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jobean12-blog · 3 years

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Is it okay to bombard you with a thot I had yesterday on my way home from work? I literally spent a day daydreaming about it but it's still kind of all over the place, so I'm sorry.

Imagine reader is Bucky’s sister. Due to a accident in the timeline nobody knew about her until Dr. Strange is cleaning up the mess and brings her back (post-endgame).

But now she becomes a target of Bucky’s enemies and he and Sam decide that she's best hidden with Steve, who didn't go back in time for good but retired anyways. Think of IW!Steve with the beard and flanel shirt who lives in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

They hadn't really met before and Steve promises to look after her.

One afternoon, while he's chopping wood, a discussion goes heated (because we all know that Steve is passionate about his views) and he basically rips a log a la age of ultron. And she just goes wide-eyed "wow that was fucking sexy!" and then he proceeds to show her how strong he really is.

And I.... 🤤

Safe With Me

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader

Word Count: 543

Summary: You are hiding away with Steve and he's either the best roommate there is or the worst...

Author's Note: This is for the HBC's @the-ce-horniest-book-club Candy Hearts Club Event and day 5 (feb 16th): XOXO, Hot Stuff, Fax Me and Crazy 4 U. Again, no candy hearts but the words were my inspo! I love that you shared this with me anon, LOVE THIRSTY THOUGHTS and this is DELISH! It also made me think of my friend Nix's amazing edit that you see here below! OOF! Thank you for sending this my way sweets, hope you have a great evening! HUGS! Enjoy! 💕💕Thank you all so very much for reading and much love always! ❤️❤️❤️ Divider by my lovely friend @firefly-graphics thank you bunches 🥰

Warnings: teasing, flirting, sassiness, fluffy spice

EDIT NOT MINE: This beautiful photo is by my lovely friend Nix, you can find her on Insta HERE. ❤️

“Come on sweetheart. I can’t be that bad of a roommate?”

You shield your narrowed eyes from the bright morning sun and consider your answer. Steve drops the axe to the ground and holds your gaze as he rolls up the sleeves of his flannel. You can’t stop your eyes from drifting to the taut muscle that he exposes and the prominent veins running through his arms.

A bead of sweat slides free from his temple and follows the sharp outline of his jaw until it runs down his thick neck. It disappears into the open buttons of his shirt and your tongue darts out to trace the outline of your lips.

“That’s what I thought,” he simpers.

You shift on your feet and place your hands on your hips, huffing under your breath.

“You…you…”

With one hand Steve grabs another large piece of firewood and raises his brow.

“I what?” he asks, taking a step closer.

His distinct scent overcomes you, the smell of warm vanilla mixed with something woodsy filling your senses.

“You’re always asking me where I’m going or what I’m doing or how long I’ll be…it’s like living at home again!”

“I’m keeping you safe,” he states plainly. “That’s my job isn’t it?”

With that he grabs the end of the log and rips it clean in half.

“Fuck,” you mutter.

At your intake of breath he smirks, dropping the two halves and taking the last step to close the space between your bodies.

“Any other complaints?” he murmurs.

His chest brushes yours with his next inhale and you reach up to grab the material of his shirt. His long lashes kiss his cheeks when he looks down and he gently wraps his fingers around your wrists.

“You have sawdust on your collar,” you breathe out. “I was just going to get it off.”

He lifts your hands to his mouth, brushing his lips across your knuckles and pulling you closer.

For a moment you’re too caught up in your haze of lust to make any movements but when he places your hand at his collar you clear your throat and rub your fingers over his shirt. As you keep your eyes on his you slip your hand under the material and brush your fingertips over his warm skin.

“I think I got it all,” you whisper.

“Thanks,” he hums.

“Anytime,” you swallow. “And thanks for taking care of me. I’m sorry if I seem ungrateful. It’s just…”

Your head drops and you fight the urge to bury your face in his broad chest but his strong, calloused fingers caress your cheek until you’re staring back into his clear blue eyes.

“I’m sure it’s hard being cooped up here with me all the time,” he says softly. “Maybe I need to do a better job of taking care of you.”

His last words carry a different tone, one that��s possessive and holds the promise of something sinful. Your chest heaves with the effort to keep your breathing steady and when he tilts his face closer a small moan leaves the back of your throat.

“I have a long list of ways,” he simpers. “Things I’ve been thinking about since the moment I saw you.”

“Do them all,” you plead.

#steve rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x female reader #captain america #steve rogers drabble #chris evans

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ficrecsbybu · 3 years

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WinterIron fic rec 2021: Part I

Note: this fic rec consists only of Bucky Barnes/Tony Stark fics. the only Stucky & Stony you might see is as past relationships but that’s it. it’s also complete works ONLY. also - no underage stuff 🔪. if you have any requests for Winteriron fic recs (for e.g non-superpower au, only one shots, series, hardcore smut, post-tws, college au, not team cap friendly fics, bodyguard au etc.) you can send me requests ^^. anyway... enjoy 😉

✨ The Guiding of Death by RayShippouUchiha

“That whole Merchant of Death thing,” someone off to the side faux whispers, “makes a lot more sense now.”

It echoes across the bridge like a gunshot.

Rated M, Hades & Persephone AU, Canon Divergence, always female Tony Stark, not Team Cap friendly. word count: 41391

(note: listen... I know het pairings and/or gender bend is not popular and I never really read those in general BUT this is straight up one of the best fics I have ever read so I NEEDED to share this with y’all...✌️)

✨ Forms of Love by bear_bell

Tony's the bad guy, after all. He's used to it. He's fine with it. He's good at it.

Only now, there's something far worse loitering around the tower - The Winter Soldier. No one notices the guy at first, but when they do, Tony figures that he should have the soldier's back.

Birds of a feather should flock together, and the bad guys should start a book club.

Rated E, Post-CW, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, Team Iron Man. word count: 33591

✨ Looking at You by NotEvenCloseToStraight

Bucky looks for so long that now all he wants to do is touch and hold and fix everything. But Tony can barely be in the same room as Bucky, cant even look him in the eye. So Bucky doesn't know what to do about Tony, but he is determined to do something. Because all he wants is to look at Tony, and see Tony looking back with a smile.

Rated E, Post-CW, PTSD, team heals, mental healing, forgiveness, angst with a happy ending. word count: 28,168

✨ I'll Be Your Bodyguard (If You'll Be My Security Blanket) by NarutoRox

When one of Loki's pranks gone wrong leaves the team with a young Winter Soldier in their care, they know they're going to have their hands full. Especially since this newer, tinier version of Bucky seems to have a bodyguard complex - and a particular attachment to Tony.

Rated T, kid fic, age regression/de-aging, de-aged Bucky, tiny bodyguard Bucky. word count: 4,993.

(note: finally something CUTE. Im so sorry for being such a slut for angst and heavy stuff 😅)

✨ Fate Strings Not Required by Akira_of_the_Twilight

Tony took the hint.

Tony wrapped his hand around the new guy’s elbow. He kept his touch light and breakable in case he’d misread the cue.

“Just some guy claiming to be my soul mate, babe.”

The new guy’s eyebrows rose to his hairline in surprise. He chuckled and gave the first guy a smirk. “Strange. Last time I checked we were soul mates.”

Rated T, AU - no superpowers, AU - soulmates, Bodyguard Bucky Barnes, age difference. word count: 7,032.

✨ Shameless by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)

Tony isn’t actually sure which of them starts it—he’d like to take credit, but if he’s learned anything it’s that Barnes is by no means a wilting flower. Besides, the start doesn’t matter as much as figuring out who’s going to actually finish it.

rated M, flirting, dirty talk, sexual tension. word count: 2,560

✨ Winter Wooer by salytierra

Winter may not be the most pleasant guy to live or share your body with, but he isn't nearly as destructive as everybody expected him to be either. He likes to brood in the corners, watch British TV, and freak people out. And Tony. He really, really likes Tony Stark. There's just one problem – Bucky's pretty sure he doesn't feel the same way about the guy.

Rated M, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, team as family. word count: 8,726

✨ Even Darkness Must Pass by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar)

“Fake it till you make it,” Bucky whispered to himself, swallowing around his panic. Sam had drilled the idea into him, and it had become a mantra of sorts, something to hold onto when all he wanted to do was blend into the shadows and disappear.

“You’ll be fine.”

Steve placed a warm, strong hand on Bucky’s shoulder and squeezed, his super soldier ears having picked up Bucky uttering the now familiar saying.

Bucky nodded, tried to believe his own words, and followed Steve onto the common floor, a wall of sound hitting them as they entered.

rated M (but mild sexual content), parent Tony Stark, Bucky Barnes recovering, team as family, of love and hobbits 🧝🏻‍♂️. word count: 15,289

✨ Paths Are Made by Walking by Potrix

The road to recovery is long, winding and a different one for every person walking it. Bucky chooses to help himself the only way he knows how; by doing what he does best.

Or, alternatively; the one in which Tony is a mess and accidentally kick-starts Bucky’s protective mother hen instincts.

rated T, post-TWS, fluff, humour, getting together, idiots in love. word count: 4,744.

✨ Rise In Perfect Light (Be Not Fearful Of The Night) by RayShippouUchiha

At first, the new element singing in his chest, Tony doesn’t understand what he’s done.

Doesn’t understand the full consequences of his actions.

But, to be fair, there’s no way he really could have.

Not even a futurist like him could have ever seen this coming.

rated G, post-CW, past Stony, angst with a happy ending. word count: 3,589.

(note: this fic is SO BEAUTIFUL. lemme just asjkdjnsjkdm)

✨ and amidst the ruins, there was you by TheKitteh

With everything resolved - post the Berlin conflict, Siberia and the rogue Avengers' return - Tony relishes in the clarity of what the team is now. He can finally see the well-defined lines, he can rely on solid rules and the chain of command. He's settled into his life like never before.

That is, until one day, an unhinged sorcerer with no grasp on his magic shatters that new-found balance.

As a result, half of Tony's soul is now gone, but he's willing to do anything to get it back.

rated T, post-CW, canon divergence, au - Dystopia, Dimension Travel, magical accidents, slow burn, getting together. word count: 36,976

✨ and so we unfold by TheKitteh

Senbazuru. Thousand Cranes.

An ancient Japanese legend that promises anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by the gods. Some stories believe you are granted happiness and eternal good luck, instead of just one wish, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury.

Bucky’s not big on believing in any legends, not after all that has happened. He just wants to create something for a change, not destroy.

He needs to prove himself that he can be trusted to handle something delicate. He doesn’t need a promise of a wish come true. He just,- needs to do this for himself.

He doesn’t need noticing how sad, tired Stark looks. Doesn’t need to want to do something for the man, when he can barely do anything for himself.

rated T, CACW canon divergence, getting together, reconciliation, POV alternating, Bucky Barnes recovering. word count: 14,449

✨ Spilt on the Ground like Water by tisfan

Tony has been black-bagged and illegally held at the Raft. Steve has no intentions of going to rescue him.

