have an open relationship; Steve slept with Emma at the Hellfire Gala; it was either mommy kink or Emma just thinks it's funny to make him think about it. The first two things seem like they basically have to be true; the third is a little more tenuous.

This is Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty v2 #8; this is the current run.

Steve wakes up in Kansas with no memory of how he got there and also no memory of the past five days. He calls all his pals and they show up in Kansas to figure this out. It turns out they are also all missing the past five days and also all have scar tissue behind their right ear. So it's pretty easy to conclude that someone's been messing with their minds. All their minds.

So it'd probably be nice to get a telepath to come examine them, as Roger says. (Roger Aubrey, and unrelatedly I would just to say that I have spent most of this run experiencing truly incandescent rage at what they've decided to do to him in this run; I know he probably has like three fans total but I am one of them and I was so thrilled he was here in this run and then they ruined everything and it ruined a whole lot of my feelings about this run. Anyway.)

Roger suggests this in the second panel in the page I have added below. He says he doesn't currently know any telepaths personally but he figures that one of the rest of them probably does, and he asks if anyone knows one. Then the rest of the page happens.

Steve, looking extremely uncomfortably at Sharon and hesitating a lot, says he knows one and he met her at a party (in context, this would have to be the second Hellfire Gala, based on the information he later gives).

So Steve doesn't actually say outright that he and Emma got up to anything but based on the hesitation about telling Sharon what went on at the party with Emma, it seems like he's heavily implying he slept with her, because that's generally a good guess for "a thing you definitely don't want to tell your girlfriend you did at a party that you went to without her," absent other evidence. I mean, we didn't actually see any of this going on in Steve's appearances at the Gala, but that really seems like what he's implying -- that Steve slept with Emma and he doesn't want to actually admit that to Sharon.

That's clearly what Sharon understands him to be saying. She says, "Steve, it's fine. You don't gotta be a monk when I'm not around." So she assumes that what Steve is saying is that he slept with this telepath he knows, and she says that that's okay with her -- if she's not around, he can absolutely sleep with other people. No need for celibacy. Since it would be deeply weird if the first time they ever talked about polyamory had been right now while they're standing in a trainyard in Kansas surrounded by several of their spy friends, it seems likely that this is an existing agreement in their relationship and that Steve just feels weird going into any more detail about hooking up with Emma when Sharon is right there. So, yeah, open relationship, I guess?

The important thing is that Steve doesn't contradict Sharon's understanding of events. Steve's description of what happened is extremely light on actual specifics, and if all we had to go on was what Steve said, I don't think that would necessarily mean that he'd actually slept with Emma -- but that's clearly what Sharon thinks he did, and the thing is, Steve doesn't tell her she's wrong. If he hadn't actually slept with Emma, now would be a great time to correct Sharon's assumption about it. And he doesn't.

What he actually does is change the subject and start telling Sharon about the outfit he wore to the Hellfire Gala, because he's clearly uncomfortable talking about Emma with Sharon. So, you know, it really sounds like he must have slept with Emma and really doesn't want to talk about that right now.

Sharon tells him to stop changing the subject and he should just call her already. He explains that in order to call her, he's supposed to think a word and she'll hear him.

That word is "mommy."

So, I mean, either mommy kink was involved here or Emma just thinks it's funny to make Steve think about it. Could be either.

So Emma shows up:

Weirdly, Sharon didn't seem to realize they were talking about Emma? I mean, I guess there are multiple telepaths in the world. But she's not especially thrilled with Steve's choice.

And that's your canon evidence for "Steve and Sharon have an open relationship and Steve slept with Emma." The mommy kink thing could just be a joke, but, I mean, we have all seen Emma Frost, it's not like anyone should rule out femdom as a possibility.

You're welcome.

[omgpoindexter]

I think the only name for Lardo + Shitty = Litty. It's so perfect.

see the thing is that you’re absolutely right. it’s so much more apt! we come around to this again and again and somehow still we are using shardo. it makes no sense!!!!! and yet here we are

[omg-just-peachy]

Okay but with Ted Lasso, what is going on with Roy and Keeley at the end there?? I'm so worried 😫

Ahhh honestly it never occurred to me to be worried until I saw other people saying it! But even so I still think they’ll be fine. I think after talking to the teacher Roy wanted to propose and maybe planned on doing it on their trip. So when Keeley said she couldn’t go he was completely thrown. But she got so upset when he asked if that meant they were breaking up 🥺

Also just with all the romcommunism I will be shocked if they don’t work out okay in the end !!

