#mits did you just write an entire post to talk about really old walls? MAYBE

[mitsdriveswhere]

I wanna talk about the Salmon Ruins

I really can't explain in a way that doesn't make me sound like a raving lunatic how cool the cultural and chronological differences in architecture of a specific region are. Like. That sentence. Read it back? Sounds fuckin crazy. Why do I care about this? idk. I just think it's neat.

So.

Salmon Ruins. Really, I'd never heard of these ruins before I really started learning more about ancestral Puebloan (and specifically Chacoan) architecture.

Yeah, I'll be completely fucking honest, my reasons for getting into Chacoan architecture are dumb at best. At best. I'd have to trace back so many things. What led me to the Salmon Ruins? Probably, I think it started by joining a tour group that I did not pay for in Mesa Verde.

I'm 90% sure the tour guide knew I wasn't in his group, but what was he gonna do? Tell me to go away? Nah. So I tagged along because it was interesting. This tour was about the mesa part of Mesa Verde - not the cliff dwellings - mostly focusing on the early settlements and kivas. I'd been to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings as a kid, back when they called the ancestral Peubloans 'the Anasazi'. It was cool, but didn't really spark my interest outside of being there. But kivas?

I'd never heard of these things before. And there were so many! And so deep! How they were built, how they were used, who inhabited them, all new information to me. I'm sure they talked about it at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings but, ya know, you don't listen to that stuff as a kid.

Mesa Verde led me to Chaco Canyon. And Chaco Canyon (while terrifying to get in and out of) is beautiful. You could pick a 5x5 part of the outer wall of that site to study for an entire day.

The Chacoans cared about their buildings. They made art with their homes. This was beyond necessity, this was purposeful. And it was so close I could literally touch it. I could walk in the city and see what they saw from the same place they saw it. I could go on about Chaco Canyon (as I have in the past), but moving on.

Chaco Canyon led to Canyon of the Ancients, lead to Aztec Ruins, and then finally to the Salmon Ruins. Mind you - there are more sites that I haven't seen yet. They are scattered across New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, literally dozens of sites. I've probably seen more than most, but I've certainly not seen all of them.

But the Salmon Ruins are special in their own way, and that comes specifically from their research library. When you enter the site, they'll hand you a little laminated booklet that you return to the front office after seeing the site. That includes a map of the full site, a detailed history of its re-discovery and preservation, and most importantly - a color guide to take you to each important marker placed in the ruins.

This guide is gorgeous. The amount of information you get as you go is just amazing. It goes over common practices, tools, room usages, inhabitants, changes to the structure, everything. Personally, I found Markers 1 and 16 most interesting.

These focus on the craftsmanship specific to the people living there at the times they occupied Salmon Pueblo. Because you can tell! Who was living there! Based off how they built and rebuilt things!

Fascinating!!!!

The Chacoans used very geometrically similar rocks - think almost brick-like, cut to fit - to create the outer layer of their walls, while filling the insides of the walls with large, unshaped stones (Chacoan style core and veneer masonry). They would also decorate their walls by taking these stones and exposing them to heat to change their colors (because again!! The Chacoans!! Made their homes into art!!)

This style of masonry is not shared among all ancestral Puebloans, and when the Chacoans no longer inhabited Salmon Pueblo, other ancestral Peubloans occupied it and modifications to its structure were made in a different style, with large river rocks held together with mortar.

You can follow the Chacoans and their influence to every site they created and interacted with, including Mesa Verde and Chimney Rock in Colorado.

Idk. Maybe at some point I'm going to buy a big ole fuckin ream of paper and spread it out around my house so I can draw out and fully appreciate the chronological and geological changes and dispersion of Chacoan architecture. Maybe at some point I'll hit that level of out to lunch that it will seem like a good idea to do that.

Maybe I'm actively thinking about doing this.

Maybe I went and bought a copy of the booklet you can walk around the Salmon Ruins with. Maybe I specifically asked for one after I was done looking around.

[ad1thi]

Prompt 2? With tony saying it? And maybe stuckony? Unless you don't like that ship than just good ol' fashioned stony!

#2: you think you’re so smart? what’s my middle name?