But the Winter Soldier isn't going to leave him behind.

rated E, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, implied/referenced torture, frottage, dub-con, mention of part non-con (HYDRA trash party), not Steve friendly, suicidal thoughts, touch-starved. word count: 10,853

✨ Norns, Save Us (From Ourselves) by phlintandsteel

It’s been ten years since half the universe was dusted.

rated E, post-IW au, A/B/O verse, Omega Tony, Alpha Bucky, Soulmates, Peter & Harley playing matchmaker, still recovering Bucky Barnes, not Steve Rogers Friendly, angst with a happy ending. word count: 37,324.

✨ Change You Like A Remix by ficlicious

No one ever said Avenging would be easy, but Bucky could have really used a memo about the weeks where the hits just didn’t stop coming. He’d probably still have signed his soul away to the gods of spandex and paperwork, but a heads up woulda been nice before he nodded and smiled and took up residence in the house sanity fled when the Avengers moved in.

---- Soulmates, misunderstandings, snark, genderswap and sleep-deprived Avengers abound. Tony's a woman. Must be Friday.

rated E, AU - soulmates, established relationship, temporary gender swap, jealous Bucky Barnes, misunderstanding, miscommunication. word count: 10,494.

✨ Getting to Know You by orbingarrow

It had been an adventure, navigating the sweetly apologetic Bucky Barnes, who haunted the tower most days, and the the Winter Soldier, who occasionally inhabited Barnes’s body. The Winter Soldier was not apologetic; he was scary. And he was currently chilling out, uninvited, in Tony's lab.

“Leave,” Tony said, because Tony was either a dead man or not, and there wasn’t much he could do about it before coffee.

“Or you could give me permission to be here,” the Winter Soldier suggested.

“I don’t let strangers poke around my stuff,” Tony grumbled, as he walked past the Soldier to take a seat at his workbench.

“Easily solved,” the Soldier deflected. “Get to know me.”

-This is what happens when Tony does.

rated G, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are different personalities, fluff, Clint Barton is a good bro. word count: 9,470

✨ Safe House by ali_aliska

For years, Tony had successfully kept his secret. Neither the world nor his team knew he was Iron Man and as far as he was concerned, everyone was better off that way. On his best days, Tony Stark was not someone people liked and trusted, so the last thing Tony wanted was to tarnish Iron Man’s good reputation by revealing the truth.

But then SHIELD falls, the Avengers face disarray, and a stray Hydra assassin forces Tony to go into hiding—and where better than the safe house he had just crafted for the Avengers and their own ex-assassin ready to come in from the cold?

Tony plans to hide away from everyone in his makeshift workshop until the coast is clear and he’s safe to go home. No one would care to spend any time with the reclusive, arrogant billionaire anyways, right? Iron Man is the one everyone wants around.

Bucky Barnes, on his own journey to reclaim his life and identity, seems to disagree with that sentiment.

rated T, post TWS, canon divergence, au - Secret Identity, mutual pining, team as family, slow burn, misunderstandings. word count: 89,533

✨ Versace on the floor by withered

The modern man’s armor is his clothing, and Bucky wants Tony out of his.

rated T, post CW, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Separate Personalities, Barnes & Soldier & their hard-on for Tony, not team cap friendly. word count: 2,127

#winteriron #tony stark #bucky barnes #iron man #winter soldier #avengers #winteriron fic rec #fic rec #mcu #marvel #otp #steve rogers #past stony #past stucky

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doctorofmagic · 4 years

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@groovyfluxie said:

That’s also what I’m worried about: that Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will not be about Stephen and he’ll just be sidelined to focus on Wanda. A Doctor Strange movie should have the main focus be on its title character: Doctor Stephen Strange!

I have the feeling that MoM is going to be like Civil War - sometimes I forget that the movie is called Captain America - Civil War. It’s more about heroes fighting each other, and only the final scene is about Tony, Steve and Bucky. What can I say? One more IW/Endgame movie featuring Stephen here we go ~

@amagicdoctor said:

I wish Strange Academy writers a very pleasant put him back or else🌚

Same, honestly. Well, I mean, Toth will probably be restored, but the drama... it’s tiresome :( I had enough with Doyle.

@nhydrxl said:

That's so bittersweet :( thank you for your context and input

It is, and it’s breaking my heart even though it’s soft and sweet 😭 😭 And thank you for your support!

@knight-lite (can’t tag, sorry) said:

ngl I feel like Stephen, it's hard for me to make friends of the opposite sex without it getting romantic...I cause my own pain :(

Aw, I’m so sorry to hear it. Good luck with your friendships!

@danversmaximoff (cant’ tag, sorry) said:

I just finished reading it and was surprised as well. The next two covers are beautiful.

It was so unexpected, honestly. But the cover art is indeed so beautiful! The details, the colors... *chef’s kiss*

@writingismydivision said:

Waoh. I've hoped that Carol and Stephen meet in the MCU (because I love both Benedict Cumberbatch and Brie Larson, and I'll love to see them interact) and have a healthy friendship, but I never knew they had a thing together in the comics! I think it's cute, to be honest.

They’ve never had a romantic relationship in comics until know. It was all friendship until they felt vulnerable and lonely and why not haha. But I believe they’ll keep their friendship when this is over. I’m just worried they’ll end up hurt. And I don’t want them to be hurt 😭 😭

@theblackqueen-ofmyheart said:

so it’s definitely a thing cloakie does, just wrapping around people Stephen sleeps with.

I thought it was a Clea thing, I’m a bit disappointed it’s not that special haha.

@circusofmagik said:

Wuuut? I just.....(left chat)

Noooo!! Please, come back! I’m sure everything will be fine (sort of)

@hello-strangelove said:

WHY DO I FEEL UNCOMFY

I FELT UNEASY FOR A MOMENT TOO. But I’m fine now, I guess. As I read the issue, the context was sweet and sad at the same time.

@mevaa said:

What

The only possible reaction.

@prettywitchiusaka said:

What the fuck is it with Marvel trying to make Doctor Strange the next Tony Stark!? Honestly!?

Humm... I don’t believe they’re trying to portray Stephen as a dog all over again (and I’m not calling Tony a dog either, they both had their infamous moments in the 10′s and I hate it). He was quite respectful towards Carol and they’re aware they’re dealing with a vulnerable moment in their lives. The thing with Elektra was way more physical and that’s why I felt uncomfy. Their chemistry is based merely on physical attraction, while I’d rather invest my feelings on a relationship with a background. It’s clear that both Carol and Stephen know it won’t last, they’re just exchanging emotional support. The only difference is, Carol has Rhodey, while Stephen... Yeah... I hope he’s fine. Overall, I find it cute and heartbreaking, as I explained on my post about how I feel about them. What I’m trying to say is, the emotional background exists in this case, that’s why I don’t find it lazy or terrible. I recommend reading the whole issue, it’s good!

-----

Am I forgetting to reply someone? If so, please let me know!

#reply

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usaonetwothree · 3 years

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Doctor Strange and Black Panther!

doctor strange - describe the process that leads up to publishing your fics. do you outline the whole thing? obsessively edit it? create moodboards?

I have the whole fic written before I post it, mostly because I always think of something later in the fic that I need to mention earlier on to make it work. I have such respect for the writers who can publish one chapter at a time and have a cohesive fic. #teachmeyourways

Paper is always involved in the drafting process, whether it be for a timeline, or different arcs. I have all these saved in a physical file folder (really dating myself with this approach...), and they're really fun to go back to.

Scare Tactics is the last one I did this for. There was one sheet that was the timeline, with eight vertical sections and folded once horizontally. That represented the eight days of the main part of the fic, split into night and day. And then in each square I filled out the things that happened that night/day and the chapter they corresponded with. This is mostly done while writing instead of being done ahead of time, so I can refer back to it for passage of time questions, but it also served as an outline for what I knew was going to happen.

Sometimes, like A Chance To Heal, it comes to me in the middle of the night and I'm frantically scrawling down my ideas on a sheet of loose leaf before I can forget. Didn't change that plan hardly at all, just covered the bits my subconscious spat out.

There's also lots of paper with floor plans if we only see the place in pieces throughout the show (Hopper's cabin, for example, and Frank Adler's apartment. Hopper's cabin still throws me for a loop, if I'm not looking right at a diagram of it...)

I edit obsessively: a bunch in Word and a final pass once it's in the FFN/ao3 editor. And there's a good chance I reread the chapter sometime after posting, and edit again (these are smaller edits, mostly typos, changing some pronouns to names, splitting or combining sentences, etc.)

I'm not creative enough for moodboards, but if anyone ever makes them or art or a podcast/podfic of my stuff, you will be one of my favorite people on the planet.

black panther - what’s your favorite fic that you posted?

(just his reaction, not the fan question)

I had to think about this a lot, and narrowed it down to three.

1) Operation Christmas Presents. @you-cant-just-import-answer was the first of my friends I told about my FFN writing hobbies, and when I asked her to read the 1k one-shot of this idea, she did and texted back, “yeah, but...” before going on a rant about how it could be more. So we kinda co-wrote it, even though her name isn’t on it. She gave me all the dancing bits for the first chapter, and we are definitely Steve and Bucky trying sushi in the epilogue. So it has a very special place in my heart.

2) A Chance To Heal. Selfishly, because it was my first fic that was really really popular, and it felt so amazing to get such an insane response to it. But mostly because it’s still a gap I wish they’d addressed in the show, and I was really happy with the way the fic turned out. Steve deserved (deserves?) all the protective parenting from Hopper after that nightmare. (No, I’m not still bitter we didn’t get any of it in Season Four either. Why do you ask?)

3) On Your Six. Most of this is my favorite parts of unfinished fics that will never happen, amped up with more whump, and a singular plotline showing how Steve and Tony’s relationship developed. It was really fun to go back to their 2012 grudging appreciation yet steadfast denial of each other’s abilities after we’ve seen them struggle through IW and Endgame, and revisit the simpler times. It’s like a warm blanket waiting for me when I’m craving some whump or missing the MCU (looking at you for ruining that for me, Rona...)

Thanks @16woodsequ!!

