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cv (ephemeras) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-04-09 23:47:00

Who: Gwen, Spidey and Venom
What: Bro-bonding, questionnaires, and subways
Where: NY
When: During the anti-fear plot
Warnings/Rating: None

Venom was out playing hero, but instead of sticking to the shadows or playing it safe in the dark side of the city he was out in broad daylight. Cruising around like it ain’t no thing. To be fair, while Parker was gone, Venom took up a lot of the hero duties for New York. Stark was dead, Hulk wasn’t really hulking and from what he could tell the Avengers were disassembled. And, while there weren’t any supervillain outbreaks, New York still had plenty of muggings, gang violence and other criminal goodies for him to put a stop to. And, when Venom showed up to your shootout or purse snatching? You had better hope you brought an extra pair of pants because he always made sure to leave with some signature nightmare fuel. That’s right, once a bully always a superhero bully. But, no one complained when it was against violent criminals. Venom, and Flash, had found his place.

So, he wasn’t out saving the day because he was worried about the city, he was doing it because it felt good. And, this time there was a lot less oogie boogie action happening. Instead, Venom stayed in his spiked power armor like some kind of futuristic video game character. It tended to do better with the ladies. A theory proved only moments ago when he stopped some Midtown junior from stepping into traffic and subsequently got her phone number after carrying her to safety in his big strong alien arms. Any more of this and he’d have girls straight up swooning for him and wearing fangirl shirts. Venom gave a cool dude tilt of his chin as a goodbye to the girl and jumped up the side of a nearby building, sticking to the surface before jumping in a zigzag up to the rooftop. People below did the usual ooohs and aaahs which were kind of becoming a common thing now that he was out in public.

After bounding over rooftops, his inky frame stretching and snapping back in place like he was more liquid than man, Venom caught sight of Spider-Man and landed next to him with a heavy thud. “Sup, dude.” He said, clearly Flash under the black ink but with a watery filter that made him sound scarier than he had ever been in high school.

Peter actually jumped. “Whoa.”

He'd been sitting on the edge of a building, crouched and peering down at the street. He'd just come straight from saving a couple from a gang trying to lure them into some kind of street-cred proving fight involving knives. Had he been worried for them? Not really. He wasn't worried about anything today. Everything seemed like it was going to be fine.

It was really nice for Peter, not worrying that he'd be responsible for people dying if he didn't spend all his free time swinging around saving them, not feeling like he had all that great responsibility. He'd saved the couple because it looked like a fun way to stretch his legs. He wasn't searching for trouble, today. In fact, as soon as he heard back from Gwen he fully intended to blow everything off. He felt amazing. He felt sorry there were not supervillains around to tangle with, the more the merrier. He felt bulletproof, much moreso than usual. Super reflexes he did have, yes, but that definitely didn't make him invulnerable to harm. He felt it right now, though. He felt a sort of easy calm he hadn't in years.

Venom sneaking up from behind like a nightmare terrier who wanted to play did make him jump, yes, but not out of fear. Just pure, physical startle. One tended to get used to being able to predict the world around themselves when they had Spidey senses, and when something as big as Venom didn't set them off, Peter got the now very rare privilege of being briefly thrown off. He hopped up. He knew it was Flash in there, but he hadn't had a chance to talk too much to the guy, or spend much time with him. Now that he was wielding an alien symbiote and nobody was afraid of anything, this seemed like the time to chat.

"You are uglier than I remember," Peter said sweetly. He'd put the mask and suit on before leaving the house, mostly because it was procedure. Today he could really care less if anybody knew Peter Parker was Spider-man. From what he'd heard, most of the city already did, because of the last version of him who was here. Who cared? The people he cared about would be fine. He'd protect them. Nothing would go wrong.

The white circles that were supposed to be eyes slanted a little and it almost looked like the black nothing was smiling. “It’s the spikes. Spikes always throw people off.” Venom morphed a little closer to the lean Spider-Man suit as he walked over to the edge of the building, but nothing could hide the imposing physicality that was Flash Thompson. “Yeah, see. This is even creepier.” Flash said once the spiked shoulder pads and gauntlets vanished into the black liquid and he looked just like a Venomized Spidey. He could feel Venom crawl around the suit the closer he got to Spider-Man, edging to get out and attach itself to Peter Parker. But, jealousy wasn’t something to fuck around with when it came to Flash and the second he felt that urge from his alien, he focused to shut it down. It was a good thing, then, that he had the suit and not just the symbiote or working with Spider-Man would be next to impossible.

