starvels' Dark Recs for @cap-ironman Steve/Tony Fic Rec Week 2024
For Dark Recs, enjoy these doves, free for lunch and scrupulously foul. Please remember to leave a comment, add a kudos, hit a reblog on a fic post in order to show your gleeful appreciation of such dark gems.
Check out all of starvels' Cap-IM 2024 Rec Lists [here].
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Hypnagogic by CaughtAGhost (ghosthan) @ghosthan
Tags: AI Tony Stark, Hydra Steve Rogers, Secret Empire, Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Guilt, Murder, Angst, seriously this is miserable turn back now, Suicidal Thoughts, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, KIND OF I GUESS, unreality
Summary: [Hypnagogic state: the period immediately before sleep, or between wakefulness and sleep, during which hallucinations can occur.]
“Fine. You want an enemy?” Steve says, bloody saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth, “I’ll give you someone to hate.”
Notes: A take on a gory end to the AI Tony/Hydra Steve story that is perfectly evocative and desolate, like scooping your stomach out with a snowy hand.
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lent by starvels
Tags: Rape/Noncon, Violence, Major Character Death, Canon Divergence, Comic Book Science, Comic: Superior Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Old Steve Rogers, SIM Style Eugenics, Sexual Slavery, Sexual Violence, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Body Horror, Torture, Cock Warming, Public Humiliation, Objectification, Gags, Public Sex, Cock Slapping, Genital Torture, Collars Leashes, Anal Plug, Erotic Electrostimulation of a non consensual type, Extremis, Transhumanism, Suicidal Thoughts Unhappy Ending
Summary: After being successfully reverted back to his normal moral self, Tony Stark is tasked with trying to prevent the next incursion in an entirely new way. One that requires magic, infiltration, and of course, his former best friend who wants nothing to do with him.
Reluctantly together, Steve and Tony enter incursion planet Earth-6006.
But the Earth-6006 they discover is a grotesque mirror of Earth-616, one that neither Steve, nor Tony may find themselves capable of escaping. In fact, they may just carry it back home with themselves.
Notes: Where Steve and Tony go, the monsters wear their own faces and want to be told just how pretty they look, using those faces to eat every soul in sight.
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Go Down For Your Gold by Kiyaar @kiyaar
Tags: Marvel Comic Event: Siege (2009), Extremis, Infidelity, Angst, Disability, predatory prenups, Commander Rogers, Transhumanism, Grief, Not A Fix-It, Abuse, light dubcon, background alcoholism, Suicidal Thoughts
Summary: Steve comes back from the dead to find Tony married to Tiberius Stone.
Thing is, it shouldn't hurt this much. It shouldn't. Tony was never his to begin with.
Notes: Wrap your fingers around this exquisitely sharp, serrated blade nestled in the reeds of canon and watch Steve and Tony writhe in a web they and others are ever weaving.
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this, too, by your hand by oluka (lomku) and welcoming_disaster @oluka @welcomingdisaster
Tags: Post-Civil War, Canon Temporary Character Death, Torture, Psychological Torture, Rescue, Extremis, Hurt/Comfort, But don't get me wrong much more hurt than comfort, Love Confessions, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt Steve Rogers, Angst
Summary: Six months after Steve's death, Tony finds himself caught in the middle of Hydra plot to resurrect the Red Skull using Steve's body. Hopeful he can save his former friend, he interferes.
But their troubles are only just beginning.
Notes: This story builds like a mighty, unrepentant thunderstorm, distant digital screeching through Extremis and minute shifts in the wind of worldbuilding and the building darkness of torture and CAP-tivity and comic book horror.
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sacrifical anode by Rowantreeisme @the-faultofdaedalus
Tags: AI Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Happy Hogan, Angst, AU, Heart Attacks, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death
Summary: Sacrificial anode (n.) An easily corroded materials deliberately installed in a pipe or tank to be sacrificed to corrosion, leaving the rest of the system relatively corrosion free.
It had asked, before. Why it should not have a separate power source, why a copy of the chestplate that kept him alive could not be made. The answer still lived in its memories, held there like a beacon, one of the first parts of its mind that it had made itself.
Notes: Devastatingly gripping and meticulously detailed take on Tony, AI Tony and the nature of sacrificial lambs drawn in ASCII 1s and 0s, so to say.
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No Consolation by valtyr
Tags: Major Character Death, Necrophilia
Summary: Extremis lies to Tony.