–

i’m really sorry this took so long but i kind of struggled with how to write it

–

also i tried to make it stuckony but i’m not actually quite sure if i’ve succeeded 

–

crack treated seriously so take this ficlet with a grain of salt

–

The first thing everyone needed to know about Tony Stark was that he was very very smart

like

graduated  MIT with 2 doctorates at 19 smart

rediscovered an element from a theme-park model smart

built a miniature arc reactor in a cave with a box of scraps smart

The second thing everyone needed to know about Tony Stark was that he was very very dumb

like

somehow wasn’t aware that Rhodey switched out his MIT hoodie every 5 years dumb

burned water on multiple occasions dumb

and most recently, was completely oblivious to the fact that he was dating 2 super soldiers dumb

–

It started like this

Steve brought his bestfriend back to the Tower looking like a two-bit hobo, Tony took one look at him, and parade-marched him into a shower

He completely ignored all laws about basic human privacy, and instead bathed and dried down Barnes, dressed him in clothes he’d pulled out of Steve’s closets and put the Winter Soldier to bed like he was a 5 year old child, complete with italian nursery rhymes and a bedtime story about America’s great soldier Captain America

It was the beginning of an arduous trek to recovery, and Tony’s blatant choice to wilfully ignore everything scary about Barnes did wonders

Barnes became James (and Winter Wonderland and Frosty and on one memorable occasion, Buckaboo) and he got better

And with him, so did Steve

Steve stopped mournfully staring at empty walls and started going on runs, canvasing museums and took up art with a new vengeance

Under Tony’s careful prodding and incessant need to insert himself into everything, the team watched the Brooklyn duo come alive again

(its honestly no wonder that they fell in love with him)

–

It continued something like this

Natasha watched Steve and Yasha flit around the kitchen preparing breakfast for Tony, lay it out on the table in approximately 5 separate ways before he stumbled out of the workshop and then promptly collapsing against the counter in exhaustion

Bruce watched as Steve left small post-it sketches all over the lab and Tony’s responding giggles everytime he found a new one, and was greeted to the sight of James staring abashedly at Tony’s ass when he was seated on his lap, fiddling with the metal arm

Clint raged when James threw minute pieces of spaghetti at the back of neck during Mario Kart sessions with Tony, distracting him long enough to let Tony win and then throw himself into James’ arms in glee

–

It ended something like this:

Tony’s date with Helen Cho made front page news in 4 newspapers and several other magazines and tabloids

–

Tony’s broken out of his post-scienceing glow by a particularly loud bang against his workshop desk

He looks up to the angry (has James been crying?) faces of his two favourite Brooklyn boys, down to the newspaper on his table (that really is a bad angle for him) and back to them

“Can I help you?” he asks when nothing is forthcoming

“You-” Steve splutters, “This is how you- there are better ways to break up with us Tony!”

“Okay back up what?”

“Finding out about your girl on the side on the front page of the Times isn’t a fun experience doll,” James intones and Tony knows he’s in trouble but frankly he’s having a hard time wrapping his head around this

“Wait no what? Break up?”

“We were never together!!”

“We’ve been dating for 6 months!”

Tony crosses his arms, “If I was fucking you and James I would’ve noticed Steve. As it happens, my ass isn’t sore.”

“Tony did you genuinely not know we’ve been dating this entire time?”

“Doll we’ve been in love with you forever, and we thought you felt the same way”

“In love?” Tony’s brain is short-circuiting fast, “You barely know anything about me! How can you be in love with me?”

“We’ve been living together for 2 years, I feel like we know enough”

“You think you’re so smart? what’s my middle name?”

“Edward”

fuck

“Favourite fruit”

“Blueberries”

“Favourite flower”

“Trick question, you hate flowers”

Tony slumps back in his seat, face aghast, “we’ve been- and I never- why haven’t we kissed yet?”

James and Steve shrug, 

“We figured you wanted to take it slow, and we didn’t wanna push”

“I just got comfortable with physical touch doll, no way I was gonna try something until I was sure you were comfortable”

“You really didn’t know we were dating?”

Tony shakes his head softly

“6 months huh?”

“So, that means we must’ve crossed the third date”

Steve nods, “Yeah way back in Mar-” 

the rest of his words are cut off by the harsh press of Tony’s lips against his

(there isn’t much talking after that)

Fin

[tonystarkssnipples]

March Fic Recs

Special Spotlight/Fic of the Month:

almeno tu nell'universo by silkspectred Rating: E Word Count: 55,846 (in progress)

Tony drives off.

Well, he wants to.

But he can’t.

Because.

Steve Rogers is in front of his car.

Steve fucking Rogers. Is in front of Tony’s fucking car.

Angst:

love the sin, love the sinner by silkspectred Rating: E Word Count: 10,585

It keeps happening. Not often, just once or twice a month, but it keeps happening. Always in the same way: it’s unplanned, sudden, unexpected, Steve is surprised and eager, his dick goes from zero to one hundred in two seconds, Tony’s touch is electric, everything he does drives Steve crazy, but he never lets Steve kiss him, he very rarely looks Steve in the eye, he never talks, never makes a sound when he comes, never mentions it later.

rough enough for love by silkspectred Rating: E Word Count: 14,562

The first time they had sex was right after their first kiss. Steve dropped to his knees and then Tony reciprocated after making Steve lie down on the bed. The second time it was Steve that initiated it, slow handjobs under the hot spray of the shower, and Tony looked surprised by it. Like it was weird that Steve wanted it. Wanted him.

coffee by romanoff Rating: N/R Word Count: 10,585

Coffee shop AU that’s not an AU.

