[closed] in the end everything collides

[symbionic]

WHO: Spider-Man & Venom, or Flash Thompson & Peter Parker
WHERE: De Chima
WHEN: tonight?
WHAT: Decades of continuity/fifteen years of IC history experiences a head-on collision of identity shenanigans.
WARNINGS: Messy feelings, potential mentions of cannibalism, bullying and amputation.

[ Flash knows he fucked up. If he'd been more careful, then that reporter lady never would have caught on. He should have kept himself in the shadows, made up any number of superhero identities and never let anyone know that there was such a thing as Venom. But he hadn't thought about it. Back home, it wouldn't have been cause for anyone to pay attention; that kind of thing was in the tabloids all the time. Here, there's only one culprit for potential cannibalism, and not as many places to dodge out of sight.

So he's laid as low as he can. He's concentrated on the task of moving and he's kept any sightings of Venom, few and far between, somewhere in the outskirts of Heropa. And here in De Chima, he's made an effort to be anyone but Venom. Hail Mary, Mother Superior of Punishment has made an appearance (or whatever he called himself that one time.) He doesn't pretend to be any of the other heroes; he makes up whatever he can think of. It doesn't matter how stupid it is; he'd much rather people think that NBA hero LeBron James is running around fighting crime than suspect Venom. He tries hard to think of alter egos that nobody would even suspect of being Venom, or Flash Thompson himself.

But it only takes dropping his guard once at the wrong moment to reveal himself to the wrong person. Like the person he least wants to confront with allegations of alien cannibalism running rampant. Flash has put a lot of effort into staying away from Spider-Man, wary of what the other man might do to them now that he's seen a new, ruthless side of him.

That was always going to be a doomed endeavor, for more reasons than one. ]

Comments

[shutterbugged]

[Peter hasn't been getting enough sleep. The move and the impending launch of the Future Foundation would be enough to run him ragged, especially since he's keeping up his freelance work. But he's also pursuing the mysteries of the new goblins, Norman's cosmetic nanites, and the missing link that joins them, while splitting his patrols between two cities to hide that Peter Parker and Spider-Man have moved at the same time.

All of which to say is that if it's taken him an entire month to find Venom, he's got some excuse. That doesn't stop him from being frustrated, not even once he finally spots the tell-tale glimmer of black and ghostly white on a rooftop a few stories below his own perch. All this time he's been hunting in the wrong city. Stupid, Parker -- if you can switch up your usual haunts with the flip of a switch, so can everybody else.

But no, he doesn't think he's been that oblivious. Not a single one of Spidey's informants has had a tip about Venom in the weeks he's been searching -- not a fresh tip, anyway. After the Tattlecrime article he must have gone to ground. Why he's out in the open now is a question Peter intends to ask, but it's hardly the first.

He swarms down the side of his building and bounds across the gap, not bothering to hide his approach.]

I've been hearing some interesting stories about you, pal. It's been weeks since your last appearance in society and all the debutantes are still a-flutter.

[symbionic]

[ There's one thing that can always be said for Flash Thompson: he doesn't back down. It occurs to him that now would be a good time to retreat, because he doesn't expect Spidey to be reasonable. But if he runs, he looks guilty, and he didn't do anything wrong. His control holds; the symbiote hasn't fed since that one time he swallowed Deadpool, which should be enough to put anybody off their food for a long time.

The transformation settles and solidifies, the armor, the mask, and the big white spider. ]

Shouldn't you know not to believe everything you read in the papers?

[ Yes Thompson why don't you smart off to Spider-Man. That is a brilliant plan that can in no way go wrong. Especially since he's not sure who's still here to back him or vouch for him if things hit the fan. He can't count on Tony's goodwill or good word-- he's finding himself suspecting how much it's worth, anyway. Everything rides on him. ]

[shutterbugged]

[Peter bristles -- visibly, arms and legs spread to look large, weight on the balls of his feet. A hunting spider's crouch, though not yet an attack. Venom is right that he doesn't have any proof, and Peter's honest enough with himself to admit that his hostility stems nearly as much from his own guilty conscience as it does from any of his suspicions.

Nearly. The symbiote has a track record, after all.]