[festiveferret]

First of all, HAPPY (early) BIRTHDAY! You are amazing and your fics are beautiful treasures and I love them all!! For my request, I would like some "I'm so lucky to have you" Stony fluff. I want one of them to be having the worst day ever, then come home to the perfect pick me up (not sexytimes necessarily, but I definitely wouldn't say no lol) that brightens their day and is just fluff all over the place. :)

(This is from last year’s bday prompt, just finishing posting on these!)

Thanks for the prompt! I combined this one with another one for a lazy morning together

(Or read it on AO3 instead)

---

Steve was so exhausted that coming home didn't even feel real. It'd only been forty-six hours since he'd last stepped foot in the tower elevator, but they'd been the longest forty-six hours of his long life. He'd left in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday for one mission, which had been a complete disaster, had barely touched down in D.C. fifteen hours later, when he'd been called right out again for an emergency second mission. Now, it was so late on Saturday night that it was Sunday morning, and everything had a haze of exhaustion to it.

He could last that long, and longer, without sleep, but two terrible missions, back-to-back and unexpected, with not enough food and a team he didn't know very well, and far, far too much collateral damage, had worn him down to the bone.

The tower was quiet, nothing but the electronic hum of the future filling the halls and elevators. JARVIS kept the lights low, somehow able to tell that Steve was struggling to keep his eyes open as it was.

The penthouse was also quiet and dark, and Steve dumped his go-bag and stripped out of his uniform in the front hall, leaving everything there in an unsightly pile. He'd clean it up tomorrow, and he didn't want to wake Tony. He actually half-expected Tony to still be awake, but he'd been pulling all-nighters less and less these days, and when Steve cracked the bedroom door, there was a lump in the middle of the mattress, and Tony's silver-flecked hair sticking out of the top of a burrito of blankets.

Seeing Tony there was just enough of a boost to get Steve to the bathroom where he stared forlornly at the shower, decided he couldn't face it, and instead just washed his face and brushed his teeth. He'd done decon after the mission but that was a short, perfunctory rinse with harsh, unscented bar soap, and he still felt disgusting, but it'd have to wait until morning. He was genuinely concerned that he'd pass out in the shower stall and hit his head on the tile.

After a full glass of water, he popped into the walk-in to grab clean boxers then crawled into bed beside Tony.

Tony had settled himself directly in the middle, and had every blanket they owned wrapped around him in a tight knot, but Steve didn't mind, he ran hot at night anyway. He stretched out at Tony's side, still plenty of space for him on the enormous California King, and curled his arm around Tony's cocoon. He pressed a kiss near where he thought Tony's shoulder would be, and then he passed out completely.

**

Steve came to slowly, to the sound of Tony's voice and the smell of cinnamon. He sat up with a groan, every one of his muscles protesting, and an unhealed gash on his side catching and pulling. He needed a shower, but the bathroom seemed a hundred miles away. Then the door popped open and Tony stuck his head in.

"Hey, you. Thought I heard you wrestling with wakefulness. You okay?" He poked the door with his foot to swing it even wider and the rest of him appeared. He was carrying a tray, and it smelled divine.

"I'm okay. Just -" Steve shook his head a little, as if he could shake off the last few days like a dog getting out of water. "It's fine."

Tony set the tray down and flowed up onto the bed, depositing himself in Steve's lap and wrapping his arms around him. He was warm and solid and steady, and Steve burrowed his face into Tony's neck and breathed him in. Tony toyed with the edges of his hair. "Missed you," he said, instead of asking how the missions went, and Steve could never be grateful enough for this perfect man.

"Me too. So much."

"JARVIS has us on lockdown," Tony said, his voice soft. "Twenty-four hours."

"Oh - I -" Steve cut himself off. His instinct was to protest - there were after-action reports to do, his team might need his input, what if there was yet another mission - but supersoldier or no, he wasn't as young as he used to be, and he couldn't find the strength to fight it. "Okay."

Tony kissed his forehead. "Good boy. Now if only you'd listen to me on other things…" Tony smiled at him, and Steve shook his head.

"Not ready to retire yet."

"Not even after seeing how much fun I'm having?" Tony offered.

"You work more now than you did before." Steve let his fingers wander up under the hem of Tony's t-shirt. He pressed his palm flat over Tony's side, petting the soft skin that curved around and stretched over his hip bones.

"That may be so, but I don't have a panic attack at the prospect of being out of contact for a day."

Steve scoffed. "Look at me! I'm not having a panic attack."

"You were thinking about it."

"I feel like thinking about is sort of the opposite of having a panic attack."

"You're ruining our lovely Sunday morning off," Tony said.

"You started it!"

Tony burst out laughing, and Steve grabbed him around the waist and dragged him down on top of him, kissing across his cheeks and into his silver-tinged hair. He smelled like Tony, sweet and spicy at the same time. "You smell like a wet gym sock," Tony whispered somewhat seductively in Steve's ear.

