thedogsled

[thedogsled]

Did you know that between 1939 and 1941 the NYC Tax Administration and the Works Progress Administration collaborated to take photographs of nearly every building in all 5 boroughs of New York City? And that you can see these photos today thanks to NYC Municipal archiving? This is, obviously, amazing for hundreds of reasons. For the purposes of this post, it's fantastic because this is a very real address:

And when I put that address into the photo locator map, I get this:

Going from there, we can walk around the surrounding blocks via photographs. And if we assume that Steve and Bucky's pre-war apartment was fairly close to the Barnes', then these photos from 1939 to 1941 are a historically accurate trip to their neighborhood.

So, let's explore some pre-war Brooklyn. For your fic inspiration needs, your feelings, the general Stucky vibes, or just because:

160 State Street, bigger and without the map.

(If you ever feel like making the details of a fic incredibly historically accurate, there are so many real businesses to choose from in these photos.)

Like I said, there are pictures of nearly every building. This is just a small collection of the images I grabbed from the immediate blocks around 160 State. You can walk around the neighborhood in more detail, or anywhere else in 1939-1941 New York you want on the map I used.  

#this isn't the writing on the dog tags I own #but I like this a lot so I'm saving it for research purposes

[thedogsled]

Hi! RE: your journal about the right for lolicon fiction to exist even if you disapprove of it, would you say it can also exist for titillation purposes, or do you stand by it for artistic reasons, or for the purpose of exploring dark themes only? I always thought you were saying the former, but I just wanted to ask. It's chill if you don't wanna answer this. Have a good day!

Here we are, 15 years on from that blog entry, and I still haven't read any lolicon, I'm afraid, so I have no idea about its themes. The context was whether you should be sent to prison for owning lolicon. What I said back then was,

In this case you obviously have read lolicon, and I haven't. I don't know whether you're writing from personal experience here, and whether you have personally been incited to rape children or give inappropriate hugs by reading it. (I assume you haven't. I assume that Chris Handley, with his huge manga collection, wasn't either. I've read books that claimed that exposure to porn causes rape, but have seen no statistical evidence that porn causes rape -- and indeed have seen claims that the declining number of US rapes may be due to the wider availability of porn. Honestly, I think it's a red herring in First Amendment matters, and I'll leave it for other people to argue about.) Still, you seem to want lolicon banned, and people prosecuted for owning it, and I don't. You ask, What makes it worth defending? and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're going to have to stand up for stuff you don't believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.

Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.

#reblogging this post with this addendum too #it was very cathartic to read after the last week #how many times are we going to have to hold your noses to the poop #and say look at it! look! you did that! that's your poop! #stop letting fascists in and stop shitting all over the floor please #second reblog idc I'm sorry I'll stop now

[thedogsled]

Hi! RE: your journal about the right for lolicon fiction to exist even if you disapprove of it, would you say it can also exist for titillation purposes, or do you stand by it for artistic reasons, or for the purpose of exploring dark themes only? I always thought you were saying the former, but I just wanted to ask. It's chill if you don't wanna answer this. Have a good day!

Here we are, 15 years on from that blog entry, and I still haven't read any lolicon, I'm afraid, so I have no idea about its themes. The context was whether you should be sent to prison for owning lolicon. What I said back then was,

In this case you obviously have read lolicon, and I haven't. I don't know whether you're writing from personal experience here, and whether you have personally been incited to rape children or give inappropriate hugs by reading it. (I assume you haven't. I assume that Chris Handley, with his huge manga collection, wasn't either. I've read books that claimed that exposure to porn causes rape, but have seen no statistical evidence that porn causes rape -- and indeed have seen claims that the declining number of US rapes may be due to the wider availability of porn. Honestly, I think it's a red herring in First Amendment matters, and I'll leave it for other people to argue about.) Still, you seem to want lolicon banned, and people prosecuted for owning it, and I don't. You ask, What makes it worth defending? and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're going to have to stand up for stuff you don't believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.

Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.

#reblogging this for absolutely no reason #I feel very old #pretty sure I read the blog post linked when it was first posted #2008 was a long time ago #Strikethrough and the birth of AO3

[thedogsled]

Just a quick masterpost for @buckybarnesbingo . It's a day late because I've had a migraine, but I wanted to collect them all here anyway, so without further ado: Title: The Worst of Us Card Number: B089 Square Filled: Y2 Multiverse shenanigans Word count: 389 Rating: G Main pairing: None Major tags: Comedy, trash talking, multiple Buckies Summary: In a room full of Buckies, which is the worst one? Link Title: The Baron's Collection Card Number: B089 Square Filled: K2 AU: Thief Word count: 375 Rating: G Main pairing: pre Bucky Barnes/Helmut Zemo Major tags: alternate universe, thief Bucky, royalty au Summary: Bucky messes with the wrong Baron. Link