Notes: What more to say. Here's the rusty tin. Peel it open and discover exactly what it says is within.
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blue oleander by starvels
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Survival Horror, PTSD, Space Opera, Mental Instability, Science Fiction, Steve Rogers with a sword, Janet Van Dyne with brass knuckles, Implied/Referenced Torture, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Body Horror
Summary: It's been seven years since Earth was destroyed. What remains of humanity, of the superhero community, is on a ship, half-lost in the deep of space.
But they're not alone. And what crawls through the portals in the aft cargo bay, day after day, is about as human as Steve feels anymore.
Notes: Steve and Jan are in a survival horror FPS, except Steve stopped playing a while ago. Too bad the game hasn't stopped playing with him.
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lover, leave me alone and bury the ruins by lomku @oluka
Tags: Civil Warrior, Civil War, Not A Fix-It, Holy Shit What Happened To Tony, AI Tony Stark, Angst, Civil Warrior Steve Rogers, Multiverse, Unreliable Narrator, Dubious Morality, Horror, Dark
Summary: Steve swipes the rag across the shield. He knows Tony's listening.
“You don’t understand what I’m doing, why this is necessary. What happened to me, what I did, needs to be stopped at all costs. It destroyed the superhero community, destroyed everything we stand for. I know you’re angry, but if you knew what I knew, then you’d agree with me. I know you. I’ve seen a hundred, a thousand of you. You do what needs to be done. You think big. You plan, and you see the future. Well. I’ve been the future, and I know what I can do to stop it. We’re on the same side.”
He lets the rag drop, satisfied. His shield is gleaming, not a scratch in sight, not even a single drop of blood left.
Notes: Exemplar unfolding of the complex, messed up object that Civil Warrior is, complete with released ghosts that simply love haunting the narrative in bone-chilling ways.
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A Borrowed Body by dirigibleplumbing @dirigibleplumbing
Tags: Rape/Non-ConSteve, Superior Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Dark Tony Stark, Extremis, San Francisco, Bondage, Gags, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Angst, Dark, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Crying, Objectification, Orgy, Old Man Steve makes a brief appearance, Brief Tony/others and Steve/others, Dubious Consent
Summary: After Steve shows up in San Francisco, Tony uses Extremis to make him strong and beautiful again. Tony wants sex in return, and Steve gives it to him—he owes this body to Tony, after all. Every month after that, he visits Tony to keep up his end of the bargain.
That will just have to be enough for him.
Notes: Lean into the horror tessellated in mundanity with this deftly brutal unreliable narration of what exactly would happen if Old Man Steve approached Superior Iron Man for a way to be young again.
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PURPLE by lindenwaverly
Tags: Angst, Dom/sub, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alcoholic Relapse, Mind Control, Flashbacks to Rape/Noncon, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicidal Thoughts, Avengers Team
Summary: Sometimes things just can't be fixed.
Killgrave broke the Avengers. He broke Steve and Tony. Steve's just trying to claw something out of the mess.
Notes: Just because something is WIP doesn't mean it isn't completely capable of effectively wrenching your gut. Let this submerge you in the way that trauma ebbs and flows in tidal waves.
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tenenbaum by starvels
Tags: Canon Divergence, Extremis, Body Horror, Memory Alteration, Transhumanism, Established Relationship, Erotic Electrostimulation, Top Tony Stark, Dom/sub, Power Play, Manipulation, Anal Sex, Armor Kink, Dubious Morality, Superhero Realism, holy shit what's happened to Tony?, Unreliable Narrator, Psychological Horror, Unhealthy Relationships, Body Modification, Ambiguous Ending
Summary: “Did you choose this?” Steve asks.
He looks over Tony’s face like the undersheath will grow to cover Tony’s lips suddenly, and choke him to oblivion. He searches Tony’s shoulder and forearms for any trace of the ports, like they’re going to magically open and swallow him whole.
It is not magic, Tony wants to tell him. It’s better. It’s science. It’s a nano-network of superconductors hopped up on peptide-peptide logic. It’s an adaptive mimetic artifact. It’s an utter innovation in pan-spectrum stimuli reflex response. It’s an end and a beginning and both and neither of those at once. It’s him now, Tony_Stark_V.2.01. not an it.
“I choose it now,” Tony says, finally.
Notes: Extremis like a mask that slowly suffocates the wearer -- except, what if its really just teaching Tony how to live, without breathing? How far would it go, with Tony inside it?
