coffee or tea or me?

Fic is stalled. I'm sure I was going somewhere with this. Eventually, maybe the fic will tell me. A hint, please.

Emma crawls up the mattress, carefully balancing the glass. "One day," Emma says thoughtfully, settling against the headboard, "we're actually going to do something in your bed that's in the spirit of what beds are used for. And I don't mean sleep, either."

"Your choice of location." Charles considers the far wall carefully. "And activity, for that matter."

"That's because Alex will leave us on the floor in the study if we pass out," Emma answers reasonably. "Unless you developed telekinesis recently--"

"Not from lack of trying when one's chair is just that one centimeter out of reach," Charles answers, rolling the glass between his hands. "As for activity--"

"Lying back and thinking of Oxford really wouldn't work in this case, but thanks for the offer, I'm sure I'd enjoy that immensely," Emma answers acidly, taking a drink. Bracing herself, she adds, "I need to talk to someone who believes in peace."

"How serendipitous," Charles answers, forgetting to be sarcastic. "I need someone who knows there will be a war."

"Sometimes," Charles says quietly, "I hate all humans, every one of them. Even the lovely young woman whose only crime is her propensity to forget I do not wish for cream in my coffee when I visit that restaurant. I've been going there for many years, and she recognizes me and sometimes we talk about her boyfriend and her mother's insistence she marry before she's a spinster--I'd never heard anyone use that word in conversation before--but then she forgets how I prefer my coffee and suddenly, I think, I don't need her to remember. I don't need to be subject to anyone's memory or their desires if they conflict with my own. I can make them want to do exactly what I wish." Charles' eyes fix on his glass. "I can make it be the only thing they know how to want. And then I can make them beg to do it."

Emma nods, taking a drink. "Right. I'm teaching a class of children who actually believe they have a future, that its' possible they'll be accepted for what they are. They're reading novels by human authors and studying the stars from books written by human scientists and then they'll grow up and realize when they meet the world that humans will never forgive them for what they are. I know what's out there, and I know what they'll face every day hiding what they are because if anyone knew, they could be killed. I'm teaching them, at least by omission, what I know for a fact is a lie. I can not only tell them; I can show them. And when I leave, I can bring them back to Erik with me."

Charles takes a drink, head turning on the careful stack of pillows. "Your confession lacks that touch of megalomania that would make it frightening."

"I could convince you to come back with me," Emma answers honestly; she knows she can. "Abandon the school and any thoughts of a frankly impossible dream of peace; even you wonder about the ground you're exploring. I could frame it as just a way to talk to Erik; then I tell him how to keep you. All he has to do is let you keep doing exactly what you've been doing. Erik would settle for subjugation; you're doing that to them already."

Charles nods slowly and takes another drink. "Oddly, that doesn't frighten me." After a moment, he looks at her ruefully. "Around the time I have brought the better part of the Pacific to heel, I notice she's brought me tea as well, because she knows perfectly well that I don't care for their coffee. I just--forgot."

Emma laughs hard enough to choke on the brandy.

"I leave a large tip on those days," Charles says thoughtfully, taking another sip of brandy. "Though I do wonder; what is the correct percentage to leave when one was only just contemplating conquering the world for forgetting that one prefers tea?"

Comments

[scy]

ILU.


I like where this is going. Let me know if you need help.

[seperis]

It doesn't know where it is going, but Charles breaking into megalomania is making me laugh instead of worry. It's uneasy-making.

[scy]

It likely won't help that I am charmed by this instead of concerned. *purrs*

[beck_liz]

Would it help if I mentioned how much I love Emma & Charles' conversations? And I possibly don't need a plot, just them talking and maybe Erik showing up eventually?

[seperis]

*dies* They do a lot of talking. So much talking. And quite by accident saving the world one mutant child at a time.

[margrave]

Christ. Woman. WHUT?!

Like, I'm both shaking and laughing. This is just going to be one incredibly painful and awesome fic (when inspiration strikes?) I can see it already. The problem - I literally have no idea where you are going with this. Like, the bits you have shared have had the effect of a punch in the guts. It has been mostly optimistic, but really painful as well. And this conversation, in isolation, is, well, it is heartbreaking (and now I WANT that fic where Emma take Charles with her when she returns to Eric. I WANT it, but at the same time I don’t. CONFLICTED is MY NAME!).

Charles’ long tangent about hating the human race and the thing with the waitress – I LAUGHED so much. Then I wanted to curl up and cry, and I just want a HAPPY ending with his ex, which I know can be a bit of a pipe dream, but – BUT! WHY?!!!!!

And Emma’s comments about teaching the children lies (even it is omission) that they are going to be hated – JUST! TEARS!

