Fic: Pushing Barriers, Planting Seeds
Title: Pushing Barriers, Planting Seeds
Author: stonecoldfrost
Chapter: 1 of 8
Fandom: X-Men
Character(s): Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw
Song: Mind Games - John Lennon
About: How Emma Frost went from White Queen to X-Man
Rating: PG-13 - does contain sexual references
Author’s Note: Every Marvel character has an origin story, but this is how I always imagined it for this Emma. It does take from X-Men Origins: Emma Frost #1, and will take from Astonishing X-Men (the Joss Whedon re-boot) and a little of the animated Wolverine & The X-Men. A lot of RP lately has been based off X-Men: First Class, but this muse was originally created to slot into the Singer X-Men world after X3. This is that story.
____________________________________
It had been quite the revelation when Emma Frost had realised what she was capable of. When she realised that she had an endless playground in people’s minds. That she could manipulate them to play parts in her little dramas, or get them so distracted as to give up their secrets without realising.
Her own family had always underestimated her, always hated her, but that was because they had no idea. They couldn’t have possibly seen what had been lying dormant in her. What Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club had dragged out of her. What she had forced out of herself.
“With great power came great responsibility”?
Bollocks.
With great power came great confidence. With great power came an even greater need to be the best. And she was. She was better than any of them. It was a rare mutant that could keep up with her, and an even rarer human.
She became the one they desired, the one they would fall to their feet for. Or runaway and cower from. Either option worked for her. So long as she wasn’t insignificant. She wasn’t the little mousey-haired wallflower to be ignored. The strange little child who didn’t have friends, and the even stranger adolescent who had never known her first kiss.
Always the outsider, always the loner.
Nothing much had changed, but she could fool herself into thinking that there was at least one other who person cared as much for her as she did herself. That he valued her, loved her. Didn’t just want to use her. They needed each other, a true partnership that had been strong enough to take on the rest of the Club and come out on top.
She the White Queen, Sebastian the Black King.
More power, more confidence. No one was better than them. No one could touch them. She had subjects to bend to her will, human toys to play with. There were no limits to what her and Sebastian could do together. She wasn’t just a pretty package, she wasn’t just an active mind stuck in a plain body. She was everything. She was beautiful, powerful, rich, envied...
And yet underneath all that, it wasn’t enough.
She was still lonely, still isolated. As much as she wanted Sebastian Shaw to love her, it wasn’t as much as he loved his own power and the position he’d taken. Without the Hellfire Club, without Emma indulging his deviant whims, he never would have looked twice at her. He might have been the one to spot her potential, but that had only been because she’d been in the process of taking her clothes off. Or at least trying to.
It was laughable now to think that the woman that thought of lingerie as a second skin had been a pathetic pole dancer. She hadn’t been able to strip to save her life, the frustration getting to her and her mutation exploding in a wave of mental attacks on all those self-loathing voyeurs who got their rocks off insulting women.
Now they wouldn’t dare open their mouths in case she left them drooling on the floor lost in their own nightmares. No one messed with her. No one dared. But Sebastian could still hurt her. He would always be able to hurt her. First loves, and all that.
First everything, really.
And because of that she really would have followed him to the ends of the Earth. Only now... now she needed to protect herself. She needed to realise that if she was going to become the Emma Frost she’d always wanted to think of herself as that she didn’t need him. She didn’t need anyone. She could make it on her own.
Strange that these thoughts were running through her mind even as his strong hands held onto her hips, Emma moving against him as their audience stayed strapped to the bed with nowhere left to look but at them. She was good at this part, good at going into autopilot while she stayed locked away behind her countless mental guards with her own thoughts. Sebastian never knew any better. Her autopilot was almost as good as when her mind really was on the sex.
It was just time for her to go, time for her to find something else. Something better. With great power came great restlessness. Once you became the best at something, it was time to move on.
She turned her head, pulling out of her daze as she looked at the man strapped to the bed. Again there was that expression of fear and adoration. Like he didn’t know if he should be trying to escape, or just enjoy the show. A sigh escaped her lips as a frown creased her brow. Just once she wanted someone to look at her with nothing but pure adoration. No fear. But even Sebastian couldn’t look at her like that. He looked at her like a man looked at his favourite meal. There was mostly hunger with a little adoration. Then there was the times he looked at her like he knew how much more her power could give him, how many more doors her mind could open for him. And she realised it was starting to become a very one-sided relationship. She was doing a lot of giving with not much coming back in return.
She might not have needed anyone, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t want someone. Couldn’t want that feeling so many others seemed to get to experience, and she could only standby and observe. Experience secondhand by raiding their minds or getting the emotional feedback.
She looked back at the man between her thighs and found that his attention wasn’t on her. Of course it wasn’t. Even he was watching their guest rather than admiring her. Should she have been surprised? No. Maybe he was just getting as good with his autopilot...
Hours later and Emma found herself now alone in bed and still considering what it would take to really escape this life. But she was in too deep now. Who else would take her? She was a murderer, a thief, a master manipulator. She was a bitch. She was the one everyone wanted, but never dared to touch. Her reputation always had been a little too good at preceding her.
No, the only way out was down. She would either have to be killed or usurped. Another challenging her place as White Queen. Redemption wasn’t an option. No matter how much she might have held onto that childish dream of becoming a teacher. She could still remember playing with her dolls and bears and being so proud of her ability to shape their non-existent minds.
Footsteps stopped at the door and Emma rolled over just as the door cracked open and light spilled in from the hallway. Sebastian was back and she really wasn’t in the mood. That was the other thing, long ago the cuddling had stopped. She had actually enjoyed that part in the beginning. The feel of a strong, warm body wrapped around hers and keeping her safe.
