Catch a Falling Star

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Fanfiction
Title: Catch a Falling Star
Author(s): tsukinofaerii
Date(s): 22 October 2012
Length: 42,742 words
Genre: slash fanfiction, Space AU
Fandom: Marvel Ultimates
External Links: Catch a Falling Star (AO3)
Fanart by ironfries (Tumblr)
Fanart by phoenixmetaphor (Dreamwidth)
illustration by ironfries

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Catch a Falling Star is a Steve/Tony Space AU by tsukinofaerii. It was written for the Cap/Iron Man Big Bang 2012.

Summary: "When Tony was sixteen, he got to meet his hero, Captain Steve Rogers, the Empire's not-literally-golden boy from the Continuity Wars. When he was twenty-seven, the aforementioned Captain turned pirate picked him up at the outer edges of space. It would have been a good time to appreciate the abundant nudity that came from spending too much time with space colonists, but Tony had bigger worries than even Rogers' amazing hip-to-shoulder ratio. Something was sending the star-encircling computers that power the galaxy into a tailspin, and it was going to take a lot more than luck and skill to clean the mess up."

Fanart

ironfries and phoenixmetaphor created fanart for the story.[1][2] ironfries made three illustrations. One predominantly features the setting of the story (here a dead matrioshka, one of the super computers that power the galaxy) which marks it as a science fiction AU in space. The second one features Steve and Tony in a scene on board of a pirate ship. The focus here is on the two characters; Steve naked (common for space pirates!), Tony with purple skin in a full-body black suit. The third image shows Steve, Tony, and the projection of Tonys AI, Anthony, who appears in the shape of a genderless child. Describing the story the artist says: "it is an ultimates au in spaaaaaace and has a tony that has changing skin colour according to mood! and fear not the warnings; it does have a happy ending."[1]

phoenixmetaphor made similar choices when creating three work-safe illustrations and one of Steve that's NSFW, featuring full frontal nudity.[3] The most elaborate piece of art is an illustration of a dramatic scene from the end of the story that shows Steve naked and Tony in his suit, contrasting their appearance, while featuring a futuristic command console, holograms and ripped wires in the background, highlighting the Space AU setting. The other two illustrations respectively show Tony with purple skin and Tony with his AI, Anthony. About the story and art choices phoenixmetaphor says: "It’s a great fic and a great AU, and there is naked Steve. Lots of naked Steve. It’s an Ultimate comics AU for those of you who are movie-only fans out there, but… naked Steve! Who doesn’t love naked Steve? You might also discover the reason I colored Tony purple."[2]

Recs and Reviews

With amazing art from ironfries and Phoenix Metaphor. This sci-fi AU is incredibly well-thought out, and I liked it a lot. The characterization is Ultimates, which I’d normally shy away from, but tsukinofaerii always writes them beautifully, and it’s AU anyway, so I don’t have to suffer through tumors and terribleness and everybody being sad.[4]

I don't think I can even EXPLAIN how good this is. I just... I like, hope you KNOW how good this is, because FUCKING HELLP. It had a really great Asmovian feel to it, uber professional, like if you had thrown this in with one of his works - well, I would have been able to tell the difference, because writing styles. BUT. BUT. BUT. It wouldn't have felt out of place. It was just, UGH, it felt like Nemesis, or Gods Themselves, or something. It was just REALLY FREAKING GOOD OMGOSH. Couple specific things: MA-1610, I see what you did there :P And I liked having holograph!Anthony, that worked really well, turning him into the AI and everything. Good move, there. [...] Loved this, just fantastic work, you should be crazy proud of this. The whole freaking scifi singularity and AI and... it was just GOOD, shit. Like, at first when these ideas were showing up in the beginning, I was like "Oh, great, amateur fic author is mentioning the singularity, oh yeah, this is gonna turn out well... *sigh*" but then SHIT you TOTALLY knew what you were doing, omgosh. Like, THANK YOU for knowing what you were doing and executing this so freaking well.[5]

