sixthiterationlogs | It's time to come clean

Entry tags:

It's time to come clean | reveal the truth

Who?: Eddie and 7
What?: It's time for Eddie to start coming clean about his...problem.
When? Post This log
Locked to: 7.

The space between the two of them is closer then it's ever been.

It's their space, and as weird and as foreign a concept that is, Eddie's gotten used to it. Perhaps the two of them have been building together. Or perhaps that Venom has built. The symbiote is surprisingly affectionate, he's learned. It's forced him to re-evaluate just what he thinks of as "Friendly" and what he thinks of as personal space..

Hell it's forced him to re-evaluate his conceived notions of gender and sexuality and a bunch of other shit he thought he had figured out.

In their space, the space he goes when he's asleep, or when he closes his eyes, they are coming to a conclusion.

Sitting on his old worn couch, the symbiote is sitting animal like beside him, or as close to sitting as the creature can manage. Venom takes two forms when it's just the two of them. Large muscular creature, those same bulging muscles they share.

Or a rounded face, blob-like features.

That's the most comfortable pose. Venom is comfortable because at last...

"So we're in agreement." Eddie sighs, "We let Anne and Tony help us...share with people. So we can move on. We can't keep this a secret anymore it's hell on them."

I was only worried about how they'd treat you. They'd kill you.

"...No they won't." He scratched the symbiote's head, "And if they do...Well. We'll just kill them."

You don't want to do that. You're just trying to make me feel better. Venom murmured, I like Anne and Tony. and 7.

"you like 7 a lot." eddie grins, "If you tell her, if she accepts it, you two could go hunting together. We could go hunting together." he sighed, "...Hunting. God I miss corner stores."

We have to adapt.

"...Agreed."
---

Which is why they're at the door to 7's room, "...Hey. 7? You home?"

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7 is generally out late, stays up late, and crashes hard for the morning, so by the time he's knocking on her door, she's just waking up. It's a few moments, but then she opens the door, blinking in the light and scratching her side.

"Yeah, I'm here." She yawns, shakes her head. "What's up?"

She likes the night - it's quiet, and people aren't really out, and she's always trying to find that weird not-wendigo creature she'd tangled with before. Half-scouting, half just learning the area, she's spent most of her time just exploring.

Really, it had nothing to do with Eddie's 'house rule', but it was a small benefit. If he didn't want her intruding on the common space, easier if she wasn't there at all. Really, it was win-win for both of them.

"...I have something I need to talk to you about. It's nothing bad, not kicking you out just uh..."

He swallows, "...It's about me. It's about common spaces. It's about...uh...me."

Yes. Him.

"...It's also kind of shocking and deeply profoundly personal. So...Do you want to sit?"

That wakes her up real quick, and she pulls in a breath to let it out before nodding. She had started to worry, ready to protest, because she had been following his rule, and she didn't think she'd done anything to get kicked out, but he's quick to reassure her that's not what's going on.

7 walks into the living room and takes a seat at the couch. She's watching him, curious, wondering what exactly she should be ready for. He could be odd and twitchy at time, which she never minded because it reminded her of 6, it was comforting.

"Are you alright? What is it?" Was he in trouble, did he need help? Was he sick? Humans, she found, were profoundly weak and fragile things.

We should wait until the sun is down! then she could see me!

"...No. No we shouldn't." Eddie's voice is soft before he folds his hands, "...Sorry. I..."

Fuck. This wasn't like coming out to dad (not that he gave a shit). somehow "I'm host to an alien monster." didn't make a lot of sense.

"...7. Do you...does your world have...monsters? Beasts and creatures?"

7's watching intently now, nodding slowly, thinking back on the host of creatures that had harried them every step of the way - even after humans and their misplaced feet, and escaping the crossfire of the human-machine war had died down.

