Comments | trovia: Holiday Ficlet #4: "Cosmic Joke" [X-Men/ER]

trovia

Holiday Ficlet #4: "Cosmic Joke" [X-Men/ER]

Dec 04, 2011 16:42

Title: Cosmic Joke
Fandoms: E.R./X-Men Movieverse - Allegiance 'verse
Characters: Ray, Jean, Charles, Hank
Wordcount: ~ 680 words
Summary: Ray at fifteen is always angry, at everybody, mostly at himself.
AN: For scribble_myname. Hank's quote is by Warren G. Harding.

( Cosmic Joke )

crossover fic, x-men fic, allegiance, e.r. fic

Comments 6

scribble_myname December 5 2011, 20:33:27 UTC

Oh, wow. I could hug you. This is awesome!

trovia December 5 2011, 20:45:48 UTC

Thank you so much! I'm glad that you liked it.

lorrainemarker December 6 2011, 00:44:38 UTC

I really enjoy how you weave then/now, truth/lies thematically in the story. The therapist nailing Ray on the obvious lie and the reasons why he lied, what Ray wanted to hide (as much from himself as the therapist) really took me back to the slow reveal of his story in your multi-part crossover. I doubt I'll ever watch ER. Because of my background in health care regulation and my personality, medical dramas (much like legal dramas) tend to irritate me. I want my TV to be either utter fantasy, Sci Fi, or drama I can believe. Even if my belief is primarily fueled by total ignorance rather than only partial ignorance. However, I adore Ray in this AU with a passion.

trovia December 6 2011, 22:46:41 UTC

Thank you so much. :) I'm happy that you pointed out the scene with the therapist, because that's one thing I'm interested in, post Allegiance. I don't quite dare writing psychotherapy in a longer story, though. I'm too aware that most readers probably have more real life experience with it than me, funny enough.

I do think ER probably wouldn't do it for you. The more I write it, the less I can help laughing at it a little. It's all, "This was after the passenger jet crashed into a block, but before he was hit by a truck and had both his legs amputated." It's easier to believe in the space robots and Baltar's penis destroying the human race.

millari December 10 2011, 20:31:56 UTC

I like the structure of this, how you take us efficiently through Ray's life, and link all those moments together with the theme of truth and lies. I found his takes on Xavier interesting as usual. I think the natural instinct of a lot of people is to look at someone in a wheelchair and feel pity or discomfort or both. I found it striking that Ray felt neither, but saw straight through the wheelchair into Xavier's core personality. There's something respectful about that, despite his antagonistic attitude towards the man.

The final lines were quite sweet and sad and hopeful.

trovia December 11 2011, 19:54:49 UTC

I think Ray is using Xavier to play out all the emotions you usually direct at your father, since his own father is thoroughly missing from his life. It's a fun dynamic to write, since he wants to dislike Xavier, but really he can't. And he's a good guy at heart, despite his efforts to prove the opposite.