Title: Bathtime Card Number: B089 Square Filled: C2 Tentacles Word count: 370 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes Major tags: tentacles, octopus Bucky, HYDRA experimentation Summary: Bucky has a confession to make to Sam. Link Title: Previous Occupant Card Number: B089 Square Filled: U2 Alpine Word count: 564 Rating: G Main pairing: None Major tags: non-main character death (off screen), tfatws compliant, Indiana Summary: Bucky can’t find a place to settle down.  Link

Title: The Right Partner Card Number: B089 Square Filled: B2 Dancing Word count: 386 Rating: G Main pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes Major tags: bait and switch, angst, dancing Summary: Steve’s finally dancing with his best buddy. Link

Title: Chores Card Number: B089 Square Filled: Y1 “You’re such a tease” Word count: 625 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Helmut Zemo/Bucky Barnes Major tags: domesticity, fluff, horniness Summary: Bucky is very distracting, and Zemo has to pretend it’s not being done on purpose.

Link

Title: Try to give a darn Card Number: B089 Square Filled: C1 First time Word count: 551 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes Major tags: Pre-war, first time, angst, loss (Steve for his mother) Summary: Tears lead to something more. Link

Title: A perfect threesome Card Number: B089 Square Filled: U1 Polyamory or Open Relationship Word count: 382 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson/Helmut Zemo Major tags: polyamory, negotiation, hurt/comfort Summary: Bucky needs them both to keep himself sane, it’s the only way this whole thing works. Link

Title: Fear Is Loving Me Card Number: B089 Square Filled: B1 Kink: Making Love Word count: 448 Rating: R - Explicit Main pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes Major tags: wakanda, making love as a kink, angst, overwhelming Summary: Somehow being loved by Steve so openly, so completely, is almost more than Bucky can stand.

Link

Title: Airport Card Number: B089 Square Filled: K1: (Image)

Art link

#bucky barnes bingo #bingo masterlist #bbb2024 #my art #my fic

[thedogsled]

The Worst of Us

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: Y2 Multiverse shenanigans Word count: 389 Rating: G Main pairing: None Major tags: Comedy, trash talking, multiple Buckies Summary: In a room full of Buckies, which is the worst one?

“Wait, who are you?” Bucky Barnes from the universe where he has blond hair, shakes his head again, wondering why in the hell he has to explain it all over again. “I’m just you but blond. That’s it. That’s all.” “Right. But he’s us if we never got kidnapped by Zola the first time.” The Bucky with gray hair and Colonel stripes narrows his eyes. “Why am I being defined by what happened to you? Maybe you’re just Buckies from a world where the HYDRA’s plans were stopped in a timely manner, and I’m just the unlucky son of a bitch who got to see how it all played out.” “Hey, man, I’m sure it sucked. I believe you–” “We’ve been at war for forty years. You think it ‘sucked’, pal? That’s the word you’re going to use?”

“Being turned into the Winter Soldier wasn’t a cake walk.” “Yeah, but at least we got turned back.” Three Buckies looked as one in the same direction, gulped as one, looked away as one. “You know…he scares me a little bit. What’s he even thinking? He hasn’t said a word since he got here.” “Probably planning his way out of this room, if I remember my training right. How many throats he can slit on the way, point of egress–” “Okay,” Colonel Bucky interrupted, “but that I can understand. I get that. What about him?” “Well that’s just…” “I mean. Yeah.” “It’s horrifying, is what it is. I mean bad enough to look like that, to be transported here looking like that. I don’t…” “You know it’s just flour, right?” Blond Bucky pushed his metal fingers back through his overgrown mop of hair. “It’s not a big deal as you guys are making it out to be.” “Why is he covered in flour, though?” “I mean… He’s a baker.”

The other Buckies shuddered as one. Even the Winter Soldier’s nostrils flared, and his impenetrable gray eyes flicked over to Baker Bucky and away again. There was silence. Long, excruciating silence, and then:

“Hi guys! You must be Bucky. And Bucky. And Bucky. I’m Bucky too. This is all just so rad, isn’t it? Rad–that’s short for radical. It means cool. I mean–”

It was only by sheer luck that they managed to wrestle the Winter Soldier to the ground in time.

#comedy #bucky barnes bingo #ficlet

[thedogsled]

The Baron's Collection

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: K2 AU: Thief Word count: 375 Rating: G Main pairing: pre Bucky Barnes/Helmut Zemo Major tags: alternate universe, thief Bucky, royalty au Summary: Bucky messes with the wrong Baron.

