#howard/maria

[aurumacadicus]

Halloween Trope: Sexy [insert costume]

Pairing: Howard & Maria 🥹

You're single-handedly trying to keep this pairing alive on my blog lmao

--

Howard glanced into the bedroom as he passed by, then slowed to a stop, blinking slowly as he tried to grapple with what he'd just seen. Finally, he backed up a few steps, peering through the door again. And yes, there Maria was, clipping her garters to leggings that looked like spiderwebs. Howard took a moment to really appreciate the way the fabric clung to her like a second skin, the top hem decorated with beaded lace.

Then a pillow smacked into his face, and he went ass over teakettle with a squawk. "What the hell was that for?!" he exclaimed, pulling the pillow from his face.

"If you're going to leer at me, step inside and close the door," Maria retorted, picking up a lacy black dress that looked more at home in a sorority house than Stark Mansion. "I can't take Ana making fun of me again, and Jarvis tells her everything."

"Ana would be delighted," Howard grumbled, but he also stood up and entered the room obediently. He closed the door, then locked it for good measure.

Maria swiveled on her heel to look at him. "Tony will be home for the long weekend in an hour. That's not enough time."

"I'm glad you have high expectations of me," Howard began.

Maria scowled. "To get presentable again after. I can still hear the way Tony screeched about eye bleach the last time he walked in on us."

"He has a hand, he can learn to knock," Howard huffed, then squinted as Maria grabbed a witch's hat off the bed and delicately pinned it into her hair so it sat at a jaunty angle. "What's this. What's going on."

"I'm a sexy witch! It's my Halloween costume," Maria answered cheerily, doing a spin to show off for him. The skirt flew up.

Howard was distracted until another pillow popped off the side of his head. "Ow."

"Focus," Maria told him sternly.

"Maria, it's September," Howard began, rubbing where the pillow had pelted him.

"I told Tony that if he insisted on wearing a sexy costume, I would also wear one, and I want him to know I'm serious." She turned, moving to approach her full-length mirror. The skirt bounced against the back of her thighs, swishing against the bare skin between her stockings and garter belt.

Howard didn't realize he was moving until Maria barked out a startled 'Howard!' and decided it wasn't a pitch that meant she was going to deck him, hands reaching out to grab her thighs. "Twenty minutes."

"Howard," Maria tried again, then squealed as he pulled upward, feet scrabbling uselessly for purchase as Howard turned to carry her to the bed.

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Heart of the Matter (George More O'Ferrall, 1953).

[diioonysus]

history + women who were executed

[gunsandspaceships]

Tony’s Childhood. Part 1: Identifying facts

In the MCU, Tony sometimes acts like a kid. There is a reason behind every behavior, so I wondered what it was like for him when he was a real kid.

So, the questions of the day: what do we know about Tony's childhood? Did he have one? And, most importantly, how did it affect him?

Let’s first list what we know from the movies:

At age 4 Tony built his first circuit board (IM1)

At age 6 built his first engine (IM1)

Was sent to a boarding school by Howard (IM2)

Cracked the Pentagon’s firewall in high school on a dare (AoU)

Had a nanny until the age of 14 (IM3)

Went to college at 14 (IM1)

Built Dum-E and U when he was there (IM1)

At 17 graduated summa cum laude from MIT (IM1)

Continued his education until his parents’ death (CW)

Tony’s genius gave him two things: the brain and the pain. And by the pain, I mean that instead of interacting and bonding with his parents, enjoying life, playing, having fun, making friends, taking care of pets, and all the other things children do to gradually prepare for adulthood and grow up "healthy", he got this list of achievements. That doesn’t make a person normal.

Parents

We know his relationship with Howard was complicated. Howard loved him in his own way. He had too many things to do to be a good father: SI, S.H.I.E.L.D., scientific projects, trying to build a better future with clean energy, etc. All good, except when you want your child to love you back. Especially if in the tiny amount of time you spend with him, you don’t show him any signs of affection.

