And this time, I actually know what everyone is talking about while they are talking about it!

[sour_idealist]

By which I mean: Tonight I saw X-Men: First Class.

To the surprise of nobody, I have thoughts!

So, I was going to say "Y'all can go enjoy the Erik/Xavier, I am OVER HERE IN THE CORNER WITH EVERYONE ELSE," and then I got to the 'move the satellite' scene and realized my hands had started miming the process of physically shoving their faces together without asking for my permission first. SO UM THAT. Look, they're jerks and all, but snarky domesticity and the possibility of mindporn sort of did me in. That said, OTHER THINGS I SHIP:

• Raven/Angel: Potentially adorable. They can swap stories of their different lives! Raven can forge Angel's wings! (Wow, I spent way too long in Inception fandom.) They can get drunk and cuddle a lot and wake up in the morning and go "Oh Lord did we have sex? We didn't, did we? We didn't? Great.... :(" And then they do, once the hangover is gone. (This can, really, happen either before everything blows up or later.) GIRRLLFRENS, BASICALLY.
• Raven/Emma Frost: Shapeshifters! Bonding over the true-forms thing! Liking each others' true forms without being all Pygmalion-y about it (Magneto.) Giving Emma characterization up in here!
• Emma Frost/Moira MacTaggert! Okay, so this is basically one I came up with earlier in the movie because I was determined to come out armed to provide femmeslash, and then the bit where Moira was sneaking through the nightclub and it cut from her view through the bookcase to another gratuitous shot of Emma's cleavage, which probably wasn't meant to be a POV shot, and there turned out to be easier femmeslash ships to work, but I kinda got attached to this. Angsty foe-yay and futher mindporn! (All Emma Frost ships may be assumed to involve sex via telepathy, but in this one they lack the opportunity for anything else, SO.)
• Raven/Hank: Yeah, he was a jerk about her mutant form, but given that was his own internalization I have a lot more sympathy for that than Magneto's aforementioned Pygmalion-y approach, and, basically: GET IT GURL. No, really, I did love that she got to be the one making clearer advances there.
• Darwin/Alex: This is based entirely off of two looks and the outstretched-hand thing, but Darwin's general kindness and protectiveness as combined with Havok's loneliness could be interesting, and there is enough space to make up common ground, and DAMMIT DARWIN WAS AWESOME HE DESERVED BETTER.
• Edit: bb!Raven/bb!Charles BFF OTP. The kids were really cute.

So basically I am on allllllllllll of the shipping trains.

Beyond that... I mean, as I said and as can be gathered, my interest in the movie stemmed from thinking I might like to be a part of the fandom, or at least know if I had enough of an interest for that. In and of itself, it had great visuals and passable pacing, fairly well acted, but it was a summer blockbuster. Also, SUPERPOWERED LADIES WITH SEXUAL AGENCY ARE EVIL, BLACK DUDES ARE DEAD, ANYONE BUT A WASP DUDE IS EVIL DEAD OR BORING, OUR HERO IS A HYPOCRITICAL JERK BLIND TO HIS OWN PRIVILEGE (oh yes, you expect better of your sister than a little drunkeness, Mr. Keg Stand), OUR SCREENWRITERS HAVE UNFORTUNATELY NOT BEEN SHOT FORCIBLY SUBJECTED TO SOME LESSONS IN WHY THIS IS BAD. I was expecting that - others have discussed it far better than I ever could - and I was able to compartmentalize enough to really enjoy the movie. I don't feel any need to own it, I don't feel a need to see it again, but I had a fun time watching it and I am now wondering whether it's possible to switch fandoms for thelittlebang, because a) this fandom needs a femmeslash epic, I suspect, and b) it will, actually, be easier to wrestle 15,000 words into existence when I can make some things up and am not constantly distracted by my desire to write about the Farron-Viliers family, which is going to be a problem if I keep trying to write Final Fantasy XIII stuff.

