Ugh, I have SO MANY THOUGHTS about Moira in that scene. Clearly a vocal minority of fandom "blames" Moira for what happened and so frequently she's blown off. Even in fic where she's treated well, I've noticed that there's a tendency to overlook her intentions in that scene and her interactions with Erik, and also the shit she lets Erik get away with. Let's start this out by reminding the world at large (I would imagine, since you like this piece, that you already give Moira the acceptable amount of respect XD) of these facts: 1) It is 1962 2) Moira is a lady and a CIA agent. IN 1962.
I don't know the history of the CIA and I know a lot of their shit is covert (I also know that CIA generally = foreign and FBI generally = domestic, so I assume that the CIA thought the Hellfire Club was international and that's why Moira and Levene were investigating it, because I'm sure the XMFC writers took six seconds to google "CIA" when writing it and wouldn't have made a mistake and had the CIA investigating a domestic issue.), but I can't
( ... )
She might not have a PhD, but she knows she can observe and assess a situation better and more quickly than Charles Xavier, perhaps even more quickly than Erik Lehnsherr, whose eyes are too focused on revenge to see the bigger picture.
Moira is the most focused, pragmatic person in their group. She's the compromise embodied and I wish more compromise fic included her. Moira accepts that mutants are the next stage, that they can do things she could never train for. She also, obviously, doesn't want an all-out war between mutants and humans. But she knows it won't be easy and she understands they need to be ready for whatever comes. Moira would advocate defensive training and political maneuvering as opposed to Charles' pacifism or Erik's war-mongering.
Moira has trained for this, so in a split second, she catalogues what she knows:
Sebastian Shaw is dead.
Shaw's followers have been more-or-less neutralized.
Erik Lehnsherr has put on Shaw's helmet, making him immune to Charles Xavier's abilities.When Moira does fire on Erik, she
( ... )
A follow up question: How the hell did you condense all them thoughts into a ficlet?
I do like Moira a lot, and definitely in this scene. I like that she just goes with this craziness she's fallen face-first into, and she assimilates it into her worldview, and also that even though these are circumstances she's never dealt with, she appraises them as routine. She's a lot more level-headed than some of her male counterparts, and superiors *coughSTRYKERcoughhackchoke*, and isn't afraid to attempt to get shit done. Because, uh, who the hell shoots bullets at a guy who can send them back at your forehead?
One thing I really disliked right off about the movie is that at the end, Xavier gives all her skeptics a good reason to write her off - but I bedrudgingly accept that the way she acts there is more likely to keep her safe, which I like because it keeps open the "Moira remembers and goes to help Charles, or at least helps him obliquely from the inside" scenario that I've read a couple of times and approve of.
The wind picks up, blowing their hair around and stinging their cheeks and sending sand billowing around them. Charles shivers and pulls away just enough to laugh, tilting his head to look up at Erik, eyes hooded and dark. They should move inside, somewhere with a bed, preferably.
"Mm," Charles says. "And a locking door."
Erik pauses at that, because he definitely hadn't said that out loud and he'd given permission, yes, but that's...odd. He didn't even feel it, didn't even realize. Charles smiles, but it's sad and dim and apologetic.
"I'm sorry," Charles says. "I wasn't--I'll stop, if you'd like."
Yes, please, Erik thinks automatically, but he very deliberately says, "No. It's okay."
He knows he's said the right thing when Charles' face lights up, his smile genuine and real and relaxed. Something uncurls in Erik's head, too, warm and just barely brushing over the surface of his thoughts. It's foreign, but oddly comfortable and Erik leans down to press another chaste kiss against Charles' mouth.
Haha, well, as for what I was thinking, I think I was drunkenly emailing you as I was writing this, if I remember correctly? We were talking about windblown McAvoy sitting on the shore in Starter for Ten and I was babbling about how I wanted fic about rosy-cheeked windblown Charles and then I had a few more glasses of champagne and wrote this fic XD
So, re-reading it, this is another fic about my love of pining!Erik, wanting something that, for the first time in his life, he's not allowing himself to take. I tend to characterize Erik as a) being very in-tune with his sexuality, but very perfunctory about it (ie: he's not ashamed of/unaware of his queerness, but he also treats sexual attraction the same way he does hunger, thirst, tiredness, etc--an annoying inconvenience that he occasionally takes time out of his day to deal with, in this case by picking up strangers or hiring hookers or something) and b) as not being afraid of taking anything he wants. There aren't a great many things that Erik does want outside of revenge, but when
( ... )
"I'm sorry," Charles says. "I wasn't--I'll stop, if you'd like."
Yes, please, Erik thinks automatically, but he very deliberately says, "No. It's okay."