The world knows very little about Baron Zemo. They don’t know just how rich he is, for one thing, nor about his priceless collection of antique cars. There’s his dead wife and son, of course–being royalty, that kind of information tends to hit the front page quite often. But Zemo pays money to keep his domestic affairs private, generally speaking, and that includes his homes, his warehouses, his bachelor pads–and his garages. It’s the latter of his properties which draws Bucky Barnes’ interest. He’s not just an avid collector himself, after all - though he can’t help but partake - but someone who acquires fine specimens for the collections of others, and Zemo owns some vehicles which are not just rare but one of a kind; the only one remaining in the world. The prices Bucky can get for taking on the risk of stealing them is significant enough that he goes looking for that secret information, drawn to it like a moth to the flame the moment he gets a sniff that he might be on to something.

His insider is an old man, a long time butler of the Zemo family who, Bucky learns, resents the fact that service to the Zemo family has left him without a family of his own. What’s the point of his riches, his lifetime of service, if he has to spend his golden years alone? Oeznik gets him into the garage, and from there all Bucky needs to do is choose his prize, drive it out, put it in a container and hello Madripoor, why yes, he would like the Presidential suite.

But there’s a hitch. The garage’s lights come up, floodlit, and Bucky is suddenly surrounded, big looking goons in every direction, and no way out. And Oeznik - that son of a bitch - opens the door of the beautiful coupe that Bucky had his eyes on, to permit a man to climb out of it. Baron fucking Zemo himself, complete with signature long coat and signature dorky smirk.

“Mr. Barnes,” he says, with that slick European accent that Bucky has to bet is at least half fake. “Can I call you James? How good to meet you at last. I’ve heard you have a talent for securing motorcars…”

#winterbaron #au #ficlet #bucky barnes bingo

[thedogsled]

Bathtime

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: C2 Tentacles Word count: 370 words Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes Major tags: tentacles, octopus Bucky, HYDRA experimentation Summary: Bucky has a confession to make to Sam.

“Don’t judge me, okay?” “I’m not judging!” Sam said from the other side of the door. “This is a judgment free zone. So please can I come in?” Bucky grimaced, looking at the bathroom door resentfully. He knew this wasn’t going to go well, and Sam’s smile made that clear, but Bucky was between a rock and a hard place now. If he didn’t go through with it, Sam would accuse him of cowardice, and hold it over him until he gave up and showed him anyway. It ended the same way, all it did was delay the inevitable. So he reaches out and turns the handle, and then curls up protectively in the bathtub as Sam steps inside.

“Holy–”

Sam’s eyes have never been wider, and all at once Bucky wants to slam the door in his face, or turn invisible.

“Are they turning white? Man, this is crazy. You can’t be serious.”

Sam isn’t wrong. One glance down into the tub reveals his tentacles are turning whiter by the seconds, responding to Bucky’s desire to just straight up disappear by mimicking the color of the tub–which of course is humiliating and infuriating, and responds in ripples of electric blue and yellow sparks flickering across the surface of his skin in undulating waves.

“That is so cool.”

“Could you maybe decide on an adjective. Just one. Because it doesn’t feel crazy or cool, it feels like I got experimented on by freaks and now I have this completely impractical reaction to water–”

“Right, but when you said you couldn’t go swimming with my sister’s kids I thought it was, like, a bad timing kinda thing. Not this.”

Bucky sighed, reaching a tentacle out to the towel rack and then using another to spread the towel out in front of him so that he could get out of the bath. “Yeah. Well now you know. What? What’s that face for?”

Sam blushed, but it was already too late. Bucky poked him in the chest with one metal finger and glowered until Sam gave in.

“Nothing, I just… You seem pretty dextrous with those things. Can you–”

Bucky glared. “You’ve got a filthy mind, Wilson.”

“Yeah,” Sam gulped. “But can you?”

#winterfalcon #ficlet #bucky barnes bingo

[thedogsled]

Previous Occupant

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: U2 Alpine Word count: 564 Rating: G Main pairing: None Major tags: non-main character death (off screen), tfatws compliant, Indiana Summary: Bucky can’t find a place to settle down. 

He has to leave Brooklyn eventually. It’s too exhausting. Every street corner is a memory twisted through a muddied lens, and every one of them features Steve. Once he’s off Raynor’s books, he’s free. Well, free in so far as he still has to check in with Ross, whom he despises, but at least there’s no more “court appointed therapy”. Needless to say he still needs therapy, but that’s a whole other can of worms. Wasn’t like there were a lot of folks out there who understood a fraction of what he’d been through, and certainly not enough to be actively trying to help him to process it. He tries Vermont first, because it’s supposed to be green and beautiful, and Bucky thinks maybe what he needs is a complete 180 from the world he’s used to. He trades the concrete jungle for…slush. A lot of it. It’s pretty, but it’s wet. Maybe that’s just the season, but Bucky wants nothing to do with it. His next attempt is California, by contrast, but he lasts only two weeks. It’s depressing. Warmer, obviously, and he’s sure lovely in summer, but just like in New York, everyone seems to be in too much of a hurry pursuing what they wanted in life to have much care for anyone else.

