Story summaries for accompanying fanworks claims!
Hey everyone! We've had a great turnout this year! We have more than 25 stories up for claims!
Now that the deadline has passed, we are putting the summaries up for artists to peruse. The claims don't actually open until Monday, and please be aware that there may be a few late additions to this list, but we want the artists to have a chance to think about their claims now.
This post will be closed to comments until claims open on Monday. We will post a notice that claims are opening (around 12 midnight EST), at which point we will open up the comments and each artist can claim ONE story. Once all the stories have been claimed, or if there are still unclaimed stories by Wednesday, 12 September, we will allow secondary claims.
When requesting your story, please list your top three choices in the order that you want them. Please list the category (Batman/Batfamily/Gotham, Green Lantern, Justice League, Young Justice, DC Crossovers, or Other Crossovers), the number of the story, and the title (e.g., "Batfamily 1, when the music is gone"). The claims will be on a first come, first served basis, and we will do our best to confirm your claim as soon as possible.
Artists, if you are not a member of the comm, please join after you make your claim and fill out the form here. If you have any questions, please contact us here on our page-a-mod post!
Claims will close on Friday, 14 September, at 11:59 PM EST. Match-ups will be emailed out after that; it will be up to the author to provide the artist with a copy of their draft at that point.
Now without further ado, the stories:
Batman/Batfamily/Gotham
1. Title: when the music is gone
Genre: post-apocalyptic scenario, dark fic, pre-romance developing to something at the end
Fandom/Universe: pre-reboot Gotham futurefic
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Jason Todd (they get together at the end, but for the most part it’s not a shippy fic); appearances by Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Conner Kent, Selina Kyle, and Poison Ivy; the Joker and Captain Boomerang as main villains
Warnings: angst, some violence, on-screen death of villains, off-screen pre-story death of several key members of the normal Gotham heroes
Summary: When the planet is shaken by events that are later called the Disasters, every major city in the world experiences what Gotham went through in No Man’s Land. It’s business as usual in Gotham; they’ve been through this before, after all. Things start to get out of hand when Batman is ambushed and brought down; after that, heroes drop one by one as the rogues dig in and tear Gotham apart.
When Dick tells Tim that he’s leaving Gotham, Tim refuses to go with him, knowing that if he stays he can help. He turns to Jason, one of the only tentative allies he has left in the city, and together, they try their best to save a city that it might not be possible to save.
2. Title: (currently untitled)
Genre: kidfic, family fix-it
Fandom/Universe: Red Hood: Lost Days-era Batfam
Characters/Pairings: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, assorted Bats, Roy Harper, OFC (Jason’s newborn daughter, so she’s really more of a prop than anything); leads to Jason/Dick but is more pre-slash than anything else at its heaviest
Warnings: babyfic is probably it
Summary: The last person that Dick expects to hear talking when he picks up his phone is Jason, who has been dead for years. Except he isn’t anymore, apparently, and Dick can hear a baby screaming in the background as Jason asks him for help. What is there for Dick to do but drop everything and run to his long-lost brother?
3. Title: Nemesis
Genre: AU
Fandom/Universe: pre-DCnU
Characters/Pairings: Bruce/Tim
Warnings: AU, Tim is three years younger than Bruce, identity porn, angst, mistaken identities, criminal empires, Ra's al Ghul as Henry Ducard, but not much else.
Summary: When Bruce comes back to Gotham after his seven year journey around the world, he expects that things will have changed. He's changed after all so Gotham will have too. But he discovers that far more has gone wrong during his absence than he thought could have, including the one person he thought would wait forever for him having moved on in strange and unexpected ways.
Tim has changed during his absence, becoming someone completely different from the boy that Bruce fell in love with. Instead of the steadfast ally he expected Bruce now has a perfect nemesis determined to destroy him utterly.
Finding their way back to each other's sides through the maze of lies and mistaken identities threatens to take more time than they have available as another, much more serious, enemy lurks in the background waiting to destroy not just them but all of Gotham as well.
4. Title: Little Wing and Big Bird
Genre: Gen action/adventure
Fandom/Universe: Batman/New Teen Titans (DC Comics Universe, post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint)
Characters/Pairings: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd (Includes Nightwing/Starfire)
Warnings: Guns, blood
Summary: When an evil version of Bruce Wayne attempts to kill fifteen-year-old Jason Todd, the second Robin runs to New York for help from his predecessor. Jason’s not sure if he can trust Nightwing, but he doesn’t see a better option. Nightwing and Robin team up to find the real Bruce Wayne and bring him home safely. Along the way, they try to figure out if they can ever be brothers.
This is a plotty story from the time when Jason was Robin. It’s intended to feel like a slice of canon, a “lost story” in the tradition of Batman 80s and New Teen Titans: Games.
5. Title: Red Is For Forgotten Robins
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/General
Fandom/Universe: Bat Family
Characters/Pairings: Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown / No Pairing
Warnings:Emotional Trauma. Violent imagery. Violence.
Summary: Jason tracks down a recently deceased Stephanie Brown, find her recovering in Africa before anyone else can think to do so. He wants to teach her, to work with her, for them to be partners. The Robin to his Batman only not exactly. They were both Robin once and it didn’t work well for wither of them. They will be darker, more violent. More Red.
With Training together, there are several bumps which they must deal with. Learning to cope with old pains and new. Learning to rely on someone else and learning to be relied on. To be partners, means more then just inhabiting the same place.
6. Title: Untitled [the Babs Makes It Work story]
Genre: Bildungsfic
Fandom/Universe: Gotham (comics).
Takes place after Killing Joke and Death in the Family, and swerves a sharp turn to the AU. Contains references to Gotham Knights #43-44-45, Batman: Turning Points #3, Batman Chronicles #5 (Oracle Year One: Born of Hope), the Detective and Batman issues that had Jason for Robin, the Black and White story the Delusions of Alfred Pennyworth… I’m treating these as Easter Eggs more than things that you need to have read to understand the fic, though I’m taking some facts and a couple lines of dialogue from Batman Chronicles #5 and Gotham Knights #43-44-45
Characters/Pairings: Barbara-centric, Jason, Jim, Bruce, Alfred, probably cameos by Helena and Tim. Background(?) Bruce/Jason (Jason is 15)
Warnings:character death, violence, ableism, depression, mention of sexual abuse, mention of sexual abuse of a minor, underage sex (off screen), blood, and all the consent and other issues that come with only mildly sanitized vampirism.
