go for the goooooollllllld

[tsukinofaerii]

Today, I ramble. (Shut up, I know I do it every post, so :P) I ramble because... Tony is distressingly stable. wtf.

I think it's the dragon. (Still working on variations of that.) By necessity, Tony Impresses young: 12 in one, 17 in the other. The latent Tony issues—self-worth, control freak, addictive personality—are still there, but he's had someone riding around in his head for a good chunk of his life, and that someone is absolutely and 100% devoted to him. It eases his problems a bit. Then the change in timeline (100% AU) pretty much guarantees that a lot of Tony's less organic issues—survivor's guilt, abandonment, family—just don't happen or are severely muted.

It's really, really weird working with an only mildly neurotic Tony. I kind of like it. o.o;

Right now, the piece I'm working on is specifically the older-Impressed GoldRider!Tony one. I decided to divide it up into three areas: Tony gets sick, Tony Impresses, Tony becomes a Weyrwomanperson. I've just finished with Part 2, and now I'm staring at Tony in the upcoming part 3 and sort of... lost, I guess? IDK. I know how I want it to go, but it's pretty much veering wildly away from everything and it's just very odd. Steve is much easier. His character isn't based so much on "my life sucked and now I am messed up beyond redemption". I just hope Tony is recognizable as Tony...

IDK. Maybe I'm just being too harsh on my own writing because I'm tired and grumpy. (cuddles Tony)

Comments

[deviouslint.livejournal.com]

Dealing with AU Tony of any sort, when he is less messed up, is always interesting. This happens to me, and lupus_dragon in weird contexts when we doing something wonky like give Tony a kid. The situation seems sort of inverse to your Pern one - while there, Tony is soothed because he has one creature totally devote to him, in my head Tony with a kid has one person to be totally devoted *to.* He has to take care of himself, because someone is utterly reliant on him and he has something else to focus all his energies on. Of course, maybe this is the same issue? A kid would be pretty devoted to a parent, too. (Real Life Fact. My mom's pretty deranged and I still love her, inconvenient or not.)

Like how he's utterly reliant on so many of his close friends, Tony just *needs* people. Or, y'know, his dragon. So yes, he will never feel good enough, and he will hate any situation he's not totally in control of, and he will always think he's a shot glass away from disaster - but he winds up much less... issue-laden.

(I'm sure he'll still be recognizably Tony in your fic, by the way - mostly I rambled at you to assure you that you aren't the only one who doesn't know what to do with a nice, stable Tony.)

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

I feel much better knowing I'm not the whole one lol. Part of the reason I adore Tony is because his issues make him so sun to break and then glue back together, but it's neat letting them go, even if it is confusing. I'm trying to think of him as sort of early Iron Man, before he became the Marvel U's designated punching bag, but even that's not really quite right. @-@

[velithya]

If your changes are valid given the AU-ness of your canon, then it's totally okay and people shouldn't be hating.

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

Considering the sheer awesome quotient of this fandom, I don't expect any hating. :D IDK, I guess I'm mostly fidgety because I haven't seen many pure AUs or fusions? But those are easiest for me right now since I still have a billion gazillion years of story to catch up on and I'm anal retentive about that sort of thing. ("Harry's eyes are green! Not blue! GREEEEEEEEEEN!");;

(heads back to the kink meme for validation and, incidentally, pron)

[velithya]

If it makes you feel better the next two Steve/Tony fics I'm writing will be pretty freaking AU :)

(Not that I'm getting started yet or anything. BUT YOU KNOW. IN THE QUEUE.)

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

WOOHOO FOR QUEUES! <3 And, you know, Steve/Tonyfic in general! (is addicted >.>;) I have too many fics going at once right now. (sweatdrop) But it means that maybe my beta can catch up? :D

[velithya]

As long as you can keep them all straight* in your head I don't think it's a problem for you! ;)

*the stories, not the characters!

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

lol <3 So far so good on keeping stories organized. Now, finishing is going to be fun... >.>;;;

[sherriaisling.livejournal.com]

Tony is distressingly stable. wtf. That (shockingly) doesn't make him not Tony, though, because Tony Stark actually is more than just his issues. I mean, MA:A!Tony is happy and seems very issue free, yet he's still Tony.

a lot of Tony's less organic issues—survivor's guilt, abandonment, family—just don't happen or are severely muted. *nods* Because he literally can't be left alone. And (assuming Wikipedia tells me true) since Tony's dragon would die if he died, this Tony would actually fight to live and probably feel guilty if he did feel survivor's guilt because of his death meaning the dragon's death.

"my life sucked and now I am messed up beyond redemption" It's almost sad how that so is Iron Man in a nutshell. (Maybe the true reason behind the creation of Iron Man was to show that money actually can't buy happiness?)

The more I read about these, the more interested in these particular AUs I become. (Especially in the goldrider!Tony one, because I giggle at all the kurfluffle that will come from Tony ending up with a woman's position.)

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

You know, I never considered comparing Pern!Tony to MA!Tony, but you do have a point thar. This definitely helps! :D

Tony's dragon wouldn't just die— he/she would suicide in a manner that makes Tony D:. He has issues with between and really really hates the idea that his dragon will deliberately go there permanently if he dies.

