#I was trying to figure out just how long 616 Bucky was being controlled but the comics seem to live outside of time

[aw-dummies-no]

Anyone else ever just sit there thinking about how Bucky was HYDRA's for 2.5 times longer than he'd been his own self?

[shellheadtm-a]

@involuntaryspy​ | you know what i want i want gushing over tony/bucky

okay, god, fine.  real talk, y’all, this is a ship i didn’t really think about, until i read the 2018 winter soldier run.  and then i couldn’t take the goggles off and now we’re here, i guess.  after having my eyes opened, there’s a lot of stuff - a lot of it - that points to it being a Thing That Could Happen or at least has enough canon basis (in 616 - do not get me started on how fucking badly the mcu bungled tony and bucky and what they are to each other in prime continuity because i’m still mad and i’ll stay mad and there’s literally nothing at all you can do about it) to point to it being a valid possible path to follow.

okay.

like all true possible love stories, this one starts off with one trying to kill the other.  in this case, it was just post-steve’s assassination.  bucky catches the funeral on the news.  and makes up his mind the one thing he can do for steve is kill tony stark.  and he tries to.  this very human, very squishy lump of dumb boy with a metal arm took one look at the guy in the high tech, cutting edge suit he could control with his brain, and said, “i can take him.”  and that ended with bucky sitting in tony’s office, reading the letter steve left tony, and tony offering bucky the shield, being ready to go to get rid of bucky’s triggers, and agreeing to let bucky do things his own way.

he even helped design the suit bucky wore.

but it doesn’t end there.  bucky was cap for a while, you know, it wasn’t just a hot minute.  they were on a team together.  they fought together.  they went to a possible future together, and during that time, in a lot of ways, bucky was one of the few who talked to tony.  and i don’t mean in an official avengers capacity, he’s one of the few that - because let’s not forget, bucky is very good at what he does - is observant to notice things.  tony’s little distress tells,  to ask if tony’s alright.  to show some actual concern and mean it.  during bucky’s trial, tony was just as much a part of his defense process as steve was - he’d gotten rid of the files shield had on bucky (and wiping his brain guaranteed they were gone for good).  he offered support.  he’s the one who modified bucky’s arm so he could keep it, because i can guarantee you he knew how important that would be to bucky.  he’s mentioned as a possible visitor in the gulag bucky’s thrown in.  when tony wiped his brain, left it up to his friends to decide if they were going to bring him back - if they wanted to bring him back, after everything he’d done - bucky’s quick to say yes, like there just isn’t another possibility.  we don’t see a lot of them interacting before that, not really, though there are lots of mentions, but if you flash forward to ws2018, we see a tony and a bucky who are casual, comfortable friends.  who apparently are close enough that bucky feels comfortable with tony knowing where he lives.  who are close enough that bucky will call him in the middle of the night for an evac and tony will drop everything to give it to him.  who are close enough that even when bucky (gently, i’ll add) turns down tony’s unspoken offer of a new/backup arm, tony puts one together anyway - he’s probably had plans for upgrades for bucky for ages to be honest, giving things like that to people is how tony shows he cares - and leaves it with him.

and the fireworks date.  listen, there’s a lot to be said about that one little snippet of dialogue, okay.  a lot.  sharon knows what bucky’s doing it’s written all over her and she is 1000% done with bucky barnes.  tony’s in a zone, you could ask him anything while he’s working like thta because his mouth functions on autopilot and he won’t remember hardly any of the conversation once he comes back to earth.  more importantly:  it’s confirmed by the writer himself that yeah, they went.  they sure did.  that was definitely a thing that happened, but i don’t think tony realized it for what it was, for one.  which means that overall, bucky got the real tony, not the one trying to impress.  real tony is...if you know him, you hold him close.  generous to a fault, a little dorky, wears his heart on his sleeve, gets excited about the stupidest things, is fairly unself conscious about all of it, is just...one of those people that lights up a room, really.  and more importantly things aren’t awkward between them after that.  i’m pretty sure they actually had a pretty great night.

so you know.  they’ve come a long way from bucky shoving a gun in tony’s face and tony holding bucky’s head between his palm repulsors, is what i’m saying.  but is it enough?  is it enough to establish a ship? 

bucky and tony have a lot of similarities, first and foremost.  they’ve both been steve’s foil, they know what that’s like.  they’ve both been the guy who will do the dirty work, get their hands bloody, be the bad cop, so that steve can stay untouched by the worst of things.  they’re two people who have actively worked to keep steve on his pedestal as a beacon of good.  and they now how it weighs on you, and how heavy steve’s disappointment - when they don’t do things the steve rogers way - can feel.  theirs is a small brotherhood, that really...in a way doesn’t include anyone else in the intimate way they know what it feels like.  they know what it’s like to orbit steve and think you’re broken.  to look at steve and look at yourself and find yourself lacking.  to be overwhelmed by steve.  but if this was it, i’d let it go, not really healthy ship material, you know.