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take the ground in style by welcoming_disaster @welcomingdisaster
Tags: Civil Warrior, 1872, Angst, Implied Sexual Content, Blood and Injury, Canonical Character Death, Bittersweet Ending, Unhappy Ending, Grief, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Summary: In 1873, an unusual visitor with an uncanny resemblance to the former Sheriff crash lands in Timely.
Notes: Desolation is a landscape in this 1872 piece where grief is Tony's constant companion and we tune in to their grotesque romance like sifting through a cathode-ray-tube TV's physical static.
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Control by Ironlawyer @ironlawyer
Tags: Rape/Non-Con, Consent Issues, Trauma, Unsafe Sex, Sex Work, Oral Sex, Angst, Dark, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Self-Hatred, Character Study, Rape Aftermath
Summary: Tony has unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Notes: Like looking through a kaleidoscope, turn this over and over in your hands and admire all the warped shapes of Tony trapped within.
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as a siren sings you to shipwreck by meidui @meidui
Tags: Iron Man Vol 1. (2015), Canon Divergence, Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Emotional Manipulation, Captivity, Blowjobs, Hand Jobs, Edging, San Francisco, Angst with a Happy Ending, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism
Summary: Steve stands there in front of him, faint traces of Matt’s blood still smeared across the floors beneath his combat boots. Tony holds his gaze, hyperaware of the way his heart picks up speed because it's the first time he’s seen Steve since, well. He is a pleasing sight, exactly the way Tony remembers him.
Beautiful, intelligent, healthy, immortal.
“Did Pepper send you?” Tony asks, feverish bright blue eyes boring into him. “You look the same, Steve. Haven't you taken a sip of water since you got to San Francisco?”
“Extremis is a virus,” Steve says steadily. “I can’t get sick.”
A lot is different. A lot will never be the same. But Tony Stark will always love Steve Rogers.
Notes: Choices are twisted and exaggerated in this divergent diamond with manipulation on two sides and moral degradation on one side and murder on the last. Spin it and see where it lands!
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what lips my lips have kissed by WhenasInSilks @whenas-in-silks
Tags: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, canonical terminal illness, Drunk Sex, Sexual Dysfunction, Internalized Homophobia, Angst, the two loneliest men in new york comprehensively fail to give each other any comfort
Summary: The first time Tony tried to take Steve to bed was the same night Steve found out Tony was dying. Looking back, that more or less set the tone for everything that followed.
Notes: On the lighter end of dark, but rife with desolation and loneliness and that good old Ultimates brand internalized homophobia. The quiet at the end is only acceptable as a secret, only as a last resort.
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make(damn)sure by msermesth @mserm
Tags: Namor the Sub-Mariner/Steve Rogers, Comic: Invaders Vol. 3 (2019), Comic: Avengers Vol. 8 (2018), Jealous Tony Stark, Choking, Autoerotic Asphyxiation, Whipping, Post-Marvel Comic Event: Secret Empire (2017), Bottom Steve Rogers, assumed infidelity, Humiliation, Crying, Masochist Steve Rogers, Shame, Impact Play, Non-consensual Exhibitionism, Voyeurism, Dubious Consent, Not Safe Not Sane and Barely Consensual, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat
Summary: When Steve refuses to tell Tony his plan to find Namor’s bomb, Tony decides to find out what he's up to.
He’s not going to like what he sees.
Notes: Just how far Steve will go is always an experiment worth seeing out and here, Tony sees it with us and the seeing is oh so deliciously bitter and stark.
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Cubicles by Loran_Arameri @loraneldin
Tags: Not A Fix-It, hickmanvengers, Superior Iron Man, Old Man Steve Rogers, Hurt, Angst, Time Runs Out
Summary: After the Illumnati and Sue Storm have captured Steve, they put him in the glass cube next to Tony, instead of trying to work with him
Notes: An issue tag that answers a question you maybe didn't know you had and the answer is even sadder than you imagined. And that's delicious.
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Compilation Error by Anonymous
Tags: Major Character Death, Angst, Unhappy Ending, Civil War, Reality manipulation, holy shit what's happened to Tony?, Contest of Champions, Suicidal Ideation
Summary: The first time Tony Stark kills Steve Rogers is an accident.
Notes: Scenes here flick past bare skin like paint, like knives leaving bleeding scrapes. Intericately woven and final as slamming a last comic issue closed.
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That's all folks!
Thanks for reading and make sure to kudos and comments fics you explore! Fandom is a circle and we are all passing it forward.
