Higher, Faster, Further, Baby.

“Higher, faster, further, baby.”

As we said in our closing message at the end of this year’s auction, that was our mantra coming into MTH 2019, and we certainly carried it off with your help.

Last year, we had 236 creators and 354 auctions… This year, we zipped past that with a tremendous turnout that went beyond our expectations: 324 “Marvel”-ous creators came forward to offer 522 auctions.

Last year, we raised $19,262.52, a mindblowing number we’re still trying to wrap our heads around… This year, we’re excited to announce that together, we raised:

That’s about $8,000 more than the MTH 2018 total 😮💖🎉

We’re going to channel Luke Cage here and exclaim, “SWEET CHRISTMAS!”

Considering just how successful MTH was in its inaugural year, we were unsure whether we could get close to those numbers again, let alone top them. Suffice to say, we were blown away at every single step, from creator registration all the way to donation processing.

We told ourselves we would be happy with any amount, especially if we miraculously matched our total last year, so we were shocked speechless when we hit it days before the auction ended. Then the total kept growing, with no sign of stopping or slowing down, as the donations kept pouring in. Surely it would stop at 20k? 22k?! A few of us, emboldened by the “higher, faster, further” theme this year, dared to wish for the impossible: 25k. We all knocked on wood and referred to this figure in vague terms (“the number we won’t mention,” “the number that must not be named,” etc.).

It was a remarkable experience, and we often found ourselves at a loss for words (we had to resort to heart emojis, keyboard bashing, and exclamation points many a time in our mod chat). We’ve been impatient to share the results with you, not just because of how incredible the final count is but because of how we got there. Each and every one of you was instrumental to our success, and we appreciate your contributions so very much.

Creators, we couldn’t have started this auction without you all. We loved seeing so many of last year’s creators sign up again and were pleasantly surprised by how many new faces showed up to the party.

Bidders, as crazy as it sounds, most of the donations were small ones. It just goes to show how much of an impact you can have when you’re part of something bigger than yourself. Each donation has a ripple effect, and with enough ripples, that can cause a wave. You matter, and you can make a difference.

We also owe our success to our wonderful signal boosters. There can’t be an auction without any participants, and thanks to everyone spreading our posts around and encouraging their fandom friends to sign up and/or bid, we reached hundreds of incredible creators and bidders.

Thank you all. We’re so touched by the massive number of people who donated above and beyond their pledged amount, creators who took on multiple auctions and offered up multiple winner slots, and bidders who accepted their second-place wins with such eagerness! We also had people make donations in the spirit of MTH even though they didn’t win an auction, which was beyond generous.

We’ve already seen how our donations are changing the world for the better. To name a few examples:

Your donations to Rainbow Railroad had the double their impact as donations to the organization will be matched from November 1 until December 31.

Flippable helped turn the deep red Virginia into blue this election for the first time in 26 years, an extremely important victory for the Democrats that will have tremendous influence on how things may go in the U.S.A.

The National Women’s Law Center won its lawsuit against the Trump administration regarding personal beliefs dictating patient care.

Not to mention that our good deeds haven’t gone unnoticed thanks to bidders who gave us a shoutout this year. The president of RAINN knows about MTH and gave one of our winners a personal thank you for participating and helping raise money for their organization, and BBRF somehow found out about us and emailed us personally as well.

We’re sure that in the months and years to come, we’ll see even more wonderful results.

In addition to the astounding amount of money we were able to raise for charity, MTH was successful in other ways. We strove to be as inclusive as possible, determined to make this event a fandom-wide effort. Considering that the auctions covered over 400 platonic and romantic relationships (if we include “all ships/gen”-inclusive relationships, this number is even higher) across 29 universes within the Marvel multiverse, up from 242 and 19, respectively), we can safely say that we accomplished our goal.

This spirit of inclusion also applies to our charities. Every one of our 30 supported charities received donations. We’re in awe of your commitment to supporting all our creators and charities and thrilled that you spread all the love around, bidders!

