#this still counts as fallout fanart | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bitumz · 6 months ago

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Title: A withered Rose still has its thorns

Pairing: Cooper Howard / Lucy MacLean

Word count: 4k+

Rated: T [angst, depictions of past violence, hurt/comfort, mentions of death and loss, happy ending]

A/N: this was written for the incredible @valeriarts for this beautiful fanart they made me, and was heavily inspired by this insane Beauty and the Beast Ghoulcy Fanart they entered into the Ghoulcy Atomic Blast Event! As such, this responding work is absolutely riddled with BatB references, but is lovingly set in the Fallout canon world because I am an absolute goon for the old music and wasteland setting. A tale as old as time... Ao3 link

~~~~~

One year has passed since Lucy pulled the trigger on her own decayed mother, withered away and rotted from the inside out by the inevitable cruelty of the wasteland. A necessary evil she still tries to console herself with on such a gruesome anniversary, though these days the grizzly voice chiding her in her mind doesn’t sound like her own anymore. And Lucy thinks she's starting to realize exactly how decay feels.

One year of failed leads. Shattered expectations. The growing pains of being remade into a woman more familiar than she should be, even well beyond the reflection of a mirror.

The old shopping center she and Cooper find themselves in that evening is almost painfully similar to the Super Duper Mart, old clothing and clocks, and half burnt candles and varying arrays of other decorative knick-knacks scattered about like hastily flung debris across the rotting floors. But unlike the mart, high walls divided large sections of the space, reminding her even harsher of the vault rooms back home, centered just so by a long, splaying hallway that seemed to go on for miles into the shadowed corridor. An old mall Cooper had called it, but to Lucy that meant nothing.

She'd done what she could to keep her distance from him that day, him never being one to appreciate her foul moods, and instead of calling out the blood curdling hypocrisy of that whole idea (and the inevitable fight that would follow), she bit her tongue and did her best to sulk alone, in only the company of a few blessedly silent clothing displays and dusty bedroom furniture.

One of the former caught Lucy’s attention more than the others, a headless mannequin donned in a flowing silk gown, royal blue cut through the middle with a bright yellow sash that drew in the curves of the waist and cascaded floor length at the rear with the rest of the flowing hemline to trail like a river of molten gold across the moldy tile.

Her mother had always disliked her in dresses. And Lucy can't help but remember the hazy bits and pieces of her fifth birthday. Of her father presenting her with a beautifully boxed up gift. Her mother's disbelieving scowl over at the man as Lucy held the soft floral material up against her chest and beamed at her own reflection in the vault bathroom mirror. They way her father twirled her around the room in it for many a birthday after that, with only Norm, a few aging Cooper Howard movie posters, and blinding fluorescents overhead as audience, pride already flashing even brighter in her father’s eyes as every year she grew more and more into the perfect daughter she was expected to be. And though Lucy had been too young to consider yet just where that gift could have come from, those memories now scathed in the shadows, somewhere deep beneath her bones like a bustling city of thousands of people being blown to nothing more than ruin and ash.

And at this point, after fighting through all the many foul factions of the wasteland for just over a year and searching for a sense of fairness and freedom for so long before, she was so so far beyond sick of monsters masquerading as man.

It was why slipping from the confines of her vaultsuit and stepping into the rolling blue and gold layers of silk felt something like lying. Like putting on that ill-fitting wedding dress again and continuing to do as she was told. Adding her name to the list and filling the role set upon her from the very moment she came out screaming like a wild beast into her mother's arms and a carefully crafted existence.

She tugged her own suit up the slender plastic hips of the mannequin in trade. Zipped it securely closed with the final brush of her hands tenderly across the shoulders.

The worn leather slacked too big around the petite figure, and Lucy felt her own muscles clench the slightest bit in her newly exposed chest and upper arms. Her time away from the vault had made her only stronger. She could feel it in the easing of their long days trudging through the sand and restless nights with Cooper beneath the stars. In his harsh lessons and even harsher truths. But looking back at her mother’s last little hand-me-down gift as it sat wrong on the headless figure before her made her feel a bit like a child again; lost and alone in a world that was still so very much too big.

So she did just as she would when she was little. Turned the oldies station on low on her Pip Boy. Sat cross legged upon the cold dingy floor. Sought out her mother’s advice.

“I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do here.” Lucy said, eyes falling to her mismatched fingers in her lap. She curled them loose into the soft pile of golden fabric. “I wasn’t so sure I was going to make it through mourning you the first time around…” she admitted soft, swallowing at the pain rising heavy in her throat. “But this… now… knowing everything I do… I- I understand why you left. And I’m sorry I couldn’t help sooner… I’m so sorry…” And Lucy had long run out of water to waste on tears so she only clenched her fists tighter over her thighs. Waited quietly for a reassurance that would never come again, receiving only silence in answer apart from the lilting voice of Skeeter Davis softly reminding her from her wrist that the end of the world had already long since passed.

Lucy could only blame her time above for being able to sense him well before she heard Cooper’s spurs clanging softly up the hall. And had it been even just a few months ago, she would have moved. Rose from the ground and stuck on a fake sunshine smile to avoid his prodding. Stood tall and still in the shadows like a predator in wait. But if he was going to continue to track her down every time she sought out solace, he was going to get what he got. Real and raw and just so very tired.

“There ain’t shit for supplies,” his rumbling voice started before rounding the corner, “but I did find somethin’ interestin’ you may wanna have a look at wh…” Cooper stilled like the dead in the shattered frame of the once glass door. Rendered entirely silent, though she could feel the burn of his eyes across her newly bared arms, the curves of her shoulders, her dark hair falling loose and wild down her back. “What the fuck are you doin’?” He finally managed, sounding much farther away than he actually stood.

“Oh you know, just talking to my mom.” Lucy spoke flat to the mannequin, unmoving. “You’re interrupting.” She added in dismissal after a long dead-silent moment, but she only heard his boots close in closer behind her.

So she held her breath and waited for the snide response to drawl from his lips. Something like ‘radaway’s losin’ its touch huh?’ she imagined first, or ‘Rose musta not took all the crazy with her when she left that fuckin’ vault...’

But as the pair of taunts grew hotter in her temples, nothing of the sort actually came from him... Which was odd enough in itself to make her finally look back over her shoulder.

What she found was a world weary man who looked as lost as she felt. The darkness of the decaying building clinging to the protective cloak of his duster like a long drawn curse that was pained to let go. He carried the weight of his own deep in the lines of his scalded face, wearing his own many anniversaries of suffering in scattered jagged scars, jaw tense as if he fought not to set free a rising snarl at the sight before him, browline drawn beneath the shadow of his hat like she’d spoken a foreign language he couldn’t quite grasp.

He eyed her hallowed vaultsuit as if personally affronted… Looked back down right at her, dark eyes sparking with something near that impenetrable mask of anger he so easily slipped on as they trailed slow down across the gathered yellow silk she fidgeted with at her waist, to the elegant tendrils of blue haloing in a wide puddle around her on the floor, shielding nearly as much of her body as the suit had, but still leaving her feeling so incredibly exposed to his studiously searching eyes.