Ask game meme

#ask game #answered #16woodsequ

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lowkeysebastianstan · 5 years

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let’s talk about basic screenwriting rules and a little thing called chekov’s gun, or planting and payoff.

let me begin by saying that i do not object to sam being captain america, i do think he was the better choice, it’s a big step for representation and both sam and mackie deserve both that and more (crossing my fingers they actually do him justice, but whatever.) with that out of the way, let’s talk screenwriting.

okay. so christopher markus and stephen mcfeely have graced us with the scripts for all the movies which feature bucky, and sam for that matter. if we disregard post-credit scenes and cameos, those films are ca: tfa, ca: tws, ca: cw, a: iw and a: eg. (in addition does sam feature in a: ou, but tbh i’ve not seen that in so long i cannot really remember how much he’s in it. it doesn’t really matter, let’s move on.)

now, when telling a coherent story, it’s important to keep track of all plot threads, to make them weave in and out, and to focus on what helps you tell the story

there are many ways to do this, but cinema, as an extremely contained type of media is particularly dependant on using every prop or setpiece consciously, and there are some guidelines or rules that make it easier

that helps the screenwriters and the directors to decide what to include in any given scene, what to emphasise, what to steer the audience’s attention towards

this specific rule is called chekov’s gun, or planting and payoff

it’s named for anton chekov, a russian playwright and short-story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history

who said: “If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story."

so it’s a rule where information, in form of clues or objects, are given early on, then brought back later. this is also known as foreshadowing

the way it works is that you introduce an object, a word, an image, something that later in the story will be of significance

then, depending on the amount of time that passes, you either need a reminder

or you don’t

but either way it will give the story a thread that can be followed, sometimes discreetly, sometimes obvious, but that (almost) always results in a natural and rewarding conclusion

it’s the most common way to avoid a “deus ex machina”, aka, a contrived plot device, where the outcome seems unearned and to come out of nowhere (yes, i know sam becomes cap in the comics, that will be addressed further down)

now, again, i have to repeat, i totally agree with the decision to make sam captain america, that is not the point

the point is neither that “ooohhh some of those are from a trailer and a deleted scene, and besides it doesn’t matter bc bucky didn’t pick up the shield in endgame anyway, so”

the point is, however, that the mcu is a contained story that culminated with avengers endgame in 2019. the part of this story that involves captain america, is 100% written, and 80% directed by the same creators, markus and mcfeely, and the russo brothers.

and so one might ask then, when the same people have been in complete control of a cohesive franchise, when they apparently are experienced and celebrated in their field, when they have proven, on occasion, that they are capable in their craft, or, at the very least, not likely to make such a basic mistake as to plant and remind again and again, that one character will pick up the mantle and then at the last second give it to the other.

when they write a character to be tortured and abused, that have never done anything villainous when in control of their own mind, and then claim

“Both of them have picked up [the shield] in the comics; Bucky and Sam. But, when you look back at “The First Avenger” and realize why he was chosen to be the first super soldier, it’s about a certain purity at heart and a certain inner heroism. It’s pretty hard to give it to Bucky. As much as we love him, he is on the dark path and is recovering from that. Sam really is a truly stand up guy. It wasn’t a wildly difficult choice, certainly. I think Bucky has a lot more story as Bucky and as someone headed on a path of atonement. And Sam has ascended into this new role.“

so yeah. it was never about whether or not sam deserves it, that he’s in any way the lesser choice. it’s about how the creators of this franchise had an outlined story, had character arcs decided and then saw that they had, inadvertently or not, created a story with connotations they didn’t dare pursue. so instead of actually following through on their own premise, they pulled away at the end to avert attention from their mistake and seemingly forgot what story they had begun to tell.

to plant an idea so blatantly as they did when it came to bucky and the shield, knowing that, even if not all, a lot of fans would know about bucky taking the mantle in the comics and then give it to sam, who, even though he also gets it in the comics, hasn’t been set up in that way at all in the mcu.

again, and i cannot stress this enough lest y’all pull out your pitchforks and have at me, this is not about sam. this is only about markus, mcfeely and joe and anthony russo being bad storytellers that cannot keep to one of the most basic principles in movie making 101 and because of that delivered a crap product. in many more ways than this, but since i felt like wasting a couple of hours, this is what i used as an example.

as a last note, not only does sam deserve it and is the better choice both in-universe and out, mackie deserves it, no doubt about that. it’s comic canon, just as much as bucky, (although bucky gets it first, just sayin), and it’s a very important stride towards more diversity and representation in the mcu. i support it 100%.

even so, i have to admit, that not only did sebastian also deserve it, but that he’s been kinda screwed over by marvel, the plants weren’t only for bucky, but also for him.

“They sure like to dangle a cheese in front of my nose a lot,” Sebastian Stan said during the Winter Soldier press tour. “They're like 'Oh yeah, that's where you pick up the shield,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, I've heard that one before. There it is again.'”

In 2016, Stan told Nerdist: “You know, I was sitting there in a room with [Marvel] and basically they were saying to me that this is what’s gonna happen: He’s gonna be the Winter Soldier, and then eventually he’s gonna become Captain America.

imsebastianstan "Excuse me...where's the restroom?" A big thank you and shout out to Casey McBroom shield_labs for making this for me. Will come in handy... #wintersoldier #marvel

Nov. 28 2016.

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queenitn · 5 years

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The more I think about it, the less sense Steve's ending makes

I know I'm way too late, but I'm not over it yet and I'm assuming there's other people who aren't either. So I'm just gonna feed the flames of resistance.

First, let me just say that I do think Steve would save the alternate timeline's 40s!Bucky and Natasha from Red Room (and probably kill the fuck out of Zola). That's not the problem.

Also, I read a post somewhere about how Steve essentially being a Time Traveller is pretty much a gift, and how he could be doing literally anything out there. I agree. I'd much rather believe he's at some rave in the 15th century than believe he's living it out in the 40s. But unfortunately, that's purely hypothetical. As far as canon is concerned, the implication to the GA is that 2023!Steve returned the stones and then decided to try persuing a relationship with Peggy. That's what I don't buy.

The thing is, this is an emotional ending. It makes you feel. That's why it works with people at all. It's mimicking a soldier's homecoming. It's poetic. But when you start bombarding it with logic....it gets fucked.

What about the 40s!Steve stuck in the ice? According to the Russos, he gets rescued too. What then? How do they explain the Two Steves thing to people? Do the Steves sit down and go like, "You take Peggy, I'll take Bucky?" No, they fucking don't.

What does Steve tell Peggy? Does he tell her the truth? Does he say, "Hey I'm from an alternate timeline where I woke up in the future where you were old and married and now I've gotten tired of my timeline's bullshit so I wanna start over with you." Doesn't seem like something Peggy Carter would accept. Or does he lie? In that case, that doesn't seem to be a very happy life he lived.

How do they get past their differences?

Here's the thing, 2023!Steve is not 40s!Steve. He's ten years older. He's seen shit 40s!Steve can't yet imagine. And he's done. He's tired and he wants to go home. Peggy does not. She's just getting started. She's got shit to do. They're in two completely different stages in life, and that's not easy to handle. Can they work it out? Probably. Maybe Steve becomes her trophy husband. It's possible...but doubtful. So the point stands.

Not to mention, this makes Steve the man out of time twice over. He may not entirely belong in the future, but he doesn't belong in the past anymore either. All those memes about him slipping up and mentioning Google or something aren't just shitting around. They bring up a legit concern. He's a guy from the future. Any tiny slip he makes can change the course of this new timeline entirely. But no pressure.

And in the end...isn't it just plain redundant? He woke up in the future and mourned the life he could have lived. He got himself a new family and a home. Don't tell me he didn't. What was it Steve said in IW? "Where to? Home." Yes, the Avengers ARE his home. Natasha and Sam and Bucky and Wanda. They're his family. They're the people he'd spent the past two years with between CW and IW. How is his time with them any less meaningful than his time during the war? Why would he leave the found family he already has (albeit minus Natasha) for a vague idea of what could have been? Why put himself through that again? And make no mistake, his coming back an old man isn't him coming back for them. That was abandonment. And I just can't see him doing that.

Because Steve is SMART. You could even say he's a stone cold asshole sometimes. There's no way he wouldn't have thought of all this and more. And knowing all this (and all the other stuff I'm forgetting) I don't see him making this choice. It's just....going in circles. It's pointless. I can't see it providing Steve with any real comfort or peace.

What I think should have happened? He should have gotten his dance with Peggy, and then he should have come back, given the shield to Sam and then gone to truly get that life Tony told him to get.

Here's the thing. I do believe Steve had already moved on from the 40s. That locket? Seems to me he was drawing comfort from it. Usually you don't really seek comfort from the thing causing you grief. His locket can, arguably, be seen as a sign of him having let go of the past. So could he have "moved on and gotten a life" with Peggy? Maybe, but considering all the shit I just spouted, the chances really aren't all that high.

So why put yourself through unnecessary pain, leave behind the people you'd been trying to mourn (he never mentioned any of them ONCE. Silent sufferer anyone?) to....go back to something you've already made peace with?? That's just. Bullshit.

So yeah, I call bullshit. My Steve is smarter than that.

This isn't about Steggy or Stucky. This is about Steve. My boy deserved better.

#steve rogers #steve rogers defense squad #steve rogers deserved better #not my steve rogers #avengers endgame #captain america

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oh-sheesh · 5 years

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How Endgame Should Have Happened

bc the science and everything is wrong.

The time skip would be between 1 month and 2 years. Long enough to have an effect but not too long

5 years pokes way too many plot holes for future movies

Bc of this, Morgan is not born yet…. An end credit scene could be announcing Pepper’s pregnancy

Thanos did not destroy the stones.

The science behind this is too weird, the stones are basically the divine power in the MCU and destroying them messes up a lot.

Instead: he uses them to re-scatter them across the universe

He scatters all but the soul stone

The soul stone has Gamora in it. Thanos’ whole emotional appeal is Gamora, so it would make sense he can’t part with ‘her’ even if she’s in the stone

Instead of time travel, the OG 6 + the others travel space to recollect the stones

Scott’s quantum realm business could have offered a way to easily track the stones or give them a way to travel to them

Once all the stones are found, they have to face Thanos for the Soul Stone

But first! They need their own gauntlet. Tony, Thor, and Bruce can travel to the star and create one

Thor is the one to wear the gauntlet. He is a god.

The thanos confrontation can be an epic battle, but the avengers get the stone from him

Thor snaps. In order to prevent the destruction/decay to getting to the rest of him, he uses Stormbreaker to cut off his arm. This would pay homage to the comics, as seen in this post.

However! With Thor cutting his arm off, he only brought back all those who were snapped/killed by Thanos.

Thanos is still there. The cool scene where everyone comes in through Strange’s portals can still happen. And! The hot-potato with the gauntlet would too because Thor cut it off.

Eventually Thanos gets it

Tony reverse unos it

As a redemption for Peter Quill, Quill sees Tony with the gauntlet and remembers in the first Guardians of the Galaxy how the power can be distributed (My roomie says he’s too dumb for that, but i think it’d be good character development and way to fix his big oopsie in IW)

Quill rushes to Stark, grabs on and the other guardians do so.

Steve is the first avenger to grab tony, a way to kinda fix their relationship, the rest of the avengers do so

Peter Parker has a hand on Tony’s back to show how he is picking up after Tony

This whole scene could have the avengers theme playing in the background, but it’d be piano, and soft. It’s powerful, but not in your face powerful

This would show how the avengers/MCU piggybacks off of Tony Stark

Tony snaps, his arm is ruined, but he survives

He’s in a coma for a while

End credit scene of pepper sitting by tony in hospital telling him she’s pregnant

Far From Home would almost be the same

Tony is in a coma and they don’t know if he’ll ever wake up

“Fury” gives EDITH to peter because he doesn’t think Tony will wake up or he thinks he’s dead

Either way, everything is the same except Tony wakes up when Peter and Beck are in their final battle

He’s just a little behind Happy

The scenes where its switching between Peter/Beck and Happy/petes classmates would also show Tony Stark, fresh from a coma with a destroyed arm, frantically running through London looking for Peter

Peter and MJ would still have their cute scene together

Tony finds Peter either after MJ or when Peter changes out of the suit and reunites with his class

Far From Home would still focus on Peter being his own person, but Tony is still there for him in the end

Steve Rogers would not abandon his life he has in the 21st century

he got his closure with Peggy

also, there’s a post/interview where it is revealed that his worst nightmare would be going back to the 40s and leaving his current friends

all three of his movies were him going after Bucky, he’s not about to abandon him for an old girl

also no time travel in this!

