mf

ok so

The other hypothetical fics were easier to come up with because I used plots from abandoned WIPs but this one, this one... All I had was this image of an Arsène Lupin-style starting point with robberies where nothing was taken but someone left a note saying "apologies for the disturbance, I thought the Queen Anne desk was authentic" etc, and an idea about... fairy tales, and an inner monologue in which Gene essentially says that the desire he feels is intolerable, but it's also incredible, and that he can't... that he wants it to stop at the same time that he wants it to never stop.

The fairy tale thing is like, Gene thinks about the Andersen story "The Swineherd" which is a story about an Emperor's daughter who is considered "proud," and an impoverished prince. The latter puts the princess in a position to show how "unworthy" she is, thereby humiliating herself. She is subsequently punished. I keep thinking, at the beginning of the series, Gene uses that kind of story as a coping mechanism, and that helps him get through the day. He tells himself, proud women always end up undeserving and shallow. Proud women are only polite when they have to be, and never kind. Alex is... she... she wouldn't give him a second umbrella on a rainy day.

But then she keeps doing things and saying things that contradict that narrative and... and then plot happens. Maybe they're handcuffed together and they've been injected with something sketchy and Gene starts babbling about fairy tales? And then Alex passes out and Gene PANICS and says he was wrong, she's not proud, she's perfect, she's perfect.