“What is it?” Lucy asked after a moment, unable to take the scrutiny any longer, heart rate rising as she shifted where she sat.

And Cooper blinked as if hearing her for the first. “What’s with the getup?”

Lucy forced the breath from her nose, long and heavy. Tugged a bit of the fabric up in a false curtsy. “Oh this old thing?” She tried to tease but fell flat. “I've never had a dress of my own, you know? Always something borrowed… and Mom used to say blue was my color.” Lucy smoothed the silk back down over her hips, missing the way the claim struck Cooper’s expression like the hail Mary of a well aimed brick. “My eyes, I guess.” She shrugged away.

“No.” Cooper disagreed low after a long beat. “It ain't your eyes.” Then he took the two last steps to stand near her side. Reached down a hand. “C’mon I wanna show you somethin’.” And for a moment Lucy sat unmoving, glancing away from Cooper’s gloved offering up to the plastic shell of her mother one last time. “She ain't goin’ anywhere.” Cooper promised soft after a while of watching her struggle, in a way Lucy now knew that only he had every right to vow. And it's what finally drew her hand out slowly into his.

“Alright,” she breathed. And she rose.

—

The shop Cooper led her into was stacked floor to ceiling with disheveled shelves of books. Old wooden tables and chairs lined the front walls. Rows of cabinets had once cut lines through the center, now tipped and scattered by previous scavengers who must not have appreciated the incredibility of the rare bounty before her. But Lucy, however, was already mentally sorting through the contents of her pack and deciding what could be left behind to make more space.

It was the candlelight that eventually distracted her from the task. Lit aglow and sparsely set across the floor and on a few of the sturdier looking bookshelves all around the room, burning just bright enough to clear the murky darkness from the space…and it was the consideration of such a thing that emptied her chest, had Lucy steepling her hands over her mouth and gaping wide eyed all around her at the beautiful sight, the sheer number of books alone putting the vault’s ample collection to shame. But it was the man stood behind her in the darkened doorway that stopped her eyes. Silhouette framed in the soft glow of fire, features hidden almost entirely from view, but like the constant pull of the moon on the tide she could feel the weight of every ounce of his attention on only her.

“Cooper,” Lucy called low, letting her hands fall slow to her sides. “This is incredible. I've never seen so many books in my life.”

And he ambled forward at his name like a bloodbug drawn to the life pumping quick through her veins, sharp features softened by the warm glow.

“Really?” He drawled in that way that preambled the rudeness she'd so long been awaiting. Downplaying the situation every time it got too close to - something. And he was never one to disappoint. “I thought all that Vault Tec propaganda down there would at least rival a two bit bookshop.”

Lucy raised her eyes and turned away. Took another look about the room. Made her way to the closest shelf of books and let her fingertips brush lovingly across the dusted spines. Stacked a few aside that she had every intention of not leaving without.

“It wasn't just propaganda,” Lucy informed, his jab unable to reach her properly through the soft flickering of flame. “Vault distributed media was delegated and traded by the overseers.” She sought him out again with the turn of her neck. “And as you know, ours was particularly fond of fairytales and cowboys. Villeneuve and Wister. That sort of thing. Not to mention the movies…” her smile was mean, a brazen curve of her lips.

And Cooper said nothing in riposte, instead simply closing the space between them with slow, lazy steps. Rested a hand against the shelf on either side of her head as she turned to face him, closing in and casting his shadow across her in a way that once would have made her feel small.

Lucy only raised her chin, held his eyes above with the fire flickering hot in her own.

“Is that really what you wanna be doin’ today?” He asked her, a near growl as it rolled so close from his chest. “Defendin’ your daddy?”

And the reminder twisted in her ribs like a spike, aimed and true; memories of laughter and life and being twirled around in loving arms slowly, agonizingly morphing into something more fowl in her gut like her father's guiltless eyes as he'd finally confessed aloud his many many sins down the barrel of a gun… Her mother's meatless corpse sagging gaunt in a chair nearby…

“Dance with me.” Lucy blinked, only truly registering the words as they settled skewed into her own ears. The violins dipped and drew out the start of Billie Holiday's, Crazy He Calls Me from her Pip Boy between them like a taunt and there was no better title for the way Cooper’s sharp eyes searched her face.

“Do what now?”

“Dance with me.” Lucy repeated, just as unshaken. “You're right.” She nodded in truce. “I'd rather make new memories today than dwell on the old ones and my options are you or the mannequin.”

Cooper gauged her expression from mere inches above. Looked as if he awaited the splintering of her sanity beneath his glare. For the flinching call of her bluff as he raised his chin and thinned his eyes in a move she’d watched him use on countless others to sweeten a deal or seal a sentence. But Lucy only popped open the latch of her Pip Boy. Sat it nearby on the shelf. Held her hands out to him palms up in the dwindling space between them…

And Cooper took a step back and away. Squared his shoulders as if she had thrown a fist instead of anything near the beginnings of a dance.

“Mannequin would suit better.” He said in faint protest, stilling only a moment longer to meet her unyielding eyes before sighing, shrugging his duster from his shoulders and draping it over the back of a nearby chair. Pulling his gloves off and dropping them unceremoniously into the splintering seat.

And Lucy felt an altogether new sort of apprehension as he neared this time, sturdy arms straining against the worn fabric of his rarely seen sun-bleached undershirt. His bandolier of hastily crafted bullets glistened like sharp teeth across the visible rise and fall of his chest. He held a single bared hand out to her in offering, allowing her to take either that last fateful step forward or a silent final out…

And the thrill of it all was the best distraction she could ever ask for.

The fine hairs at the back of her neck rose in warning as she took this newest challenge in stride, just as she had the many before. “I don’t doubt it.” Lucy returned, resting a ruined-fingered hand over the solid curve of his shoulder. Cooper slipped her left into his and she couldn’t help but stare at that way her own something borrowed still looked pale and small against the rest of Cooper’s hand, wrapping warm and rough around her own. His other burned like a brand against her waist just as Billie sang of her own willingness to walk through fire and with it they were moving.

Cooper was a startlingly natural lead, sure in step and direction, guiding her along in soft curves of motion as if on instinct alone, whereas she stepped between his boots in thought absorbed angles, and it was a pre-war skill Lucy would not have imagined he cared to retain until that very moment. He’d always spoken so little of that time of his life, apart from Janey. And even if they weren’t spending an evening attempting to forget, she at very least knew better than to outright ask why.

The thought brought her foot down hard on his for what she guessed was the second or third time judging by his growl.

“That supposed to be a two step?” Cooper rumbled over her instead. “‘Cause you’re movin’ like a goddamn sheet of plywood down there.”

And Lucy laughed a breathy thing at the very real exasperation in his tone.