Loki is alive

Thor snaps

Loki didn’t turn blue when Thanos ‘killed’ him

If they needed people to die, they could have killed them, however, the stones are basically the MCU’s divine. When any of the avengers have the stones, they have basically all the power of the universe. Anyone who dies they can bring back. I have a lot of problems with how they treated the characters. Steve’s character was destroyed. They made Thor, someone who lost all his family and friends a joke. They killed Nat, the original female avenger who deserved to see her family together. And by killing Tony, they basically say the only way to escape your trauma is death. Not a fan of that. When telling a story, it’s the writers’ job to tell the true story. Steven King says each story is like a fossil, and you slowly have to carefully dog it out to get the whole thing. When writers follow the right path and do what the story tell them, it results in good writing/stories. It shows when writers try to force something in their stories because that’s what they want. It happens when businesses are too focused on catering to fans than telling the actual story. It is painfully obvious when a story looks/feels forced.

Anyway, Endgame was problematic and could've been way better if they narrowed it down to focus on the original avengers for closure and didn’t mess with time travel/the mcc’s divine powers.

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jbbarnesnnoble · 5 years

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Where the Moonlight Shines (Part One)

Summary: You’re a junior deputy in Hope County, Montana when things go to hell in a handbasket with the local cult. It’s months before help arrives in the form of the Avengers, taking you down a road you never expected.

Features: Mild violence

Pairing: TBD

Series Warnings: Canon typical violence; depictions/mentions of torture; depictions/mentions of brainwashing; will add more as they become relevant

Notes: Part One has dialogue directly from Far Cry 5; Series will primarily focus on the fallout of Hope County and Rook’s (Reader’s) recovery. While I have through part seven written, posting will likely be every other week if not longer as I go back through for the 1000th time and expand the story even more. Because of this, more warnings may be added. The story diverges entirely from MCU canon. Bucky is part of the team, IW and Endgame don’t happen and Civil War is ignored.

This is a crossover between Far Cry 5 and the MCU

Word Count: 2631

You were the newest Junior Deputy with the Hope County Sheriff’s Department. Newest was a relative term. Hope County rarely saw newcomers, unless they were flocking to that damned Project. You had spent summers there growing up, sure, but there was something different about living there full time. It was a home away from home. You’d returned to Montana on a permanent basis for peace and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of a more populated area. It was easier to keep to yourself there, even with everyone knowing you. You had healing abilities, something that happened when you were in high school, interning in a science lab. It was something you kept to yourself.

Everyone called you Rook, even the people who had known you since you were a kid. You had started there as a dispatcher when you moved to Hope County, went through the academy when you saw the way things were heading with the Project, and got offered the position two years ago. The one thing you hated about the job was Nancy. If you had to hear Nancy go on one more time about whatever mundane thing was going on in her life, you were going to lose it.

You had been in Hope County a few years when they started causing major issues. The Project at Eden’s Gate. Locals called the members of the Project Peggies. The Project had a dark cloud over it. Suspected kidnappings. Coercing businesses into closing. They had strict policies on alcohol. Namely that it wasn’t allowed. They had seemed innocent enough when they arrived years back. Joseph Seed, the so called ‘Father’, had worked with Father Jerome for a time. You weren’t sure when things started shifting, but they did. You hated working calls dealing with the Project. Especially calls in the Henbane, because inevitably, you would end up dealing with Faith Seed. You figured if you kept to yourself, only interacting when it was required for work, you’d be fine. You were wrong. So terribly wrong.

The real trouble started when you were at the bar in Fall’s End, the Spread Eagle. It was owned by Mary May Fairgrave, who was one of the toughest women you knew and one of your oldest friends. You had just settled in to have a beer and a burger, catching up with her, when trouble walked in.

One of the leaders of the Project at Eden’s Gate came in looking smug as always. You knew which brother it was by the designer clothes he wore and the look of disdain plastered upon his face. John Seed was an arrogant bastard. He was always trying to get Mary May to close up shop, going on about how alcohol was immoral and how it drove people to sin. Preaching about how he had been lost to the vice before his brother found him. You rolled your eyes at him and continued your conversation with the bartender, pretending he wasn’t there. You considered her one of your closest friends in the county outside of Joey Hudson and Staci Pratt. You knew being ignored would only serve to rile him up.

“I’m sorry, I thought it was rude to ignore a customer,” he said, flashing a smile that was so fake it put Barbie to shame.

“What can I get you?” Mary May asked through grit teeth. You watched the interaction with caution. You could never trust a Seed.

“A water, please, and a moment of your time,” he replied. You choked back a laugh. Of course he’d only order water. You took a sip of the drink in front of you, a watered down beer that reminded you of the bonfires in high school, when everything seemed so much more simple. Nights curled up against Staci’s side, his hand never straying from your back. Staci Pratt, ex-boyfriend turned colleague and one of your best friends. You remembered nights spent laughing with Rachel Jessop, now Faith Seed. Before the drugs. Before the Project. You knew Tracey had taken it hard when Rachel joined the cult. You all had. And now there were rumors about her and something called the Bliss. You didn’t like it and investigations into it had turned up nothing, the Seeds stonewalling you at every turn.

“You know, Deputy, it is certainly unbecoming of an officer of the law to be in a place like this,” John said, drawing out the syllables in the word deputy. You narrowed your eyes at him.

“Seed, this is one of the local watering holes. You’d be hard pressed to find an officer who doesn’t come in on a night off,” you snapped. Mary May set the glass of water down on the bar, water sloshing over the side with the force, earning a dirty look from John.

“We want you to stop serving alcohol, Ms. Fairgrave. It’s a temptation for many of our flock,” John said.

“Too damn bad, Seed. This bar was here long before you and it’ll be here long after,” she said.

“We’ll see about that,” you heard him mutter before he spoke again, “I’d hate to see something happen because of one of our more zealous members. We cannot be held accountable for their actions,” he said before standing and walking out the door. As the man left the bar, she gave you a look of concern.

“I don’t trust him or those brothers of his, Rook. Sooner or later something is going to give. Did you hear about the Anderson’s kids? They just up and left, leaving a note for their parents sayin’ they were leaving their life of sin to join the Project,” Mary-May said.

“I’m sure they’re harmless. If they weren’t surely the feds would be closing in on them...hell, maybe even the Avengers. Every time we’ve carried out a welfare check, the person was accounted for,” you said. You wondered if you’d ever believe that yourself.

You had seen things when carrying out those checks that set you on edge. But there was no proof that the Seeds were doing anything illegal, no proof that people were being kidnapped. You couldn’t even get a warrant to search their properties, John Seed made sure of that. Damned Georgia lawyer. He was a massive thorn in the side of the Sheriff's Department. The hands of the department were tied, no matter how much you all hated it.

“Now that’d be a sight, the Avengers here in Hope County,” she said with a shake of her head.

“For all we know, the Project could be an arm of Hydra, now wouldn’t that be something? With the rumors that swirl about those brothers, it wouldn’t surprise me is all I’m saying,” you said.

“Keep talking like that and I’ll send ya to hang out with Zip,” she said as she wiped down the bar. You laughed. Zip Kupka was the local conspiracy theorist. You’d answered more than your fair share of calls out to his place. The only other person who could top Zip for crazy theories was Larry Parker. You sat talking for a while, until she was closing for the night. Things happened in a blur. Something went through the front window as she was flipping the chairs up and hit her. You rushed to her side.

“Mary May, stay awake...stay awake damn it,” you said as you pressed your hand to the gash on her head. You focused on the injury. Your powers were jarring when you hadn’t used them in awhile. Blue encased your hand as you worked to heal the damage. She looked at you stunned.

“That ain’t normal,” she said. You sighed as you helped her sit up. You didn’t see the two figures watching the scene from across the street in their car.

“It’s...complicated. Come on, let’s get some food and water in you,” you said, helping her up. You covered the broken window up while she sat down. You picked up the rock. There was a note attached.

“What’s it say?” she asked.

“Last warning. Close up shop, or else...Mary, I’m taking this down the station,” you said. She frowned.

“I don’t see what that’s going to do. We don’t have proof it came from the Seeds,” she said.

“John Seed has been pressuring you for weeks now to stop selling alcohol and to close down...but you’re probably right. He’ll just say it was an overzealous member of the Project,” you said, feeling defeated. You stayed the night, worried that something else would happen. You left early, glad you had the day off. You headed up to the station to drop the rock and the note off with the Eden’s Gate files before you headed home. Something was coming, you just weren’t so sure what.

-------------------------------------------------

A few days later, Cameron Burke arrived in town, with a warrant from the Federal Marshals for the arrest of Joseph seed. You had a bad feeling about the arrest. None of you were comfortable with the task. Sheriff Whitehorse had tried to talk him out of it. He had no idea what he was doing. You knew it would only provoke the hornets nest, not destroy it.

“You sure you’re alright? You can sit this one out, no judgment,” Staci said as your group headed to the helicopter.

“Alright is subjective, Pratt. I just have a bad feeling about this arrest,” you said. He nodded.

“I don’t like it either but the Marshal won’t change his mind. You know that as well as I do. He’s bullheaded. All he’s gonna do is rile them up,” he said. You nodded in agreement.

“We’ll be alright,” you said. You knew neither of you believed it. Through the flight, you tried re-watching the videos. The videos were the closest thing to evidence of wrong doing. Your stomach churned at the thought. Joseph Seed was shown on video gouging out the eyes of someone.

Pratt landed the helicopter and your feelings of unease grew. Members of the Project stood with guns at the ready. You could hear the sounds of their music playing, some song about Jacob Seed setting the sinners free. You hated the Project music, even if it was catchy. It was creepy.

“Hudson, on the door, watch our backs, don’t let any of these people get in. Rookie, on me,” Sheriff Whitehorse said. Whitehorse was like a father figure. You knew he had reservations about the arrest, which was why he told the Marshal to follow his lead. You didn’t like how cocky the Marshal was. As the three of you entered the church a chill ran down your spine as Joseph Seed spoke. His flock were listening intently, hanging on every word the man said.

“They will come, try to take from us, take our guns, take our freedom, take our faith! We will not let them!” Joseph preached. Anxiety had made itself at home, feeling like a rock in your stomach. Everything in you said to run, far away and never look back.

“Sheriff come on,” Burke said. His impatience grated on you. He didn’t understand just how tenuous the situation was.

“Just hold on Marshal,” Whitehorse said. You were saying a silent prayer, hoping Burke wouldn’t do something stupid.