Here’s our breakdown of the donations (click to enlarge the image):

We’ve also listed the amount raised per charity on our List of Organizations page.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for helping us turn our second Marvel Trumps Hate auction into such an incredible experience. We cherish every single message of love and support that we received and continue to receive on our Discord server and through DMs, Tumblr messages, emails, tweets, etc. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

If you’d like to keep up-to-date with all of the 2019 Marvel Trumps Hate fills, follow us and/or check out the “mth 2019” tag on our Tumblr. You’ll also be able to find works posted on AO3 in our Marvel Trumps Hate 2019 collection and links to fills in our Discord server, which you can join to brainstorm prompts, chat about fills, and find out about other fandom events.

Thank you once again to everyone who volunteered their services, time, money, and platforms to spread the word.

We can’t wait to see all of your fanworks over the coming year!

Lots of love and gratitude, Your 2019 MTH mods

After winning bidding on my @marveltrumpshate​ auction, @weethreequarter​ asked to be surprised by the story I picked and the moodboard I made. This left me with the difficult task of picking just one of her amazing stories. Fortunately, in the end I did manage to make a decision!

So, without further ado, the moodboard end result:

The story I ended up choosing was Return to Neverland. It may seem like one of the 'easier' choices, due to the fact that it's WinterIron, but that is not why I ended up choosing it.

It deals beautifully with some fairly intense subjects, not the least of which is Bucky’s depression. I strongly admire the way Ree managed to handle the overwhelming feelings that Bucky deals with, as well as the way it makes you completely shut yourself away from others.

The horses are a wonderful addition that matters to the story, and that helps bring all of them together. Helping the horse that he found made it so Bucky himself started to get a little better as well, enough to accept help, and that message resonates with me. Sometimes you feel like you’re not worth it, but the people (and animals) that care for you are. And sometimes, that’s what you need to take that first step on a long journey towards getting better.

I have been cheering for Bucky, as well as for the others, the entire story so far, and I am eagerly looking forward to the final chapters. Thank you, Ree, for this incredibly touching story. I hope you love my creations as much as I love yours!!

(Because yes, I loved the story so much, I made a second moodboard for the secondary pairing in this story!)

Hi everyone! The absolutely amazing Marvel Trumps Hate auction is underway again, and I am proud and excited to say I am participating again this year! So if there’s something you’ve been wanting for me to write, this is your chance!

That being said, I am not the only one by far. There are so many amazing creators that can be found here. The WinterIron server I am a proud member of also has multiple incredible creators participating, as can be found here. If you’ve got some money to spare, this is a good purpose for it!

In case you have any questions (about the auction or about possible fills), please feel free to message me!

Eirlyssa

See Eirlyssa’s existing works here and here. Preferred contact methods: Email - eirlys.windchaser@gmail.com Tumblr - eirlyssa Preferred organizations: - Anything from the list of approved organizations Will create works that contain: Tony-central, Tony!whump, Tony Stark being loved, bottom Tony Stark, Team Iron Man, healthy relationship between main characters,, domestic Avengers, team feels, team-fic, hurt/comfort, (angst with a) happy ending, A/B/O dynamics, fluff, cuddling, bed sharing, (mutual) pining, getting back together, fake marriage/relationship, jealousy, pre-slash, presumed dead, wingfic, wrong number, identity porn, de-aged/kid-fic, 5+1s, outsider POV, various AUs (e.g. high school/college AU, soulmate AU, canon AU, sentinel/guide AU, shapeshifter AU, fairytale AU, non-powered AU, fantasy/medieval AU), crossovers (so long as it’s another fandom I’m familiar with). Will not create works that contain: Top/alpha/dom Tony, unhappy endings, smut/kinks, heavy angst, major character deaths, graphic drug abuse, gore, explicit physical or emotional abuse, terminal illnesses, permanent major character death, suicide, dark-fic, scat, watersports, sexual age play, maiming/extremely graphic torture, animal harm, graphic pedophilia, some AUs (e.g. dystopian AU, villain AU), dark/evil, CACW Team Cap. In main pairing/from main characters (I could write this done by someone other than the main character(s), e.g. in a previous relationship): non-con/rape, dub-con, consent issues, abusive relationship, infidelity, gaslighting, underage, adult-child relationships, statutory rape, incest, breakups/divorce.  