“So, you wanna go patrol with me, Spidey? I’ve had to keep like five fucking kids from walking into traffic today. One of them was a freshman.” Venom’s suit started to morph back. Spikes popping out of the shoulders and bulking back up like it was a more natural look for the former football player.

Peter put a little distance between himself and the big black nightmare. He saw a ripple in the suit and knew, as he always did, what it really wanted - what it would drive and manipulate its bearer to achieve any time Peter so happened to be close. "Not really?" he offered. "See, the thing you're riding wants to eat me. I'm not really afraid of that just about now. I probably should be, but it seems basically fine, except for the part where I don't want a symbiote to absorb me. Aesthetically, I kind of have a problem with that. So it seems like a bad idea to tempt it by getting into vulnerable positions around it, you know? It's like dangling a liquor store in front of a hotel heiress. Just straight up bad news for all concerned."

"Congrats on saving a gaggle of kids, though," Peter said, straightening. He gestured to the street below. "Did you keep them from walking into traffic with a gentle hug or by...eating them? Inquiring minds want to know."

Venom gave a long, blank look to Spidey. The kind that made it hard to tell if he was going to throw a punch or pass out. And, then, “God, you talk too fucking much.” And with that he was already gone, grey webbing stretching out into the sky with a twapt noise. Flash was trying to be nice, he was trying to be a lot of things because Gwen knew best and all that shit, but even on his best day he couldn’t keep up with someone who ran his mouth without really listening to anyone. Flash and their Peter, the one who probably wasn’t ever coming back could just say sup dude at each other and have each other’s backs. The real Peter would have tried, for the same reason Flash was trying.

But, fuck it. He swung to the nearby building and caught sight of (speak of the devil) his roommate walking towards the subway. Venom attached to the wall, stretched and bounded down towards her in a liquid ball of goop. “Hey, Gwen!” Venom called, now on top of a lightpost that was starting to sway a little under his weight. He looked down at the bending metal and then tumbled down to the sidewalk, scaring pedestrians this way and that. Flash didn’t even notice. He was so used to scattering nerds in the hallway that he just expected it from everyone else, too. The black liquid bubbled until it formed the hulking football player from hell.

Gwen was considering the varying effects of the toxin on the Midtown student body. It was a fascinating subject, and her currently fearless state meant she felt no guilt in getting her full geek-on and contemplating it at length. She was more daring under the effects of the unknown substance, yes, but she also felt liberated from pretending to be "cool" and "trendy." Just then, she didn't care if she wasn't Mary Jane, with her red hair and her perfect everything, not beyond the overwhelming need to understand what made everyone she knew prefer the redhead. She was happy to be herself, and herself was caught up in the wonder of a drug that could remove fear and inhibition, without causing negative side effects. Not that jumping off buildings couldn't be considered a side effect, but it wasn't a physical one. If a drug like this could be created, controlled and reined in, the scientific possibilities were endless.

She was pondering the delivery method, aerosolized versus ingested, and looking forward to conducting blood analysis at Oscorp, when she Venom landed in front of her. He wasn't Venom to her, though, goop and ugliness aside. She waited until he became a less attractive version of Flash, and then she rolled her blue eyes at him. "Have you considered a less flashy entrance, Flash?" she asked, and maybe that was a joke, because the corners of her mouth twitched. Now, normally Gwen's concern with the flashy entrance would be that it called attention to itself; today, that wasn't the case. "I wasted 3.5 seconds waiting for you to achieve your more normal form." No, definitely not the normal reaction.

She didn't know that Spidey was in the vicinity, but it wouldn't have changed her reaction. Instead, she she pointed toward the subway. "Are you coming?" she asked. "I have bloodwork I want to run. You could give me a sample. The fact that you're affected is of scientific interest. Oh, and I have a survey I want you to fill out for me. Have you seen Peter? I wanted his input as well," she explained, unconcerned about taking Venom on the subway. No, definitely not the normal reaction.

