Summary: When you’re twelve and you have a crush on your babysitter, your parents think it’s puppy love, think it’s cute, and you’ll forget about it soon enough. When you’re fifteen, and your former babysitter’s on TV in one of the UK’s most successful soap operas, and is still decidedly hot, all you can remember is the advice he’d given you, and how he’d let you win when playing videogames. When you’re nineteen and you score a supporting role in an X-Men film, the last thing you’d expected was to be acting opposite your former babysitter, and - as it turns out - romancing his character; he’s still decidedly handsome, and you’re definitely not a little kid anymore. He doesn’t even recognize you, and you know what? You’re glad.
[ F I C P L A Y L I S T ] & [ in-universe character playist ]
when he was looking out for me (i would pretend he was my summer fling)
but that was many years ago, how would you see me now i’ve grown up (given up my video games)
i’ve got a new life (you would hardly recognise me)
i think i’ve got too many memories getting in the way of me
we can be heroes, just for one day
if you were church i’d get on my knees
even when the sun goes down
don’t follow me, you’ll end up in my arms
when everything feels like the movies, you bleed just to know you’re alive
like i can pretend that i don’t wanna end, i’m afraid (and dangerous)
// songs to kill xmen to // CASSIDY TEMPLE | RIOT CONTROL
no-one asked for this, but here’s a playlist for y/n’s x-men character in heard your name in every love song
Glory and Gore : Lorde | My People : The Presets | Young God : Halsey | Ashes : Stellar | Sail - Feed Me Remix : AWOLNATION | bury a friend : Billie Eilish | Start a Riot : Duckwrth ft. Shaboozey | We’re Not Gonna Take It : Twisted Sister | (I Just) Died In Your Arms : Cutting Crew | Real Boy : Lola Blanc | Everybody Wants To Rule The World : Tears For Fears | feel something : Bea Miller | Let It In : Ali Vaughan | Message In A Bottle : The Police | Thriller : Michael Jackson | Twisted : MISSIO | you should see me in a crown : Billie Eilish | Blood // Water : grandson | Back to Black : Amy Winehouse
Yaaasss!!! Jelous Ben was si cuteee and we love a supportive mother, her mom is fantastic and a savage. I hace a question, how did you come up with reader's character in x-men?? I legit googled it as I thought it was a real character, so welk done.
i love her mum so fuckin much, dude, she’s supportive but can still be embarrassing at times. i wrote her, not like my actual mum, but like my dad now that i think about it. dude literally told me over the phone that he’d physically fight people for shittalking me (not just in general, there’s more context, but the point still stands). idk i think it’s disingenuous to not let parental characters have certain flaws, like they’re allowed to be overprotective and spiteful, as well as caring and supportive. i love her too.
oH SHIT DUDE LEMME TALK ABT MY GIRL CASSIDY TEMPLE I LOVE HER SO FUCKING MUCH AND I”VE PUT SO MUCH THOUGHT INTO HER THAT THIS WILL HAVE A READ MORE
so cassidy’s powers are actually based off of an xmen oc i’ve already written 70k about, Aoibheal Cassidy, younger sister of Banshee, Sean Cassidy, and Cassidy Temple’s name is a reference to her, since originally I was going to essentially have Y/N playing Aoibheal (because it’s my fic and i can include an homage to my xmen oc as a treat). the powers themselves are based loosely on Multiple Man from X-Men: The Last Stand, except Cassidy’s clones can’t live a life of their own like his can. In the xmen fic, aoibheal starts off with having unlimited clones, and they can explode because i thought it was neat tbh.
From the original fic, Molotov Heart, chapter 3, rubatosis:
[Context; humans experimenting on mutants between X-Men First Class and X-Men Days Of Future Past have caught Sean and Aoibheal and they experiment on them even though Aoibheal’s powers have not manifested (she is approximately 13) and they kill her brother in front of her]:
Stunned into silence, she can feel something white-hot building inside of her, all the rage and fear and pain becoming almost tangible.
She mutates.