in a lot of ways they mirror each other.  they both have a serious side, they’re both very good at what they do.  their spheres of interest overlap a lot, professionally, just in different capacities.  they both have great senses of humor, make the same kinds of jokes - some of which have a self-depreciating edge.  they’re both genuinely, in many ways, soft people, despite what they’ve been through.  cautious, but soft.  hell they even have the same taste in women (looks pointedly at nat).  they’ve also both clawed their way back up from the very bottom and made a comeback where they’re better than ever, if you really wanna look at it that way.  tony fell into a bottle.  tony sold his soul.  and now he’s managed to be better.  do better.  bucky ended up in a goddamn gulag.  bucky’s trying to do better for himself, he’s getting his shit straightened out.  he’s got a home.  a cat.  he’s making active, healthy steps to deal with shit.  and he’s making progress and isn’t ashamed of that.  that’s important, i think, to this whole ship, is that bucky is an example of admitting when you need help and seeking that help in a healthy way.  it’s good, i think, for tony to see that.  it might take a while for tony to get there himself, but he can see it.  he can see what it does for bucky.  and he can start the wheels turning in the back of his own mind for himself.

bucky’s been a support for tony, he knows tony, he’s seen tony at his lowest of lows, and still trusts him to know where he lives.  to work on his arm and know he’s not up to any funny business.  he understands doing what you have to do, even if it’s not the good thing to do, but for the right reasons.  and despite all this heavy shit, things between them are light.  like i still haven’t read invaders (shame on me) but the few pages i have (because i was there for tony) even bucky diverting tony from steve doesn’t have...any heat in it?  he still makes it a joke and i think...overall.  bucky understands that the best way to get tony out of one of those hit first ask questions and feel remorse later moods is to give him another target, something else to focus on.  like...it’s all so subtle, really, but in their overall interactions you can see just how well bucky understands tony.  that you don’t have to be a guy with three ph.ds to figure out how tony’s brain works on an emotional level.

there’s also no competitiveness between them.  tony’s supporting role in ws2018 is a nice change of pace, and while he grumbles and grouses that’s just tony being tony, because he doesn’t mean any of it.  it’s tony being playful, in a way.  he doesn’t mind taking the back seat role and dropping things to help when bucky really needs it, and i bet bucky can count on him every time, all the time, to do it.  bucky’s in tony’s circle of people he’d do anything in the world for, and it’s a thing you gotta do somewhat responsibly, because i mean literally anything.

also important, bucky’s a tinkerer, he does his own arm maintenance mostly, and he’s curious.  he asks questions.  he knows how to engage tony on a level they both get.  hi i just love bucky barnes a whole fucking lot.

but what i’m saying is, especially with regards to this particular ship (i can’t wait for tony to figure out he’s being surprise dragged to the altar it’s gonna be great) is that...they’re different people.  absolutely.  but they know each other.  they have this...unspoken understanding of each other.  and tony’s habit of nesting, and bucky being a soft touch just...pushed it right along as naturally as could be.  there was already a foundation of trust you only get when you know the worst about someone but still see them as being someone you can believe in anyway, and they have that by the bucket.  and like...all it took was a little push and here they are.  they’re gross and disgusting and sappy but tony’s happy and that’s what matters to me.  bucky’s his safe haven, and he’s ready and willing to drop everything and be bucky’s, when it’s needed.  they just kind of...fell into step next to each other and that was that, they haven’t dropped out of formation from that.  we get weekend domestic tony stark now who thinks about the middle of indiana as being home and has a killer commute that i can promise you he makes at even the slightest hint he can and.

i love them.

insert tony ship get thoughts | accepting

[sineala]

Bullet Points

Hey, Tumblr! I wanted to tell you about Bullet Points, my new favorite canonical Marvel AU, so that maybe I can convince you to love it too! So I have prepared a summary and picspam! I had not even heard of Bullet Points until I found someone on the internet saying there should be Steve/Tony fanfic set in Bullet Points. And then I read Bullet Points, and oh my God, does there ever need to be Steve/Tony fanfic set in Bullet Points.

(Don't worry, I have written some, because I try to be the change I want to see. But there needs to be more!)