(This is, of course, a decision for the morning. And may not be possible anyway.)

Comments

[wake-the-dragon.livejournal.com]

I have to say I liked Charles in this movie but at the same time almost no characther annoyed me more than him. Mostly it was his complete lack of understanding of people that bothered me: he couldn't understand why mutants like Mystique and Hank weren't happy about their mutations, and he completly messed up with Erick (really "They're just following orders" really Charles). Also, his mindwiping of Moira really bothered me. I think what they were trying to do was show that he wasn't always the wise Professor X and he had to learn from his mistakes.

I was annoyed that Darwin was the only one to die of the main mutants in the movie. But I hold out hope that he can come back; maybe he can adapt to survivng death.

My main ship was Erick/Charles, but I also liked Hank/Mystique (and I groaned when he gave her the formula and said people would never accept their mutant forms) and for some reason Angel/Banshee (I have no idea why; it just occured to me during the movie; maybe because I think she'd be the dominant one....nevermind sometimes you just like ships for really no reason.)

For me (besides the whole Darwin dies thing) I loved the movie and only thought of some unfortunate implications later.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I definitely see what you mean with that. I'm glad they decided to go the flawed route and I definitely think that some of it was supposed to be annoying, but yeah, he's definitely fairly low on actual empathy for a telepath. (I bet that fed it, actually - he could read people's minds and so he never thought had to try to figure out how to connect the way the rest of us have to do.) And YES, UGH, mindwiping Moira was an asshole move there.

And yeah, all the fix-fic for Darwin. And Angel/Banshee could definitely have potential, at least as much as any of the other side-ships; I'd write it.

For all my grumbling, I did like the movie as I watched it, as well.

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

Darwin dying, just...ugh. Not only does the black dude die first, but it's the black dude whose power is that nothing can kill him, just for bonus side-eyeing. And Charles, well. I loved his characterization, even as I would never want to be friends with him. And a lot of his issues regarding Raven speak towards them being siblings. He just doesn't pay attention to her, because she's his kid sister. Not that it's still not rather asshole-y of him, but it works for me.

In other news, all the ships. Just. Yeah. This movie is so freaking shippy, in every direction. And I may have possibly spent a large portion of the last week on one of the kink memes, where they totally do need more femmeslash.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, SIDE-EYE SIDE-EYE SIDE-EYE to Darwin's fate. I'm hoping they're going to make another film and he'll turn out to be only mostly dead. And yeah, Charles's characterization did make a lot of sense, as does the oh-she's-my-kid-sister thing, I just wish... I don't know, someone had explicitly said DUDE YOU ARE BEING A DICK HERE. Who wasn't... slipping into world-destroying megalomania as he went.

ALL THE SHIPS EVER. Which kink meme, xmen_firstkink or 1stclass_kink? Also, if you've been writing, are you gonna crosspost?

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it definitely would have been nice if someone had actually called Charles on his bullshit (though I do like the conversation in the kitchen with Raven, even though it didn't quite seem to hit him). And at least with Darwin there are dozens of "Bring him back please" AU requests on the kink meme. Hopefully the filmakers will make some of them non-AU. *fingers crossed*

I've been looking at the prompts on xmen_firstkink, but only filling on 1stclass_kink so far. Probably going to crosspost once I clean up the fills though the one I'm working on now is turning out to be a bit monster sized, so who knows when it will actually be done, much less cleaned up.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was something, but it was also the start of Raven turning to the other side, soooo... basically I want someone to think Charles is being a dick without being evil.

I've been kind of avoiding 1stclass_kink on grounds of that seems to be where the wank lives, but perhaps I'll prod there too.

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

Fair point. One of us should prompt that.

1stclass_kink wank mostly seems to be centered around the no-underage-prompts issue, though there was one prompt that was in extremely poor taste. Don't think that one actually generated wank, though, since the OP didn't comment and no one was white-knighting.

