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Becoming [Marvel Cinematic] [Complete]
- Thread starter fallintolife
- Start date
Epilogue I
fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You read during the entire ride back to Stark's. It's rude, but Brown is still cold to you for no reason you can fathom, so you don't spare any energy feeling bad about it.
The man himself is out when you get back. You guess you're not surprised. He does technically run an international company when he's not locked in his basement committing tech-heresy, or flying around in a metal suit. You and Brown part ways without another word. You hope the chilliness between the two of you doesn't become a problem.
The next two days pass in a blur. You spend most of them reading, and studying the photos taken of the Minoru wards. They're an intellectual puzzle, something to keep your mind off of your circumstances. (They're better than they really should be, you can admit, but you keep missing the most random things-- like salt.) No one spares you a second glance on the flight to Melbourne, which just beggars belief when you think about it. You might be flying first-class, but you know your body doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, and the book in your hands reads 'Constructing A Fortress' with a cover that could double for a Harry Potter book.
Whatever the reason, you get back to Melbourne without incident.
Casey finds you almost immediately. She punches you in the arm, which just doesn't have the same kind of impact (ha) that it used to. You register the pressure, but discomfort doesn't come.
"About time you came home," she says, folding her arms over her chest.
Home: just another word, like "body" or "normality", that might need a bit of a redefinition in your head.
"Well, I'm back now," you say, dodging that particular bullet.
You reach out to grab her arm, in her space the way you used to be. She lets you turn it this way and that, inspecting the new tattoo. It's a setting sun in an oversaturated style you saw her experiment with before.
"I started tattooing," she says, pulling the sleeve back to reveal the extent of the sun. "Pays the bills better than hoping people will buy fringe art."
You frown. You're not entirely sure if it's your place to ask any more, if you're going to step on a minefield by doing so.
"They still buy it," Casey tells you, prying her arm out of your grasp, "but now it's a bonus, not the rent."
The ride back to your house is thankfully short, since you have no idea what to say. By the way Casey's fingers flex around the steering wheel, she doesn't either. The radio doesn't help; you were never much for keeping up with music in the first place, and now you don't even recognize the artists on the air.
Seeing the apartment building should stir something - nostalgia, anticipation, maybe even anxiety - but it doesn't, of course. Just memories, with none of the associated physical responses. You didn't even know how much those made up memories until they were gone.
When Casey opens the door - you used to have keys, but they disappeared at some point between the kidnapping and the dying - your mother jolts upright off of the couch.
"Morgan…" She says, thin fingers clutching at the hem of her button-down.
"Mum," you say. The words should be thick. Your mouth should be dry. You should probably feel a little light-headed-- it's been years after all.
It's okay. When your mother folds you into her arms, she cries enough for both of you.
The man himself is out when you get back. You guess you're not surprised. He does technically run an international company when he's not locked in his basement committing tech-heresy, or flying around in a metal suit. You and Brown part ways without another word. You hope the chilliness between the two of you doesn't become a problem.
The next two days pass in a blur. You spend most of them reading, and studying the photos taken of the Minoru wards. They're an intellectual puzzle, something to keep your mind off of your circumstances. (They're better than they really should be, you can admit, but you keep missing the most random things-- like salt.) No one spares you a second glance on the flight to Melbourne, which just beggars belief when you think about it. You might be flying first-class, but you know your body doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, and the book in your hands reads 'Constructing A Fortress' with a cover that could double for a Harry Potter book.
Whatever the reason, you get back to Melbourne without incident.
Casey finds you almost immediately. She punches you in the arm, which just doesn't have the same kind of impact (ha) that it used to. You register the pressure, but discomfort doesn't come.
"About time you came home," she says, folding her arms over her chest.
Home: just another word, like "body" or "normality", that might need a bit of a redefinition in your head.
"Well, I'm back now," you say, dodging that particular bullet.
You reach out to grab her arm, in her space the way you used to be. She lets you turn it this way and that, inspecting the new tattoo. It's a setting sun in an oversaturated style you saw her experiment with before.
"I started tattooing," she says, pulling the sleeve back to reveal the extent of the sun. "Pays the bills better than hoping people will buy fringe art."
You frown. You're not entirely sure if it's your place to ask any more, if you're going to step on a minefield by doing so.
"They still buy it," Casey tells you, prying her arm out of your grasp, "but now it's a bonus, not the rent."