Bullet Points is a five-issue limited series from 2007 by J. Michael Straczynski and Tommy Lee Edwards. It's definitely of interest to Steve/Tony fans, or at least to Steve/Tony fans who are willing to do a bit of work with the timeline to get them together. But I am pretty sure Steve/Tony fandom will like the premise.

You see, Bullet Points is a universe where skinny Steve Rogers is Iron Man in World War II. And he survives World War II. I knew you were interested.

Bullet Points takes place on Earth-70105. On this Earth, Erskine is shot the night before Rebirth is scheduled to happen -- and without Erskine, Rebirth doesn't happen. So skinny Steve Rogers, determined to serve, who has waited in line all night to have the first crack at Rebirth -- well, he impresses the men who are in charge of a different secret project. Project Iron Man.

Before we go on, I feel the need to inform you that Steve in Bullet Points is SUPER PRETTY. VERY VERY PRETTY. Here, I brought some visual aids:

(I happen to like the art style of Bullet Points a lot, but, yeah, it's all like this. Kind of dark and smeary.)

So the Army has this giant metal weaponized suit of armor, and only a skinny 4-F guy like Steve could ever fit inside. What a coincidence! But here's the catch: he's going to need to undergo surgery to have the chestplate physically wired to his heart, via electrodes. And he's going to have to have the chestplate for the rest of his life. The chestplate is part of the control system that connects the armor to his nervous system -- yeah, yeah, Comic Book Science -- and it also acts as a dead man's switch, because the armor will self-destruct if he dies or if the Axis tries to yank him out and put their own man in.

Here's some more pictures of Steve, looking very pretty and very earnest about wanting this opportunity to serve his country:

(I know he looks almost brunet, but he’s supposed to be blond. The actual brunets basically have their hair colored black. It’s very dark art.)

And here is Steve and his Iron Man suit, before they get hitched:

So after the surgery -- I will omit pictures of the surgery, but Steve is conscious the entire time and of course he toughs it out and says he can take it and urges them to keep going -- the Iron Man makes his debut at Guadalcanal. (Which is, like, two years after Erskine's death; I don't know what took so long.) And of course he saves the day.

A fact that is probably of interest to you h/c junkies is that fighting in the Iron Man suit causes Steve immense physical pain and exhaustion, but of course he keeps going, because he's Steve:

He doesn't get frozen. He fights all through the war. Later on we learn that the primary person responsible for keeping Steve in one piece is Reed Richards, who has taken time away from his outer space ambitions (yes, of course he still wants to go to space) to follow Steve around and patch him up:

(You could probably ship Reed/Steve if you wanted. I'm just saying.)

Now I will briefly summarize some of the rest of the plot, which does intersect with the Steve plot, although honestly mostly I was just here for the Steve (and Tony) stuff and I disagree with some of the plot choices in the rest of it.

Anyway. Erskine wasn't the only death, the night before Rebirth. The MP guarding him was also gunned down -- with the same bullet -- and that man's name was Benjamin Parker. Yep. That would be Peter's Uncle Ben. Who he never gets a chance to meet. And without Uncle Ben's stabilizing influence in his life -- because, what, Aunt May doesn't count? -- he grows up into a brash, risk-taking kind of kid. The story skips ahead to when he's a teenager; we don't get precise dates, but based on the fact that the rest of modern Marvel is kicking off in these issues, and based on the design of the cars, I'm gonna date it to the early 60s. Anyway, Peter's on a field trip and his friends dare him to steal a jeep and so they do and eventually Peter ends up wandering into the gamma bomb test site and... yep, he becomes the Hulk. Yeah, okay. Fine. (Later on it turns out that Bruce Banner is in fact Spider-Man. And Strange becomes Wolverine but Wolverine is also still Wolverine. Making sense is not really a thing this AU has going for it.)

Steve, by the way, has just been given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, is a colonel, is no longer on active duty, and Reed is still trying to talk him into actually retiring because he's probably going to kill himself if he fights again. Steve tells Reed he'll be fine and that Reed should go ahead and go on his rocket mission already and stop hanging around patching him up. I mention this scene because even middle-aged Steve is still SUPER PRETTY, oh my God. Look at him:

So of course when the Hulk starts rampaging through New York, the only person who has a shot at stopping him is, of course, Steve Rogers, the Iron Man. (They want to make more Iron Men, but unsurprisingly, very few people want to sign up for a lifetime physical bond to a suit of armor.) And so they pull him out of retirement, and they want him to suit up, and they want him to take down the Hulk.