Hey, if I were that gullible, your face would be mashed face-first in the brick already. Your gooey little hitchhiker's got a record, you know that. And if you're really on the up-and-up, you know I can't ignore those kinds of rumors.

[symbionic]

[To somebody else, that might be impressive. To them- well, they could be bigger, if they wanted to. Much, much bigger. There's a flare of emotion, something primeval and hungry, that wants to go on the offensive and meet less-than-subtle threat with threat. With teeth, and claws.

Flash ignores that little niggling impulse in the back of his head to get angry, get aggressive, the other mind in his head that doesn't think like he thinks and lies in wait every second. Some part of him still doesn't want to fight his hero, even if that hero has backstabbed him in the recent past. They've never parsed out what was wrong with him, when he took the symbiote...]

I know what it's done, and I know what it wants to do. But it didn't eat anybody. Nobody got hurt.

[He says it knowing that's probably what Spidey expects him to say. But that's it. That's the truth. He won't let it off the leash. He knows it's not taking his body for joyrides at night. Nobody did get hurt. What else is he going to say?]

[shutterbugged]

[Now they're at an impasse. Peter's not sure what else he was expecting -- for Venom to snap, maybe. But that's the old Venom he's thinking of, Eddie or Mac, not whoever's under the mask now: a man who has a good head on his shoulders and, Peter suspects without being able to say exactly why, a good heart.]

I want to believe you. [He sighs, drawing back but still poised to defend himself.] I want to believe it'll stay that way. But Eddie Brock and Mac Gargan -- you know, they weren't exactly prize human beings to begin with, but neither of them started out wanting to eat people.

[symbionic]

I don't know what to tell you, man.

[Flash, who's privy to the main thoughts his symbiotic partner has about its former hosts, finds himself dubious of any inherent goodness in Mac Gargan. And Eddie Brock can be a real prick, too, even though he seems to be walking a decent path last time they saw him.

(It's odd, to feel the symbiote's longing for someone he personally doesn't like, and the pain of a rejection he never actually experienced.)]

They didn't know what they were getting into when they took it on. Nobody told them not to get angry. Nobody told them to listen for it in their heads, when it tries to promise you something.

[ He hesitates at that. Does it really just come down to willpower? He'd like to think so. And he finds he doesn't really want to go looking into its memories to find out why Mac, why Eddie, where it all went wrong. It's not important. What's important is that he deals with it now. And he has a lot of thoughts and feelings about that, about why he's been succeeding, or maybe only thinks he's succeeding, and why he hasn't failed yet where they started to slip. ]

They didn't have the drugs, either. That keeps it pretty quiet.

[shutterbugged]

Drugs. Right, your secret military operation. [Not that he's discussed that with this this Venom, but he has some fuzzy remembrance of being told by a previous version, back in the City.] Gotta keep the valuable alien asset under control.

You realize that just begs the question of how you're getting your drugs here. Is it through the government? [Yeah, that's reassuring.]

[symbionic]

[ The symbiote shifts in the back of his mind, its attention focused on what Flash is about to say. He can't tell Spider-Man he's used them less and less, that he's found other ways to deal with the symbiote besides doping it. And he knows that what it says is true: they're safer if everybody believes that. ]

Dr. Pym. I told you. Didn't you talk to him?

[shutterbugged]

I did, and he vouched for you. [And attested that Cap would if he were here, but Spidey can't say that out loud without feeling like a heel for not trusting Steve's judgement. Even though he doesn't, in this particular case -- not secondhand. Peter would trust his life to either man, but they don't know the symbiotes like he does, and more importantly, neither of them are here.]

That does count for something, I'll give you that much. But what counts for more is that Dr. Pym has been ported out. So, do you have a new supplier, or an old stash? And assuming that it keeps working as it should, which as far as I'm concerned is a big if, how much do you have?

[symbionic]

[Flash knows why he asks, he really does, but he doesn't want to have to keep explaining this. The little voice of reason that says at least Spider-Man is listening this time keeps things in check, for the moment. If he gets agitated, the symbiote gets agitated, and they're never going to walk away from this with a good end if they let themselves be provoked or thrown off guard.]