He has family in Indiana. It’s what draws him back in the worst possible way, because Sam calls him with the bad news. His sister Rebecca has passed away. His sister, whose existence he’s been avoiding ever since he was freed from HYDRA; who had a life, kids, grew old - older than him - and he hadn’t ever gone back to Indiana to see her. How could he? They’d all thought he was dead, and then he’d come back with all this baggage. A cold blooded killer. He couldn’t do that to her, bring that on her community.

The funeral is beautiful. Bucky watches it through a scope, then visits her grave alone, sitting with her as he should have done while she was alive. It’s too late now. Everything always feels like he does it too damn late.

He can’t bring himself to leave. She’d made her home here, so why couldn’t he? There’s a Barnes stocking shelves at his local supermarket–couldn’t be much older than Bucky had been when he’d been conscripted; he has her eyes. There’s a Barnes at the library too, somewhere in her late fourties; she doesn’t look related, but the man in her wedding photograph is the spitting image of Bucky’s dad.

He feels at home here. He feels known here, even though he doesn’t tell anyone his name. And the little house that he buys comes with free company, the first since Wakanda, where he’d happily taken care of a small herd of goats to feel as though he was contributing to his own upkeep.

The little white cat is scrawny and underfed, and the empty bowl in the window sits next to an empty bag of kibble with a hole ripped into the bottom of it. There’s no tag, no name; the dear, sweet thing has been left here by the previous owner, abandoned. Left behind. Bucky knows how that feels.

The brand of cat food is “Alpine”, so that’s the name Bucky gives his new companion, and he promises - he swears - that he won’t ever leave the cat behind.

#alpine the cat #ficlet #bucky barnes bingo

[thedogsled]

The Right Partner

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: B2 Dancing Word count: 386 Rating: G Main pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes Major tags: bait and switch, angst, dancing Summary: Steve’s finally dancing with his best buddy.

“This isn’t right,” Bucky says. “You should be dancing with her.” Steve’s fingers are light on Bucky’s shoulder and against his hip, his expression soft as he leans into him in such a way that Bucky has to jerk his chin away slightly so that Steve’s mouth doesn’t crash into his own. “I came back here for you, Buck. To save you. You’re the one I want to be dancing with. You.”

Bucky isn’t sure quite how to breathe. It feels impossible somehow, with Steve so close, and the room full of people watching them. Nobody has come over to tear them apart, and the music just doesn’t stop; the band keeps playing, and Bucky can’t deny how flustered he is by Steve’s blue eyes so very close. How long has it been since they were nose to nose like this? So long. Decades, it feels like. He breathes in sharply, and Steve squeezes his shoulder to reassure him. “It’s okay, just dance with me. Wanted to do this for so long…” “What stopped you?” “I was just waiting for the right partner.” “I didn’t go anywhere.” Bucky sniffs, grasping the lapels of Steve’s shirt between his fingers. “You’re the one…you’re the one who keeps leaving.”

Bucky looks up at Steve, but he’s blurry now. The tears in his eyes make it so hard to see, but it feels good when they dance together, and it feels even better when Steve leans down and kisses him, a slow burn of affection that leaves Bucky’s cheeks ruddy by the time Steve pulls away.

But he keeps pulling away. He goes further and further back while Bucky, in a panic, reaches for him with both hands, with flesh and blood, left and right. Steve pulls into the distance as the ballroom distorts and the music becomes an incoherent mash of syllables and notes.

“Don’t do anything stupid ‘til I get back.”

He’s not coming back. This time, Bucky shouts the words he should have shouted before: “Steve, wait! Please! I need you!”

But there’s only his empty room. His silent television set is like a mirror, and Bucky can see himself panting, red eyed from the nightmare. He can see his dog tags, his scars, the reflection of his vibranium arm. Steve’s gone, and Bucky Barnes is alone.

#stucky #endgame compliant #bucky barnes bingo #ficlet

[thedogsled]

Chores

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: Y1 “You’re such a tease” Word count: 625 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Helmut Zemo/Bucky Barnes Major tags: domesticity, fluff, horniness Summary: Bucky is very distracting, and Zemo has to pretend it’s not being done on purpose.

Zemo’s eyes linger on Bucky despite his best efforts to pretend to resist. It’s been exceptionally hard, simply on account of the fact that Bucky has been going out of his way to be distracting. For one thing: doing the washing up shirtless. Who does that? There he is, metal arm glistening in the light coming through the kitchen window, shoulders occasionally rolling along with the sway of his hips as he dances in place to the music from the radio–and Zemo’s supposed to resist that? Pretend he doesn’t see it?