Copies of Aoibheal, clones, appear around them, filling up the space between the now screaming and bewildered 'doctors'. Aoibheal herself doesn't seem to notice the clones, bawling her eyes out, an action the clones themselves are mirroring, and she thinks of nothing but freedom and escape, focusing on the white-hot feeling inside of her until it overwhelmed her. With the force of a bunker-buster bomb, the clones began to combust, began to explode, first a few, and then all at once. Killing the human personel who had kept her hostage, the blast reduced the warehouse to mere cinders, freed Aoibheal and left her clothing in tatters, but she was alive damn it.
The reason Cassidy has a limited number is because i needed a way to have her powered up as a horseman, like a distinct power up, rather than just something unseen like heightened reflexes and strength.
I would like to point out also, that it’s not stated, but Cassidy’s explosions (NOT AOIBHEAL’s) are never to do with heat, they’re always about force. the explosions themselves are never hot, never have anything to do with fire or anything like that, she builds up force inside of the clones, and lets it tear her apart from the inside out as a wave that destroys the things it comes into contact with.
The scream was originally hereditary, like Banshee, it developed as her secondary mutation.
From the Marvel Wiki:
The Secondary Mutation (or "Second Mutation") is a phenomenon in which an existing mutant undergoes another mutation, gaining additional powers, such as healing, or a change in appearance.
Secondary mutation is noted as the appearance of new powers, or an increase in existing powers.
It was stated by Beast that the secondary mutations usually occurred in the twenties of the subjects, and generally appeared in time of great stress.
From the original fic, chapter 8, nodus tollens:
The appearance of the secondary mutation:
The world falls apart in a blur of movement. The gun goes off just after Raven jumps and makes a break for the window, the bullet curves as she crashes through the glass, following her on the way down. Tackling Erik earns Hank a mean right hook to the jaw, but Aoibheal’s there, looking at Trask like a dear in the headlights, memories whipping through her head like a hurricane - the sick fuck looks pleased to see her – her mouth falls open and she screams. She and the clone scream in tandem, their voices supersonic as the surrounding people clutched their ears for dear life; struggling to keep a hold of the feeling in her chest that caused her to explode, the clone detonates like a firework, scorching the wallpaper while Trask is stumbling to the door. There’s blood leaking from his ears but Aoibheal can’t move, can only scream and relive the memory of her brother’s murder over and over again.
Hank discussing it:
"I've never seen a secondary mutation so vastly different!" No longer blue or furry, [Hank’s] smile is excited as he looks over at her. Sharing the cockpit feels almost familiar by now, with Aoibheal curled up in the passenger seat nursing a glass of water. "It makes sense though, your original mutation – the explosions – would be an extension of your temperature immunity, but your secondary mutation is hereditary."
Cassidy’s scream, however, unlike Banshee’s, only effects things with ears, not inanimate objects like glass. Of course she could learn the right pitch to get glass to shatter like an opera singer, but generally speaking, her scream only effects things that can hear.
OKAY LETS TALK ABT THE STUFF I FABRICATED FOR THE FIC
oh GOD I WANT TO TALK ABOUT HER RELATIONSHIP WITH MAGNETO
not as in romantic, as in he is literally her character’s main inspiration in the films. i’m literally making a fake trailer right now that’s intercut with moments from his DOFP speech that was broadcast to the whole of america.
i love dofp (possibly to my detriment) but i always thought it was weird that no-one was ever like.... magneto has a point. BECAUSE HE HAS A POINT. he’s speaking directly to disenfranchised and SCARED mutants across the nation, and yet everyone’s heralding Mystique as the new face of mutant kind. YES she made a point, but like.... did no-one vibe with magneto when he promised the destruction of mankind? i would. anyways.
so i thought it would be interesting for this character, Cassidy, to have this hero-worship of Magneto, taking his words to heart like scripture, ultimately making her a foil for Phoenix, Xavier’s protege.
it’s why i specifically included this:
“You should be,” you hissed, putting your all into the words as you spoke them, and you hear Ben inhale sharply beside you, “we shall inherit the Earth.”
“What follows is a struggle as Cassidy and the figure – revealed to be her clone – proceed to kill the man. When they’re finished, and the man’s dead on the ground, Cassidy straightens her outfit, and we hear –“ as the director reads, Michael begins to slowly clap, “a slow clap, and it’s revealed that Apocalypse, as well as Storm, Angel, and Magneto, had all witnessed the event.”