Summary: Babs becomes Oracle, and Gotham’s dead Robin is a vampire. In which Barbara has to juggle her anger, her secrets, her families, their issues, her friendship with Jason, and Gotham's unique situation.
7. Title: Untitled [the Cass in a Fairytale, Gotham as Gothic Fairyland story.]
Genre: action-adventure?
Fandom/Universe: Gotham (comics).
Takes place in the handwavy time after Infinite Crisis and before Batman RIP: Cass is Batgirl, Steph is Spoiler, Tim is Robin, everyone is alive and in Gotham (except for Jason, who is Red Hooding someplace else). Canon inspiration from the “Queen of Fables” arc of Waid’s JLA (JLA #47-48-49).
Characters/Pairings: Cass, Steph, Oracle. May contain some Cass/Steph or Cass/Steph/Tim, but it’s a gen fic.
Warnings: mind-control and derrealization; may contain mentions of underage (participants are around 17-19).
Summary: When the Queen of Fables takes Gotham for her own, with Oracle as her avatar and Arkham as her castle, it's something like what they call Wednesday in Gotham - a story part fairytale part gothic horror. It's a tale and Cass is the hero.
8. Title: Our Darker Purpose
Genre: Gen/Angst
Fandom/Universe: Batman (disregarding the reboot)
Characters/Pairings: Damian Wayne, Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul, Bruce Wayne, the former Robins and Damian's clone
Warnings: Excessive and graphic violence, death of non-canon character, morality issues stemming from the assumption that certain characters are effectively brain dead.
Summary: Having effectively turned all of the former Robins into little more than puppets, Talia has once again gained the ability to pull Damian's strings. Trapped by conflicting loyalties to all parties involved, Damian must choose what is still worth saving--his clone's future or all that is left of the past Robins--before he becomes all Talia once wished him to be. Meanwhile, Ra's has not forgotten earlier slights . . . or his errant descendants.
9. Title: Perfect Fit
Genre: slightly h/c with romance overtones
Fandom/Universe: DCU (pre-reboot)
Characters/Pairings: Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Alfred, Dick/Tim
Warnings: slight descriptions of violence
Summary: Dick has to deal with now being Gotham's new Batman and being responsible for Damian now. Tim hasn't jsut lost his job, he's lost his job to a boy he thinks is unsuitable to be Robin. While Dick is figuring out how to deal with his own grief and fitting into his new role, he also learns a little more about himself, about Tim and about how to be Batman. Set after Battle for the Cowl and only vaguely caring about continuity.
10. Title: A Family for Tim
Genre: Family; Gen
Fandom/Universe: Batman Animated
Characters/Pairings: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Selena
Warnings:Child Neglect
Summary:Tim is a child of Gotham. He knows the secret identities of half a dozen villains, he follows Batman around with a camera.
He even has a secret identity of his own, as one of Selina's proteges. It's a juggling act hanging out with her and Jason while keeping Batman's secrets., but it's always been worth it.
Then, Jason got himself caught stealing Batman's tires and Tim had to decide if getting Jason back was as important as keeping the fragile balance between villainous protege and superhero stalker.
11. Title: (untitled so far)
Genre: Mystery/Action
Fandom/Universe: Batman
Characters/Pairings: Jason Todd/Tim Drake
Warnings: graphic violence
Summary: In which Jason is a Detective, and Tim is his favorite criminal obsession and case, Jason's fighting to put away the pain in his ass, Tim is fighting to grab whatever shiny things catch his eyes, and both are fighting against the villain trying to use Tim for his own greed.
12. Title: Knock On The Sky
Genre: Adventure
Fandom/Universe: Batman
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Cass Cain (gen)
Warnings: swearing
Summary: Tim's relationship with Bruce becomes strained after the incident with Capt. Boomerang, mostly on his part. Cass comes home, and he almost feels better. Then Prudence disappears, around the same time as Cricket. Pru's last known location was in Iraq. While there, both are kidnapped by the League, and Tim gets an invitation to train extensively with them.
Green Lantern
1. Title: Dark Adaptation
Genre: Romantic Space Opera Drama
Fandom/Universe: Green Lantern (comicverse)
Characters/Pairings: Sinestro/Hal, though a fair number of GLs show up from time to time
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Alienated by the new laws the Guardians' have put in place following the Sinestro Corps War, Hal has left the Green Lantern Corps and joined forces with his former mentor. But while the ring on his finger is yellow, his heart and thoughts are with the Corps he left, now at the mercy of the increasingly tyrannical Guardians.
2. Title: we have not yet touched the stars (working title)
Genre: action/adventure
Fandom/Universe: Green Lantern (comics)
Characters/Pairings: Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, Jillian Pearlman/Hal Jordan, Hal Jordan Carol Ferris (mentioned)
Warnings: attempted non-con, torture
Summary: Jillian Pearlman of Earth. You have the ability to overcome great fear.
She's been called plenty of things in her life - Jill, Jilly, Pearlman, Captain, Cowgirl - but Green Lantern is certainly a new one. Jillian Pearlman, from when she first knew she wanted to fly, to when she earns her wings as Earth's newest Green Lantern. And of course she's scared, she's terrified, but she was made to be in the air and there's no challenge she won't back down from.
(Canon-compliant through most of Green Lantern vol. 4 and Green Lantern vol. 5, not including issue #0.)
Justice League
1. Title: Mask of the Bat
Genre: Mystery/Adventure
Fandom/Universe: Justice League, "Shogun of Steel" AU (scans available to artist once claims are over)
Characters/Pairings: Hoshi/Hana (Superman/female!Batman); Uguisu (female!Dick Grayson); Medieval Japanese versions of Alfred, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and the Joker.
Warnings: None
Summary: In a medieval Japan that never was, a fierce female ninja named Hana and a warrior from the stars named Hoshi fight as part of a team of powerful beings. However, when Hana receives a letter from her loyal family retainer begging her to return to the capital to investigate a mysterious serial killer, she finds herself back in the elaborate and formal court she rejected as a child. Bringing with them the silent orphan girl they have named after the first bird of spring, Hoshi and Hana must negotiate the complicated world of noble Japan, with all of its strictures on class and gender, while trying to track down a killer who strikes in the form of a laughing demon.