What do we know about Maria? Her name, what she looked like, that she played the piano, and died at Winter Soldier’s hand on Dec 16, 1991. That’s it. She didn’t spend much time with Tony either. Remember, he even had a nanny, instead of a mother. Tony's words about her showed that he loved her, but he didn't talk much about her. Because she wasn’t present in his life enough. Why? Because…

School

Howard sent Tony to a boarding school.

Here’s in the S.H.I.E.L.D.s file we have this information about the school:

“Phillips Academy, Andover, MA 1977-1984”

This means he was there from age 7 to 14. Howard sent him to a boarding school when he was SEVEN.

Phillips Academy Andover serves grades 9-12 only (it is a college preparatory school). Thus, either this is a mistake by the creators of the film/file, or Tony, due to his genius, became an exception. Since the early age he was already at school was also mentioned in IM2 tie-in comics, and in Earth-616 that was also 7, we can mark 1977-1984 as valid.

Think about it again: Tony was sent to boarding school in another state when he was 7 years old. He spent another 7 years there, alone, among high school-aged teenagers. No parents around, no peers.

For example, even Hogwarts accepts 11-year-old children, and they live with their peers. Now imagine Harry Potter, at the age of 7, is thrown into a dorm with 7th-year students and locked there. Doesn’t make a person normal either, does it?

Nannies and Jarvis

Since Tony was at the boarding school, there are two options for how he could have a nanny (mentioned in IM3) and spend time with Edwin Jarvis:

1) He was at the boarding school with a nanny. There is almost no possibility that the nanny was Edwin Jarvis because Jarvis was Howard’s butler and had other responsibilities.

2) He had a nanny at home in the summer and during short school breaks. In this case, his parents couldn’t even give him this little of their precious time.

In any case, he could only see Jarvis at home, a few months a year at most.

Note: There is a date error in IM3, stating Tony was 14 in 1983. This is clearly an error and we can omit this detail.

Bullying

Remember this dialog between Tony and Harley in IM3?

0:45:15 – Harley asks him how he knew he was being bullied at school. Tony doesn't answer. He gives him a non-lethal flash thing to "discourage bullying."

We see that Tony knew exactly what was going on with Harley at school. Because that’s exactly what happened to him there. Harley reminded him of himself. Brilliant kid with no friends and practically no parents. He was bullied by 9th-12th graders.

If he had a nanny with him at the school, that probably made things even worse. He would be bullied because he has a nanny, and despite he has one to look after him.

In Part 2 we will discuss how all this affected him. Stay tuned.

[velvet4510]

Probably in the minority here, but I’m positive there’s no way Steve could’ve known with absolute, concrete certainty that Bucky was the one who killed Tony’s parents, prior to Zemo’s reveal.

All he saw was a photo of the headline of Howard’s death included in Zola’s footage. So he knew HYDRA was responsible for the deaths, but I think he was being honest when he told Tony “I didn’t know it was him.” Then he caved and just said “yes” because Tony emphasized “did you know” as in “did you know it wasn’t just an ordinary car accident?”

Steve probably pieced together the likelihood that it was Bucky who did it, but wanted to believe it wasn’t true, that HYDRA had sent someone else to do it. Which explains why he didn’t tell Tony. He had no proof it was true. And he didn’t want it to be true anyway. Why should he say “I think my best friend might’ve killed your parents but it’s just a hunch?” Why would ANYONE want to say that to their friend?

Steve Rogers deserves no hate.

[blackthornluce]

Captain America: Civil War (2016) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.

That's how I wished it happened. Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing, or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym. An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to... clear traumatic memories. Huh. It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport... or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but... Plus, 611 million dollars for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in the right mind would've ever funded it.

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[Note: This poll is a re-do of an older poll, as the original poll received less than 2,000 votes.]

[mrsoftthoughts]

I always need more content of the Mortal parents of pjo, like, this people seriously have to raise childrens that depite their looks, we need to remember aren't human and a lot of them don't even know why their childrens are so "weird" and even if we know some gods that probably were there at least the first years, almost all of them are single parents trying to figure out how to raise this kid that they don't have a fuckin clue of where is their other mother/father.