Also, it seems to be a lot more active than xmen_firstkink, and where there's a lot of activity, wank tends to follow. *sigh*

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I don't mean it as character-bashing but it could be very easily construed as such, and that's a can of worms I don't want to open.

And that's true, throw enough people together and someone will start an argument. That said, fetishizing underaged sex creeps me out, but at the same time I think there are enough genuinely interesting stories to be told around it that I don't like the idea of banning it. Even if we wanted to keep out creepiness or really insensitive handling of pain, people can and do have sex before turning 18 without being scarred for life.

On the other hand, if that's where anything is happening...

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

True. Oh internet, why can't you invent a font for intentions?

Most of the people objecting to the ban want a) Charles meeting Erik when he's 17, like he claimed in the movie trilogy, b) a clearly defined line for what is 'of age,' c) Charles and Raven's first explorations into sex with each other, or d) ...creepy fetishized underage sex. Or some combination of the above. But since the characters are at the time of the movie at least reasonably likely to be over 18, on the actual prompts posts it hasn't come up too much that I've seen.

And while it's not where everything is happening... It's about to start its' third round of prompts, so it's definitely where a large portion of stuff is happening.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

So where almost everything is happening, then?

And yeah, it isn't something I'd think would be a problem in this particular canon off the top of my head (although I'm kind of surprised that nobody's looking for nightmarish intentionally-terrifying Erik/Shaw... I have been in fando way too long, I'm going to go bleach my brain now.) That said, I'm kind of against banning potential story ideas in any form - I'm a big believer in 'anything can be good if you treat it really carefully.'

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

There was a recent Erik/Shaw prompt... I kind of zoomed past it because NOT MY THING, but I have no doubts that any fills will be thoroughly deserving of brain bleach.

And yes, almost everything. :P

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

I have no doubt either, but it might be Celebrian-variant brain bleach or it might be Mysterious Skin-variant brain bleach, and if it's the second it should be allowed to exist, albeit with warnings. (Speaking of which: Tvtropes link, disturbing quotes.)

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know about Celebrian. Dramatic readings, and I still couldn't last through more than a minute or two because *gag*.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

I have never so much as attempted to read or listen to it. (And I apologize for bringing up the memory, then! But you see what I meant.)

[simply-shipping.livejournal.com]

Yeah. ;) Some of the dramatic readers on YouTube are quite good. Just...nothing can make Celebrian anything more than horrifying Bile Fascination.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

My impression of Charles was that in a lot of ways he's a typical 20-something when the movie starts - hence awful-but-hilarious-in-their-awfulness pick up lines, and his double standard over his little sister (also, that is so Truth In Television, from what I know of older brothers, which is not much but still). A lot of the other issues for him, to my mind, were that he's a mostly good-intentioned guy, but they took him from 20-something to putting Patrick Stewart-type lines in James McAvoy's mouth. Guys, guys! He's not old enough to be the venerable Professor X, I highly doubt he had this philosophy so very developed already!

Also, I think you've just made me realize why this film is making Charles/Erik try to push my longheld Magneto/Mystique ship into second place. Snarky domesticity. (Is a snark!kink possible?)

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think most of the issues came from trying to give him some abilities as a leader with nowhere for him to get those abilities, so he had distinct shades of self-righteous jerk to him. Also the standard invasive behavior of telepaths.

HELL YES snark!kink is a thing. (Long answer: Arthur/Eames, Other!Arthur/Merlin, ET CETERA ET CETERA.) I'm finding my main interest in Charles/Erik comes from the two of them running the school and interacting with the kids.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Telepaths... yeah. I've written one who tries really fucking hard not to read minds - well, not her friends. Enemies, the bets tend to be off because when you're fighting, you use every damn advantage you have. It's a tricky power, especially when you can't block out other minds entirely. I think the older Charles learned, to some extent, what lines to walk, but the FC one isn't there yet.

Hee. Snark!kink FTW. That draws me to most of my ships, het, slash, or femslash. Probably because I'm a deadpan snarker myself.

