Days of Becoming, Chapter 15

[talktooloose]

Title: Days of Becoming, Chapter 15 - “The Yellow and the Black, Part 2”
Author: Talktooloose
'Verse: X-Men movieverse
Warnings: Swearing, misery, revealing hospital gowns.
Series Summary: This novel focusses mainly on the paths Iceman and Pyro take on their way to adulthood and how they discover and deal with their love for each other. It is a novel about what Joni Mitchell calls "the dream's malfunction" and how we can learn to make our own dreams when our heroes fail us. Other X characters (including ones from comicverse and elsewhere) and OC's play prominent roles and the action begins before X1, continues through the events of X2 and X3 and concludes in the aftermath of that movie.
Chapter Summary: At the Turcott Clinic and at the Spiderhole, things go from bad to worse. And aren't you supposed to feel better when the heroes arrive?
Betas: kuriadalmatia, mofic and lux_apollo. Thank you for your precision and commitment.
Disclaimers: Marvel and 20th Century own this stuff but they need us to make sense of it.

Notes: I ret-conned the structure of the novel to divide it into books. Chapters 1 through 6 now comprise Book 1 ("Days of Awakening"). Book 2 ("From What I've Tasted of Desire") begins with Chapter 7 and ends with this chapter.

The betas, as usual, were immensely helpful and I've ignored a different strongly held point of criticism from each of them this time. Sorry guys, it's my funeral. Lux, especially may be disappointed that I handled his "that's too crude" criticism by making it cruder. *sigh*

In strange coincidence news, I'm publishing a Halloween chapter in the same week as Halloween. SPOOOOOOOOKKKYYYYYY!

I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. Please use the comments link at the end of the chapter to bring you back here or drop me email to talktooloose ATTT livejournal DOTTTT com.

Here's the chapter!

Here's the DOB homepage for earlier chapters!

Comments

[nat-dimension.livejournal.com]

I'm sitting the most important exam of my life thus far this Wednesday, and I haven't been able to think about anything else for weeks; until now. Outstanding, captivating, major-exam-displacing work. Are you planning to continue releasing chapters on the same time-frame or does the end of book two prompt a hiatus?

PLEASE SAY NO TO THE SECOND OPTION. My head may explode otherwise.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, good luck with your exam. I hope my little study break improved your chances rather than diminishing them.

No, no hiatus planned at all. I'm doing the mental gear-up for chapter 16 now and should be ready to write in a few days. I am writing a short fable in between but I'm determined to keep that down under 2000 words.

I've been saying things to myself like, "You should write 1,000 words a day, five days a week." This sounds like a lovely plan and would mean that I could finish the whole of Days of Becoming by the end of next summer. However, I'm dubious about my ability to actually write more quickly than I am now.

Maybe... maybe...

There's also the question of how many more chapters there are. I've planned it out roughly to go up to Ch. 30 but I'm going to see if I can get it done effectively with 25. Lux_Apollo is dubious about that and says he will not let me short change the story.

Ack, I'm thinking out loud here.

To sum up: thanks for reading. No hiatus planned. Good luck on Wednesday.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

You short change it, and you have to answer to her. *points at icon*

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

Crap. I really suck at doing this. Ha ha ha. This was the icon it was supposed to be... Sigh.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Imagine my confusion.

So, are going to kill me? I changed "his ass and legs" to "his fine ass and legs". LOL.

I'm sorry, but I thought about it and decided that it was really about separating his sexual attraction from any other feelings he might have for him. It had to be that way.

I sometimes find that when you are criticized (or criticize yourself) for a particular point, it's just as likely that you haven't gone far enough to make it work.

[(Anonymous)]

True.

I can see your reasoning. It's fine.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

You can't hide behind anonymity, Lux! I know it's you!

[nat-dimension.livejournal.com]

Your wishes of good luck were much appreciated, as I managed to pull it together and do pretty well (I think) on my exam.

Of course, if my comment on chapter 16 is riddled with scalding comments regarding exams then I may need to re-evaluate my powers of self-assessment.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

An update! Yay! \o/

I'm sad at how things turned out with Lance. He was quite the bastard, but still, there was something nice between Bobby and him.

But OMG, is Johnny finally going to meet Bobby again? *excited*

Good luck with finding time to write us more lovely chapters! :-)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I have a lot of love for that immature idiot, Lance. If I'm pissed off at someone, it's Magneto for exploiting his immaturity.

