A little like fear, a little like relief, a little like playtime: Shadows crept - as they do - along arrow-straight city blocks, New York City's own. People to'd and people fro'd, from their lifeless workspace into their torrid homespace, fearless and emotionless, wholly excited in their capacity by the simple things in life.
Slowly meandering, with all the intent of her distant future years, Tanis pondered down through the gleaming glass and sullen brickwork ravines towards lonely home and more space and time to do the things people did in the city - think about the city.
'I wonder what actually happened to Peter... It's one thing being... (angry...?)' She skipped over the thought, plotting her course through that trouble spot later, '-but I didn't see him leaving...' Her tongue flicked off her upper teeth as she thought through every last detail presenting itself to her.
She stopped to look into the window of a boutique, elegant dresses and heels and jewelry she couldn't and wouldn't achieve in her lifetime.
She imagined what of the contents she would like, but with a shrug, realised there was nothing she'd swap these comfortable gleaming black gloves for; she splayed her fingers and watched how the light danced on the midnight coloured polished leather.
Still, she admitted that what she saw was all the things a young Tanis would have yearned for, playing out of sight whilst mommy and daddy silently existed downstairs. 'That was a lie!' She admitted, her father - ha!
But her thoughts returned home or at least the shoddy apartment that passed for one, to her late mother and the emptiness that now hunkered like her poltergeist in the property; she could still picture her smile, her good will and support - the one woman she'd ever truly admired, a thought that spawned a sequel:
'Have I set my stall out... to purposefully undermine people - even if only to my mind - so as they don't threaten the memory of my mother?' She had failed to pick up the pace, despite the unflappable setting sun bringing the day to a close.
'So why accept Ann?' This thought had lingered quite some time throughout the afternoon; she was welcome of it as she held no ill-feeling towards her man-snatcher, something which also bothered her, it didn't feel fully right somehow.
A deep sigh and she shook these thoughts out of her head, stepping into a convenience store, grabbing a little fresh fruit and approaching the counter, "Twenty Berkeley red." She flatly demanded, shrugging her eyes in passing at the tall, spindly teen behind the counter, "And a lighter." She thought nothing of it, she was stressed - needed a smoke.
"Uh- do you have any I.D.?" She took a double take and stared him down, she did not need this!
'Huh! That's typical...' "No babe, I don't! Can I have my smokes now?" She stared fiercely and punched an ingrained passion through him, could society's rules and regulations be rewritten by an individual for their common man?
"Sorry, I can't sell them to you without I.D." No, a sort of powerless feeling hit her, like the misery of being caught in a rainstorm. She could do nothing to ease her nerves, she couldn't convince another human being to help her and she couldn't alter the rules she accepted as a citizen.
'Fucking hell!' She scrunched her fists tightly, popping a couple of cherries' outer skins in frustration, "Grr, thanks for nothing!" She snapped, throwing her money on the counter as she turned away, bitter.
The blandness of filtered tobacco, what good it would do the flavour of her existence... nothing maybe, but the principle chafed, the regulations drained and the silly boy behind the counter, well she spared no further thought for him.
Her apartment - up there - her designated cuboid, left semi-abandoned by her familial companion's departure from this mortal-coil - and between them: a climb, a grumble and a sigh.
'Heh!' Tanis mused to herself, seeing two of the lesser gifted beings living here hunkered against a wall, lost in something resembling a loving embrace. 'Fuck, could that be any more contrived?' She thought with a red mist beginning to make itself known; more and more generic life was grinding on her, she wondered what it was that frustrated her.
'It must be me...' She reasoned, they were doing nothing extraordinary or taboo, just people being people, but there seemed no passion in it, like there was no passion in her latest retail foe, nor the city that wanted her dead, nor the room she entered with a familiar sense of deja-vu smirking at her from the corner.
'Another day...' And slumping into the chair, Tanis felt the night come onto the city as she was hit once more with an all-conquering sense of worthlessness and inability to connect.
'Mmm!' A voice in the back of his head said, her voice as he dreamed of her, the darkening city below held its perils, but the only one that interested Peter stalked his imagination to distraction.