Peter had fully intended to split away from Flash and go do his own thing. He had officially decided that Flash was touchy. He didn't remember Flash being touchy before, unless touchy meant a lot of touching fists very hard into Peter's gut before he got Spider-powers.

But halfway across the roof he heard the echoes of a familiar voice, and began to track back toward the direction Flash had leapt in. When the source of the voice came into view, he hopped down to a lower roof top, then dropped to the ground with a quick burst of webbing onto a gutter to slow his fall. "Hey," he greeted, landing lightly on his feet. "We're having a pow-wow in the middle of the street and no one called me? You guys know how much I love pow-wows in the middle of the street."

A smirk edged along the otherwise expressionless mask of Venom. “Dork.” He muttered, maybe a little more affectionately than he would have allowed before today. “Nah man, I just saw him but he,” He started, thumbing behind him where he assumed Spidey was heading off in a completely different direction before the little red menace dropped down and Flash finished his sentence with a ppfffflllttpph noise. “Yeah.” Was the best way to finish that thought. Venom’s black goo spikes might have prickled a little sharper for a second, liquid rolling along his back with irritation. He didn’t hate Parker, but oh man did that little shit irritate him.

“Dude, did you really give Harry a survey? I want to take the shit out of that test.” And Venom turned acting like Spidey wasn’t even there in true high schooler form. Also, completely unaware that using the train in his superhero getup was a little less normal. “Woah, I can’t believe I said that.” Because Flash never wanted to take tests. Ever.

Gwen listened attentively until she heard the hiss of a web, and then she laughed at Flash's annoyed sound. She should have feared the goo spikes, but even without the toxin's fearlessness, she didn't fear them. She trusted the suit they'd crafted. It reminded her of her conversation with Billy, and she turned toward the subway stairs, expecting them both to follow. If it looked odd to be followed down the street by Venom and Spider-Man, well, Gwen wasn't really thinking about that either. She was too busy pulling two surveys out of her bag, one of which was handed to each of them without any loss of step. "I was speaking to someone on the journals, and he says he's from a group in the future that's called the Young Avengers. They have names that need work, but the concept is a scientifically sound one. If we're graduating in a month, then we should have a plan, something that allows us to capably deal with situations like the one we're presently experiencing, should it occur again."

She sounded a little like a robotized recruiter, but she kept on, because the idea was a sound one. "We could talk to Dr. Banner about a headquarters," she suggested, skipping ahead into the stairwell that led into the darkness.

The surveys she'd handed them consisted of five questions; simplistic and rudimentary questions, because she'd considered her audience when deciding upon them. She knew teenage boys would run out of patience before question six, and she knew the questions needed to interest them in some way, or they wouldn't even make it to the fifth. Therefore, the questions sounded nothing like Gwen Stacy.

1) What makes you want to hook-up with a girl? 2) What makes you not want to hook-up with a girl? 3) What makes a girl end up in the friendzone? 4) How can a girl get out of the friendzone? 5) Are redheads hotter?

Peter followed the pair of them toward the subway, ignoring the stares of onlookers and the spikes that rippled over Flash when he appeared. Who cared? "That sounds kind of sad," he pointed out. "Like Junior Detectives, or something. So long as they don't treat us like we're still teething, though, I'm cool with it." A boy walking past clung to his mother's arm, staring open-mouthed at Spider-Man, Venom, and a blonde girl easily chatting and walking down toward the station like nothing at all was unusual. Peter waved, and the boy almost tripped over his own feet. "I'm used to my headquarters being my basement," he said. "Anything else is going to be a big step up."

Peter listened to the weird questions which didn't sound like Gwen Bot had written them, almost, and wandered through the turnstile. Shit, he didn't have any money on him. "Catch you next time," he promised the guy a few feet away staring open-mouthed, more at Venom than at him. "Sorry. It's spandex, no pockets. The bulges look weird, trust me."

As for the questions, he turned to Flash. "You first, big guy." Really, Peter just wanted to hear the giant goop monster talk about girls while scaring people out of the subway car.

Venom was straight up strolling. He didn’t see the gaping children, the old dude who practically fell over or the young woman who had to hold her mouth to keep her from screaming. He took the paper and held it close to his masked face like he didn’t know how to read and then arched his eyebrow up at Gwen. And, even though the white circles didn’t express it as well as Flash’s otherwise dimpled face, he gave her a look like she was such a fucking spaz. “Pussy.” Venom told Spidey, all monster and liquid without him realizing it. And with just one word, two people straight up bounced out of the car.

