Greyscale bust commission for @/dearworthyhart over on Instagram! Just so yall know I do take comm types not specifically listed on my commission sheet, just send me a dm and we can talk it out!
If you didn’t already know, all the art I make is inherently queer! And it makes me so happy to be part of this community and see queer love and appreciation all around, thank you so much for your continuous support and kindness, and I hope everyone’s pride month was a blast, and that you know that you’re loved, no matter what!
Sooo cheesy I know.. that’s what yall get for following me
tonygrace - how i think a PHM and Iron Man (MCU) crossover could work out, Ryland Grace x Tony Stark edition :)
College
Tony and Ryland met in college when working on their graduate studies and are similar ages.
(I'm somewhat ignoring the canon phm timeline for the sake of the crossover but the phm events still happen - just not in the same years as canon. I just kind of evened out their ages.)
Tony thought he was cute and flirted with him from the get-go TBH. He was a little shit. Ryland was in college confused about his sexuality (he’s on the aroace spectrum) but he made it work.
They can clash because of their stubbornness and sometimes they can overwhelm the other and get annoyed and frustrated with each other easily. They’d also try to prove who’s smarter by playing little games and doing puzzles (Tony likes cheating during them even if he could easily do them without it).
Once they are friends though I feel like they’d love to gossip about random people when they hangout lowk.
They go to conferences together when they want the other’s company and enjoy learning new things. Both of them also like pop culture a lot and reference it often.
They balance each other out bc while Tony likes to be spontaneous and try new things Ryland is more subdued in comparison and hesitant in trying new things.
Ryland holds Tony back a bit from taking too brash of decisions while Tony encourages Ryland to be more adventurous.
When he’s younger Ryland was a bit arrogant, just never on Tony's level. As he grows older and starts teaching he becomes a better listener and more understanding which Tony learns from I think, especially when it comes to mentoring Peter.
Tony after college is not in a great headspace (he’s an alcoholic, he’s working with the company building weapons, he’s sleeping around not caring about other people and still dealing with the grief of losing his parents and other unresolved issues)
He and Ryland have a fight - Ryland is frustrated with Tony not taking care of himself or taking things seriously as a grown adult and already angry with himself as he recently was ridiculed by the scientific community for his paper, so he explodes and Tony says some insensitive things back, which causes them to go without contact for a couple of years, both too stubborn to be the first to reach out.
They were never officially together but they were definitely more than friends, always talking around the point and never having a real conversation about their emotions, scared to be vulnerable for real.
Neither of them have many people close to them so going no contact impacted them both greatly.
Iron Man / Petrova Taskforce
After seeing Tony get kidnapped Ryland reaches out to Rhodes for updates, bc even though they hadn’t talked for a while he does still care about Tony.
Once Tony comes back and becomes Iron Man they start talking again.
Tony’s able to confide in Ryland like he’s able to confide in Rhodes, Pepper or Happy about things. He does get worried but he’s glad they are at least talking again.
Ryland was in NY for a couple of years after 2012 to be there for Tony and was Peter's teacher.
He would definitely figure out Peter is Spider-Man once Tony starts talking about his ‘intership’ and making Spidey’s gear.
He would notttt approve of Peter being a part of the civil war drama so Tony doesn’t tell him until later. He would at least be glad that Tony is his mentor though bc he wouldn’t want the kid to be out with no backup.
Once the Avengers are going on missions if Tony needs a second opinion on something about microbiology he reaches out to Ryland for help.
Maybe they need his counseling on a specific mission and Ryland gets flown out to Manhattan to help the Avengers out. Lowkey would be funny if the Avengers see Tony flirting heavily with Ryland and Ryland responding normally (not really ignoring the flirting just kinda accepting it but not being super flirty back (I don't think Ryland is very flirty)) but when asked they are both like no this is just how we are always all the time. Even on holiday.