"And here I was just thinking you smelled like home," Steve shot back.

Tony pushed up off Steve's lap, making him whine softly at the loss, and took hold of both of his hands. "Come on. I had J start a bath."

"I can just shower," Steve said, letting Tony drag him off towards the en suite.

Tony sat him down on the toilet seat cover and poked at the bathtub. "Sure, but then how will you eat breakfast at the same time?" He uncapped a bottle and the room filled with the smell of spiced oranges. He poured a capful under the running water then disappeared back into the bedroom. He returned with the tray - which Steve had forgotten about - and set it on the curving tile that framed the opulent bathtub. Sometimes living with Tony felt too decadent, too over-the-top, but he had to admit that a hot-tub sized bathtub with heated jets and JARVIS-controlled taps was a worthwhile investment.

Tony took Steve by both hands and levered him up, rewarding him with a kiss when he stood. Tony hooked his thumbs in Steve's boxers and dropped them to the floor then helped him step into the tub. The water was hot, just on the edge of too hot, and Steve's skin tingled with it as he sunk down. "Oh my god, Tony. That feels so good."

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

Steve laughed giddily, and sunk down until the water flowed up over his shoulders. He tipped his head to the side to watch as Tony stripped out of his own pajamas, dropping them in a pile on the floor. He's softened a little with age, now that he wasn't piloting Iron Man or sparring to keep up with the other Avengers, but to Steve, ever year only made him more beautiful. He'd never thought he'd get to grow old, let alone grow old with someone. Each of Tony's laugh lines was a smile they'd shared.

Tony kicked his clothes aside, and Steve groaned. "Oh, shit. That reminds me. I left all my mission gear by the door. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Tony climbed in the tub too, settling between Steve's legs. "I took care of it."

"You didn't have to do that." Steve's tongue was heavy and he knew his words were coming out slurred.

Tony's hand stroked up Steve's thigh, and Steve floated in the sensation for a while. Tony's touch mixed with the hot steam and the gentle scent, and the tension in Steve's muscles started to float away. Until his stomach growled.

Tony laughed. "Hungry, baby?"

"Always." Steve fluttered his eyes open and grinned at his boyfriend who was rattling things on the tray.

"Shove up."

Steve shifted to the side, and Tony squished in next to him, snuggling them both in one corner of the tub. Tony grabbed the corner of the tray and dragged it over to them then lifted a sliced strawberry from a bowl and held it out to Steve. Steve took the berry with his lips, making sure to lick the extra juice from Tony's fingers.

While Tony reached for another berry, Steve tipped over into his neck, kissing his wet skin and nuzzling up into his hair, breathing in the sweet-spiced scent. He curled his hand over Tony's stomach under the water. Tony turned back with a smile. "You're supposed to be eating, pet."

"More hungry for you," Steve murmured into Tony's ear.

"Pazienza, love. Food first. When was the last time you ate, huh?"

Steve opened his mouth obediently, and Tony dropped a blueberry in. "I ate a strawberry about twenty seconds ago." He smirked.

Tony shot him a look. "Okay, smartass."

But Steve curled over Tony and kissed him to cut off the rest of his retort. "I'll be good. I'm hungry. Feed me."

"Alright, Audrey. Sit down."

Steve sat facing Tony, tucking his legs on either side of his hips. The water had cooled a little, but JARVIS, with his impeccable timing, turned the heated jets on and it started to warm again.

Tony fed him the whole bowl of fruit then followed it with spoonfuls of yogurt, tart with a swirl of honey through it. Under a silver dome was buttered toast with cinnamon sugar and bacon that was still miraculously crispy. Tony had skipped the eggs - he always left eggs to Steve to cook - but he had almost everything else that Steve liked best in the morning.

"Aren't you hungry, Tony? You should eat too."

"I ate like half of what I made as soon as it came off the stove," Tony said with a laugh, but he nibbled on a piece of toast. "You done?"

Steve nodded and pushed the tray aside, folding over Tony who petted his hands back around Steve's neck and tugged at his hair. Tony pulled him into a kiss. "Let's get this mission off you, huh?"

"Yes, please."

JARVIS flushed the water with hot jets again, and Steve selected a bottle of shampoo from the shelf by the tub and handed it to Tony before turning around to lean back against his chest. There were few things he liked more than Tony washing his hair, and he used every means, down to actual bribery, to get it to happen as often as possible.

This time, however, it seemed he was going to get it for free. Tony's knees locked around his hips, and firm fingers combed through his hair, tugging out the knots. "Dip," Tony instructed, and Steve slid down to dip his head underwater then popped up again. Tony's hands returned, with shampoo this time, and scrubbed it in, scraping Steve's scalp in firm circles.

