xmenfirstkink | round 3 overflow post

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round 3 overflow post

Round 3 Overflow Post

This post is for Round 3 fills only. We ask that when a round hits 8500 comments, fillers begin moving their fills to this post.

Format:
SUBJECT LINE -- Round #, short description of fic (ex: "Alex/Hank, lab partners")
--- Link to the prompt
--- Text of the prompt

--- Link to the fill
OR
--- Entire text of the fill

EXAMPLE:
Prompt: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/6437.html?thread=1038472#t2038174

Charles/Erik -- Charles is a bakery owner whose most frequent customer is Erik.

Fill: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/6437.html?thread=0139482#t4502942

Charles started off the morning the same way he always did...

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XLVII

Erik spends a lot of time thinking about being a godfather over the next few weeks, watching Charles and Raven cosset and coo over Kurt, taking his own turns at holding the child, though he only slowly becomes more comfortable with it. The baby sometimes seems to want Erik to drop him, the way he wriggles. He is a pretty child, sleek and blue and sleeping more than he’s awake, at first, blinking up at their faces as though he is wondering who they are, these strange caregivers, big gold eyes shining from under the dark mop of his hair. It is hard for Erik to imagine ever having been that small, that helpless. But when Kurt curls his strange little hand slowly around Erik’s index finger, holding onto him without curiosity, just a need for touch, Erik does not, cannot pull away, caught wide-eyed and wondering, and filled with a strange sort of emotion, very unlike anything he’s ever felt for anyone else. Kurt is something fragile that someone has entrusted him with. It’s a strange feeling.

Raven spends half her time with Azazel and half of it with Charles, though much of the time she is upstairs in the apartment is spent with her sleeping in the spare bedroom while Charles minds his nephew, who is by all reports not nearly so calm and quiet at night. Erik becomes used to returning home to the smell of baby powder and the sound of Charles talking to his little captive audience of one, carrying the baby around with him on his shoulder and showing him all the things in the apartment as though they are brand new and not old friends, by now, after a year of these four walls.

Downstairs Magneto’s government rolls on regardless, and he does not comment on Azazel’s renewed fervour, just lets him into the meetings about security and listens to what he has to say. It’s no surprise the man would be more passionate about quelling the rising violence, now that he has something very precious to protect. Mystique has always been reason enough, but she has been fighting alongside them all since they met. Kurt is a very different matter.

And Erik -

Erik wants to build a world his godson can be proud to live in, one where Charles can be proud, too, can be proud of Erik.

In June they break up three large-scale plots across the country, tracking from one to another like following the roots of a weed, spreading underground until the rains come and let the flowers bloom. A mutant medical centre is bombed, killing several of the staff along with many of the patients and their families, some of whom are humans taking their relatives to the doctor. The press alternates between vilifying the humans and the government for the restless and roiling public, for the attacks and the protests, for the mutterings in alleyways and bars and on late-night radio. And Magneto helps build a new railway system between some of the remaining cities where the tracks have had to be redirected around the devastated zones, lifting the metal from where it used to run and laying down new lines, new connections spreading outward, linking people together, for better or worse.

Just so you know your updates are becoming a bit of a Friday night ritual for me.

Do I even need to say this is another fantastic update? Once again you manage to balance so many things at once and so in a way that's compelling to read. I'm really enjoying the whole political backdrop that's still unfolding and the fact that things are imperfect, a constant struggle forward. So many stories go the "happily ever after route" and I always find myself wondering, "but what comes next? After the 'so-called' end?" because that's what fascinates me. In your story Magneto's rise to power and the mutant cause are constantly evolving and there are as many steps back as there are steps forward. To see Erik having to balance the public and private sphere, the international politics and the domestic politics makes for a great read.

The utter happiness you convey with Kurt's birth (in the midst of so much political upheaval and uncertainty -- and how interesting that for all the "mutant and proud" chanting there comes a time when certain powers/abilities are more beneficial than others and unintentionally may become of greater value) is beautiful. Love Erik's anxiousness at this new incredible mutant life (one so very much connected to him through those he loves dearly), the quiet mental note Raven conjures by bringing up the family Charles would certainly have wanted -- and him ultimately wanting to do right by all of them.

Which brings me to a rather intriguing evolution for Erik. When Charles is understandably ranting and raving about not being able to see Raven and the baby (and though I understand why he couldn't go my heart still broke for him in frustration) the very fact that Erik considers not going himself if it means some sort of emotional solidarity with Charles is HUGE. Along those lines the fact that later on Erik thinks about the world he wants, one that his godson AND Charles can be proud of is incredible because this is not the same Erik we knew before he met Charles. That Erik was missing something. This Erik is more whole -- more complicated, more layered, more conflicted yet more realized. It's not black and white for him anymore. That's a journey that's been slow but sure because somewhere along the way he discovered he had a heart, realized he deserved to be loved, and most importantly he has come to realize he is capable of love -- utter, unapologetic love.

