(no subject)
Sep. 12th, 2008 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quigonejinnFrom. I can't remember, but she did a fucking awesome one, including a bit about how he likes driving more than flying, because the pull of gravity gives him something to fight against.
1. Howard and Maria Stark sucked as parents. Self-absorption was the rule of the day, with Howard being exploitative and distant and Maria settling for being only distant, though she showed Tony the occasional touch of charm when she was in the temper for it.
2. I am flexible as to how smart and how old Maria Stark was, but not on this: Tony has her eyes and mouth.
3. Maria Stark does not cook. There is a reason why Tony's comfort foods are fast food cheeseburgers and New York, G5 flown pizza. The only recipes she knows take the general form of how many parts vermouth to how many parts vodka get her blotto.
4. Tony talks about the man he remembers his father being in the newsreels. Tony Stark was born in 1972. What experience does he have of newsreels? Only the times that, as a child, he would wander down to the private screening room the Starks had, back before every McMansion had one. Back before there were McMansions. His father would be in there, watching old footage from the days when he was (depending on what kind of Howard I'm writing) young or when there was a good war to be fought. Tony falls asleep with his head on his father's knee, then wakes up in the morning. It's still the screening room; Howard is gone. Tony has a crick in his neck, and there is an empty-but-for-drippings bottle of Scotch on the floor.
And Tony doesn't realize that this is wrong.
5. Tony Stark sexually propositioned Jim Rhodes in college. I'm flexible on whether Jim ever took him up on it and how Tony propositioned him, but not on Tony trying.
6. Pepper and Happy have a largely silent Understanding of How The World Should Be and What Parts We Play In It.
7. Obadiah would not mind fucking Pepper. She is unlikely to say yes, and it would be unprofessional to push the point, but Obadiah amuses himself by being nice to Pepper. When she started, too, and went to her first convention with Obadiah and Tony, she wanted to get coffee for herself and was digging around in her purse for change to do so when Obadiah stepped in with his black Amex. Each year, too, he remembers her birthday. One time, he was out of town and wasn't there to wish her felicitations, so when Tony comes up the stairs when Obadiah drops by for his post-trip briefing of Tony, he finds Obadiah playing Happy Birthday while Pepper leans on the piano and grins like an idiot.
Each Christmas, he has his assistants put together a big bath product basket for her. Pepper thinks nothing of using the stuff.
Obadiah rather likes smelling it on her.
8. Pepper's parents were the middle-class version of Tony's. One parent (your choice of gender) walked out. The other parent (again, your choice of gender, but presumably the other side of the heteronormative coin from the first) was alcoholic. Pepper raised herself, left home early, and is working for Tony when she gets the news that said alcoholic parent is dead. She curls up in the back seat of one of Tony's fabulous cars and cries and cries and cries; Happy (see #6) sits down next to her, and she cries on him. He puts his arm around her and doesn't say a word and hands her tissues and that is, in fact, exactly what is called for.
9. Pepper and Agent Coulson's dates are sweet, laid-back and utterly ordinary. No trips to LA hot spots. No gifts of ridiculously expensive heels. They drive his comfortable non-work Chevy or her work Audi. Mexican restaurants on the beach, holding hands at the movies, and just flat out amazing sex at their normal, regular, human-being condos.
10. SHIELD knew Obadiah was dirty. They were just waiting for an excuse.
ETA: Additional Rhodey-related points of canon. Because talking to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amonitrate brought them to mind.
- Jim Rhodes is just a good guy, OK? He is a good, decent guy, and Tony is lucky to have him.
- Rhodey comes from a upper-middle or lower-upper class background. I have no basis for this, but it's a reaction to the stupid developing canon that Jim Rhodes had need-based scholarships or could only afford MIT. Hello, assumptions! Might you be cover for some fairly nasty assumptions about race? The only deviation that I'll buy for this is if the fic features Tony covering Rhodey's scholarship at MIT (though, asamonitrate pointed out, this can still happen if Rhodey is upper-middle class because private university be expensive, yo). However, Rhodey has to be just furious.
- Rhodey has spent time in the country. Because who the fuck else thinks of a big, shiny pickup truck as being a status symbol?
- Jim Rhodes is freakishly, freakishly bright. Asamonitrate put it, he's the smartest person he has ever met -- until he meets Tony. Tony thinks of Jim as being the second-smartest person in the world. (After #1, natch.)
