BUT MY HEART IS WILD, AND MY BONES ARE STEEL

[webdesigned]

CHARACTERS: peter parker & YOU
DATE: 3/22 - 3/23
WARNINGS: violence?? possibly... some cannibalism attempts, jfc
SUMMARY: turns out that a mild coma didn't actually keep the virus from progressing, and now that he's out and about at nearly 7 weeks infected, things are a bit bad. time to catch a spider. easy, right?



SANS.

( when he finally figured out his infected state, his only option seemed to be isolation. it was not a great plan, admittedly. he hadn't had a lot of time to make it, even if he'd promised Keith to make preparations just in case. he couldn't hole up in quarantine, not when he was a threat to anyone that hazarded going too close, so that meant more extreme measures.

one little slip was all it took to devastate. Stiles had been proof of that. Peter refused to let there be another slip.

the plan was simple. lock himself away where the infected numbers were high, to keep anyone from finding him. steal enough barbiturates to keep himself under as... well, as long as he needed to be. he had not been concerned with an endgame. it could have worked, maybe, if he'd trusted someone else to be close enough to monitor him. the dispenser he'd made did its job, but he'd discounted exactly how much of the drug he'd need to even drag him under. he hadn't taken enough to last even a week.

when he woke, he was not the same person that had been willing to render himself comatose to protect everyone in Woodhurst.

he was no longer thinking; his thoughts were burned away in the fever of his hunger. nothing else mattered. so when he crawled from the sewers, he doesn't exactly seem like someone wise to get particularly close to. there's already blood on his hands, his pupils so wide in the dark his eyes almost seem black — and if that weren't eerie enough, the first hint at a sound makes him react, and not simply by running. that'd be too easy, wouldn't it?

no, crawling along the wall suits him just fine, at a rather alarming speed. it seems rife for a horror movie, only it's reality, and it is a reality that is coming in a little too quickly. the sound that had caught his attention was a woman walking to her car, unaware of the danger lingering in the dark. leaping from a wall to land on her is enough to knock her to the ground and knock her out in one fell swoop, which might be just as well. she won't have to feel his teeth sinking into her arm. )

REIKA.

( turns out, when someone capable of crawling up walls and throwing cars starts a frenzy in the middle of downtown, it draws attention. especially when the count of injuries is climbing and climbing fast. the screams, the cries for help, the few people left on the streets fleeing for safety seems to have little effect on him anymore. if anything it seems to set him off, throwing whatever he can reach at the nearest sound. which is a bit of a problem, when he can lift just about any car he comes across.

he doesn't exactly hear the threat coming. no, he feels it, a shiver down his spine, hairs standing on end. even with the knowledge it's coming, he doesn't bother to stop chasing the next mark he's after. he crawls after his fleeing target, skittering along the wall with demented focus. even as the terrified civilian screams for help and stumbles into the street. it doesn't matter how much he eats anymore, he's still hungry — and he seems to have decided on his next meal. )

NOT SO SUPER AFTER ALL. (OTA)

( spider-man is actually only so amazing. he can crawl up walls and lift incredible weights, yet he's far from invincible. he might have done well to remember that a lot sooner, chances were a lot of people would have been saved a lot of pain.

still, he's been chased and pursued, and by individuals strong enough to actually keep up with him. more than keep up, really. his brain was burned into thoughtless fever, and his actions were stuck on instinct, instead of forethought. Audentes wasn't the only thing he had to worry about, either, as Woodhurst was determined to fight back as well. for example, getting hit by that pest control van had definitely not been expected. who could really expect that kind of irony?

he's hidden in the dark, pressed against a wall and nearly dazed. he definitely looks as if he's in need of help, though considering the smudges of blood on his face and hands... you might not want to risk it. )

HAISE.

( there are only two things that matter to him at the moment. trying to sate the endless hunger that only seems to be amplified the more he tries to silence it, and evading those that have intent on keeping him from it. evading violently, if need be. he's somehow managed to avoid capture this long, and that's in no small part from how capable he is at slipping away, and hearing who might be after him before he can even see them.

still, he's running on madness, not sense. not to mention Peter had been wise enough to take off the webslingers that allowed him to move through the air so quickly, just in case. hard to say if he'd even have the sense to use them, now, though if he could it was certainly for the best he didn't have the option. he's not as fast as he could be and that leaves him open to intervention.

even though he's not particularly inclined toward the idea.

he's distracted, trying to beat down a heavy metal barricade that was hiding something to eat. the screams inside only seemed to make him work more feverishly, like a panicked promise if he could just manage to get inside. terrifyingly, he's doing a damned good job beating the metal in with his fists — unless someone can stop him. )

Comments

[ex_adept136]

[Well, that's some breaking and entering, right there.

Haise can only hope that the residents are home, and count his lucky stars that he doesn't hear any security system response. He drops to the fire escape after Peter's vanished into the apartment, hitting the metal surface with a thump. No sounds of alarm emerge, but whether there are people inside or not can't be assumed from just that. If anything, the looming question spurs Haise to duck into the window.

