Fanfiction Fridays: A Higher Form of War by gdgdbaby

You know how sometimes you don’t realize you wanted something until someone comes along and hands it to you on a silver platter complete with fanart and your fandom OTP?

This fic is that thing.

Imagine a world where Nick Fury has, because of reasons, allowed the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. staff to engage in a paintball battle on the Helicarrier.  Last man (or woman) standing gets a favor from Fury.

Take a second and just imagine the greatness there.

Obviously the Avengers are going to team up and kick some ass, but Steve and Tony’s massively unresolved sexual tension needs to get dealt with before it causes a problem.

This is my favorite kind of crackfic, because it is written so seriously. It’s like the fic where the Master is an octopus. It doesn’t punch you in the face with slapstick goofiness and out-of-character portrayals—it’s funny because it’s a totally ridiculous situation protrayed in a ridiculously serious way.

So basically here’s the deal: Excellently written Avengers crackfic, Natasha badassery, Steve/Tony UST, Coulson being the equivalent of a nuclear strike against the other paintballers, all bundled up with the beautiful companion art seen above.  It’s 8,200 words of pure genius, and I recommend everyone check it out.

Fanfiction Fridays: Ready, Fire, Aim by gyzym

I’m new to the world of Avengers fandom, and I have only a very interested amateur’s knowledge of the comicverse; but even with all of this, I have this very instinctual understanding that “The Avengers all live together in a house provided by Tony Stark” is an Avengers fanfic plot trope as old and honored as sex pollen or accidental bonding are in Kirk/Spock fiction. And within those tropes, there are always going to be not-so-good ones, and there are always going to be super-amazing ones.

Ready, Fire, Aim is one of the latter. Full disclosure, it’s Steve/Tony (with background Pepper/Natasha), and there’s not much of a connecting thread to the story except for the gradual romantic growth between the two. But the episodic flow of the story is really organic and comfortable; in once scene Clint’s trying to teach Thor how to use the Wii, and in the next the team is helping (or being helped by) the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to subdue evil parade floats. (Oh yeah, there are a million neat little tie-ins with the Marvel ‘verse outside of the movie, which I appreciated even if I am not a comic buff.) The funny parts are funny, the sexy parts are hot like burning, and although I’m not super qualified to talk about characterization, the characters seem to be and act and talk exactly how they ought to in my head. Thor especially is amazing.

This story has two amazing sequels as well (well, one is an actual sequel and one is the story of Ready, Fire, Aim from Steve’s POV, written for a charity fic auction), but they’re easily around 50k words put together, so if you’re recently graduated like me and have a hell of a lot of time on your hands, this is the perfect fic to spend an hour or two (or however long it takes other people to read 50,000 words) with. Enjoy!

Check it out here at AO3!