My Yuletide fic continues to be more or less nonexistent, with less than 36 hours to deadline, so that's a thing. But in the meantime, Secret Mutant fics have been revealed! I haven't been posting about this at all, because me and the free time this week haven't been very mixy, and I haven't read very many of the fics yet so I can't do a rec post -- um, not that I ever do rec posts, I suck -- but I did get the most fantastic gift EVER:
Xmas in Connecticut, by the incomparable
Yahtzee. It's already been recced all over the place, for good reason, but guys, it's REALLY REALLY GOOD. Charles/Erik on the homefront in WWII, Raven being SPECTACULAR, and very sweet background Raven/Hank. READ IT. LOVE IT.
So then I wrote a thing. Or, well, two things, one for the exchange proper and one for Secret Mutant Madness. But both in the same 'verse. I feel like these are very obviously my fics, but because the main fic focused on an unpopular ship, not many people read them or would know to link them to me. ANYWAY.
tell them I ain't coming back (14186 words) by
kaydeefallsFandom:
X-Men: First Class (2011),
X-Men (Movieverse),
FireflyRating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: Armando Muñoz/Alex Summers, Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Armando Muñoz, Alex Summers, Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven | Mystique, Hank McCoy, Emma Frost, Angel Salvadore
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Alternate Universe - Space, Families of Choice, Spaceships, Slow Burn, Plotty, POV Character of Color
Summary: In which the crew of
Cerebro picks up a passenger on a border moon, Emma has a lead on an anti-mutant conspiracy, and Armando might be getting more than he bargained for. (Fusion with the
Firefly 'verse.)
My recipient, unveiled, prompted: "Darwin and Havok IN SPACE!" -- which, for me, obviously meant a Firefly fusion, because there is nothing in the world I enjoy more than
crossovers with Firefly. Plus, I've always liked Armando/Alex as a ship, but there are tragically few fics written about them, though it's moderately popular as a background pairing in Charles/Erik fics. So this was fun! I've written a fair amount of Alex POV through the Boden's Mate 'verse, but Alex in that AU has a backstory all his own, so it's not the same, and I've never written Armando POV at all. He was a bit tricky for me, because he's a very calm, likeable character by nature, but it was hard for me to work out what his driving motivations would be. And then, y'know, I made it a Firefly fusion, which meant I had to write the entire fic in the vernacular of that 'verse, which was a special challenge of its own. I rewatched a LOT of Firefly to get that voice sorted in my head. But I really fell in love with the fusion as I was writing it, and realized as I was sketching out an outline that I had buckets of backstory for various characters that didn't fit into an Armando/Alex-centric story, plus a whole category of plot notes that I labeled "SAVE IT FOR THE SEQUEL", so, um, this is a 'verse that I will likely return to. I kind of don't care if only like three other people will be reading it. In terms of
Firefly, this fic is roughly concurrent with "Serenity" and "The Train Job", about five years after Unification; the crew of
Cerebro works a slightly different route than that of
Serenity, so while they may have a few associates in common, they don't tend to visit the same Rim worlds or pick up the same sort of jobs, though everyone passes through Persephone at some point.
And since I really liked ALL of unveiled's prompts (seriously, if I had the time, I would have written a fic for all four of them, they were that awesome), and my head was already filled to the brim with backstory for characters who weren't Alex or Armando, this happened:
burn the land and boil the sea (5410 words) by
kaydeefallsFandom:
X-Men: First Class (2011),
X-Men (Movies),
FireflyRating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Characters: Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier, Hank McCoy
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, First Meetings, War, Romance, Alternate Universe - Firefly Verse, Prequel
Summary: In which the Unification War begins, Erik leads the Browncoats' mutant faction, and Charles searches for something worth fighting for.
This prompt was: "Charles is a world-weary activist and advocate. Erik is the idealistic firebrand who sets his life alight." SO YEAH THAT HAPPENED. I originally thought it'd be Charles POV, at home in the Core as war was breaking out, seeing vids of this random Browncoat mutant on the Cortex and becoming increasingly intrigued, and then maybe Raven introduced them somehow? But that never really took shape in my head, and the more I thought about it, the more it became Erik's story instead. I dunno. This one was written in a rush to make the Madness deadline -- most of it in one epic late-night writing session -- and I wish I'd been able to take more time with it, but I like it anyway.
I have to finish Yuletide and then Festivids, and the final two chapters of Queen's Gambit are next up on the docket -- I'd hoped to have one done before the seasonal challenge madness set in, but alas, that was not to be, although I've made decent headway -- but after that, I'm likely going to return to this playground for a while. It's been a while since I've been this excited about a fic idea, anyway. Continuing with using lyrics from the Firefly theme as titles, because at this point I may as well accept it, I know that "take me where I cannot stand" is Charles POV of the end of the Unification War, when he and Erik finally take down Shaw but lose the war anyway. Then probably "take me out to the black" is the crew of
Cerebro gradually coming together in the first year or so after the war ends. I have BUCKETS of Angel backstory -- dunno if that'll fit in there, or if she'll get her own spinoff fic that no one will read. And then I want to start overlapping with the events of
Firefly and
Serenity more, following up the plot threads left unresolved at the end of the Alex/Armando fic. I know for certain that in this AU fusion, River Tam is also a mutant (telepath/empath -- she can't control people like Charles, but she has a much wider range, and some precognitive abilities). The Miranda broadcast at the end of
Serenity will spark off a second revolution of some kind, which Charles&co will be heavily involved in. I haven't worked out the details yet. But yeah.
< / blather >
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