“I’m distracted is all.” She forced herself to meet his eyes, so close and scalding in the candlelight. Reminding her even more of the last time she’d seen him display such a talent. The same way her father had taught her so many years ago… and she just couldn't help herself. “I remember this from the scene right after you killed Joey… Where you went back to town and danced with the widow in -”

“Deadhorse ya,” Cooper scathed in answer, spinning her silent in an almost violent twirl out to arms reach before snapping her back, her spine pressing flush against the buttons lining down his vest so that the “don’t start,” was hissed directly into her ear. It effectively scattered her thoughts and sent gooseflesh rising down the exposed skin of her arms for a much different reason than she knew was intended. But then he stilled them. Kept a forearm wrapped firm across the front of her waist. “Kick them boots off so you don’t take my fuckin’ toes too.” He nodded down over her shoulder, the brim of his hat brushing against her scattered hair.

And she continued to follow his lead, shaking off one and then the other. Turned around again with minimal restraint as he took notice of her intention to face him once more. Lucy filled her lungs with the faint scent of old leather and smoke as his coarse fingers dragged slow patterns across the soft silk gathered at her hips. This time she brought both hands up to his shoulders. Felt his own slide home in a near perfect fit into the soft curves beneath her ribs.

Then they were moving again, easier, a more natural sway that brought him the slightest bit closer. Allowed her to truly see his features painted warm beneath his hat in the firelight. Those most others would deem ugly, the proof heard often enough in wretched slurs and slithered curses from near every small bit of civilization they passed. But here in the safety of their solitude, the candles flickered deep against the rugged hollows of his face and brought somehow more life to his hazel eyes. And though they had always been so incredible to her, those eyes, something about the way the glow sparked in them now, subdued and scorching back at her in equal measure, was almost another distraction worthy of misstep.

And she’d been doing so well until her eyes dropped to the side. Focused on the scattered splotches across his shoulders that proved his threadbare shirt had once been blue…

The music built and curled around them unimpeded by the realization, trumpets joining in with the strings to round out the repeated claims of being insane for all a number of reasons and Lucy couldn’t help but look down at her own feet again, strained and self deprecating as she focused on not stepping down onto his with the way her heart sped and cheeks flushed. His hands flexed at her waist.

“Relax.” Cooper bid low, undoubtedly sensing her struggle in her missteps and the growing tension of her muscles. “I ain’t in the mood for sparrin’ today and my drawin’ hand’s otherwise occupied, so you’re only fightin’ ya self.”

The upward curve of his bowed lips and drawl of his words spoke only truths, something almost sad touching his eyes, and Lucy found trusting in him still came all too easy. She watched as the rise of his browline painted a told ya so look across his face while she focused only on her own breaths and the warmth of his tender hold about her waist, her movements growing more and more fluid between those very same hands that she’d seen reap death and destruction with ease for just over a year now in search of her father and the answers they were owed. Coming up just short on near every lead and tumbling almost as violently into each other's arms in one way or another so often now that it seemed only necessary for survival.

“Perceptive.” She said finally.

But this was something else… It was just so…

It was simply different, Lucy decided, rising up onto her bare toes to press her lips against Cooper’s just because she wanted to. Taking unapologetically in a way that he had been forcefully tearing into her from the beginning. And she softly parted her lips over his unmoving ones. Waited for the beast to surface and rear its fangs or draw its claws. To push her away with a shove or back her forcefully against the nearest surface in a deliciously dizzying coin toss of chance. Because, yes the beast was in there somewhere she knew well enough, but it was Cooper who had pulled her up from the floor of her vigil. Cooper who’d lit the candles that warmed the air around them; of a bookshop of all places. Cooper who still distracted her from her woes now in dance…

And it was Cooper who kissed her back. Took her face into the sanctity of his hands to tilt and deepen it, his lips a hot brand across her own as he held her steady and tasted her slow in languid shallow swipes of his tongue along her lower lip. He parted from her just long enough for Lucy to draw a greedy breath from the shared air between them. Then he kissed her again, another sweet short press of his mouth over hers before he whispered “I gotcha somethin’ else,” near voiceless into the corner of her moony grin.

Then he leaned back just enough to meet her eyes, his own expression sobering like he stood on the precipice of some great divide, and Lucy dared him to jump with the slight tilt of her head in question.

Then he pulled out a drooping flower from the pocket of his slacks. A sun-bleached plastic rose that must have once been red before the end of the world and the crushing hands of time; petals welting and half melted... And her heart did a funny painful pair of skips in her chest at the sight of it held out to her in his own repeatedly scarred and sewn together hand.

“What? It ain't enchanted or some shit.” Cooper said harsh, shifting an inch on his own two feet. A first misstep since they started this new dance. “I just know what it's like to not have a grave to mourn is all.” He tried again. “Don’t read too much into it.”

And what a feint it was to reach for in a room set aglow, filled to the brim with warmth and music; bound leather and parchment...

Lucy’s smile was all straight white teeth.

“Of course not,” she succumbed, taking the rose from him carefully and tucking the stem safely away into the sash of her dress so that her hands were free to reach back out for what she really wanted. “I never really liked reading anyway,” she soothed, wrapping her wrists loose about the back of his neck and looking past him at a few new titles that would be soon added to her pile. “Though my bag has been feeling awful light lately.”

And Cooper chuckled soft, a deep rumble from his throat.

“Fuck the books,” he said, breath ghosting warm against the sensitive skin at the side of her neck. Then his hands slid heavy through the silk pooled low at her back, drew her in close against his chest. “Pack the dress.”

And for a long long while they danced together and forgot.

#ghoulcy #vaultghoul #fallout #beauty and the beast crossover #ghoulcy atomic blast event #fallout fanfic #thou shalt be sidetracked #cooper howard #lucy maclean #cooper x lucy #fallout tv series

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elbiotipo · 1 month ago

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Today I was talking with my cousin about Starfield and realized there hasn't been a single meme about it. I don't even think I need to talk you about Skyrim memes, Fallout 3 gave us "I'm sorry, my companion, but no. We all have our own destinies...", Fallout New Vegas is still going strong, Fallout 4 didn't give as much but people REALLY liked Hancock and Valentine, and Fallout 76 well, at least it gave us some funny youtube reviews

Starfield has done nothing. I haven't seen any memes, any shipping, any fanart, any fan analysis (no, not "how did this game fail" doesn't count). It's like it never existed.

see Todd, this is what happens when you don't put hot aliens

#cosas mias

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tau1tvec · 2 months ago

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Honestly, I'm shocked that starfield doesn't have a bigger tumblr presence. I've been seeing skyrim and Fallout content on my dash for years now, so I figured starfield would have the same grab. I know that the elder scrolls and fallout are long-established series' but I had to go out of my way to find starfield content

Hell I even made a tag on my blog for starfield before it even came out!