– Digital work (graphic/edit, gifset, manip, mood board, etc.) –

Auction ID: 069 Will create works for the following relationships: James “Bucky” Barnes/Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Loki/Tony Stark - MCU James “Rhodey” Rhodes & Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark - MCU Tony Stark/Stephen Strange - MCU T'Challa/Tony Stark - MCU Tony Stark/Thor - MCU Tony Stark & Jan van Dyne - AvAc Work Description: A moodboard for a story of your choice, though if it’s not your own story, permission from the author is required. Should be able to finish December 2019 at the latest (though earlier dates can be discussed). It might hint at intimate situations/violence, but I will not go too graphic (e.g. visuals of intimate parts/graphic torture). Please let me know if you are uncertain whether I would be able to fill your request. Ratings: G, Teen, Mature CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

– Fic or other writing –

Auction ID: 070 Will create works for the following relationships: James “Bucky” Barnes/Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Loki/Tony Stark - MCU James “Rhodey” Rhodes & Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark - MCU Tony Stark/Stephen Strange - MCU T'Challa/Tony Stark - MCU Tony Stark/Thor - MCU Tony Stark & Jan van Dyne - AvAc Work Description: Minimum of 2500 words (might end up being more if particularly inspired, but you don’t pay for more than 2500), should be able to finish February 2020 at the latest (though earlier dates can be discussed). The mature rating is only for the possibility of violence/cursing, since I am not great at writing smut. Please let me know if you are uncertain whether I would be able to fill your request. Ratings: G, Teen, Mature CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK

– Fic or other writing –

Auction ID: 071 Will create works for the following relationships: James “Bucky” Barnes/Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Loki/Tony Stark - MCU James “Rhodey” Rhodes & Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Steve Rogers/Tony Stark - MCU, AvAc Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark - MCU Tony Stark/Stephen Strange - MCU T'Challa/Tony Stark - MCU Tony Stark/Thor - MCU Tony Stark & Jan van Dyne - AvAc Work Description: Minimum of 5000 words (might end up being more if particularly inspired, but you don’t pay for more than 5000), should be able to finish February 2020 at the latest (though earlier dates can be discussed). The mature rating is only for the possibility of violence/cursing, since I am not great at writing smut. Please let me know if you are uncertain whether I would be able to fill your request. Ratings: G, Teen, Mature CLICK HERE TO BID ON THIS WORK The auction runs from October 19 (11:59 PM ET) to October 26 (11:59 PM ET). Visit marveltrumpshate.com during Auction Week to view all of our auctions and to place your bids!

Bewitched

A fill for square Y5 - Magic of my @buckybarnesbingo​, as well as a fill for the @tonystarkbingo​ November flash 002 - “Witches/Witchcraft” - WinterIron - General Audiences.

Based on this Tumblr post.

Every single person in town knew about Tony. Incredibly attractive, insanely wealthy, astonishingly intelligent… and magical. It was difficult to find someone who was not fascinated with him, and his list of suitors went on and on.

Unfortunately, there had been one too many incidents with people trying to get into his good graces on false pretenses. His experiences had made him hesitant about getting close to people, let alone close enough to get romantically involved. As much as people tried, he couldn’t stop wondering if it was truly who they were, or if they were pretending in order to get something from him.

So he came up with a plan - he let all of his admirers know that he would marry the person who would enter his house with the key he’d attached to his cat’s collar.

