Cap-IM Rec Week Day 2 - Here & Queer
Okay, catching up here on these @cap-ironman. Taking on Day 2 first. I've seen so many fics recommended that I really, really love for this theme, but more than anything, I would like to share THIS:
The Ghost and The Machine by sheepl and starvels (dinosaur)
The nature of creation is to change.
When Tony first creates an AI copy of himself, he does it on a time crunch, without thinking about the code's longevity. Wrenched awake from his coma following Secret Empire, Tony hacks Rhodey back to life and comes face to his own digital face. A face that has been walking around, building a life separate from Tony’s, saving the world, saving Steve.
Steve too, has been wrenched awake. He’s driving westward, letting the bleeding horizon drip into ink blots over the spots of his life Hydra has ruined. And when Tony’s AI shows up on the road, Steve can’t help reaching out to touch the blue outlines of that familiar, yet not-familiar face.
TS-BE-V3.27 flits across the country between both of them, and doesn’t belong to either of them.
No matter what the admin credentials say.
So Tony created an AI Tony during Civil War, right? And Tony made poor AI Tony an alcoholic with an existential crisis (in other words, a copy of himself with all the hard stuff left in). In this story, AI Tony is granted control over his (SPOILER: their?) self, and what they choose to do with their new self-determination isn't what Tony expected. And I love it. I love this AI Tony sooooo much. I love this fic sooooooooooo much. (You know I mean it because of all the 'o's.)
Now listen. I won't lie to you. This fic is hard. Like hard, hard. Brutal. It's a challenging read. AI Tony has coding phrases embedded in the sections from his/their perspective that you are going to have to slow down and examine. And everything that happens...it's not nice, okay? Steve is grappling with the fall out of CV2 and what Hydra did to the country and to Steve's own image. Tony is newly out of his coma and not doing too well. Everybody is a yearning mess with lives that are falling apart. It's all exquisitely painful, beautifully rendered emotional torture. And there is amazing art. Did I mention that? All this and artwork, too. It's a glory.
This fic is going to rip your heart out, shred it into fine bits, and make no particular effort to put it back together again. I mean, it left my heart as a paste. Just a sticky glop of goo. If you like your fics fluffy, if you like your fics with a happy ending? Well...you probably won't enjoy it. It isn't for everybody, but goddamn, as of this writing it only has 34 kudos and its a MASTERPIECE. This fic is FOR ME. I love it, and I hope at least one more person sees this post and finds out this fic is FOR THEM, too. And if you're that person? Tell the authors oscartheslouch sent you.