And Then they need to discover that their kid is half god and probably had the mayor mental breakdown because it doesn't matter if they are atheist or believe in other religions, that goes against to almost anything that they believed

And that's just the surface, theres a lot of other things

I mean, we only ge a close up to Demigods born from concensual relationships in the saga, but looking back at some gods historial, i won't discard the possibility of some of them beig results of 🍇 and how the fuck some mortal parents would have to deal with have a child result of that kind of situation

And We have pretty interesting characters here and we barely know something about them, and all this potential is just wasted-?

I mean, just look at Marie Levesque and Beryl Grace, despite that they aren't the Best people on earth for what we know of them, you can't look me death in the eyes and tell me that they don't have potential for building them a past or Characters study

Or what about the parents of the kids that died?? The mortal parents of Lee Fletcher, Michael yew, Castor and all the diceaced characters must be around somewhere, dueling the lost of their child at the hands of a word that of their kids belonged but they didn't

And ofc whe have the ones of alive campers, i mean, just a few of the campers are year rounders, a lot of them come back with their mortal parents at the end of the summer, most of the campers actually live with their mortal parents and each one must had very different dynamics with their parent

And the parents of year rounders aren't least interesting, like, how they feel about having their kid away of them?? Some of them maybe are one of the reasons why their kid's don't come back at their houses after the summer

And also an Honorable mention to the Man that after dieing and being brought back to life as a mist form is the father of a traumatized 16yo war betteran condemned to ostracism: the Dr, Howard claymore, which remids the fact that there must be at least some other demigod has been adopted by a mortal who probably was even more clueless that the kid bio parent

As a summary: The mortal parents are a really interesting part of the world building of pjo and never get enough recognition

[robertdowneyjjr]

a soulmates au where your words only show up after you’ve met your soulmate. sort of like an insurance policy, you know, so you’re not left wondering whether every other person you meet is the one if your words are too generic.

in this universe, captain america has been recovered and active for several years now. he runs missions and saves the world with his ragtag team of superheroes formed by SHIELD. steve's become a celebrity, which he doesn't love, but it's something he learns to live with because that's life for public figures in the 21st century.

tony never became iron man because he walked away from his father's legacy the second he turned 18. he and howard are still working on their relationship, but maria couldn't be prouder and tells tony so everyday. he built his own company from the ground up and it's thriving under his leadership. he's only marginally famous these days and he tries his best to stay out of the limelight, guarding his private life as much as possible. that's how it's been for twenty years and he's happy.

they meet on a day when steve is tired, irritable and angry. he's just returned from a mission where two of his teammates were injured because of the faulty information they received. he goes out on a walk to let off some steam and he's just slipping his phone back into his pocket after rejecting fury's fifth call for a debrief when he slams right into tony.

tony was having a good day. he'd just sent out a new set of designs and decided to reward himself for it. he goes and gets himself a fresh, delicious, life-affirming cup of coffee and is just stepping out of the cafe with aforementioned cup when a walking brick wall comes out of nowhere.

good news is, tony had ordered a cold brew. once every few weeks that's just what he's in the mood for and it had been one of those days. bad news is, instead of drinking it he is now wearing it.

sticky and cold and more than a little shocked, tony barely has time to recover and figure out what happened when steve starts tearing into him.

