#arabellamonkey

[meidui]

hi cassie!! lately i've been rereading lots of fics, and i was wondering, do you reread fics? and if you do, are there any fics you go back to time and time again? 👀🤭

omg yes i love rereading fics 🥺 here are the ones i reread the most as part of my regularly scheduled emotional maintenance

which fics have you been rereading? 🥰

don't go wasting your emotion by nanasekei ( @elcorhamletlive )

Tony is aware that the circumstances seem highly sketchy, but he’s telling the honest-to-god truth when he says: It starts off as an accident.

Or: Steve dates. Tony doesn't deal well with that.

Talking Bodies by itsallAvengers ( @intelligentbees )

Coincidentally, the physical effects of romantic and sexual desire match up very closely with the physical effects of fear. But it's not a problem-- it's not like anyone is going to be able to hear the way your heart speeds up, or see the minute dilation of your pupils, are they? They'd have to be some sort of Superhuman to do that.

And what's worse than a Superhuman hearing that quick pulse and seeing those dilated eyes and concluding that you're in love with them?

A Superhuman hearing that quick pulse and seeing those dilated eyes and thinking you're terrified of them.

The Least Difficult of Men by @isozyme

It isn’t until Tony watches Steve lean into the punch that he thinks oh, this is going to be a problem.

Steve’s taking hits on purpose in the field, so Tony suggests a safer option. It's simple: Tony smacks Steve around, Steve gets the pain fix he’s looking for, everyone leaves happy. Things do not stay simple.

The one with repressed masochist Steve and sadist Tony and everyone getting off on pain a whole bunch.

Under God by @isozyme

“Captain America represents the values of our country. The recent allegations about his sexuality are specious and designed to smear an American icon. Captain Rogers regularly attends the Church of Saint Agnes and invites the citizens of New York to attend worship with him this Sunday, April 14th. God bless America.”

Nobody was ever going to know. Steve would be a good husband, a good father, and he’d never give in to sin and touch another man.

But Steve makes two mistakes, one after the other: he leaves two words out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and he doesn’t notice a camera flash among the strobe lights of a dark club, because he’s dancing with his clumsy hands on Tony’s hips.

[ifmywishescametrue]

hi kennedy! i was wondering if you could tell us how this is how you fall in love came to be? as in, how did the idea first come to your mind, and has it changed much since that firts idea? also, i'm really curious about how much time you've been working on it 👀❤️

hi ari! I absolutely can do that, but bear with me because it's long!

I had to scroll through my google doc history to find when it started, but apparently I got on the idea for it on August 23, 2021 lol. I'd forgotten this but I guess it came for an AU bingo that I was sort of doing (but definitely didn't complete). It was supposed to be the College AU square and all the doc had at first was this:

"Idea:  pre-serum steve wants to lose his virginity before he graduates from college, doesn't really know tony but asks him to be the one to do it (seems likely he would say yes), turns into friends with benefits, they both catch feelings, mutual pining and all the fun things"

That initial idea didn't go very far until April 2022, when another bingo started and I thought I'd incorporate those squares. I absolutely missed that deadline, so as you can see, there's a recurring theme here of me failing hard at bingos.

But those squares were: virginity, Netflix, Edwin Jarvis, Bronx, Kissing in the Car, Victor von Doom

All of those are hilarious now, because Jarvis and Victor von Doom aren't even mentioned in the final version, and Steve and Tony never end up in the Bronx. But, they started me on an outline that evolved over time and helped a lot.

I wrote really sporadically from April-August 2022, then stopped completely in September-October. I felt like it wasn't turning out very well, so I went to other projects and wrote/posted those instead. When I came back to it, it turned out I actually really liked it.

I think there were 7 or 8 chapters written at the time I came back to it. I edited those, then kept going and so, so much of my initial outline changed. Entire scenes got scrapped, some parts were moved around or combined, and a few minor plotlines disappeared all together. The only major thing I kept from chapters 9-19 was the ending, but it was initially supposed to be 26 chapters, I think.

I didn't know exactly who these characters were at the time I outlined it, though, so it had to change as they developed into themselves. Like, there was supposed to be some plotline for the ~drama~ of Tony showing up at Steve's dorm drunk, because he was upset after a phone call with his mom. But it turned out that this Tony just wouldn't do that after everything I'd already written him to be. So, him talking to Steve about his mom got put into chapter 12 instead to preserve some pre-written dialogue I had, and now there's kind of no real drama between him and Steve specifically. (And I certainly stressed over that for months, for the record, but then I decided that not everything needs angst like that.)

This fic was the first multi-chaptered one that I didn't start posting until it was completely done, so I had more freedom to make changes, but also I kind of thought I might never finish it without the posting pressure lol. It did end up taking almost a year and a half, but I'm really happy with the way it ended up!

And I also may or may not have started writing a companion fic from Tony's pov 👀 and it may or may have 15 planned chapters.

[lightsonparkave]

Here are the wonderful Round 32 works!

If you missed out on participating, remember that you can always submit something for a round that already ended. You can find out more information about that in the guidelines.

You can see all of the prompts for Round 32 here. In addition to looking at this master list, you can search for works by rounds, creators, work types, ratings, and universes on this page and peruse the Lights on Park Ave AO3 collection.

