maskormenacelogs | [closed] they were asking if you were around

WHO: Flash Thompson as Venom and Kara Styrdottir as...herself
WHERE: Out in the city, insomuch as Florida cities can be called cities if they're not Tampa or Miami
WHEN: night, 7/14
WHAT: All Spiders know each other. Even if they aren't technically Spiders.
WARNINGS: Kara being Kara. The alien is a cannibal. Bruce Willis was dead all along.

Somewhere in the universe it was writ: Flash Thompson must always have at least twenty problems at a single time. Problems that aren't solved by pummeling a bunch of two-bit thugs into the ground or sticking Venom's tongue all over their face with a very graphic warning about what he'll do if he ever finds them around again.

It's a good thing he's left the days of self-pity behind deliberately; hard as it's been, the alcohol never did a damn thing for him but make everything worse. Certainly it wouldn't solve anything now. There's a three year old that knows his secret identity and a Spider-Man who doesn't remember their fight and Pete is perpetually Pete and the longer he stays here the less he feels he understands the situation. There's Norman Osborn and a Goblin he's never met who claims to be reclaiming the costume, and he hasn't figured out how to talk to Peter about that without revealing how he knows. There's a cannibal alien living in his body and there's a valkyrie who's not his Valkyrie and so far all that's done is make him miss Val terribly.

And unfortunately the girl made a damn succinct point that maybe he should have spent less time kicking ass and having sex and actually asking her about stuff. Even if she's not one of Val's...valkyries, she's still one.

He's been hoping to run into her again. Just, you know, generally out on patrol. Not with any real idea of what he'd say to her if he found her or what might happen. If he's gone out slightly more than usual and stayed longer hoping to see something like that happen (or to find that Goblin again, or Scarlet Fucking Spider, whatever he's getting up to) well...that is, technically, his job anyway. He'll at least have put in the hours trying to accomplish something worthwhile, even if it's just preventing a mugging and sitting around being hella bored waiting for something to do.

Or, sometimes, scaring some would-be burglars straight and watching them run away in sheer terror. As soon as they catch sight of him clinging to the wall and they hear that unearthly hiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssss and see the tongue. And the teeth.

It's not bad to laugh at that at all.

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What a coincidence, that Flash is looking for her while Kara looks for him in almost the same way. She doesn't live in Heropa anymore, but Jesse spends a fair bit of time there, which means she doesn't feel bad about hanging 'round there as well.

Point is, she remembers two spider guys, and one of them was less of an asshole than the other one, and he knew valkyries even if they weren't the right ones, and really she just kind of wants to ask what the fuck is up with the asshole spider dude. Maybe she's wrong in assuming they're connected somehow, but it's not like spiders are a thing most people want to put on their chest.

When she finally catches sight of the vaguely familiar black suit as she flies through the city, Kara wasn't quite expecting to see, well, that once she got closer. Because that is a lot of tongue, and teeth, and hissing, and she'd kind of thought the dude was human underneath the spandex.

Apparently not.

"If you're planning on eating that, I'll come back later," Meaning the burglar that just ran screaming, because things with that many teeth usually eat people.

Well, typically they do. If it were any other man with the symbiote, there might be some serious worries to be had about the immediate future. Flash doesn't fool himself that he'll control the thing forever, but for now, if he can't lose its reputation, at least he can make use of it to his advantage.

"Oh, hey."

The words come out slightly wrong, a small drag on the consonants. But the teeth retract up and the tongue retreats and the line of what was five seconds ago a gaping maw closes back up and leaves only the ordinary cover of his mask, and he can shift his weight back on his feet and sit up against the wall. A seamless, totally bizarre transformation from horror to guy in spandex. If it were really spandex.

"It's just a shape-shifting trick. I'd rather scare the shit out of a couple of punk kids than kick the crap out of them. See if they take the hint." He explains this like it's totally an ordinary thing to do, like that wasn't weird, at all. It's technically true. It is a trick, as he's using it. And she's not wrong. He is human. It's just that it's all something else, too. "Anyway, what's up?"