Steve moaned and let his hands wander down Tony's calves. He dipped again when Tony told him to, eyes staying closed when he came back up out of the water. Tony took the "rinse and repeat" instructions to heart and scrubbed shampoo through his hair again, making sure it was perfectly clean, every fleck of dirt from two back-to-back missions washed clear.

When the shampoo was rinsed out, Tony pulled the plug and the tub drained quickly then he turned a knob and it started to refill with fresh, hot water. Tony took a washcloth and started at Steve's feet, working his way up. When he got close enough to touch, Steve took a second cloth and started in on Tony. It was sweet and tender and intimate, quietly washing each other. The bathroom was full of steam, bringing it even closer.

Eventually, Steve's hands started wandering with more purpose. Now that he was fed, he had another hunger to sate, and Tony arched into the touch. JARVIS drained the tub again, and Tony drew Steve up to his feet and wrapped a warm, fluffy towel around him, patting and drying.

But Steve's patience only went so far. He pushed the towel away and drew Tony into his arms and into a kiss. Tony melted into his hold.

This was a dance they knew well, every step familiar but not mundane. Steve felt the same thrill every time he had Tony in his arms. They stepped back into the bedroom together, in perfect time, and fell onto the bed. Steve explored every inch of Tony's smooth, fresh skin, first with his fingers and then with his tongue, and Tony's soft gasps vibrated through him.

They rolled together, grinding and petting and stroking, as pleasure built between them. Steve gasped into Tony's mouth as Tony took him in hand, grip firm and perfect. The exhaustion Steve had felt the night before was gone, evaporated by the hot water and Tony's gentle touch.

"Come on, baby," Tony whispered against his forehead, "Let go."

And Steve did, with a shudder and choked out, "Tony." He spilled over Tony's fist, shaking and gasping. He slid down Tony's body, drawing kisses and nips over his chest and sucked him down, reveling the arch of Tony's back as he thrust down his throat. It wasn't long before Tony joined him in tipping over the edge, flushing Steve with primal satisfaction as he swallowed the evidence of Tony's pleasure.

They collapsed together, legs wound together in a sated mess. Tony nuzzled up, pressing a kiss to Steve's shoulder and Steve grinned into his hair, suddenly enervated. "I'll make us coffee, sweetheart."

Tony mumbled a happy reply, and Steve pushed up out of bed. Tony's enthusiasm for good coffee had infected Steve over the years, and now he loved selecting roasts and working the espresso maker almost as much as his partner. Tony even had partial ownership in a few coffee shops around the city, one of which roasted its own beans, and Steve enjoyed frequenting them and talking shop with the managers.

He stuck his nose in a few bags before picking one he liked and poured it into the grinder. Knowing Tony was sprawled out and sated one room over thrummed warm and satisfying in Steve's stomach. He was re-energized by their morning together, even as Tony was wiped flat. The last few days were distant in the rearview, and all that mattered now was their homey little bubble.

The espresso machine gurgled and hissed and Steve heated milk and filled two mugs. The smell was incredible and he bent over the cups and breathed it in as he walked back to the bedroom.

Tony was flat on his face, burrowed into the pillows, but while Steve was out, he'd made a nest on the bed, piling all the pillows and blankets up with a dip in the middle for them to curl up into. The lights were low and the TV was on, the next episode of Law and Order: Animal Protection Office queued up from where they'd left off last weekend.

Steve kissed the back of Tony's head. "Coffee."

He sprung up, suddenly awake, and made grabby hands towards his mug. They shifted around together, tossing blankets and fluffing the pillows into the right shape. Eventually, they got settled, Steve nestled back in a pile of squishy pillows with Tony curled up on his chest, each with their mug of coffee.

"We're staying in bed all week," Tony declared, reaching for his phone to start the episode. "I already told Fury you were on leave for at least the rest of the month."

Steve laughed. Maybe he would take some time off. Having Sunday morning every morning did have its appeal. As much as he was sure he wasn't ready for retirement just yet, he couldn't deny that he was ready for a break. Especially when he'd get to spend it with Tony.

"I'm so lucky to have you," Steve whispered into Tony's hair, and Tony shifted around to kiss him properly.

"Not luck, sweetheart," he said, cupping Steve's face and pressing his lips to the end of his nose. "Getting me was all skill."

[hackedmotionsensors]

The ff16 trailer looked neat but I agree. They definitely need to run another pass on the graphics in places. At parts the characters looked ff14 generic to me.