I can’t say a lot about older Fallout, or Skyrim, I wasn’t on tumblr when they were released, but contrary to popular belief tumblr actually took its time to warm up to Fallout 4. Much like Starfield, it got a lot of hype leading up to it, a lot more a few weeks following its release, then the think pieces on it dropped, esp comparing it to older installments, which began dragging its engagement down. I only know this bc between its announcement, and release, and about two years of playing nothing but Fallout 4, I posted it constantly, and could see my likes reblogs kinda going down a bit in the first year, then ticking up the second, and following years.

I think it kinda depends on the content, and “aesthetic” quality of that content as well. My Skyrim gifs and sceneries do numbers, same with my Fallout ones, where as pics of my player character tend to do less, esp compared to established characters like Dogmeat and Nick Valentine, but who could resist those two. 🥹

Starfield suffers from two things, it’s a new IP, it doesn’t have the years of strong established canon or well known faces and factions Skyrim and Fallout 4 had behind it. Two, peer pressure. There are sooo many ppl talking about how terrible it is, people are actually afraid to admit they like it, hell people are still afraid to admit Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 are actually fun games, I can’t count how many times I’ve seen people start a post with “despite its problems ( insert Bethesda game ) is actually ( insert positive adjective )”, ppl are actively apologizing for stuff they like, or having to prove why, which creates a tumultuous environment where fandom and fanon even fanart can’t grow, bc everything is so focused on whether it’s even good enough to deserve it to begin with. This inevitably creates low engagement, and if you aren’t seeing a lot of engagement, its likely you don’t see a point in posting it, esp if you don’t feel it’s up to par of social media standards to show to begin with, and I don’t blame anyone who thinks this btw, I just personally don’t care about likes and reblogs enough in the way of motivating myself to post, just that I enjoy doing it and can look back on what I did and how much fun I had.

Just bc you don’t see it on your feed doesn’t mean it isn’t a good ( insert media ), and doesn’t mean ppl aren’t enjoying it in their own personal time.

#ty for sending this i love a starfield ask #asks #anon

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goldenrulemotherfucker · 2 months ago

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My NYCC experience!!

Ok finally time to ramble about getting to meet Ella and Walton last Friday!!!! This was my first time at NYCC and it was cool/huge/exhausting, and ofc the two of them were the major highlight. Long post (plus pics) under the cut!

Ahead of the con, I made shirts to wear in each of my photo ops, and I love how they turned out! My first photo op was with Walton, and he showed up with sunglasses on and waved at the line before we started going in. I don't need to tell you this, but he was being super lovely to every single fan, ofc. When it was my turn, he gave me his standard warm greeting, then noticed my shirt and said "Oh, Radiation KING! I like that!" I said "Thank you!" After the picture, he looked at me again and said, "Thank you, darlin'" and I responded "Thank you so much!!" He radiates charisma, just as much as you'd expect.

Next up was the Ella photo, and she didn't seem to notice my shirt. She said "Hi, how are you?" and I think I said "I'm good, how are you??" before quickly asking "Can we do a thumbs up?" She said "Of course!" (And then they snapped the picture wayyyy too fast, so I'm clearly half-blinking in it but was told it didn't "count" as a blink because my eyes are visible! Sighhh.) We both said "thank you so much" in near unison afterward. I love that she wore a yellow sweater, since it makes Fallout colors with the blue background!!

(Please don't reupload! Also tweeted here.)

After the photo ops, I was finally able to head to Ella's autograph line, which was really chaotic with a bunch of people waiting to be allowed to get in line (likely because she was originally supposed to be signing Thurs/Fri but changed to just Friday). When I was able to join the official line at long last, it took about two hours to get to her table (could have been much worse ofc). I was afraid they'd be rushing us through, but everything was lovely! I was able to get my auto personalized, choose my marker color, and give her the Fallout bracelets I made for her. She looked up when I mentioned them and said, "Oh my gosh, you're so sweet!" Then when she took the bag, she said "Oh these are beautiful, I really love the colors of that one! That's so pretty!" I couldn't tell which bracelet she was pointing to and decided in the moment that it didn't really matter. I just said, "I'm glad you like it! Thank you so much!" I'm really glad I had a gift for her so that I didn't freeze up and not say anything!!

(I had that screenshot printed myself because it HAD to be my fav scene, okay!!!!)

In other Fallout-related experiences, I made a bunch more bracelets to share and only handed out a fraction of them. I thought they'd be a cool icebreaker, and they sometimes were (like when I talked to some cool ladies ahead of me in Walton's photo op line), but I also got some mixed/confused reactions. I guess giving away free stuff to other fans isn't the normal con vibe?? But I'm here to be the change I want to see in the world, because fandom bracelets SHOULD be a thing! Concerts don't get to have a monopoly on this. In the artist alley, I also bought a Fallout fanart print and had a great convo with the artist, who explained that he knew someone who worked on S1 and basically info-dumped at me (in a good way!) about the rushed production schedule. He said it sounds like S2 is going to be better for everyone schedule-wise, so I was glad to hear that!!

By the time I left the con, I felt like my legs were going to fall off after a long day of walking and standing. Let's just say I've been humbled about what kind of shape I'm in. More than anything else in the world, I wanted to sit in a chair. I was actively fantasizing about it. I decided that I was going to hobble back to my hotel and drop off my stuff + change clothes to something less nerdy before dinner....unless I spotted an appealing restaurant first. And that is how I found myself at an Italian place on a corner not far from the Javitz, with all my con shit still in tow. They didn't have a table for one right away, so I was directed to wait at the bar. There were a few other people waiting there, too, and one of them had a Fallout box. I asked her what she got (she didn't know; it was a mystery box), and we chatted about the show a little. Long story short, I gave her the last bracelet of the night and ended up having dinner with her and her two cool friends (it was easier for the owner to sit us at a four-top anyway), which was so random but very fun and so classic NYC. And also refreshing after two solo dinners the nights before!! We talked more about Fallout during the meal, and at one point she said "you're making me want to rewatch now!" so 10/10 on that convo and restaurant choice.

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timidtresleches · 1 year ago

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art requests bc im Depro

will tumblr yell at me for typing depression perhaps... anyway doing little art requests, the fandoms I'll draw for will be listed at the end of the post - if you at all find this in the results of a search if youre searching for a fandom specifically, chances are that fandom is one of the ones i will draw

im gonna pin this post though so a little about myself:

24 years old, NB, self shipper and enjoyer of somewhat dark-ish content. poly and i share all f/os. if you dont share someone we both have an f/o please feel free to block or mute or w/e.

AuDHD that comes with the fun depression and anxiety twins wahoo

i draw

anyway some notes on what i can/cant do and am okay with doing:

fandoms/fanart content, singular characters (therefore no canon x canon ships)

self ships or oc x canon (not often, dont feel bad if i dont draw your ship plz)

headshots, bustshots, fullbodies (entirely random what i'll decide to do)

mostly will be sketches but not exclusively. depends on how i feel.