Young Justice
1. Title: the corners of life
Genre: character study (Tim) with hurt/comfort elements
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice (animated)
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake/Jaime Reyes
Warnings: Explores grief tied to parental death and neglect, and missing persons cases; contains violence compliant with the universe/material, as well as implications of domestic abuse pertaining to secondary characters. Deals with ptsd and anxiety symptoms not limited to nightmares, flashbacks, invasive thoughts, emotional blunting, and physical numbness in extremities. Minor/other character deaths, canon character deaths mentioned or portrayed outright in the text. Casual ableist language, as well as resentment of the main character for his father, which is at least in part related to his being wheelchair-bound and still recovering from a coma. One scene of a sexual nature between two characters aged 15/16.
Summary: Compliant with YJ canon up to episode 5 of season 2; this story borrows from comics to fill in gaps in the character's backstories and explores how Tim copes with his parents' kidnapping in Haiti and Batman's absence. Being needed to hold down Gotham gives him less time with his new team, and his relationship with Gamma squad is strained until Jaime asks for help with the disappearance of his friend. The small triumphs and major disappointments of searching for Tye bring them closer together, but Tim continues to hold Jaime at arms length, believing there was more to his relationship with Tye than friendship.
While the story is an exploration of grief and two people coming together in the face of large absences in their lifes (Tye, Janet Drake), I've tried to inject moments of humor to round it out. The overall tone is heavy and at times flat, but scenes range from angst/humor/action/hurt+comfort/intimate, and there are plenty of moments that are sweet/shippy that don't involve sex, for anyone worried about the ages of the characters. Settings range from a carnival in Happy Harbor to open Texas highways.
Note: I hate that I even have to add this but YJ Jaime is a specific canon reference with a specific BROWN skin color, so artists please be sure to use proper references and not whitewash him.
2. Title: Seclusion of an atoll
Genre: gen
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice (Cartoon) post-Season 1, pre-Season 2
Characters/Pairings: Kaldur, Koy, TulaGarth, Aquatrio (TulaKaldurGarth)
Warnings: Though there is romance and pairings, it reads more as gen a majority of the time. I feel like that deserves a warning.
Summary: It all starts when Kaldur gets put on a mission to help protect King Orin’s son from an assassination attempt. He, Tula, and Garth are among those the king and queen trust most, after all. Throw in the fact that he and Roy are living together (and looking for Speedy in the meantime - though Kaldur mostly just keeps Roy from getting too caught up in that mission, since it has been just about a year since the infamous New Year’s Eve of Near World Domination), and that there is quiet political turmoil brewing in Atlantis, and this mission gets a bit more complicated than one would expect.
DC Crossovers
1. Title: Crossing the Rubicon
Genre: Character/Relationship Study, Gen, Realism, Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Humor
Fandom/Universe: DC comicverse pre-reboot, AU
Characters/Pairings: Main Characters and Pairings: Jaime Reyes/Tim Drake, (OC) Sylvia Velasco, Brenda Del Vecchio/Paco Tejas, Milagro Reyes, Alberto Reyes/Bianca Reyes and (OC) Yvette Reyes
Warnings: Teen Pregnancy, descriptions of graphic violence, Drug Cartal centered violence, description of birth and delivery, some drinking/alcohol, ableism, domestic violence (in the form of arguments), racism, heterosexism and intersectionality between racism and heterosexism
Summary:Taking place over the course of one year, Jaime Reyes, who thrives on being busy, is having a hard time handling the pressure of it all. He is still the Blue Beetle and is taking on some new challenges in the form of the infamous Drug Cartels in Mexico and beyond the border. He is finally working at a Dental Office and managing dentistry school classes at the same time. He is still Tim Drake's longtime boyfriend with no plans on ever taking any next steps in their relationship. He is just comfortable being busy and he's fine with that. That is until he meets a young teenager, Sylvia Velasco. She is a small informate and a survivor of cartel violence who helps Jaime find information to take out a few enemies that are not of the super-villain variety. Not long after that, she discovers that she is pregnant. After agreeing to help the young teen get back on her feet, Jaime finds himself looking at becoming a father before the year is over which brings complications, vicious fights and picking which crib will fit in his apartment.
Both Jaime and Tim are going to be fathers in less than one year, and this is the story of that one year in their lives.
Author's note: Regarding possible art claims: Please note that I do not want the artists to whitewash Jaime's family or the new baby Yvette in any of the art. I'm a latin@ myself, and I want to see art with people that actually look like my skin tone.
2, Title: Well At Least Wonder Woman Approves
Genre: Action/Drama
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice (animated), Smallville (TV), Smallville Season 11 (comic)
Characters/Pairings: gen / canon pairings
Warnings: n/a
Summary: Conner gets introduced to another kick-ass member of his family (sort of). Annoyance of Superman ensues. ...Well, at least Wonder Woman approves -- she's almost like a surrogate den mother after Black Canary, right? That should count for something.
Longer summary: Takes place after season 1 on the Young Justice Earth. The Young Justice team helps Red Arrow (the Roy clone) knock over a LexCorp truck shipment that they think is moving the original Roy Harper. As it turns out, it was really moving Lex Luthor instead -- the memoryless one from Smallville Season 11, though nobody really knows it at the time. The YJ-earth Luthor shows up shortly thereafter and gets owned by SV!Lex; similarly, SV!Lex more-or-less holds his own with the YJ-earth League. Conner decides he wants to 'adopt' this Lex (or vice-versa, something like that). There's uh, a -lot- of (possibly-unnecessary?) talking after the initial shipment knock-over :) ...Lex gets taken up to the JL satellite because he's from another earth, was in Luthor's custody for about three months, and needs to be checked over. Conner decides to go with him. More stuff happens, and Tess ends up nearly killing Lex before she is 'split' away from haunting him (she's actually a ghost, not just some brain memory-impression thing).
3. Title:Family, Made by Hand (subject to change)
Genre: Action, pre-romance
Fandom/Universe: DCU
Characters/Pairings: Slade Wilson/Janet Drake, Wintergreen, cameos by young Tim Drake
Warnings: violence, on-screen homicides and child endangerment. Janet being a protagonist?
