Days of Becoming, Chapter 33

[talktooloose]

Sorry this chapter is so bloodly late. It's the longest ever, I think, terribly complicated and my life is overly full of stressful, time-consuming stuff. Forgive me, patient readers.


Title: Days of Becoming, Chapter 33: “Buggered by the Biggest Stevedore in the Port”
Author: Talktooloose
’Verse: X-Men movieverse
Warnings: explicit sexuality, drug use, self-delusion
Betas: mofic, kuriadalmatia and lux_apollo. You each challenged me uniquely and made the chapter infinitely better
Disclaimers: Marvel and 20th Century own the X-Men, I own my original characters. Ownership is illusion.

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. This novel does not take X-Men Origins: Wolverine as canon.

Previously, in Days of Becoming: John has joined Magneto’s Brotherhood. After catching him performing oral sex on a “brother,” Mystique and Magneto have sent John undercover. He is to get into the bed of a Taylor Kincaid, a closeted Washington consultant working for Congressman Kemper of Idaho, and extract information on government anti-mutant initiatives. Back at the School for Gifted Youngsters, Bobby finds himself full of doubts. Although he and Rogue are supposedly the number one couple of the school, he finds himself thinking constantly about John and their time together. Doug Ramsey and Jones have formed a somewhat shady underground business called Janus Dog Node, helping various organizations and individuals hide money and information on a private, secure Internet simulacrum.

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

[angry-gnomad.livejournal.com]

Oh, finally. I had started to wonder where this had went about three weeks ago....I lik it a lot. I also really hate the Bobby/Rogue* pairing...about time this happened...

*Not in your fic inparticular, but i just really hate that pairing in genral....

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

Lol, it hasn't been *that* long since he last updated...

I'd hate to see what people who were following my old series would say about it if I manage to get this chapter finished sometime before the Apocalypse....

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Well, it's been twice as long as usual. I'm glad people didn't forget all about the fic.

Also, which apocolypse?

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Well, even without Bobby/John, Bobby/Rogue seems pretty doomed in light of X3.

I sometimes feel worse for Rogue than I do for Bobby. She's just getting run down by the train wreck he's made of his life. But she will have her day! Keep reading!

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's up!

I like what you did with the first 'your warrior'. It's so much more John - you took the formalism out of the statement, which is even better than what I'd asked.

Okay, off to bed (after more eyedrops...)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks for pointing out the stiffness in general. I think I tightened up all the reactions in that scene.

[13empress.livejournal.com]

kickass chapter as per usual - I sympathize with Bobby in some ways but I think he's such a #@$#$#!! Is this intentional? gotta love teenagers - all that angst and the hormones that force them to act like such asses and the insanity - you do that well.
*scratches head* dunno if I ever commented to you before... but ah, nvm if I'm repeating myself
was one of the first fics I ever read in x-men - stayed up all night too lol and ah, got me into it
i like long stories and the completeness of it; the world being out there and interacting with them and giving them problems and being JUST there a huge honking part of their life - I like that. All those other tangents makes the story more juicy for me.
Thanks for writing!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if you've commented before. Thanks for doing it now.

As you to your question: everything is intentional, though sometimes I'm surprised by it as I write. Bobby is in big emotional trouble now. I hope he's smart enough to find his way out.

Oh, man, completeness? If I were to write everything I thought up, the book would never end.

[13empress.livejournal.com]

no i haven't commented before *hangs head* i remember now
i have another question i hope you don't mind
how do you handle so many characters at the one time?
[e.g. one thing i really hate with lots of characters doing things in the one scene is how often you have to use their names/other descriptives]

[nat-dimension.livejournal.com]

Very good. I'm sorry to offer a comment of even less substance than usual, but I'm in the middle of my very stressful pass-this-or-get-kicked-out-of-med-school exams, as evidenced by the fact that every time John gets injured in this chapter my brain immediately jumps in with "And THAT would probably cause a baroreceptor reflex response" etc. I enjoyed reading it very much nonetheless.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Careful, you'll end up as my medical consultant...

Good luck with your exams. You'll do fine.

[demonlord-dean.livejournal.com]

Wow, great chapter. I've waited patiently almost a whole month for it.^^
I "discovered" you story one month ago when I got back into the fandom and I have to say: It's !%&$?# awesome.
*thumbs up*
Why havn't I read this before?
*frowns*
Anyway...I'm glad Taylor's not there anymore. I didn't really like him. XP
But in the end, Johnny wrote novel. Finally. XD I hope he'll be able to publish it someday...
But oh no! There are only 6 more chapter to go.
v.v
*pouts*

[underhardlove.livejournal.com]

That chapter was unbelievably good.
Keep up the good work. These stories have been so amazing, and fit with the movies so well.

[underhardlove.livejournal.com]

BTW, you've made me actually interested in Bobby/John, and Pyro in general.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to post again. But I wondered if you know of any other stories like yours, not necessarily Bobby/John parings but anything.

I call this a story, because its so much better than a fanfic.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Wait, is this underhardlove again?

Stories like mine? You mean long and complicated?

All three of my betas have excellent ones, although both Lux's and Kuria's novels are WIPs and Kuria doesn't intend to finish hers. Check out Mo's wonderful X fic (mostly Scott/Logan) here (http://mo.fandomnation.com/fic/).

In fact, some of my favourite X novels are incomplete. to_cry_about has the excellent complete novel The Aphanes (http://bluehysteria.net/tocryabout/aphanes/index.html), and the even better incomplete novel The Heart's Landscape. (http://bluehysteria.net/tocryabout/heart/index.html)

Have you read Minisinoo's X-Men novels? Especially Special (http://www.themedicinewheel.net/special/special.html) and Grail (http://www.themedicinewheel.net/grail/grail.html)?

A

[underhardlove.livejournal.com]

Hey yeah it was me. Sorry, I don't really use LJ unless im telling you how excellent your story is. Thanks for the recommendations, I`ll check em out, they probably wont be as good as yours, but I need something to hold me over =P.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

I aspire to be as good a writer as to_cry_about.

Of course, I'll finish my novel... ahem.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Mission accomplished!

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I love fitting my story into the existing one. It's like putting together a weird 3D puzzle.

Chapter 33, worth the wait

[(Anonymous)]

I've got to say I was just about to give up checking regularly for updates, but what a pleasant surprise to find that such a nice, fresh and long chapter has managed to creep into existence without my noticing. The time in-between your updates can range from unpleasant to downright cruel, but as much as I'd like to complain, I understand that life quite often has a flair for getting in the way of itself, so it's all good.
I find your approach regarding Mystique to be pretty interesting, since I've always envisioned her as the kind of character who lets very little show on the surface. It strikes me a bit that her jealousy is made so apparent, but not only is it believable, it also keeps things interesting. I also wasn't expecting myself to feel so sorry for Taylor. This entire chapter was full of pleasant surprises. A lot of exciting things happened.
Keep it up, and please please try not to make us wait quite as long next time, eh?

-Espa

Re: Chapter 33, worth the wait

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Espa.

Yeah, this one was on the verge of cruel! lol. It was both a difficult chapter to write and a difficult chapter in my life. In any case, writing takes time. I have written Chapter 34 everyday for the last six days (go me!) and that only accounts for about 3500 words. I have a lot of wind in my sails now, so the current waiting period should only be graded as unpleasant.

My characters always surprise me, to be honest. I didn't think Mystique would come out the way she did either. Especially in 34...

Thanks for reading.