“We are the future, we are the ones who shall inherit the Earth,” Michael reads as he stops clapping.
“Magneto,” you breathe reverentially, and when you look to him, you and Michael share a sharp smile.
which is a direct quote from magneto’s speech in Days of Future Past:
You built these weapons to destroy us. Why? Because you are afraid of our gifts. Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different. Well, I'm here to tell you, to tell the world, you're right to fear us. We are the future. We are the ones who will inherit this earth, and anyone who stands in our way will suffer the same fate as these men you see before you. Today was meant to be a display of your power. Instead I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours. Let this be a warning to the world. And to my mutant brothers and sisters out there, I say this; no more hiding, no more suffering. You have lived in the shadows in shame and fear for too long. Come out, join me. Fight together in the brotherhood of our kind. A new tomorrow, that starts today.
which ALSO is what turns her into the next big villain for the franchise, because she sees Magneto, the man she kind of thinks of like a god, turn on and help kill Apocalypse, the man who claimed to be an actual god, and side with the people who, ultimately, don’t want to destroy the human race like she does, and also killed the man she loved. she takes Magneto’s ideologies and turns them up to 11. he fucks off to create a mutant paradise away from prying eyes and is happy, she won’t be happy until all humans are punished.
it’s why, in the beginning, she and raven can’t still work together, because raven wants to rescue mutants, but not at the expense of unnecessary human lives, and cassidy sees all humans as complicit in the torture, and therefore deserving of punishment.
she has deemed herself judge, jury, and executioner of human kind, and they have all been found guilty.
i’m so excited to see if i get around to writing some of the next film because i really want to explore the dichotomy of Xavier’s ‘no-one is ever really gone/there’s always hope’ and magneto’s ‘you were right to be afraid of us, we are the ones who shall inherit the earth’. Everyone has given up on Cassidy in one way or another, whether it be by betrayal or death, and so when she finds this symbiote who literally becomes a part of her, makes her stronger, and is happy to kill people with little regard for who they are, she’ll take it.
EDIT: here’s the first 26 seconds of the fake trailer (Y/N here is played by Jurnee Smollett, aka Black Canary from Birds of Prey)
ANGEL & RIOT
i wanted y/n to kiss ben hardy that’s literally it.
actually no that’s not it 100%, i think it’s super amusing in a kind of bleak way that he got fridged for her, like his death, both in the “””comics””” (as in the comic universe for the fics) and in the film, causes her to seek out a force that would help bring him back to life. in the “””comics””” she originally seeks out a mutant, but when the mutant who can bring people back refuses to help her, she’s told of experiments at The Life Foundation, who are working on engineering the next step in human evolution, and she’s thinking that they’re experimenting on mutants again, like trask, and goes in guns blazing, but instead finds symbiotes. she bonds with a symbiote, thus becoming Riot Control, and the symbiote initially promises her all these things, including being able to find a way to ressurect angel, but eventually (in the “””comics”””) the power he gives her overtakes her need to ressurect her love, and riot ends up using her to try and build a ship to bring more symbiotes to take over earth.
IN THE FILM
okay OKAY okay OKAY so she’s looking for a way to ressurect angel at first, but riot’s in her ear while he’s seeing all her memories, and is convincing her to get revenge on the people who are responsible for his death (nightcrawler, jean, and Magneto specifically) so its not that the xmen are just in the plot by happenstance there’s like actual beef, love it.
I also love that Cassidy’s powers are handicapped when she’s got Riot, since her scream would injure or even possibly kill him. Yes i specifically paired her with a symbiote for that reason, which is also the reason why her clone explosions aren’t heat based.
but anyway, can i spoil the ending? i wanna spoil the ending;
so there’s this big showdown between riot control and the xmen, and jean confronts cassidy, trying to talk her down like ‘what would angel think if he saw you? What you’ve become?’ and Cassidy’s furious, thinking that jean’s trying to guilt her, like, angel would be so ashamed
“Keep his name out of your fucking mouth, you have no idea what he’d think-”
“He’d be terrified of you.” And it’s so fucking like, cruel and cold coming from Jean.
“Shut up.”