With great power came--
Bugger it.
She didn’t even care any more.
Author: stonecoldfrost
Chapter: 1 of 8
Fandom: X-Men
Character(s): Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw
Song: Mind Games - John Lennon
About: How Emma Frost went from White Queen to X-Man
Rating: PG-13 - does contain sexual references
Author’s Note: Every Marvel character has an origin story, but this is how I always imagined it for this Emma. It does take from X-Men Origins: Emma Frost #1, and will take from Astonishing X-Men (the Joss Whedon re-boot) and a little of the animated Wolverine & The X-Men. A lot of RP lately has been based off X-Men: First Class, but this muse was originally created to slot into the Singer X-Men world after X3. This is that story.
____________________________________
It had been quite the revelation when Emma Frost had realised what she was capable of. When she realised that she had an endless playground in people’s minds. That she could manipulate them to play parts in her little dramas, or get them so distracted as to give up their secrets without realising.
Her own family had always underestimated her, always hated her, but that was because they had no idea. They couldn’t have possibly seen what had been lying dormant in her. What Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club had dragged out of her. What she had forced out of herself.
“With great power came great responsibility”?
Bollocks.
With great power came great confidence. With great power came an even greater need to be the best. And she was. She was better than any of them. It was a rare mutant that could keep up with her, and an even rarer human.
She became the one they desired, the one they would fall to their feet for. Or runaway and cower from. Either option worked for her. So long as she wasn’t insignificant. She wasn’t the little mousey-haired wallflower to be ignored. The strange little child who didn’t have friends, and the even stranger adolescent who had never known her first kiss.
Always the outsider, always the loner.
Nothing much had changed, but she could fool herself into thinking that there was at least one other who person cared as much for her as she did herself. That he valued her, loved her. Didn’t just want to use her. They needed each other, a true partnership that had been strong enough to take on the rest of the Club and come out on top.
She the White Queen, Sebastian the Black King.
More power, more confidence. No one was better than them. No one could touch them. She had subjects to bend to her will, human toys to play with. There were no limits to what her and Sebastian could do together. She wasn’t just a pretty package, she wasn’t just an active mind stuck in a plain body. She was everything. She was beautiful, powerful, rich, envied...
And yet underneath all that, it wasn’t enough.
She was still lonely, still isolated. As much as she wanted Sebastian Shaw to love her, it wasn’t as much as he loved his own power and the position he’d taken. Without the Hellfire Club, without Emma indulging his deviant whims, he never would have looked twice at her. He might have been the one to spot her potential, but that had only been because she’d been in the process of taking her clothes off. Or at least trying to.
It was laughable now to think that the woman that thought of lingerie as a second skin had been a pathetic pole dancer. She hadn’t been able to strip to save her life, the frustration getting to her and her mutation exploding in a wave of mental attacks on all those self-loathing voyeurs who got their rocks off insulting women.
Now they wouldn’t dare open their mouths in case she left them drooling on the floor lost in their own nightmares. No one messed with her. No one dared. But Sebastian could still hurt her. He would always be able to hurt her. First loves, and all that.
First everything, really.
And because of that she really would have followed him to the ends of the Earth. Only now... now she needed to protect herself. She needed to realise that if she was going to become the Emma Frost she’d always wanted to think of herself as that she didn’t need him. She didn’t need anyone. She could make it on her own.
Strange that these thoughts were running through her mind even as his strong hands held onto her hips, Emma moving against him as their audience stayed strapped to the bed with nowhere left to look but at them. She was good at this part, good at going into autopilot while she stayed locked away behind her countless mental guards with her own thoughts. Sebastian never knew any better. Her autopilot was almost as good as when her mind really was on the sex.
It was just time for her to go, time for her to find something else. Something better. With great power came great restlessness. Once you became the best at something, it was time to move on.
She turned her head, pulling out of her daze as she looked at the man strapped to the bed. Again there was that expression of fear and adoration. Like he didn’t know if he should be trying to escape, or just enjoy the show. A sigh escaped her lips as a frown creased her brow. Just once she wanted someone to look at her with nothing but pure adoration. No fear. But even Sebastian couldn’t look at her like that. He looked at her like a man looked at his favourite meal. There was mostly hunger with a little adoration. Then there was the times he looked at her like he knew how much more her power could give him, how many more doors her mind could open for him. And she realised it was starting to become a very one-sided relationship. She was doing a lot of giving with not much coming back in return.
She might not have needed anyone, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t want someone. Couldn’t want that feeling so many others seemed to get to experience, and she could only standby and observe. Experience secondhand by raiding their minds or getting the emotional feedback.
She looked back at the man between her thighs and found that his attention wasn’t on her. Of course it wasn’t. Even he was watching their guest rather than admiring her. Should she have been surprised? No. Maybe he was just getting as good with his autopilot...
Hours later and Emma found herself now alone in bed and still considering what it would take to really escape this life. But she was in too deep now. Who else would take her? She was a murderer, a thief, a master manipulator. She was a bitch. She was the one everyone wanted, but never dared to touch. Her reputation always had been a little too good at preceding her.
No, the only way out was down. She would either have to be killed or usurped. Another challenging her place as White Queen. Redemption wasn’t an option. No matter how much she might have held onto that childish dream of becoming a teacher. She could still remember playing with her dolls and bears and being so proud of her ability to shape their non-existent minds.
Footsteps stopped at the door and Emma rolled over just as the door cracked open and light spilled in from the hallway. Sebastian was back and she really wasn’t in the mood. That was the other thing, long ago the cuddling had stopped. She had actually enjoyed that part in the beginning. The feel of a strong, warm body wrapped around hers and keeping her safe.
With great power came--
Bugger it.
She didn’t even care any more.