Things don’t get much better when Bucky’s doing the yardwork. Raking up leaves is serious business, but of course it’s expected that such physical labor won’t be much of a warm up to a man who has more strength in his pinky finger than most others. So, of course, Bucky spends at least two hours working on it, raking and then bagging the leaves, blowing the rest into the corner of the yard and bagging those too, and - to further the illusion of it being hard work - he stops near the end of the work to grab the hose and spray the water up in the air, letting it rain down on him as he laughed.

The consequence of this, of course, is that his too small shirt sticks to every angle of his body as he finishes work, and his long, dark hair needs to be repeatedly shaken out as the natural air dry crimps it into his natural curls. Zemo, reading a book on the porch, has to pretend to look away every so often, but he - like every housewife with a direct view of their Indiana back yard - can’t help but drool into his lap when he’s sure Bucky’s gaze is busy elsewhere.

Zemo cooks dinner, which does not really feel like a fair share of the day’s labor, but then, Bucky is busy downstairs on a call to his therapist. Staying busy in the kitchen, clinking pans and keeping the bacon hissing allows Bucky the confidence to speak freely, and Zemo knows that he deserves that, even if he frequently finds himself agitated by the advice the therapist passes on to Bucky. Some of it, he feels, seems extremely out of touch with what Bucky specifically has been through, and relating his experiences to those of other veterans, or even other former POWs, makes for ill fitting suggestions. Fortunately, it means that Zemo ends up hearing most of the sessions regurgitated over, as Bucky vents his frustrations directly to him in turn, with an edge of mutual hatred for his doctor, which puts them both in a better mood for the rest of the evening.

After dinner, then, things inevitably turn frisky, and Bucky laughs when Zemo’s impatience to get his own shirt off makes a button ping across the room, never to be seen again.

“What’s the hurry?”

“You don’t get to sit there and tell me you don’t know,” Zemo growls, trying to be more patient with the other buttons and failing. His shirts are expensive–what kind of idiot decided an expensive shirt needed to have smaller buttons?

“Don’t know what?” Bucky purrs, in that specific sultry tone only he could perform which had Zemo’s head snapping up sharply. And there he was, with his shirt off already, propped on one elbow with his metal hand already down the front of his own pants.

“You…” Zemo blushes, flustered. “You’re such a damn tease. You know what you do to me and you do it on purpose.”

“That right?” Bucky’s tongue pokes out between his lips - just a miniscule amount, but it’s unmistakable - and Zemo tackles him like he’s an oasis, and he hasn’t had a drink in years.

#bucky barnes bingo #winterbaron #ficlet

[thedogsled]

Try to give a darn

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: C1 First time Word count: 551 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes Major tags: Pre-war, first time, angst, loss (Steve for his mother) Summary: Tears lead to something more.

Bucky shivers. It’s damn cold in Steve’s apartment, which he’s told him multiple times is a problem, but ever since Steve’s Ma passed away at the end of last year, Steve’s ability to look after himself has only gone downhill. He’ll start a fight over some shit that didn’t matter down at the movie theater, but walk up on his landlord and complain that the furnace in the building needs fixing? Never. It has Bucky worried, because he worries about everything, and by the time Steve makes it back upstairs from running down to buy a loaf of bread, Bucky is ready to really give it to him about taking care of himself. But Steve is crying, grasping a thick knit sweater in both hands, and there’s no loaf of bread in sight.

“Gee, pal. What’d that sweater do to you? Give it here, I’ll teach it a lesson it won’t soon forget.” The levity doesn’t improve things. If anything Steve cries harder, and Bucky gets it. The grief has finally caught up to him in a way that he can’t just keep squaring his chin and starting fights to ignore. It takes twenty minutes to get out that the little old lady Steve helps with her groceries has knitted it for him, and that she’d said - the monster - that without his Ma around Steve needed somebody to knit him a new winter sweater else he was going to die of the cold. The sweater Steve’s wearing is looking worse for wear, that’s true, but that’s not Steve’s fault–Bucky’s the one who usually darns them for him. But it is the last one Steve’s Ma made for him before she died, and Bucky suddenly feels a wave of guilt for not fixing it sooner.

Guilt which gets well and truly startled out of him when Steve’s wet face is jammed into his own neck, and sticky, tear stained fingers are wrapped around his back. Steve shoves him back onto the bed for a desperate sobbing cuddle, but something goes awry on the way, and their mouths mash together, garbling hungry hiccups into a blur of confused sound between them. It’s a kiss, but it’s wet, and as soon as Steve realizes Bucky is kissing him back, trying to make sense of the chaos that is Steve’s wet mouth and clumsy tongue, Bucky finds himself being stripped.