Erik's first instinct is to reject that sort of invasion of his privacy, of course, but he also understands what it is to be ostracized. He does love Charles and he also finds Charles' power oddly fascinating. He doesn't necessarily want Charles in his head, but he's realizing how that a) he doesn't know the whole scope of them or even what, precisely, Charles can do, b) that it's an important part of Charles and something he does instinctually, and c) that even if he tells Charles not to be in his head, there's no way to stop him or even know if he's there, so might as well give in to the inevitable.
He knows he's said the right thing when Charles' face lights up, his smile genuine and real and relaxed. Something uncurls in Erik's head, too, warm and just barely brushing over the surface of his thoughts. It's foreign, but oddly comfortable and Erik leans down to press another
( ... )
Charles wrinkles his nose. Erik doesn't have to rub it in. He supposes he shouldn't be so surprised. For all that Erik is for the freedom for mutants to be who they want to be, he's fairly intolerant of humans. It makes sense; as much as Charles had hoped that someone whose mind was open to the possibilities of advanced genetic mutation would be open to the idea of sex with another man, if that held true, no ethnic minority would have it in them to hate any other ethnic minority, and the state of civil rights in the country proved how incorrect an assumption that was
( ... )
I cannot brain today, I have the dumb, so no excerpts because I can't think of any.
I have two questions about Daycare verse, one which may be spoilery for future installments and you can totally skip if you like, and one not.
1. What is Shaw up to in Daycare verse?
2. What inspired you to make Tony Stark one of Charles' childhood BFFs? It's my absolute favorite piece of XMFC fanon EVER, and I saw it first in Daycare verse.
I'm going to do yours first because they require slightly less thinking XD
Out of order:
2. What inspired you to make Tony Stark one of Charles' childhood BFFs? It's my absolute favorite piece of XMFC fanon EVER, and I saw it first in Daycare verse.
I thiiiiink that was brilligspoons? I mean, the general thought for us was that it made sense for Charles to be friends with other wealthy geniuses, and Margaret loves Tony Stark more than some members of her family. But their personalities are complimentary--I feel like Tony, Charles, and Emma (in that order) form an interesting continuum of personalities. They're all Poor Little Rich Children, but they deal with it in different ways. Even when they have similar coping mechanisms, I think they employ them for different reasons.
Also, we were really amused by the idea that Tony is Erik's engineering idol and Erik's a total fanboy and Charles just awkwardly is like, "............Tony's sort of my ex-boyfriend?" and Erik's brain stops working XD
What is Shaw up to in Daycare verse? Well, without
( ... )
Ooooooh. This is FASCINATING. That you so much for writing it all out. Can't wait for Shaw to get his ass handed to him. I'm going to assume that Charles recruits Emma and Tony to assist. :D
I could have sworn you wrote a fic where Charles ad Erik visited Canton and David in an effort to recruit them where Erik effectively crushed Canton's balcony and put it back together again, but since I can't find it, I would like to know what went through your head writing this:
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Canton and his fucking gadgets. David's sure Canton's smiling smugly in his office, knowing that his TARDIS-inspired propensity for staying on top of the latest technological trends has once again proven a boon. He had all their music digitized years ago. David had rolled his eyes at the time, but it has proven useful. Both their record collections are contained neatly on the house computer, easily accessible from their laptops. They're legends at the local Apple Store. Apparently there aren't many couples in their seventies who keep up to date on the latest technology and even fewer who can out-genius the kids at the Genius Bar
( ... )
Comments 29
The "Moira knows exactly what she's doing when she fires that gun." ficlet. I didn't do a word count, but I'm pretty sure it's under 500.
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1) It is 1962
2) Moira is a lady and a CIA agent. IN 1962.
I don't know the history of the CIA and I know a lot of their shit is covert (I also know that CIA generally = foreign and FBI generally = domestic, so I assume that the CIA thought the Hellfire Club was international and that's why Moira and Levene were investigating it, because I'm sure the XMFC writers took six seconds to google "CIA" when writing it and wouldn't have made a mistake and had the CIA investigating a domestic issue.), but I can't ( ... )
Reply
Moira is the most focused, pragmatic person in their group. She's the compromise embodied and I wish more compromise fic included her. Moira accepts that mutants are the next stage, that they can do things she could never train for. She also, obviously, doesn't want an all-out war between mutants and humans. But she knows it won't be easy and she understands they need to be ready for whatever comes. Moira would advocate defensive training and political maneuvering as opposed to Charles' pacifism or Erik's war-mongering.
Moira has trained for this, so in a split second, she catalogues what she knows:
Sebastian Shaw is dead.
Shaw's followers have been more-or-less neutralized.
Erik Lehnsherr has put on Shaw's helmet, making him immune to Charles Xavier's abilities.When Moira does fire on Erik, she ( ... )
Reply
I do like Moira a lot, and definitely in this scene. I like that she just goes with this craziness she's fallen face-first into, and she assimilates it into her worldview, and also that even though these are circumstances she's never dealt with, she appraises them as routine. She's a lot more level-headed than some of her male counterparts, and superiors *coughSTRYKERcoughhackchoke*, and isn't afraid to attempt to get shit done. Because, uh, who the hell shoots bullets at a guy who can send them back at your forehead?