Is Bobby going to meet John again? Well, Book 3 is called, "The Ballad of Bobby and John".

Thanks for reading!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_profiterole_/]

Now that's a promising title. I can't wait. ^_^

[train-diskense.livejournal.com]

Everything before the end was amazing. The end, however, was beyond fantastic. Yay John and Bobby are going to finally meet up soon!

I liked Xeon. :) And Lucky and Ludo. And that entire scene with the face off against the human boys.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

heh, one of the betas felt that, from a writing point of view, the cliff hanger was a bad idea. While I agreed with her, I also knew I owed it to loyal fans like you who are chomping at the 'shipper bit.

Yeah, you'll see some more of Xeno in a while. Ludo and Lucky will show up one more time.

I had fun writing the Spiderhole gang and if I owned the comic book company, they'd get their own spinoff book.

Thanks for reading.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Also, your icon is pure win. I will share it with my boyfriend tonight. He'll get a kick out of it.

[briseur.livejournal.com]

The quote you love so much is Crisp. I'm going to the library tomorrow to print out chapter XV to read at work; yay!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Enjoy! I assume you did so with 14 because the last printout I left you was 13.

I like the idea of a quote being "crisp".

I miss you, mon frère.

[briseur.livejournal.com]

And I you. When are you & Snake coming east.

[ayumie.livejournal.com]

Poor Bobby. His (quasi) boyfriends seem to have a tendency to run off with the Brotherhood.
Really, this chapter was beyond awesome. I particularly liked Kitty's reaction to Magneto. Or rather, I particularly like your Kitty. She's one strong girl. And yet for all that awesomeness I can't wait to get to the sexing. I'm just that shallow. John is coming to stay at the mansion now, isn't he? Isn't he?

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Yes, Bobby seems to be a one-man recruitment office for the Brotherhood, doesn't he?. But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

Kitty, Magneto and the Holocaust is a theme we will continue to explore in these pages.

I have to think back more than a year, but I swear I didn't realize what I was doing with Kitty when I started or how much I would grow to love her. The movies had basically no clue what to do with her until X3 and even there it's pretty sketchy.

For the record, X3's Kitty is the closest movieverse comes to the one I imagine in my head. I actually think of her somewhere in between John Byrne's original (aged a few years) and John Cassaday's in Astonishing (few years younger). Which means we all have to ignore 13-year old Kitty from X2 and goyishe Kitty from X1 if we want to get through Days of Becoming without our brains exploding.

Agreed? Agreed.

[(Anonymous)]

Anyone who doesn't agree that movie-Kitty was so f'd up as to not really have a canon to draw upon until X-3 should be lined up and mind-wiped.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Will you log in already?

[sendthewolves.livejournal.com]

Let me get this out the way:
SQUEE!!!! OMG BOBBY AND JOHN ARE FINALLY MEETING AGAIN!!!!

Now more coherently can I just say how much I loved this chapter! I especially enjoyed your Magneto,as I fangirl him shamelessly, you have him spot on! Mystique was also wonderful.
Also, I really loved Mike's part in this, encouraging the kids at the Spiderhole to stand up for themselves and the scene where they have the stand off with the frat guys was awsome.

The shipper side of me is currently at war with itself as the Bobby/John part rejoices and the Kitty/Lance part weeps. I love your Kitty, it's good to see her have justice done to her after the movies failed so bad.

Overall: Yay! I can't wait for the next chapter!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your kind words. They cheered me at the beginning of a tough day.

I had great, great fun writing Magneto. I remembered an interview in which Sir Ian had been grateful for the more Shakespearean quality of his speeches in X3. I decided that I would write dialogue that, if Sir Ian were to receive it, would please him.

I'm very interested in Magneto's relationship with Mystique. She is his loyal follower but does not fear him. Sir Ian says they're lovers.

Thank you also for your kind words on my Kitty.

Next chapter... yes, I too look forward to it.

[sendthewolves.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome, I'm glad my comment helped and I hope the day wasn't too bad.

I'm also very interested in the Magneto/Mystique relationship. I'm inclined to agree with Sir Ian, I definately get that impression from them. They have a certain intimacy, I feel. Well, until X3 happened anyway.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

The only thing about the relationship is that in the movies it looks to me more like a gay man and his str8 female best friend. This is especially true when they're cutting up on the plane and Pyro is watching them.

In any case, those two sly actors gave us a lot of subtext to work with!

I need a Magneto icon. Yours is the coolest!!