He was already cold, but with his clothes off it’s even chillier, and Steve - bless him - is almost blue, pretending the chill isn’t getting to him as he shoves his own clothes onto the floor and climbs into Bucky’s arms. It takes a lot of rearranging to get them both under the blankets, shivering and pressed close, mouthing teeth chattering kisses while Bucky tries to catch Steve’s feet to warm them between his thighs and Steve tries to escape his ice block toes away, not wanting Bucky to realize how cold he is. It takes so long to adjust even from the cold that they’re naked and hot and huffing by the time Steve mumbles:

“I-I…bought crisco. I didn’t think we’d… But it’s on the windowsill in the kitchen.”

Bucky is so lost for words, lost at the implication, that all he can think of to say is “We really gotta speak to your landlord.”

#bucky barnes bingo #stucky #ficlet

[thedogsled]

A perfect threesome

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: U1 Polyamory or Open Relationship Word count: 382 Rating: PG-13 Main pairing: Bucky Barnes/Sam Wilson/Helmut Zemo Major tags: polyamory, negotiation, hurt/comfort Summary: Bucky needs them both to keep himself sane, it’s the only way this whole thing works.

It serves them best to keep an open schedule rather than nail down anything in particular. Bucky’s the one who feels strangest about it, of course–his low self esteem is so rock bottom that the idea of receiving affection from one person, nevermind two, is strange at best and overwhelming at worst. After a while they work out a traffic light system in the form of a reversible bracelet that he wears on his left hand: black for “I’m okay” and red for “Danger! Danger Will Robinson!” Zemo is the one who takes the longest to get used to the system–not a surprise, since it’s Sam who actually implements it. Zemo craves attention, permanently on the hunt to seek out someone whose time he can occupy, wanting eyes on him every time he leaves the shower with his robe hanging dangerously open, or yammering away before the sun has even risen in the morning with a cup of hot tea in one hand, scrolling the news with the other. It’s most disruptive for Sam, who desperately craves quiet, especially before his morning coffee, but Bucky is less there to run disruption and more interested in waiting for the fireworks to start. 

The drama brings him to life, because by the time Sam is sulking and giving them both the silent treatment, and Zemo is swearing in Sokovian and playing Beethoven at full volume like a teenager, Bucky no longer feels like the odd man out; no longer feels like his own existence is the thing most likely to destroy them. He turns affectionate, almost kittenish, rubbing himself up against Sam until he can’t ignore it anymore, then dragging him to Zemo’s room. They only need to turn the music down to get his attention, and there’s never any argument as they all fall into bed together, kissing, shedding clothes, making love. It’s a wonder that it works at all, the three of them so independent, so different, but it does, and it’s what each one of them can only admit to themselves that they need when they’re curled up in a tangle of limbs together, sated from the effort: Zemo, heartbroken from all his loss; Bucky, abandoned and ashamed; Sam, giving all of himself to others and never keeping anything for himself.

#bucky barnes bingo #tfatws #ficlet

[thedogsled]

Fear Is Loving Me

Card Number: B089 Square Filled: B1 Kink: Making Love Word count:448 Rating: R - Explicit Main pairing: Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes Major tags: wakanda, making love as a kink, angst, overwhelming Summary: Somehow being loved by Steve so openly, so completely, is almost more than Bucky can stand.

Steve’s fingers are soft on the nape of his neck, and Bucky presses in toward him, catching his breath just before he dives in for a kiss. It’s slow and wandering, their mouths together and then apart, lower lip trembling, gaze tumbling into the dark depths between them, where their hands are wrapped around each other and in turn entangling both their cocks within the trapped heat between their bodies. Their two sleeping bags are zipped up back to front to make room, but Steve is big, and Bucky is too, filling up all the space so that there’s almost no room at all to move. One arm is for each of them jammed inside as best they can manage, and Bucky’s metal limb is supporting them both like an awkward pillow, and yet somehow it’s still soft and sweet. Somehow it works.

“Hey,” Steve says, and Bucky glances up, startled to discover that Steve is blurry. Well, that’s not strange, they’re so close together, but the heat in his own eyes?–it’s tears. He’s crying. “You doing okay?”

