Archive of Our Own

Charles and Erik are graduate students about to begin their fifth year of studies at MIT. But it's the summer of 1969, and dissertations take a back seat to more important things.

Some of the details in the 'verse are taken from XMFC canon with dashes of Earth-616 (comics) canon mixed in here and there, although I've taken liberties with both.

The premise of Extended Jam, other than trying to get Erik and Charles to have sex and be all academic and stuff (these two things are very important to me), is that mutant rights forms part of the larger social movements that characterized the 50s and 60s--black enfranchisement, women's rights, gay rights, pacifism, poor people's rights, and so on. Rather than superheroes and villains fighting it out, mutants have their rights fought over in the courtrooms, in the legislatures, and in protest gatherings. Some mutants see acceptance and integration as inevitable and only a matter of time; some think it will never happen, that time will only make matters worse unless mutants take things into their own hands. And mixed in with it all are Erik and Charles, learning about their abilities, spending an inordinate amount of time in the car, arguing, drinking a bit too much, arguing some more, and figuring out their place in a world that, if it doesn't hate and fear them, is still a bit uncertain.

To keep dates straight in my head, I made up a sort of timeline.