That's a neat little trick; not one she hasn't seen before, although usually there isn't spandex involved. Or not spandex, whatever it might actually be. But Kara's more concerned with looking a little skeptical at that explanation.

"Don't really care if you were gonna eat him, I just don't like watching," Or being asked if she wants some. Thanks, Rebecca. "Nothing's up, just thought I'd drop in."

Like she just wandered into his office or something.

His eyebrows raise behind the symbiote-mask, because hello that is a sketchy thing to say. She doesn't care if he was going to eat some kids? What, does she watch people get eaten all the time? Now would be a really great time to know more about Norse mythology and Asgard, wouldn't it?

"What, you don't feel like chasing down runaway shuttles or Soviet spies?" Or whatever it is the government's getting worked up about, whatever he should be doing instead of this, maybe. But Flash feels uneasy with what's going on, without understanding why. He's been burned before by mission parameters he didn't fully grasp until he'd finished.

He's also not sure he believes her, given the way their last conversation went.

Her only friend thinks human hearts are delicious, she's seen some shit.

"Fuck that, it ain't my problem," Sure, it was kind of worrying to hear, when she found out things were going wrong with the shuttle and there was a considerate amount of people on board. But it's not like there's anything she could've done about it.

And there's always gonna be spies or thugs or serial killers trying to hurt people, getting worked up about it seems like a waste of time, unless they're going after people she's fond of. Then she'd tear them into little pieces, but that hasn't been necessary yet.

Her only friend is wrong. It's the brains that really taste the best.

But Flash works hard to keep his parasitic passenger under control. Even if he feels slightly guilty about not being there, space isn't really his thing at all. Even if that's where his passenger came from. Even if it can't really hurt him, with the symbiote protecting him from the cold and the vacuum.

"Uh-huh." He sounds noncommittal, regarding her with something like curiosity and something that's half scrutiny, trying to judge for himself how much he believes her. "So, out of curiosity, then, what kind of things are your problems? Or are you pretty much not interested in this whole superhero thing."

"The whole superhero thing is bullshit. I've read comic books, all it does is make more of a fucking mess," They don't have supervillains in her world, even though there are plenty of people with powers. It's like dressing up in stupid costumes just invites trouble, "Someone comes after me, then it's my problem, but I ain't wasting my time beating up a bunch of gangsters or whatever when more'll just show up in their place."

They're worse than hydras. And she hates hydras.

It pushes in his head, a burst of certainty that they could make it so they never came back again, wheedling and insistent and how easy it would be. And they could just keep taking care of all of them until none of them are left-

Flash ignores it. It has wants and it has needs but it lives in him, and he doesn't have to give way to it.

"So, uh...what the hell have you been doing here, then?"

"Drinking. Fucking. Same thing I do at home when I ain't working," That's not the entirety of it, but it is a pretty good summary of what she does with her time. Kara lives a life of simple pleasures.

And this is the thing that Flash doesn't understand. That's been his life, and he was absolutely fucking miserable. He wasn't doing anything. He was basically a useless person, like that, not moving on, not going anywhere. It was depressing. And he'd hated himself for it.

"Collecting the spirits of the valiant dead? 'Cause I can't see you holding down a job delivering pizza or something mundane like that."

"Can't do shit for the dead unless they believe in my gods," And she would if she could, because it is her job, and she misses it, "And I can't leave the damn country, apparently, so there ain't much I can do for the living."

Sure, she could hang around military bases and give little nudges of luck to the soldiers there before they head out, but she's never liked favouring one side. She's never particularly liked favouring America, either; she'd rather get a proper look at a conflict before deciding who to help.

In truth, her idleness worries him, although not on a personal level. As someone who's been stripped of goals and things to do and hit rock bottom as a result, it's kind of worrisome to think about it. And he knows Val, and knows she has the same tendencies as any human being in this regard. Maybe worse ones.

"You should find something to do."

"I got a job," Making it sound kind of boring is important, like whatever she's doing is just something casual and not worth asking about, "What's it matter to you anyway?"

It's weird to have people be concerned about that type of thing; other old beings know what it's like, and she never tells the humans enough for them to care.

[closed] they were asking if you were around

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