A year, at the current dose. Long enough to find someone else reliable enough to make more of the serum.

[Except he still hasn't really been taking it. He's got his own methods of keeping it under control, and they're both well aware of how important it is to keep that appearance up and never let anyone know how active it really is. Flash won't let them take it away from him, and it won't leave. They've agreed.]

[shutterbugged]

[He snorts.] Right, assuming you can find someone who sticks around for long enough without also being ported out -- and that the serum is stable -- and that the symbiote's response to it is stable, which I say again, is a huge "if" considering its adaptability --

Look, I'm trying to be open-minded about this, really, but you're the symbiote's resources, not the other way around. However you two may be getting along now, it's not nice and you don't have a special relationship just because it hasn't pushed you to start chowing down on the public yet. You can't be complacent about this.

[symbionic]

You think I don't know that?

[Don't get angry, don't get angry. But he can't help it. It's not like he's surprised by this line of questioning, but they can both sense the threat behind what he's trying to say. The doubt in his competence, in the wisdom in letting their symbiotic partnership stand.]

What the hell do you think you know about how nice it is? You had it first. It loved you, all up until you went crazy. I'm not complacent. I might be standing here answering your questions calmly, because I used to have a lot of respect for the guy you were, before you straight up went psycho on me. But don't think you know this thing better than I do. And don't you dare try to say that I'm complacent about this thing. Because if I were? Buddy, you know we wouldn't be having this conversation.

[shutterbugged]

[Part of Spidey admires that it took so long for Venom to bring that up; he doubts he'd be anywhere near that restrained. As for the rest of him, well.]

Listen, pal, don't deflect this on me. Whatever my future self did, that was another time and another universe. Prove to me we're not going to have a problem in this one, then we'll talk about the other thing.

[shutterbugged]

[Peter has been a superhero for a little over half his life. He's no stranger to confrontation, verbal or physical, and it takes a heck of a lot to shake him up to the point where he can't shake it off. On paper, tonight's little fracas with Venom shouldn't qualify as "a lot" -- barely a skirmish. But an hour later he's still feeling shaky around the edges, enough it's almost a shame there's no one watching. The way he's fumbling his apartment keys, there's not a person in De Chima who wouldn't buy his "clumsy Peter Parker" act.

He doesn't know whether it's frustration, guilt, or the potent combination of adrenaline and sleep deprivation that has him so on edge, but he's never getting to sleep like this. It's past Val's bedtime, but maybe Flash will be up for a movie or something.]

[symbionic]

[ Everyone has that voice in the back of their head that won't shut up. The one that tells you that you're weak, a coward, not good enough for anything. Never were good enough. Flash has had enough problems with that voice to last him a lifetime, and no matter how he tried, he never found the solutions to it where he looked: at the bottom of the bottle. But at least before now the only voice in his head was his own.

It's hard to shake the feeling that he's fucked up somehow. Too careless, even as he's kept everything bolted down under his control. The world is too small for them here, and now they've brought heat down on them. And the voice, not-quite-words and not-quite-feelings, sits in the back of his mind and eggs on his self-pity and recrimination, because Flash knows it thinks if it tries hard enough, it will start to erode his self-control with self-loathing, and it can start taking control again.

Like hell will he let that happen.

The first instinct after his talk with Spider-Man had been to bolt, to get home and get the "suit" off. To stop being Venom for a moment and try and pull his life as Flash Thompson around him like a blanket, something to re-ground him. But all he can think is: how long, now, before someone comes looking for him here? People know. And the possibility for something to go horribly wrong is always out there. With the disappearance of Dr. Pym, he's lost the one ally he had. But if something does happen...where does that leave Pete?

He's still sitting there arguing the question when Peter comes home, sort of sitting aimlessly in the kitchen, too wrapped up in his thoughts to really notice. Flash isn't really sure how he ended up here-- maybe he thought food would help, maybe it just seemed like it was the most normal place to go. But he's coming around to the fact that there's only one thing left to do:

He has to come clean. He has to tell Peter what's been going on. ]

[shutterbugged]

Hey, Flash. Did Val get to sleep all right? Listen, I was thinking--

[That's as far as Peter gets before he sees the look on Flash's face. Dropping his bag on the kitchen threshold, he walks over to the table and reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder.]