(In short, I’m really happy with everything you have written, and I hope you’ll have inspiration soon. But the thing is, I think I’d be happy just reading Emma and Charles talking to each other, and thinking about all the ways Erik will react (or not).)

[seperis]

A lot of their conversations are on that borderland.

I've thought of sketching out a fic where Emma does take Charles back--they get maybe two hours from the Mansion before Erik shows up like a romance novel hero to sweep Charles up and away. He's had years to recognize his original approach was fail on all levels, but with Emma's help, he'll do far better this time around.

It's unnerving actually when I realize how easy it would be to manipulate a telepath if they know them well enough; if Erik knew the potential of giving Charles free access to his mind and a selection of very persuasive memories, he'd do it in a heartbeat. As what Charles might do for/to protect himself isn't near what he would and will do to protect those he cares about.

It's really all about Erik knowing how to frame a good argument, really. Having amazing cosmic mind powers come with a price; he's forever vulnerable to what those minds will have in them that he can see.

[out_there]

Charles nods slowly and takes another drink. "Oddly, that doesn't frighten me." After a moment, he looks at her ruefully. "Around the time I have brought the better part of the Pacific to heel, I notice she's brought me tea as well, because she knows perfectly well that I don't care for their coffee. I just--forgot."

I heart your Charles so much.

[seperis]

*Grins* I liked him sitting there all RAGE and then seeing the tea and just facepalming so hard.

[domarzione]

You've sort of demolished the rice-paper-thin wall between Erik's worldview and Charles's, I suspect. Charles is all about remembering what is still human about mutants. Erik considers all of that irrelevant and not worth the brainspace. And here is Charles marveling at his accidental god-like actions with the sort of detachment that the Greek and Roman pantheons would envy.

(Erik has never bothered getting around to rectifying how revenge and vengeance -- and lust and friendship -- are entirely allowable as mutant motivations, despite being the provenance of humans for millennia.)

I like the notion of Emma slithering between Erik's worldview, which she shares because it's how Shaw trained her, and Charles's, which he holds more, it seems, for propriety's sake than out of actual belief. His heart's not in integration here.

[seperis]

You've sort of demolished the rice-paper-thin wall between Erik's worldview and Charles's, I suspect.

A lot of this story is Emma going "Okay, so what's the difference between you and Erik's worldviews?" and Charles basically saying "No clue; all this building a school for mutants has been really distracting, any ideas?" because revolution is all well and good, but when two students keep accidentally melting the kitchen, you have to have your priorities and Charles is really getting tired of Sandwich Night.

(Erik has never bothered getting around to rectifying how revenge and vengeance -- and lust and friendship -- are entirely allowable as mutant motivations, despite being the provenance of humans for millennia.)

I'm still wondering if Erik's stopped to consider that on the offchance they win a war against humans, the entire Mutants Against Humanity will be Mutants Of This Kind Against Those Other Ones; it's not like mutation cures racism, sexism, or homophobia, and everyone is extremely well-armed from the onset and well versed in "if you don't kill them first, they will kill you." That doesn't even count everyone still alive that fought on the side of humankind and everyone who is suddenly rethinking it when they realize Mom and Dad won't survive the new world order.

I like the notion of Emma slithering between Erik's worldview, which she shares because it's how Shaw trained her, and Charles's, which he holds more, it seems, for propriety's sake than out of actual belief. His heart's not in integration here.

I suspect that Charles' problem with what Erik wants to do is the chances of it working in a way that doesn't end in pretty much everyone dying is pretty low, even above not being ethically able to go along with what will have to be a lot of deaths (subjugation is a different story; I think this Charles would be able to deal with that when he's cheerfully publishing how humanity is on the outs with evolution). The first time he got two students shouting racial slurs at each other during practice would be a reminder that mutants are still socially human no matter what they are genetically.

If I were slightly more cynical, a lot of Charles' School for All Mutants, really, would actually be a way to get teh entire Mutant Against Mutant thing reduced in probability. He's the only one that would be giving a definition beyond "You are Mutant Due to Being Not Human" with something more like "You are Mutant With Customs and Traditions of Mutantness" and normalize mutants to teh point that they can't identify with humanity due to pure socialization.

Almost everyone has human parents, and at least for the next forty years, tha'ts kind of where the entire population will be coming from and what they're initial socialization will be. School as Way to Create a Cultural and Social Group Known With Shared History and Shared Customs on that head really works. Civil War between mutants would be a lot more difficult when you all went to school together. Add in some shared history, customs, and traditions, you don't just identify mutant due to genetics, you identify mutant socially as well.

Granted, that would take longer, but Erik's war would be a hell of a lot easier when he had a critical number of followers who'd Charles had socialized so thoroughly into identifying as mutant beyond the genetic quirk.