"Yes, we did. They were Machines, created to hunt us down. They were - big, single-minded, each different and more terrifying than the last. I killed the Beast, together with the others we killed the Flying Machine, but ..." She grows quiet for a moment and looks away. Eddie, of anyone, has gotten the most details from her home and it's because she's so close to him that she feels comfrotable going into this much detail.

But it's still hard. Those last moments before she'd woken up in the fountain, that was the most frightened she'd ever been.

"I was taken by the Seamstress. I wasn't - strong enough, fast enough, to take it down." Glancing at her lap, flexing her hands into fists for a moment, before looking back up at Eddie, "Why do you ask?"

Her world is a weird one. Machines created to kill people sounds half military half...some strange post-apocalypse deal. She come from a world like the Hunger Games?

...What is... That same flipping sensation in his mind, That would explain a lot.

Eddie sighed, "...You're strong enough. trust me. And fast enough. There's not many people that can keep up with us when we're out hunting."

He shakes his head like a dog, "Hunting. Still fucking weird."

"You're sweet, but you're wrong. I was captured. That's ... there's no way around it. I wasn't enough." He's not far from the truth, actually. It was half-military, and it was half-post-apocalyptical. Someday, he'd get the whole truth and it would make sense. Someday.

7 frowns at his wording. It was just odd enough to make the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, but she's not sure why.

"I didn't know you hunted."

She'd never been hunting with him, what was this 'we' business? "Were you ... with Hawke's bow training?" Or was he on the mining mission? She hadn't remembered seeing him there.

"No trust me-"

venom wants to grab her hands. That's what people do. When people want to comfort each other. Anne does that to you-

"Would you stop it!-" his mouth drops and he holds his hands in his lap and wraps his hands around his wrists.

And sighs.

"...Just after being sick you went out into the woods and I followed you, leaping from three to tree. We were playing. ...Least. Least it felt that way. Might not have looked like it to you but we were....we..."

"I have a parasite."

And he has to tuck his hands over his ears because Venom is screaming again.

7 recoils at his outburst, watching him carefully with wide eyes. She listens, she remembers going out into the woods, she remembers ... someone doing what Eddie's talking about, but ...

"That wasn't you ..." She says it softly, because it's such a jump of logic Eddie's asking her to make. Eddie's unassuming, he's twitchy, he reminds her of 6 and 6 was no hunter. The thing she'd chased - it was big, it was fast, and it was the antithesis of everything she knows Eddie to be.

She narrows her eyes, "What do you mean, parasite?"

This is not a concept she is familiar with.

Edited 2018-12-09 04:49 (UTC)

Pulling his hands away, ignoring the creature screaming and roaring in his mind You'reruiningthis, You'reruiningThisYOUARE DESTROYING

"...A-" he grunts, "...I share my body with a creature. He's...about 7 feet tall, half a ton, built like a brick wall when we're melded together. Claws, teeth, eats flesh, leaps...likes to climb trees."

He laughs weakly, "I hate heights. I hate heights. We were up in the branches though trying to get you to turn around with your ...your spear."

There is nothing in 7's world or this one that has prepared her for the liklihood of someone melding with another in such a way as Eddie was suggesting. She'd seen how the Seamstress had incorporated 2's body, but 2 hadn't been alive.

She's starting to feel that panic rise again, "The creature," Out in the forest, she'd chased it, she'd fought with it, she'd realized it hadn't been the typical predator-prey dance that ended with someone dead, but there had been real danger. She didn't know what it was, how it was going to react, whether or not it was going to swipe just above her or try to take out her head.

But it was also Eddie, somehow? It's this connection she's having a hard time making. He was not that big. He was not that fierce.

But he'd obviously known something since he's getting the details right. She's tense, as if she might bolt at any moment. "Eats flesh. You eat flesh?"

And for once, she had actually left her spear in the other room. It sends a chill running up her spine - that she'd come to trust Eddie enough to leave her weapon behind. Had that been his intentions? Lull her into a false sense of security so he could catch her off-guard like this? She starts to take slow, deep breaths, watching him like a rabbit watches a fox, ready to bolt at any moment and wondering if it'd be safer to make to the front door for escape or if she could make it to the bedroom for her spear.

