I Love You All! (and have been given rum)

[muccamukk]

Firstly, I think it's odd that no one (to my knowledge) has written a Gothic Avengers AU. I feel there is a lot of room for play in this area, and it's been sadly overlooked.

I'm reading (or will be reading when I get home) a Southern Gothic novel called The Rebel Wife by Taylor M. Polites (who I thought was a woman until I saw the jacket photo), and the use of setting and mystery to build an atmosphere of horror is extremely effective. The Alabama heat is like its own character. I'm very impressed.

It's not especially a romance though, which is too bad (though perhaps more fitting given the topic which is post American Civil War reconstruction and racial politics, but I'd love to see a story with the setting and mood used that effectively that was a romance. I saw a Professionals rewrite of Jane Eyre at one point, but it didn't really work that well for me. I do need to reread some of the Brontë sisters' stuff as an adult. I hated as a teen, but may have been missing the point.

In any case, Steve/Tony Gothic romance, do it someone, please!

Comments

[nenya_kanadka]

Huh, given this fandom, I am quite shocked that no one has done a gothick romance.

Enjoy the rhum! :D

[muccamukk]

Now that I think of it, I am too. Though they'd probably get it backwards with Tony as the potentially sinister wealthy older man and Steve as the ingenue.

[nenya_kanadka]

Right, that's what I'd predict, what with the tendency to write Steve as innocent & unsophisticated by reason of timelag.

Having difficulty seeing Steve the byronic hero, though. Hrm.

ETA: Oh, right, red skull!Steve.

[marinarusalka]

Gee, thanks. I'm now picturing Tony as the swooning heroine, with Obadiah Stane as the sinister guardian scheming to get his hands on Tony's inheritance. Preferably by driving Tony insane.

[muccamukk]

That's exactly what I was thinking of!

Also, it's be a chance to use my idea of Steve ending up with a Red Skull head (I love you Prof E, but your science...). He could be all scarred and live on the moor forever denied human contact.

[marinarusalka]

I don't know about a Red Skull head specifically, but some sort of disfigurement from the serum would definitely fit in well. Maybe in a Jekyll-and-Hyde sort of way? Or is that too Hulk-like?

Pepper could be sensible, genteel but impoverished young woman hired to be Tony's caretaker. She would provide the first-person narration for the tale by keeping a diary.

[muccamukk]

That might be too Hulk like. Maybe he was initially disfigured, and moved to the moor and hasn't seen his reflection since. Obie could have some kind of hold on him, and keeps assuring him that he still looks like a monster but Obie will look after him so long as he does x.

Oh, Pepper's diary. Of course, she'd have to interview different people to find out what's going on and get long tales of strange happenings from sources of dubious reliability.

[marinarusalka]

Yes! And Tony could go wandering the moor in a fit of Obadiah-induced insanity, collapse in a fever, and be nursed by Steve in his secluded rustic cottage.

[muccamukk]

He will have heard there's a monster on the moor, somewhere, and be glad that he didn't run into it. Steve will blame the flickering lamp light and Tony's poor health. And possibly put a bag over his head.

Tony should invent something. Perhaps a weather control device?

[marinarusalka]

Tony must definitely be an inventor. The dark and gloomy Stark Mansion is full of strange clockwork devices that Pepper finds unnerving.

Maybe Tony could invent a flying machine. Or a prototype automobile.

[muccamukk]

So you're going to write this, right?

[marinarusalka]

Given how this past year has gone, I'm not convinced I'll ever write anything again. :-(

However, I note that Castle of Otronto and Mysteries of Udolpho are both available on line for free, as potential inspiration.

[valtyr]

You're doing better than me. I pictured Steve in black nail varnish and eyeliner. Natasha wouldn't even need to change her clothes.