Corollary to the above: Jim Rhodes came from a good, loving family. Because when you're that smart, you don't end up decent and have, in fact, a rather strong likelihood of ending up like Tony unless somebody comes in and takes affirmative steps to make sure you have your feet on the ground. I'm thinking extended family network, including siblings. Minimal grade skipping. None of this bullshit about heading off to college five years early.
Mostly, this is a reward to myself because I finally finished writing the girl!Tony epic today. Some hard editing is in store, but \o/
1. Howard and Maria Stark sucked as parents. Self-absorption was the rule of the day, with Howard being exploitative and distant and Maria settling for being only distant, though she showed Tony the occasional touch of charm when she was in the temper for it.
2. I am flexible as to how smart and how old Maria Stark was, but not on this: Tony has her eyes and mouth.
3. Maria Stark does not cook. There is a reason why Tony's comfort foods are fast food cheeseburgers and New York, G5 flown pizza. The only recipes she knows take the general form of how many parts vermouth to how many parts vodka get her blotto.
4. Tony talks about the man he remembers his father being in the newsreels. Tony Stark was born in 1972. What experience does he have of newsreels? Only the times that, as a child, he would wander down to the private screening room the Starks had, back before every McMansion had one. Back before there were McMansions. His father would be in there, watching old footage from the days when he was (depending on what kind of Howard I'm writing) young or when there was a good war to be fought. Tony falls asleep with his head on his father's knee, then wakes up in the morning. It's still the screening room; Howard is gone. Tony has a crick in his neck, and there is an empty-but-for-drippings bottle of Scotch on the floor.
And Tony doesn't realize that this is wrong.
5. Tony Stark sexually propositioned Jim Rhodes in college. I'm flexible on whether Jim ever took him up on it and how Tony propositioned him, but not on Tony trying.
6. Pepper and Happy have a largely silent Understanding of How The World Should Be and What Parts We Play In It.
7. Obadiah would not mind fucking Pepper. She is unlikely to say yes, and it would be unprofessional to push the point, but Obadiah amuses himself by being nice to Pepper. When she started, too, and went to her first convention with Obadiah and Tony, she wanted to get coffee for herself and was digging around in her purse for change to do so when Obadiah stepped in with his black Amex. Each year, too, he remembers her birthday. One time, he was out of town and wasn't there to wish her felicitations, so when Tony comes up the stairs when Obadiah drops by for his post-trip briefing of Tony, he finds Obadiah playing Happy Birthday while Pepper leans on the piano and grins like an idiot.
Each Christmas, he has his assistants put together a big bath product basket for her. Pepper thinks nothing of using the stuff.
Obadiah rather likes smelling it on her.
8. Pepper's parents were the middle-class version of Tony's. One parent (your choice of gender) walked out. The other parent (again, your choice of gender, but presumably the other side of the heteronormative coin from the first) was alcoholic. Pepper raised herself, left home early, and is working for Tony when she gets the news that said alcoholic parent is dead. She curls up in the back seat of one of Tony's fabulous cars and cries and cries and cries; Happy (see #6) sits down next to her, and she cries on him. He puts his arm around her and doesn't say a word and hands her tissues and that is, in fact, exactly what is called for.
9. Pepper and Agent Coulson's dates are sweet, laid-back and utterly ordinary. No trips to LA hot spots. No gifts of ridiculously expensive heels. They drive his comfortable non-work Chevy or her work Audi. Mexican restaurants on the beach, holding hands at the movies, and just flat out amazing sex at their normal, regular, human-being condos.
10. SHIELD knew Obadiah was dirty. They were just waiting for an excuse.
ETA: Additional Rhodey-related points of canon. Because talking to
amonitrate brought them to mind. - Jim Rhodes is just a good guy, OK? He is a good, decent guy, and Tony is lucky to have him.
- Rhodey comes from a upper-middle or lower-upper class background. I have no basis for this, but it's a reaction to the stupid developing canon that Jim Rhodes had need-based scholarships or could only afford MIT. Hello, assumptions! Might you be cover for some fairly nasty assumptions about race? The only deviation that I'll buy for this is if the fic features Tony covering Rhodey's scholarship at MIT (though, as
amonitrate pointed out, this can still happen if Rhodey is upper-middle class because private university be expensive, yo). However, Rhodey has to be just furious. - Rhodey has spent time in the country. Because who the fuck else thinks of a big, shiny pickup truck as being a status symbol?