For the first few weeks, it could best be described as a hunt. People fell over one another to try to catch the cat any way they could. But it was too smart, too fast, and it got away every time. No one even managed to get close to the cat, though there were a few people it would tolerate - notably, those who would not chase it too fiercely, though it was still wary around them.

Bucky had long ago figured out he didn’t stand a chance. Oh, he was certainly attracted to the other man, but a one-armed traumatized veteran didn’t even come close to being what Tony deserved.

So he herded his goats, and he watched as others tried and failed to catch the cat. He worried, sometimes, that they would hurt it, but it always managed to get away before that happened.

And then, one day, he found it watching him. At a distance, certainly, and it stiffened the moment it realized Bucky had noticed it, but it was just… there. He hummed, keeping his voice calm like he always did with skittish animals. “Wanted some rest from the hunt today, didn’t you? Don’t worry - I’ll keep my distance, you just relax.”

He stuck to that promise, keeping his distance and focusing on his goats. By the time evening fell and he had to return to the hut that was all he could afford, the cat was a lot more relaxed in his presence.

Despite that, he hadn’t expected it to come back the next day. Or the day after. Or the day after that. But come back it did, sunbathing as Bucky took care of his goats the best he could. As the days went on, he found he’d started talking to the cat. Nothing big at first, just introducing his goats and telling the cat about them. And then he started mentioning thoughts he was having. And before he knew it, he was telling the cat about losing his arm as he tried his best to breathe through the panic.

Without warning, there was a warm weight sitting in his lap. The cat, looking up at him with what appeared to be concern, purring softly. Bucky was distracted enough that his breathing started to slow down, no longer a point of focus.

Instead, he looked reverently down at the cat. He didn’t think it had ever been this close to anyone else, except maybe Tony himself. But here it was, sitting in his lap, helping him out, and the feeling was indescribable.

Trembling, he reached out and touched that soft fur, stroking gently. The cat purred louder, nuzzling its head into his hand, and Bucky felt himself melt. “You’re a sweetheart, you know that? So sweet, helping me out, such a great cat,” he murmured, mesmerized by the smoothness of its coat on his work-rough hand. “So soft, so gorgeous, he must take great care of you.”

Still, he didn’t touch the key. It wasn’t about that, not right now. Instead, they sat together quietly in the warm sun, Bucky keeping up his gentle petting and the cat keeping up its soothing purring.

He’d expected it to be an exception, because he’d been panicking, but the cat kept coming back, coming close and allowing him to touch it. Which he did, happily - but he never touched the key, didn’t even make a motion as though he’d grab it.

They were sitting in the warm sun together, watching Bucky’s goats, when the cat pressed its neck into Bucky’s petting hands. Somehow, it managed to make its “mrow” sound like a question.

“Why I’m not taking it?” he asked, looking down at where the cat looked at him with inquisitive eyes. He should’ve figured that the familiar of someone as magical as Tony wouldn’t be any regular cat. “It’s… He did this to find someone good. Someone worthy. And I can’t say how much I’ve appreciated your presence, or how much I’d like to get to know him better, but… I sincerely doubt I’m the kind of person he’d like to have showing up with that key. I don’t want to walk into that house and… and have him look at me with disappointment.”

A headbutt pulled him out of his thoughts, and he smiled sadly down at the cat. “I just want him to smile, you know? Someone as amazing as him deserves to be happy.”

Suddenly, instead of a cat, it was Tony in his lap. Speechless, Bucky stared.

“I’d like to think we could make one another happy?” Tony said and, despite everything, he sounded almost shy. There was no mistaking the hopeful look in those beautiful eyes, though, or the way that he had willingly spent his time with Bucky these past weeks.

So, a little hesitant despite it all, Bucky reached out his one hand and took Tony’s, whose fingers interlaced with his like they were made to fit together. “I… I’d like to try,” he admitted.

When Tony smiled brightly, his entire being lighting up, he figured they were off to a good start at least.

Whumptober day 30 - Recovery

My second-to-last fill for @whumptober2019​, a somewhat silly Pre-WinterIron AU where Tony goes to a rehabilitation center after getting heart surgery. It’s also available on Ao3.