“Hot. Not hot. Emotional complications. Being hotter.” Flash answered all the questions easily, like they were things he was asked all the time and with the attitude of a professional. He was a popular dude after all and also kind of a man slut. “Okay, this last question makes you look really pathetic, Gwen. Seriously Stacy get your shit together.” He said loudly, chiding her in front of strangers and of course Spidey. Who, at this point, could be thrown in the stranger pile. Still, he answered the question. “Redheads are mostly nerds and freckled weirdos, but occasionally you have someone like MJ who is super hot and also kind of a bitch.”

Instead of insisting that Venom and Spider-Man get out of sight, especially when negative reactions began chasing their way through the crowd like accelerant, Gwen stepped onto the subway car, pulled a small recording device from her backpack, and began commenting on reactions for future study. When possible, she recorded what the crowds were saying, and she added in commentary about physical reactions to fear. Once she felt she'd captured enough to be able to quantify it later, she turned to the pair, as if she was talking to perfectly normal boys.

"The question is unbiased and scientific," she insisted. "When a majority of the male specimens I know prefer the color, then there is scientific merit in studying why. Though, Flash, your response leads me to the believe that haircolor is only a secondary trait, and not the primary reason for attraction." She blinked, blue eyes legitimately curious, as she turned her attention to Peter, who wasn't getting away so easily.

The subway car, which had started moving after the frightened passengers ran out, stopped unexpectedly a second later. They were in a tunnel, nowhere near a stop, and Gwen glanced in the direction of the main car. The recording device came back out a second later, and she began commenting on the possibility of a fear-induced disruption on the subway. She showed far more interest on what would happen next that was safe or reasonable; she didn't seem concerned.

She turned back to Peter, waiting for his responses.

Even Peter, in his altered state, thought pulling out a tape recorder and talking about the innate fear reflexes of everyone in the car was kind of weird. And that was weird even for Gwen Stacy. Flash being a douche, that was par for the course. "I see why the ladies love you, my friend. You're better than an opera." A reference to a musical? Why not! He already swung from light posts in his underwear 7/52.

He scanned down the list of questions. "Okay, one, I don't 'hook up' with girls. I would need to be Don Juan over here to add that to my list of accomplishments. Two, same answer. Three, the friendzone doesn't exist. It's a fucked up concept. And kind of sexist. Don't buy into the patriarchy Gwen Stacy." The car had stopped by this point, but, surprising no one, Spidey was still talking. "Redheads aren't hotter. What makes girls hot are their brains, mostly. I've had crushes on really plain girls if they could talk nerdy to me. Oh, hey, I think they noticed we brought a giant monster who isn't a street performer onto the subway."

Flash zoned out about two or three seconds into Peter talking. Seriously that guy never shut up and Flash was pretty sure he never had anything important to say besides some weird nerd jokes no one got. But, he caught the tail end of it and looked around the freaked out subway car. Some people straight up left or refused to go in the car once they saw him. “Not all of us are lucky enough to be a puny spider.” Venom said with a shrug and then reached for the edges of his mask and started to pull.

With a sound like slime being ripped off a flat surface, the liquid mask was pulled from his face. Once it was off, it was almost like the suit powered down and resembled something more of a black tracksuit with a hoodie. “There.” He said flatly like oh my god Parker you’re killing my high and gave the questionnaire back to Gwen. “So, what have we learned, Stacy? That every dude is different and all a girl needs to get attention is to be hot and maybe wear a boob window shirt. Someone get me a fucking PHD.”

Peter's responses were dubbed as erroneous within seconds. "You're interested in Mary Jane Watson, and she isn't even in the top-ten percentile of our class," she informed him, as if that small detail invalidated everything that was being said. As for the friendzone, it most certainly did exist, and she was living proof. But she knew Peter would go on for a verbal paragraph if she argued the point, and it wouldn't help her with her course of study. She took both questionnaires, and she tucked them away, all without yelling at Flash for showing his face after being seen as Venom. It wasn't a great idea, but she wasn't concerned like she should be. Instead, she just settled her hands on her hips, and she regarded her Brony friend with exasperated disbelief. "Being found hot is subjective." Duh.