❄ONE WEEK LEFT to sign-up for 2025 Cap-IM Holiday Exchange!❄
The Holiday Exchange is Cap-IM's end-of-the-year fanwork exchange for SteveTony works! 🤩
Everyone who joins will be matched, to ✨secretly create✨ a Steve/Tony fanwork for another participant to fulfil their deepest SteveTony desires. 💌 At the end of December, the gifts will be posted anonymously. Then in January, the creators will be revealed!
All types of content and fanworks are allowed. All things SteveTony are celebrated. Check out the rules here.
Today’s list is short--it’s highlighting work you wouldn’t normally give a chance to, and that’s pretty rare for me. I give everything a shot because I’m a greedy whore when it comes to Stevetony. But here are two works that standout and that I thoroughly loved. I’ve really enjoyed @cap-ironman Rec Week--if you’re looking for more recs, check out @stevetonyweekly where I post all the Stevetony content I read each week.
Tiny Spy Assassin Steve by copperbadge
An AU in which Steve Rogers was born into the modern day and never received the Serum, but managed to make it into SHIELD as a handpicked protege of senior field agent Abraham Erskine. Along with Phil Coulson, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Peggy Carter, and eventually Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, Steve still tries to make a difference.
Particularly in the life of Tony Stark, who picked up what he thought was an art student in a bar, and ended up dating one of SHIELD's top agents...
I am EXTREMELY picky about pre-serum Steve fics and this one is just--fan-fucking-tastic.
[Podfic] Straight on till Morning by Sineala by M_Samro
Tony Stark resigned his commission in Starfleet five years ago, after a disastrous away mission, and he swore he'd never go back. He just wants to be left alone to build warp engines in peace. But the universe has more in store for him than that, as he discovers when Admiral Fury comes to him with an offer he could never have expected and cannot possibly refuse: first officer and chief engineer aboard the all-new USS Avenger, a starship of Tony's own design. What's more, the Avenger's captain is Steve Rogers, hero of the Earth-Romulan War. Believed dead for over a century, Steve is miraculously alive... and very, very attractive.
But nothing is ever easy for Tony. As he wrestles with his secret desire for his new captain and his not-so-dormant fears, another mission starts to go wrong, and Tony becomes aware that Steve has secrets of his own -- and the truth could change everything.
So this fic--podfic--deserves two spots on the list. First because I almost didn’t read it. Star Trek was the first media I can remember watching as a child (dear god, the nightmares from those fucking ear bugs) and it remains one of the nearest and dearest to my heart, so I’m extremely picky about crossovers--but I trusted Sine and it quickly became one of my favorite Trek fics, in or out of the fandom. I’m ALSO picky about podfic--I get very very little time for podfic and I’m super picky narrators on these kinds of things--audiobooks/podfics/podcasts--so I wasn’t sold on the idea, but I had a house to paint and a friend rec’ed it and omg, best decision ever. As emotional as the reading the fic made me, listening to the podfic was even more so. I love it to an unhealthy degree, honestly.
Fanart! It's been a long time… and first time drawing Tsums "seriously"
Info for the Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV @tonystarkbingo :
Title: Happy Scrubbing Time
Collaborator: Gottalovev
Card Number: 4077
Square Filled: R1 - Cleaning
Pairing: Steve/Tony
Rating: Gen
Warning: None
Summary: Cap-Tsum loves when Iron-Tsum uses the toothbrush at bath time!
ALSO: for the @stb-bingo : Free Square and for the @cap-ironman Stony bingo for the square Y2, relaxation (yay, multi-fills! lol!)
[image description: a Iron-Tsum flying while holding a toothbrush (3 times as long as he is) brushes a Cap-Tsum’s back and shield who looks very happy and relaxed. There are soap bubbles.]
Wanted to repost this since it was lost when I deleted my blog before orz I am still really proud of this piece I did for a @cap-ironman tiny reverse bang.
I can find the fics that went with it though ._. If you happen to know, let me know! I want to link them to this piece once again!!!
Bonus: This is the badge I got for my participation and it still make me feel warm and fuzzy asdfghjkl
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“Date auction guy?” Tony called and he saw the man’s head turn in the direction of his voice. He was tall, the other guy, but just on the built side of lanky. His blond hair was scruffy and the beard he was absent mindedly scratching as he crossed the room did things to Tony’s insides.
“Also known as Steve,” the man said, extending a hand. “Steve Rogers.”
“Tony Stark,” Tony said, and felt a little surprised as the man blinked.