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Rhodey and Pepper had been the ones to convince him to go to the Marvel Rehabilitation Center.

He’d argued at first. He’d managed to make it through the first operation, after all, and those circumstances had been less than ideal. This time he had anesthetics, and he wasn’t being tortured, and he had time to heal at his own pace instead of racing against time to try to figure out a way to escape.

When he’d said so, they’d only looked sad, which hadn’t been his intention. He just wanted to make it clear that he didn’t need any help, medical or psychological, because he could deal with it.

They had argued just as hard and, when outlining the many benefits of medical and psychological help as well as having a place where there would be other people around to keep him busy in medically appropriate ways did not work, they pleaded with him. And while he was great at saying ‘no’ to their arguments, he was incredibly weak to their pleas.

So the Marvel Rehab Center it was.

For the first few days, he’d hated it. He didn’t want to talk about his traumas (he would like to forget all about them) and he didn’t want any assistance (he would like to just work his way through everything like he usually did).

Still, he’d remembered his promise to his best friends, and so he tried. Marvel was huge, after all, dealing with all kinds of problems and people. So he figured that, if nothing else, he’d be able to find a way to be less bored. Rehab-appropriate diversion was what he’d been promised, and he’d find it even if it killed him.

The staff hadn’t been too pleased with the fact that he’d sort of gone missing for a few hours, but Tony figured it had been more than worth it (and he bet that if he asked the staff now, they’d agree - he’d been a lot calmer and more agreeable since).

Steve had been the first one he’d met. Steve was tiny and ready to throw down whenever and also suffered from a laundry list of illnesses that he had apparently thrown down with ever since he was born. Tony liked him instantly.

Bruce was the second one. From what Tony could gather, he’d had some bad history which had resulted in Dissociative Identity Disorder, with an alternate identity named Hulk. It was also easy to tell that Bruce was terrified of hurting anyone, and despised Hulk for his violent tendencies (though always towards objects rather than people). Besides that, though, he was also a brilliant scientist, and Tony had zero hesitation about hanging out with him as often as possible.

Natasha was the third, and Tony was honestly not entirely sure what was up with her. He guessed it had something to do with the suspicious way she tended to watch everyone, or the way she had a tendency of appearing this close to killing someone. But she’d looked lonely, and everyone had appeared to be afraid of her. Tony could basically feel Rhodey and Pepper facepalming in the distance as he approached her.

Clint was next. Clint was a disaster. Chaotic, depressed, and beyond clumsy. He also had the single best sense of humor Tony had ever found. He’d decided he was adopting Clint.

Sam was also depressed, as well as traumatized, from losing his best friend. He seemed to find part of his own purpose in helping out others at the Center and often led some sort of mindfulness group that Tony had said he would join only if Steve would. Considering the thought of Steve trying out mindfulness was laughable, he wasn’t anticipating that would be something to worry about.

Thor was loud and cheerful and had body dysmorphic disorder. He tried his best to be cheerful and it was clear that most of the other people found him overwhelming. The fact that he was incredibly tall and incredibly muscular didn’t help much. Thor laughed at Tony’s jokes when he made them and clapped him on the shoulder hard enough that he wondered if it had left a bruise.

Finally (and perhaps most importantly), there was Bucky. Bucky, who had seen war. Bucky, who had lost his left arm. Bucky, who had then been held as a prisoner of war. Bucky, who was ridiculously attractive and ridiculously sarcastic and ridiculously smart.

Tony had decided he wanted to marry Bucky.

He wasn’t in a hurry - it was clear Bucky was not comfortable with himself, didn’t feel like he was in a position to get into a relationship. But Tony was more than willing to wait if that was what it took, and eventually he’d be able to ask Bucky out and hope the other man would say ‘yes’ so Tony could get on with his twelve-step plan towards marrying him.

