Voices in my head

Prompt: Highlander/X-Men, Methos + Xavier, the only person he’s found whose mind he can’t feel at all

Fill: Peering Into the Depths

So I completely my fic for the Highlander Secret Santa fic exchange, but I only barely completed it on time (well, a couple of hours past the deadline, but close enough!) and am now thinking of different ways that it could be improved. Urg.

In a distraction from thinking about that and how the longer it goes from when I work on a story to when I get feedback, the worse the story gets in my memory, I now present some more little ficlets:


Prompt #1: Person of Interest, Reese + Finch, stolen Christmas decorations (Kudos if Reese has to dress as Santa Claus)

Ficlet #1: Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly


Prompt #2: X-men first class, erik/Charles, I am

Ficlet #2: He is who he chooses to be


Prompt #3: Highlander, Richie, borrowed time

Ficlet #3: He knew what was what


Prompt #4: Highlander, Methos/Alexa, "make me immortal with a kiss"

Ficlet #4: Immortal with a Kiss

So, first, there was yet another unavoidable prompt at comment-fic.

Prompt: X-Men First Class, author’s choice, mercy died on a desolate stretch of beach when one of Moira’s deflected bullets killed Charles Xavier

Ficlet: The Next Extinction Event


Then, for the query, this is something of a long-shot, but I figure it's worth asking anyway: are any of the people reading this journal going to be attending the Wizard World Austin Comic Con? 

First, a bit of background:

I was having a philosophical discussion with a friend of mine. I accused him of being a pessimist. He responded that he was merely a realist while I was a naive optimist. It occurred to me that plenty of people self-identify as optimists but no one (that I know of) self-identifies as a pessimist, they all declare themselves to be “realists,” under the apparent assumption that bad things are real while good things aren’t.

I propose that the reason why the news tends to be full of disasters is that bad things are “news” while good things are the status quo. While, of course, an amazing example of goodness, kindness and virtue is still amazing, the regular success of societal interactions is normal.

Then, to introduce fandom:

There are two conflicts in X-Men: First Class. The first is between the good guys (Charles and Erik) and the bad guys (Shaw et al.): the good guys win. The second conflict is between Charles and Erik about what the future holds, and is largely a conflict between optimism and pessimism.

Erik says the humans will attack mutants, governments will turn against them, and survival will be a fight between humans and mutants.

Charles says that humans will grow to accept mutants as will governments, and society will continue on as is.

Now it is, of course, easier to make a plot around Erik’s perspective because there’s an easily built-in good guy versus bad guy dynamic. And fanfic authors have realized this. For that matter, canon authors have realized this too, and the X-Men-verse in general consists of Erik’s vision coming to pass with Charles and his X-Men fighting a losing battle.

And finally my plot-bunny request:

What I would like is a story that revolves around Charles’ vision of the future, in which the world continues on as is, just with mutants in the general population.

(There is, incidentally, already a fabulous AU, Limited Release, that involves a society that has simply incorporated mutants into it. Despite being a WIP, I definitely recommend it. However, what I want at this point isn’t an AU.)

I want something that acknowledges a civil rights movement after the end of X-Men: First Class rather than a war or attempted genocide. There are horrible events, of course, just as there have been in the struggle for racial equality and gender equality, and sexual equality. But it's nothing like the large-scale genocide of the Nazi holocaust that Erik feared.

So I’m thinking maybe a hate crime should be the central conflict of this story, maybe structured like a Law & Order episode.

Someone dies.

Was the victim a mutant? Or thought to be a mutant? What about the suspect? Was mutation part of the motivation or was it for some unrelated reason?

Maybe the victim was a teenager being recruited by Charles for the school. Or maybe the primary suspect is the potential recruit. Maybe the investigators are suspicious of or have to interview Charles and/or Erik.

What do the detectives think? What do the attorneys think? What does the community or the press think?

What do Charles and Erik, Professor X and Magneto, think?

And, of course, I want it to end with Erik realizing that he probably should have realized earlier that Charles, as a telepath, actually does understand people and their reactions extremely well. And possibly realizing that Charles is a great deal more ruthless than Erik had expected, because this sort of small-scale personal horror that they are going through right now, is part of the shining future of integration that Charles had expected. After all, he let Erik and Raven leave him on the beach, to go off and start an underground terrorist group. He has always known that he has to allow free will for the future to be anything worth living, and free will in others involves disagreements and violence. But he also believes in forgiveness and amnesty.

And a happy ending. Because, after all, I am an optimist and I want the happy future.

This is actually already posted in previous comments, but since I'm using this journal as a pasture for my rabid plot bunnies, I wanted to give it it's own entry. Thus, here is my very basic plot bunny for Methos (my crossover character of choice, good for practically all occasions) meeting the X-Men.

The X-men randomly run across Adam Pierson doing whatever, shopping for socks maybe, and go, "hey, wasn't that you in the military base, stealing our kids?"

Methos says, "you must have gotten me confused with someone else."

Prof X says, "There's an easy way to figure this out. I'll just take a look in your head."

Methos says, "that's pretty much a really bad idea."

Then Prof X goes into a seizure then coma as his mind goes into Methos and Methos' quickening gobbles it right up like it would if it were the free-floating quickening of another immortal.

The Xmen are horrified. "What did you to do Prof X?"

Methos blinks innocently, "Don't you mean what did he do to me? He tried to get into my head! I told him it was a bad idea."

Of course, what I'd really like is to get Methos and Eric Lehnsherr together. Not necessarily in a slash sense, but just interacting.  I can see them getting along a lot better than Methos and Charles Xavier. I can also see Methos being a lot more comfortable with the Brotherhood than with the Xmen.

The Xmen are a bit condescending in their belief that non-mutants are innocent bystanders while the Brotherhood is honest in their belief that non-mutants are a danger. Methos might not approve of their methods, but he would understand both their motives and methods a lot more than the Xmen.

Plus, I think the general population would probably find the Brotherhood more comforting, in a backhanded sort of way, than the Xmen, because the Brotherhood with all their powers and their anger are bad guys who are successfully defended against. They are a demonstration that humanity doesn't actually have to fear mutant powers too much because even when they're being used to destroy the world, well, it's not that successful. The Xmen, on the other hand, set themselves up as benevolent quasi-deities who are only intent on defending humanity, and thus humanity is just waiting to figure out the catch.

Anyway, one particular way of implementing the crossover would be: 

Methos is confronted by the Xmen which results in Prof X in a coma. He retreats but is later found by Magneto and after a few sarcastic comments about making targets of oneself, Methos and Magneto become friends.

Meanwhile Duncan meets up with the Xmen after getting some odd reports about where Methos was last seen. They get along fine until he discovers that Methos is with the Bad Guys. He calls Connor for advice.

Due to Connor's daughter Rachel's history with concentration camps and the fine line between mutants and immortals, the elder Highlander sides with the Brotherhood in this particular fight.

Joe bangs his head against the bar and finally decides that maybe the original watchers had the right idea with their "observe but never interfere" bit, because when you interfere you have to pick a side and that gets really messy really fast.

I don't have any idea where this story would go but the character interactions sure would be fun.


If anyone writes it, or has read something like it that I've simply missed before, please let me know.

Peace. mg