i can draw suggestive, gore/violent content and like. whatever tumblr will let me post without them bopping me on the head about it

- i can draw anyone who passes the Harkness Test for the above content. (this essentially means: if your character is "of-age", is of human (or higher) intelligence, and if they are capable of expressing consent. if they dont match any of these 3 points, i'll draw them still but i wont do anything suggestive or violent for them)

yeet

NOW HERE ARE THE FANDOMS WAHOO

Postal Games/Series

Homestuck

Invader Zim

Elder Scrolls Series (mostly 4 and 5)

Fallout Series (mostly 3, new vegas and 4)

uhhh do youtubers count... if so i'll do caddicarus, vargskeletor, revscarecrow, vinesauce, brutalmoose, izzzyzzz, dollightful (like the dolls?), ginjaninjaowo (prism especially), lavendertowne designs, subjectively fakemon, and i think thats all for now,

Stardew Valley

creepypasta (please avoid references or images that contain possibly disturbing content/imagery though, eg. jeff the killer's photo or anything like that)

my little pony: FIM perhaps,

steven universe + future

Eddsworld

My Hero Academia/Boku No Hero Academia

thats it for now!

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doom-nerdo-666 · 1 year ago

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Because of Quakecon and the recent changes in Slayers Club, i thought about Doom crossovers for a while.

Like, specially because of Doom being owned by Microsoft and Bethesda.

Older fans would want Doom to crossover with games like Heretic and Duke Nukem 3D, hence all those fanart and mod projects since they're almost like a "family" (Specially with Raven Soft titles using the id engine).

Then there's the Halo stuff partially because they almost represent seemingly opposite sides of the FPS genre and have green space marines (And this is way before Microsoft probably).

And stuff like Metroid of Devil May Cry is because of contexts like sci-fi armored character or demons.

(And then there's the Isabelle crossovers which is based on seemingly opposite franchises in every way having a share released date and nothing else: This is more of a "meme" one)

But seeing Doom next to The Elder Scrolls and Fallout is obviously because of Bethesda which means: If the current "official family" never happened, nobody would think of putting Doomguy next to Dovahkiin or Vault Boy.

I guess it depends if you see Doomguy as a "id character" or "Bethesda character" even if you count the Slayer (Because with even with other studios making Wolfenstein games, people still see that series as an "id series").

I dunno, i guess it's like how many people view Rare as their own thing even if under Xbox.

One thing is there being Skyrim references in a Doom game but because of the "idverse" concept, imagine if Bethesda trying to really mix it with other properties just because.

Maybe this is why people want MS to own Activision just to see Doom potentially crossover officially with Heretic i guess.

Another thing is the portrayals or something: Like if anyone wanted a Doom x Fallout crossover, what if it came from the fans that prefer NV over 3 and 4?

Same thing with "Here's a Doom x Halo crossover where Doom is portrayed like MetaDoom and Halo pretends 343 doesn't exist".

#doom #id software #opinions #fandom #bethesda

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eattheglowingmoss · 5 months ago

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Sorry, I've reblogged this once with no comment but I can't leave it alone -

I remember one of the first pieces of fanart I ever really dedicated myself to, drawn by a pretty young teen on printer paper and dollar store sketchbooks for no one's enjoyment but my own, was a fancomic that started with my first FNV Courier, Cardbox, and Boone saving Arcade in the moments before he disemboweled himself. They were perched together as a sniper duo on the cliffs around the Fort, using their discarded disguises as cushioning against the hard ground, peering into Caesar's tent through Boone's scope.

In this, Cardbox wasn't a Courier and Boone had never met Six. They both knew Arcade, but he had just gone missing one day, and they were afraid he had just moved on, or worse, died somewhere in the Mojave. But, without a body, they were able to just comfortably mourn the 'what if' and hope for the 'Maybe not'. The beginning of this comic was two people realizing their old friend wasn't dead, but suffering, and due to some horrible Greek tragedy played out on a Roman stage, they were put in the position of choosing between finally killing Caesar, or saving Arcade. Taking the shot, but not having enough time to stop him from stabbing himself, or stopping him and alerting the whole middle camp to the presence of a sniper.

Now, I'm older and have played the game more times than I can count, so I'm aware my decision to have Boone throw away his chance at killing Caesar in favor of shooting the scalpel out of Arcade's hand is probably more out of character than not. And, I don't think I ever figured out a reasonable way to get all three characters out of the camp and safe. But, I think that was my point. Cardbox wasn't Courier Six, she was a wastelander whose life had gotten caught up in a Legion or Yes Man playthrough Six's game, and Boone would have to beat himself up over the question of if not losing another person to Caesar was worth not killing Caesar outright. There wasn't any conclusion, I never finished it. But, I just remember learning about Arcade's fate if you turned him over to Caesar and the visceral brutality, the hatred of it all stuck with me in a way not many other things in the game did. There had been slavery in the games, slavery the player can take part in (Ex. Paradise Falls in FO3), but that was the first time I had experienced the consequences of those decisions in game. I felt what it meant to "do an evil playthrough".

It felt horrible, the imagined picture was horrible, and my first instinct was to do something to *fix it.*, but, to do that, I had to tell the story from the perspective of people who were in the wake of the main character. Which, I think has stayed as a trend in all of my Fallout fics and characters (Alec is a medic who works with the Railroad, but he isn't Fixer. Ame is a caravanner who was in Nipton, but he didn't find it becuase he was never shot in the head and didn't wander out from Goodsprings, etc, etc.)

Anyway, I don't know exactly where I'm going with this. I still think about that comic.

You know, Arcade disemboweling himself in his bad ending is pretty hardcore in a way i haven't thought about yet. Like there are many other, easier ways to kill yourself with a blade, or at least mortally wound yourself and bleed out before anyone can administer medical attention. I dont think i need to list the soft places you need to stick a knife to easily end a man's life. And Arcade is a DOCTOR. He's more than equipped to kill himself quickly and easily, if expedience is the point. But choosing to disembowel himself? I don't think it was.

Is it meant to be his final fuck you? That hacking away at himself, doing so much damage in such a short period of time before anyone is able to get the knife away from him, is just an expression of how much he fucking hates Caesar? His final act, of so much pain and determination, as if to say "this is what i would rather do than listen to you yap for one second longer."

#fallout #fallout new vegas #fnv #fallout oc #new vegas #arcade ganon #suicide mention

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that-stone-butch · 3 years ago

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Who's your fave fallout companion?

there's so many good ones to choose from!

i love how john cassidy in fallout 2 runs a bar in vault city but you help him out even a little and he's like 'yeah fuck this i hate this bar let's go' and he just fucks off into the wasteland with you. i know he's infamous for having way too much idle dialogue but i love it.

i would have liked to see more from star paladin cross or charon in fo3 because i feel like their characters have a shitload of narrative potential. they're the kind of characters i'd wander through the wasteland with and wish they had something to say about it. the amount of charon fan content (especially horny fan content) proves my point here.