Summary: Janet Drake followed her father into the CIA. Within a year, she meets Slade while out on assignment and that's when everything changed for her. Flash forward a while, Slade and Wintergreen have known Janie for years. But this is the first time they've met her son. Somebody's started targeting Janie's carefully hidden civilian identity, and they had the bad taste to go after her son. You almost have to feel sorry for them. Janie's got her sniper rifle, and Slade's got her back.
Note to artists: the author has scans of Janet Drake for reference if you need them, so don’t pass on this story just because you’re not familiar with her.
4. Title: Kaleidoscope
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice cartoon, Legion of Super-Heroes (inspired by the Earth 247 reboot, although set in the YJ setting.)
Characters/Pairings: Dick/Wally (Birdflash), Querl Dox / Lyle Norg (Brainiac 5 / Invisible Kid)
Warnings: Graphic violence
Summary: Due to a major mishap in the lab, Querl and Lyle involuntarily set off a ripple through space and time itself. They escape the lingering effects of the explosion, hurled into the 21st century, where everything has been drastically changed for the worse.
With no Batman and Superman a villain, the Legion that they know is no more, all while metahumans are hunted down to be captured or killed. While Querl and Lyle need to get back to their own time and set things straight again before Earth tears itself apart, Conner must help his team survive as he is the only member of the team with his memories still intact.
5. Title: Currently Untitled
Genre: Romance, AU, some mystery
Fandom/Universe: DC Comics, Pre-Reboot Alternate Universe,
especially after "Cry for Justice"/"Battle for the Cowl"
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake/Roy Harper
Warnings: Off screen mpreg, shapeshifting
characters (but no bestiality), some OOCness with reason, references
to canonical past drug addiction.
Summary: With Lian extremely injured in the Star City attack, and certain former friends more interesting in proving he's relapsed than in helping him, Roy will do anything he can to get her the medical attention and care she needs, even if it means ignoring his own injuries and going mercenary, taking any job he can. Hired to steal a dragon's egg, he gets more than he bargained for when the dragon turns out to be a shapeshifting Tim Drake, former Robin and Roy's one-time lover - and 'father' of Roy's dragon children. While Roy gets used to that idea, he and Tim are forced to seek help from the JLA when others try to steal the hatchlings, which reveals Tim's shapeshifting nature to Batman.
Bruce has spent four months trying to find his missing son, only to have him appear as a dragon with Roy Harper and two hatchlings in tow. Dealing with his feelings about Tim hiding this from him take a back seat to finding out who hired Roy to steal the eggs, why Luthor wants the egg, and why Dick is so fixated on the idea that Roy has relapsed.
But the confrontation between Tim and both Batmen will come even as Tim and Roy try to determine where they stand with each other and their children, both human and dragon.
6. Title: Baby Mine
Genre: Romance/fluff/slice of life
Fandom/Universe: DCU
Characters/Pairings: Roy Harper (Red Arrow)/Tim Drake (Red Robin)
Warnings: slight angst, mostly fluff
Summary: One morning Tim wakes up and finds a baby in his living room. As he and Roy search to discover where the baby came from, with Zatanna's help they discover that the baby is actually theirs. Roy has problems with this discovery and a wedge forms between him and Tim. With effort the two come back together and form the family they've always wanted.
7. Title: With One Piece Missing
Genre: Fix-it
Fandom/Universe: Dc Comics Pre-new 52
Characters/Pairings: Connor Hawke/Jason Todd, Also featuring BatFamily and the Arrows.
Warnings: none
Summary: A series of unexplained files are delivered to certain members of the Batfamily. The "official" members of the Batfamily team up to investigate, but are forced to stop and deal with the distractions set for them before they can make any headway on their investigation. Jason Todd, though, who has received a file of his own, has chosen a different route of investigation, and on the way uncovers a mysterious lab with ties to the League of Assassins and plans for a global pandemic.
Dinah Lance, meanwhile, when on the trail of a missing child, uncovers a massive kidnapping ring that's somehow tied in to the descendants of Vandal Savage. Upon further investigation, she, along with Mia Dearden, an uncharacteristically secretive Connor Hawke, and later, Oliver Queen, unearth evidence that Lian Harper's "death" may not have been everything it seemed. Now if only they could find Roy Harper...
A general fix-it fic set in the old DCU, With One Piece Missing works both to correct some of the worse travesties of past canon and create a complex, overarching plotline to bring Lian Harper back with a bang. A more subtle correction is the simple erasure of Jason's post-Countdown canon: the doppleganger plotline, while a good fix, has been done to death, and has thus been more or less skipped over. This fic is a sequel to a previous fic, but is perfectly comprehensible without its prequel as long as the reader goes in knowing that Jason Todd and Connor Hawke have been a couple for a while at the beginning of the fic.
8. Title: I don't want to forget how your voice sounds
Genre: AU, Angst, Romance
Fandom/Universe: Superman (Smallville)/Batman (Nolan 'verse)
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent, Alfred Pennnyworth, Lex Luthor, Martha and Jonathan Kent, Chloe Sullivan, Pete Ross
Warnings: None
Summary: Bruce Wayne comes to Smallville to visit his old friend Lex Luthor and to follow up on some rumors of strange activity in Metropolis. Once there, he meets and falls in lust with Clark Kent, not knowing that Clark is only sixteen. After learning the truth, Bruce can't seem to stay away from the mysterious young farm boy. With Clark's parents making sure nothing happens between them and new villains popping up, can Bruce and Clark ever find a middle ground?
Other Crossovers
1. Title: Elliptical Orbit
Genre: Drama/romance, NC-17
Fandom/Universe: Crossover between Nolanverse and MCU (Iron Man)
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark
Warnings: Very brief minor -> adult teasing (no actual underage), sex between adults
Summary: Bruce Wayne may be the richest man in Gotham, but he's far from being the most liked. Of the few people that can claim know him well, one of them is Tony Stark. Ever since meeting as kids, their strange, tumultuous friendship has carried them through all the major milestones of their lives, from childhood revelations to troubling times overseas to becoming superheroes. It's rarely easy. Most of the time they won't even admit to liking each other. But they just can't leave each other alone.