“We will not let their greed, or their immorality, or their depravity hurt us anymore, there will be no more suffering,” Joseph said before the Marshal interrupted, against the warnings of the sheriff.

“Joseph Seed! I have a warrant issued for your arrest on the suspicion of kidnapping with the intent to harm. Now, I want you to step forward and keep your hands where I can see them,” Burke said. And there it was. Whatever happened now, Burke had all but sealed your fates.

You thought about what you knew about the Seeds. John was a lawyer. You’d had to deal with him on multiple occasions. He was smart, good at what he did. He was the youngest brother and owned a ranch in the valley. Jacob was the oldest, a veteran. When the family bought up St. Francis, up in the Whitetail Mountains, he’d made himself at home there. And then there was Faith Seed. Rachel Jessop. Joseph Seed had taken her under his wing and suddenly, she was known as Faith, Rachel just a memory. You avoided her if you could. She was a friend, once upon a time.

“Here they are, locusts in our garden. See they’ve come from me. They’ve come to take me away from you. They’ve come to destroy all that we’ve built!” Joseph said. The jeering from the crowd grew louder. Your breathing grew more shallow. You were terrified. There were far more of them than there were of you. Even with Hudson at the door, just outside, you were outnumbered and outgunned. Burke made a move for his gun.

“Don’t touch that service weapon!” Whitehorse snapped. He called for calm as Joseph did the same for his congregants.

“We knew this moment would come. We have prepared for it. Go, go, God will not let them take me,” Joseph said, as his siblings moved behind him. He raised his arms in the air, head tilted up toward the ceiling as members of his congregation walked toward the doors.

“I saw when the Lamb opened the first seal and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts say “come and see” and I saw. And behold, it was a white horse, and hell followed with him,” Joseph said, his gaze falling on you as he held his arms out.

“Rookie, cuff this son of a bitch,” Burke said. You felt a cold sweat form. Why you? Why did you have to be the one to cuff him when the Marshal was the one who came to arrest him? You were there as back up, not to be the arresting officer. You looked at him. You felt the eyes of all four Seeds on you, curious about what you would do. You were frozen to the spot. You could refuse, walk away, pretend it never happened. Live your life.

“Rookie, come on,” Burke said, getting impatient. You went against your gut. Your hands shook as you took your cuffs from your belt. You closed your eyes as you locked them in place, feeling as though you had just set something in motion you couldn’t take back.

As you got Joseph into the chopper, his people snapped into action. They were not going to let you go. Even as Pratt went to take off, people were still climbing on the chopper and soon, it was falling from the sky as Joseph sang Amazing Grace. You blacked out for a moment, opening your eyes to see Joseph staring at you. You reached for the dangling headset as Nancy’s voice came over the radio. Joseph responded, and when you heard her call him Father, you cursed her out in your head. You should have known she was one of them.

“Let the Reaping begin!” Joseph yelled. As much as you wanted to help your colleagues, your friends, you knew you couldn’t save them and yourself. You got yourself out and took off. You found Burke and the two of you attempted to make a get away, only to end up going off the bridge and into the water. When you next came to, you found yourself cuffed to a bed in a bunker, only to find it belonged to Dutch, a prepper who saved you from the Seeds and the Project when you came on shore. You couldn’t help but think back to what Whitehorse had said before you’d headed to the church. Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone.

#far cry 5 fanfiction #marvel fanfiction #wanda maximoff #bucky barnes #natasha romanoff #natasha romanov #far cry 5 reader insert #marvel reader insert #marvel fanfic #far cry 5 fanfic #fc5 fanfiction #fc5 fanfic #fc5 reader insert #where the moonlight shines

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stuckony-summer-stocking · 4 years

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veteratorianvillainy (skeptics_secret)

Highest Rating: M Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), Avengers Academy (Video Game), Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Tags: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Pepper Potts, Janet Van Dyne, Carol Danvers,Phil Coulson, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Accidental Relationship, Didn't Know They Were Dating, Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Mutual Pining, Oblivious, Identity Porn, Secret Relationship Short Prompts: 1) living together-together for the first time 2) insomnia buddies 3) supersoldier faux gladiator fight for Tony's affections Long Prompts: 1) supersoldiers find out about Howard's shitty parenting but Tony doesn't want to talk about it 2) literally any fake relationship (incl. Marriage of convenience) - for benefits? So Tony has an excuse to spend money on 'em? How does it work when the third person might not be in the fake relationship Please i need to know 3) Tony doesn't realize he's dating two people, let alone that they're best friends (but they definitely know)

Do Not Wants: - major character death - just delete CACW and AOU and IW from your brain - not big on ultimates either - i like when they actually like each other - any permanent kind of amnesia that covers the time of their relationship, temporary is fine as long as the memories come back - bucky not getting all his pre-winter soldier memories back is fine - please don't take away Bucky's prosthetic arm or Tony's arc reactor. Both pre and post serum Steve are good - no infidelity please and no pressuring for a poly relationship - looking for honest open and willing communication here, not someone going along with it because they think they'll lose their boyfriend otherwise - i like sex but I'm looking for some relationship plot - i like abo and D/s but please, no omega Tony or sub Tony - just because he's smaller doesn't mean anything except that Steve and Bucky can give very good all encompassing hugs - I'm okay with the boys not knowing about poly stuff but I'm not really interested in the gay panic - def okay with the boys not knowing the others are some flavor of queer though - no Pepper bashing. If she and Tony dated, they broke up because it didn't work or whatever but please no making her the villain or unreasonable and no saying Tony used her as a beard or didn't love her - no treats please Likes: - look Tony is my favorite so just, all the good things for him okay? - i really really love fake and accidental relationships - i love identity porn - i love how intellectually brilliant Tony is and how well he can work a room or the press and how he can then turn around and burn every single slice of toast coming out of the toaster that he himself upgraded - i love Tony and Bucky bonding over their forced body modifications and also their love of mechanical systems - i love Steve (and Bucky) having grown and become different during the time between Bucky's fall and recovering him from Hydra (Steve has joined a team of people who can actually sometimes best him for sheer recklessness /and/ he's the leader so he's actually not really the same punk Bucky spent so many years keeping out of trouble) - i really enjoy seeing bucky and Steve relearning how their friendship fits together - Tony consistently being over the top because he doesn't know how to get people to stay unless his money is involved - i love the full team (whichever team that is) and I love them being busybodies since they all live in the tower/mansion together, ineffectually or competently interfering, betting on things they shouldn't be betting on, constantly pretending they're not eavesdropping, secrets that are being really badly kept Treats: NO TREATS

Socials: - veteratorianvillainy on Tumblr and ao3 - skeptics_secret also on ao3 CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL STOCKINGS OR TO CLAIM THIS STOCKING. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON FILLING STOCKINGS.

#veteratorianvillainy #stocking post

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cblgblog · 5 years

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The infantilization of Bucky Barnes amongst certain corners of fandom disturbs me greatly, especially in a post Endgame world.

“But Steve left Bucky all alone!”

Not really. A, he came back 10 seconds later, B, it’s confirmed by the creatives that Bucky knew what Steve was planning and supported the choice, and C, no, Bucky wasn’t left alone. He was left with T’Challa and Shuri, who he’s frankly probably spent more time with than he has Steve in recent years. He was left with Sam, who’s actual job it is to help support veterans and PTSD victims. He was left with a support system.

And you know what else? He’s a strong man, who is healing. I know that sucks for everyone who wants to see their fanfics made real (Bucky being unable to operate a microwave on his own, or walk 6 feet without Steve supporting him or vice-versa), but it’s true. Bucky is healing. Is he healed completely? No, and he probably never will be. Neither will Steve or Sam or anyone. Sam says it in Winter Soldier. The trauma doesn’t magically disappear, you just learn to cope with it as best you can. What was Steve supposed to do? Sacrifice any other wants and desires he might have had for the rest of his life, so he could be Bucky’s emotional support dog until Bucky was all the way better? Something that was never, ever going to happen, because that’s just not how trauma works? Steve’s not allowed to care about anyone or anything else besides Bucky, because that’s clearly how all human beings work?

Why is Bucky’s trauma more important than Steve’s? Why are Bucky’s needs (needs he doesn’t even have outside of fanfiction) prioritized over Steve’s?

Speaking of needs he doesn’t even have outside fic. Bucky can function without Steve. Which I guess is offensive to some people, but it’s true. 2014 was when he started coming back to himself. He fished Steve out of the river, and left. As his memories returned and he started to stabilize, he had to know Steve was going to look for him, or at least suspect. He hid from everyone, including Steve, for 2 more years, and he was doing pretty damn well. He wasn’t a blubbering mess, his apartment was prepped for a quick escape, which means he was thinking clearly about at least some things. He was able to go outside, function like a normal person. Had he needed Steve that badly, he could have contacted him somehow. He’s incredibly well-trained, was even before Hydra grabbed him, and the Avengers aren’t exactly a secretive operation. They especially weren’t in a pre-Civil War MCU.

But the shame, the guilt, Bucky must’ve thought Steve would hate him! Maybe, even though Steve is ready to let himself die in WS just to prove that he believes in Bucky, trusts him. But, maybe. But them, Civil War. Civil War proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Steve blames Bucky for absolutely nothing. Does Bucky immediately attach himself to Steve’s hip, because Steve is the only one who can possibly save him?

No. He goes to Wakanda, because they both recognize that T’Challa and Co. are in a better position to treat Bucky, especially now, when Steve’s a wanted man. Steve asks Bucky if he’s sure about this. Bucky says it’s the best thing for everybody, until he can trust his own mind. This wasn’t forced on Bucky. Steve asking if he’s sure is proof he wouldn’t have allowed it to be done without Bucky’s consent. We don’t know how long Bucky was completely under for, but it’s said by the creatives that Steve did visit Wakanda between CW and IW, during Bucky’s recovery.

Steve visited. He was not holding Bucky’s hand every second of the day for two years.

2014 to 2018. 2 years of no contact with Steve, maybe even actively avoiding him. 2 years of intermittent contact, at best.

Bucky can survive without Steve. He did it for several years before Endgame, mostly by his own choice. Bucky understands better than most of his fandom that Steve is not capable of “fixing” Bucky all on his own. It is not Steve’s job to do that, either. It’s his job to be a supportive friend, and do everything he can reasonably do to help, which he more than lived up to, for two movies in a row.

Bucky got to choose how he lived his life post WS. His choices were limited by his circumstances, but ultimately, he chose more than once to live without Steve as a crutch. And he did it well.

Steve did not abandon Bucky. He told Bucky what he was doing, and yes, maybe that should have been in the film, but the creatives were clearly looking to leave us guessing until the end about the movie’s conclusion. Bucky still knew. He did not ask Steve to stay behind with him, just as he did not ask Steve to hang around for 2 years in Wakanda with him while the rest of Team Cap went on without him.

But, but, the end of the line! What about the end of the goddamn line!

So, if a friend says that they will always be there for you, that you will always be friends, are you going to throw a fit if they then, years later, get married and move away? Is that friend literally meant to stay by your side until one of you dies? Neither of you can move to a new location, or form meaningful relationships outside of each other? That’s not a healthy relationship, that’s co-dependency taken to frightening levels.

