Phoenix: Lovesong (The J. Alfred Prufrock Mix)

[likeadeuce]

Author: likeadeuce, aka Karabair

Comments

[likeadeuce]

Thanks! There is, theoretically, more to the story (including Scott/Jean) but I'm glad this works on its own, and I'm glad you liked it.

[lilacsigil]

This is wonderful! I love the appearance of Jones, and the eternal argument over what is normal, and Jean/Phoenix's perceptions of the people around her. The contrasts between what people say and think, what Jean knows and learns, and what she does and what she can do are a delicious layering of irony on fear on secrets. Pompous Dr Vail was terrific, too: there's so many people like him, who cannot accept any experience or knowledge that does not fit their precisely calibrated world view.

Plus Cecelia! She's awesome.

[likeadeuce]

Thanks! I was thinking about Jean spending some time away from the other Xmen, and I figured that higher education includes enough challenges of its own (including sexist, pompous faculty), never the special challenges of being a mutant mind-reader.

[spuffyduds]

Yeesh! Creepy and beautiful. I love the extreme skankiness of the professor's mind--oh, how much I do NOT want Jean's powers, because everybody's vile from time to time. But he's particularly awful--not just sexual, but abusive and debasing and pretending he's not short. Brrr. Love the rising psychosis and the "we" and her knowing that Scott would manage to do something awful and convince himself it was an accident... And what an ending.

[likeadeuce]

In the letters page for the new "First Class" series, Marvel is actively soliciting readers to say which of the mutant powers THEY would most like. This story definitely made me consider whether I'd want Jean's (as did the Buffy mindreading episode, of course). I love the way you throw "pretending he's not short" on the list because, yeah, we've all known people like that. And I think Scott could do the convincing himself it was an accident thing, though conversely, if it really was an accident, he'd convince himself he meant to do it. Ahh, the Summers brain -- and Jean knows it well, of course.

[likeadeuce]

Thanks! There is, in theory, going to be more of this, including a part that involves Xavier, but I'm glad that this works on its own. And yes, you and selenak both noticed the same thing re: Scott. Degrade Jean and she'll bide her time, say what you want about Magneto and she'll pretend to agree. But leave her not-exactly-boyfriend out of it!

[penelopeblack]

Wow. This was fantastic. Really fascinating study of Jean and her college years that we don't know much about. And the last line is very effective. Great job, dear. :)

[likeadeuce]

Thank you! I've always found Jean's movieverse backstory a little puzzling -- as it's implied that she and Scott have basically been at Xavier's since high school (Xavier says they "stayed on"), but on the other hand she's a doctor and, while it's not clear if she's an MD or a PHD, neither one of those things can you exactly get done on the weekends. So I wondered about her going away from the school for a while, and what it would do to her relationships to her friends and teammates. Taken together with the intriguingly cryptic Phoenix revelations in X3, that gave me a lot to play with.