He squints in the dark, capable of better vision than a human would be, applying his repair magic to the window at the same time. Ever the better if he can erase any evidence that they were ever here, once he locates Peter. He's going to be a lot tougher to pin in one place than he'd first hoped...

It doesn't take him long to spot the only other person in the room, though he doesn't advance right away, taking some stock of their surroundings.

An empty flat, then. That explains the silence]

Sorry, but I can't let you get away.

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( an empty dark flat is not exactly what he was hoping for. it doesn't provide the escape he was hoping for; a window was easy to see through, and while surely some part of him still could identify what a door was, it didn't really resonate with him that was how he'd have to leave. it might have been a good way to lose his company... or at least get some better distance on him.

he's a bit like a cornered animal, left with no obvious escape to what he sees as a threat. Peter can't understand Haise's intention, not in the state he's in. all he can really know is that he's being pursued, followed, and interfered with when he's trying to accomplish very fixed goals. destructive goals, granted, but goals none the less.

there's no easy way to slip past him toward the window again, so that leaves only one option. he'd been lost toward heading for the door upon entry, yet when he's got nowhere else to escape to? he drops from the ceiling — because, of course he'd been stuck to the top of it, defying gravity — before trying to rip it open. he skips the actual turn part, over pulling up and off and away. with a door in hand he'll toss it at the person so determined to follow him. might be that will distract him for a little while. )

[ex_adept136]

[Reflexively, Haise's kagune lances through the air, far more resembling an overlarge clawed hand now that he's not climbing, and catches the door. He stares at it for a beat, briefly conflicted as to whether he ought to repair it now or — no, later. Later would be better. Right now he needs to be sure that he doesn't lose track of Peter, so with a flick of his kagune, the cracked wood clatters to the floor.

He steps over it as he advances, focus trained on Peter's scent. Even if he can't hear him, at the end of the day a ghoul is a predator even if he doesn't use his faculties the way a predator usually would. The guy could be several city blocks away, perhaps more, and Haise could still track him down.

It's exactly what he intends to do as he chases him down the hall, making no effort to quiet his footfalls. In this vacant space, he has his doubts anything would dull that resonance, but by the same token, he can gauge the distance between himself and his associate]

[webdesigned]

( of all the senses he's gained, scent isn't one of them. still, having boosting hearing is more than enough to know he's still being tracked, still being followed, even if he moves as silently as he can manage. there's nothing to distract the ear in a relatively empty building; all he can hear is the thunder of footsteps, and none too slow, either.

if he can't escape Haise indoors, well, he'll just have to try something else. he doesn't have the webshooters that allow him to move through a city faster than most cars, but he isn't willing to give up and be captured, either.

Haise isn't bothering to be silent, and the spider isn't either. the clash of glass? a good sign that he's decided to try his hand at the street again. or, not quite the street. the roof is more accurate. he'll always try for the high ground if he can get it. )

[ex_adept136]

[More broken glass. Haise puffs out a resigned sigh, though he admits to himself that at least it choreographs Peter's movements well enough. It doesn't take him long to catch up, leaping out of the window and letting his kagune catch him as it drives into the side of the building. He takes pause to figure out which direction Peter is headed, and...up seems to be the ready answer.

It's not the first time he's faced the prospect of a rooftop battle. In point of fact, he'd been taken from what was doubtless going to become one back home, having been in the middle of a large-scale operation.

So much as he had back home he ascends, making a mental note to return and fix the window along with the door. He can't afford to spare the energy right now, much less expend the time with how swiftly Peter's retreating]

HMM should we have this fade out to spidey-busters finding them soon?

[webdesigned]

( swift is certainly a good word for it. he's not trying to fight back anymore — he knows a battle he can't win, or at the very least, a battle he doesn't want to risk losing. while he's more than capable of a fight, after a long night of taking too many injuries, it's not worth the risk.

though being followed is not lost on him, either. it's a growing frustration, that no matter how he tries to escape the stranger, he chases after with surprising and inexplicable speed. there's not a lot he can hope to throw at Haise to detract him, not until he gets to the roof.

then he's happy to throw a satellite at him. hopefully the apartment wasn't using it for anything! )

can do!

[ex_adept136]

[And more property damage. If Haise hadn't been convinced of it before, having a satellite hurtled his way cinches it — tonight is going to be a long one.

He spares one spindly branch of his kagune to catch the falling machinery, swift enough to blur if Peter's watching, and he continues his advance. Had he been brought to ALASTAIR a year younger, he wouldn't have been able to handle this without missing a beat. At the time, he'd been afraid of what he could do, and couldn't handle it as a result.

Now...now he's more than capable of keeping after Peter, for as long as it takes. There are others looking for him, and the least he can do is make sure his associate doesn't slip away and hurt someone while he's in this state]