It looked fine. I don’t wanna be like “Its Dark Souls” but it does have that sort of Dark Souls......er...darkness to it lol It looks a little too epic for my tastes but it has until November so it might not really get any more passes unless a DLC comes out. But you’re right it looked A LOT like the online game more than a new FF story

[kiyaar]

I'm not the Chernobyl anon, but I wanted to let you know that according to the writer/creator of the show, the last episode was largely a lot of um creative license lol. At least compared to the rest of the show which was almost entirely first-hand accounts of what happened. So kudos to your BS-meter! 🙂

Ah, thank god, my major is not totally useless. :DI really, really liked the play-by-play of what actually led up to the explosion and thought that taken by itself, those sequences were gripping. Like, imagine being that poor bastard running the panel in the control room. But I think the trial makes far too much of the posturing and grandstanding in front of The West (who, and I could be wrong on this) I doubt would even be let in to a proceeding like that at this point in time. I know in the 70s you could travel into the USSR but it was like traveling to North Korea today - you were assigned a babysitter and you had to be spoon-fed historical excursions and shit like that. The KGB bugged your room. Normal. By the time it was Brezhnev running the show, things were deeply, deeply broken and everyone knew it. and sort of took it for granted. And then you had a quick succession of Andropov-Chernenko-Gorbachev, but the mood had already been set. So I imagine that whatever a trial looked like in the mid 80s, it would have been a show trial. And every person who was going to be present would already know that going in. Ugh. It’s this point that really bugs me about the series: I don’t believe any of these people have ever existed in a soviet or even a post-soviet place. I don’t think there’s enough Stockholm syndrome in these actors’ portrayals. 

[imaginaryelle]

capn-shellhead replied to your post “capn-shellhead: imaginaryelle replied to your post : snooglepoot...”

Agreed. The shift occurred after Iron Man 3. There was this big war on Twitter (which is a hellscape anyway) between people praising IM3 for exploring Tony's issues and some fans getting angry about that as though it meant Tony fans were ignoring everyone else issues

Rather than ignore it or continue on, some tony fans responded along the lines of implying that Steve needed less help because it wasn't explicitly shown. Which bugged me to no end because, just because it wasn't displayed in the same manner as Tony's, doesn't mean Steve's issues weren't there. Twitter is full of things like that and I'm glad I'm not on there anymore. 

That is unfortunate. I will have to move more of my Steve-exploration fics up on my writing list ^^.

[blossomsinthemist]

@baddieee007

#this is so SOFT

Ahhh THANK YOU (soft is good, it is very good)

@ilunabarrean

#this is GOOD and GREAT#stevetony#stony#fic#injury#broken bones#hurt comfort#right in the honey nut feelios

omg the honey nut feelios THANK YOU (I wanted the feelios so this is GREAT to hear)

@snooglepoot

#today i am blessed

omg thank you.  I hope you enjoyed it!

[sineala]

Do you know of any Captain America comic where Cap thinks about or does go back to his original time, but then decides he doesn't belong there anymore and comes back (or decides not to go back at all idk)? Is that a thing, or did I make it up in my head? I figured you might know, but if you don't sorry to bug you!

You are thinking of a real comic! The comic you are probably thinking of Mark Waid's five-issue miniseries Captain America: Man Out of Time, which is a modern retelling of Steve's origin story. Man Out of Time is probably my favorite Cap comic, specifically because of the decision Steve makes.

So there's him getting frozen and found by the Avengers in Avengers #4, but the retelling also covers a few more of the issues after that. In particular, it goes up through Avengers #8, which is the first appearance of Kang the Conqueror. (Though, technically, of course, he says he's also a couple other villains who have already appeared. Kang's gonna Kang.)

What actually happens in Avengers #8 is a fairly standard supervillain fight -- the Avengers fight him, mostly get captured and taken to his spaceship, get rescued, then punch him some more. They destroy some of his weapons and reflect others, and then he gets in his spaceship and retreats, zooming away. So that's canon. Just so you know what canonically happens. Nothing that happens in Man Out of Time is technically 616 canon. But that doesn't mean it's not a good story.

So this isn't how it goes in Man Out of Time's version of Avengers #8. At all.

I was going to make this a much longer post with many more panels but the very very short summary of the miniseries is that this is a version of Steve's early days in the future focusing heavily on his alienation from modern society -- he spends almost all of Avengers #4 convinced he's dreaming and he's going to wake up any minute.

He must be dreaming. Why are the Dodgers in Los Angeles?

When he finally accepts that it's real, he immediately wants to find someone who will send him back so he can try to save Bucky.

Reed Richards has a time machine, so Steve does possess the capability to go back.

