STATUS: available [ ] taken [×]
requested by dunbonnet

* MEANS IT CAN BE CHANGED

TITLE: Symbiosis*
FANDOM: Marvel/MCU
LOVE INTEREST(s): Hope van Dyne
TIMELINE: AU*—Ant-Man—AatW:QM

CAST

amy acker* as
EDWINA "EDIE" BROCK*

DESCRIPTION

Though her life had never been perfect, Edwina "Edie" Brock followed her heart and after many trials, eventually found her way to as close to perfect as a life could be. She was working in a field she loved, having been given an amazing opportunity that allowed her to grow in that field, she was engaged to a woman she loved and imagined building a future with. Everything was good, Edie was happy and she believed that all the bad times in her life were behind her and she was heading towards better and brighter times.

But all that is good is not meant to last. One fatal mistake, seemingly small at the time, brings Edie's world crashing down around her. She loses her job, her fiancée, her home. Everything she once cherished was ripped away and the only person she had to blame was herself.

And it is in this slump that Edie reconnects with someone who had merely been an acquaintance. Seeing Hope van Dyne again is like a turning point in Edie's life. While their time together is spent not talking, catching up, instead taking down a power hungry CEO that looks like he's losing it (something Edie will grow to be very familiar with), it makes Edie believe that everything will be alright.

Perhaps it's her cosmic karma for ruining her former fiancée's life, perhaps just the universe laughing at her for thinking that a heist was the point in her life things started getting good again, but whatever it is, it brings her back to the very organization that ruined her life. Edie is given a second chance at proving the Life Foundation isn't everything it says it is and this leads her to a parasitic (or most definitely not a parasite) alien that wants to share Edie's body and maybe, just maybe, fight crime. But they'll need to find their perfect symbiosis before that happens. And Edie knows all too well that perfect is hard to attain.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

› aight, we all know the drill by this point so I will start this off by apologizing this took so long to complete. I genuinely don't know how my brain didn't see "Venom in the MCU" and go into overdrive given how much I love Eddie Brock but here we are

› and, as always, I hate most of the summary so please make it better

› face claim can be changed, I would like to discuss it if you want to. I do have one alternate I found but I really love Amy Acker as Edie.

› so, with that out of the way, let's begin. And where better to start than with our lovely protagonist

› Edwina "Edie" (literally pronounced E-D) Charlotte Allison Brock was born to Jamie and Carl Brock. Her mother actually died in childbirth with her and this resulted in Carl becoming distant and unaffectionate towards his daughter. Edie excels in academics in an attempt to earn her father's approval but does not succeed. In college, she switches her major to journalism after taking a class on it to fill her schedule and falling in love with it.

› At one point after getting drunk, she accidentally hit a tree with Carl's car, totally wrecking it. Edie wanted to get what she deserved, but her father did not let that happen.

› After graduating, she met Anne Weying and the two quickly fell in love. The couple moved to New York City and Edie got a job as a journalist for the Daily Globe. Though she proves herself to be a highly talented journalist, her father still only treats her with indifference.

› While investigating a series of crimes for an article, Edie was contacted by who she believed to be the killer, claiming responsibility. They gave her lots of information and so she published an article about it, though she did not expose the killer, as she didn't have a name yet, only ideas about who it could be. After the article went up, she was contacted by the authorities and pressured to reveal the identity of the killer, which she eventually did in a second article. But, very soon after naming the killer, the real killer was caught.

› Edie was demoted at work for this and her relationship with Anne began to get rocky. Around this time, Anne, who worked as a lawyer, was given a very good job in San Francisco and decided to take it. The couple decided they would try a long distance relationship for a little while to see if this would work. Things deteriote further for her in New York and she decides enough is enough and finally quits, moving to San Francisco with Anne and getting a job at a news station that wants to give her her own investigative show, believing that what happened in New York was an honest mistake and due to the pressure of the police. Thus, The Edie Brock Report is born.

› Things are going well, Edie proposes to Anne and she accepts. Of course, we all know good things never last.