I really, really wish I could see that. Then again, I think fics probably abound, if I could find them. Sigh. Fanfiction.net has failed me in this venture, but as for LJ I'm not sure where to go. Maybe I should write it myself. Not yet, though. Once the movie's on DVD and I can watch more carefully, that would be a good time to attempt massive AU-ness. (Because what if the Brotherhood - though in this case I prefer the Alliance of Mutants - was begun by Emma instead, since Erik never left?)

I... may have an idea already. *innocent smile*

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, in combat all bets are off, but among friends it gets tricky, especially if it's the kind of power that's active by default, so it takes a great deal of focus not to use it - particularly since you'd be born thinking that everyone saw the world like this, and it wouldn't be until you got older that you really absorbed the concept of minds as private places, when your whole life things hadn't worked like that. I bet it would be really, really easy to end up reading people's minds accidentally too - you'd be trying to figure out what they were thinking using mundane means and then the next thing you know you're giving yourself that extra edge by accident. Especially with people you know so well you'd often be able to tell what they were thinking without extra powers - you wouldn't even realize you were reading their mind as opposed to their demeanor, I suspect.

Oh God, snark!kink is my fastest 'ship now' button after ships that exist in this quiet unvoiced area where the characters are absolutely terrified of admitting what it means to them or that it happens. (Some of which may come from early ships based in subtext, but I think you can strike that tone and still make the relationship entirely textual - it's a matter of careful writing.)

And some of it's my willingness to reach a bit in order to achieve pointless fluff, but in all seriousness, if they had more time for Eric to get attached, if things played out just a little bit differently on the beach, hell, if Charles had said anything other than 'just following orders,' it could have happened. I suspect it would have overtones of "I'm leaving tomorrow. No, really. Tomorrow," until all the tomorrows add up, but, hey.

AALKFJFLKJF WRITE IIIITTTTT.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

I don't think Charles would have had the ability from birth, though, not if the theory about mutation manifesting at puberty is correct. Although, he and Raven seemed pre-pubescent to me, or barely an adolescent and just tiny in Charles' case. Erik seemed to be a bit older - my mind wants to make him about thirteen or fourteen at the beginning of the film, with Charles about ten or eleven and Raven maybe a year or two younger than Charles.

My personal theory is it's the "heightened emotional stress" that Jean Grey mentions in the first film that's the real trigger, and it's just that puberty is the most common time. Even so, he seems to have an inability to keep his mouth shut about what he hears - like when accidentally outing Hank. That was... so stupid.

But yes, I think you're right. Telepathy is tough to turn off, and you likely wouldn't notice sometimes what you were doing unless the other person did. That's why Paula, one of my two telepathic characters - the other one was an old X-Men OC, Angel; my first experiment with a character whose morals were more gray than white - teaches those she spends the most time around to block her, so that's not as easy.

Oh, God, are we mind twins on shipping? Because I know what you're talking about, that tension is just so... real, I think. (I'm also of the opinion that other than the snark, Erik/Charles has a hint of that concept on Erik's part.)

No, I agree with you. Because look how close Erik and Charles became in the short time they did spend together. Something like that... Yeah, it could have been different. The basis for my AU - I do have this scene in my head - is that Charles is actually smart enough to realize what a huge fucking error that excuse was. To be fair he was kind of freaking out and with almost anyone else that might have actually worked, so he gets half a pass. I'm still debating what he says - pointing out to Erik that he's going down the road of becoming what he hates most is true but maybe not the right thing to say. Or maybe it would wake him up. I can't decide. Thoughts on what Charles could say?

Oh God, yeah. And at first Charles is worried because he actually believes it, and then after a while he's all "All right, Erik." *to self* "See you in the morning." Can I steal that idea? Because it really works.