Tony takes Steve on a date to the Smithsonian (as well as a private Radiohead concert and apparently Steve likes Radiohead?) and tries to sell him one last time on the wonders of the future, like how we have space travel now and less sexism and less racism and way fewer vaccine-preventable diseases and God I liked this book so much better when I thought people would all want to be vaccinated against diseases that could kill them.

Anyway. Steve can't be convinced; he still wants to go back to the forties. Eventually the president has to tell him he can't go back because he knows too much about the future.

Steve's not happy.

I was going to say that Mark Waid did not have to go this hard but I think maybe he did.

So Steve has to stay and he's miserable and then he starts to hate a lot of things about the future that are still bad. He finds out human trafficking exists. He finds out the designated-hitter rule exists. These things are not really comparable but he's upset about both of them. He finds out about domestic terrorism. The Vietnam War. MLK's assassination. This wasn't what he thought he was fighting for.

(The events of Avengers #5-7 happen in the background.)

And that's when we get to Avengers #8 and Kang. Kang captures the team. And Kang sends Steve back in time. To 1945. To V-J Day. So this is after Bucky is gone, but still, this is Steve's home, right? He should be happy. And for a bit, he is. He's a returning soldier, just like all the other GIs. A hot dog costs a nickel, like it ought to.

And then things start to fall apart. He goes to a Dodgers game, the Brooklyn Dodgers, as they obviously ought to be. I don't know why so much of Steve's personal betrayal by the future and also the past is about baseball, but, yeah, it is. So he watches the game and he starts talking to the kid and his father sitting next to him and the kid's a big Dodgers fan, right? Loves baseball. So Steve asks him if he wants to play for the Dodgers when he grows up.

Relevant information: the kid's black.

(Other relevant information, if you're not a baseball fan: Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in major-league baseball, started playing for the Dodgers in 1947. He was in the minor leagues in 1946. But this story is set in 1945.)

So naturally the father would like Steve to stop lying about how his son could ever play for the Dodgers because obviously integrated baseball is a fantasy.

Steve is starting to suspect that maybe the past isn't as great as he remembered.

(Incidentally, a nice development in actual baseball news a couple years ago is that Baseball Reference, the big baseball stats organization, finally integrated... their data. All of the Negro Leagues statistics are now listed as major league, so a lot of good players are finally getting the recognition they deserve.)

Anyway. Steve can't find most of the people he knew in the war but then runs into a GI he knew, who wants to talk to him about how great life is now. He's not feeling it.

He realizes it's because he left the Avengers. He couldn't save Bucky. But he can still save the Avengers from Kang. He needs to help them. That's where he needs to be.

Luckily, he has his identicard still on him! And he can leave them a message!

He tells Rick when and where he is, and Reed comes and picks him up in his time machine.

And then he and the Avengers kick Kang's ass.

The miniseries then ends with Steve going to the Grand Canyon, where Bucky said he always wanted to visit. So Steve draws Bucky. But Steve knows now that he can't live in the past. It's tempting, he says. But it's where fossils come from.

So he lies there. He goes through his CDs. He sets aside Bing Crosby. And he listens to Radiohead. Because he lives in the future now.

So, yeah.

I love this miniseries and it really shaped how I view Steve as a character and I love that he got the chance to make this decision and he made it and I really didn't like Avengers: Endgame.

(There is another universe where Steve faces a similar decision. This is probably not the issue you were thinking of, but Marvel Adventures Avengers #37 has a plot where the Invaders -- who seem to be some kind of combination of the Invaders and the All-Winners Squad, and also it's the 50s -- come to the present and offer Steve a chance to come back. Steve seems to be seriously considering it but before he can decide whether to use the doll that will send him back to the past, Wolverine destroys it because the future needs him here and Steve's like, yeah, you're probably right. So he's still in the future but... he didn't actually get to decide that.)

I hope Man Out of Time is the comic you're thinking of! If you like Steve at all, you should read it. It's the best.

[sineala]

Apparently there's a Iron Man/Cap team up miniseries coming out on Nov 24th and I am so excited. Quote from the writer:

“The natural instinct for a writer would be to immediately put them at loggerheads. Nothing generates drama better than tension, after all,” Landy said. “But Tony just wants to protect people, and Steve is one of the kindest characters in comics, so I pretty much embraced the opportunity to step away from the tension and explore that friendship."

There is, and I am so excited! I already subscribed to it.

It sounds like the writer really likes Steve & Tony's friendship so I am very hopeful that we will get some nice canon out of it, and even I don't end up liking the writing it will be an entire miniseries where Steve and Tony appear on the page together. (The bar, it is set so low. And yet.)

