Queen's Gambit, chapter 7: In which the inception of Colonel William Stryker goes about as smoothly as you might expect.

This actually contains the scene that I wrote this entire fic around, incidentally. If nothing else, it made me very happy to write it.

Two chapters to go on this one, and that'll be a HUGE weight off. This 'verse has been hanging over my head for going on two years now; it's time to lay it to rest.

Speaking of endings, closed a show today. THANK GOD. It was a good show, but was accompanied by more than the usual amount of offstage drama and stress, so I'm very ready to move on to the next one.

Secret Mutant reveal has happened! So now I can 'fess up at last. Both of these fics drew heavily from personal experience, so fair warning, I'm about to blather on a bit.

First up, my original assignment:

Trigger Discipline (3931 words) by kaydeefalls
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Characters: Raven Darkholme, Moira MacTaggert, Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier
Summary: In which Raven learns how to fire a weapon, and maybe even when not to.

( Gasp! Gen fic about female characters! )

Next up, the incredibly obvious pinch-hit:

The Opposite of People (9217 words) by kaydeefalls
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven Darkholme, Sebastian Shaw, Alex Summers, Logan (X-Men), Armando Muñoz, Hank McCoy, Ororo Munroe, Jean Grey
Summary: In retrospect, it probably didn't help that the first time Charles met Erik Lehnsherr, the man was up a ladder in well-worn, close-fitting jeans. Modern!nonpowered!AU where they all work in the theatre, Shaw is still a bastard, and Charles is doing his best to get this damn show open with his sanity (relatively) intact.

a.k.a. the Theatre!AU I've been talking about for over a year now. Seriously, this is my ultimate id!fic. ( No, you don't understand, that fic is a 100% accurate and true representation of my life. )

Also I can say that my gift fic was written by ninemoons42, which was hilarious and awesome because she's one of my usual betas, and I recognized her writing style instantly. :D :D :D

Queen's Gambit, chapter 5.

So: Queen's Gambit is a classic chess opening move in which white offers a pawn as sacrifice in the hope of achieving a resulting advantageous position.

In other words, game on.

secret_mutant authors have been revealed! Oh, man. A couple of those I totally guessed; others, I'm kind of smacking myself in the forehead for not figuring out immediately. And then, y'know, a bunch of authors I wasn't familiar with before, who now I obviously need to check out. If you like Charles/Erik and you haven't taken a look at this exchange yet, you really should. Ninety-five new fics, many excellent. Huge kudos to pocky_slash for organizing and running the damn thing.

And now I can properly thank argyleheir for her excellent gift, Practical Applications of Radioactive Material. READ IT! Erik and Charles keep running into other superheroes on their recruitment trip; I particularly adore Sue Storm in this one, but really, it's all just great fun and awesomeness. ♥

Also, I wrote some stuff?

Celestial Navigation (9470 words) by kaydeefalls - or on LJ
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, N'Dare Munroe, Ororo Munroe
Summary: Not everything has to be life or death. Sometimes it snows in September, just because a little girl wills it so.

From the sign-ups, it was pretty clear that ginbitch and I have pretty damn similar tastes in terms of canon fics set in the 1960s; I definitely got my period research kink on writing it. The prompt was for snow, which to me, obviously meant bb!Ororo had to be in there somewhere, which wound up mostly involving her mother, N'Dare Munroe. I kept their family backstory as close to comics!canon as possible -- N'Dare was Kenyan, one of long line of priestess-sorceresses; she married an American photojournalist, and Ororo was born in Harlem. They move to Egypt when Ororo is very young. I couldn't find anything suggesting N'Dare was herself a mutant, so that bit's all mine. Also, it's kind of a love letter to New York City (my hometown), and it let me get inside Charles's enormous head way more than I've ever really thought about before. Telepathy is weird, guys. So that's that one.

&

I Ain't Scared of Lightning (13107 words) by kaydeefalls - or on LJ
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier, Alex Summers, Moira MacTaggert, Armando Muñoz, Angel Salvadore, Hank McCoy, Raven Darkholme
Summary: Canon!AU. "Shaw has someone very dear to me," Charles said in a low tone. "You're not the only one playing for keeps, Erik."

Pinch hit of doom! I have no fucking clue where this came from, except that I had this image in my head of Charles on the Coast Guard ship flanked by Darwin and Angel, and Erik being like, daaaaamn. But it was kind of an intense ride for me -- most of it was written frantically over the course of last weekend, as, um, you might have noticed. I'd originally intended to include flashbacks of Charles & Raven's altered backstory, but when I realized how massive the main plotline was becoming, I cut them all out. Possibly there's another fic in there; possibly there's also another fic continuing the AU version of events through the end of the movie. Possibly I should just leave it be. My main regret with this is that I didn't have the time to fully explore the changes in Charles's outlook on the world due to losing Raven so early on -- I think he'd be much more pragmatic and less optimistic about the Shaw situation, and far less scrupulous about his own use of his powers to achieve his goals. And, on the flip side, he would actually be able to understand Erik's point of view much better -- there wouldn't be such a wide chasm of miscommunication between them, which would serve both them and the team much better in the long run. I'm not sure how well any of that came across. But it was interesting to explore. (Original prompts from confusedkayt: badassery leading to kissing, holding one another, Erik connecting with Alex. I did manage to incorporate all three!)