In which Clint works behind the counter, Tony is a regular and Steve is the new guy who only goes in for one cup but can’t stop coming back for the coffee. He says it’s the coffee. Spoiler alert: It’s not. It’s Tony.

“Why do you come here?”

Tony thinks.

“It’s small. Tucked away. No one notices it. I like that,” he smiles, laughs a little “I like that it’s kinda just… ignored. You only notice it when you really need it.”

“Like when you need shelter from the rain,” Steve says

“Or coffee.” Tony finishes with a smile.

“Or coffee.” Steve finishes with a sigh.

As Time Goes By by Stonyinspirationwriter Rating: N/R Word Count: 3,798

Tony was fifteen years older than Steve. They weren’t supposed to get married. They should have never gotten together in the first place. They should have continued on their separate ways. Steve should have let go, but he didn’t. Tony should have let go, but he couldn’t. He also couldn’t be sorry for the wonderful life they had built together, and all the moments he had spent at Steve’s side. The real question was, though, was whether Steve could ever be prepared to let go of him?

Lost in Transcription by Veldia Rating: T Word Count: 25,267

In a world recently turned upside down by the discovery of genetic markers for soulmates, Steve and Tony struggle to come to grips with their unexpected, unasked-for match.

We Are Far Too Young and Clever by laudatenium Rating: E Word Count: 21,572

In his head, he knew Tony was still a kid. Suffering from shell shock and whatever emotional abuse Howard had managed to put him through.

But even with that, Tony somehow rose above it all to become extraordinary.

He was a teammate, a genius, and a friend. He was terribly mature for his age. Tony was Iron Man, not Iron Boy.

Despite everything, there still stood an age difference of ten or seventy-six years, depending on your calculation.

But his heart was telling him not to listen.

----

AU where Tony becomes Iron Man at 16, an Avenger at 17, and Steve's . . . infatuation at 18.

Take That Off, What Are You? by imafriendlydalek Rating: M Word Count: 6,494

There had been a lot of things Steve had seen on his trip across America that he hadn’t expected, but if there had been one thing he certainly would never have thought would happen, it would have been falling into bed with Tony Stark.

Of course, like everything between them, it isn't exactly smooth sailing after that. Especially when the Mandarin shows up.

Bereavement by nightwalker Rating: T Words: 3,786

She sets her clipboard down on her lap and folds her hands over it. “I am very sorry for your loss, Agent Rogers.”

All-Time Low by Sineala Rating: E Words: 12,060

Tony's lost his company to Obadiah Stane. He's lost it all: his money, his friends, his Avengers team... and his sobriety. Drunk, homeless, Tony is living on the streets, and when he runs out of liquor money, he sells the only thing he has left: his body. And one day, he has the exact wrong customer.

Post CA:CW Fix-it

shelter from the storm by silspectred Rating: M Word Count: 5,228

Tony adopts a baby. Guess who's Majorly Fucked Up™ about it.

Post CA:CW Not a Fix-it:

Some Great Reward by Kiyaar Rating: E Word Count: 5,348

After the events of Captain America: Civil War, Tony and Steve come to an agreement. It doesn't involve affection.

PWP/Smut:

Told You Dirty Jokes Until You Smiled by ChibiSquirt Rating: E Word Count: 3,872 (in progress)

Steve was waiting at light, casually checking out the man in the car behind him, when his phone pinged.

Coffee and Company, or Fate by kiminsocks Rating: E Word Count: 7,104

Tony ditches his New Year's party and stops for coffee, makes a friend, and thinks maybe he wants to take him home, just this once.

My Blue Heaven by Kiyaar Rating: E Word Count: 939

his for allthewonderfulstony, who won my birthday giveaway and wanted "all kinds of smut." And love, there's some love, too.

Most Faithful Mirror by Kiyaar Rating: E Word Count: 4,815

Written for 10 Years of Steve/Tony! (circa 2012).

After the events of Fear Itself, Tony is in rough shape. Feelings and porn ensue.

Fluff:

Flowers Are (Not) Mandatory by izazov Rating: G Word Count: 4,526

Tony is not freaking out over his upcoming date with Steve Rogers. Okay, maybe he is. But only a little.