Now that the deadline has passed, we are putting the summaries up for artists to peruse. The claims don't actually open until Monday, and please be aware that there may be a few late additions to this list, but we want the artists to have a chance to think about their claims now.
This post will be closed to comments until claims open on Monday. We will post a notice that claims are opening (around 12 midnight EST), at which point we will open up the comments and each artist can claim ONE story. Once all the stories have been claimed, or if there are still unclaimed stories by Wednesday, 12 September, we will allow secondary claims.
When requesting your story, please list your top three choices in the order that you want them. Please list the category (Batman/Batfamily/Gotham, Green Lantern, Justice League, Young Justice, DC Crossovers, or Other Crossovers), the number of the story, and the title (e.g., "Batfamily 1, when the music is gone"). The claims will be on a first come, first served basis, and we will do our best to confirm your claim as soon as possible.
Artists, if you are not a member of the comm, please join after you make your claim and fill out the form here. If you have any questions, please contact us here on our page-a-mod post!
Claims will close on Friday, 14 September, at 11:59 PM EST. Match-ups will be emailed out after that; it will be up to the author to provide the artist with a copy of their draft at that point.
Now without further ado, the stories:
Batman/Batfamily/Gotham
1. Title: when the music is gone
Genre: post-apocalyptic scenario, dark fic, pre-romance developing to something at the end
Fandom/Universe: pre-reboot Gotham futurefic
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Jason Todd (they get together at the end, but for the most part it’s not a shippy fic); appearances by Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Conner Kent, Selina Kyle, and Poison Ivy; the Joker and Captain Boomerang as main villains
Warnings: angst, some violence, on-screen death of villains, off-screen pre-story death of several key members of the normal Gotham heroes
Summary: When the planet is shaken by events that are later called the Disasters, every major city in the world experiences what Gotham went through in No Man’s Land. It’s business as usual in Gotham; they’ve been through this before, after all. Things start to get out of hand when Batman is ambushed and brought down; after that, heroes drop one by one as the rogues dig in and tear Gotham apart.
When Dick tells Tim that he’s leaving Gotham, Tim refuses to go with him, knowing that if he stays he can help. He turns to Jason, one of the only tentative allies he has left in the city, and together, they try their best to save a city that it might not be possible to save.
2. Title: (currently untitled)
Genre: kidfic, family fix-it
Fandom/Universe: Red Hood: Lost Days-era Batfam
Characters/Pairings: Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, assorted Bats, Roy Harper, OFC (Jason’s newborn daughter, so she’s really more of a prop than anything); leads to Jason/Dick but is more pre-slash than anything else at its heaviest
Warnings: babyfic is probably it
Summary: The last person that Dick expects to hear talking when he picks up his phone is Jason, who has been dead for years. Except he isn’t anymore, apparently, and Dick can hear a baby screaming in the background as Jason asks him for help. What is there for Dick to do but drop everything and run to his long-lost brother?
3. Title: Nemesis
Genre: AU
Fandom/Universe: pre-DCnU
Characters/Pairings: Bruce/Tim
Warnings: AU, Tim is three years younger than Bruce, identity porn, angst, mistaken identities, criminal empires, Ra's al Ghul as Henry Ducard, but not much else.
Summary: When Bruce comes back to Gotham after his seven year journey around the world, he expects that things will have changed. He's changed after all so Gotham will have too. But he discovers that far more has gone wrong during his absence than he thought could have, including the one person he thought would wait forever for him having moved on in strange and unexpected ways.
Tim has changed during his absence, becoming someone completely different from the boy that Bruce fell in love with. Instead of the steadfast ally he expected Bruce now has a perfect nemesis determined to destroy him utterly.
Finding their way back to each other's sides through the maze of lies and mistaken identities threatens to take more time than they have available as another, much more serious, enemy lurks in the background waiting to destroy not just them but all of Gotham as well.
4. Title: Little Wing and Big Bird
Genre: Gen action/adventure
Fandom/Universe: Batman/New Teen Titans (DC Comics Universe, post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint)
Characters/Pairings: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd (Includes Nightwing/Starfire)
Warnings: Guns, blood
Summary: When an evil version of Bruce Wayne attempts to kill fifteen-year-old Jason Todd, the second Robin runs to New York for help from his predecessor. Jason’s not sure if he can trust Nightwing, but he doesn’t see a better option. Nightwing and Robin team up to find the real Bruce Wayne and bring him home safely. Along the way, they try to figure out if they can ever be brothers.
This is a plotty story from the time when Jason was Robin. It’s intended to feel like a slice of canon, a “lost story” in the tradition of Batman 80s and New Teen Titans: Games.
5. Title: Red Is For Forgotten Robins
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/General
Fandom/Universe: Bat Family
Characters/Pairings: Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown / No Pairing
Warnings:Emotional Trauma. Violent imagery. Violence.
Summary: Jason tracks down a recently deceased Stephanie Brown, find her recovering in Africa before anyone else can think to do so. He wants to teach her, to work with her, for them to be partners. The Robin to his Batman only not exactly. They were both Robin once and it didn’t work well for wither of them. They will be darker, more violent. More Red.
With Training together, there are several bumps which they must deal with. Learning to cope with old pains and new. Learning to rely on someone else and learning to be relied on. To be partners, means more then just inhabiting the same place.
6. Title: Untitled [the Babs Makes It Work story]
Genre: Bildungsfic
Fandom/Universe: Gotham (comics).
Takes place after Killing Joke and Death in the Family, and swerves a sharp turn to the AU. Contains references to Gotham Knights #43-44-45, Batman: Turning Points #3, Batman Chronicles #5 (Oracle Year One: Born of Hope), the Detective and Batman issues that had Jason for Robin, the Black and White story the Delusions of Alfred Pennyworth… I’m treating these as Easter Eggs more than things that you need to have read to understand the fic, though I’m taking some facts and a couple lines of dialogue from Batman Chronicles #5 and Gotham Knights #43-44-45
Characters/Pairings: Barbara-centric, Jason, Jim, Bruce, Alfred, probably cameos by Helena and Tim. Background(?) Bruce/Jason (Jason is 15)
Warnings:character death, violence, ableism, depression, mention of sexual abuse, mention of sexual abuse of a minor, underage sex (off screen), blood, and all the consent and other issues that come with only mildly sanitized vampirism.