“god damn it, watch where the fuck you’re going! that could have spilled all over me! idiot!” steve yells at tony. and on a normal day, he’d be apologetic and he’d never curse like this at a stranger. but he really didn’t need yet another thing to go wrong today and he’s on a short fuse.

maybe later, when he’s calmed down, he’ll think back on the cute man with the giant brown eyes staring at him in disbelief and start beating himself up over how he behaved.

at the moment, all tony can do is look at steve’s pristine white t-shirt that somehow has not a single drop of coffee on it, then look back down at his own chest. he has no words except, “wow. you’re a fucking asshole.” and he just turns around and walks away.

tony gets home and strips off for a rinse before he gets ready for his flight to london for a week of meetings. all the while he can’t help but think that angry blond man looked vaguely familiar and he can’t place where he knows him from. he doesn’t notice the new string of words tattooed down the side of his thigh until he’s in his hotel room half a day later.

meanwhile, steve gets home after his walk, after he’s checked on his teammates, after sitting with fury for three long hours to debrief, and finally washes the day off of him. before he gets into the shower, he notices something different about his reflection.

along his left bicep are the words, wow. you’re a fucking asshole.

he thinks back on the cute man with the big brown eyes and a chest full of coffee and wonders how in the hell he can fix this mess.

[waltermis]

"I am Iron Man" Anthony Edward Stark Born: May 29th, 1970 Died: October 17th, 2023. Avengers Compound. Proof that Tony Stark has a heart Parents: Maria Stark, Howard Stark Wife: Pepper Potts Kids: Morgan Stark, Peter Parker

[aurumacadicus]

This seems fun!

"You look pretty while you sleep. Prettier than you look when you're glaring at me. Yep, exactly like that."

Maria/Howard (bonus points for toddler Tony at some point)

You don't have to tell me twice lmao

--

Howard was in the rocking chair when Maria woke up, Tony bundled in his lap. He was rocking slowly, one hand rubbing circles on Tony's back, the other settled gently on the back of his little head.

Maria yawned, rubbing her eyes. Tony was cutting a tooth and was miserable, feverish and in pain. She'd been up with him all night, until about two in the morning. He'd finally settled, but she figured it was only because of exhaustion, and she wouldn't have a lot of time to rest herself. She checked the clock. It was still earlier than she'd like, but she'd gotten a little more sleep than she'd expected.

"Did he wake up again?" she asked, then yawned again. It seemed like it was going to be another espresso day.

"Yes, but Jarvis brought me a chilled washcloth, so he's chewing on that," Howard replied, slowing his rocking a little more. He glanced over at her, smirking. "You look pretty while you sleep."

Maria couldn't help the way her hands pressed to her warm cheeks immediately in response. She didn't feel pretty, especially after a long night listening to her baby cry.

"Prettier than you look when you're glaring at me," Howard added.

Maria scowled and slanted her eyes toward him, pursing her lips.

"Yep, exactly like that," Howard said, and then pulled Tony closer and yelped, "Maria I'm holding the baby!"

"Tony will understand why he doesn't have a father anymore," Maria promised, holding her slipper over her head.

Then Tony whimpered, and she dropped her slipper to coo at him, and Howard began rocking the chair again. Jarvis appeared seemingly from nowhere, plucked the washcloth from Tony's mouth, replaced it with a new one, and disappeared again.

Maria narrowed her eyes in the direction of the door. "Diavolo?"

"He's the devil as much as he's a vampire and a ghost, Maria," Howard sighed.

"I bet he wouldn't even leave footprints in the snow if he thought it was impolite," Maria muttered, still staring after him for a moment, then turned back to Tony. He was cheerfully chewing away at his new washcloth, staring up at Howard with his big, sweet eyes. She couldn't help a smile. "Did you get some good cuddling in with your daddy, tortellino?"

Howard lifted Tony above his head, smiling. "Of course he did! For an entire hour!"

Tony let the washcloth slip from his mouth and hands so he could free them up to giggle and clap. The washcloth hit Howard's face with a wet slap.

"Tony," Howard said, disappointed, even as Tony began squealing and clapping louder.

Maria didn't even bother pretending she wasn't laughing hard enough to snort.

[kayvsworld]

yet another day of being mad that all of the articles shown onscreen about howard & maria's deaths just have a picture of howard

[acepumpkinpatrick]

I have been in the trenches (the PennyWaynes tag) for 2h and I believe that the PennyWaynes would have absolutely Hated Howard Stark.

They only put up with Howard and Maria bc Alfred and Jarvis are old friends, and Bruce and Tony like each other's company.