In Vino Veritas by izazov Rating: G Word Count: 3,088

Tony puts his foot in his mouth. Steve gets drunk. One is rather common. The other, not so much.

leaving everything behind (but you) by MusicalLuna Rating: E Word Count: 4,432

For their anniversary, Tony tells Steve to name his fantasy.

Steve never fails to surprise (or delight) him.

My Shellhead (the Auction-bot remix) by ChibiSquirt Rating: T Word Count: 1,389

Steve puts himself up for auction. Tony makes sure he's the highest bidder.

Moonlight And Love Songs by IndigoNight Rating: G Word Count: 1,660

In which Tony is old, cranky, and jealous. But luckily, Steve knows exactly what to do.

Poker Night by Neverever Rating: T Word Count: 5,146

When Tony convinces Steve to play a game of strip poker, Steve isn't sure what they are playing for or what exactly Tony is after.

Written for Project Happy Steve.

Aus:

No Powers/Modern:

Feed the Body, Nourish the Soul by copperbadge Rating: T Word Count: 6,542

Steve Rogers just wanted to sell good, nourishing, cheap food from his food truck. Now the crazy fusion chefs from TOBRU are calling him a hipster, the avant garde restaurant "Shield" across the street has declared war on chains, and...well, then there's Thor, who thinks Steve's habit of licking food is weird.

Love in the Dark by mombasas Rating: E Word Count: 6,918

The guy who lives in the apartment next to Steve's is a nocturnal sex addict with a complete lack of volume control, and Steve's not going to take that lying down. Or, well.

(Neighbors-with-a-shared-bedroom-wall AU in which Steve and Tony get into a not-so-passive passive-aggressive sex war, despite never having actually met.)

take heart by starvels (dinosaur) Rating: T Word Count: 8,904 (series)

Steve and Tony fall in love at first sight. This is a selection of lines in their verse. This is their happily ever after.

Coffee Shop:

With You Around by pensversuswords Rating: T Word Count: 6,666

"I'd like to know you."

Tony works in a coffee shop where Steve spends a lot of his time, because it's the perfect place to draw. Then, he starts to talk to Tony, and he finds himself coming in for a different reason.

Coffee Shop Love by inukagome15 Rating: G Word Count: 4,302

Tony Stark did not like coffee shops, but he could make an exception for the one with the cute barista who had smiles that were to die for. If only Steve wasn't so unattainable...

Never Insult Your Barista by Heartihateyou Rating: G Word Count: 807

Tony grabs the wrong drink at a coffee shop and meets someone who's ridiculously handsome and has ridiculously bad taste in coffee.

Watcha Writing? by DaftPunk_DeLorean Rating: M Word Count: 7333

Steve is a starving artist who gets by as an author of erotica and adult fantasies. Tony is the dashingly handsome owner of the coffee shop where Steve spends all his time writing, and who also happens to be Steve's full-time muse. Steve's stories involve adventure, romance, steamy sex, and most importantly, Tony. But writing lusty fantasies about his muse was one thing; falling helplessly, hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with him was something entirely different.

Fantasy:

surely, to the sea by goodmorningbeloved Rating: T Word Count: 3,373

Steve brings him home on a drizzling Friday afternoon. Sarah Rogers takes a deep breath, remembers all he's told her and all she's done to prepare, and opens the door.

High school:

What We Deserve by Wordsplat Rating: T Word Count: 4,068

Tony is certain he knows exactly what's going on between him and Steve. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't.)

College:

The Billionaire Hooker’s Deceived Artist by tsukinofaerii Rating: E Words: 27,996 Note: this is literally a fandom classic and if you haven’t read it, do so NOW

During Tony's senior year at MIT, his partying habit finally hit the edge of his parents' patience. When Howard and Maria cut him off from his usual sources of money, he decides to turn to less conventional ones.

Mafia:

Make Tomorrow’s World Better (Through Any Means Necessary) by Faillen Rating: T Word Count: 11,227 (Series)

When Tony Stark finds out about Obadiah Stane’s double dealing, he seeks out the Captain, the only man in New York that has a team with the resources and ability to take down HYDRA—the neo-Nazi gang Stane’s been selling to. Acting as an informant under the alias Iron Man, Tony finds out a few months later that the Captain is actually his sweet-as-pie boyfriend, Steve Rogers. In order to take down Stane and HYDRA, they work together (along with the Avengers, the gang that Steve leads) with Tony focusing dragging Stane’s betrayal out of the shadows and Steve trying to destroy HYDRA—and Johann Schmidt—once and for all. But close-call assassination attempts and politics with the NYPD throw a wrench in not only in their plans, but also in their relationship, leaving them both wondering if sacrificing everything for tomorrow’s world is really worth it.

It's really not that dark, to be honest, this was just an excuse for me to write some secret identity humor. It got plotty without my permission.