Summary: Babs becomes Oracle, and Gotham’s dead Robin is a vampire. In which Barbara has to juggle her anger, her secrets, her families, their issues, her friendship with Jason, and Gotham's unique situation.
7. Title: Untitled [the Cass in a Fairytale, Gotham as Gothic Fairyland story.]
Genre: action-adventure?
Fandom/Universe: Gotham (comics).
Takes place in the handwavy time after Infinite Crisis and before Batman RIP: Cass is Batgirl, Steph is Spoiler, Tim is Robin, everyone is alive and in Gotham (except for Jason, who is Red Hooding someplace else). Canon inspiration from the “Queen of Fables” arc of Waid’s JLA (JLA #47-48-49).
Characters/Pairings: Cass, Steph, Oracle. May contain some Cass/Steph or Cass/Steph/Tim, but it’s a gen fic.
Warnings: mind-control and derrealization; may contain mentions of underage (participants are around 17-19).
Summary: When the Queen of Fables takes Gotham for her own, with Oracle as her avatar and Arkham as her castle, it's something like what they call Wednesday in Gotham - a story part fairytale part gothic horror. It's a tale and Cass is the hero.
8. Title: Our Darker Purpose
Genre: Gen/Angst
Fandom/Universe: Batman (disregarding the reboot)
Characters/Pairings: Damian Wayne, Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul, Bruce Wayne, the former Robins and Damian's clone
Warnings: Excessive and graphic violence, death of non-canon character, morality issues stemming from the assumption that certain characters are effectively brain dead.
Summary: Having effectively turned all of the former Robins into little more than puppets, Talia has once again gained the ability to pull Damian's strings. Trapped by conflicting loyalties to all parties involved, Damian must choose what is still worth saving--his clone's future or all that is left of the past Robins--before he becomes all Talia once wished him to be. Meanwhile, Ra's has not forgotten earlier slights . . . or his errant descendants.
9. Title: Perfect Fit
Genre: slightly h/c with romance overtones
Fandom/Universe: DCU (pre-reboot)
Characters/Pairings: Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Alfred, Dick/Tim
Warnings: slight descriptions of violence
Summary: Dick has to deal with now being Gotham's new Batman and being responsible for Damian now. Tim hasn't jsut lost his job, he's lost his job to a boy he thinks is unsuitable to be Robin. While Dick is figuring out how to deal with his own grief and fitting into his new role, he also learns a little more about himself, about Tim and about how to be Batman. Set after Battle for the Cowl and only vaguely caring about continuity.
10. Title: A Family for Tim
Genre: Family; Gen
Fandom/Universe: Batman Animated
Characters/Pairings: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Selena
Warnings:Child Neglect
Summary:Tim is a child of Gotham. He knows the secret identities of half a dozen villains, he follows Batman around with a camera.
He even has a secret identity of his own, as one of Selina's proteges. It's a juggling act hanging out with her and Jason while keeping Batman's secrets., but it's always been worth it.
Then, Jason got himself caught stealing Batman's tires and Tim had to decide if getting Jason back was as important as keeping the fragile balance between villainous protege and superhero stalker.
11. Title: (untitled so far)
Genre: Mystery/Action
Fandom/Universe: Batman
Characters/Pairings: Jason Todd/Tim Drake
Warnings: graphic violence
Summary: In which Jason is a Detective, and Tim is his favorite criminal obsession and case, Jason's fighting to put away the pain in his ass, Tim is fighting to grab whatever shiny things catch his eyes, and both are fighting against the villain trying to use Tim for his own greed.
12. Title: Knock On The Sky
Genre: Adventure
Fandom/Universe: Batman
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake, Cass Cain (gen)
Warnings: swearing
Summary: Tim's relationship with Bruce becomes strained after the incident with Capt. Boomerang, mostly on his part. Cass comes home, and he almost feels better. Then Prudence disappears, around the same time as Cricket. Pru's last known location was in Iraq. While there, both are kidnapped by the League, and Tim gets an invitation to train extensively with them.
Green Lantern
1. Title: Dark Adaptation
Genre: Romantic Space Opera Drama
Fandom/Universe: Green Lantern (comicverse)
Characters/Pairings: Sinestro/Hal, though a fair number of GLs show up from time to time
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Alienated by the new laws the Guardians' have put in place following the Sinestro Corps War, Hal has left the Green Lantern Corps and joined forces with his former mentor. But while the ring on his finger is yellow, his heart and thoughts are with the Corps he left, now at the mercy of the increasingly tyrannical Guardians.
2. Title: we have not yet touched the stars (working title)
Genre: action/adventure
Fandom/Universe: Green Lantern (comics)
Characters/Pairings: Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, Jillian Pearlman/Hal Jordan, Hal Jordan Carol Ferris (mentioned)
Warnings: attempted non-con, torture
Summary: Jillian Pearlman of Earth. You have the ability to overcome great fear.
She's been called plenty of things in her life - Jill, Jilly, Pearlman, Captain, Cowgirl - but Green Lantern is certainly a new one. Jillian Pearlman, from when she first knew she wanted to fly, to when she earns her wings as Earth's newest Green Lantern. And of course she's scared, she's terrified, but she was made to be in the air and there's no challenge she won't back down from.
(Canon-compliant through most of Green Lantern vol. 4 and Green Lantern vol. 5, not including issue #0.)
Justice League
1. Title: Mask of the Bat
Genre: Mystery/Adventure
Fandom/Universe: Justice League, "Shogun of Steel" AU (scans available to artist once claims are over)
Characters/Pairings: Hoshi/Hana (Superman/female!Batman); Uguisu (female!Dick Grayson); Medieval Japanese versions of Alfred, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, and the Joker.
Warnings: None
Summary: In a medieval Japan that never was, a fierce female ninja named Hana and a warrior from the stars named Hoshi fight as part of a team of powerful beings. However, when Hana receives a letter from her loyal family retainer begging her to return to the capital to investigate a mysterious serial killer, she finds herself back in the elaborate and formal court she rejected as a child. Bringing with them the silent orphan girl they have named after the first bird of spring, Hoshi and Hana must negotiate the complicated world of noble Japan, with all of its strictures on class and gender, while trying to track down a killer who strikes in the form of a laughing demon.