I'm working on it. I meant to wait for the DVD, but... I have a feeling that won't happen. Kinda like with my Inception fics.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

If Raven was nine or eight, that's not puberty, though. And both of them seemed pretty deeply used to their powers, especially Raven being, well, blue - and even more so considering that if that's her 'natural form,' she probably would be born in it. On the other hand, I know fuck all and a barrel of fish about the comics canon and I don't remember the earlier movies too clearly, so possibly that's my fault - and if it is the emotional stress, then that would tie in to puberty and possibly work with teeny-teeny-tiny Raven having her powers, if something horrifying happened when she was really little.

Yeah, exactly. Blocking it would be a solution in some 'verses, but other than making everybody really uncomfortable helmets... and the flip side is that I'm not sure Charles would want to. Your Paula's a lot more moral than him; I think he really does like having that access to what the people around him are thinking. Which is understandable if he's used to it, and hell, I can't say I wouldn't give in, but it's still pretty damn invasive.

That said, I don't think he means any harm - for all that good that does occasionally. For example, if I recall correctly, he thought Hank was already entirely out as a mutant at that point.

And evidently we ARE mind twins, and about the tension, yes, it's real and it can hurt and under the right circumstances there's something almost bizarrely hot about it but at the same time it's the emotional connection to the characters. And Erik and Charles could definitely have some of that - particularly considering, you know, I'm fairly sure that being gay at that point in time could (and possibly did) get you jail time in Britain and everywhere in the United States but Illinois. Which I think is the biggest block I have to writing any of this - some people can ignore that, but I can't, and I'm not sure I can tackle it either.

Yes, that is seriously all it would take. And since "just following orders" is clearly a Huge Fucking Deal to Eric, they wouldn't even have had to know each other that much longer for Erik to mention something that would tip Charles off about what a shitty idea that was (although I do understand why he'd say it, I agree - between the panic and never having really been in that position, it makes sense.) I'd have to look at the actual speech again to really know what he might say, though. I"m sorry.

Oh yes, that is perfect. I was thinking Erick mostly reassuring himself he'd vanish and not bringing it up, but that probably works just as well if not better and gives a lot more space for Charles to interact with him; STEAL AWAY.

...la la la downloading is obviously not an option and I would never ever ever suggest such a thing even if you did then buy it anyway once it came out and the download simply served to tide you over, la la la I propose NOTHING OF THE SORT.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

It was movie-only, and I rewatched X-Men 1 the day after I saw First Class, so I'm kinda cheating. I know fuck-all about the comics myself, except what I've picked up from the cartoon and fics that blend the continuities.

I'm of the opinion that, to some extent, blocking a telepath is generally possible, since it would involve learning to control one's mind, likely through meditation and visualization. As for Paula being far more moral... There's a reason. She went crashing down to the dark side once - in one universe where she exists, courtesy of my allowing a friend to borrow her for his story, she falls again, and it is scary. Even mine is someone who exists in shades of gray (huge since her primary background is Charmed-verse, where that is sadly rare) and has flashes of what might happen if she didn't care. Charles, obviously, does not have that experience feeding his handling of his power and its effects. But no, I agree he generally doesn't mean any harm, he just hasn't thought it through yet. Patrick Stewart's Charles seems to have somehwat, but that's experience and age. (Though he still messes with Logan's mind with no regret in one scene and goes poking around in Magneto's mind, though there's a reason for the second.)

Because of Paula, and Angel to a lesser extent, I'm well aware of the serious pitfalls of telepathy. Give me telekinesis or teleportation, seriously.

It hurts so good, I believe is the phrase people like to use. By the Sixties they wouldn't have gotten jail time in the States, if I'm remembering stuff from one of my classes last semester properly, at least not unless someone was looking through their window and they were having sex - specifically sodomy which I think is still technically illegal in some states - but it would have been yet another social stigma. Though there is that thing about the British public schools and experimenting with homosexuality; that might help where Charles is concerned. As for Erik, the Nazis gassed homosexuals too, I could see him saying anything they thought was wrong isn't. Maybe.