She glanced at the subway car's stillness. "I'm going to be late to my shift at Oscorp if this car doesn't begin moving in-" She glanced at her cellphone for the time. "3.7 minutes." She pointed a finger at both of them. "Before either of you point out the recklessness of still retaining my employ at Oscorp, I have my reasons, and they have been fully planned out in advance. Now, both of you leave, so my car can resume motion. You can both return to headquarters and paint the walls. Also, once we are back to normal, we should have a more serious conversation about our futures." Nod, ever the recruiter.

"Who said I was interested in Mary Jane Watson?" Peter asked, eying her curiously. He didn't remember ever saying that at any point. He preferred badly-designed track suit flash over giant monster Flash, but he didn't linger on the problems inherent in Flash showing his face either. As it was with Gwen, it just didn't seem worth worrying about just now."

Peter blinked. "Did you just order us to go paint?" he said. But the car still wasn't moving and the people around them looked genuinely scared. "Only if I get to paint the living room lime green," Peter acquiesced, and glanced over at Flash. "And only if he has to paint in that get-up," he added. "Come on, squidgy. We've been given a project."

On a different day, when there were no foreign substances coursing through his system, Peter might have wondered more about Gwen's obsession with why people liked Mary Jane, and her apparent assumption that no one wanted her. But today, Peter couldn't be bothered. Gwen would be fine! Like everyone and everything else.

And, on any other day, Flash would do as he was told. He liked having a coach and whether he wanted to admit it or not, Gwen had taken the place of that. But, here he could think of a billion things he’d rather be doing than paint walls with Spider-Man. He’d probably talk so much that Flash felt the need to put his head in a bucket of paint just to drown out the noise. Pulling his hood back on after a couple seconds of considering it, he turned to Spidey and saluted. “Fuck that.” Flash said brightly, then gave Gwen a quick, strong hug before turning into a black goo puddle that slimed out of the subway car and into the various corners of the subway station until it was just gone.

Gwen knew she should have been worried about Flash being out there on his own. She should have been worried about the apartment still looking like Goblin and Loki and a Beast had decided to wrestle in it. But worrying was beyond her right then. Even her eventual lateness to Oscorp was an annoyance, more than a fear or concern about Mr. Osborn firing her or throwing her off a bridge. She was, however, aggravated with the subway's lack of movement, because she was stir crazy lately, while this toxin was in effect. She had a million things she wanted to do, all at once, and stillness was getting in the way of that.

She rolled her eyes as Flash hugged her and turned to goop, and she turned to Peter, her cornflower blue eyes brightly intelligent. "If you climb out, the subway will move again," she told him. She considered asking him to follow Flash, but Flash would be okay. "You're off the hook for painting, but when we return to normal, you and Flash are going to fix up the apartment," she said, which was some kind of logical concession. She leaned forward, and she pressed a kiss to Peter's cheek through the mask, the feel of the fabric familiar against her lips. "Thank you, bug boy."

Peter was so trying to be well-behaved and get along with Flash, but he wasn't making it easy on him. "Just like a bro to roll off when you need him for interior decorating projects," he lamented, just in time, to catch Gwen reassessing the situation.

He wasn't expecting a kiss, and took it with a blink of surprise and no concern whatsoever. "For me?" he said, putting a webbed hand to his heart, and he did feel a flush of warmth that had nothing at all to do with the drugs in his system. "You shouldn't have." He wasn't about to take off his mask in the middle of a crowded subway, drugged or no, so a reciprocating response that might have gotten him into real trouble was ruled out. Instead, he gave her a quick, real hug. He missed hugging Gwen Stacy, even if she was acting like a weird kiss-giving science robot right now. He kind of liked that too. "Still not worried," he said, pulling away, "But don't hang around Norman Osborn today, okay? Not until things are normal again."

The station was mostly deserted, so Peter fired a web at one of the columns through the open subway door, and dragged himself with wickedly fast raw tensile strength into the station, making up most of the distance across the floor in one, long leap. Then he fired up the stairs at a light post, just in view, yanked down, and was gone like a boy at the end of a slingshot.