Ryland with the Avengers:
He really likes Bruce Banner and Captain America. Super interested in the Hulk but scared of meeting him. A bit scared of Black Widow and Hawkeye but respects them a lot. He’s interested in having a chat with Thor (a real life alien!) and learning about asgardian customs.
Ryland would also accompany Tony as his ‘date’ for events if he’s in the area & Pepper isn’t available especially if it’s something science related or for charity.
His kids think it’s so cool that he knows Iron Man but he doesn’t like talking about it because he doesn’t want the attention.
Ryland: I'm just a teacher! Stratt: you are not just a damn teacher and you know it. at this point you are an honorary avenger with how much you counsel!
PHM still happens - the sun is still dying but the heroes aren't very involved (the ones that are scientists might help if needed but it's not their full time job nor are they in charge of the Taskforce) so the Petrova Taskforce is still there.
Tony knew Ryland was working on it and was super busy so they couldn't speak as often but didn’t know how involved he truly was - he also didn’t realize that Ryland was forced until he hacks into their documents himself after the announcement that Ryland went on the mission fully shocked him (because he knows him and knows he wouldn’t want to do that).
He feels guilty that he couldn’t do anything about it and regrets not reaching out to Ryland more.
They both feel regret for not being there for the other even if it isn’t necessarily either of their faults - they care about each other and see themselves in the other person even if how similar they are they can make them butt heads.
Post-snap
Because it’s an MCU crossover and the events of Avengers (2012) happen, it’s known that (human-like) aliens are real that can survive on earth with little to no assistance.
What is a surprise is that there is life on the planet Erid specifically and that they are a type of alien that’s never interacted with human life before (and the fact that they are so different from what is known).
While Ryland and Rocky are on their way to Erid the snap happens - they just don’t realize because neither of them get dusted.
They pass by Tony’s ship (where Tony and Nebula are on their way to Earth) while they are on their way to Erid (they are going opposite ways).
Tony has some extra food that he gives to Ryland and Ryland gives him some oxygen.
They have a very heartfelt reunion - neither of them thought they were gonna see each other ever again so seeing each other in space of all things was never expected. For a moment everything feels like a dream instead of reality.
At least until Tony and Nebula had to tell Rocky and Ryland about the snap. :(
Tony has to tell Ryland about Peter (and because “i lost the kid” is one of the first things he says when he gets back to Earth it just shows how prevalent his ‘failure’ is on his mind so it would probably be the first thing he says here- which is even worse in this situation because Ryland also cared so much about Peter since that was one of his favorite students for the years he was in NYC).
Very stressful to think about bc now nobody knows who really survived the snap. They don’t know which of the Avengers survived on Earth nor do they know which eridians survived the snap, including Adrian.
Nebula is able to download the eridian translation program so she can understand (and maybe speak) eridian.
Nebula and Rocky would get along pretty well but Tony and Rocky would be sooo annoying about the other one (at least once Tony has the energy to be).
They cannot stay on the same ship though because they have different missions so they aren’t able to stay together :(
They acknowledge they understand and love each other (whatever love that may be, mostly an appreciation of someone who's been there for all your wins and failures and knows you inside out, someone who would stay always if they could).
Ryland has to go to Erid and give them the taumoeba.
Tony has to go back to Earth and debrief the Avengers on their loss against Thanos.
They don’t know if either of them will complete their mission but they sure as hell will try.
Once they are on the same ship but about to separate again, Captain Marvel is able to find them and takes Tony back to Earth quicker + gives some resources for Ryland to make it to Erid in better health than in canon. Even then it takes a bit of calculation to spread the supplies for that long.
Does Ryland go back to earth? What happens after? Who knows, not me, I'll think about something after maybe…
that’s it! hope u enjoyed i had a lot of fun with it they’ve been on my mind a lot lately
Bust commission for @/sleeping.eros over on TikTok! Of their OC’s Sony and Frankie muehehehe
I had so much fun working on this one! It was the first time I worked on a concept like this and a split drawing too! So I’m very happy with how they turned out🤭