The ride back to your house is thankfully short, since you have no idea what to say. By the way Casey's fingers flex around the steering wheel, she doesn't either. The radio doesn't help; you were never much for keeping up with music in the first place, and now you don't even recognize the artists on the air.
Seeing the apartment building should stir something - nostalgia, anticipation, maybe even anxiety - but it doesn't, of course. Just memories, with none of the associated physical responses. You didn't even know how much those made up memories until they were gone.
When Casey opens the door - you used to have keys, but they disappeared at some point between the kidnapping and the dying - your mother jolts upright off of the couch.
"Morgan…" She says, thin fingers clutching at the hem of her button-down.
"Mum," you say. The words should be thick. Your mouth should be dry. You should probably feel a little light-headed-- it's been years after all.
It's okay. When your mother folds you into her arms, she cries enough for both of you.
ThatGazzer
Minds Eye Bind
- Location
- PNW
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Hello again, old friend.
Akatsunami
The Bonetatoist
- Location
- Brazil
Holy shit! Unexpected emotional barrage incoming, Brace yourselves!
Epilogue II
fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
You don't stay in Melbourne long. It's good to see Mum and Casey, find out what's going in their lives. But there's always the question of what happened to you, and you can't really answer it. You could tell them if it wasn't classified, or if you didn't care that it was, but you don't know if you have it in you. They're happy here. They don't need that in their lives.
Heading back to SHIELD means the Hub, which you're… just going to have to be alright with.
Teryn meets you at the airport.
"We've got a few cases we're currently working on," Teryn says, after you get greetings out of the way. "Mustermann is handling one, and Martinez is experimenting with body armor, so it's you, me, and Brown currently free. Ideally, you'd be going touring bases and testing personnel, with an eventual stop at the Academy."
"But?" You prompt, as the two of you climb into a SHIELD unmarked vehicle.
He shakes his head. "But realistically you're going to have to pull double-duty. Investigating a few sighting or reports we've had, while testing at whatever base is closest."
"What kind of sightings?"
They're all minor. This Agent or that found something that fits the loose descriptions for magic, or a place that's said to be haunted. Despite being a ghost, you've never thought of yourself as particularly sensitive to that kind of thing. Then again, maybe you will be now. If you knew exactly how magic worked, you wouldn't be in this situation.
You're only in the Hub long enough for re-processing, then sent back out. You've got mixed feelings about it, but it is what it is. A quick flight, and you're gone again, this time to the Netherlands.
Time passes quickly. The Netherlands don't much catch your interest. Neither do your coworkers, the building that's supposedly haunted but you're pretty sure is just creaky, or the people you're there to test. You keep your nose buried in books, text your people when you can, and otherwise drift through without much notice of what's going on around you.
The trip to Asgard promises to be a spot of color, and it is… until their mages tell you outright that they can't restore your magical connection to your body. It might function like flesh, they say, but it's not. Your spirit is bound to the body in a way that they can't alter without severing it, and no one is confident they could bind you to it again. You leave without a shred of hope.
This new body won't even let you be depressed. You're aware you should be, aware you would be if you were in a flesh body, but you're not. You just exist. You don't get invested in things and you don't much have strong opinions. After a full month of testing and investigating, you feel far more robot than android.
Before you know it, it's come around to your birthday. Not the anniversary of your rebirth, your actual birthday. Casey insists on celebrating. She doesn't take no for an answer, and you don't fight her very hard. It doesn't much matter to you either way.
You request and receive a weekend off to fly to Melbourne. You're almost done with your first read through of the ward book, and you get further into it on the flight. May as well be some kind of useful, since you can't do much of anything else.
When you walk through the front door of your apartment, you have to stop and blink a few times to understand what's going on.
Casey's the one that led you in, and you expected to see your mum, but the apartment is filled with people. Thor, Loki, Nico, Teryn, Stark, Sunshine, Remy somehow, and oh. Fitz and Jemma.
"It's a little unconventional by your standards," Loki steps forward before you can say anything, "but I do think you'd prefer your present before we begin the celebrations."
You look first to Thor, who nods without a shred of concern on his face. A glance around the room, and everyone either smiles, nods, or looks on with an air of barely-concealed excitement. If you were flesh and blood you'd be bewildered. As it stands you're just struggling to process what exactly is going on here.
Thor wraps an arm around your shoulders and steers you toward what used to be your bedroom, but was serving as Casey's studio last time you saw it. It's changed a bit since then.