Bucky loves Steve. Steve loves Bucky. That doesn’t mean that Steve’s only function in life is to heal poor, wounded Bucky. Bucky is neither of those things. Bucky has proven again and again that he can live without Steve holding his hand and wiping his man tears. Bucky is not a broken toy for Steve to fix. Bucky is a capable adult man who loves Steve and wants him to be happy.

#anti stucky #anti stucky stans

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epicstuckyficrecs · 5 years

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Post Endgame Fic Rec!

So at the time I’m making this post, I haven’t seen Endgame yet (but it’s out in certain parts of the world), but I imagine that what everybody will want after watching it is either 1) to pretend it never happened, or 2) some fluff (I tried to keep it to fics posted in the last year since I already did a fluff fic rec after IW). So here goes! Enjoy!

(* besides the ones I’ve read)

Infinity War fix-it

*still here by wearing_tearing (1,8K): Steve wipes the dust off his face.

*To Never Have Loved At All by hitlikehammers (3K): Steve will say they had work to do, and a universe to put to rights. They had people to find and hearts to unbreak. They had a mission. There was no time for any of them to mourn. Steve, as it turns out, says a lot of things that are mostly bullshit.

Beyond the Burn by eyres (7K): Steve saves the universe - but it takes him awhile to be okay again.

This is the Perfect Time to Panic by Brokenpitchpipe, emij1s (8K): Finding the infinity stones and restoring half the universe is the boring part. The fun part comes next.

*watch them rolling back by napricot (17K): Bucky was just here, he was right here. This can’t be all that’s left. Well, it’s not all that’s left, not quite. There, in the pile of ash that used to be Bucky Barnes, already drifting to scatter across the soil of Wakanda, to dissipate in the air, to be nothing but dust on Steve’s hands and in his gasping mouth and in his lungs—left there, in that ash and dirt, are his gun, and his left arm, gleaming dully in the sunshine.

Realignment by amethystkrystal (24K): After assembling their own Infinity Gauntlet, the Avengers defeated Thanos and brought back everyone who disappeared. But their victory came at a great cost: in order to take the Soul Stone, Steve had to sacrifice the Captain America mantle and all the super-soldier strength that came with it. Small and sickly again, Steve’s poor health soon reaches a breaking point and his last option is a difficult surgery only Shuri and her team can perform. But not all hurts can be fixed with medicine, and the real healing begins after the operation -- when Bucky asks Steve to stay in Wakanda with him.

*Endless War by Nonymos (27K): There is always something more to lose. (Which means all is not lost.)

At Times I Almost Dream by LadyC (29K): When Thanos snapped his fingers, he split the universe into two – one where half the population had been erased from existence, another where the other half had. As both sets of Avengers will learn, the divide between the worlds is thinner for those who share a particular type of connection…

*might never be normal again (but who cares) bynapricot (WIP, 3/4, 36K): All things considered, Steve thought he’d handled the whole Thanos killing half the universe thing and the ensuing bitter, desperate quest to defeat him pretty well. Sacrificing his super soldier serum to use one of the Infinity Stones wasn't a problem either, not when it meant getting back the half of the universe they'd lost, and especially not when it meant getting Bucky back. But retirement and finally confessing his feelings for Bucky? Those were proving to be more challenging.

Dismantle The Sun by hitlikehammers (WIP, 19/20, 56K): This is the way the world ends: with a bang, and a whimper, plus a snap. And yet—between realities and quantum vagaries and heartbreak and that foolish not-just-human penchant toward hope—even that wasn't the end of their stories. Not even close.

Fluff

*I [Heart] You by writeonclara (1,1K): “Steve’s been hit with a curse,” Natasha said. She said it calmly, so Bucky didn’t immediately go flying out of the apartment to tear apart the Tower in search of Steve. “Of course he has,” he said. He felt, abruptly, exhausted. “What is it?” “It might be easier just to show you.”

*Boeuf Mystère by galwednesday (1,2K): “Quick question,” Bucky said. Steve looked up, but didn’t stop moving passports and stacks of cash into a nondescript blue duffel, his mind busily ticking through logistics. He’d grab the glock taped behind the hidden drawer in the desk on their way out, and they could buy new clothes once they got across the border into neutral territory, so they didn’t need much else, apart from whatever Bucky wanted to bring. One duffle should be enough. “Yeah, honey?” “What the fuck.”

*Blank and Silent by Kellyscams (1,6K): Without any words on his wrist, Steve Rogers is sure he'll never find his soulmate. But fate might have some different plans for him.

*Check, Mate? by talkplaylove-art (talkplaylove), wearing_tearing (2K): A notification from Check, Mate? blinks back at him. Steve’s heart speeds up when he opens the app and then his face breaks into a blinding grin when sees what’s waiting for him. James likes him back.

*Just About Half-Past Ten by rohkeutta (2K): But as he reaches Madison Avenue, Stark Tower a mere block away, the skies open with a whoosh, and he barely manages to duck under the construction scaffolding perched over the sidewalk. Thunder rumbles overhead, and Bucky frantically checks every compartment of his bag for an umbrella he knows is there. It’s not. He does find some loose glitter, though, and a lipstick he wore for Pride and had thought he’d lost, plus a spare Metro Card he can’t remember buying. He also gets a crystal clear flashback of leaving the umbrella under his desk to dry yesterday morning, and never picking it up again.

*One for Fiction by thepinupchemist (6K): In the heart of a modern library, children's librarian Bucky Barnes meets his match in the form of the new barista: Steve Rogers. He doesn't think there's any way his crush could be requited -- but sometimes librarians don't know everything.

*A Little Sparkle by roe87 (7K): "What about that guy in accounting?" Natasha mused. "Billy, Buddy, or...?" "Bucky," Steve said, knowing who she meant. "Lip piercing, right?" "Yeah! He's cute." "Yeah," Steve agreed hesitantly, then added, "but I'm not ready for that."

*A World That Makes Such Wonderful Things by stevergrsno (noxlunate) (8K): In which Steve is a mermaid, Bucky's a werewolf, and as always, they fall for each other.

*Found: One Bicycle by gracie137 (8,7K): Bucky Barnes posted in Overheard at Middlebury College: Hello fellow students! Basically in my drunken stupor last night I came across a bicycle. Being rather intoxicated and far from home I decided the logical thing to do was ride it back. I can assure you all that both me and the bike survived this adventure and are in perfect condition!! I now however have no use for for said vehicle and have realised that someone is probably pretty upset about having lost it. Anyway, if you can correctly identify the bike’s make and colour, slide into my DMs and I promise to return it to you!! Thanks for the ride xoxo

*Kiss me and take off your clothes by steveandbucky (10K): Steve Rogers is dared to send a dick pic to a blog which critiques dick pics (run by none other than Bucky Barnes). Hilarity ensues.

*before we can breathe easy by belovedmuerto (22K): No one touches Steve. Bucky sets out to do something about that.

*Roll Out the Red Carpet by Lorien, Quarra, talkplaylove-art (talkplaylove) (29K): The premiere for Steve Rogers' newest Captain America movie was just around the corner, and Steve knew it was going to be a hit. The big downside was that he had to have a date. The last several times he'd brought someone to an event like this, things had ranged from unpleasant to disastrous. In a last ditch effort to get out of taking someone that might make his night hell, Steve went on Twitter and invited the Winter Soldier to be his plus one. The Soldier was an international fugitive, and currently wanted for a series of high profile attacks on corrupt businessmen. Since every person the Soldier attacked was involved in some truly vile criminal activity, the public loved him, despite his crimes. Inviting him to the premiere was the perfect cop out. There was no way he was ever going to show. Right?

*The Twilight Bark (And Other Things Bucky Has To Deal With On A Daily Basis) by spacebuck (36K): Steve Rogers: I couldn’t say no to this little guy, so I guess he’s coming home with me! The picture below it is an overexcited looking dog, barely older than six months, shoving its nose through the bars of a shelter gate. The tweet already has twenty thousand retweets, a few thousand more likes, and nearly three thousand comments. Bucky can’t help himself, leads in hand, and he leans a shoulder against the doorjamb and taps the comment field. bbarnes: if you’re ever in need of a walker I’d be happy to take the lil guy on, nyc based and rescues are my thing!

#stucky #stucky fic #stucky fanfic #stucky fanfiction #stucky fic rec

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dreadnought-dear-captain · 5 years

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‘Til the End of the Line (or Not) OR: See? We TOLD You “No Homo.” Love, Markus and McFeely

*****WARNING: 99.9% SALT!! Contains spoilers for Avengers Endgame!!****

I guess this is part two of my personal processing of Endgame. @pitchforkcentral86 was not satisfied by my timey-wimey Endgame post, which centered on Steve’s choice to go back in time to be with Peggy and the implications of that choice. She remarked that yeah, it’s great that Steve might not be a total piece of crap, Pym particles, yada yada, whatever, but it still didn’t make her feel any less despair over this ending.

The source of her agony: Steve and Bucky’s relationship and its utter lack of satisfying resolution. So I shall address that now, because I think I feel worse about that than anything, and I can’t explain it away with Pym particles.

Anyone who has any investment at all in the relationship between Bucky and Steve — whether you are a Stucky person or whether you view them as platonic but deeply connected best friends — has probably had to spend the last two movies scraping around the floor, searching for crumbs, signs, any hints that these two people care about each other. We have been begging the Russos, the screenwriters Markus and McFeely, anyone who would listen, for anything to suggest that they are even on the barest of speaking terms, let alone that they have the intensity of relationship that the MCU spent 3+ movies explicitly convincing us that they have. I’ll even come out and say that although I ship Stucky in fandom and fic hardcore, I am not an MCU canon Stucky person per se. I’m 100% fine if the MCU wants to treat this as a deep, fraternal friendship. In fact, I see some benefits to this interpretation. How wonderful if men could love each other so deeply and have it NOT be sexual or romantic. But I’m also 100% fine with people interpreting this as romantic love, and there were times throughout this franchise where the actors, various parties in production, and Marvel itself has been agnostic on the subject, if not encouraging of gay interpretations of their relationship. Let it be what you want, fans have been told. Or just flat out post a pic of Steve and Bucky on #National Boyfriend Day like Civil War comic writer Mark Millar. Sure. At times, it almost felt safe to ship them. As soon as Civil War drew to a close, however, it started becoming... inconvenient for Bucky and Steve to be together. Steve needs to go to the Raft. Bucky needs to go into cryo. Steve needs to become Nomad and go secret avenging. Bucky needs to do his Vibranium Brain Magic (TM)/goat herding complex PTSD recovery program. Side note: Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) is my provisional diagnosis based on virtually nothing, because Bucky’s character has gotten so little substantive screen time that we can only guess at his psychological state, save what can be conveyed through glistening eyes and woobieface and “... but I did it.” Wow. Bowl me over, you really got me right in the McFeelys. Though +1000 to SebStan for working what he got to work with to the max. That motherfucker can act. We know for certain approximately jack shit about Bucky’s internal experience post-Winter Soldier. And so, like pretty much everything with Bucky and this friendship/ship arc, I will just guess at what is actually wrong with him. But after 70 years as a POW being tortured and possibly gaslit and definitely brainwashed, that is almost the textbook recipe for complex PTSD, so imma go with that. Returning to this distance. Now, it first appears to be largely logistical in nature. Steve is over here, Bucky is over there. Golly, just too busy to hang these days. All this secret avenging without you. And when we pine — pine — for the meaningful reunion of these two in IW, instead we got a “Hey brah, how's it hanging?” “You know, old and traumatized lol” exchange and a “let’s make sure our dicks don’t touch” back-slappy hug that lasted two seconds. This is without any hint as to whether these two have seen each other yet after Bucky’s de-thawing, leaving us to wonder whether this is really the big reunion we have been waiting for.

