Days of Becoming, Chapter 31

[talktooloose]

Title: Days of Becoming, Chapter 31 - “The Torrent (X2)”
Author: Talktooloose
’Verse: X-Men movieverse
Warnings: Angst, swearing, character death (well, it's Jean Grey, so "character death" is sort of a murky concept)
Betas: mofic and lux_apollo and kuriadalmatia. Lots of opinions on this one! I wish I could make you all happy simultaneously. But awesome insights. Thank you.
Disclaimers: Marvel and 20th Century own the X-Men, I own my original characters, we own the breath in our lungs.

Series Summary: This novel focuses 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.

Previously in Days of Becoming: After the attack on the mansion, the battle of Bobby's lawn, the fall of the Blackbird and more, everyone has taken a moment to breath. In a Northeastern woodland, events of the heart, mind and cosmos unfold quietly. The Phoenix and John meet again, Rogue processes her absorption of John and Bobby, while those two hook up again when they least expect it. At the mansion, Peter and Kitty also make an unexpected connection. A day of reckoning is coming...

NOTES: Even I can't control the Phoenix! She hogs this chapter abominably as if she were the star of the novel. Good thing we won't hear from her again until the X3 chapter! For everyone who is worried about the future of the fic's OTP, well, they hit rock bottom here, so there's nowhere to go but up! ADMIT IT! YOU LOVE THE ANGST!

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 CAT toothdemon FRAUGHT net. That oughta fool the spambots for now.

Here's the chapter!

Here's the DOB homepage for earlier chapters!

Comments

[nat-dimension.livejournal.com]

Best birthday present of the day! Thank you!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday, Nat. I know it's a busy time for you, but I hope it's exciting to. Lots of good in the year to come!

[brokenwings1129.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, you even tied together Hank's lack of blueness in X2 to his fur in X3. Simply stunning.

Every time I read a chapter you post I wish it had been you that had written the entire series. Even if this wasn't a Bobby/John story it'd still be so engaging. Your characters are at once Marvel's, yet completely your own creation. I can't wait for the finale!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Hot icon.

I think people will be confused by the Hank stuff because a lot of them don't remember he's not blue in X2. I went to the trouble of having Peter comment on his almost human appearance in Chapter 30, so I hope that will help. X3 seems to have taken the cue from Joss's Astonishing Hank and made him ambivalent about being a freakish mutant (I suppose the comicverse angst started pre-Joss actually).

My characters take cues from movieverse, comicverse and talktoolooseverse for sure. Where the movie source is strong, I try to be true to it. Bobby is not very comicverse Bobby, but others, like Hank, are more so. Kitty is the Kitty I first met back in the early 80s aged a few years and put through my own filters as a former nerdy Jewish suburban teen.

The finale? Cooking up nicely in my brain now. I've had the skeleton all along, but there's meat growing on the bones now.

Thanks for reading.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

I remember details from X2 like that, but for some idiot reason I was reading Hank as blue-Hank the whole time in your story. I wonder why that is? It makes me feel somewhat stupid, for some reason.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you ever read it, but I added a bit to Ch. 30 where Peter is looking at Hank and noting how "normal" he looks other than the size of his hands and feet (which he has a tendency to hide).

Still, very hard to change pictures in someone's head no matter what you write.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

:-)

The changes are good. Thanks for getting rid of the squirrels. The biologist in me smiled.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Squirrel hater!

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

Awesome chapter! And Mike is back in the middle of all this mess!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Mike, Mike, I wish I had a book just for you. It's hard to give all my OCs enough room to shine as I hurtle towards the conclusion.

[nexusofcrisis.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see what's next. This was...a lot.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah, I feel like I'm powerlifting sometimes.

Thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

This was awesome. I can't wait for the next. I agree totally with brokenwings

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Give me two weeks and you got it! Maybe 10 days if you're lucky.

[asm613.livejournal.com]

You had Rogue say this: >>every mutant on the planet could be killed by Stryker<<

But it wasn't until much later in the chapter that you had Jean Grey discover what Stryker's plan was. So Rogue could not have known that every mutant might die.

I say this; not only because it's in your story-but because it was also in the movie__if Jean Grey had the power to hold back the water and lift the jet--why did she not do it from INSIDE the jet_then she could have lived too. You did not indicate that she wanted to kill herself and Phoenix by doing it this way-so she had no reason to do it outside of the jet--but the movie got it wrong too.

Why would phoenix want to strike a deal with magneto after it's supposed resurrection_all it's wanted to do so far is go into space and be free. So after it's resurrection--why would the omnipotent being bother itself with the humans and mutants when all it ever wanted to do was fly out to space.

I was hoping one of the changes you were going to make was to have Bobby realize that he and John should be 2gether-especially after he WANTED and did have sex with John in the tent. And since you had Rogue discover their homosexual love affair through touching them_I thought she may even be part of putting the boys back 2gether---Not enough Bobby/John---oh well.

Liked that you brought Mike Haddad back. Didn't see the point of Peter and Kitty having sex_when their job as the oldest was to be downstairs with all the scared little kids and not selfishly trying to assuage their guilt (kitty) and trying to become adult (again kitty---i really don't like her). And for Peter-who loves her_to settle for just having sex--i mean kitty even said i don't love you- i just want you to fuck me. I thought peter had more honor than that-and more self respect.

The story continues to be entertaining_thank you for sharing it.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Good point on Rogue's statement. She couldn't have known that yet. Oops.

The Phoenix seems to have lost complete control over Jean. She basically requires her cooperation which Jean is not willing to give. But! There is more to the Phoenix than we have learned so far. X3 is coming up with more revelations!

As to Bobby/John... Look, you've seen X3. They're not exactly in a relationship there. I am bound by canon, but grateful to it also. The path to love is long and arduous sometimes. They both need time to grow up in different ways. Stick with me; it all goes somewhere.

I don't think sex without love necessarily lacks honour. Kitty is very honest with him and there is true affection between them, even if there is not love. I do like Kitty, even as I realize she can be self-absorbed.

As to whether they should be downstairs... Well, Hank is around.

Thanks for reading!