- Jim Rhodes is freakishly, freakishly bright. As
amonitrate put it, he's the smartest person he has ever met -- until he meets Tony. Tony thinks of Jim as being the second-smartest person in the world. (After #1, natch.) Corollary to the above: Jim Rhodes came from a good, loving family. Because when you're that smart, you don't end up decent and have, in fact, a rather strong likelihood of ending up like Tony unless somebody comes in and takes affirmative steps to make sure you have your feet on the ground. I'm thinking extended family network, including siblings. Minimal grade skipping. None of this bullshit about heading off to college five years early.
Mostly, this is a reward to myself because I finally finished writing the girl!Tony epic today. Some hard editing is in store, but \o/
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 04:31 am (UTC)WHAT GIRL!TONY EPIC. WHAT.
(There was a waiter tonight who had Obadiah's haircut. COINCIDENCE? ... Yes. BUT STILL.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 04:34 am (UTC)Jim Rhodes is my dearest darling beloved. I did not expect this walking out of the movie theatre, but he IS. HE IS.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 04:36 am (UTC)There was a really amazing fic posted by the person who wrote "The Kids Are All Right" about how angry Jim is at Tony all the time? And it's not that I don't think that's more or less true? It's just that I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH TO LET THAT BE THE ONLY THING PEOPLE CARE ABOUT. Come on, THE WORLD, write the cuddly Jim Rhodes fics where he is surprised by blowjobs. I will even be happy if they're not from Tony.
Probably.Right? Right? ... Right?Oh, also, 2. I am flexible as to how smart and how old Maria Stark was, but not on this: Tony has her eyes and mouth. With those eyelashes? Yup.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 05:58 am (UTC)Out of the whole damn G!Tony fic, this is the section that I am the most proud of, I think:
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-14 07:36 pm (UTC)PS: Thank you for not spelling it with an i. Honestly, she isn't a stripper.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 10:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 01:58 pm (UTC)THE KIRK/TONY YOU LINKED TO THIS MORNING. OH JESUS CHRIST.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:16 pm (UTC)What's your ETA on the story? Starting in a couple hours, I'm only going ot have intermittent computer access until about Sunday afternoon EDT.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:20 pm (UTC)On Rhodey and MIT and $$$
Date: 2008-09-13 12:44 pm (UTC)BTW, tuition at MIT was a hair under $35,000 for the 2007-2008 academic year. Tuition at MIT has always been relatively high.
Re: On Rhodey and MIT and $$$
Date: 2008-09-13 01:48 pm (UTC)The pants of calm, cool rational thinking. I wear them. XD
(For the record, though. Yeah, I know, schools like MIT are extraordinarily generous with talented kids from poor backgrounds. Elite schools have elite endowments. They can afford this stuff.
At the same time, while continuing to talk out of my ass and totally, totally not as an MIT alumnus -- I don't know if you are, so correct me if you have more specific information, but if MIT calculates that 89% the way that most schools of that level calculate it, that figure doesn't tell you a whole lot about how kids actually pay their tuition bills. The % of kids getting financial aid is an arms race these days because the Ivies and the elite Techs each want to claim the moral superiority associated with having the most students on "aid," so most schools genuinely spend shitloads of money. And then use retardedly broad constructions of what "aid" counts.
How many of those 89% kids receive half their tuition in financial aid grants, not the loans that FAFSA kicks out if your parents earn over about $70K? Do they count as being on "financial aid" everybody who files a FAFSA, even if what comes back is 100% loans, and the student declines the offer? Do they count those $300 "book" scholarships that they basically give you for being accepted? Because I suspect the answer to the first question is "a number about half of 89%, if that" and the answer to the second and third are, "um, yes."
Also, the website and marketing materials say "largest," but veerrry conveniently fail to give figures for that. What does that mean? Does "largest" just mean in terms of dollars out of MIT's pocket? Does it mean in terms of a head count? In which case, that $300 counts as much as a full ride? Do they split up the loan category into three separate categories for Fed subsidized, Fed unsubsidized, and private?
Plus, Rhodey went to MIT 20 years ago, long before giving lots and lots of financial aid was quite so fashionable and before the years of double-digit tuition inflation. Yeah, it was twenty years ago, but for reference, the average tuition from back then was a bit under $10K.
... Forgive me. I'm not trying to take away from the educational generosity of MIT. At all. They do a fantabulous job of making sure genuinely economically disadvantaged kids can go to MIT. And yeah, even if Rhodey is upper-middle, he probably would've had some financial aid. It's just that from personal experience of schools like MIT, the marketing propaganda on numbers like that gets my goat.
And it's Saturday morning, so I have an inclination to blather. Poor you. What can I write for you to make up for it?)