(If we had audio, the sound would be 70% slapping.)

I’m going to pause here, because for many of us, this was devastating. After all, we were left with this shot of Steve as Bucky made the choice to go into cryo, a choice that seemed only somewhat justifiable on the vague grounds of “I can’t trust my own mind.” (Me either, pal.)

Ugh.

Perhaps this was also an avoidance strategy — easier to go back on ice than deal with the emotional fallout of what just happened. And who could blame him? He is probably still relearning how to cope effectively with things after his entire coping system was destroyed by his time with Hydra. But Steve was clearly disappointed or, at the very least, saddened by this. He gets something back just to lose it again. Enter distance. He leaves and goes avenging. Emotionally, perhaps this move to cryo created distance as well. Their relationship was on such fragile ground at this point, mostly an artifact from the ‘40s, and their chance to deepen it was taken away by the writers because Bucky wanted to go on ice for reasons and Steve needed to do Steve things. And so when IW rolled around, oh, did we want them to have a substantive reunion. But alas, we did not get that. We saw equally substantive exchanges between Bucky and Sam or Rocket and far more substantive exchanges between Steve and pretty much anyone else. And then we got the ultimate separation — (fake) death. Again. A traumatic, unplanned loss that costs another five years from their timeline, all before they even got the chance to properly re-establish a friendship. Again, I’m going off of what we actually see portrayed, not off of what we assume or would like to see. We have absolutely no idea how much Steve and Bucky interacted in Wakanda. But Steve busted Sam out of the Raft quite early, early enough that he still had a messed up face from the time Tony went in (unless he was getting beatings on the reg, which is possible). So if he was hanging with Sam since before Bucky went on ice, and Sam just visited Wakanda for the first time in IW, either Steve was borrowing the Quinjet to secretly visit Wakanda on his own to hang with Bucky, or he hadn’t been back to Wakanda since he left the first time.

Regarding Steve visiting Wakanda between CW and IW — I found this bullshit from Markus and McFeely on the subject of whether Steve and Bucky met or talked prior to IW. The writers could not even agree about their own characters, with one saying that Steve and his crew probably visited Wakanda and hung out with Bucky and the other saying, eh, the two of them “maybe Skyped.” As to the former, this is not at all supported by the narrative or by logic. Infinity War is clearly Sam’s first time in Wakanda, with all that drama about “zomg you’re gonna hit those trees, bro!” as they are flying into the city. And why would Steve leave his team alone and vulnerable, probably taking the Quinjet, their only form of reliable and safe transportation, so he could go visit Bucky alone? He’s not there for a booty call, y’all, because these guys have barely even rekindled their friendship. Moreover, the other secret avengers know how important Bucky is to Steve. This isn’t a secret. There would be no reason to go alone and no reason for T’Challa to forbid Nat, Sam, and Wanda from coming to Wakanda. So it makes no sense that Steve has visited Wakanda prior to IW, and thus, that would make IW their first meeting, which is… utter and heartbreaking garbage. But at least they had motherfucking SKYPE. MAYBE. Fuck. You. Very. Much.

So, in the face of this shit reunion and Bucky’s subsequent dusting, some of us kindled hope for the upcoming Endgame. Perhaps we would get flashbacks. We knew there would be flashbacks or time travel because we saw stuff in the trailers and sneak peeks from the set. So maybe there would be something there to account for the utter lack of attention to their relationship in Infinity War. Again, this was the mere request that Markus and McFeely and the directors acknowledge wholeheartedly what they have been building for these characters since the beginning of their time in the MCU. This was not even strictly about Stucky. This was about doing justice for these characters as humans. But there were no flashbacks. Who knows what happened in Wakanda. We will have to fill in the blanks on our own. Not a single comment could be spared to even signal whether the IW Wakanda scene was their first time seeing each other since cryo. “How’s that new arm treating you?” or “God, it’s been so long”/deep emotion would be all it would have taken to not keep us wondering one way or the other. This suggests a lack of consideration to the fans of these characters and this relationship — which, again, Markus and McFeely slaved to get us to pour our hearts into. So… Endgame. What was that? Bucky and Steve didn’t stand next to each other at Tony’s funeral. Okay. Bucky is not an A-list Avenger. He did kill Tony’s parents. Awkward. Bucky was comforted by Sam, his… guy he sat behind in the Volkswagen in Civil War and fought next to in IW, and he needed comfort apparently (?) because he… killed Martha and Howard Stark (??), which was sweet, and much more spontaneous affection than we’ve seen from Steve in an age, but what the actual fuck??? Was that Mickey Mouse standing behind the Iron Man 3 kid wearing a “Falcon and Winter Soldier” miniseries t-shirt?

And that ending. This was maybe the one implied nugget of friendship between them visible with an electron microscope. They obviously had at least one deep conversation about Steve deviating from the plan to go have a life, and they obviously had a discussion about who would succeed him as Cap. My dreams of Bucky Cap were dashed into dust, but as @pitchforkcentral86 said, it would have been cruel to give it to Bucky. Bucky would possibly have taken it if Steve kicked the bucket in EG, but it makes the most sense to be passed along in a planned way to Sam. So maybe they had at least one good conversation. Way, way off camera. Bucky said he would miss him. Recycled TFA line. Thank God it was not involving the words “jerk” and “punk.” Glistening woobie eyes. Steve leaving to go be with the one person who can make him feel like a whole human being, apparently, because there is nothing and nobody tethering him to this time in history anymore.

Whoa— wait— WHAT??? These are the moments where I literally double check the credits for the Cap movies to make sure that it says “Markus and McFeely.” Then I check the latest Avengers movies to make sure they also say “Markus and McFeely.” And they ALL DO!! The same two men painstakingly crafted the story of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, two men who — let’s be literal in the narrative here, for the sake of making a conservative argument — are best friends from childhood. They hammered on this story HARD, making sure that their relationship was so strong that by the time 2016 rolled around, the depth and intensity of their friendship and Steve’s commitment to it would tear the Avengers apart. And along the way, something else happened.

When you put two people in relationship like this, you have to know that there will be consequences. People will grow very emotionally invested in their relationship, because that is exactly what the writers were asking the audience to do. These dudes did their job, all right! And then something else happened, quite easily, even though these things will also happen under much harsher conditions: Stucky. Winter Soldier alone probably launched a hundred thousand ships for these two — gay, gay ships, so very gay, the glitteriest, gayest of cruise liners — from a hundred thousand ports around the globe. This ship has permeated pop culture even outside the fandom (some dumb gross man jokes from Screen Junkies within, but the Stucky shenanigans start at around 3:15).

And perhaps that’s when Markus and McFeely realized what a monster they created, one that would clash in ugly ways with their forthcoming (heterosexual) narrative, — their endgame for Steve. And so what did they do? Overcorrect. Wildly. Pull the plug. Bucky and Steve can’t fall out as friends completely, but what’s the next best thing? Give them almost zero screen time together, lest anyone be tempted to think they have a serious relationship — and again, I’m just talking friendship at this point, let alone anything else. Make their lines devoid of substance. Keep us wondering about the nature of their dynamic. Did the distance grow too great? Is Bucky not able to reconnect with anyone? Is Steve too busy? Too salty?? Who knows! These are possibilities, but none are explained. Then just poof Bucky off the face of the earth for 5 years to create existential distance. And in the meantime, ensure that Bucky is shown as not even a passing thought for Steve Rogers. Ensure that his name is never once uttered by Steve until he is about to leave him to go be with Peggy — oh except when, in a real dick move, when he emotionally whumps his past self with the news that Bucky is alive for the sole purpose of getting out of a stranglehold. At the same time, ensure that Steve is seen becoming single-mindedly fixated on Peggy Carter, and make sure the audience — including all those pesky Stucky shippers — knows that he considers her the “love of his life.” Ensure we see the compass with increasing frequency and with maximum longing. Insert Steve finding the absurd photograph of himself on the Director of SHIELD’s desk, facing the door for any junior colleague to see her pining over him like a schoolgirl long after he died, which is just about the least Peggy Carter thing I can ever imagine (and these people created and wrote for the Agent Carter TV series!!!).

Then give us our first openly gay person in the MCU. And drop him in the same scene that you confirm once and for all that Peggy Carter is the love of Steve Rogers’ life. Have Steve be so fucking cool with it that he makes us proud and relieved that he’s not a homophobe. Whew! Only… it makes us feel kind of gross, and maybe we can’t quite figure out why at first. But maybe it’s because it feels personal, like a concession, like the writers and director knew exactly what they were doing to a lot of people who feel a very specific way about Steve’s sexuality and about his relationship with Bucky Barnes. It feels like a tone deaf nod to the fandom. Sorry, guys. No homo. We really did try to warn you with the whole Sharon Carter thing. (Sharon Carter, in an act of gross and misogynistic misuse, remains one of the most criminally mistreated characters in the entire MCU, arguably serving almost entirely as a “no homo” device before being completely discarded, never to be heard from again.)

Which got me thinking — was this move to distance Steve and Bucky so abruptly a reactive move? The divide between Steve and Bucky that happens in IW and EG feels so cold and inorganic. It does not feel at all driven by the natural arc of the characters as established by the creators themselves. It feels rushed and confusing, like it just needed to happen for plot convenience (though not even clearly that), and once again, we are left trying to figure out what the fuck is actually going on.

Part of that is probably needing to lay the groundwork for Steve’s feelings of alienation, which lead him to his ultimate choice to go back in time. He can’t feel too connected to Bucky or he won’t want to go back to be with Peggy. But could part of this also possibly be a reaction to how strongly Stucky was adopted by the public? Did Markus and McFeely realize how much more strongly we love the idea of Steve and Bucky — as friends or lovers, who cares? — rather than Steve and Peggy, which was probably their ending for Steve all along? Did they realize their terrible mistake of bringing them so close, endearing them to us so much, and then realize “OH SHIT,” and then slam on the brakes? Is that why IW and EG felt like absolute shit for their relationship, even for those who are not total endgame Stucky people?

