"It's fine, whatever, everybody should have a thing"

December 15, 2021 8:02 AM

Tony looks down, and -- "Oh," he says. "That's Scabby the Union Rat." "Average Avengers Local Chapter 7 of New York City" by hetrez is a Captain America/Iron Man slash story in which "Steve and Tony accidentally start a national do-gooders association and fall in love." (I'm linking here per the permission mentioned in the author's profile.)

From the story:

"So I was wondering if you'd like to go with me, but it seems like you don't . . ." Steve trails off, looking tentative for the first time since Tony's met him.

Tony opens his mouth to say, 'Yes, you're exactly right, I have no desire to go shill for the plumbers union with you on my day off,' but he stops, and instead he says, "Yeah, uh, just let me get my suit."

This time, the perpetrator is a tiny pizzeria near Cooper Union. Scabby is almost as wide as the shop front. They've set the rat down on the sidewalk this time -- maybe to make it seem more personable? -- and every once in a while a pedestrian will brush against it as they walk past, and it will tip dangerously.

The owner of the pizzeria isn't any more interested in Steve's pro-union message than the building manager was the other week.

"Look, I appreciate you saving the harbor last week from those robot sharks like that, but nobody comes into my shop and tells me what to do."

Steve says, "Sir, I wouldn't ever try to tell you what to do," which is such a lie, Tony almost laughs.

"That's exactly what you're doing, and you can go do it somewhere else. I got a business to run."

Tony leans against the counter and says pleasantly, "That's a good word, business. I wonder how much business you'll get once everyone found out that Captain America hates your pizza."

The man folds like a bad poker hand.

posted by brainwane (13 comments total)

Sounds deliciously subversive. I'll read it, even though I'm a Steve/Bucky shipper. Thank you!
posted by Beethoven's Sith at 8:09 AM on December 15, 2021

I...have a lot of trouble believing that Tony would do any form of union support work. Steve, probably, depends on your Steve. But I'll give it a try.

Speranza's "All The Angels And The Saints" features socialist!Steve and a cameo by Bertrand Russell.

Somewhere there is a fic - to change fandoms - where Magneto/Erik is the nephew of a socialist union organizer and it's the 1920s and various events transpire. I am also partial to the "Magneto, implausibly even-tempered community center organizer" ones, of which there are several. And there are a whole bunch of "Remus Lupin, radical activist" ones.
posted by Frowner at 8:22 AM on December 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

God, decade old Steve/Tony feels like another world. I think I’m going to dwell there for a little while, thanks.
posted by Tesseractive at 8:34 AM on December 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

For antifa Steve/Bucky, try Modern Love by idiopathicsmile.

“Steve Rogers,” says Ninety Glorious Pounds of Righteous Wrath, sticking out his hand to shake.

“Your knuckles’re bleeding,” says Bucky.

Modern AU. A no-serum Steve Rogers meets war veteran Bucky Barnes because they accidentally punch the exact same neo-Nazi at the exact same time.

Y'know, a meet-cute.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 8:47 AM on December 15, 2021 [8 favorites]

But you know what, before I even read this, I could actually make a comment on the idea. Like, I really, really enjoy fic that recuperates the intentionally or unintentionally-conservative world of big media properties. I'm also a huge fan of "characters recognize that the deck is stacked against them so they run off and start a life outside the story" - so for instance any one of the Stargate Atlantis fics where everyone is just like "fuck the military and its galactic outpost, we are going to disappear and go live a just and reasonable life in hiding".

The big fantasy of fanfic isn't actually porn, for instance, it's having a meaningful life and making decisions that have ethical value. Sometimes that value is "I have overcome trauma/my past and accept myself well enough to realize that I truly enjoy this unusual sexual practice, here are 10,000 detailed words about just how I enjoy it", but the difference between porn and the porn kind of fic is the setting, the idea that you are a person whose life has a narrative, often that you have meaningful work with co-workers you care about. (All that Avengers fic is substantially about work, so is Star Trek, so is Stargate, etc.)

On that note, superhero fic (I can't speak to other kinds of superhero media) isn't about power fantasy, it's about meaning fantasy. It's about identifying with a character who has enough power to enact some meaningful change in the world and, for once, is on the right side.

It reminds me a bit of that video from summer 2020 - this was either the Portland or the New York protests, I think. There was a line of police and a line of people all bloc-ed up, but one of them was tall, just a giant, and they had a respirator and goggles and gloves and armor and they were just looming over the cops. They reached down and just poked a cop in the face, and the cop really couldn't do a damn thing. I do not remember if this is where the "antifa super soldier" thing came from or not.

It's easy to say "oh the real hero is the collective" and that's even true, but sometimes you just want strength enough to act decisively in the moment. They can smash us and we can never smash back. They can do so much damage so fast and we never have the power or the speed to respond.
posted by Frowner at 9:00 AM on December 15, 2021 [17 favorites]

Socialist!Steve is absolutely a thing, as it should be.

I also struggle with the idea of a unionist Tony Stark, but enjoyed this one!
posted by fresh bouquets every day at 10:50 AM on December 15, 2021

I could believe a Tony Stark who wasn’t exactly unionist, but liked sometimes working for them because (a) opportunity for aggro! (b) even more specifically, he gets to show the other industrialists that he’s so powerful he doesn’t even need class solidarity.
posted by clew at 11:37 AM on December 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Was this work commissioned by MeFi's The Whelk?
posted by Ber at 11:41 AM on December 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Socialist!Steve is absolutely a thing, as it should be.
From your link, "Steve Rogers: PR Disaster" is my all-time favorite version of the character.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:28 PM on December 15, 2021 [6 favorites]

"Steve Rogers: PR disaster" certainly is right up there.
posted by Frowner at 1:19 PM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

I don't know that Tony is a unionist per se but he's done way too much blacksmithing, jackhammering and other hands-on manual labor to not appreciate a workman's expertise. Here's one of the few fics I know of that delves into his non-IT expertise.
posted by beaning at 2:22 PM on December 15, 2021

Is it wrong that this story is how I learned about Scabby the Union Rat, so when he made an appearance in an episode of What We Do In The Shadows, I got to do the pointing-at-the-tv meme, but couldn't really explain why?
posted by Katemonkey at 3:42 PM on December 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

I taught writing at the college level for many years and I can't tell if I am loving "Steve Rogers Might Wear Tights..." or if I'm having flashbacks.
posted by Well I never at 5:18 PM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]