Random Fandom Romances

Sakura: of course honey

Sarada: why did you and dad get married? Im not like upset about your loveless marriage or anything. I’m a child soldier, I have more pressing concerns. I just think it’s kinda weird

Would you like some sad and handsome tonys

APPLICATIONS FOR “YOU GAVE ME A HOME: STEVE & TONY ACROSS THE MULTIVERSE,” ARE NOW OPEN!

When Tony Stark gave Steve Rogers a home, he gave one to us too—

Marvel fans from far and wide have found a home together, giving each other so much: works of art and fiction that keep us up at night or warm our hearts to the core. 

Now is your chance to spread some of that love into a project for all Stony fans—You Gave Me a Home, a nonprofit Steve/Tony zine, is now accepting applications! 

These applications are open to all writers and artists, regardless of prior experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re obsessed with Ultimates or only know of the MCU. As long as you love these two super husbands in particular, all are welcome!

We hope to accept:

20-25 writers

27-32 artists

5 merch artists

20 pinch-hitters

WRITER APPLICATION 🖋

ARTIST APPLICATION 🖌️

Applications close on December 1st, 11:59pm EST. Once they close, our moderators will review the submissions and choose our contributors! Results will be e-mailed on January 6th. 

Make sure to check out the links below before submitting your application. 

Good luck, everyone!

FAQ | TIMELINE | APPLICATION GUIDELINES | PROJECT DETAILS 

PREFACE: This is the 30k to 75k version! If y’all want a less than 30k rec list and/or an over 75k list, let me know!

Also: these are in no particular order!

Four Strings and Second Chances by Vashoth

Summary: It was reluctance to let one of his finest inventions ever out of his grasp that made him take a couple days over a week to send the arm to Pepper’s office. But all things considered, Tony figured that sending finest prosthetic that had ever come into existence–literally grasping an olive branch–was one of the classiest gifts he’d ever given. He’d included a note and everything. ‘Barnes,

Can help with installation. Or not. Up to you.

–Stark’

Personal Review: The softness. The quality choice of making Bucky Barnes a ukulele gay. Preserving Steve and Bucky’s friendship while still making it clear that Bucky loves Tony. The iconicism of this fic. I love it. 

Like a Goddamn Katy Perry Song by tisfan

Summary:  Tony is chased into the woods during his first heat, where the status-poor alpha, Bucky, lives. Running off the pack of heat-taggers, Bucky takes the young Tony home for recovery, to discover there’s not much time before the omega goes into full heat. Well… now what?

Personal Review: I don’t normally go for A/B/O. However. The writing of tisfan brought me in. I came for the tisfan and stayed for the cute dynamic! Bucky being protective while trying to be detached, Tony trying to stay distant but getting more and more entrenched…. love that. 

my light (smell) will guide you home by  winterbitch (WinterLadyy)

Summary: After escaping from HYDRA and dealing with Captain America, Bucky goes to New York. He can get lost there and figure out who he is. But something huge is missing from his memory and when the full moon comes, Bucky figures out what, but it’s too late. The Wolf takes over, snooping around New York and looking for what’s pulling him. Then he meets Tony Stark, who just can’t leave the huge, fluffy dog starving on the streets.

Only the huge dog is weirdly protective and definitely smarter than average…

Personal Review: WHERE WOLF? THERE WOLF! BUCKY BARNES! Okay, sorry, I just love werewolves. Magic tattoos, protective wolfmen, CUDDLING? We’re hitting all of my favorite things. 

Forms of Love by bear_bell

Summary: Months after the Avengers’ dispute in Germany, the team returns to the US and moves back into the tower. As always, everyone pretends that nothing happened. Tony is just fine with this. He’s used to pretending, and he’ll be damned if he lets any of them see him flinch.

Tony’s the bad guy, after all. He’s used to it. He’s fine with it. He’s good at it.

Only now, there’s something far worse loitering around the tower - The Winter Soldier. No one notices the guy at first, but when they do, Tony figures that he should have the soldier’s back.

Birds of a feather should flock together, and the bad guys should start a book club.

Personal Review: This. This fic. I love. This fic. Separate People!Winter and Bucky is like my favorite thing. The writing. The characterization. The development. C’est magnifique. 

