MacDoc, Ex-Gifted Kid Kinks, and The Intellectual Arms Race
So Iāve been writing If Life Is Gonna Fuck Me, and Iām drafting up the new Katabasis chapterā¦ so hereās some Thoughts.
Thereās a reason Murdoc calls Mac his Truly only worthy companion.
Itās not just dramatics and obsession though itās definitely those too, itās respect. Reverent, awed, and potentially very horny (depending on how you feel about it) respect.
See, Murdoc doesnāt actually want to kill Mac. Not really. That would mean the game ends, and Murdoc lives for the game. He needs Macās mind aimed at him like a loaded weapon. He needs the challenge, the chase, the look in Macās eyes when he figures the plans out, when he beats him at his own game. Because the truth is, Murdoc has a competence kink so severe itās fucking terminal.
He doesnāt want someone weaker. He doesnāt want anyone submissive or beneath him. He wants someone who can win. Because if you can outmatch Murdoc, if you can survive him, if you can dismantle his plans and walk away smarter, with clean hands, and fuck without any weapon other than your own mind and the things around you. Then youāre exactly what he craves, someone who could keep up with him, someone who burns just as brightly as he does, someone equal.
And Mac? Mac hates that he understands this.
He hates that Murdocās traps are the most fun heās had in months. Mac hates that when Murdoc says, Good boy, Macgyver! or God youāre clever while pressing a gun to his head, he feels it all the way down his spine.
Because Angus Macgyver, boy scout, genius, golden moral compass of Phoenix, has a praise kink, but it only lights up when someone actually gets him. When someone sees how fast his mind moves, how precise his hands are, how much effort heās hiding under that casual flannel. When someone is so sincere that he canāt convince himself itās a lie. And Murdoc sees all of it.
So what happens?
You get a kink feedback loop so intense it might count as an international incident.
Murdoc sets a trap. Mac disarms it. Murdoc is like Youāre incredible boy scout. Murdocās pupils are blown and heās high on the sheer sight of it, Mac is cocky and confident and will actively snap and snark at him while trying to ignore the heat working its way through his body.
Rinse, repeat, explode something.
The point is, this is not your average enemies-to-lovers. This is intellectual foreplay. This is two brilliant and thoroughly unhinged men slowly destroying each other because itās the only way they know how to connect.
Itās courtship under fucking cold war conditions. Itās mutually assured destruction, if either of them give into their dynamic then theyāre both fucked.
Murdoc doesnāt flirt with flowers or soft words. He flirts with mind games and precision hits, every confrontation is another chance to say, Dazzle me Angus.
And Mac answers with explosive grace. With beautifully improvised solutions, with a mind so fast and so wildly destructive that it makes Murdoc start composing wedding vows in his head on impact.
Or dirty talk, you know, whatever works.
And itās not just about survival, survival would be taking the shot, letting someone kill Murdoc and putting that problem to rest forever. But the problem is that Mac wants to play the game too.
He wants to earn the praise. He wants to be the one Murdoc canāt beat. He wants to hear Murdoc call him brilliant and infuriating, and he wants to hear him whisper mine like itās a religion.
They are each otherās favorite puzzle, the dopamine and adrenaline hit, the feeling of flying and falling and being alive, and god help them if they let themselves fall into each other. Because thereās no coming back from that. Because from that moment theyāll belong to each other and nobody else.
Theyāre not just enemies to lovers, they donāt learn to see past the flaws, they like the flaws. Mac wants Murdoc reverent and unholy, and Murdoc wants Mac wrathful and bitter. Itās enemies and lovers. Itās Iām the only one allowed to kill you and I canāt do it anymore. Itās Youāre the only one who understands me and Iām not sure if I want to kill you or kiss you.
Itās the savior and the person who never care about being saved.
Itās the villain and the prince that never wanted his throne.
And at its base level itās Fuck Macgyver is hot when heās ruining my life and God I want Murdoc to call me clever.
