Symbolic logic, again

[starlady]

If getting 4.5 hours of sleep secondary to consuming all of a WIP XMFC fratboy AU of awesomeness is wrong, I don't want to be right.

This post is brief and rather self-indulgent, because it is Wednesday afternoon and I am both starving and brain-fried. And if I need fandom and laughter to get through this semester, that is a-okay.

A while ago I wrote an Inception fic, Symbolic Logic, which on one level is an Ariadne-centric POV take on how slash goggles work. (Sidenote: I often find that my female characters are channeling fannishness under another name; Jean Grey's POV section in Synthesis does some of the same.) So I was highly tickled to see this recent post, by way of bookshop, on the interior design of Arthur's dreams, because it is the perfect distillation of what I was talking about and riffing on in the story. Oh fandom, please never and immediately change.

Poll #7969 DVD commentary?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

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Which of my fics would you like a DVD commentary on?

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Comments

[contrary]

Uh, I'm not sorry I pointed you at it, but maybe I'm sorry I did it at 11pm... D:

It was pretty awesome, though.

[starlady]

Oh no, I regret nothing. And it was actually a simultaneous rec from someone on my reading list when I sat down. XD

[kuwdora]

CARPE BREWSKI FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRR

[starlady]

YES, THIS

[kindkit]

So would you actually recomment Carpe Brewski? I've seen various people saying it's good, but not anyone I know until you, and you're someone whose taste I'm inclined to trust. I really balk at the premise, partly because it seems so depoliticizing. But if you recommend it I might give it a try.

[starlady]

It is basically completely depoliticized (it's a non-powers AU), and given what I know of your own tastes and views, I'd say…maybe?

As mrkinch says below, it's fun, with great pacing--funny and heart-tugging by turns (Charles POV, and as we know, Charles is a great one for pining). But I'm unquestionably reading it for the Erik/Charles relationship rather than for the premise. Actually, (I was thinking about this while doing the dishes) thus far it's basically the same emotional arc as the Sirius/Remus aspect in Stealing Harry. So if you're looking for that in an Erik/Charles fic, I'd say go for it, but…this is not a rec in the usual sense, though. I'm reading it for the fictional kinks it hits.

[kindkit]

Hmmm. I dunno if it's the fic for me. I'm not sure how, with Erik especially, you can take away Schmidt and the Holocaust and Erik's powers and still have . . . Erik.

(Also, isn't the premise that they're grad students? I've never heard of grad students being in a fraternity, although maybe that was just my university/program.)

Nevertheless I find myself curious. I suppose the only thing to do is read a chapter or two and see if I like it.

[starlady]

No, they're undergrads.

And…yeah. I'm not sure how, with Erik especially, you can take away Schmidt and the Holocaust and Erik's powers and still have . . . Erik. That is both the dilemma of AUs and of AUs in this fandom in particular, I think.

But I have given up saying I won't read whatever, because then inevitably I do wind up reading and enjoying it, in favor of taking things on a case-by-case basis.

[kindkit]

they're undergrads

That, weirdly enough, makes the fic more appealing. I'm sure I initially saw it described as being about grad students in a fraternity, and that bugged me so much--because getting that kind of basic detail wrong usually indicates a badfic--that I couldn't ever be bothered to look at it.

The AUs I've looked at, which admittedly aren't many, either seem to give Erik some random trauma that's meant to be equivalent to the Holocaust (which is, let's say, tricky to make work) or they depict him as a moody difficult bastard for no reason whatsoever. Hmmm. A no-powers AU that kept all the backstory except Schmidt (so Erik is still a Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter; Charles is still a rich young man at Oxford) could be interesting, but I've never seen one.

[mrkinch]

Hee! Fun, isn't it? If I'm not howling with laughter my heart is aching. Great pacing.

The next bit scares me, though.*hides*

[starlady]

It is fun!

The next bit scares me, though.*hides*

This, I find, is the dilemma of AUs: how far will they go away from the denouement of the original? I.e., will I get the happy ending I want? (Which I don't actually want in in-universe AUs; I can only find it in myself to hope for one in out-universe AUs. Funny how that works.)

[mrkinch]

I think the purpose of out-universe AUs is to give us that happy ending, at least relatively happy. In this case, however, I am only dreading their conversation about Oxford. I do expect it all to end reasonably well.

I consider Synthesis to have an in-universe happy ending. Do you not? Has my definition of "happy ending" been warped by this fandom?

[starlady]

Oh, I definitely think Synthesis is a happy ending! But I did as little 'A' as I could, and it took 15K words before I felt comfortable leaving it there. And I emphatically wouldn't have felt comfortable writing an out-universe AU, or (for example) writing an in-universe AU where Charles wasn't in a wheelchair.

I think the purpose of out-universe AUs is to give us that happy ending, at least relatively happy. In this case, however, I am only dreading their conversation about Oxford. I do expect it all to end reasonably well.

Oh good, I'm glad to hear it. And yeah, the Oxford conversation is going to be…interesting.