Bucky only manages a gentle little nod. If he says anything, he’s afraid his voice will break and the tears won’t stop. Steve must know, because he kisses him again. “This is what we should have had,” Steve says. Their fingers are slick when he winds them together, urging Bucky’s hand away from the source of their throbbing need. Steve had said: “I only want to make love to you. I want to catch up with all the times we should have had.” But now it all feels so overwhelming; it feels like there’s so much riding on it, and Steve maybe doesn’t understand, but it aches. What if he can’t? What if he doesn’t know how, after everything, to make Steve feel as loved as Bucky desperately wants to make him feel? What if he leaves? Bucky kisses him, deep and passionate, rolling onto his back so that he can use his free hand to crush Steve’s mouth against his own. It’s worse than speaking, because the tears begin to roll down his cheeks. It’s monsoon season, and he’s being swept away in a rainstorm. But Steve is the sunshine. Steve is there when he hiccups his way to an embarrassed huff of breath, the tears having put a stop to their more intimate activities, gently rubbing his thumb against Bucky’s tearstained cheek. “I love you too,” Steve offers, so quietly that it’s almost a whisper, or maybe it’s that Bucky can barely hear it over his own sniffles and the roar of his heartbeat in his tear-swollen head. “I love you too, Buck. It’s gonna be okay.”

#bucky barnes bingo #stucky #ficlet

[thedogsled]

Sebastian Stan as James "Bucky" Barnes in Captain America: Civil War (2 hour digital copic marker study) Fill for Bucky Barnes Bingo Square K1 (Image)

#bucky barnes #my art #captain america civil war #cacw #fanart #sebastian stan #bucky barnes bingo #bingo

[thedogsled]

This is infuriating, please spread it.

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

[thedogsled]

Winterbaron for Bucky Barnes Bingo: K3 - Bonded Animal Bucky sighed, exasperated, as the tiny animal tilted his head over to one side, a perfect mirror to the way he'd perform the feat in his human form. By some miracle, even now, the cube of turkish delight that he'd evidently taken a nap in, was still securely bonded to the top of his furry head by sticky, sugary drool. How long it would take for Zemo to groom off Bucky wasn't sure, but his tiny little hands would surely make slow work of the process. "I'll go get a cloth," he sighed. Zemo puffed up his cheeks, going just a tiny bit more bug-eyed in the process, and Bucky shook his head. "I'm not licking your fur clean. Not again. You taste like sawdust shavings."

#winterbaron #hamster zemo #animal transformation #fanart #mcu #the falcon and the winter soldier #bucky barnes #helmut zemo #my art

[thedogsled]

Hi friends! Welcome to my Stucky Bingo masterlist. I filled out the whole square, which is exciting for me because in two decades of fandom I've never so much as completed a single line of bingo before. It adds up to a total of 22, 817 new words and three (four) pieces of art, which is pretty darn cool. Hope you enjoy it!

Prompt: B1 AU: Concubine Rating & Warnings: G, None As the siege breaks and the battle wanes, Steve finds himself in Baron Zemo's quarters, where two people are hiding from the bloodlust beyond their curtains. Steve has a choice to make. Link: Looting the Baron's Treasures Prompt: I1 Red Skull Rating & Warnings: Explicit, Rape/Non-Con, Forced masturbation, Clinical voyeurism, Winter Soldier Bucky “So you see, Captain. Your friend is one of us, now. Zola has done an excellent job reprogramming him, don’t you agree?” Link: No Hero N1 "Your work has been a gift to mankind" Rating & Warnings: G, Panic Attacks, Night Terrors, Sleep Paralysis Bucky doesn't sleep well. Sometimes things from the past come back to haunt him. Link: Night Fury G1 Inside Jokes Rating & Warnings: Explicit, Naked butt in the art Tony's birthday presents are always inappropriate, and as usual he's completely outdone himself. Link: Butt Stuff O1 AU: Gang/Mobsters Rating & Warnings: Explicit, Anonymous sex, Internalized homophobia, glory hole When an anonymous voice makes him an offer, Bucky finds it hard to refuse. It's just a little stress relief. Nobody will ever know. Link: Friday Night B2 Enemies to Lovers Rating & Warnings: G, Implied homophobia/Misunderstandings Steve Rogers is a little punk and Bucky has had enough of it. Link: The Playbook I2 Holding Hands Rating & Warnings: G, None After all these years, Steve and Bucky get the life they deserve, and Bucky gets some birthday presents. He's happy to share one with the man he loves. Link: Stucky Bingo September Round Robin 2022 N2 AU: Sports Rating & Warnings: G, None When Russian figure skater Bucky Barnes defects, he can only skate for the Team USA if he skates with a partner. What he and Steve Rogers find together on the ice is golden. Link: Stucky Bingo February Round Robin 2023 G2 Kink: Hot Tub Sex Rating & Warnings: Explicit, PWP without Porn It takes a while to snag a little privacy after the party. Link: Water's Warm O2 Art Format: Explosion of Colors Rating & Warnings: G, None Art! Link B3 Major Injuries Rating & Warnings: G, Blood and injury It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed Bucky being struck. He’d thrown out his shield to block the worst of the damage from the exploding debris, but he’d noticed Bucky clutching his side throughout the fight. Steve knew. But in the middle of it there had been no opportunity for pause, no moment where he could check that Bucky was okay. He kept moving, and that was what mattered. Link: Stucky Bingo March Round Robin 2023 I3 Space Rating & Warnings: G, None MCU Bucky is the Man on the Wall, and he takes Steve on a little adventure in space. Sad vibes! Link: Picnic on the Moon N3 Free Space (also adopted prompt: Drunken Hookup) Rating & Warnings: Explicit, Semi-Public sex, drunken hookup Bucky is leaving in the morning, and Steve can't let him go without making one last desperate leap of faith. Link: Leap of Faith G3 Steve Coming out of the Ice Wrong Rating & Warnings: Explicit, PWP without porn, Rimming, Sexual dysfunction Steve has a terrible secret, and he's not sure how well Bucky's going to take it. (Please note: Brief HTP mentions but Steve is mistaken, mostly.) Link: Parsnips