One thing I really disliked right off about the movie is that at the end, Xavier gives all her skeptics a good reason to write her off - but I bedrudgingly accept that the way she acts there is more likely to keep her safe, which I like because it keeps open the "Moira remembers and goes to help Charles, or at least helps him obliquely from the inside" scenario that I've read a couple of times and approve of.
Reply
"Mm," Charles says. "And a locking door."
Erik pauses at that, because he definitely hadn't said that out loud and he'd given permission, yes, but that's...odd. He didn't even feel it, didn't even realize. Charles smiles, but it's sad and dim and apologetic.
"I'm sorry," Charles says. "I wasn't--I'll stop, if you'd like."
Yes, please, Erik thinks automatically, but he very deliberately says, "No. It's okay."
He knows he's said the right thing when Charles' face lights up, his smile genuine and real and relaxed. Something uncurls in Erik's head, too, warm and just barely brushing over the surface of his thoughts. It's foreign, but oddly comfortable and Erik leans down to press another chaste kiss against Charles' mouth.
Reply
So, re-reading it, this is another fic about my love of pining!Erik, wanting something that, for the first time in his life, he's not allowing himself to take. I tend to characterize Erik as a) being very in-tune with his sexuality, but very perfunctory about it (ie: he's not ashamed of/unaware of his queerness, but he also treats sexual attraction the same way he does hunger, thirst, tiredness, etc--an annoying inconvenience that he occasionally takes time out of his day to deal with, in this case by picking up strangers or hiring hookers or something) and b) as not being afraid of taking anything he wants. There aren't a great many things that Erik does want outside of revenge, but when ( ... )
Reply
Yes, please, Erik thinks automatically, but he very deliberately says, "No. It's okay."
Erik's first instinct is to reject that sort of invasion of his privacy, of course, but he also understands what it is to be ostracized. He does love Charles and he also finds Charles' power oddly fascinating. He doesn't necessarily want Charles in his head, but he's realizing how that a) he doesn't know the whole scope of them or even what, precisely, Charles can do, b) that it's an important part of Charles and something he does instinctually, and c) that even if he tells Charles not to be in his head, there's no way to stop him or even know if he's there, so might as well give in to the inevitable.
He knows he's said the right thing when Charles' face lights up, his smile genuine and real and relaxed. Something uncurls in Erik's head, too, warm and just barely brushing over the surface of his thoughts. It's foreign, but oddly comfortable and Erik leans down to press another ( ... )
Reply
Here, another:
Charles wrinkles his nose. Erik doesn't have to rub it in. He supposes he shouldn't be so surprised. For all that Erik is for the freedom for mutants to be who they want to be, he's fairly intolerant of humans. It makes sense; as much as Charles had hoped that someone whose mind was open to the possibilities of advanced genetic mutation would be open to the idea of sex with another man, if that held true, no ethnic minority would have it in them to hate any other ethnic minority, and the state of civil rights in the country proved how incorrect an assumption that was ( ... )
Reply
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I have two questions about Daycare verse, one which may be spoilery for future installments and you can totally skip if you like, and one not.
1. What is Shaw up to in Daycare verse?
2. What inspired you to make Tony Stark one of Charles' childhood BFFs? It's my absolute favorite piece of XMFC fanon EVER, and I saw it first in Daycare verse.
Reply
Out of order:
2. What inspired you to make Tony Stark one of Charles' childhood BFFs? It's my absolute favorite piece of XMFC fanon EVER, and I saw it first in Daycare verse.
I thiiiiink that was brilligspoons? I mean, the general thought for us was that it made sense for Charles to be friends with other wealthy geniuses, and Margaret loves Tony Stark more than some members of her family. But their personalities are complimentary--I feel like Tony, Charles, and Emma (in that order) form an interesting continuum of personalities. They're all Poor Little Rich Children, but they deal with it in different ways. Even when they have similar coping mechanisms, I think they employ them for different reasons.
Also, we were really amused by the idea that Tony is Erik's engineering idol and Erik's a total fanboy and Charles just awkwardly is like, "............Tony's sort of my ex-boyfriend?" and Erik's brain stops working XD
What is Shaw up to in Daycare verse? Well, without ( ... )
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Canton and his fucking gadgets. David's sure Canton's smiling smugly in his office, knowing that his TARDIS-inspired propensity for staying on top of the latest technological trends has once again proven a boon. He had all their music digitized years ago. David had rolled his eyes at the time, but it has proven useful. Both their record collections are contained neatly on the house computer, easily accessible from their laptops. They're legends at the local Apple Store. Apparently there aren't many couples in their seventies who keep up to date on the latest technology and even fewer who can out-genius the kids at the Genius Bar ( ... )
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