Okay, but what if their friendship just ran its course? Friendships do that, even really deep ones. These two have had a huge chronological and experiential rift that never was really healed (thanks to our dear writers). Steve saved Bucky’s life thrice but they never really reconnected. Presumably. As far as we know in the narrative we are given by the writers. Okay. Let’s say you need to get Steve back with Peggy and for Bucky to become pals with Sam instead because contracts and actors. Whatever. Fine. But if you are going to play the “our friendship has come and gone” card, you need to fully PLAY IT. You can’t make it some vague option that might be true because we can’t figure out what the hell is going on. They need to have an actual conversation. For fuck’s sake, if we have time to fuck around with Korg and Miek on the couch and time to have Banner take selfies with kids and do stupid time gags and a bunch of other little shit, there is enough time to have a brief conversation somewhere to imply that “things have changed” or “people change” or something to imply that the writers were even thinking about the course of Bucky and Steve’s relationship as more than just a platform to launch Steve back to Peggy and launch Bucky toward Sam for their spinoff series.

There was just no depth. How can they give us three movies composed almost entirely of Mariana Trench levels of depth between these two men and then give us virtually nothing in IW and then next to nothing in EG to “round out” their entire storyline? The shape of the emotional momentum in this relationship is so wonky and dissatisfying, and the lack of comment on the dissolution of their friendship in the narrative, the fact that it isn’t even being acknowledged, is one of the worst parts. This relationship died without being honored or even attended to at the most basic level, after being told that it is perhaps the most important relationship in Steve and Bucky’s lifetimes and being shown evidence of that fact.

Moreover, let’s get real — calling Peggy the love of Steve’s life should do nothing to diminish his friendship with Bucky Barnes. That’s not how love works. You don’t just get one person. You can have a best friend — hell, you can have two best friends — and a woman you love. (And even moreover, you don’t have to leap back through time to find closeness just because you can. But that’s another matter with Steve’s character that I will address in a future speculative character analysis on Steve in an effort to explain how he got to this point, because I have a super depressing head canon about it involving traumatic grief and loss.)

But just like comic book science, perhaps there are comic book rules about love and affinity. You only get one person, and Steve gets Peggy. And apparently Bucky gets Sam. Because contracts. But as I said before, I would have been okay if they had a dissolution of their friendship because that was the course of their friendship. Just tell us what is happening. Have the decency to respect your characters by giving their relationship a true arc, whatever it is. You can’t just recycle a TFA line and call it an arc. That is not an arc. Markus and McFeely goddamn know better and we know they know better, because we just saw a beautiful relationship arc closing with Tony and Pepper and, on a smaller scale, with Tony and Peter fucking Parker.

By the way, the small in-person and symbolic interactions between Tony and Peter in EG? Those are what high quality, emotionally salient, brief interactions between people who care about each other look like.

1. Tony’s picture of Peter in his kitchen: He can see from where he does his dishes. He looks at it meaningfully and thoughtfully before making a major plot-essential decision that risks his way of life.

2. Tony and Peter’s reunion hug: It starts off with some humor and classic Peter rambling. Becomes a full-ass, real hug. Nobody slaps the other’s back. Peter remarks, very sincerely, “oh, this is nice.” <3

3. Tony’s death scene: Peter is visibly and truly wrecked. Tony looks at him in a heartfelt way. Words are unnecessary. It is perfect.

Bonus IW moment, because it is one of the most moving images I have seen in the MCU: Tony has Peter’s ashes in his goddamn mouth, eyes closed. Defeated.

Jesus Christ. Don’t tell me Markus and McFeely don’t know how to write characters and brief, powerful interactions, even when the characters are not together. They most certainly are very, very capable of this.

So why did we get the lifeless, quippy drivel and lame physical contact they gave Bucky and Steve in IW and EG? Which, regarding their last convo, was Bucky spilling his guts and Steve being like “Yeah brah, you’ll be fine, don’t be a fucking idiot while I’m off being happy with the only person in the universe who can make me complete #surprisesoulmates.” Bucky offers his quippy mandatory TFA callback retort so that the audience remembers that these two once gave an actual fuck about each other at one point in the narrative. Cue slappy-back-no-dick-touch hug. And please don’t tell me that this is just how men from the ‘40s hug. I would buy that for TFA, but after everything they’ve been through in Winter Soldier and Civil War? I am not buying it.

**Slap-slap**

So we get a Steve Rogers who exits the MCU permanently by making a contentious, questionable final choice with questionable implications that take a graduate degree and/or a hive mind to questionably figure out (or else I’m just a fucking idiot and I’m the only one who needed those things). And we also get the profoundly dissatisfying demise of a relationship that we invested a tremendous amount of emotional energy in because that is what the screenwriters and directors asked us to do.

I am not writing this as a diehard Stucky shipper. I love Stucky, don’t get me wrong. It’s all I read and write in fandom. And I can certainly buy a world (at least, in Caps 1-3) where canon Steve’s love for Bucky is the gay kind and vice versa. Sure. But I am writing this as a person who loves good characters and good story, and this is such a hard fail that even if I had no emotional investment in these two characters, I would wonder what Markus and McFeely had against Steve and Bucky that they let their garden succumb to drought while they tended so considerately to Tony and Peter and Tony and Pepper and Steve and Natasha and Steve and a dead woman and Thor and Bruce and Thor and fucking Rocket, pretty much all of whom (with the exception of Tony and Pepper) have had so much less at stake, so much less time invested, and so much less of a reason for the audience to give a fuck.

But more importantly, I am writing this as a lover of Steve and Bucky, two people who have a well-established, rock-solid, indisputable human relationship that deserves so much more than what it got, especially given all of the unspeakable suffering these men have experienced separately and as a byproduct of their separation. Canonically. This is not made up fandom shippery superimposed upon Markus and McFeely’s precious creation. This is the truth of these two men as determined by the hands of the creators who also neglected them into nothingness, which is arguably a fate far worse than one or both of them dying an actual, final death.

I am left feeling disappointed and betrayed as a fan, wishing, as others have confided in me, that I was more of a Tony person and had been all along. Because then I would be walking away from this still grief-stricken, but at least it would be for the right reasons.

I will leave you with this, arguably one of the last in-character moments for Bucky and Steve in the MCU.

#avengers endgame #salt #endgame spoilers #avengers spoilers #meta

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all1e23 · 6 years

Text

Again [One-Shot]

Characters: Steve Rogers x Reader x Bucky Barnes

Warnings: Cute Steve. It’s mostly just sad though.

Summary: Steve sneaks up on his girlfriend feeling homesick and attempts to cheer her up with a dance, but one important thing is missing.

A/N: This fic is post IW, and everything is terrible and sad. I know I said I wanted fluffy but the Anon that sent me an idea about dancing and being homesick? Well, this is what came out of it. Song mentioned is Again by Doris Day.

***My fics are not to be saved or posted on any other sites without my written permission. Reblogs are my jam though. Thanks!***

Steve has watched you every morning since it all happened. He would watch out of the corner of his eye as you tried to sneak out of bed and get outside without waking him. He watched as you walked to the middle of the field and would stand there, just watching the sunrise all on your own. You had many amazing talents but being sneaky wasn’t one of them. Not everyone can be like Natasha.

He didn't like you hiding things from him but understood why you needed to. He knew how badly you were hurting because he was hurting too. Everyone was hurting and trying to pick up whatever was left. For now, he had to be strong for the team, for you. So he didn't let it show. He didn't break down. He hasn’t fallen apart since it all happened.

You needed him, and he wasn’t going to let you down. Not again.

A large hand slipped around your waist from behind and pulled you back against a wall of hard muscle. You probably would have jumped out of your skin if you hadn't sensed Steve coming moments before. He rubbed your bare arms to protect them from the cold morning wind and began to pepper your neck and shoulder with gentle kisses.

"Morning doll..." He whispered against the cold skin of your shoulder. "It's chilly. You need to wear a sweater out here." When you didn't answer, he tried something else, hoping to put a smile on your face. "Want to come back inside, and I'll make you pancakes?"

You attempted a smile, but it was weak and forced. It would have been easy for a stranger to see, so when your boyfriend spotted it, you knew there wouldn't be pancakes till you talked.

"What is it?" He prodded quietly.

You hummed in response. You weren't sure how to answer him at first. Wakanda was beautiful, even after Thanos and everything that had been destroyed. It was still breathtaking, but it didn't feel right no matter how hard you tried to make it so. It wasn't the compound. It wasn't the tower. It wasn't the two bedroom flat they shared in Brooklyn.

It wasn't home.

You were desperately homesick.

"I miss home, Steve." You breathed. "I miss early mornings while you go on runs, all snuggled up in our bed. I miss the smell of your paints filling our tiny flat and the smell of coffee at all hours of the day. I miss the Sunday farmers market we go to. I miss dancing in the living room when I've had a bad day."

There was a dagger digging into his chest as you listed things off you missed. The cut in his heart deepened as your list grew because those were all the things he missed too. Everything he lost and all the things he wanted back. A small grin started to form, despite the ache in his chest, when you mentioned dancing. He placed a kiss to your cheek before slowly spinning you around, taking your hand in his and preparing you to dance.

"Who says we can't just dance right here?" He pondered aloud, mischief dancing in his eyes.

"In the grass?" Steve's grin only widened as you continued on with your weak protests. "There's no music, and someone could see us."

"Mmm." He wrapped his arm back around your waist, pulling you flush against him as you both began to sway in the tall grass that surrounds you. "I think everyone could use a good laugh, don't you? Besides we can make our own music."

He began to hum a tune that you didn't recognize, so you let your head drop to his shoulder as you listened. It wasn't until he started to sing softly and slightly off tune in your ear that you knew the song, one of your favorites. "Again, this couldn't happen again. This is that once in a lifetime. This is the thrill divine. What's more, this never happened before. Though..." He cleared his throat and let out a shuddering breath as he tightened his arms around you, taking a moment to get his own emotions under control before continuing.

"Though I have prayed for a lifetime.” He breathed. “That such as you would suddenly be mine." He placed a gentle kiss to your head and let your swaying come to a stop as your tears soaked through his shirt.

"I miss him." You choked out. "I miss him so much." You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to block out the sight of that stupidly beautiful sunrise. What was the point of looking at it when Bucky wasn't there to share it with you? When half of your heart was gone and never coming back?

A few drops fell onto your cheeks from above, and you knew where they came from. The other half of your heart was finally letting himself feel something.

"So do I, baby." He whispered. "I promise, I'm going to fix this. I'm going to find a way to bring him back and then we're going home, and I’m not letting either one of you out of my sight. It will be just us from here on out. Just the three of us."

He sounded so sure of himself it was hard to not believe him, but you saw one of the loves of your life disappear right before your eyes as he called out for you and Steve. It was hard to have hope in anything right now but putting your faith and trust in Steve was one of the few things you had left, and you wouldn't give up on him.

Not when he needed you.

"That sounds nice. Just the three of us."

#steve rogers x reader #bucky barnes x reader #steve rogers x reader x bucky barnes #stucky x reader #stucky #poly fic #bucky barnes x you #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x you x bucky barnes #steve x y/n x bucky #steve x y/n #bucky x y/n #stucky x you #the winter soldier #captain america #bucky barns fanfiction #steve rogers fanfiction

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