did any of ya'll see x-men: first class?
If you haven't seen it, this doesn't contain any spoilers. And you're still invited to the party.
So. I've got a few scenes floating around in my head since seeing First Class this weekend. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pull them all together yet--I generally like at least the pretense of a plot for all the emotional angsting I'm prone to writing--but I've written a few hundred words, and I'm wondering if I'm at all hitting my mark. So! Would you, dear flist, do me the kind service of reading this snippet and giving me your thoughts? I don't want to say anything leading, because I want to see what the reader's honest impression is, but. I often worry in my writing that I'm either too vague in an attempt at subtlety, or that I think I'm being subtle but am in fact hammering the reader over the head with it. Which am I doing here, if either? (Oh, and if you have somehow never heard of Charles Xavier, he is a telepath, which you need to know for the below to make any damn sense):
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For all he thinks himself seasoned and poised and even, sometimes, untouchable, Charles is not prepared for the moment when Erik opens his mind to him, when he falls deep, deep, deep into the other man’s thoughts, memories--his life. No one has ever allowed him such complete, unfiltered access, and though he has gone this far down before, with Cerebro, it has never been like this--never invited, never given to him like a gift rather than carefully stolen, ducking and hiding in the other’s mind. It is intoxicating, so easy to keep falling, and he knows immediately that if he doesn’t end it soon, he could get lost forever in the crush of Erik’s everything. So he does his work quickly, and when he finds it--that golden memory, that long ago purity--he is overwhelmed again, struck by the innocence, the simple goodness hidden so deep inside this cynical, brooding man. This man who has placed his trust in Charles so completely, who has willing shared his hidden depths.
When he recedes from Erik’s mind, leaving him with that buried memory playing and replaying inside his head, Charles must wipe away his own tears, an echo of Erik still reverberating inside of him, but it’s something else, too. He is staggered by his own power, by Erik’s quiet, sprawling complexity, by their sudden intimacy. And when Erik reaches out and the satellite moves, creaking and heaving as it slowly rotates toward them, Charles feels the hot twist of want curling in his belly, and he has to swallow it down, looking away as shame burns his cheeks.
He has come to accept many of the things about himself that make him Other, but not this.
----
I guess my question is, what is your impression of Charles, from that?
So. I've got a few scenes floating around in my head since seeing First Class this weekend. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to pull them all together yet--I generally like at least the pretense of a plot for all the emotional angsting I'm prone to writing--but I've written a few hundred words, and I'm wondering if I'm at all hitting my mark. So! Would you, dear flist, do me the kind service of reading this snippet and giving me your thoughts? I don't want to say anything leading, because I want to see what the reader's honest impression is, but. I often worry in my writing that I'm either too vague in an attempt at subtlety, or that I think I'm being subtle but am in fact hammering the reader over the head with it. Which am I doing here, if either? (Oh, and if you have somehow never heard of Charles Xavier, he is a telepath, which you need to know for the below to make any damn sense):
----
For all he thinks himself seasoned and poised and even, sometimes, untouchable, Charles is not prepared for the moment when Erik opens his mind to him, when he falls deep, deep, deep into the other man’s thoughts, memories--his life. No one has ever allowed him such complete, unfiltered access, and though he has gone this far down before, with Cerebro, it has never been like this--never invited, never given to him like a gift rather than carefully stolen, ducking and hiding in the other’s mind. It is intoxicating, so easy to keep falling, and he knows immediately that if he doesn’t end it soon, he could get lost forever in the crush of Erik’s everything. So he does his work quickly, and when he finds it--that golden memory, that long ago purity--he is overwhelmed again, struck by the innocence, the simple goodness hidden so deep inside this cynical, brooding man. This man who has placed his trust in Charles so completely, who has willing shared his hidden depths.
When he recedes from Erik’s mind, leaving him with that buried memory playing and replaying inside his head, Charles must wipe away his own tears, an echo of Erik still reverberating inside of him, but it’s something else, too. He is staggered by his own power, by Erik’s quiet, sprawling complexity, by their sudden intimacy. And when Erik reaches out and the satellite moves, creaking and heaving as it slowly rotates toward them, Charles feels the hot twist of want curling in his belly, and he has to swallow it down, looking away as shame burns his cheeks.
He has come to accept many of the things about himself that make him Other, but not this.
----
I guess my question is, what is your impression of Charles, from that?