“You have become a monster; you have maimed your idol-” [we cut to a shot of magneto looking all fucked up and bloody, watching with anger in his eyes] “and you have left Angel for dead. If you’d really cared about him, you would have already gotten him back. Instead, you come for revenge against the people who could have helped you -”
or something like that, and riot control has a whole breakdown, lashing out, snarling that no-one could help her, and when they tried, they ended up dead (angel, apocalypse) and she starts losing control, and her voice starts to distort in and out of riot’s, making it clear he’s taking control of her completely.
there’s this big, final fight, which culminates with jean grabbing cassidy’s face and trying to burn riot out of her.
“No-one is beyond help.” And Jean’s like, got tears in her eyes, desperate to save this girl who’s caused so much pain, but who sees herself as so wretched and beyond help, and we see the symbiote burning away and screaming, but also the physical signs of cassidy’s mutation as like, peeling away in embers, like the black scales around her eyes, and the way her whole eyes are seen as black is now clearing away, and she takes both of Jean’s hands and forces her to keep holding on, to keep looking in her natural fucking eyes for the first and last time as she burns out too.
“You can’t save everyone.” and then Cassidy’s just ash in the wind.
also this ending, in a meta-sense, makes sense, because after this Disney buys Fox and there’s no more this-universe X-Men films, so they had to do a self-contained story, there couldn’t be things left super unresolved.
OR maybe she’s fine, maybe she gets saved and riot burns out of her (spoilers, he fucks off and doesn’t die, hence, Venom (2018); it takes him about 20 years to recuperate) i haven’t decided.
your plot for cassidy is so good i wish it was real ahhh!!!! also i love how you mention the disney + fox merger (monopoly) at the end like.... how does y/n feel about her character being partly sacrificed to prevent loopholes for a corporate entity? if its not spoilers or if you've thought of it, what is the career trajectory for y/n after x-men and RP1? if you wanted to just write the rest of her career with ben as a side character i would Die in Appreciation ok
thank you i think abt her a lot and i love her.
im not quite sure how she feels abt the merger at this stage, though it’s bound to come up; i think it’s going to be a similar situation to Dark Phoenix where it was originally planned to be a new trilogy but the merger happens and sequels are cancelled so there’s a bunch of reshoots to give a self contained story, so its a little frustrating for her, but as long as the character gets an interesting ending, she’s kind of just happy to be here.
okay CAREER trajectory; so RP1 and X-Men are definitely on the cards, as is a BoRhap cameo (of course), but i want her to be cast as one of the wives and i can’t decide which, because if she’s cast as Dominique, she and Ben are going to be insufferably cute, but if she’s Gwil or Joe’s LI then i kind of like the idea of not-outright-jealous Ben, but he’s just like ‘its weird watching you act in love with someone else’
I was thinking maybe a few indie films, but also possibly a small role in Star Wars (and Oscar being so delighted to work with her again!!) but also going back to stage productions, possibly having her being a stunt casting on Broadway or the West End for a big production?? (lowkey the idea of in 2017, Y/N playing Chrissie in BoRhap but being cast in Wicked alongside Anita Dobson?? i kind of love it, i think anita would be v sweet about it even though Y/N’s a little awkward)
Seriously, i’m so open to suggestions for Y/N’s career!!
I want to re read heard your name in every love song from the beginning all over again it has me swooning and the dialogue is so good and amusing and funny and lovely. Do you plan to write any more Ben fics or series in the future??? ❤️ i hope you have a lovely day friend
HYNIELS HAS MY HEART and hONESTLY i still think about this universe. i want to write more. i want to create in-universe memes, i kinda wanna write little side stories abt other projects the reader’s in.
the reader meeting Brian and Rog and their wives!! Ben & reader’s wedding!! Ben & reader babysitting Jamie and Andrew’s daughter!! reader on a promo tour and getting all sweet and grinning every time she mentions ben!! PUT THE READER IN THE MCU!!
I MISS THIS UNIVERSE I LOVE IT SO MUCH AND I LOVE THESE CHARACTERS SO MUCH!!
(also the reader goes to the premiere for New Mutants (because idk she was the last big antagonist of the series) and she is SO EXCITED to see Charlie Heaton there (since they’re in stranger things together) and she’s just SO PROUD of him and he’s like ‘im older than u?’ and she’s like ‘NOT IN THIS FRANCHISE LET ME BE PROUD CHARLIE’)