does the highwayman count as a companion? it has more personality than any of the fallout 4 companions, and it's a fucking car. i love fanart of the highwayman because it really shines a light on the fact that you're in a wild west wasteland, and you get a freaking car and you're cruising with your buds, which may include a talking deathclaw, a robot dog, and your gay wife (fallout 2 includes a shotgun wedding that nets you a permanent additional companion, it's great) the world may have ended, but cruising never changes. it's a legitimately fantastic feeling to go cruising through the desert with the highwayman to see what you can find, on par with finally unlocking the fly ability in a sandbox game and exploring freely.

i would say your gay wife from fallout 2 (not the most feminist character but canon lgbtq+ representation of any sort was fucking revolutionary in '98) but black isle's proprietary engine used character sprites and often what a character could wield was based on their limited sprite sheet. this means that the most powerful weapon your wife could wield would be a smg or similar large-caliber one-handed pistol (such as the .223 pistol; an icon of gaming even if its model was ripped off from blade runner) but she lacked the stats to wield it effectively without power armor, and like any fo1/2 companion her sprite didn't even change with the armor, which means at optimal effectiveness she's still a monument to the additional mechanical/aesthetic polish fallout 1/2 needed.

the actual answer? christine from dead money. yeah she has maybe 2% of the lines and screentime new vegas fans would like to see from her, and yeah she's an extremely temporary companion. but she does what all good fallout writing does: leave the player wanting more. and, to be fair, obsidian managed to pack a lot of personality into her very short screen time.

#ask #anonymous #fallout

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thedawningofthehour · 2 years ago

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WAIT I'M BACK I slept and it turns out I still have Thoughts about this.

So apocalypse and post-apocalypse shit is my jam. That sounds really kind of horrifying-honestly, the fact that dystopia and apocalypse media is so popular seems to paint a very grim picture of us. It implies all those terrible things that edgelords and GRRM imply about humanity, that we're all beasts who crave war and violence.

And at its surface, those things do definitely apply to apocalypse media. These are worlds with no laws or unjust laws that the protagonist is morally justified in disobeying. It allows them to do things that are taboo in our current society with moral justification because they have no choice. There's a power fantasy there, and that definitely plays a role in its appeal to people.

However. That's not what moves us about these stories. That's not what we remember about these stories.

Going back to the Rise movie. We know that Leo was a badass in the apocalypse timeline. We know Mikey was a ridiculously powerful mystic. Donnie must have built insane weapons to fight the Krang.

But most of the fanart and fanfiction I see don't focus on that. Even when an act of badassery is shown, it's not framed that way. I've seen multiple pieces that depict Donnie's death-all through the lens of Donnie's love for his family and his willingness to give his life for them, through his family's horror and grief because their brother's life and their love for him mattered more than what his death signified. Raph, Splinter, and Cassandra's deaths are covered less-they're implied to have died a lot sooner, but the core theme remains. They were loved, and they are missed. Whatever crazy way they went out, that's the part of their stories that fans wanted to keep with them.

And the thing is? Going back in time wasn't supposed to be the solution. It was a last resort. When we see Mikey and Leo talk at the beginning of the movie, there's a clear understanding between them-Mikey knows exactly what Leo wants him to do, and Leo knows it will kill his baby brother. They've talked about this. Extensively. They always knew it was possible, but they didn't go for it until they had no other choice. It wasn't a bandaid they were slapping on their situation and saying everything is okay now because time travel. They believed they could salvage their timeline, they stayed there and tried to make their world worth living in. They only sent Casey back because they had literally no option left.

And that is what remains of them in the canon timeline. Not their badassery, not their kill counts or the way they saved the day. It's a boy this family raised, who they loved, who they sacrificed everything for in the hopes that he might have a better life. Leo could have jumped through the portal himself. He didn't. He threw Casey, because he was what mattered.

The above screenshots are from a quest in Fallout 3 called The Wasteland Survival Guide. It's what you think, a book on how to navigate dangers in the wasteland and survive another day, but it also touches on how post-apocalypse towns were formed and how to recreate a functional community. You get this quote when you ask the author why she's bothering when the wasteland is such an inhospitable place. It sucks, there's nothing she can do to make it not suck. Her answer is yeah, but it can suck less.

This is an ongoing theme in the Fallout franchise. The world before the apocalypse is 50's stylized, romanticizing the era as a time of plenty, perfection. Of course, underneath it was all rotten-the insane resource drain this world required was what fueled the Great War that destroyed it. It was never real, but people post-apocalypse can't let go of the dream. The protagonist of Fallout 4, pre-war themselves, actually says in their epilogue that their real goal was to 'go back,' that once they found their missing son everything would be okay again, But they can't. That world is dead and gone. It's not coming back, and it shouldn't come back. They aren't going to find their oasis where everything is okay again. What they can do is improve the world they have now.

The Wasteland Survival Guide takes place next to an undetonated atomic bomb, in a town that began when a group of survivors huddled in the crater it created. A thriving settlement growing from the very thing that was meant to destroy it. In Fallout 4, one of the first NPCs you'll meet are a family trying to keep their farm going, despite the radiation and raiders and all the other dangers of the wasteland, and they'll tell you about their daughter who was recently killed after standing up to a gang trying to shake them down. Her father wants to help reform the civilian militia in their region so what happened to his daughter stops happening. Her mother says that she and her husband knew that something like that was a possibility when they decided to have kids, and even though she lost one of her children she doesn't regret that choice. There's the entire story of Randall Clark in New Vegas, a U.S. Army vet who was hiking in Zion Canyon when the bombs fell, who lost one wife and son to the bombs and another to lack of medical care. His story isn't significant because of his badassery. He's significant because at the end of his life, he gave away everything he had to a group of children who had settled in the canyon, going so far as to tell them that he is giving them Zion itself to 'make up for all the sorrows man visited upon their lives and each other.' What remains of him is the Sorrows, a peaceful tribe living in Zion who value gentleness and mourn even their enemies. We remember him not for his service or his skill with a gun, but as a father who loved his children.

That I think is the core of why we love this type of media. It gives us hope. It, ironically, renews our faith in humanity. Because you have people in the absolute worst situations. You have them in conditions not suited for life. You make the very act of living hard for them. You give them all the reasons to stop caring and either shoot themselves or turn into an animal.

And you still have people waist-deep in shit, facing a world that wants them dead and going fuck you, I'm going to live. And I'm going to love.

i think the best stories about the apocalypse aren't so much about finding the happily ever after (whatever that means). or the magic fix. or the reversal spell to get things back to How They Used To Be

the apocalypse not as some fabled avoidable somewhere but something that has already arrived; the world has ended in so many little ways, for so many people, and i'm trying to look for that quote that goes something like, "if the world has ended, then we are right back at the beginning... we are standing in the garden of eden, again"

and yeah anyway the point of apocalypse stories is to show that you can walk through hell and come out of it maybe not unscathed, maybe completely changed, but still worthy of love, with so much left to hope for. Btw

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millennialgrandma · 3 years ago

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August Wrap Up

I've been struggling to find a visual way to quantify this aspect of my life, so I straight-up yoinked this idea from @mightbewriting because it looked like a great way to wrangle my chaos. Thanks, babe <3

Things I Wrote

I've written exactly one fanfic and it was in July, so it doesn't count for this month. I really had no plans to ever write creatively, but I was inspired by art and bada bing, bada boom: a little smutty one-shot was born. I still don't think I have any real plans to write fanfic, but I'm leaving this section as a reminder to myself that I can and should write about anything. This month my writing was limited to a sunrise journal entry and some late-night thoughts in the notes app on my phone. I'll use this as a gentle reminder that journaling is good for my soul, and that I should do it more often.