(I also have a really uncomfortable theory that as Charles' life has been almost entirely reacting to circumstance, he may have no idea what he's actually capable of or done any work in testing his actual limits. I have a feeling that if he was aware, for example, of the events of X-Men II and wiping out mutants and humanity was well within his current abilities, it would be a lot harder for him not to just go along with Erik. I mean, if he knew he could mass kill, why not just, you know, mass fix everyone's mind all at once? Ethics of killing bypassed, and all mutants safe. And Erik and Raven are no longer cross with him. Especially since the new arguement wouldn't be death or cake, but death or "but their thoughts are wrong anyway, so fixing them is really the ethical choice," which I am pretty sure Erik would be perfectly happy to add that it would be pretty damn unethical to let those poor unevolved humans keep thinking all those terribly dangerous wrong thoughts.

I keep trying to talk myself out of writing this; I just can't figure out a way for Erik to realize that Charles' limits are entirely imaginary and there's a really large area to explore if teh only actual limit is "I am not going to kill them all."

[feanna]

First of all: I like what there is of this fic. I REALLY like the ending though (I forgot I like tea and she remembered for me) because I feel that in some way it illustrates the way I disagree with you about some of the discussions in the comments (which are totes fascinating by the way) in a way I can't exactly articulate yet.

I think that Erik keeping his mind open to Charles and reframing his arguement WOULD be incredibly sedictive to Charles, but I somehow can't shake the impression that Charles is enough of his own person (and dealing with everything that happened in the movie esp. without Erik around is only going to make this more true) that he'd realize what was happening (at least at some point). What he'd do about it is another issue, but you made the point that Chales is all about protecting other people, but not himself necessarily, so I CAN see him cutting himself off, esp. if he somehow feels morally obligated.

On the issue of the limits of his powers. He DOES need sombody or something to push him on that front. In the movie verse (old movies) that reason is Erik's actions, Erik as his antagonist. I'm not sure whether in the verse you propose Erik would REALLY push Charles (except in some diretions) because then Charles would learn so much about who he is and how he defines himself though his powers. For that to happen, I need Erik and Charles truly on the same level, with Erik completely unafraid of what Charles might realize.

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

Oh, Charles. Whatever he does, you know he's going to be polite about it.

Apologetic, even.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

If he took off on a spree of world conquest, it would go either tragically strange or really really well, being no one, including Charles, would be aware of imminent despotism. Plus, people who rebelled against him would realize they wouldn't be so much ruthlessly destroyed as taken aside for a good talking-to and it's oen thing to die for your cause, but another to feel like a complete heel for interrupting his very important business with the far Pacific.

[meine-liebe.livejournal.com]

god. i love every bits of this. dear!charles. n emma. their dialog is like acid dripping candy.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

They're not even drunk yet, sadly. They just really think they should at least have alcohol around for plausible deniability later.

[cathalin.livejournal.com]

"Your confession lacks that touch of megalomania that would make it frightening."

Omg that's an amazing line.

I do so love the Emma/Charles thing. I love how in this snippet I can feel how isolating that would be, to have all that telepathic power. So I love them talking about it, frightening telepath to frightening telepath. :D

I hate stalled fics, blergh. This one seems very powerful though -- I bet it'll start giving hints again soon.<3

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things that occurred to me would be a problem in Eriks' Brave New Mutant World--you know, a telepath is not like a person who grows flowers with her will. I give it an hour after the defeat of humanity before there's civil war, and that doesn't even include the number fo mutants fighting for humanity he'd still have to deal with.

Especially people like Charles and Emma, who know perfectly well that when they get angry about someone thinking/believing something, they don't actually require a speech to change their mind. Or really, anything more than a thought. And they also know telepathy has a very high price tag attached to it from teh onset.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to help you unstick, but I desperately want to read more of this, and Charles's occasional megalomania. Also, I love Emma as a teacher and always have, so I'm really delighted to see someone going with it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I do, too. And I love her surprise realizing a.) she's good at it, and b.) she enjoys it a lot. Charles commiserates with her on that; he had the same reaction when he started teaching and its very, very unnerving.

[winterlive.livejournal.com]

oh charles. i can hear james's delivery perfectly. perfect voice.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I have terribly detailed fantasies about his command of utterly filthy language in that calm, cool professor voice.

[al-hazel.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I love this Charles so much. This Charles who is unafraid of his power, but his own rules keeps him from using it to the full extent.

♥

[grey-bard.livejournal.com]

This is utterly, utterly made of win, and I eagerly await the next snatch of this wonder that you choose to bestow upon us.

[scary-lullabies.livejournal.com]

Oh god, this is the best thing ever.