I know. It was so stupid, and yet you can so easily see how he would make that mistake, you can't even be totally angry with him because it makes so much sense. I think I may go with an implication of Erik becoming what he hates, but not outright saying it, because that could set him off even more.

Probably some of both; Charles picking it up from Erik's head and worrying about it, and then not anymore, though I could see it coming up in actual conversation too.

Hee. I don't download much, and it'd be tricky with my limited Internet time in the summer. I am so buying it when it comes out - I am a special features lover, I want to see them!!

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Glad to know I'm not the only one, then!

And huh, an interesting idea. Could you do that continuously, I wonder? (I don't actually know a lot about meditation as a thing.) And wow, that sounds like awesome backstory, and definitely a reason for her to be moral. Nothing like your old ghosts to keep you in line, right? And Charles really doesn't have any major mistakes or regrets before the ones we seem him develop, I think. You're definitely right that it's a matter of age, though. And the thing about not meaning any harm is that it makes very little difference to the people who are hurt.

Telekinesis would probably have the least potential for disaster, I think. I mean, teleportation is better than telepathy, but there's always the risk of SORRY YOU TWITCHED WELCOME TO THE MIDDLE OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN. (Or, worse, fifty feet underground... you're welcome.)

Hurts so good, yes. And I don't know how much it was penalized, but I'm pretty sure it was still technically illegal - and definitely a stigma; hell, being queer can be scary as hell now.

(afdlkjalkfsdjaf schoolboys. I won't start.)

And actually, I was just reading something about that idea, that a Jewish holocaust survivor would feel a certain sense of solidarity regarding queer holocaust survivors, and their commentary was that it didn't really work that way, partly because the two groups (going by how the Nazis sorted them, since obviously there was overlap) had rather different experiences, and there wasn't actually a whole lot of open information at the time. So.

And that's definitely where I would go, but Erik doesn't seem particularly bothered by that notion, as he came down on the side of agreeing with Shaw in the end and admitted it - which was something that really really fucking bothered me in the movie. It felt way too abrupt to me.

I don't much either, but I want to see it again and yet a) am unlikely to get to a theater a second time, and b) am annoyed enough about the political aspects that I don't really want to give them that much of my money. Sooo...

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Not meaning harm is so much the road to hell by way of good intentions. And as for Paula, it's a complex story, and yeah... Past demons work wonders.

I'd want teleportation to put an end to my transportation woes. :)

Yeah, it's a hell of a stigma and not entirely comfortable now. But I don't think it was entirely illegal to actually be homosexual - as I said, I think there were certain sex acts which were, but not homosexuality itself, by that time. It didn't come up in my class if it was, and even though it was a sociology class, we discussed a lot of laws in the U.S. so I think it would have.

Good point about the camps deal. I could also use a concept that shows up in a fic set closer to modern day that might still apply involving the concept that as the next evolution of humanity, they're not bound by current stigmas. That might work for both of them, since FC Charles definitely seems to think mutants are superior the same way Erik always declares, he just doesn't think they should curb-stomp the humans because of it.

Good point about Erik. The irony - and the biggest tragedy, to my mind - of Magneto is that in trying to prevent a repeat of his greatest fear, he became the thing he hated most. And I don't think he ever realized it. Hence Charles in my fic saying as much. Here's what I have: "But if you kill them now, before they've had a chance to make an informed choice, if you start with them and continue with the idea that all humans are the enemy and they have to be fought and defeated, then how is that different than what you believe they would do to us? It's the exact same philosophy, Erik, it's a mindset you despise and yet you're slipping into a form of it yourself. Can't you see that?"

Still debating Erik's immediate reaction, though I do know his ultimate choice with the missiles.

I won't pay another ten bucks to see any film in theaters again, thank you very much. I haven't got enough money to do that.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Exactly; very few people consciously mean harm.

True! I would be SO MUCH MORE PUNCTUAL if I could teleport, too. (If I didn't teleport myself to the moon by mistake.)