Hey, man, is everything okay?

[symbionic]

[Well, this is it, Thompson. Moment of truth. Do you tell your best friend everything, or do you play it off and keep lying to everybody? It's a shitty thing to drop on your friends, just out of nowhere. But maybe, if he'd been honest to begin with, somehow things wouldn't have gone as badly as they did.]

Val's fine. Confiscated her flashlight again. Pretty sure it was a decoy.

[It comes automatically. Val. Even Val knows. So there's no excuse not to tell Peter.]

Pete, I've gotta tell you something.

[shutterbugged]

[Peter did want something to distract himself from the Venom situation, but not anything that would put Flash in this state. He feels a tingle up his spine that has nothing to do with his spider-sense, and takes a seat next to the other man.]

I'm listening. But whatever's going on, it'll be okay. We're in this together.

[symbionic]

[The lines on Flash's face get a little deeper, for that, the nausea in his stomach rising sharply. It doesn't help that this way he doesn't need to look Peter in the face if he doesn't want to; that's not Flash's style, it never was.]

Just-- hear me out first, ok?

[But where the hell does he even start? How do you go about explaining something like this? "'Sup Pete, I'm bonded to a cannibalistic alien symbiote and I didn't do anything wrong but people think I did"? That's going to go over really well.]

It's probably...going to be easiest if I show you first, and then I try to explain. And I know maybe you're going to freak out, but try to keep it down, when you do. I don't want to wake up Val.

[shutterbugged]

[Peter was starting to think Flash had relapsed, but "showing him" doesn't make sense in that context -- thank God. But what's the alternative?]

I think I'm pretty freaked out already, but... I'll do my best. Just tell me already, please. It can't be as bad as you think.

[symbionic]

[And Flash wouldn't blame him in the least for thinking that. Hell, that'd be an easier problem to deal with. Less dangerous, maybe, at least for everybody else. But you make your bed and then you have to lie in it, and this is the one that belongs to him.]

OK. [Deep breath, Thompson. This is going to be the easy part. His hands brace on the edge of the table for a moment, one second of tension in his grip and shoulders before he just...lets it all pass. Just like they taught him to, before they ever gave him the symbiote.] Here goes nothing.

[He pushes himself back from the table, to give him a few feet of space. It's just as easy as breathing, when he braces his hands on the arms of his chair and pushes himself up, like he means to stand. And there they are-- his legs. Right when he wants them to be, the symbiote making him flesh out of dark threads, knees and shins and bare feet where there was empty space at the end of his shorts.

It didn't used to be that easy.]

Ta-da.

[Flash turns to him with a little gesture, all "what do you think?" But he can't make the smile on his face look anything but a little haunted, a bit like pain. It doesn't hurt, not really. What hurts is what's going to come next, when he has to tell Peter why he can get his legs back. Why he hasn't been doing this the whole time.]

And there's more.

[shutterbugged]

[Whatever reaction Flash was expecting, it probably wasn't for Peter to go three shades paler, dawning horror and recognition in his eyes as they fix to Flash's legs. No, not Flash's, but --]

Venom. You're Venom. You're the one who's been --

[As though his own voice has broken the paralysis, Peter launches himself backwards, heedless of the chair clattering to the floor. He fetches up against the far side of the kitchen, hands outstretched to -- what? Fend him off, or warn him away?

Flash has been possessed by the symbiote. Flash Thompson, one of his best and oldest friends, someone he's known for most of his life. The man who may or may not be destroyed by a monster that's already ruined the lives of four other hosts, but not until a future version of Peter Parker looks him in the eye and tries to kill him.

He slumps against the wall.]

Oh god, no. No no no, this cannot be happening. This has to be a mistake.

[symbionic]

[Flash barely has a second for confusion, to wonder how Peter knows what this means so well that he gets it right on the first try, without even needing to see the black and white. Because what's more important is the devastating plummet his stomach takes when his best friend in the whole world falls out of his chair and backs himself up against the wall, like he thinks Flash might hurt him. And what's worse is-- Flash can't even blame him for it.

