thefourthvine: Two people fucking, rearview: sex is the universal fandom. (Default)
Keep Hoping Machine Running ([personal profile] thefourthvine) wrote2016-06-18 08:57 pm

All the Ships I've Loved Before 3

The One I Really Shouldn't Have Re-Read While Reading Rick Riordan's Work Aloud to the Earthling. I Keep Waiting for Percy to Manifest His Mutant Powers Now. Pantheon, by Yahtzee. X-Men First Class, Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr. (Plus Emma Frost/Scott Summers and Rogue/Wolverine.)

I warned you these wouldn't be in any kind of order, and we've definitely diverged from my shipping history timeline now. But this is still a very old ship of mine. Okay, sure, XMFC came out in 2011, and, uh, I still haven't seen it. (Look, I'm not going to make any more excuses; let's all just accept that I live in culture-free zone and only know of modern movies/TV shows/comics because people tweet about them.) No matter. I've been shipping Professor X and Magneto since before I knew what fic was. They are one of my original No Heterosexual Explanation pairings, and their many-decades-long thing where they were probably lovers, and then definitely enemies, and then possibly lovers and enemies at the same time, and then there were visits in prison, and battles, and speeches, and elections, and I think someone built a vigilante team and someone else built a country – look, all I'm saying is these dudes have a lot of history together, and in that entire extremely lengthy history, they were always either pining for each other or banging each other, regardless of what else they were doing. This is my firm belief. I wear this tinhat proudly.

It's a very compelling ship, is what I'm saying. It deserves very compelling fic. Fortunately, it has so, so many stories, so many that picking just one wasn't easy. But this fic. THIS FIC.

This a fantastic AU – the characters fit so perfectly into the world of Ancient Rome, but they also stay perfectly themselves. (In fact, given the nature of comics canon, they're probably more themselves than they are in like 90% of their actual canon appearances. Comics: actual published fic since like 1966. And some of it is not such great fic, either.) But, also, I love this story because it doesn't precisely follow any of the canon stories I know about, but it still captures this pairing absolutely – all the ways they fit together (yes, fine, take a moment to be twelve, I'll wait) and all the ways they differ. In short, this is an AU doing what AUs do best: distilling these people and their story to their essence, and making that essence all the more visible.

Plus, I love the worldbuilding. (Show me good worldbuilding and you have my undivided attention, for sure.) I love the way the mutants and their mutations fit into the time's worldview and cultures. It's worth reading for that alone. Or, hey, read it for the 130k words of glorious plot, or the excellence of a slave rebellion, or – look, it's worth reading from pretty much every perspective. I'm always thrilled with I share a fandom with Yahtzee, and stories like this are the reason why.

(If you can read it, that is. Warnings: This story has rape, graphic violence, and animal harm. I'm not kidding about any of that, but for me, this story is worth it.)
out_there: B-Day Present '05 (Default)

[personal profile] out_there 2016-06-19 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm downloading that story because I do love the sheer epic nature of Charles/Erik, but I no longer end up on a computer long enough to read it (as opposed to downloading to my phone, where late night reading happens).

and I think someone built a vigilante team and someone else built a country

Hee! And also, yes, they did. I mean, Erik and Charles are all about each other, the constant pining/banging/fighting/making up, while also being very capable individuals who make real headway on their own life goals.

I kind of love that about them.
mara: (Marv and Joe)

[personal profile] mara 2016-06-20 12:10 am (UTC)(link)
Prof X and Magneto are on my list of "Are You ABSOLUTELY SURE They Aren't Canon?" Ships. The ones where you occasionally go back to the canon because you're pretty sure if you just search hard enough you'll find that scene where they kiss that clearly you accidentally missed last time.

Also on that list is Remus/Sirius from Harry Potter and Godai/Ichijou from Kamen Rider Kuuga.

In the latter show, Ichijou's best friend tells him to "go find your true love" and then they cut to Ichijou finding Godai. Also, Ichijou is asked if he has a new girlfriend because he looks so happy lately. "No, I don't have a girlfriend," he says as Godai comes around a corner. BEST SHIP.
batrachian: (Hanging Frog)

[personal profile] batrachian 2016-06-21 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
it is 0200 and only the fact that i have shit that needs to get done tomorrow is stopping me from finishing it tonight.

don't know whether to bless you or curse you, for passing this'n along.
icedbatik: (Default)

[personal profile] icedbatik 2016-06-21 10:42 am (UTC)(link)
I am on the periphery of X-Men. I haven't read the comics, think I saw one of the movies on TV maybe. But a friend (the one friend I knew in real life before I knew what "fandom" was who also knows I'm in fandom, because she's here, too) is big into X-Men, so I hear about it. But I have read several Percy books (and a few of Riordan's Egyptian books), and they're pretty amazing, too!
everbright: Eclipse of Saturn (Default)

[personal profile] everbright 2016-06-24 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Ha! I've read this one already! The Plot is EPIC AS HELL, and you're right about everyone being character 100% of the time.
chibimuse: mabel from gravity falls pointing a grappling gun (Default)

[personal profile] chibimuse 2016-06-30 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh I am excited to read this! There really has never been any het explanation for their love.
Question though, is the animal harm of the 'goat sacrificed on an altar' variety or the 'murder/torture of someone's beloved pet' kind? Because the second I will need to brace myself for a lot more
Edited 2016-06-30 18:15 (UTC)
chibimuse: mabel from gravity falls pointing a grappling gun (Default)

[personal profile] chibimuse 2016-07-01 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Thats super helpful! Thanks :)
Now I'm considering what kind of standardized system there could be for rating the upsetting-ness of animal harm