O3 Secret Injury Rating & Warnings: G, Blood and Injury Bucky is shot during the prison escape (in The First Avenger). When he realizes on the march home, he has to decide whether or not to tell Steve. (Canon compliant! Not MCD!) Link: Carry Me Home B4 Kink: Tickling Rating & Warnings: Mature, Consensual kink, Breathplay Bucky teaches Steve about one of his kinks, and while at first Steve's not sure if he likes it... Link: Giggles I4 Pic: Shower curtain Rating & Warnings: Explicit, Mutual Masturbation, Shower Sex, NSFW art In which Bucky pulls a prank and then they have to make up. 1471 words + a little NSFW art for flavor Link: Bucky Barnes: Shower Menace N4 Predator/Prey Rating & Warnings: Explicit, None Maybe Steve Rogers needs to get better at stealth. Not that the consequences of losing are all that bad. Link: When the Lights Go Out G4 Avengers Compound Rating & Warnings: G, None Bucky comes home, and Steve can't keep the smile off his face. Link: New Old O4 "Before we get started does anyone want to get out?" Rating & Warnings: Teen, Ableist language “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Avenge Your Love, the newest and biggest show on the Marvel Network, designed to match a man of honor and bravery with the love of his life. I’m Nick Fury, your host for this adventure, and I’m here with Captain Steve Rogers of the U.S. Army. Captain, tell us a little bit about yourself.” Link: Stucky Bingo Round Robin October 2023 B5 Clint Barton/Hawkeye Rating & Warnings: Teen, None Bucky loved his friends, and he didn’t really blame them for interfering. How could he? Clint was right; in the two years since they’d come here together for uni, Bucky’s ladykiller days had spontaneously ended. It was always about Steve, now. Steve this, Steve that. Nevermind that in all that time Bucky had probably said maybe 20 words to the man. Link: Stucky Bingo Round Robin April 2023 I5 AU: Pen Pals Ratings & Warnings: G, None Steve illustrates Captain America A fan writes to him Flirting ensues Link: The Man With the Umbrella N5 Writing format: Stream of consciousness Rating & Warnings: G, Night Terrors, Sleep paralysis, Hurt No Comfort, PTSD Bucky isn't sleeping so well. Link: Locomotive Breath G5 New York Rating & Warnings: G, None Did Bucky go back to HYDRA? Did they recapture him, torture him? Why has he disappeared again? And what can Steve possibly do about it while he's 'resting up OR ELSE' as Sam so sweetly puts it? Link: Broken Hearts (In a Drawer) O5 Kink: Clothed Sex Rating & Warnings: Explicit, Clothed sex, Sex toys under clothing, In public Steve really can't keep his mind on mission planning...not when he knows something the other Avengers don't. Link: Modern Conveniences

Adopted prompt: Sokovia Rating & Warnings: G, None Zemo was right about visiting Sokovia. He needed to come here, needed to see the things that Zemo has lost. Beyond that, it's a good place for some introspection on the things that Bucky himself has lost along the way. It's Steve. He's thinking about Steve. Link: Scars That Never Heal Adopted prompt: Art style: Charcoal Rating & Warnings: G, None “There…might’ve been a bit of a hiccup on the mission.” “A hiccup.” “Just a tiny one.” “Well, I would certainly say that’s tiny alright,” Bucky drawled, moving in closer. “Do I even want to know what sort of tiny hiccup landed you with a baby?” “Would you believe me if I told you that this is actually-ah-Natasha?” Steve grimaced with a shrug. “I think ‘magic’ about sums up the hiccup.” Link: Stucky Bingo Round Robin November 2023 Adopted prompt: Double Agent Rating & Warnings: G, HYDRA Steve Rogers (Steve Rogers is not HYDRA) Steve returns the Infinity stones. Some are far easier than others. Avengers: Endgame Canon Divergence. Link: I Knew Him

#stucky bingo #masterpost #list #stucky fic #stevexbucky