There's a corner with art supplies in it - rolled up canvas and brushes, that sort of thing - but the majority of the room is taken up by two upright pods. They look like something from an old science fiction movie, all sleek metal and clean lines.
Loki moves past you, and slips his fingers inside a crack you hadn't even seen, pulling one of the pods open. It's just about big enough for one adult, and he gestures you inside. "If you would."
You hesitate, wary of the God of Trickery telling you to do something you don't fully understand.
"What's going on?" You ask, looking from one brother to the other. Thor closed the door behind you when you came in, shutting out the rest of the party.
Thor smiles broadly. "Asgard always honors her debts, Son of Jack."
That seems to be about as much as either of them will tell you. Maybe you should be worried, but you're not, really. Everyone in that room seemed to know what was going on here, many of them experts in one field or another, and they all would have insisted on making sure this was safe.
"Alright," you say, and step into the pod.
Loki closes it behind you, and it's just you alone in the dark. You close your eyes. The dark doesn't scare you any more.
After a few seconds, you become aware of… something. It's hard to explain, but you feel almost like you're being poured out, like water from a glass. Slowly, surely, you move from one thing to another, one state of consciousness to the next. Before you can try to put it more eloquently than that, you realize you're crying.
Holy fuck, you're crying.
The pod opens, and you realize you're on the other side of the room. You hold up your hand in front of yourself. Flesh and bone.
"How…?" You step out of the pod on shaky legs, acutely aware of the thudding of your heart and the hot salt on your cheeks.
"The full explanation would be far beyond your understanding," Loki drawls, "but suffice to say that after expending considerable effort, we were able to duplicate your body as it was immediately pre-mortem." He waves a hand. "You'll notice you're still missing an arm."
"I don't care," you breathe. You've never cared less about your missing arm in your life. "I'm…" You stop yourself before you say 'real again', but that's how it feels. Like being a ghost and then an android was just a fever dream, and now you're awake.
You frown. "Wait, if you could do this, why bother with the android body at all?"
"This vessel is the result of much experimentation," Thor says gravely. "Were it not for my brother, Asgard would have ceased her efforts."
Loki looks away when you turn to him. "I dislike owing debts."
"Enough of that," Thor says, before you can even start to process that, "we have a celebration to attend!"
Thor pulls you back out into the apartment proper, and you have only enough time to wipe off the worst of the tears before you're in front of everyone you value in life.
The room bursts into cheers and applause, and your people start passing you around for hugs and backslaps. Mum cries on you a bit. Casey pinches your arm with an impish look on her face. Remy ruffles your hair. Fitz and Jemma hover a bit but soon squish you into a group hug that feels better than it has any right to. And just as you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, Stark presses a drink into your hand with a wink. "Looked like you could use it."
Most of the guests don't stay long. You don't care. You spend a few hours bathed in love and light, and you soak it in like a plant turning to the sun, feeling it like an almost physical touch on your skin. Every time someone hugs you or even bumps into you it threatens to spur another round of grateful tears.
You're home. You're finally home.
Heading back to SHIELD means the Hub, which you're… just going to have to be alright with.
Teryn meets you at the airport.
"We've got a few cases we're currently working on," Teryn says, after you get greetings out of the way. "Mustermann is handling one, and Martinez is experimenting with body armor, so it's you, me, and Brown currently free. Ideally, you'd be going touring bases and testing personnel, with an eventual stop at the Academy."
"But?" You prompt, as the two of you climb into a SHIELD unmarked vehicle.
He shakes his head. "But realistically you're going to have to pull double-duty. Investigating a few sighting or reports we've had, while testing at whatever base is closest."
"What kind of sightings?"
They're all minor. This Agent or that found something that fits the loose descriptions for magic, or a place that's said to be haunted. Despite being a ghost, you've never thought of yourself as particularly sensitive to that kind of thing. Then again, maybe you will be now. If you knew exactly how magic worked, you wouldn't be in this situation.
You're only in the Hub long enough for re-processing, then sent back out. You've got mixed feelings about it, but it is what it is. A quick flight, and you're gone again, this time to the Netherlands.
Time passes quickly. The Netherlands don't much catch your interest. Neither do your coworkers, the building that's supposedly haunted but you're pretty sure is just creaky, or the people you're there to test. You keep your nose buried in books, text your people when you can, and otherwise drift through without much notice of what's going on around you.
