E.R./X-Men: Allegiance [4/8]

[trovia]

Title: Allegiance
Fandoms: E.R./X-Men Movieverse
Spoilers: Up to the end of E.R. season 13, rewriting "I don't," rewriting X2, and ignoring everything that came afterwards on both fronts, except for some backstory borrowed from X3
Characters: Ray, Neela, Jean, Xavier, Abby, Cyclops, Kovac, Gates & pretty much all the X2 ensemble
Pairings: Ray/Neela

Comments

[scribble_myname]

I am in love with this story. The characters are so real. I just...there are no words. This is so utterly, heart-wrenchingly perfect.

[trovia]

Aw, thank you so much. I quoted your comment at my girlfriend to show off. ;)

[lorrainemarker]

Oh, this is interesting. Even as he doesn't completely drive her away, Ray still lies to her. The force fields aren't the only thing he can do and I get the strong sense that Ray is a 4 (or at least a potential 4) on the scale, too. The underlying theme of segregation continues to resonate with me. If you take a group of kids and separate them from their peers - whether it's humans from mutants, black from white, 'learning disabled' from non-learning disabled - then you label them. You make the ability, skin color, or disability predominate over everything else.

[trovia]

To be fair, I think it's not always that clear to Ray whether he's lying to Neela or to himself. But, yeah. He does his might to obfuscate the facts, consciously and subconsciously, on both fronts. He's a little messed up like that.

It's always tricky business, with the labels, the moment you have a person who's just not ready to carry the identity in question with pride. Especially if it's such a negative one.

[ofsoapsuds]

You are so real with this story and that is one of the things that I love about it. You know that the other is the fact that I love ER and X-Men which totally works together so well. I can't wait to see how well Neela integrates within the mutant society because there is no way she is gonna leave Ray.

[trovia]

Heh. I'll say that much, Stryker is on the move and Ray will soon not have an opportunity anymore to hide anything from Neela. I tried hard to keep things realistic. :) But I was also very gleeful about coming up with some badass comicbook superhero moves for later chapters. ;)

[brennanspeaks]

Another great chapter! I really liked the Ray-Scott interaction. Scott is just That Guy. Everybody knows one. At the same time, the observation that he uses the rest of his face to make up for not being able to communicate with his eyes was quite insightful.

And, oh man, the Ray-Neela scene was good. It felt real--or as real as a scene can feel when they're discussing superpowers;)--and I love the visual of Ray showing his powers for the first time.

[trovia]

Everybody absolutely needs a Scott. And let's just say, the ability to show what his eyes are doing killed me during the writing process. ;)

Thank you so much. It was a hard chapter to write.