i am iron man. the suit and i are one.

Annie. 33. she/her or they/them. queer. writer. cap-im and niche 616 mod. This is a personal blog which means it's mostly stevetony since they occupy 90% of my brain. Also annthonystark on AO3.

[corpseprize]

the reality of being a writer

heres how to fix it

[autumntheredhead]

“Can mutuals DM you?”

There are mutuals I would let spit in my mouth tbh

[flower-seeks-the-moon]

my favorite ao3 writers be like this

[ghosthan]

now im just dancing, with your ghost

[annthonystark]

Sublime Canon Period, for Cap-IM Rec Week

Okay, so here's the thing: my favorite canon period goes allll the way from Extremis until the end of Director of SHIELD. Because it's all the same story, right? So when I say my favorite canon period is Civil War, I mean pre-Civil War/everything that led to it, then Civil War itself, and post-Civil War/all the consequences of Tony's actions. These are all 616!

So here we go. 16 works about this fucking train wreck that gives me more life than any other canon period. Some of these are dark, you should check the tags and warnings before reading.

A Gold Haze by @starvels

The armor is malfunctioning. Since Tony is the armor now, it means hitting his reset button is a hands-on job.

Let's start with Execute Program and Extremis porn. Because fun, and beautiful prose, and very very hot.

when you're gone (i'll miss you) by @xwinterdreamsx

He was a futurist but he couldn’t, for the life of him, see their future.

Pre-Civil War sadness. Tony knows about the SHRA but hasn't told Steve about it yet. Seriously, it's heartbreaking.

Rotgut by @resurrectedhippo

“I had the best of intentions and so little experience. I was just trying to make a difference, as best I could. And even today, looking back on it all, I don't know if it was the right choice.”

—Tony Stark in Iron Man Vol. 3 #1

Civil War has started and Tony is fucking depressed and Steve is fucking angry and they're a fucking mess. God, I love them.

right where you left me by @thahiree

Steve can’t seem to stay away from the underground superhero sex parties, despite the ongoing Civil War.

Turns out, neither can Tony.

Heartbreaking glory hole "oh no this dick/mouth belongs to my ex-best friend and we're at war with each other but neither of us want to stop" deliciousness. Messy and hot.

The Price by @starkparade

Steve never meant for this to happen. He agreed to meet Tony at the Mansion, hoping the fact that Tony asked him to meet meant he reflected on his mistakes and was willing to see Steve's side.

But he wasn't. He kept insisting, and kept telling Steve that he needed to stand down. And Steve—

Steve saw red.

Casualties of War pain and I mean *pain*. If you know Val you know she specializes in MCD. This fic will break your heart. I promise. WAIT FOR THE PLOT TWIST. It is glorious. Steve and Tony meet in the mansion to talk and it goes really really bad. :)))

And if you love The Price you should read it's Extra Painful And Dark alternate version:

The Loneliest by @starkparade

"You'll be the saddest part of me, a part of me that will never be mine. It's obvious, tonight is gonna be the loneliest."

Steve and Tony fight at the Mansion, and the unthinkable happens. Steve's mind breaks from grief and guilt.

Steve and Tony meet in the mansion to talk and it goes really really bad and then Steve Cannot Deal With It and it gets Even Worse :)))) and it's beautiful. In a fucked up way.

Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart by @thahiree

Thinking about Tony makes him careless.

He notices it a millisecond too late, the fine, blue-violet shimmering mist settling on his eyelashes, the bow of his upper lip. Sweet and bitter like burnt sugar and, underneath, something distinctly chemical, unnatural.

-

Steve gets exposed to an aphrodisiac when he and Tony meet to talk about the SHRA.

Steve and Tony meet to talk but Oh No There's Sex Pollen!!! But like, slow burn kind of sex pollen. Very fun, very hot, very sad.

Moving to the Sun by @sineala

When Steve agreed to meet Tony at the mansion to talk, he never imagined that Tony would abandon Registration and join him. He never imagined that Tony would end up in bed with him, either.