(I think you can make a case that going in, Steve knows it isn't going to go well. He expresses doubt that the new armaments they're proposing can take down the Hulk, but he doesn't want them to pull Reed off his rocket project and help him, and, okay, now I kind of think Steve knows what he's in for, as I'm rereading this. But he goes anyway. Oh, Steve.)

Steve fights the Hulk.

Steve dies.

Sure, it's tragic. But it's noble, it's pretty much exactly the death Steve would have wanted, and honestly it's the kind of death that's really, really easy to AU. *cough*

And there's still more story left!

The Fantastic Four's launch is sabotaged. Sue, Johnny, and Ben die. Reed loses an eye. At the funeral, a shadowy government figure approaches him and offers him the chance to become part of SHIELD. So Reed actually ends up the director of SHIELD, because I guess the best qualifications for that are (a) going gray at the temples and (b) having an eyepatch. Yes, that means he basically looks exactly like 616 Fury. I hope JMS thought he was hilarious when he wrote this.

And this is where Tony Stark finally enters the picture.

Here he is. He's young and pretty:

He shows up at SHIELD because he wants the contract to make more Iron Men, and, as you can see, he wants to know why there aren't more. Reed's answer is that he doesn't want anyone to suffer like Steve did:

And Tony, because he's Tony, also wants to volunteer himself for the Iron Man testing:

Reed says no, because Tony has a heart condition.

Reed then introduces Tony to the actual candidate for the new Iron Man... Bucky Barnes. I neglected to mention this before, but we see Steve save Bucky's life during the war. (They don't seem to personally know each other; that's as close as they get in this AU.) Bucky feels that he owes Steve his life and wants to repay the debt. Tony thinks Bucky is a lousy candidate because he's old, but Reed is kind of snappish about being in charge here and wanting to pick someone who doesn't have a weak heart (and, understandably, Reed is sad about having lost everyone he's ever cared about and doesn't want anyone else to die). So Bucky is still the SHIELD pick for Iron Man.

Spoiler alert: Bucky does not get to be Iron Man.

Reed shows Tony around the helicarrier, introduces him to Bruce Banner (Spider-Man), and then... Galactus shows up. To destroy the planet. Yeah, it's pretty sudden.

(Also, weirdly, the beginning of the last issue dates it as forty years after Erskine's death (which would then be the 1980s), but I don't think that can be right, so I'm going to ignore that and pretend it's all still in the 60s sometime because it seems weird that Reed spent at least twenty whole years building SHIELD and wants to put 60-year-old Bucky in the suit. I know that Tony complains that Bucky is too old but that's really, really too old, isn't it? So I say we can totally ignore that dating and go with the 1960s.)

Right. Galactus. Oh no! Everyone's gonna die! But, wait, who is this dapper figure, stealing the Iron Man suit?

Did you guess Tony Stark? You did? Did you guess that he's going to be Iron Man even though his heart might give out from the strain? You did? Oh, Tony.

(Yeah, I'm not sure how he can wear the suit without having had the chestplate surgery either. Whatever! Comics!)

Anyway, everyone fights Galactus and the Hulk shows up and fights Galactus and dies and a lot of people die and it is noble and tragic but the Earth is saved and there is a big funeral at the end. I would just like to note that Tony survives; we see him in the background a few times. THE END.

So, obviously, I think this is perfect for Steve/Tony fandom. You can write fic where Steve doesn't die and he meets Tony! You can write fic where he and Tony knew each other at some point before the Hulk fight! Maybe Steve knew Tony when he was growing up! For the h/c fans, Steve and Tony can both have amazing chestplate-related Iron Man armor angst and pain! You can explore an all-new age difference because Steve is actually older than Tony! You can have a new and different take on Tony's hero worship of Steve, because Steve is Iron Man, because they're both Iron Man! So many story ideas!

Sure, you have to AU it! But think about, say, how many Noir Steve/Tony fics there are! And Steve doesn't even canonically exist in Marvel Noir!

The back of the Bullet Points trade paperback proclaims it to be "the Marvels of the new millennium" and while I enjoyed it a lot, as an assessment of its quality I think it's fair to say that it is definitely not the next Marvels, although from a perspective of the feels it gives me it was certainly worth it. It wasn't what you might call especially popular, meaning that I was able to find the TPB for approximately $3 new. It's on comiXology and Marvel Unlimited as well. So it is definitely easy to find and read! You all should read it! And then come write fic with me!

[imaginetonyandbucky]

When something goes wrong with 616-style Extremis, Tony's body fails, but his mind still exists in digital form. He needs to be downloaded somewhere or he'll die, and Bucky's brain has the resiliency and storage space, plus the necessary cybernetics because of his arm. Bodysharing!