The final sentence in this update speaks volumes:

And Magneto helps build a new railway system between some of the remaining cities where the tracks have had to be redirected around the devastated zones, lifting the metal from where it used to run and laying down new lines, new connections spreading outward, linking people together, for better or worse.

Connections. Linking people together. There's no guarantee it will all end well, but there has to be hope, something to strive towards, something worth fighting for.

Hee, thank you! I'm quite liking having a regular day, myself - it helps me to know how much I need to do each day to have the right sort of amount, and helps me stick to my discipline.

I like complex stories where things don't just go smoothly, where you see things step back and forth and they don't always happen right off, so I'm really glad you feel that's working here. Politics is not my usual ouevre so it's always good to feel that I'm handling it okay!

I was so looking forward to getting to Kurt, because it is just this little ray of sunshine peering in and showing that really good, family-oriented things are still happening, that this is part of regular life and they're living their lives around all of these events. Plus it's such a new experience for Erik that he has no associations to work from, good or bad. He has to discover for himself how he feels about it.

And hee - I'm so glad you picked up on that little bit of psychology, because I wasn't sure if people would. It IS a big step for Erik, and it shos how far he's come in the balance of his feelings for the two of them, too - in effect he's picked his side, and it's Charles', not Raven's. Though of course he doesn't tell Charles this. Charles will just have to intuit it for himself!

Part of me really wonders why Charles didn't mention Kurt here (the elder and the first I mean), but there's another part of me that's just glad that Kurt was born without Raven having to die (though now I know that when that death comes, it will break my heart more than this story has already done.)

I made the executive decision not to cover that ground again - Charles knows Erik knows who the original Kurt was to him, and it's painful for him to remember, so he doesn't talk it out. They both know what a shitty thing it is for his name to get replaced by that of someone he hates. There's no need, between them, as close as they are now, to reiterate that. I hope that makes sense :)

It is wonderful to see Erik being, dare I say it, human? Yet somehow I feel as though my heart is being broken. Not that I want it to stop!

Ahahaha, it's like teaching a robot to dance - slow going, but totally worth it in the end :)

That was a wonderful update! (And I'm normally the sort of person who runs screaming from babies! *g*)

Thank you! and I'm glad you didn't run away (so many people I've talked to about this seem to hate babies - many more than I expected 0-o)

Oh, you actually went with the Kurt/Charles name confusion! *is inordinately flattered*

This fic is terrible for my soul, because even when we get adorable baby!Kurt and blushing Erik (and, less shallow and more importantly, an Erik who wants to make Charles proud) and doting Charles and Raven, all I can focus on is how horribly it will crash and burn. I can't help it, I just have all these feelings. In other words: this was a lovely update with so many beautiful and sweet and some heartbreaking moments, and Erik's development gives me some hope that somehow, some of all the good stuff happening here might survive Mystique.

I did! Because it was an excellent idea, bb. You should be flattered, you solved a big problem for me :D

Noooo, don't focus on the future, just be happy now! I'm really glad you enjoyed it :)

Sometimes I forget just how much Charles misses by being locked up, and then something like this happens and he can't even go see his new nephew, and I'm like ;________;

but aww this update was so good. ALSO AWW daddy!Azazel is adooorable

Daddy!Azazel was so fun to write. I kept having to sit back and go 'is this too happy? Nah, more happy!' and just going and going. Azazel is fun XD

I'm really glad you enjoyed it, thank you for such a lovely comment :)

Oh god the birth just kind of tenderized me to the bone. Again, I am a sucker for how you draw tension out from juxtaposing opposing elements: Azazel's new little family is the sweetest thing, but then you have Erik who loves Charles with an almost blind desperation, unable to give him the "brood" he wants. The nephew that Charles loves, the son that Raven's carried, is named to affirm the existence of her brother, but to protect that existence, he is not named. Erik builds bridges and 'holds' entire nations and lives in his hands, but he is terrified of dropping a baby. The things in the apartment stop resembling reminders of his confinement, and turn instead to 'old friends' (maybe the quality of inhibiting has influenced this). The baby as a metaphor for a perfect union (combining Az & Raven right down the middle), which, for their newfound relationship, Erik cannot grant.

Erik's first "love word". And for some reason, the visual recall of a train vs a baby's umbilical cord strikes me very deeply.

I feel so hard for this. Thank you for this update. For his inability to be 'human', Erik IS trying.

I like to think of them as contrasting colours - blue makes yellow pop, and so on. Sometimes you have to show the opposite to make something really stand out.

I'm really glad you enjoyed it, I hope I can keep that feeling going for you :)

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round 3 overflow post

FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

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Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?

Re: FILL: Everyday Love in Stockholm 154/?