Steve and Tony meet in the mansion to talk and it turns into really hot, really sweet undersheath porn. Seriously like, it's beautiful. Steve learns about the undersheath and learns to love it, and the ending is happy/hopeful. Very sweet.

a warm place by @kiyaar

What am I in for, Tony thinks, as Steve is knuckle deep in his body. RAPE IN THE THIRD DEGREE, blinks the HUD.

Post Civil War, Steve is in prison, Tony visits him, they fuck, obviously. What else were they supposed to do???!!! Sad, hot, upsetting consent issues in a prison cell.

nevermore to leave here by @magicasen

After Steve survives an attempted assassination on the day of his arraignment, the tide of public opinion shifts. Now, with an imminent pardon looming, Steve has never been in a better place to negotiate Registration on his own terms.

Until Tony lands himself in prison, instead.

Sad tragic dubcon!! Steve didn't die and now he has to get Tony out of prison! Aaaahhhh!! They are a mess your honor but they love each other so much!!

So Little Left To Give by @oluka

A few months after Steve’s death on the steps of the Capitol, someone resurrects him. It’s less of a good news than one might expect.

This one will fuck you up. This one made me want to scream into a pillow for all eternity and it still wouldn't be enough. Maddening. Beautifully written, too.

♡

And now it's time for art:

Hesitation by @somekindofsheepl

What happens when Steve lets himself think for a second without fronting his anger issues.

Beautiful and sad, they love each other so much I wanna cry sometimes.

Kiss death, in life by @capnstars

The aftermath of Steve's funeral.

One of the most heartbreaking arts I've ever seen. Lives in my mind rent free.

♡

And the self recs! I have 3 of them today:

Causa Sui by annthonystark

Steve and Tony were together before Civil War started, but now Steve is dead and Tony is being plagued by hallucinations of him. One day, Tony gets offered a deal: to bring Steve back to life, in exchange for their love.

What if Tony was so depressed after Steve's death he just couldn't handle it, and then Mephisto offered him a deal? *cruel evil laugh*

haunted by annthonystark

Steve looks just like he remembers. Steve hates him just like he remembers.

-

Hallucination!Steve wants to punish Tony after Civil War.

Is it even noncon if it's not real? Is this just Tony's way of punishing himself? 👀

delusion by annthonystark

Out of all of his bad coping mechanisms, this has to be the healthiest one.

-

Tony uses Extremis to give himself a Steve hallucination.

Spiritually, this is haunted's consensual and non-dark sister. Still really sad though!

@cap-ironman (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶) ‹𝟹

[sadclowncentral]

so many misguided metaphors around violence and desire. if the open maw of a panting beast fills you with the want to be devoured, that does not make you prey. while the rabbit trembles in fear, its deepest desire is to run. evolution demands it. in fact, the desire to be eaten does not make you any small animal at all.

it makes you a fruit.

[sumverendus]

[sandpancakecat]

[paverics]

“my father is a boy and my mother is a girl so i’m mixed” is the funniest possible response to someone asking your gender and it came from 6’5 Viking footballer and notable weird little guy Erling Haaland on a Snapchat

[arcandoria-archived]

the horrors persist but my friends write beautiful fanfic

[hexjulia]

sometimes your distress does indicate you should stop and respect your limitations. at other times it's more of a baby aquatic mammal being introduced to water for the first time thing. Too bad the difference is so hard to tell.

[ghosthan]

It gets better.

my art | my ko-fi | my writing

[foone]

the upside of ADHD is that it makes you a fucking genius

the downside is that you don't get to decide when and for how long you're a genius.

[foone]

Or what you are going to be a genius about.

You have a big work project?

Nah. You're now a genius at making boardgames. For 7 hours.

[unrivalling]

[girl-mercury]

nickname poll

So currently I answer to my full first name (which I usually introduce myself with) as well as two nicknames/diminutives plus my last name when people mistake it for a first name. There are two or three other nicknames I've also gone by in the past. I'm perfectly fine with this, or neutral at minimum-- I have a common name and have had to be flexible with how I'm distinguished for my whole life. I also don't feel a deep and fundamental connection of my name with my identity, though I think going by another name entirely would confuse me.

A number of friends have been appalled at me being called names I don't say are my name. Which is really weird to me, although I'd go to battle for anyone else who was getting either deadnamed or called something they didn't want. But this perspective seems surprisingly common!