Flash has lived through a lot of people's terrible opinions of him. God knows, he's earned them. He was a bully and he was an alcohol and he did terrible things he'll never be able to make up for no matter how hard he tries. And he knows this thing he's carrying around with him makes him at best a flesh prison and at worst, a monster too. He accepts that.

He accepts that the consequences of that will probably leave him lonely and alone, in the end. It doesn't stop him from feeling dirty and small.]

It's not, buddy.

[Flash has always had a problem with his emotions. His anger, especially. But now he can't control the look on his face, a kicked dog who accepts its fate to be kicked, tired and sad and resigned. How the hell does Pete even know? But maybe he'd met Eddie. Didn't Eddie used to be a reporter or something?

(He doesn't want to know for sure. He doesn't want to see the symbiote's memories.)]

Can I please just explain? Look, I'll even--

[Flash casts around for a moment, thinking, before he decides to settle down against the opposite wall, on the floor. He thinks about making the legs go away, or making the symbiote get out for awhile. But that'd probably just freak Peter out even more.]

I'll stay right here, I promise. Until you think it's safe to let me up. [This part comes hard; he swallows visibly.] Or you want me to leave. And if you do, I swear I'll walk out tonight and I'll never come back. Ok?

[shutterbugged]

[Peter bites his lip, almost hard enough to break the skin. He could make Flash leave. That's probably just what he should do, because whatever Peter might do once he returns home, he's not the one who brought a symbiote -- a symbiote! -- into the same house as a three-year-old. Maybe once the sick feeling in his gut wears off he'll feel the bite of that anger.

In the moment, he steps away from the wall. Without looking away from Flash he hooks a toe underneath his chair and rights it with a flick; in almost the same motion he turns it around and sits down, straddling the back. Belying the casualness of the pose, his hands clench on the backrest, leaving nail dents in the varnish.

He owes him the chance to explain. At least that much, and far more, but right now it's the most he can guarantee.]

Tell me how this happened, Flash. Please.

[symbionic]

[Truthfully, Val is the safest person involved here. No power in heaven or hell could make Flash hurt her. And if the symbiote starts to take control, he'll be sure to be far, far away from here. It's the least he can do.

It's no comfort at all that Peter seems to right himself so quickly. Or, if it were, it'd be false comfort. Flash doesn't expect him to understand-- Pete's never been good at these kinds of things, this superhero stuff, and he doesn't...he fully expects that Peter will never want to see him again, after this.]

...about a year ago, I got a call from the Army. They said they had this new project going, top secret. Project Rebirth, 2.0. They asked if I was willing to serve my country again. Didn't really seem like it'd be right to object. It's my duty, you know? So I said sure, if you want me again despite the disability, I'm willing to step up to the plate.

[Had he been naive, when he agreed to do that? He's not sure. They'd tried to prep him. They'd made the risks so very clear. But maybe all he'd thought about was getting to walk again, at least for a couple more times.]

I dunno how much you keep up with this stuff, Pete-- I didn't even think you'd recognize what Venom was, without me pulling out the full suit. But, if you remember all that stuff with the Asgardians out west...after that, the army took Venom into custody. Mac Gargan. He used to be the Scorpion. They pulled it out of him, started doing tests on it, and figured out if they pumped it full of enough chemicals they could neuter the thing. "Chemical lobotomy" is the term they used. Braindead. So they said, here you go, you're going to be our Venom. You get twenty missions, no longer than 48 hours in the suit, to make sure it can't get too attached to you. And if by any chance something goes wrong and you lose control, we've planted a bomb in the symbiote, and we won't be taking any chances.

[His stomach churns guiltily, knowing this is the part where he'll have to start lying. He can't tell Peter that it's not braindead, and it never was. He doesn't even want to have to tell him about all the times he slipped, and he thinks-- maybe he shouldn't, if he doesn't have to. There's no sense worrying him if he doesn't have to.

But Flash used to be a fundamentally honest person. Since he got this thing, he's lied to so many people, for sometimes less than noble reasons. Maybe he should at least come clean with someone. If there's anybody he can trust, it should be Pete...shouldn't it?]