Things I Read

Clearly this was a month where I craved some comfort. Zero books finished, only fanfic. To be fair, most of the months the past 2 years have looked like this. I've read 18 novels so far this year, though. I just haven't picked up anything with the intent to finish it since April.

Fiction:

NonFiction:

Fanfiction:

Complete: (approx. 474k words)

Teas & Clichés by @viridianatnight (dramione, E, 5.2k)

Again and Again by @viridianatnight (dramione, E, 4.8k)

Stay by @smozark (sirmione, E, 5.3k)

Unconventional Courting Methods by @graceful-lioness (panville, M, 2k)

Just Like That by @smoke-and-plume (dramione, E, 1k, NSFW art)

The Cape by @monsterleadmehome (dramione, E, 4k)

Seven Minutes in Hell by @kajeput (dramione, M, 4.7k)

A Pale and Pointed Mirror by @willhavetheirtrinkets (dramione, M, 42.9k)

Sitting Pretty by Palio (dramione, E, 6k)

Coming Out On Top by @one-equaltemper (dramione, E, 6.8k)

Seasonal by @provocative-envy (charcissa, M, 3.4k)

Push [Fanart] by @saph-xxi (dramione NSFW art)

West End Kisses by @raven-m-3; art by @dragonlyart (dramione, E, 5.9k)

Intimate Familiarity by @dreamsofdramione; art by @jaxx-in-a-box (dramione, E, 4.8k)

It was only just a dream by weestarmeggie (dramione, E, 1k)

Every Drop by @willhavetheirtrinkets (hansy, E, 1.5k)

Match Point by @tumblintofu; art by @artofcrumbs (dramione/panville, M, 2.2k)

Quiet as a Mouse by Kittenshift17 (charmione, E, 4.9k)

Watch Me by Shamione (dramione, E, 7.2k)

Eucalyptus by rosenymphadoraweasley5 (dramione, E, 1.8k)

Tongue Piercing by @one-equaltemper (sirmione, E, 2.6k)

Hand in Hand in Hand by @willhavetheirtrinkets (dransini, E, 2.3k)

The Fallout by everythursday/sage (dramione, E, 313.3k)

Restraint by @misdemeanor1331 (dramione, E, 5.8k)

Blind Scene by @misdemeanor1331 (dramione, E, 3.6k)

Tentative Explorations by @dreamsofdramione; NSFW art by @mignon-chignon (dramione, E, 1.3k)

Coming Down by @raven-m-3; art by @nikitajobson (dramione, E, 4.4k)

If You Ask Nicely by @roseharpermaxwell (dramione, E, 5.1k)

Something Gold About the Darkness by Megan_P_Cook (adrimione, E, 6.2k)

Taste of Affection by @dreamsofdramione; NSFW art by @jaxx-in-a-box (dramione, E, 3.1k)

Black as Night by @one-equaltemper (sirmione, E, 10.9k)

WIPs: (approx. 64k words)

Measure of a Man by @inadaze22 - Chapters 29 & 30 (dramione, E)

Let the Dark In by @senlinyu - Chapters 1-3 (dramione, M)

Good by @lovesbitca8 - Chapters 1-3 (dramione, E)

Things I'm Currently Reading (Heading into September)

I've been slowly reading Vaclav Havel's To The Castle and Back for probably a year. If nothing else, I need to finish it to get it off my coffee table. I'm embarrassingly behind on book club books, so I also need to finish (and by finish I also mean start) Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, Erin Morgenstern's Night Circus, and Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles.

#august wrap up #wrangling the words #fics i've read #fics i'm reading #books i'm reading #monthly wrap up #2021 monthly reading list

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sineala · 3 years ago

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Holiday comics

This month I've been asked to talk about winter-holiday themed storylines! It's been miserably hot where I am; winter sounds nice right about now. I don't think many of the comics I'm going to name are going to be new to you. You can probably guess what they are! But maybe you'll have fun sitting down and reading them. Put on the air-conditioning and get some ice water.

Marvel has had a whole bunch of holiday issues over the years, and I'm not going to talk about anywhere near all of them. The most recent one I can think of is last year's King In Black Iron Man & Doctor Doom team-up, which features Tony and Doom facing off against a symbiote-possessed Santa Claus. I've never really enjoyed any symbiote-themed Marvel comics -- although I really liked the Venom movie, go figure -- so it's not one of my favorites, but it might be your kind of thing.

My favorite issue in this genre obviously has to be the Avengers vol 5 Annual. This was the annual that came out during Hickman's Avengers run. It's not written by Hickman -- it's by Kathryn Immonen -- and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the events of the run. You can read it without any familiarity with the rest of the run, I promise. It's definitely the happiest issue in that entire Avengers run. It's probably one of the happiest issues of Avengers that you will ever read. I had gotten into Steve/Tony comics relatively soon after this issue came out, and I remember seeing panels on Tumblr without attribution and not knowing if they were canon or fanart or edits. (I kind of enjoy the fact that comics fandom has this problem, actually, even if that means breaking people's hearts about that "solid dick" panel every so often.) And then it turned out they were canon!

You've probably all read it, but this particular annual is set on Christmas Eve. Almost all the team has cleared out for Christmas, leaving a skeleton crew to watch the tower. Specifically, Steve. Tony asks Steve if Steve's going to be okay before leaving for his private island. It's very sweet. But then the actual plot kicks into gear, and some kids who had been taking a tour have stayed to cause mischief, and it's up to Steve to stop them. And also, additionally, Tony and several other Avengers, because when Tony said "private island" he meant that he was shutting himself up in a bathroom with a swimsuit and swim fins and a crab floatie. Yep.

This is also the issue with the famed "Captain Handsome" line because not only is Tony a guy who has canonically used "Captain America" as his own password (good going, no one'll ever guess that) he gives everyone else their own personalized passwords to the tower, thereby making Steve identify himself as Captain Handsome, which I think says an awful lot about Tony.

Anyway. It's the best, and if you haven't read it, you definitely should.

Marvel also puts out a lot of one-off holiday specials that are usually anthologies of winter-themed holiday superhero stories. There were a few of them in the 70s under the title "Holiday Grab Bag," which I have not read. They were revived in 1991 under the title "Marvel Holiday Special." They don't do them every year, I don't think, but there have been a fair number of them.