The trip to Asgard promises to be a spot of color, and it is… until their mages tell you outright that they can't restore your magical connection to your body. It might function like flesh, they say, but it's not. Your spirit is bound to the body in a way that they can't alter without severing it, and no one is confident they could bind you to it again. You leave without a shred of hope.
This new body won't even let you be depressed. You're aware you should be, aware you would be if you were in a flesh body, but you're not. You just exist. You don't get invested in things and you don't much have strong opinions. After a full month of testing and investigating, you feel far more robot than android.
Before you know it, it's come around to your birthday. Not the anniversary of your rebirth, your actual birthday. Casey insists on celebrating. She doesn't take no for an answer, and you don't fight her very hard. It doesn't much matter to you either way.
You request and receive a weekend off to fly to Melbourne. You're almost done with your first read through of the ward book, and you get further into it on the flight. May as well be some kind of useful, since you can't do much of anything else.
When you walk through the front door of your apartment, you have to stop and blink a few times to understand what's going on.
Casey's the one that led you in, and you expected to see your mum, but the apartment is filled with people. Thor, Loki, Nico, Teryn, Stark, Sunshine, Remy somehow, and oh. Fitz and Jemma.
"It's a little unconventional by your standards," Loki steps forward before you can say anything, "but I do think you'd prefer your present before we begin the celebrations."
You look first to Thor, who nods without a shred of concern on his face. A glance around the room, and everyone either smiles, nods, or looks on with an air of barely-concealed excitement. If you were flesh and blood you'd be bewildered. As it stands you're just struggling to process what exactly is going on here.
Thor wraps an arm around your shoulders and steers you toward what used to be your bedroom, but was serving as Casey's studio last time you saw it. It's changed a bit since then.
There's a corner with art supplies in it - rolled up canvas and brushes, that sort of thing - but the majority of the room is taken up by two upright pods. They look like something from an old science fiction movie, all sleek metal and clean lines.
Loki moves past you, and slips his fingers inside a crack you hadn't even seen, pulling one of the pods open. It's just about big enough for one adult, and he gestures you inside. "If you would."
You hesitate, wary of the God of Trickery telling you to do something you don't fully understand.
"What's going on?" You ask, looking from one brother to the other. Thor closed the door behind you when you came in, shutting out the rest of the party.
Thor smiles broadly. "Asgard always honors her debts, Son of Jack."
That seems to be about as much as either of them will tell you. Maybe you should be worried, but you're not, really. Everyone in that room seemed to know what was going on here, many of them experts in one field or another, and they all would have insisted on making sure this was safe.
"Alright," you say, and step into the pod.
Loki closes it behind you, and it's just you alone in the dark. You close your eyes. The dark doesn't scare you any more.
After a few seconds, you become aware of… something. It's hard to explain, but you feel almost like you're being poured out, like water from a glass. Slowly, surely, you move from one thing to another, one state of consciousness to the next. Before you can try to put it more eloquently than that, you realize you're crying.
Holy fuck, you're crying.
The pod opens, and you realize you're on the other side of the room. You hold up your hand in front of yourself. Flesh and bone.
"How…?" You step out of the pod on shaky legs, acutely aware of the thudding of your heart and the hot salt on your cheeks.
"The full explanation would be far beyond your understanding," Loki drawls, "but suffice to say that after expending considerable effort, we were able to duplicate your body as it was immediately pre-mortem." He waves a hand. "You'll notice you're still missing an arm."
"I don't care," you breathe. You've never cared less about your missing arm in your life. "I'm…" You stop yourself before you say 'real again', but that's how it feels. Like being a ghost and then an android was just a fever dream, and now you're awake.
You frown. "Wait, if you could do this, why bother with the android body at all?"
"This vessel is the result of much experimentation," Thor says gravely. "Were it not for my brother, Asgard would have ceased her efforts."
Loki looks away when you turn to him. "I dislike owing debts."
"Enough of that," Thor says, before you can even start to process that, "we have a celebration to attend!"
Thor pulls you back out into the apartment proper, and you have only enough time to wipe off the worst of the tears before you're in front of everyone you value in life.
The room bursts into cheers and applause, and your people start passing you around for hugs and backslaps. Mum cries on you a bit. Casey pinches your arm with an impish look on her face. Remy ruffles your hair. Fitz and Jemma hover a bit but soon squish you into a group hug that feels better than it has any right to. And just as you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, Stark presses a drink into your hand with a wink. "Looked like you could use it."