Cat Nipped by Akira_of_the_Twilight

Summary: “Steve,” a bit of anger leaked into Bucky’s voice, so he paused to cull it back. “Tony is a werecat, and you really want the two of us to meet?”

Steve sighed, his shoulder dropping. “Bucky…”

“No!” Bucky bit back a bark. “Steve, I’m a werewolf, in case you have forgotten. Canine weres and feline weres do not get along well.”

“I’m a werecanine and Tony and I get along fine.”

“That’s not what you were saying last week.”

–

When cats and dogs collide there is bound to be trouble.

Personal Review: Protective Bucky! Angry Bucky! Kitty!Tony! Wolf!Bucky! It’s very character driven and I think that’s beautiful. 

Fractures (Filled With Liquid Gold) by itsallAvengers

Summary: Ultron happened. The Avengers left.

Tony is fine with being alone again. He always worked better as a Lone Wolf than a team player anyway. He’s not sleeping or eating or resting or… living, but it’s fine. It’s good. It’s okay.

And then there’s James.

Personal Review: *clenches fist* It’s about the loneliness. I love protectiveness, and this fic is so heavy with it. The PACING. I just. Includes the dialogue line “I’m gonna launch it into the fucking sun,” and I think that’s very cash money. 

Strong enough to trust by Enmuse (Scifiroots)

Summary: Steve makes a life-altering choice, and Bucky wakes up from cryostasis to better circumstances than he could anticipate: Mind free of triggers, name cleared, fully pardoned, and a ticket back to the USA. It’s far more than he deserves, but with no other plans or ties, he finds himself relocating to the Avengers Initiative Compound alongside Stevie’s rogue superheroes.

He begins establishing a new life - friends, work, maybe even love - but doesn’t realize that the castles he is painstakingly building are ones in the sky.

—

“I… don’t understand,“ Bucky admits in a murmur.

Stark’s gaze drops to the silver-plated shoulder. "I fix things,” he says. His fingers drum restlessly against his chest. “And this is something I broke. You shouldn’t have to just live with the consequences when something can be done about it.”

Personal Review: I thrive on Steve Rogers related anger. It’s what I live off of. This is a great characterization of Bucky, of Tony, even of Steve, even as it’s very angry at Steve. I just love this fic. 

Measure of a Man by JasperMoar

Summary: Tony is so. damn. tired of losing control. He gave it away freely before, and that got him stuck with some sharp metal and a magnet in his chest. He tried taking it back, and that got his heart ripped out of his goddamn chest. He pours his heart and soul into a system to protect the people he can’t save, tries to take control of his own flaws, and nearly destroys the world via genocidal robot. He realizes that hey, he’s one man. One terribly-human, incredibly-fallible man, and tries to make himself more accountable. Tries to give the control to people who might actually know what the fuck they’re doing. He tries to stop being the one to condemn young kids with bright futures.

He ends up half-dead in Siberia, as one of his best friends walks away. Leaves him there. Tony had never possessed an ounce of control over that situation to begin with.

The only one who’s going to get hurt in this little game is Tony, and that’s fine. At least he’ll be in control.

—In which Tony Stark develops an eating disorder. This does not glorify eating disorders, and in fact will focus mainly on the consequences and recovery.

Personal Review: This does have a heavy trigger warning for eating disorders and negative self talk/esteem. But, it’s a really good fic. The triggering content is well done, well written and non-offensive, as someone who struggles with disordered eating. It’s mostly about Tony’s personal development rather than the ship, but it is also still fulfilling on that front. 

and of course

tell me no by halfwheeze

Summary: Barnes, 107th Infantry 32557038.

Barnes is not Bucky. Barnes is not the Winter Soldier. Barnes doesn’t know who he is, or even sometimes, what he is.

Maybe Tony Stark can help him figure that out. Or maybe, if he just gets all the tools, he can fix Tony along the way too.

under the read more because I’m embarrassed about what a mess I am

Also y'all when someone posts fanart/fanfic/edits/etc:

Up until around 2016 or so, the like to reblog ratio was the total opposite of how it is now. And it applied on posts with fewer notes and posts with a large amount of notes:

You get my point. But over the last few years it has flipped completely:

And, of course, see OP’s screenshot.

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that the posts with more reblogs have an astoundingly higher amount of notes because of increased exposure. Reblogging allows more people to see the content, that’s more people to either continue reblogging or at least give a like. For artists in particular who would benefit from the exposure in terms of commissions and patreon and all of that, this is a huge deal. It can make all the difference. 