Young Justice
1. Title: the corners of life
Genre: character study (Tim) with hurt/comfort elements
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice (animated)
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake/Jaime Reyes
Warnings: Explores grief tied to parental death and neglect, and missing persons cases; contains violence compliant with the universe/material, as well as implications of domestic abuse pertaining to secondary characters. Deals with ptsd and anxiety symptoms not limited to nightmares, flashbacks, invasive thoughts, emotional blunting, and physical numbness in extremities. Minor/other character deaths, canon character deaths mentioned or portrayed outright in the text. Casual ableist language, as well as resentment of the main character for his father, which is at least in part related to his being wheelchair-bound and still recovering from a coma. One scene of a sexual nature between two characters aged 15/16.
Summary: Compliant with YJ canon up to episode 5 of season 2; this story borrows from comics to fill in gaps in the character's backstories and explores how Tim copes with his parents' kidnapping in Haiti and Batman's absence. Being needed to hold down Gotham gives him less time with his new team, and his relationship with Gamma squad is strained until Jaime asks for help with the disappearance of his friend. The small triumphs and major disappointments of searching for Tye bring them closer together, but Tim continues to hold Jaime at arms length, believing there was more to his relationship with Tye than friendship.
While the story is an exploration of grief and two people coming together in the face of large absences in their lifes (Tye, Janet Drake), I've tried to inject moments of humor to round it out. The overall tone is heavy and at times flat, but scenes range from angst/humor/action/hurt+comfort/intimate, and there are plenty of moments that are sweet/shippy that don't involve sex, for anyone worried about the ages of the characters. Settings range from a carnival in Happy Harbor to open Texas highways.
Note: I hate that I even have to add this but YJ Jaime is a specific canon reference with a specific BROWN skin color, so artists please be sure to use proper references and not whitewash him.
2. Title: Seclusion of an atoll
Genre: gen
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice (Cartoon) post-Season 1, pre-Season 2
Characters/Pairings: Kaldur, Koy, TulaGarth, Aquatrio (TulaKaldurGarth)
Warnings: Though there is romance and pairings, it reads more as gen a majority of the time. I feel like that deserves a warning.
Summary: It all starts when Kaldur gets put on a mission to help protect King Orin’s son from an assassination attempt. He, Tula, and Garth are among those the king and queen trust most, after all. Throw in the fact that he and Roy are living together (and looking for Speedy in the meantime - though Kaldur mostly just keeps Roy from getting too caught up in that mission, since it has been just about a year since the infamous New Year’s Eve of Near World Domination), and that there is quiet political turmoil brewing in Atlantis, and this mission gets a bit more complicated than one would expect.
DC Crossovers
1. Title: Crossing the Rubicon
Genre: Character/Relationship Study, Gen, Realism, Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Humor
Fandom/Universe: DC comicverse pre-reboot, AU
Characters/Pairings: Main Characters and Pairings: Jaime Reyes/Tim Drake, (OC) Sylvia Velasco, Brenda Del Vecchio/Paco Tejas, Milagro Reyes, Alberto Reyes/Bianca Reyes and (OC) Yvette Reyes
Warnings: Teen Pregnancy, descriptions of graphic violence, Drug Cartal centered violence, description of birth and delivery, some drinking/alcohol, ableism, domestic violence (in the form of arguments), racism, heterosexism and intersectionality between racism and heterosexism
Summary:Taking place over the course of one year, Jaime Reyes, who thrives on being busy, is having a hard time handling the pressure of it all. He is still the Blue Beetle and is taking on some new challenges in the form of the infamous Drug Cartels in Mexico and beyond the border. He is finally working at a Dental Office and managing dentistry school classes at the same time. He is still Tim Drake's longtime boyfriend with no plans on ever taking any next steps in their relationship. He is just comfortable being busy and he's fine with that. That is until he meets a young teenager, Sylvia Velasco. She is a small informate and a survivor of cartel violence who helps Jaime find information to take out a few enemies that are not of the super-villain variety. Not long after that, she discovers that she is pregnant. After agreeing to help the young teen get back on her feet, Jaime finds himself looking at becoming a father before the year is over which brings complications, vicious fights and picking which crib will fit in his apartment.
Both Jaime and Tim are going to be fathers in less than one year, and this is the story of that one year in their lives.
Author's note: Regarding possible art claims: Please note that I do not want the artists to whitewash Jaime's family or the new baby Yvette in any of the art. I'm a latin@ myself, and I want to see art with people that actually look like my skin tone.
2, Title: Well At Least Wonder Woman Approves
Genre: Action/Drama
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice (animated), Smallville (TV), Smallville Season 11 (comic)
Characters/Pairings: gen / canon pairings
Warnings: n/a
Summary: Conner gets introduced to another kick-ass member of his family (sort of). Annoyance of Superman ensues. ...Well, at least Wonder Woman approves -- she's almost like a surrogate den mother after Black Canary, right? That should count for something.
Longer summary: Takes place after season 1 on the Young Justice Earth. The Young Justice team helps Red Arrow (the Roy clone) knock over a LexCorp truck shipment that they think is moving the original Roy Harper. As it turns out, it was really moving Lex Luthor instead -- the memoryless one from Smallville Season 11, though nobody really knows it at the time. The YJ-earth Luthor shows up shortly thereafter and gets owned by SV!Lex; similarly, SV!Lex more-or-less holds his own with the YJ-earth League. Conner decides he wants to 'adopt' this Lex (or vice-versa, something like that). There's uh, a -lot- of (possibly-unnecessary?) talking after the initial shipment knock-over :) ...Lex gets taken up to the JL satellite because he's from another earth, was in Luthor's custody for about three months, and needs to be checked over. Conner decides to go with him. More stuff happens, and Tess ends up nearly killing Lex before she is 'split' away from haunting him (she's actually a ghost, not just some brain memory-impression thing).
3. Title:Family, Made by Hand (subject to change)
Genre: Action, pre-romance
Fandom/Universe: DCU
Characters/Pairings: Slade Wilson/Janet Drake, Wintergreen, cameos by young Tim Drake
Warnings: violence, on-screen homicides and child endangerment. Janet being a protagonist?