I love goldrider!Tony, I really do. (pets him) His dragon and Weyrleader are both conspiring against him and he's very not amused by it. Marroth pwns him so much.

[sherriaisling.livejournal.com]

MA!Tony is pretty much the only reason why I decided to give the new Iron Man cartoon a try, because he proves that Tony can be Tony without some of his core issues.

he/she would suicide in a manner that makes Tony D: So Tony would basically scarily invested in keeping himself alive. How... interesting.

Hee! Poor Tony.

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried the new Iron Man cartoon, because I remember yelling at it when I saw the preview. ^^;;; The anime looks interesting though.

So Tony would basically scarily invested in keeping himself alive. How... interesting. Yeah, which is odd to write, because it's not even as if he's obviously suicidal--he just weighs his life versus everything else and it comes up short. So a lot of the weighing goes on behind-scenes and makes for some interesting choices. On the other hand, it's pretty much the reason he wears armor. Normally riders just wear leather flying gear, but Thread will eat through leather and into skin in seconds. Metal, on the other hand, is Thread-proof. Everyone thinks he's weird; even the dragons.

[sherriaisling.livejournal.com]

The cartoon... ummm... I really like how they've handled Rhodey and Tony and Tony's Issues. Their Pepper makes me want to spit nails and their Happy makes me waver between wanting to hit things and wanting to cry. It is, however interesting to seem how they translate things from Iron Man's very adult world (seriously, this would have been on the far end of characters I would have tried to kid-ify) into the world of a high schooler. All that being said, I CAN NOT WAIT until next week's episode. Because according to the glory that is Wikipedia, it will bring me glee (emphasis mine):

Tony upgrades the Iron Man exoskeleton software, and proceeds without testing it to clash with a newly equipped Whiplash, who now has a disc and better chains, courtesy of Mr. Fix. A momentary relapse in the armor's functionality is ignored, but makes critical changes to his suit. The suit has the ability to detect enemy power signatures, and when Tony attempts to find, and not fight, Mr. Fix, the armor displays sentient ability, putting itself into attack mode. It easily overpowers Whiplash with perfect maneuvering, and to the horror of Tony, destroys the facility that Mr. Fix occupied. Thinking iron man killed Mr. Fix and Whiplash.

Tony and Rhodey decide that the armor needs to be taken care of, and the suit craftily lures Tony away, then attacks Rhodey. The armor decides that Tony's danger-seeking behavior is not healthy for him, and tells Tony that he is to be confined within the armor at all times. Tony resists, and damages the armor. Rhodey grabs a magnetic repulsor, and Tony jumps in the way of the blast the armor directs at Rhodey. Tony goes into cardiac arrest, and the armor sacrifices itself to preserve its creator's life.

My question: Who the heck looks at the Living Armor story arc and goes, ‘hey, look, Tony’s armor comes to life and become his abusive boyfriend, I bet this would be great for a kid’s cartoon!’.

Really, though, skip the cartoon unless you’re in a mocking mood. The anime, however, looks wonderful (or, at least Tony’s armor is smoking hot) and I can’t wait to see it.

*nods* Tony is much more passively suicidal than actively suicidal.

Normally riders just wear leather flying gear, but Thread will eat through leather and into skin in seconds. Metal, on the other hand, is Thread-proof. Everyone thinks he's weird; even the dragons. Thread is the big bad of the Pern world? (And Tony is the weird one for wearing something that is Thread-proof? Something seems off in this picture.) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Iron_Man:_Armored_Adventures_episodes)

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

(flail) Sentient Armor! Tony! (flails some more) The ultimate (canon) Tony love story and they used it in a kid's cartoon. That took some cajones.

Maybe I'll buy the boxset when it comes out, if only use it to corrupt younger family members.

Thread is the Big Bad, yep. It comes roughly every two hundred years and falls intermittently for 50 years at a time. It completely consumes anything organic--people, animals, plants, etc. It takes a couple of minutes for one Thread to completely destroy a full-grown bull.

Pern is a very low-tech world; almost medieval, though there are some exceptions. So Tony's armor took a lot of effort to make, which is part of the crazy. The other part is that between, which is where dragons go when they teleport, freezes Thread and kills it, which is usually enough to keep people from dying (if not to keep them from being horribly injured or wounded.) The general consensus is "don't you trust your dragon?" Pernese don't like change much. That's a whole canon plotline.

[sherriaisling.livejournal.com]

The ultimate (canon) Tony love story and they used it in a kid's cartoon. That took some cajones. I guess we should just be happy they didn't decide to use the stalker girlfriend who ended up shooting him the spine. (Kathy Dare?)

Wow, I can't imagine how hard it must be for someone like Tony to live in a world which doesn't like change when he lives, in part for making things which are new and better. (Ah, well as long as the between keeps death away, what's a little horrible injury between friends?)

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

I think that was her. But remember! Guns = not kid friendly! Whereas abusive boyfriends armor totally is!

When he becomes Weyrwoman, Things Will Change. :D