Most of the guests don't stay long. You don't care. You spend a few hours bathed in love and light, and you soak it in like a plant turning to the sun, feeling it like an almost physical touch on your skin. Every time someone hugs you or even bumps into you it threatens to spur another round of grateful tears.
You're home. You're finally home.
fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
before anyone can ask: yes, that's it. that's the end. it's been over a year in coming, but Becoming is over.
there are still a lot of questions, and I didn't quite handle all the running plotlines. for that I apologize. the choice was between not writing anything at all (which is what happened when I tried to write a proper update), or writing an ending that didn't quite satisfy, and I chose the latter.
since the Quest is officially over, I'll take any and all questions you have. thank you for reading; it's been one hell of a ride.
there are still a lot of questions, and I didn't quite handle all the running plotlines. for that I apologize. the choice was between not writing anything at all (which is what happened when I tried to write a proper update), or writing an ending that didn't quite satisfy, and I chose the latter.
since the Quest is officially over, I'll take any and all questions you have. thank you for reading; it's been one hell of a ride.
RoninSword
Sky God
- Location
- Canada
What would have happened to us had we rolled very well when we stabbed the Bifrost? Unless its just that we and the Bifrost aren't blown up, then that's boring.
fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
oh no, there would have been some stuff. you would have been infused with some of Jotunheim's frost: affinity for frost magic, never feeling cold again, registering to Asgard as a demigod. and then the standard not being blown up, the Bifrost isn't blown up-- but Asgard still owes you a favor, and Loki is still in your debt.
Oh I am slain!
Wynaut?
- Location
- Tatooine
Ha, reached 100 pages too. It felt nice to have some more conclusion to this. 
Overall, any unfinished shipping business you were considering?
How's Ward doing?
Overall, any unfinished shipping business you were considering?
Hyacinthium
Writing about sad cannibals as we speak.
- Location
- Bedroom
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You know when your alerts don't show up at all? I apparently had this problem for this quest until now. And I'm lost because last I read of this was when our protagonist got... Kidnapped? Yeah.
I've now to buckle in and play one hell of a catch up game. Because you guys saved Loki and I'm alllllllll about averting heartbreaking super angst!
Edit, THE TAGS THE TAAAAG
I've now to buckle in and play one hell of a catch up game. Because you guys saved Loki and I'm alllllllll about averting heartbreaking super angst!
Edit, THE TAGS THE TAAAAG
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fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
related to both Ward and shipping: Ward gets with Fitz. that was meant to come out in the Quest proper, either suddenly and awkwardly if Jackson had tried rekindling that flame, or slowly and awkwardly as Fitz tried to drop hints. Ward needed a lifeline and to keep Fitz quiet, Fitz was feeling vulnerable after Jackson and everything-- bam, it happened.
Sif and Darcy do eventually get together. Sif was waiting for Darcy to make the first move, and eventually she did. they have a lot of very loud sex, and very quiet mornings after while Darcy attempts to wake up and Sif is ridiculously perky because she's a morning person.
I don't think Jackson was going to end up with anyone, really. if y'all had campaigned hard for Nico, I would have made room for it, but Fitz and Jemma were too badly damaged to continue their thing with Jackson. I knew this Quest would end with the party and the body being restored, and there really wasn't too much room for romance before that.
oh man you are in for some shit. godspeed and happy binging!
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Bloody hell, I just about had a heart attack when I saw this quest updated.
It's good to see some closure, and something finally going right for Jackson.
It's good to see some closure, and something finally going right for Jackson.
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
I'm not complaining. There are SO many dead quests and stories that I would love to see even an epilogue for. Props to you for getting back on the horse long enough to get it to the stable.
- Location
- Leeds
Okey doke. I guess my question is how often did you have to wrestle this quest back on track between dice and decisions?
Amen to that!
fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
not many iirc. I didn't often roll dice, which I stand by. the big thing here was the Bifrost, and how that played out. I'm still not entirely satisfied with it, but it is what it is.
EDIT: I just checked and Becoming clocks in at 92k words. wew.
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fallintolife
the worst vegan
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Pronouns
- They/Them
it was an Easter egg.
I was tempted to have them be a bigger part of the story, but ultimately decided it wouldn't be fair to expect people to either be lost or go read Steps. because by this point the Steps characters would know better than to fully explain themselves to randos.