I think that we've actually gotten a lot of fairly nice Steve and/or Tony recently in canon, albeit not in the ordinary places you might look, so if you only follow Avengers, Cap, and Iron Man ongoings, you might have missed the following excellent things that have happened/are still happening:

Infinite Destinies: This is a series of eight linked annuals that came out earlier this year; the main stories in each annual can be enjoyed standalone, and three of them are Iron Man, Captain America, and Avengers. The Cap annual is by Gerry Duggan and is decently fun, IMO; Iron Man and Avengers are by Jed MacKay and are superb. The Iron Man one is one of the best Iron Man solo books I've read in a long time -- honestly, the characterization is great -- and the Avengers one is a must-read if you like Steve & Tony because it is pretty much them hanging out and being friends and fighting the villain together.

Dark Ages: This is an out-of-continuity miniseries event thing by Tom Taylor (of Superior Iron Man fame) where electricity no longer works, and while it doesn't focus exclusively on Steve and Tony we do see them and they seem to have an intriguing dynamic and some cool character design. Steve's rocking a Post-Apocalyptic Beard.

Darkhold: This is a horror miniseries whose most recent issue is about Iron Man and is also by Ryan North, who I think wrote Tony very well in Squirrel Girl. I absolutely love how he writes Tony here but it is very, very body horror and, alas, I had to stop reading it because it was too much for me. But the characterization was great and it was a lovely take on early-canon Tony.

Captain America Infinity Comic: I know I've talked about this multiple times before, but if you like Captain America you need to find and read Jay Edidin's Cap comic here without delay. It is the best Cap comic I have read in years, and Jay just 100% nails Steve, as far as I am concerned. It's so good. It's so so good.

Death of Doctor Strange: If you don't read Strange comics, you probably didn't pick this series up. But it's by Jed MacKay who gave us the excellent Avengers annual and the most recent issue this week (#2) is fun and has a nice cameo by the Avengers, including Steve and Tony, and I liked it a whole lot. The way he writes the Avengers is basically how I would like the Avengers to currently feel. The next issue in the series is an Avengers tie-in (Death of Doctor Strange: Avengers) and it's by someone else, I think, but the preview just came out and all of the preview is Quality Tony Stark Content. (There are a few pages of him talking with Strange in a flashback about his hatred of magic, and then a page of very very angsty Tony angst.)

So, yeah, I am excited for the team-up miniseries but also I think there's been and hopefully will continue to be some very nice Steve and Tony content even other than that.

[sineala]

Are you current at all on Iron Man comics? Google gotcha'd me with a review for (apparently) the most recent issue and something...bummed me out. Idk maybe I have an idealized vision of Tony but this little excerpt irked me: "The people have cobbled together a small town and share what they have communally. Tony, the eternal capitalist, doesn't quite understand."

I just, I don't. I don't know. Am I nuts? (Yes, but that's unrelated lol)

I am current on Iron Man comics and this is honestly my least favorite Iron Man run I have ever read, so, yeah. I'm with you.

Putting some salt beneath the Read More.

I feel like there's been a trend in Iron Man comics in the past decade or so, in which Tony, who basically started as the fantasy of the One Ethical Billionaire (well, okay, it used to be Millionaire) who basically just wanted to be good to people and if anything seems to have seen his money as a tool toward accomplishing that and was generally very kind, very caring, very responsible and just wanted to make the world the best place he possibly can -- well, he seems to have turned into We Know What Billionaires Are Like, Don't We where he spends his money on fast cars and other expensive hobbies. That kind of thing. Doing Cool Things with money, and, I mean, not that Tony didn't do Cool Things before, obviously, but I'm not seeing a lot of comics these days about, say, Tony funding women's shelters.

The current Iron Man run has basically taken as its starting point the idea that Tony is a rich guy out of touch with how everyone else lives and that he needs a series of reality checks about pretty much everything. And in principle, that's not a bad plot for a story, but it's, in my opinion, a very weird choice as a plot for Tony because this has never been a problem for him before. So now he has to Learn Things that there's ample evidence in canon of him already knowing.

So we get plotlines where, like, Patsy tells Tony that he doesn't understand what it's like not to have money, because he's paying his own hospital bill and is upset about flying commercial. And, yes, he's accustomed to having money and doesn't have the experience of, say, growing up in poverty -- but he has definitely had the experience of having literally zero money. Patsy also tells Tony that he doesn't know what it's like to be suicidal, and Tony agrees, which is a little odd given that Tony has literally been shown attempting suicide on-panel twice.