› Edie's boss, Jack, tells her that her next subject is going to be on Carlton Drake, the CEO of the Life Foundation, who's rocket recently crashed in Malaysia. Edie really doesn't like Carlton Drake, she thinks he's all kinds of slimy (he's a billionaire CEO, what else is she supposed to think? Remember, folks, eat the rich) and suspicious and generally she just doesn't like him. But her boss tells her she has to do it and has to be on her best behaviour. Carlton Drake could buy their company and building on a whim if he so chose to.

› Edie, of course, does not behave herself in the interview. She brings up some classified documents she saw on her fiancée's laptop when she wasn't supposed to, accusing Carlton Drake of some bad stuff. This results in them both getting fired from their jobs and Anne calling off their engagement.

› Nearly six months later, Edie is not doing so well. She's living in a shitty apartment with shittier neighbours, can't find a consistent job and despite thinking Anne was the love of her life, can't help feeling like while she misses Anne's company, after a while of them being apart, she didn't miss her romantically. And the feeling of having fallen out of love with the person she once imagined building a future with after potentially ruining her life (as they've had no contact so Edie has no idea what happened to her) makes her feel a whole lot more shitty.

› Since Edie has continued journalism but now unpaid since she just can't give up doing the thing she loves, Edie runs a blog where she continues The Edie Brock Report (though she doesn't call it that as that's copyrighted) in spirit, writing about the things she could have put on the show if she still had it with her now much more limited resources and accessibility.

› This is how she hears about something going down at Pym Technologies. The new CEO (who Edie thinks is almost as slimy as Carlton Drake) is doing something, making changes (honestly I can't remember exactly what but it should be something that leads into the beginning of Ant-Man). Edie is on good terms with Hope van Dyne, the former CEO's daughter and current chairperson at the company, from previous interviews from before her life fell apart. They'd always gotten along well, done dinner a few times to talk (on and off the record) and so even though no one respects her or takes her seriously anymore, Edie believes that Hope may still be willing to talk to her

› Hope is willing to talk to Edie. While at Pym Technologies (as Edie went to the building in hopes of catching her to talk to her, thinking that was her best bet), she catches Hope and they have a brief talk where Hope gives her the official answers about what's going on. Edie can see there's something else and pushes her a little about it. Hope stares at her for a minute in which Edie thinks she's about to get thrown out and then, instead, Hope says they should have dinner so they can talk for longer as she has to get to a meeting or something. Edie agrees, they set a time and place and go their separate ways.

› I think this dinner should coincide with the night that Hope has Scott arrested. Hope gets a notice on her phone about something (Scott breaking back into the Pym home) and excuses herself to make a phone call (her calling the police). She sits back down and they talk for a little while longer before Hope gets a call from her dad, which should surprise Edie as she was under the impression the two didn't get along and she should make some comment about repairing bridges which Hope is a little evasive about.

› when Hope returns from taking her phone call, she should say there was an emergency and she has to go, but she'll call Edie so they can officially finish their dinner.

› there was definitely some low-key flirting at dinner. Edie feels like her old self around Hope again and that means she gets a little flirty and though Hope never really reciprocated any attempts in the past, she's definitely flirting back a little.

› a little while goes by where Edie doesn't really hear from Hope and this would be because they're training Scott. Hope hasn't gone radio silent, when Edie messaged her about rescheduling, she did reply saying she was busy and would check her schedule and get back to her, but that's about it.

› while I won't say more because of spoilers, Hope does call her again and Edie, who hasn't been able to stop thinking about Hope since she flirted back at dinner, immediately agrees in hopes to see her again.

› Edie suspects nothing about her own motivations, as she may be a brilliant journalist, but she's also a dumbass and doesn't put two and two together about how she feels.

› Edie's part further in Ant-Man is omitted here for spoiler reasons, as I said before.