A hand of long, smooth, warm digits seemed to physically play with his chest as he imagined Ann in fully clad attack mode, his imagination so feral in its hunt for rendering her that he felt rewarded as he heard her voice speak to him in those haunting, rousing dual tones, '-are you ever really going to get this chance again?' Every detail of her words, her form, every touch thrust at him.
'Guess it's your lucky day.' He recalled, extending the fully encompassing grip that he collected his half-stack in, his hand fully as long as hers, his other hands reaching down to grip it in place, the delicate and yet powerful musculature of Ann's hand forging his sheathed cock within as she rubbed back up his abs and chest.
'Woah!' His imagination kept going, never had it felt so real, never so close, "Mmm, evening Pumpkin!" Ann gave him a split second to feel his blood run cold before whipping him off the edge, spinning and throwing him effortlessly back; he landed and stumbled to a halt, a feeling like her hand clutching his glutes and-
"Uwaaahh-Muuugh!" He groaned, choked and quivvered, head thrusting and clamped onto her shoulder; Ann watched him gasp and squirm as, without a warning, she'd introduced her middle finger to his prostate and triggered him energetically.
Ann lilted: "Pumpkin seed? You shouldn't have!" She smelled his fluid before even seeing the dripping splatter forced through his seive-like costume.
Her tendril withdrew and she let go, his already shaky limbs wobbling like gelatin whilst Venom posed, virus and bacteria upon her clad digit defenceless against the symbiote's rubber immunity. He wobbled to the side and braced himself against a wall with both hands. 'Haha! We could kill him now, but this is too much fun!' 'Oh he's got more to give, my other! Something in particular!' She lapped her maw hungrily.
"Aww, don't worry..." She belittled, clutching his hips as she pushed hers into him, levering him out to meet her chest, talking over one shoulder then the other: "-You can go again, right?"
She helped him turn, despite his weakness, leaning back against the wall and finally getting a good look at her, his heart in his mouth.
"Ann, I..." he began, but just gawked as she clutched his hands in hers, together; an instant thwip of symbiotic textile and she'd bound his hands to his torso "Urgh!" He exclaimed, trying to break it off, even as it squeezed him tightly together.
Ann leaned on him once more, squeezing him against the wall, fingers dancing up him excitedly. "Pumpkin? Not going to let me down, are you?" She growled and trailed her fingers up to his throat, then with a single brushed stroke peeled his mask off, tossing it aside.
"See? Just a couple of filthy supervillains... fucking on a rooftop!" Obscenities took on the immoral forms they were intended to coming from her pouting fangs; he didn't know how, but she'd erased his refractory period and given his gooey, shamed libido another lease of life stronger than before.
The mind was willing, the body bound and the partner in complete control, 'To think I used to adore this piece of meat!' 'Heh, we are all just pieces of meat, my other - just some of us are better at it!' She took him by the bound wrists and threw him to the floor, skull clattering over the concrete as he struck.
Face-down between her legs, a long, swift arm came and unzipped him, 'Strip him!' Ann ordered her other, licking her lips as her suit tore him - still dizzy - out of his with the minimum of damage and flipped him onto his back. 'Now, just like we planned.'
"Mmm..." Ann tickled her ripped, perfect body, even as she sat on him, meeting his eyes as she flexed and slithered her rubber sex around him, "-you realise this is rape, Pumpkin?" She didn't care for his mumbled nonsense reply, perched upon him, her gyrating hips rocking him even as she powefully scrunched his pecs, ripping through the flesh to invite him to the party, "Ah-" Ann panted down at her tied, shagged out victim.
Her powerful attack on the naked man took on a whole new level of assault when Ann balanced on his head with both hands, nails digging into the flesh as she pounded, drawing huge slashes down his face and flicking her tongue out, tasting the pheromone-infested air.
"Wait for me, Pumpkin!" She demanded, blocking his airway with her thumbs, pulsing arteries punctured as the other began supping away at his lifeforce, his blueing face sign of his asphyxiation.
"Mugh! Ugh! Nyaeugh!" Ann cried, feeling him go jittery and then limp as she gushed within her suit - a healthy tipple for her other. Her cry reached the night sky, she calmed and took her hands from his throat, he breathing but fully unconscious.