ThankGod for Extremis, because without it, Tony would be stuck inhabitinghis meat body, which was currently locked in a cryotube with anestimated lifespan of about two hours once they thawed him out.

Thealiens who’d showed up last week were actually friendly, for achange, but it turned out that their version of the common cold wasdeadly when transmitted to humans. Honestly, it was lucky that Tonyand Steve had gone up to the Lunar Preorbital Platform for apreliminary meet-and-greet and thus been the only ones infected.

Stevehad gotten sicker than he’d been since 1934, but his serum washealing him faster than the space flu could ravage his body, and fromwhat they could tell, he was actually beginning to develop antibodiesfor the virus.

OnceSteve had actually beaten it, Bruce thought he’d be able to developa vaccine, and in the meantime he was working on a way to cure Tonywithout taking him out of cryosuspension first.

Butwhile Tony trusted Bruce with his life, no question, he just hadn’tbeen able to face the idea of being entirely unconscious for theduration. He’d had Extremis download his brain, hoping to load itinto one of the armors. But even though Tony had spent a decadeproducing some of the most gloriously advanced and beautifulfull-body prostheses ever created by man, it turned out that hecouldn’t inhabitthem,because they lacked a biological component for Extremis to interfacewith.

Sonow he was stuck in his boyfriend’s arm.

Itsucked.

Tonycould only see and hear through a weak wireless connection towhatever cameras and mics were in the immediate vicinity, and hisoptions for speaking were limited to having JARVIS relay messages orgetting Bucky to sit near a keyboard – at an angle that let a nearbycamera see it – and pick words out one-handed. Which meant that ifBucky left the Tower, Tony was fucked, so they were staying in theTower as much as possible and getting bored as hell.

“Stophitting yourself” was only funny about the first twenty times orso, and then Bucky threatened to put the arm in a maglock restraintso Tony couldn’t use it at all.

Itneverstoppedbeing hilarious to make Bucky’s arm move like he was working a sockpuppet (sans sock) whenever JARVIS was relaying one of Tony’smessages – it made Bucky look like a demented ventriloquist – but it was best the first time someone saw it, because theylooked so startled before they cracked up, so that was starting tolose its entertainment value, too.

Itsucked for Bucky, too, because he’d given over the use of his armto Tony, so he couldn’t spar or exercise (apart from running, whichrequired leaving the Tower, so he didn’t do it much) or even shootat the target range. (They tried working in tandem for that, once.Tony had figured all he had to do was hold the arm still, but itturned out that precision shooting really did need minute adjustmentsfrom both arms, and it was all but impossible for Tony to figure outwhat Bucky needed him to do while watching from a camera twenty feetaway.)

Clintwalked into the room once while Bucky was taking a nap on the couchand caught Tony brushing the hair from Bucky’s face. Clint hadnearly burst something trying to keep from laughing aloud at thesight of Bucky apparently petting his own hair in his sleep. Tony’d had a short conversation with him after he’d recovered, but it hadn’t lasted long,because one-handed sign language was a pain in the ass, and alsoClint had been weirded out by the whole “possessed arm” thing.(Seriously, how was that weirder than the aliens in orbit who werefrantically Skyping with Bruce about a cure for their common cold?)

Theytried watching a movie, but Tony couldn’t properly talk back to thescreen or complain about the science, and without a proper body, hecouldn’t munch popcorn or drink a beer or try to distract Buckyinto making out with him instead of watching the movie.

Wait.Hold the phone. Back up.

Tonydragged the hand up Bucky’s thigh to cup his crotch.

“Tony,what the hell?” Bucky hissed, looking around frantically, thoughTony had made sure they were alone already. Bucky grabbed the metalarm’s wrist and dragged it away from his dick.

Tonyrolled his (metaphorical) eyes and reached for the tablet he’dstarted carrying around. Wecould always go back to bed to kill some time,he suggested. Too bad the tablet couldn’t wiggle eyebrows at Buckysuggestively.

“I’mnot gonna go jerk off in the middle of the afternoon,” Buckygrowled under his breath.

Isit really jerking off if I’m the one controlling the hand?

“It’snot like I’d be able to return the favor,” Bucky argued, thoughTony could practically feelhimstarting to cave.

Likewatching his gorgeous boyfriend coming undone wasn’t pleasureenough. Idon’t have any balls to turn blue anyway,Tony typed. Actually,since I don’t have a body that can get tired, we could kill a lot  oftime.

Buckyhesitated.

Howmany times do you think you can go at once?Tonyasked.

Buckysnatched the tablet off his lap and out of Tony’s reach and stoodup. “I don’t know. Let’s go find out.”