So obviously these don't all have the Avengers in them, though the Avengers often make cameos; I skimmed through them just to check. It's also probably worth noting that although they are mostly Christmas-themed in nature, they aren't all entirely Christmas-themed; there's a story in the 2011 issue that has Ben Grimm and Kitty Pryde celebrating Chanukah, and the 1992 one has a funny story of Doc Samson attempting to tell children about Chanukah and embellishing it wildly to keep them interested, so that superheroes and nuclear weapons are now involved in it. He is not invited back.

They do have a few stories that might be of interest in the specials. The 1991 special has a story called "Precious Gifts" (by Len Kaminski, who you may remember from early-90s Iron Man) where Steve is volunteering at the VFW for Christmas (as Steve, not Cap) and meets a woman who wants to talk to him about how sad she is that her brother died in WWII and she doesn't even know how. Steve of course asks what her brother's name was. And she says his name was James Barnes, and that's pretty much when Steve's brain bluescreens.

This is Rebecca's first appearance in canon; she later shows up at the tail end of Jurgens' Cap run and then again during Brubaker's run; I haven't actually read either of those. MCU Stucky fandom really ran with her as a character, but here in 616 she and Steve don't know each other at all. He didn't seem to know Bucky had a sister at all, and she didn't know Bucky was Steve's partner, so after Steve figures it out he goes back (as Cap) to tell her about Bucky so she can at least know that Bucky died bravely, and he gives her a patch from one of Bucky's uniforms. It's very touching. I'd never read it before, so I'm glad I found this.

(I really like the scene with Steve interacting with the children at Rebecca's house, because I think it captures two key facets of Steve's character: (1) the angst about how he will never have a normal life and a family, and (2) his terrible sense of humor. "What's Thor like?" "Big." I feel like one of the things I would like MCU fandom to know about comics Steve is that he is, pretty much, Steve "Dad Jokes" Rogers. Not, like, as pithy hero banter, but in everyday conversation.)

This issue also has a Christmas-themed splash page of Steve and Diamondback that I think is pretty cute. Steve is holding up Rachel and Rachel is holding up Steve's shield so it serves as the star on a Christmas tree.

The 1992 issue has an Iron Man story entitled "Holidays on Ice." An ice-themed villain is angry that he can't find a job, so he decides to go ruin the Stark Enterprises holiday party, which was going pretty well until then. Tony suits up and of course defeats the villain handily and then offers him a job, because, well, he's a nice guy and it's Christmas. This is exactly who Tony Stark is, as far as I'm concerned. It's sweet.

The 1994 issue has a Cap story where Steve is chasing human traffickers on Christmas Eve (cheerful, right?) into a farmhouse "where [his] grandfather lived sixty years ago" because I guess someone didn't know Steve was the son of immigrants. Maybe it wasn't canon yet. Steve saves the kid and reminisces about Christmas, the soul of America, human trafficking, et cetera. I would recommend the previous Cap story over this one.

I think the last holiday special I can recall that had Steve and Tony actually interacting was a Gwenpool Holiday Special, and that was way back before Secret Empire (but after Secret Wars), while Steve was still old. I don't recall much about it except that they were attending the same party.

But the one of these that you definitely want to read is the Marvel Holiday Special 2005, which has an Avengers ensemble story by Jeff Parker; if you're familiar with comics because of their Steve/Tony potential, you'll probably recognize his name because he wrote several of the first issues of Marvel Adventures: Avengers, and though this is a early New Avengers-era story it definitely has that MA:A dynamic. It's not particularly shippy as far as the Steve/Tony goes but if you enjoy Comics Being Comics, you should know that this story is called "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santron!" and features the Avengers fighting, um. Santron. Santa-themed Ultron. Yesss.

Anyway, it has the Avengers attending a holiday party at the Sanctum Sanctorum, because why not, and it's generally amusing and has some great team dynamics and I love Santron. There is an unfortunate subplot involving all the male Avengers maneuvering to get Jess Drew under the mistletoe which I think was supposed to be funny but to me came off as kind of creepy. But other than that, I really enjoy this issue.

That's all I can think of as far as holiday special issues go, but there are of course issues of regular comics that just happen to be set in or near various winter holidays. I actually can't think of any holiday-themed Cap issues, but I can think of a couple of Iron Man ones. You probably think I'm going to talk about the second drinking arc, but I'm not -- well, okay, not directly -- because even though that definitely features winter it's not really very holiday-themed. But there are other issues that fit the bill.

Iron Man #313, published in 1995, is called "Resolutions," and I feel like New Year's Eve definitely counts as a winter holiday. Which is when it's set. It's by Len Kaminski, who you may remember from several paragraphs ago as the guy who wrote that story about Bucky's sister. Ha. He's clearly very good at winter-holiday-themed character moments, because that's what this issue basically is. If you've read it, you know exactly what I mean; if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the only issues from this era of comics that I bothered to track down in paper.

So the entirety of Iron Man #313, pretty much, is about Tony going to an AA meeting on New Year's Eve and recounting his entire history of alcoholism up to this point. If you need a convenient refresher on Tony's drinking problem, this is actually a pretty good issue to pick up; there are later issues that recap Tony's alcoholism, like Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man #500.1, but this issue features the motivations and characterization that get the most play in fandom. This is the issue where Tony recounts a New Year's Eve he spent as a child. The one where his father forced him to down hard liquor, which Tony did in an attempt to impress him. (Tony describes his father as "not a bad man," because Tony is not a very reliable narrator where his father is concerned.) Anyway, yes, this is that issue. It's dealing with the fallout of Tony drinking during the Vor/Tex arc, though if you love yourself I would suggest not reading the Vor/Tex arc and just reading this. It's good.

The only other issue I can think of that's at all holiday-themed is the arc toward the end of Iron Man volume 3, "You Can't Always Get..." (IM v3 #62-63), which is itself a sequel to "Jane Doe" (#51-52), which I would recommend reading if you enjoy Tony funding a women's shelter and generally being a really good human being. As far as I can remember, the first arc isn't holiday-themed; the second one takes place during the Christmas season, but the women's shelter from the first arc plays a big role here.

Mostly what you will want to read here is Tony and his girlfriend Rumiko going Christmas shopping in #62. The issue opens with them going shopping and Tony carrying all the bags and also taking Ru to go see Santa Claus. After that, they're walking down the street talking about what they really want. And Ru asks Tony what he wants, being as he's The Man Who Has Everything. His reply is: "Something money and power could never buy... something I've been searching for all my life. Someone to watch over me."

Fandom tends to feel like that quote is a pretty telling look into Tony's psyche, as far as I can tell. I think we all like it. So, yeah, that's worth reading.

I'm bad at writing conclusions, but anyway, yeah, that's all of the winter-holiday comics I can think of that are Steve, Tony, and/or Steve/Tony-related; I went through the Marvel Holiday Specials so you did not have to. Definitely read that Avengers annual if you haven't, though. It's a good one.

#posts i actually wrote

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