So...yeah. That happened. :)

Driveby post -- chapter 2 of Queen's Gambit is up. (XMFC/Inception fusion 'verse.)

Posting a WIP will never stop feeling weird to me. It didn't bother me quite so much on the kinkmeme, because that's just how kinkmemes work. But I feel obscurely guilty for posting this fic one chapter at a time, while I'm still in the process of writing it. My brain, IDEK.

My show is slowly driving me insane, but I don't want to talk about that. So, yes. More X-Men as dream thieves, yay! (This is my Inceptionverse!Raven icon, incidentally. She wants YOU on her team. Alex is unimpressed.)

Queen's Gambit (10208 words) by kaydeefalls
Fandom: X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men (Movies), Inception (2010)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Hank McCoy/Alex Summers, Raven/Angel Salvadore
Characters: Raven, Alex Summers, Angel Salvadore, Hank McCoy, Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier, Sean Cassidy, Moira MacTaggert, Emma Frost, Phil Coulson, Cain Marko, Logan (X-Men), Colonel William Stryker, Nick Fury
Summary:

"My name is Nick Fury," he tells Raven. "And I'm here to talk to you about Cain Marko."

XMFC/Inception fusion, sequel to Boden's Mate. Raven's running her own extractions these days, but the job S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dumped in her lap is a real shitshow. Two marks, two simultaneous dreams, eleven dreamers, and a hell of a lot of baggage. Time to call in a few favors -- and did she mention the job involves inception?

Just realized it doesn't mention it in the AO3 header, but this is just chapter 1. WIP warning! Oh, and it's loosely (VERY loosely) inspired by Ocean's 11, just to add another layer of fusion into the mix. Because otherwise I might get bored or something. *facepalm*

So I kind of adore Angel Salvadore, guys, for all the tragically short shrift she got in the movie. So, yeah.

Title: how the west was won
Author: kaydeefalls
Fandom: XMFC
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Angel (+ Magneto, Emma Frost, Mystique, Bolt, Storm, others)
Warnings: references to prostitution, abuse, 1960s racism
Disclaimer: Not mine, no profit, don't sue.
Summary: Angel has never been anyone but herself.
Notes: Written for femgenficathon. Huge thanks to pocky_slash for the beta! (Also available on AO3.)

Prompt: 92) Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear. -- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004), Swiss psychiatrist, non-fiction author, supporter of hospice care and AIDS lecturer, best known for her delineation of the Five Stages of Grief.

( i'll tell you a story of how the west was won )

The DC Pride parade route goes right past my theater today. The actors and I will be watching from the ginormous windows on our 2nd-floor green room. It will be fabulous.

Also, inevitable X-Men fic is inevitable. At least it kicked my writer's block? And trust me to find the only gen prompt on a kinkmeme. But hey, I've never written anything for a kinkmeme before. That was kinda fun.


Five Lessons Charles Taught (and One He Learned)
by kaydee falls
fandom: X-Men: First Class
characters: Charles/Erik, Angel, Hank, Darwin, Alex, Raven, Sean
rating: pg-13
disclaimer: not mine, no profit, don't sue.
notes: written for this prompt at 1stclass_kink

( You know what's the difference between falling and flying? )

About time I broke this ficcish dry spell. Shana tovah for me, I hope.

Against the Dying of the Light
by kaydee falls
X-Men Movieverse; Peter (Colossus) gen
written for the xmmficathon

against the dying of the light

Electricity is AWESOME.

Safe
for the xmmficathon
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Fox and Marvel own them. I wouldn't know what do with them if they were mine.
Summary: Sometimes, Jean wished she had the guts to go through a rebellious phase.
Written for: artaxastra
Pairing/scenario requested: Jean/Raven, not before Jean's 18.

Safe

I present Two Lines fic! *cues fanfare* Er, right. Sorry about the lateness thing.

Title: Home
Fandom: X-Men movieverse
Rating: PG
Pairing: slight implied Pyro/Iceman, Iceman/Rogue
Disclaimer: So not mine.
Summary: Home is where the heart is, and other crap like that. A Pyro fic.
Notes: For the Two Lines challenge. I can't believe how close to gen this fic turned out to be. And many thanks and virtual cookies to brandybuck for the beta!

( and there is a feeling that you should just go home / and spend a lifetime finding out just where that is )