Tumblr as a blogging platform was created with the intent to post and share content. It’s not meant to be a consume-only form of social media like Instagram. For fandom blogs in particular, it always boggles me that people don’t share content that they like. Tumblr was appealing for fandom in the first place because of the ability to plaster your blog with amazing things that other people made - this used to be unheard of. For me, it’s like saving something precious so you can always come back to it again. It’s giving the people who follow me something awesome to look at too. Creating and sharing content is the heart of fandom.

People rely primarily on their dash for content. Most people avoid going into tags/searches because of wanky fandom drama. So reblogs are crucial for exposure! Likes are a nice gesture, but they do nothing to help share and promote content. That’s why content creators are frustrated or moving to other platforms, or why they stop making content altogether. Tumblr has its issues, but it’s still one of the best places for exposure due to its reblog function and overall post formatting. It’s discouraging seeing content creators on Tumblr as a concept die off. This site is nothing without them.

We can enjoy making things as much as possible but when we share it and no one cares enough to show it to others, it does make us wonder why we bothered in the first place. And this isn’t a new complaint from content creators. But it has worsened over time as the likes started dominating the reblogs. 

It’s not that we don’t appreciate likes at all, notes are notes. But reblogs equal more notes, which equals more exposure, which equals happy content creators, which equals more content for fandom to consume. It’s a wholly positive chain of events that circles back around. Your reblog could be a deciding factor on whether that content creator chooses to keep contributing or to give up entirely.

I’m thinking of making enamel pins (those awesome shiny metal pins you can put on jackets and backpacks, etc) and I would love to have some opinions. If you could take 2 minutes to fill out this survey, I would greatly appreciate it. It’s only 4 questions. 

Professional

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YOu cANT STOp me.

You know how much I love this stuff.  Here are some prompts from Discord:

PROMPT 1: Tony is a very wealthy Lord who is engaged to the heir of an American steel company, Aldrich Killian, who he has never met, just heard described.  Killian is sailing to marry Tony when he meets Maya Hansen and they fall in love, hatching a plot to hop off the ship when it stops at a port before getting to its final destination.  Steve stows away on the ship b/c he has to get to where Bucky is being held in debtor’s prison and figure some way to get him out.  Killian finds out about him and offers to exchange clothes and papers so that he can escape with Maya.  After Killian and Maya hop off the ship, there’s a storm and the ship is lost at sea, except Steve, who is found by a rescue boat with no memory of who he is, but with a betrothal contract with Lord Anthony Stark, who shows up at the hospital and goes from being pretty unhappy about this whole marriage situation to rather delighted by it.  They fall in love, but then Steve gets his memory back, and oh no, he has to help Bucky somehow, but will Tony ever understand that he wasn’t just using him?  

PROMPT 2:  Steve was an orphan who grew up working in the Stark stables and befriends the young Lord.  As they grow up, Steve falls head over heels, even though he knows it can never work.  With war on the horizon, he decides to enlist, and Howard helps him get a commission, so he isn’t thrown right into the front lines of the war like most poor orphans would be.  When Tony comes home from university, Steve decides to throw caution to the wind and tell Tony how he feels, except Tony scoffs at him and completely rejects him.  Unbeknownst to Steve, this was b/c Howard thought they were way too close and it was threatening his plans for Tony, so he told Tony he would take away Steve’s commission.  During the war, Steve distinguishes himself greatly and is rewarded with a title and lands.  Meanwhile, Howard is killed and his company, as it turns out, is revealed to not only be heavily in debt but there is evidence he was selling arms to the enemy in order to be able to make some extra money (it was really Obie, dundundunnn).  Assets are seized, lands are mortgaged and titles are stripped.  Years later after many failed attempts at resurrecting his good name and a new business, Tony is in dire straits.  He has nothing left. No one will work with him.  The banks won’t extend his loans any longer.  All he has left is the Stark estate, which is in total disrepair, but it is home to Jarvis, Pepper, and the rest of his household staff and if he loses it, they will be out with nothing, since he can’t even afford their pensions.  He has no choice but to turn to newly minted Lord Rogers for help…except, well…he really only has one thing left to offer Steve.  Himself.