Stay very. very still

Eddie couldn't move if he wanted to. Venom was suddenly everywhere, weighing down his hands and feet. He can feel the thing shifting, moving.

Venom's little trick of borrowing his vocal cords hurts. He can't talk for hours but something white swims across his vision and his head lowers.

Very still.

V what the hell are you doing?!

If she runs away she will scare the village against you. We do not want her to run away. She is a good person. She can be a valuable ally. We can support each other and-

Goddamnit I am not going to fucking get you laid

Something gurgled in his throat and Eddie, frozen unnaturally still, speaks.

"...It's a creature whose body depends on mine to live. All living things eat flesh to a certain extent. My symbiote has to eat flesh so that it doesn't die or kill...me." Venom doesn't know the right facial expressions, "The right word is symbiote. Not parasite. If my symbiote doesn't eat flesh it will eat eddie's-my liver and organs. No one wants that."

This isn't going to fucking work. Give me back my voice V.

...

V. do it.

He lurches to the left and coughs, spitting.

"...he...he's not dangerous. I swear. I promise. i'm not dangerous. 7 I should have said something I'm...I'm so sorry I didn't I was just scared. You can leave. Obviously you can but it-he only comes out at night."

7's frozen to the spot as well, not even really aware that she's holding her breath. Eddie has gone weird. He's still, but he's still talking, and his wording continues to be more and more odd.

His eyes go weird for a moment, and she shifts just enough that she's braced and halfway up, she's still not sold on sticking around, but at least she hasn't left, yet.

Has she blinked? She feels like she hasn't blinked, but she can't now. Bedroom, or front door? What else can I use? "You have a thing in you that will eat your insides if you don't feed it, and it's somehow what, three times your size?"

Her words feel tight and forced, she aches from the tension in her body, but she's not easing up, not yet.

"Yes."

He pauses, "Look back home...I'm a reporter. I write about people who hurt other people. The people without homes, people who can't get enough food to eat. I point it out to the public so people can go...hey. that guy's bad."

He pauses, "This guy back home. His name was Carlton Drake. He brought a bunch of these...symbiotes to earth."

Finally. Thank you.

"He put them in people without homes. People who couldn't get enough food. They were...lost and alone and Carlton Drake was taking advantage of them. Hurting them. You don't hurt weak people and both humans and symbiotes were hurt."

He sighed, "So I tried...I tried to break in to stop him and one of them got out. It infected me. Except he said...he said I changed it's mind. It turned out they were going to hurt people too. That they wanted to take people over, but Venom liked being in my head. Said it wasn't bad. So I...I took him in."

He sighed, "Normally he can come out. Right now he just...can't. But you've seen him."

He pauses, "He thinks you're a great hunter. He respects you."

Yes. Respect.

Right. ok.

7 doesn't budge while he talks, just listening and taking it all in. It's a lot to process, especially for someone who doesn't have a sense of homelessness, or class systems, or really any sense of social dynamics outside of a collection of 9 little dolls against the world.

Eventually, though, she eases back into her seat. She's not entirely relaxed, but she's obviously sticking around for at least a little bit longer.

"I did have a lot of fun." It's an aside, an odd little truth that feels somehow disjointed compared to the entire rest of their conversation, but she's not sure what else to say. Part of her is still stuck on eats flesh and the realization that that's her now. She's flesh. She's no longer canvas.

"They were going to eat everyone but he decided not to." She's trying to summarize what Eddie's said in ways that make sense to her, but she's not sure it's really working. "The other - symbiotes. Are they like him? Hiding in other people?"

"He's the only one left."

Eddie can't tell if that's his sadness, the empathy of one very empathetic person when faced with death, or Venom missing his comrades. Some days the two of them blurred together in a way he couldn't comprehend yet.