Round 33 has now begun and will run until May 31. The theme is to be seen and known, and all the prompts can be found here.

FIC

MCU

“every card in the deck” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) Angsty things Steve and Tony have said to each other in the MCU, said again years later but happy this time.

“eyes closed forever to find you” - @meidui​ (also on Tumblr) It can’t all be pain, but so what if it was? The hurt always felt a little like love anyway, when it came from Steve.

“What He Didn’t Know Before” - @ayapandagirl/Fluffypanda (also on Tumblr) Steve falls in love

“your eyes look like coming home” - @arabellamonkey​/ArabellaAM (also on Tumblr) To this day, Steve still remembers his first thought —the first thing he yearned for— when he woke up in the 21st Century. He still hadn’t found out he was in the future; he hadn’t processed that what had once been his present was now the past. He hadn’t even started grappling with the alien concept that what he had never expected to live to see had become his present. Even before any of those thoughts appeared on his mind, a more simple, instinctive one had shone brightly. He just wanted to return home.

[cowboyhorsegirl]

i'm so curious grief on the jade steps!! 👀👀👀👀

thanks for the WIP ask!

if i'm being 100% honest, grief on the jade steps would probably have just been a fleeting story idea that i sort of let float away because writing is truly so excruciating, BUT! i found a title that fit the idea so perfectly that I couldn't help but challenge myself to write it

The fic itself is a short story that takes place as steve's getting ready for tony's funeral in EG. I have a sneaking suspicion that the suit steve wore in that scene is the same suit he wore for peggy's funeral (even though one is a 3-piece and one is a 2-piece, i still imagine it's the same original outfit but without the vest), and I like to think it's the only suit he owns (he'd probably wear his army uniform for any other formal events he attends). My headcanon is that this is a suit that tony bought for him fairly early on in their friendship (maybe for their first date??👀 I haven't decided yet).

basically, the premise of the fic is going to be steve reflecting on his relationship with tony with a lot of sensory flashbacks to the first time he wore this suit with tony at the fitting while he puts it on for the last time. i wanted to explore the juxtaposition of his happier memories with tony to the tragedy that was their later relationship.

As for the title, I like naming my work after fountain pen ink colors! i see it as kind of a variant on naming fics after song lyrics, and it's kind of like a fun scavenger hunt bc i try really hard to match the mood of the fic to both the color and the name of the ink. i wasn't really expecting to find anything that would match what i was envisioning for this WIP so well, but as soon as i found Grief on the Jade Steps (the color) i KNEW it was perfect for Grief on the Jade Steps (the fic). the imagery immediately made me think of steve standing in the forest surrounding the lake at the funeral: he's literally grieving for tony on his jade doorsteps.

Ancient Charm Grief on the Jade Steps

18ml bottle of black fountain pen ink with silver shimmer. Also known as Ancient Song, this ink is made in China. Part of a collection of 24

[robertdowneyjjr]

hi Kay! for your ask game! 👀👀

10. What’s a theme that keeps coming up in your writing? 

hi ari!

oh hmm this is hard. i try to diversify, and it helps when there are prompts sent my way.

but i think when it comes to the fics i actually post on ao3, the one common thread is that i write a lot of fluff and humour. i write about tony finding love but in the process there are lots of laughs because i want him and readers to just have a good time, even if there’s a little bit of drama in between.

in general, i think the pursuit of love is the big one. but when it comes to writing tony, another theme that’s always somewhat weaved in through both my fics and tumblr posts, even if not always explicitly, is identity — how he’s defined by himself and others.

[cowboyhorsegirl]

hi hi! 7 and 19 for the ask game? 👀❤️

Thank you so much for the ask! <3

7. Your favourite ao3 tag?

Internalized homophobia 1000%!! I'm already a huge fan of angst, and while it's definitely fun to explore other sources of conflict (or comfort!) that could arise from Steve and Tony's relationship without the realism of queerphobia, I find it really cathartic to read fics where this is the main hurdle they need to overcome to be happy.

I've only read versions of this kind of story where Steve is the one dealing with this struggle, but I'd absolutely love to read some where Tony and/or both of them are bringing this baggage to their relationship (in case anyone has any recommendations??👀👀)

And if anyone's interested, I incidentally wrote down a few of my favorite internalized homophobia!Steve fic recs today! <3

19. Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.

Steve doesn’t think he’s ever seen a man wear such little clothing. No scratch that, he corrects himself: the newer and more revealing dress etiquette of the 21st century had been one of the more surprising facts of life he'd encountered after waking up from the ice, though not one he necessarily objected to once he got used to it. He’s never seen Tony wearing such little clothing.  And what a sight, he muses before the parts of his brain that aren’t hardwired to his dick can catch up and shame him for drooling over his best friend.

(from a WIP that I haven't visited in a few weeks, but picking out a section from it now has got me fired up to get back to work on it!)

[meidui]

i open tumblr + i come across your publications = i am very well fed indeed 🥹❤️‍🩹

my angel light love of my life!!!!!! it's because i have no class today for thanksgiving so i had extra time 🤭

[ifmywishescametrue]

KENNEDY!!!!! WAKING UP TO YOU POSTING THE FIRST CHAPTER made my whole day and I needed you to know! i'm so excited to read it! 🥰❤️❤️

Ari!!! your excitement makes my day 🥺 I hope you like it 💙💙