'Mmm, delicious - brains fucked [i]right[/i] out!' 'You can feel that then, Ann?' She could feel it, Spider-sense heightening her own reactions and in turn the symbiote's, 'do you want web-shooters forming?' 'No, no... it's far more fun my way!' the symbiote agreed ecstatically, they looking down at their diced, unconscious enemy, 'we could eat him - now! Be done with him and all of this!' She pointed out, 'We need him, Ann - you know that.' The host nodded and bit a nail, teased by the prospect of what she had planned.
Standing, her plan unfolded as the symbiote withdrew from her host, Russian doll effect revealing a costume within a costume.
*Drip!* A deep blue, star-lit and pleasantly mild night in a relatively quiet part of town. *Drip!* Tanis' nose wrinkled up as if bothered by something, the light sleeper ignoring it and going back to- *Drip! Drip!* With a gasp, Tanis opened her eyes, spell broken, *Drip!* Her eyes rolled towards the bathroom. *Drip!* "Grr!" She threw the covers aside and swiftly crossed the room on cold-floor-tiptoes, throwing open the toilet door and hitting the light switch.
"AHH!" She screamed, shielding herself against attack, a moment to think and she backed up out of the room, "Holy shit, what the fuck!" She panted heavily. Shaken, she runs for the door and over the way. Knocking on her neighbour's door excitedly, she thinks it through: 'who can I call?' She thinks of the police, but they won't care, she can't show her neightbour and Peter wasn't talking to her - 'Ann!'
"Ugh, hi Mr. Bent, can I... use your phone like really quick?" The older man looked at her in confusion.
"Are you alright, dear? You're shivering!" She nodded, even as he passed her his phone.
"Thankyou Mr. Bent." She said, running back and grabbing the card with Ann's number on; swiftly dailing it, she glanced sidelong at the scene as it rang.
"H-Hi, Ann! It's Tanis!" 'Oh, perfect my other! She's call us right on cue!' "Y-Yeah, I know it's just... something strange is going on in my apartment, can you come round?" 'Drip, drip, drop!' "Well, there's a Spiderman costume hung from my shower rail dripping with... well by the smell, it's... not nice!"
Hanging up the phone, Ann revels a little more in her plan, pouncing from Tanis' rooftop, into an alley and warping into something more human; having told her they were close, she simply made herself known.
Tanis appeared at the front door, "Hiii Ann, I know it sounds silly and... sorry for calling you, I'm just freaked out!" Ann listened humbly.
"Think nothing of it hun, but this I've got to see!" Following closely up the stairs, Ann instantly smells the thick aroma of passionate cum. She re-envisaged the way Peter had squirmed as she milked him, it made her feel all warm inside (and out.)
"Oh my gawd!" Ann approached, feigning curiosity, "-Well you don't see that every day! Now tell me, what sort of guy did you bring home last night, eh?" Ann joked. "Hey, don't panic - it's probably just a practical joke, I'll get rid of it hun..." Tanis went to get a binbag.
With a grin, she took one deep whiff of the useful artifact before carefully packing it away at arm's length. Elephant in the room tucked away and out of sight, Tanis made them both a drink, sitting side-by-side on her bed.
"So... what else has happened to you since lunch time? You live one hell of a life, girly!" Ann commented to giggles.
"Well, nothing... Been feeling really... depressed if I'm honest." She raised an eyebrow.
"Why hun? What's up?" She cocked her head on the side as Tanis expected her to.
"It's just... well, it's everything..." She sighed, "-it feels like I'm... lost... like I don't belong, more than ever, what with Peter running around!"
"Dear oh dear Tanis..." Ann scrunched up a half-sympathetic smile, the younger understanding a sense of embarrassment at her reaction to everything, even now she was being belittled! "What are we going to do with you? Eh?" Tanis hung her head a little in shame.
"It's... it's not fair! Why does it all have to happen to me? Why can't I do anything right!" She sobbed, clutching Ann in an obviously distressed outburst.
"Come on now hun, this is silly! You're not that hard off and you know it!" Tanis pulled off, sensing no mercy due any time soon, 'Why are we torturing her so, Ann?' "There's worse that could happen, don't ya think?" 'This is not torture, it's experience!'