Yet Eddie.

"I promise. It's just him and me. He'd come out to say hello but he...he can't. He's stuck in me until night time."

Tell her I'm sorry!

Jesus. Why don't you just bond with her then?

You are our host. Was it his imagination or did Venom sound exasperated? We enjoy her company but at the end of the day there is only you. Our lives are tied together. We...love you.

Unbeknownst to Eddie, he's begun to tear up.

Wiping his eyes he shakes his head.

"Sorry. Just gets me emotional. Aliens don't come to earth. Having them all die like that. All the people Carlton Drake killed..."

Oh -- what was this now? He's crying? She doesn't know how to deal with crying, pulling in on herself for a completely new reason.

"I'm -- sorry, it's just, Eddie, this is a lot. Everything here is, a lot, I've kind of got a backlog of things I'm trying to deal with." She's easing up, though, and she sounds apologetic. She does like Eddie and is at least reassured now that he - and this alien, apparently - aren't going to try and eat her.

"I-I've seen it, when everything dies. I've seen it." A pause, a breath, "I've seen when there are precious few and you wonder how many are actually going to make it to the end, or if there will ever be an end." A couple more breaths, "I might have been looking at mine."

She flexes her hand for a moment, tempted to reach out to him but still unsettled enough that she doesn't. "He comes out at night?"

He always manages this. It's always a fucking lot. First anne, then tony, now 7.

Venom churns within him and his skin visibly moves before Eddie closes his eyes. Shit.

He's amazed she hasn't run.

Everyone always runs.

To save themselves.

Deal with it. He exhaled, You can do this Eddie. You fucking can. You don't want people to run don't give them a reason.

"He does. But it's my problem. I just-now that you know you can go anywhere I was keeping him a secret. That's...That's gotta change for everyone's sake."

He sighs before meeting her gaze, honest and sincere, "You can take the time to work on you. Whatever it is you need. What...what is it that you need? I mean look I may be screwed up but I would hate myself if I didn't try to help you."

We both would. If it is an enemy I will crack their bones for marrow.

"...So will V."

"V, is that his name?" It would make sense to her, of course, as someone who went by name as a number.

But there's a rocking realization with his - their - offer to help. She rubs her palms against her thighs, feeling the slight ridge of the scar on her right, filled with an anxious energy. This was obviously not an easy thing for them - to come out to her with the truth like this. As much as it sounded like necessity over desire to do so, that was a privilege she had. She didn't turn into a doll at night, didn't have some other physical form here she didn't want them to see. It was there, it was in her past, but it very much painted the way she engaged with the world.

In this moment, Eddie and V are the courageous ones, and she's the coward. It doesn't sit well with her, but at the same time there's a hesitance. Humans are still new to her, everything about them, being one herself, and there's something comforting about the fact that no one knows what she was, yet. Humans hadn't noticed them when she was in her world, and she's unsure how they'll take it here. As well, it's her life, it's her friends, and it's not something she's ready to share.

"I don't know what I need. I think, that might make sense if you knew more about my world, but -- I'm not ready to talk about it yet." She's pulled in on herself, giving him an apologetic look. "Listen, what you did - just now, that takes courage. Thank you." She pauses, then reaches out and sets a hand over his, and then gives it a squeeze before pulling her hand back.

"Eddie, you're my closest friend here, I don't think this has changed that, but I need to go. For a little bit, so I can think, but can I come back and talk to V?"

If there's two of them, she'd like to get both halves of the story from each side directly if she's going to continue living here.

"Yeah. Yeah absolutely."

Something visibly relaxes in him and he smiles, at ease, "This is...this is hard but yeah. Yeah okay. thanks for not...freaking out. This is kind of new to me. I mean I came out to my dad and he was a shitlord but this is a lot bigger then "Hey, Dad here's what's up."

He nods, "...he's out at Sundown."

