Pretty Girls Make Graves (aka Loveaholic) 8/8

[nike_ravus]

Title: Pretty Girls Make Graves (aka Loveaholic) 8/8

Author: Alsike

Fandom: X-Men/Criminal Minds x-over

Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss

Rating: R

AN/Disclaimer: Not my girls.

Apologies: Don't kill me, please?

Summary: Sometimes the plans you make have a chance to become real. What if what you thought you wanted isn't enough?

Comments

[elemental_light]

Well, I liked it, but I'm not quite sure what to make of that last part; it seems to have left me with more questions than answers, especially the section with the headmaster, his role in matters, and his 'Be careful' comment. But I am being perhaps too literal minded at this point...

I thought that the coda at the end of your ficmix was suitably ambiguous/menacing and made a good ending to the story as a whole. , This section also shed a lot of light on what happened in the earlier parts. I assume that the choice about leaving the 'remains of her family' behind earlier in the series was quite intentional.

[nike_ravus]

Oh yes, 'remains' was a definite choice.

I may have to give it another run through, because the story sort of warped as I was telling it. I had this basic outline in by head, but it wasn't working, because Emma was so clearly resistant to being part of a family. There was no way she could even consider it, and I had to figure out why.

The role of the headmaster is sort of ambiguous, but it seemed likely that Emma would have gotten away with it, legally, and probably most people in her area understood why she did it, but no one would ever trust her. Who knew what could make her snap again? And she started to believe that about herself. The headmaster gave her a chance to leave it behind, but he knows, and he'll never quite trust her either. Which, I think, is something she wants.

Yay for menacing! (I don't write happy endings. I don't know why people expect them from me.)

Thank you for sticking with it! And commenting!

[elemental_light]

Oh, I wasn't gunning for a happy ending - I think a lot of stories call for the opposite.

But, how does the headmaster know? Different country etc etc. And it's not the kind of thing you'd mention on your job application form. (This is the literal-mindedness again).

[nike_ravus]

Well, the headmaster being Professor X, means he knows probably more than he should.

There is, of course, that portion on the application that says "have you ever been convicted of a felony?" (Although because she was a minor...)

Now I feel the need to write more backstory! (I was going to go into the headmaster's part, but then gave in to the twist)

No more. Take home exams and city on the river are my plan now.

[rebelbyrdie]

Oh I love Emma in this, for her past and her present and the future that she doesn't want to want.

Such a great story with a definite and well deserved bittersweet and incomplete (in a good way) ending.

[morthel]

I liked this very much. Can we expect a sequel? It does feel a bit... cut off.

[nike_ravus]

I think you're more likely to get a rewrite than a sequel. I don't actually want to know what happens next, because it's either going to be okay, and thus completely bewildering for Emma. (Until she bewilders herself into walking out, which is a distinct possibility, and depressing.) Or it's going to be really really bad, and although writing about the utter disintegration of lives and relationships is always interesting, it might be best saved for original fiction. Or it could, of course, be normal, where everything bad is expected to be the start of something worse, and everything good treated with suspicion.

Yeah, I want it to feel cut off, not literally, but that all the things that suggest this could be leading somewhere good are gone. I need to give it a rewrite to give it that nice polished punch in the stomach feeling.

[morthel]

Heh, I've noticed a lot of your fanfics are like that - they don't really end happily, or at all. It's a welcome change, seeing a character being as epically bad at relationships as your interpretation of Emma Frost. However, I'd also find it quite interesting to see her working her life out to some degree.

Right now, the fanfic doesn't actually seem hopeless - they still actually seem to genuinely like each other.

Anyways, if I cannot look forward to a sequel, good or bad (my dreams are crushed) I will look forward to the rewrite. Great work, regardless.

[jaws_of_fenrir]

Fuck yeah, that was awesome! I didn't even comment on the other bits as I was too busy tearing through this story. Well done. I'd love to see more out of this universe. It was already delicious and then the last bit with Emma - amazing.

PGMG aka L

[blet_b]

Well this one was more drama laden and angst-y. I have to say as much as my brain loves (and I use that term loosely) happy endings there is something immensely gratifying with the angst. I think you have a great sense of how life really is, as my idea is that those who write and read fanfic are looking for something maybe lacking in their own lives. I am all for reading happy mush, but the angst-y bits really get you reading... I don't feel that the back story is really needed; I think we can all infer as to how the head master may or may not know about Emma, and that it is truly irrelevant and doesn't exactly make for cohesion in this story...Just my 2 cents anyway.