That evening, he’d texted Rhodey and Pepper. Met my future husband. You’ll love him.

He might not have wanted to go here, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it. Not as he looked around at all of them. Not as Steve threatened to fight Thor, who looked at him like he was a particularly adorable puppy. Not as Clint knocked over their game board accidentally and Bruce facepalmed. Not as Sam and Bucky snarled at one another, looking about ready to tear each others’ throats out. Not even as Natasha pulled out a knife from somewhere (and he was pretty sure she wasn’t allowed to have them) and told them all to shut the hell up and sit down before she made them.

In fact, he mused, he should send Rhodey and Pepper a thank-you card. Perhaps the others would even add a message of their own.

Whumptober day 16 - Pinned Down

My sixteenth fill for @whumptober2019​, also available on Ao3.

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“Should we surrender?”

Steve’s jaw clenched with stubbornness. “We are not surrendering,” he insisted. “They will not beat us. Not like this.”

“We have nowhere to go, Steve,” Clint insisted. “This isn’t a fight we should’ve started, and you know it. We’re out of ammo, and nowhere close to get any. We’re lucky we’ve got cover now, but…”

“The moment we leave it, we’re done for,” Sam agreed, though he sounded no happier about it.

They watched as Steve clenched his fists, trying to think of a way, any way, they could still win this. It didn’t look good, though.

“As much as I dislike agreeing with them, I must admit it seems we are at a disadvantage here,” Thor gravely told them. His hammer was mere feet away, but it might as well be an entire world for all that it would be of no use to them. “It would, perhaps, be best to admit defeat and submit to the tender mercy of our enemies.”

“Tender mercy?” As much as he agreed they wouldn’t be winning this fight, Clint had no illusions. There would be no mercy, not for them.

But despite everything, Steve retained his determination. “Clint’s right. There will be no such thing. And wouldn’t it be better to go down fighting, to be defeated honorably rather than to take the cowardly way out?”

It seemed to spur Thor on at least, but both Clint and Sam looked at him dubiously.

“Yeah, you wanna go down with honor, you go for it,” Sam told him dryly, “but I’m not taking any more hits because you don’t know when to quit.”

“Same,” Clint agreed instantly. When Steve looked at the both of them, betrayed, he glared at the supersoldier. “We don’t have your super healing factor, or your super stubbornness. What we have is common sense, and while I’ll freely admit we should’ve used that a bit sooner so we wouldn’t have ended up like this, at this point surrendering is about the only way I can see of getting out of this without ending up dead or worse.”

“You think they’ll be kind?” Steve asked dubiously.

“I’m mostly hoping they’ll be happy enough to have won that the consequences won’t be too bad,” Clint shrugged.

“So you won’t stand with me? Try one more time, one more push, and see if it can make the difference?” It was clear that Steve wasn’t going to surrender - it went against everything that he was to stop going before he’d given everything he had.

Both Clint and Sam shook their heads. “Sorry, Steve. This is the only way.”

“Thor? Are you with me?” Steve asked, back straight and eyes intent.

“One final stand,” Thor agreed, nodding. He held out a fist, which Steve touched with his own. “Together.”

With horrified awe, Clint and Sam watched as they both jumped out behind the sides of the couch with a loud war cry that was abruptly cut off by two pillows hitting the two of them straight in the faces, hard enough they both stumbled backwards a bit. It left them unstable enough that the next pillows took them down instantly, their war cry now transformed into a cry of pain.

Before they could be struck again, they both rolled back behind the couch, curling up to make sure any other shots wouldn’t hit any vital parts.

“Ready to surrender now?” Sam asked the both of them dryly, arms crossed and eyebrow raised. With two superhumans and a guy known for his impeccable aim, he’d thought he’d picked the right side in this fight.

As it turned out, he’d severely underestimated how much damage a team-up of Bucky, Natasha and Tony could do.

“We’ll surrender,” Steve finally conceded, gingerly feeling his reddened nose.

Definitely the wrong side.