[sendthewolves.livejournal.com]

Hmm that's also true, I think I see Magneto as bisexual, since he and Xavier were obviously lovers, I'm pretty sure I read a quote from Sir Ian about that somewhere as well.

Thanks, you're welcome to it if you'd like it.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Yes, clearly there was a close relationship between him and Charles. I'll get to that, too.

Sir Ian said they were lovers? I'd like to see that quote.

[underhardlove.livejournal.com]

That was great =D
Haha im going to miss Lance =[, but i have a feeling ill like your Pyro :P, better from other stories ive heard.
Your a great writer, haha i wish you could write faster :p, but good writing takes time i guess :p
Haha the part mentioning Lance's Ass and Legs, I was waiting for something of that sort.
Great Writing, Good Job, and keep up the good work.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Haha! I'm vindicated. One of the betas thought the "ass and legs" line was too crude!

I'm busily writing a planning document for the rest of the novel and I can't wait to write it all. How fast I do that is sort of outside my control. Doing what I can.

Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting.

[mandlebars.livejournal.com]

DUDE

I can't begin to tell yo how awesome this is, really; although now I'm going to be worrying myself over John =/

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Dude!!

Don't worry yourself to death there!

Thanks for the "awesome."

[mandlebars.livejournal.com]

I love that all my comments seem to start with dude...but that's my reaction after reading your writing, plus I always want to put my Lit student cap on and get all deep into it, but I end up just telling you how much I love this, cos I do.

Quick question though...with the Magneto-Xavier storyline are you going to develop it, and if you are comic verse or cartoon verse version? Or will it be totally your creation?

But let me really say the main thing that I love about this story is the brilliant blending of 'factual' X-men storylines and original ideas

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Dude excitement is great. If you ever wish to go deep, go for it.

I'm just in the PAINFUL process of plotting out the rest of the book and making sure I don't forget anything.

My Charles/Erik stuff is pure movie-verse, though all versions seem to share the idea that they were friends working in tandem and then had an ideological split. I have a couple of stops to make on the way to X3 and then a bunch of pivotal post-X3 stuff for them.

Thanks for you last line. I sometimes feel I am trying to create an alternate universe that perfectly lines up with the existing one. Considering I haven't got to X1 yet, we'll see how that goes.

[mandlebars.livejournal.com]

When Engineering isn't kicking my ass I'll put my Lit cap on and go deep.

Yes but will there be Erik/Charles gayness? |cough| one track mind |cough|

Being 100% honest you and Lux are the best X-Men slash writers out there (and I read a lot of slash) maybe I've said this before but it bears repeating,,I never finish what I write because real life always decides to kill my creativity, so I really respect those that find time to write.

Eh this is getting on and I wanna go watch Wolf's Rain now. xxxx

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

No more hints about Erik/Charles, sorry!

You're an Engineering student? Hardcore! I may need to consult you on technical matters!

Lux and me are the best? That is more than kind. I'll make sure he knows you're thinking of him.

[mandlebars.livejournal.com]

meanie!

I hope I'll be able to help, and yes you two are my faves, I actually rec your work in my other fandoms- and modding a bandslash comm I see some travesties =/

[mandlebars.livejournal.com]

also, I've added you to my flist because it's stupid that I haven't done it before =P

[astartekatz.livejournal.com]

Holy Shit. I just read both books one and two straight. You are an amazing writer, a brilliant compiler of stories and characters. Just wow, okay. I sincerely hope and pray that you'll update soon. You're great. :)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Wow! That was a big read! What am I up to? 145,000 words or so? I am so oriented to my chapter by chapter writing that I sometimes wonder how well it reads as a book. Glad it worked for you.

I'm writing, I'm writing. I would love to put out a chapter a month.

Thanks for reading.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

LOL. What am I saying? I meant 45,000 words.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

NO, I did mean 145,000. Now it's getting close to 160,000.

[underhardlove.livejournal.com]

Haha i really wouldn mind it :P
Your Alt World would be awesome.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I do hope my lifetime oeuvre extends beyond DOB.

wow

[(Anonymous)]

yeahg! its official, i love your story i just love it
its fun to read it :P well....like a fetish...or my lttle secret but anyway...wow i dont imagine my friends knowing about this...hehe :3
ok so...ill wait till youre next chapter so take care
kiss
byby

Re: wow

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

heh, FANFIC! THE SECRET VICE CORRUPTING OUR NATION!

Next chapter is almost ready. Thanks for reading!