Re: On Rhodey and MIT and $$$
Date: 2008-09-14 03:14 pm (UTC)Re: On Rhodey and MIT and $$$
Date: 2008-09-15 12:01 am (UTC)Shameful admission: I totally have to admit that half of my joy at imagining MIT Tony comes from spending his money for him. MEMORIES OF COLLEGE BROKENESS, I HAVE THEM. And I was lucky, because my mother went back to work to pay for my tuition.
Re: On Rhodey and MIT and $$$
Date: 2008-09-14 11:24 pm (UTC)It's in meeting the academic requirements that the class divide really lies; you have to demonstrate a high degree of aptitude for science and math. Presumably a student from a poor school district would be more likely to have a poor education, and less likely to score 760 on the math SAT. (N.B. I am not speaking of what a gifted and/or lucky individual might achieve, but of a general trend.)
Plus, Rhodey went to MIT 20 years ago... for reference, the average tuition from back then was a bit under $10K.
Also for reference, back then $10K was a lot of money. Take a look at Occupational salary levels for white-collar workers, 1985. As an example, average annual salaries for computer programmers ranged from 20.3K to 41.3K. Keep in mind that two-earner families were less common; that annual salary could well be a family's total income.
And it's Saturday morning, so I have an inclination to blather. Poor you. What can I write for you to make up for it?)
Poor me, indeed. *g* It's no longer Saturday morning, but I'm enjoying this, and I enjoy your stories a lot.
BTW, I was recently reading some Iron Man comics from the 1990s. In issue #313 Tony attends an AA meeting, and describes how his father was an alcoholic (and a pushy, surly one). His mother appears as a background figure, melancholy but submissive.
Re: On Rhodey and MIT and $$$
Date: 2008-09-14 11:58 pm (UTC)Oh man, am I shit at communication or what? Sorry if I gave that impression that I was trying to imply you have to be fairly well off to afford MIT -- I know for a fact that MIT makes a big point of telling applicants not to worry about how to pay for MIT and, further, in a way, that it is easier to afford MIT if you're not upper-middle or lower-upper. I don't think MIT does what the elite Ivies do and guarantee financial aid to meet 100% of your FAFSA need, but yeah, they'll put together seriously good aid packages if your family is the equivalent of the bottom 25% or so of the income distribution. I have a friend who attended MIT for less than she would have paid for tuition alone at State U.
So yeah, I totally hear you. And you're right. $10K is a lot of money and would have been even more back then. I think what happened is that I read your quote of the 89% as being a suggestion that the number was some kind of indication that Rhodey would have been on a scholarship even if he'd been upper-middle or whatever? Which I took objection to because THE PRETTY BROCHURES, THEY ARE FULL OF LIES LIES LIES, but which I should actually have articulated instead of just going off on rhetorical questions like a fucking dumbass.
Mmmm. Tony at an AA meeting. And yeah. Yeah, I think I've heard the canon of Howard being the alcoholic. And there's this long comic canon about him shipping Tony off to boarding school at a ridiculous age, isn't there? The bastard.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 02:44 pm (UTC)And Girl!Tony? I find myself horrified, yet strangely intrigued...
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 03:00 pm (UTC)God. Full scholarships. My sister has one, and it pays for everything. Books? Check. Private events with VIP guests to campus? Check. Housing stipend that can be spent off campus? Check. Pocket money? Check. Money to go to Costa Rica this winter? CHECK.
Cue
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 05:06 pm (UTC)MEANWHILE OMG GIRL TONY IS DONE. And omg you're pretty much volunteering to write a metric fuckton of Rhodey fic after this, right? Say yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-15 12:19 am (UTC)One of the things that I'm displeased with the G!Tony about is how I never really talk about her relationship with Maria? And how much she is, but isn't like her mother. And I kind of need to. Badly.
Also. Yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-13 07:01 pm (UTC)Jesus, I can see this. And she uses the word "blotto," too, doesn't she.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-15 12:06 am (UTC)NO ONE CARES
Date: 2008-09-14 06:12 am (UTC)Re: NO ONE CARES
Date: 2008-09-14 10:16 am (UTC)Re: NO ONE CARES
Date: 2008-09-14 03:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-14 10:14 am (UTC)Fanon Fact: (for me): The first
and second, and third, and Mariatime Howie got laid, it was pretty much entirely thanks to Obie pushing him to go for it, man, she likes you.(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-14 10:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-20 08:45 am (UTC)Saw the part from your girlTony story and i am dying to read that. hope the editing doesn't take to long.