True, technically speaking, but I believe 'certain sex acts' covered anything that was possible to do without a vagina involved, which would both impede one's life and magnify the stigma - which, yes, needed no magnifying.

That could be interesting, but they seem to maintain most of the rules of human society even as they proclaim mutant superiority (which I agree, Charles definitely bought into that idea to an extent even as he rather wanted to integrate the groups), or at least Charles seemed to want to keep normal societal taboos - clothes, for instance. On the other hand, it isn't as if there weren't gay couples, and I suspect that a fairly common dynamic was an open secret sort of thing. Which is what I'd imagine being most comfortable for them anyway - I mean, I can't imagine Erik being a fan of a great deal of blatant PDA.

That might work, that might make a lot of sense; I'm guessing that Erik would start by freaking out even more - nobody likes to be wrong, especially not about something so raw, so personal. But I do believe that it would work out in the end.

Yeah, the other factor as to why I'm not going again. That would be another benefit to teleportation, come to think of it; just show up in the back of the theater, no tickets necessary.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

They don't mean it, but it happens.

I'll have to look it up, the laws, I mean, to be sure. Though they'd probably find themselves locked away for their mutations first. Or their relationship used as the excuse to... Oh. Oh no. Now there's a thought.

*snicker* I just tried to imagine Erik being all right with blatant PDA. Definitely not. He and I are agreed there, I am so not the openly physically affectionate (or really easily physically affectionate in general) type. Open secret works very well.

A freak-out is definitely a likely possibility; I'm trolling opinions with one or two other authors I like, since I'm unsure and brainstorming is always a good thing.

Now that would be fun, using teleportation to see movies.

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

!!!!!! Write it, oh my God, ouch but that could be fascinating. Ouch.

Yeah, barring very extreme circumstances. (OH YOU'RE NOT DEAD, and that's about all I can imagine. He'd have to have been pretty convinced, too.) I'm sort of a contradiction in that I want to be physically affectionate but I'm always uncomfortably nervous about it.

Yeah, always a good way to kick things off. Good luck!

It would! Slightly unethical, but fun. And I bet you could skip a lot of lines, too.

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I could write something like that, it has the potential to get even darker than I am really good at, but I'm seriously considering having one of them consider the possibility. Because the government is good at using an excuse to imprison someone when they can't get them on what they'd like to. Like Al Capone. They had to use tax evasion to get him in jail, which amuses me greatly for some reason.

Yeah. That would probably do it. I know what you mean about that contradiction, I can be like that myself when I actually want physical affection.

Thanks! :) I'm currently leaning toward Heroic BSOD (why yes that's a trope) moment for Erik rather than a tearing-into-Charles type of freak-out, since it seems to fit just a little bit better.

Slightly unethical I can live with as long as no one gets hurt. Just don't tell my journalism profs, they wouldn't like it. ;)

[sour-idealist.livejournal.com]

That's true, the mix of humiliation and guilt and everything else, but contemplating it might be a way to use the idea without either diving too deep into that.

Sudden absence of death is always a useful plot device. ;) And oh good, it's not just me.

Oh, I speak fluent trope, I practically lived on that site for a while. I can see that, and certainly it pulls it a little bit further from canon and makes it easier to keep them from splitting, this time.

I think 'does anyone get hurt' is essentially the defining line between ethical and unethical anyway, so. :)

[fae-boleyn.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I think so too.

I love sudden absence of death. Mostly because I love clonking characters - usually the ones in denial - over the head with incidents where the person they are in love with, no matter what they try to say, end up seriously hurt. I physically whump one to emotionally sucker-punch the other, it's super effective! Witness most of my A/E fic.

I'm mid-level skill in speaking trope, but I am continuing to practice the language. It's a very fun one.

Agreed on the defining line, though journalistic ethics are a little different. But where life ethics are concerned, I agree completely. (It's a bit hard to explain.)