How do you feel about being called something other than the name you introduce yourself with?

I think it's fun if people give me (non-derogatory) nicknames or shorten my name

I don't care if people call me something else and will answer to it

I'm mildly uncomfortable or annoyed but won't make an issue of it

I HATE being called something else and will always correct people

Nuance in tags/Vanilla extract/I'm bald

Remaining time: 4 days 16 hours

[b0nkcreat]

could you describe your art process?

like this

[maple-salad]

hi salad! what are some of the things youve learned in your first year writing? tips?

In no particular order:

If writing was easy, everyone would do it.

At the same time, you have to love the struggle. Otherwise why are you doing it?

Try for consistency—as in, a couple sentences a day—but don’t get too hung up on it. Sometimes I go through long periods of reading only or doing other kinds of art. Making yourself anxious about it doesn’t help.

Take a walk if you can’t think of what you want to say.

I’m an outliner. I need to have a rough idea of what I’m doing with a story.

I’m also prone to underwriting, so I’m always trying to add details and emotional beats. It’s not the worst thing in the world to be sparse with your prose, but I also really admire people with vivid and lush writing styles; I think I struggle to let scenes breathe. Speaking of which:

Get a beta reader, ideally one who isn’t afraid to whack you. There is no faster way to improve than to work through edits and constructive criticism. Not everyone cares about that, which is fine; everyone has a different process or goals or whatever.

Beta read for other people. If you can read someone else’s work and pick out moments that don’t land, sentence rhythms that fall flat, pacing that drags, that will help you notice the same in your own work.

Beta reading is critical reading, which I also recommend and do a lot of. I often read books with a highlighter and pencil in my hand. The same goes for fics I really like—if I love something, I often download it and re-read it while annotating. Unfortunately now I’m just describing putting yourself through a creative writing class.

I’m a big believer in Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style: “Vigorous writing is concise.” This is true in every field (believe it or not, I get paid to write op-eds and policy papers, which is where I learned most of the fundamentals of writing), and it also applies to fanfic. Many fics are too long. SORRY! They are. As S&W say, “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.” Your words can tell something other than pure plot advancement, but they have to serve some sort of purpose. S&W have all sorts of tips that are incredibly useful in fiction. At any moment, the easiest decision a reader can make is to stop reading. The worst thing a fic can be is boring. You are trying to tell a story to your reader. Get their attention and hold it!

Along these lines, I’ve found that if something is boring me to write, it’s probably because the scene is unnecessary or could be shorter. This advice comes from the inimitable susiecarter IIRC.

Also, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is incredible even for fanfic writing. And I’m slowly working through Steering the Craft (thanks Freya for the suggestion!). Orwell, critiquing political writing, says that “As soon as certain topics are raised, the concrete melts into the abstract and no one seems able to think of turns of speech that are not hackneyed: prose consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.” I really do think this is true of fic too. Avoid turns of phrase that are fanfic staples. Don’t be pretentious in writing unless your style calls for it. Be concrete.

Read the types of stories you want to write and write the types of stories you want to read.

Part of putting your work out there is that people are going to have opinions about it. Nothing is for everyone. It’s your art; stand behind it. In other words, stop caring what strangers online think unless you are specifically soliciting concrit.

If you are writing from close third, everything on the page should be filtered through the character’s POV. If your character wouldn’t notice the high ceilings, don’t write about them.

Especially in kink or darkfic, you have to commit to the bit (another Freya tip). What is the meat of it? What makes it sexy? What’s interesting? Get grosser and more perverted and more honest. If you as the writer are flinching away from what you actually find iddy, why should the reader be interested? Why are you writing it if it doesn’t turn you on/make you sick/excite you/make you laugh/make you cry? Don’t let shame keep you from writing something real.

Read, a lot.

Okay that’s all for now

[tomb-mold]

the problem is i really do love staying up until one billion o'clock. it just cant be helped

[kragehund-est]

problematic rage gap. one partner tries to bring nuance and understanding to a tough situation. the other wants to blow up the earth about it.

[robinhess233]

Support my art on patreon.com/robinhess ❤