This story in particular is utterly wondrous. You have such a skilled knack for worldbuilding and sticking to your own rules. I loved the whole AI thing, the matrioshka, and Anthony. AI will always be a fascinating subject, and it was heartbreaking to read about how the matrioshka's autonomy was feared and then taken away. And Anthony is just the cutest thing. The scene where it's scared and cuddles in the cushiony cocoon bed with Tony is so presh. Their relationship was probably my favorite thing about the story. The Steve/Tony is, of course, perfection. I appreciated how it's implied that their connection isn't just sex for Steve; [...] The sex scene is another one of my favorite parts, but I also loved how Steve rushes into poor poor Frigga's room of chaos and tragic death, to rescue Tony. Tony is awesome, though, and totally saved the day with his oh-so sexy intellect and heroism. I was so happy when he didn't just scramble the surviving matrioshka and went instead for a third option. [...] So in summation: beautiful plot, beautiful worldbuilding, heartbreaking but hearthealing themes (the kind I die for)[6]

So, first of all, I must say that this text is the epitome of heroicness, in its best meaning. You've managed to describe the powerful impulse of the human being - to go forward. When Steve returns to the Colonists, it becomes a sign of an every-day heroism, not as flashy as sacrificing yourself, but something even more difficult - the notion of continuing fighting even when the war is over. Of participating in a never-ending battle, lying your whole life on the altar. When Tony contacts with the Hub, he acts out the instinctive notion of what is right. The best part of it is that none of them knows that they will be given a second chance. They are going forward and they are going to die - like, planning to die just to make things a little bit better. [...] Thank you for writing this. We are all in need of such texts. Without much pathos or flashy epicness. Just the honor and the humanity, something deep and unyielding which turns a common man or a woman not into a hero but into a Human Being - with capital letters.[7]

Someone up there mentioned the third option, how Tony cut the wire (instead of laying on it like in the movie.) I'm part of the Mass Effect fandom and some of the parallels to the ending of ME3 are just startling, and gave me some context to this that I'm not sure you meant!

It's really interesting, thought provoking, and emotionally impactful that Steve's death was the thing, rather that FEELING Steve's death was the thing, that let Tony shake out that human instinct to destruction of the unknown danger back to his empathy for AI's and his knowledge of how matrioshka's work and break physics and time and probability. It's hopeful, that there is always and option, if you can sit down and think about things without the hypothalamus restricting the options you think you have.

This is the heart of sci-fi, the soul of it. You tackled a ball of fears and questions about the singularity with grace and understanding, using an usual setting to work out what would happen. It feels more real because everyone here acts with true human despair, fear, love and affection, including the matrioshka. It is by far your finest work to date.[8]

Oh, wow. Just WOW. This story! It is Epic, in every sense of the word, grand and sweeping and utterly amazing. Your world-building is superb and it felt vast and complicated and complete. It carried a great deal of flavour from some of my favourite sci-fi stories and so it felt comfortable and familiar but wonderfully new and exciting at the same time. And your characters, OMG! You write *such* a good Tony/Steve. I love the way you write these two, and I *heart* Anthony so hard. So adorable! It was a completely perfect portrayal and I wanted to give it the biggest hugs. :)[9]

De-lurking because I am bursting with the need to tell you how much I love this. Not only is this a fabulous depiction of Steve/Tony relationship as with all of your fics, but a surprisingly good sci-fi novel, too. Like, I-think-you-should-publish-this good. It's always delightful to read a story where you can just picture the fictional world and the residents of the world existing somewhere. Thank you for writing this![10]

Gallery

References

  1. ^ a b ironfries. my first entry for bigbang cap-ironman 2012! (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  2. ^ a b phoenixmetaphor. For the Cap-Ironman big bang., 21 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  3. ^ phoenixmetaphor. Gratuitous Naked Steve - CapIM Big Bang (NSFW). (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  4. ^ kepteinen. Steve/Tony Rec List. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  5. ^ Amuly. AO3 Comment, 24 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  6. ^ magicpandas AO3 Comment, 23 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  7. ^ mistralle. AO3 Comment, 25 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  8. ^ Everbright. AO3 Comment, 24 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  9. ^ Yrien. AO3 Comment, 24 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
  10. ^ gloyalty . AO3 Comment, 28 October 2012. (Accessed 08 December 2012)
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