Anyway, I feel like the plot of the most recent issue is another example of Tony apparently needing to Learn Things that he should have already known. He learns that it's fulfilling to help people! I mean, uh, he's a superhero. I think he already knows that. He learns that it's fulfilling to help people without expecting them to be grateful and without needing to take the credit! I mean, okay, that's nice for him, but also he had a secret identity for forty years. He's spent a while not taking the credit. At one point he makes an impassioned speech to the US Senate when he's trying to become the Secretary of Defense and he tells them all about how he's saved the world so many times no one else will ever know and he doesn't take the credit and he does it because it's the right thing to do. So this is, to me, yet another instance of this run doing what it's been doing all along, which is postulating that Tony needs to learn, say, humility and empathy, when I feel like he has been shown as already knowing these things for years.

[sineala]

Secret sub Steve? You have my attention 👀

I have actually already talked about this one a couple times before, most extensively here and here. The tl;dr version is that it's a BDSM AU in which Steve was born a sub, is generally terrible at being a sub and has never felt actually fulfilled as a sub, and he signs up for Project Rebirth which promises to make him a big strong dom and let him fight for his country. (Subs are obviously not allowed to be in combat.)

So Project Rebirth makes him big and strong and... doesn't change a thing about his orientation. But everyone assumes that it did, and Steve wants to serve his country so... he lies. And he keeps lying. And he is basically really, really fucked up inside his head by the time the Avengers find him in the ice, because he's been hiding who he is for so long and he thinks he has to keep hiding and here he is in this strange future where nothing is like it used to be. And here's Tony, who is an extremely soft and gentle dom (which is not super popular, and was definitely not a thing his father liked about him, but it's who he is) and who is also exactly the kind of dom Steve has wanted all along but did not know existed.

Anyway, there is a lot of culture shock and extremely gentle kink and also Tony refuses to date Steve for large portions of this because he worries he'd be taking advantage of him, given the extremely different background Steve was raised in and the way Steve was raised to be subservient to doms, so they are just scening every so often as Good Friends who happen to have a large amount of unresolved sexual tension. And then they, uh, resolve it.

At some point I should probably outline and write this; mostly I just haven’t figured out how to structure it or if I want it entirely in Steve’s POV.

[festiveferret]

Prompt Party 2018 (Masterpost)

I never did a full masterpost for my 2018 prompts, so here they are! I still reserve the right to finish more of them, if I feel like. Maybe some day I’ll clear my inbox and post all the ones I couldn’t get to. 2019 prompts are underway too!

1. Sleepy bottom!Tony (with a little uniform kink) - 2096 - for anon

2. Steve flies the Iron Man armour - 1522 - for lacrimula-falsa

3. Fangbait - vamp!Steve and fangbaiter!Tony - 5027 - for “anon”

4. Steve realizes he’s in love with Tony - 1020 - for beautifulmonster

5. Ults!Steve interacts with Greg (secret relationship) - 896 - for anon

6. Steve and Tony get an important phone call (fluff) - 844 - for anon

7. Hanahaki disease + fake dating - 19,068 - for salable_mystic

8. Stressed!Steve and caring!Tony (handholding) - 750 - for arukou-arukou

9. Tony fucking Steve on his bike (Held) - 1704 - for anon

10. Top Drop/Dom Drop (Held) - 3339 - for “anon”

11. Presumed dead - 7282 - for snoozingcat

12. Daemon/HDM AU - 475 (snippet) - for anon

13. Steve the graffiti artist AU - 1679 - for suhnnyzhp22

14. Jealous!Tony - 3392 - for vaticancameos186

15. Tony can’t feel pain - 8061 - for anon

16. sub!Tony w/praise kink - 1103 - for anon

17. “You said you loved me. Was that a lie?” - 1907 - for anon

18. Cute, quirky sleeping habits - 2338 - for bardingbeedle

19. Steve gets a bunny tail and ears - 808 - for anon

20. Capwolf - 8128 - for anon

21. Naked time travel - 3235 - for anon

22. “I’m so lucky to have you” + soft domestic - 2575 - for snooglepoot/anon

23. D/s porn with choices (Held) - 879 - for anon

That’s it! If I fill any more, I’ll reblog with them added on. A few of these were combined, so I managed a total of 25 prompts filled. I updated these links to all be on AO3, but most of them are posted on tumblr too, if you search my #prompt party tag. Thanks for prompting and thanks for reading!

[festiveferret]

snooglepoot replied to yourpost:What are some big, classic tropes I haven’t done...

Have you done….amnesia? Lots of amnesia-related tropes

Oh man, I actually have an amnesia idea I’ve been wanting to do for a loooong time, but it’s going to be a longy and I’m afraid to get sucked into it when I have other stuff I need to do. But it’s def a Big Want. 

[festiveferret]

ishipallthings replied to your post: snooglepoot replied to yourpost: What are some big,...

Ohh, I’m intrigued - who’s the amnesiac in your idea?

Bucky :DDDDD >:))))))