› after the heist is complete and everyone is safe and sound and recovered, Edie swings by the Pym residence where Hope has been spending more time since she made up with her dad and then he was injured so it's a whole thing. Edie swings by and tells Hope that she still owes her a dinner and Hope agrees. They set a date that's most definitely not a date and absolutely just two friends getting dinner (Edie you are so dumb but we love you anyways).

› It's somewhere between four days to a whole week after her dinner with Hope (which was a few days after she asked) that Edie is approached in a convenience store near her apartment by someone from the Life Foundation.

› from here, I would say things go about the way they did in Venom and if you didn't see this coming... well, apparently you don't know me as well as I thought. Obvious changes made for being in the MCU of course.

› I have more specific details of how this au plot goes but I have omitted those for spoiler reasons

› after everything has gone down (ha, see what I did there? Cause with how Venom ended and— I'll shut up now) Edie goes to visit Hope first and that conversation will more parallel the one in the movie that Eddie and Anne have. Venom will say something possessive about Hope in Edie's mind and she'll smirk. This could definitely be when Hope and Edie get together, but that's up to you.

› after this, Edie should go see Anne. Tell her that she made it out alive of the fight with Riot and then they should also have a more serious talk where they decide that they do want to remain friends even though they both don't feel any romantic feelings anymore.

› with having proved that the Life Foundation was suspicious, Edie is offered to get her job back but she declines. I'm not totally sure what she does as I'm not sure what Eddie does in Venom or the sequel even though he goes back to journalism. So regardless, Edie gets a job in journalism again and is able to get a nicer apartment.

› in the few months that follow, Edie trains with Scott as Venom so she gets some practice in. I think Venom would like Scott. And Scott would definitely think Venom is cool.

› it would be around this time that they face a villain if you wanted to do that. And if you want to do this, I will help you find a villain from the Venom comics.

› also, just thought I should put this in here somewhere but Venom looks like he does in the movie. He doesn't look feminine just because he has a female host. That was dumb. And I know it's like that in the comics but this is the twenty first century now, not however many years ago Venom was created. Which yes, surprisingly, I don't know off the top of my head which is what all of this has been except a little research on his backstory because they didn't explain that in the movies.

› as requested, Edie is the reporter with the "mad connections" that Luis talks to. Sam Wilson contacts her, having heard about her work prior and the rumours that she was connected to the "weird mass of black goo" that was spotted a little while back. He doesn't realize she is that mass of black goo. Edie's time as a journalist gave her a lot of connections that she gets back when she is back into doing it for a job.

› so even though she puts Sam into contact with Scott, Edie does not participate in Civil War. And she doesn't go on the run with Hope and Hank either. They do sneak off to see each other very frequently. But they're very sneaky and never get caught.

› Edie will be with Hope when they go to get Scott. They were together when stuff kicked off already. Can't remember AatW too well right now but I think it'd be funny if Hope and Edie were in bed together, like sleeping or just waking up and then they opened their eyes and Hank was standing over them. And it'd be even funnier if it scared Edie so bad she transformed into Venom.

› like I said, can't remember AatW too well so I don't have many specific ideas. Edie and Hope should talk about her mom at some point and Edie should say she can't wait to get to meet her.

› Edie will definitely be involved in Endgame and fight alongside her girlfriend and best friend, Scott.

› I think you should definitely do some kind of au part that actually gives my beloved Eddie Brock some actual plot after being pulled into the MCU. Edie should meet her variant and some kind of symbiote hivemind thing should share info between the two of them. And it would give you a chance to cameo your oc from your Venom fic!

› oh and! as requested, Anne is friends with Jennifer Walters through their work in law and living in the same city. Obviously how far this connection goes and how close they are is up to you in regards to She-Hulk but I definitely wanted to mention that!

› at the time of publishing, we are only a week or so from the Quantumania trailer and months out from the movie coming out so what happens there is up to you!

› and as always, I'm happy to discuss stuff with you if you need help (you know I'm more than willing to talk about all things Eddie Brock and Venom any time) and will provide the doc with the spoilers in it to you!