Martha goes with Alfred to Stark Manor just to see Ana while the boys - Alfred, Jarvis, Bruce & Tony - have a play date.

[gunsandspaceships]

Tony’s behavior: Teenager/Young Adult (21 years old)

In previous episodes (Kid, 16 years old, 17-18 years old) we watched as Tony, from a calm and quiet boy who obeyed his father, began to behave in an atypical manner. But this behavior only appeared after the age of 16. It is not known what the reason was, but I have some ideas which I will share later in another post.

In this post, we take a look at 21-year-old Tony before his parents died.

Captain America: Civil War

It's Christmas time, Tony is back home for winter break after studying abroad (for his PhD). His parents are going on a short vacation to the Bahamas.

Tony just returned home from another country a few hours ago and is now sleeping on the couch in the living room of his parents' mansion. I bet some people thought he was partying and drinking, having a fun night with a girl (as Howard sarcastically suggested). He actually has jet lag, not a hangover. He looks fine and healthy here.

For some reason he is sleeping on the couch in the living room, instead of the bed in his bedroom. Btw, this couch looks like the worst place to sleep. But this is Tony, that's normal. His preferences for comfort are a little unusual.

He is still busy studying. He completed his bachelor's degree, master's degree and is now pursuing his doctorate. This means that he did not waste his life drinking and partying. He was engaged in what we all (usually) consider good and useful - education and science. And his father was still dissatisfied. Why is that?

Here Howard demonstrates his attitude towards Tony. Calling him "homeless person", assuming without evidence that he had a sexual relationship with a girl, telling him that he's wasting his potential. From the "16 Years" post, we know that Tony was interested in robotics and not so much, to put it mildly, in weapons. By "potential" did Howard mean "creating weapons, not robots"? Let's see if we have any other clues here...

This behavior looks strange, doesn't it? Tony doesn't seem to approve "quick stop at the Pentagon". Why? Maybe because he doesn't approve of Howard's business? That's something new! Some would say. But remember what he did in high school - he hacked the Pentagon's firewall. All the evidence suggests that he was not a great fan of the military at the time. Who knows, maybe this was one of the stumbling blocks in their relationship?

Listening to their argument, Maria looks indifferent. She seems to be used to it. So this has been going on for some time. Some years.

Tony definitely had a better relationship with his mother than with his father. Although Tony and Maria are a little awkward around each other. And we know why - they rarely spent time together during these 21 years.

Speaking of interaction, both sides - Tony and his parents - tried to avoid each other. Howard and Maria are heading to the Bahamas without taking their son with them. Tony comes back home just before they leave. Everything tells us that it wasn’t just like that that time, that’s how it usually happened. What was going on? They sent him to boarding school when he was too young, and he lived on campuses for 14 years, moving only from school to MIT to another college overseas. And even when he was back at home for a few days, they went somewhere and he was home alone. And he was not a big fan of their presence too, enjoying being alone, home, but sleeping on the couch. Something was completely f*cked up there.

Maria said Howard misses Tony when he is not there. This comment and the avoidant behavior give me the feeling that Howard was afraid of Tony's presence around. We know he never told Tony what he was really working on - S.H.I.E.L.D., Tesseract-based energy, and the new super soldier serum. Was he afraid that Tony would find out? If so, why? Because of the danger?

Tony's joke about the Pentagon's Christmas menu made me think he was familiar with it. Had Howard taken him to the Pentagon for the holidays before? And only him, without Maria. Maybe it was because there was no one at home to keep Tony company? Unlikely. There were other people around - Jarvis, his wife, nanny, or Maria (As a last resort. Weird, I know). Was this an attempt to introduce Tony to the military then? Sounds even weirder that it happened during holidays. Why would you bring your kid to the Pentagon for the holidays, Howard? He should be at home with his family. Gosh...

[the-poor-miranha-quotes]

I had this idea and I NEEDED to conceive it anyway XD

[sixaus-meaa]

Six The Musical as Tweets pt57