"So what, I'm supposed to just accept it and get on with life as if my happiness doesn't matter?" Tanis articulated and thought this through, "Is it really that cold and soulless an existence?"
"What do you think, Tanis? You don't want me babying you through this - fuck woman, grow up!" Ann mercilessly struck her with words Tanis didn't expect to hear, the girl scarce understood the strength she could foster from such harshness. 'She feels weak, inept, submissive... and we're making it worse.' 'Yes: she will long to prove herself, that is her schism, a natural human reaction...' '-which suits the job perfectly!' 'Precisely!' so attuned, they rattled off this conversation in mere flashes of instants.
"Hmph!" Tanis blinked away a couple of tears, feeling worse now than before she'd exploded at Ann, where was the sympathy she'd known in her youth? "Do we honestly reach adulthood and become second-class citizens overnight? What is it, stupid fucking testosterone-driven society!" She furiously questioned herself.
"You want sympathy? Is that it? Someone to cater to your weakness and inability, make you feel good about yourself when you're at your worst?" Ann leant in close to her, face-to-face, her dimly-visible blue eyes now seemed like ice-floes, cold and dismissive, her strength eclipsing whatever emotion Tanis pulled out of the hat. 'Eww, her gooey insides all strewn on the table... she's soft, but learning to rebel against it...'
"I understand..." Ann pulled back a little, this too much of a sudden change of heart - "-what was it that broke you up so much? Made you say the direct opposite to what you're supposed to? Are you trying to be wicked for the mere display of it?" Tanis questioned, she now leaning in confidently.
"Don't be so naive, hun... I'm not sizing up to you." Ann replied in a calm, even tone - the symbiote understood what was needed, her urges to reciprocate were long since forced out, she chemically balanced to rise above such tirades.
"Wh-What?" Ann sat calmly back on her hands.
"Because I questioned your mentality, you responded in kind - you didn't think, didn't stop to try and appreciate your situation, but hit back with insults - why would i listen to that?" Tanis felt even more humiliated now, Ann was a wonderful person, a powerful, inspiring person and Tanis accepted herself as inferior in this mindset - even the intellectual eclipsed her! Her head hung low.
"Sorry Ann, my fault, you're right." Ann stood as she heard this, A pair of smiles hidden within one-another: the feeling of broken spirits underfoot was like feather down or cashmir.
"Not to worry hun, but please - if you're going to call me for advice - don't expect it to be the soft and gooey, children's portion sort - we could both do without that, am I right?" She winked at her.
'How does she feel about us now?' 'Difficult to say, but she understands what we can do for her, she knows we're her only crutch for when she needs strength around her.' 'But she imagines us as unsympathetic to her grief, surely!' 'Precisely! Don't worry my love, she'll come around.' Ann reassured her symbiote.
"Yeah..." Tanis' head was emotional chaos, full of contrasting thoughts, but she would sleep on it, think it over despite her mood. "-You don't mind though, do you? Meeting me, talking I mean..."
Ann smiled much more warmly now, "That all depends on you hun, you think you're weak when you're not - I want to get to know the real Tanis, not this one." She nodded to this, she would try to psychoanalyse herself until she died of sleep-deprivation and Ann knew it, but there was enough there to succeed in what she had planned.
"Get some sleep, maybe call me tomorrow, k?" Ann grabbed the satchel and headed for the door.
"Thanks Ann, [i]I think[/i]" Tanis muttered to herself, but Ann stopped long enough at the door to hide a smirk.
"Sleep tight hun," She winked, "Don't let the bed-bugs bite."
In the midnight hour, New York proves what New York claims, within a bed hides animation.
Splitting, duplicating, gripping and glueing; absorbing, learning, collecting and replacing:
Red, a dream of feeding, a hunger for more. A wide, pleasured smile as she coils up more in his bed.
Hazel, hidden in the shrouding darkness a sensation comes to her, she reaching over for another red cherry, the deep, satisfying flavour echoing something her heart seemed to tell her, easing her concerns as she shut her eyes to try and forget.
Red, white and blue, his one last wholesome slumber met with a nightmare in crimson, it pours and it pours and it pours and she-