For the record, she absolutely thinks Eddie is talking about the time he told his dad about Venom. That's her takeaway from that comment. Also, she smiles when he thanks her for not freaking out - but feels like she very much did freak out in her own way and was a hair's breadth away from bolting more than once during the conversation.

She turns and vaults over the couch and heads to her room. "I'll be back, tonight." She closes the door behind her, gathers her spear and a bola, and slips out the front door and finally runs. It does help clear her mind, to be moving and active and alone, and she runs over the conversation through her head as she explores the forests, following the river, climbing trees and vaulting over fallen logs.

She runs through the conversation, she thinks about his words, and remembers those odd moments when his eyes went white-sih and his skin seemed to crawl. It is completely alien to her, and the more thought she puts into the idea of this giant hulking beast living in Eddie, the more she worries. She'd fought with it in the forest - that sort of play-fight, but maybe that was dangerous. Maybe she should have refrained and kept her skills unknown. Just in case.

Still, Eddies words are in counterpoint; it wasn't dangerous, wouldn't hurt her, and wanted to help. if what she remembered were true. As evening pulls into night, she finally makes her way back.

She stops by her old house to dig through the rubble first, needing one little shot of confidence; th cave-wolf skull mask. It was covered in ash, that sort of got everywhere when she brushed it off, but was otherwise undamaged. She fits it on her head - tipping it up because she didn't want to startle the thing when she came in - but just having it there helped.

If she did have anything to worry about, she wanted it to be terrified of her.

She enters back through her own room, taking a moment to wipe off the worst of the ash with a bedsheet, adjusts the mask, and then knocks on her door adjoining the living room. She cracks it open and peers in, trying to ignore how hard her heart is thudding in her chest.

Eddie and Venom? Eddie and Venom have talked. Venom wants a friend who can fight, Eddie wants Venom to be happy and as much as Eddie fought trying to stay awake he was asleep safely inside venom.

Venom's only had a couple of small snacks, not nearly enough, but one of the things Eddie mentioned was control. It was another C and the most important C. Remember how we talked about bad guys? And not throwing around cars?

Yes.

So when he, sitting on the floor staring at the ceiling, rolls over when he hears the door creak, there's just this great big black thing that peers at her from behind the couch.

And rises. Slowly.

Hello. We are Venom. And we will not hurt you.

He seems bigger that when he was in the forest, where he melted into the shadows and the ceiling of tree tops stretched over him into the sky. Here, in this little house, he seemed to take up all available space.

7 crouched in the doorway, spear held ready because she's unsure of him in this place. There's not a lot of open room to maneuver if something were to happen, and that worries her.

Maybe nothing will happen.

I don't want to bet on it.

She slowly eases over the threshold and crouches again, keeping the couch between them.

"I still don't believe you were in Eddie."

There was only finite space inside. She knew this from her experience as a doll as storing things in het pocket. Venom is too big to fit, so what happened to Eddie?

"Where is he now?"

Venom straightens before crouching down to stare at her. This is...difficult

And his features pull back to reveal a sleeping Edward Brock. Eyes closed, skin merged with Venom's. It retracts quickly.

Ordinarily we have more...autonomy. A sense of who we are. Here we are ...truly WE.

Coming from a post apocalyptic wasteland where she'd seen her friend's soul get sucked through what were essentially his eyeballs, there is little that actually horrifies 7. This is one of those rare moments. She gasps and stumbles back, swinging her spear out so it's in front, but she miscalculates her retreat and falls against the wall.

She snaps her head in a quick downward motion and the mask falls into place. Here, now, it's more to hide her unease, but the eyes that peer out are intent and piercing and feral. She slowly sets her stance again, ready to pounce, barely holding back if only because Eddie had been the one to tell her first.

"What did you do to him?" She had meant to ask if he were okay, she hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but she's scared, and she's worried, and she's so close to making a number of poor decisions.

Edited 2018-12-10 18:28 (UTC)

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