Summary: Janet Drake followed her father into the CIA. Within a year, she meets Slade while out on assignment and that's when everything changed for her. Flash forward a while, Slade and Wintergreen have known Janie for years. But this is the first time they've met her son. Somebody's started targeting Janie's carefully hidden civilian identity, and they had the bad taste to go after her son. You almost have to feel sorry for them. Janie's got her sniper rifle, and Slade's got her back.
Note to artists: the author has scans of Janet Drake for reference if you need them, so don’t pass on this story just because you’re not familiar with her.
4. Title: Kaleidoscope
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Fandom/Universe: Young Justice cartoon, Legion of Super-Heroes (inspired by the Earth 247 reboot, although set in the YJ setting.)
Characters/Pairings: Dick/Wally (Birdflash), Querl Dox / Lyle Norg (Brainiac 5 / Invisible Kid)
Warnings: Graphic violence
Summary: Due to a major mishap in the lab, Querl and Lyle involuntarily set off a ripple through space and time itself. They escape the lingering effects of the explosion, hurled into the 21st century, where everything has been drastically changed for the worse.
With no Batman and Superman a villain, the Legion that they know is no more, all while metahumans are hunted down to be captured or killed. While Querl and Lyle need to get back to their own time and set things straight again before Earth tears itself apart, Conner must help his team survive as he is the only member of the team with his memories still intact.
5. Title: Currently Untitled
Genre: Romance, AU, some mystery
Fandom/Universe: DC Comics, Pre-Reboot Alternate Universe,
especially after "Cry for Justice"/"Battle for the Cowl"
Characters/Pairings: Tim Drake/Roy Harper
Warnings: Off screen mpreg, shapeshifting
characters (but no bestiality), some OOCness with reason, references
to canonical past drug addiction.
Summary: With Lian extremely injured in the Star City attack, and certain former friends more interesting in proving he's relapsed than in helping him, Roy will do anything he can to get her the medical attention and care she needs, even if it means ignoring his own injuries and going mercenary, taking any job he can. Hired to steal a dragon's egg, he gets more than he bargained for when the dragon turns out to be a shapeshifting Tim Drake, former Robin and Roy's one-time lover - and 'father' of Roy's dragon children. While Roy gets used to that idea, he and Tim are forced to seek help from the JLA when others try to steal the hatchlings, which reveals Tim's shapeshifting nature to Batman.
Bruce has spent four months trying to find his missing son, only to have him appear as a dragon with Roy Harper and two hatchlings in tow. Dealing with his feelings about Tim hiding this from him take a back seat to finding out who hired Roy to steal the eggs, why Luthor wants the egg, and why Dick is so fixated on the idea that Roy has relapsed.
But the confrontation between Tim and both Batmen will come even as Tim and Roy try to determine where they stand with each other and their children, both human and dragon.
6. Title: Baby Mine
Genre: Romance/fluff/slice of life
Fandom/Universe: DCU
Characters/Pairings: Roy Harper (Red Arrow)/Tim Drake (Red Robin)
Warnings: slight angst, mostly fluff
Summary: One morning Tim wakes up and finds a baby in his living room. As he and Roy search to discover where the baby came from, with Zatanna's help they discover that the baby is actually theirs. Roy has problems with this discovery and a wedge forms between him and Tim. With effort the two come back together and form the family they've always wanted.
7. Title: With One Piece Missing
Genre: Fix-it
Fandom/Universe: Dc Comics Pre-new 52
Characters/Pairings: Connor Hawke/Jason Todd, Also featuring BatFamily and the Arrows.
Warnings: none
Summary: A series of unexplained files are delivered to certain members of the Batfamily. The "official" members of the Batfamily team up to investigate, but are forced to stop and deal with the distractions set for them before they can make any headway on their investigation. Jason Todd, though, who has received a file of his own, has chosen a different route of investigation, and on the way uncovers a mysterious lab with ties to the League of Assassins and plans for a global pandemic.
Dinah Lance, meanwhile, when on the trail of a missing child, uncovers a massive kidnapping ring that's somehow tied in to the descendants of Vandal Savage. Upon further investigation, she, along with Mia Dearden, an uncharacteristically secretive Connor Hawke, and later, Oliver Queen, unearth evidence that Lian Harper's "death" may not have been everything it seemed. Now if only they could find Roy Harper...
A general fix-it fic set in the old DCU, With One Piece Missing works both to correct some of the worse travesties of past canon and create a complex, overarching plotline to bring Lian Harper back with a bang. A more subtle correction is the simple erasure of Jason's post-Countdown canon: the doppleganger plotline, while a good fix, has been done to death, and has thus been more or less skipped over. This fic is a sequel to a previous fic, but is perfectly comprehensible without its prequel as long as the reader goes in knowing that Jason Todd and Connor Hawke have been a couple for a while at the beginning of the fic.
8. Title: I don't want to forget how your voice sounds
Genre: AU, Angst, Romance
Fandom/Universe: Superman (Smallville)/Batman (Nolan 'verse)
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne/Clark Kent, Alfred Pennnyworth, Lex Luthor, Martha and Jonathan Kent, Chloe Sullivan, Pete Ross
Warnings: None
Summary: Bruce Wayne comes to Smallville to visit his old friend Lex Luthor and to follow up on some rumors of strange activity in Metropolis. Once there, he meets and falls in lust with Clark Kent, not knowing that Clark is only sixteen. After learning the truth, Bruce can't seem to stay away from the mysterious young farm boy. With Clark's parents making sure nothing happens between them and new villains popping up, can Bruce and Clark ever find a middle ground?
Other Crossovers
1. Title: Elliptical Orbit
Genre: Drama/romance, NC-17
Fandom/Universe: Crossover between Nolanverse and MCU (Iron Man)
Characters/Pairings: Bruce Wayne/Tony Stark
Warnings: Very brief minor -> adult teasing (no actual underage), sex between adults
Summary: Bruce Wayne may be the richest man in Gotham, but he's far from being the most liked. Of the few people that can claim know him well, one of them is Tony Stark. Ever since meeting as kids, their strange, tumultuous friendship has carried them through all the major milestones of their lives, from childhood revelations to troubling times overseas to becoming superheroes. It's rarely easy. Most of the time they won't even admit to liking each other. But they just can't leave each other alone.