#arghwrites

[softgrungeprophet]

Title: How big, how blue, how beautiful

Rating: Teen And Up

Category: Gen

Fandoms: Spider-Man, Scarlet Spider

Relationships: Kaine Parker & Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker & María Aracely Penalba

Characters: Kaine Parker, Miles Warren, Ben Reilly, María Aracely Penalba

Warnings*: Implied Abuse, Referenced Past Suicide Attempt, Offscreen Violence, Restraints

Tags: Alternate Universe, Vignette(s), Autistic Kaine Parker, Bittersweet

Words: 3 ,179

*Mostly offscreen, all implied, all very vague, but technically encompasses physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Very little is depicted except restraints; this fic is mostly just a few brief moments of calm

Series: [came in through the window last night]

Summary:

The first time Kaine saw the sky, he was twenty-two years old — Set in 2011, 2012, book-ended by 2016

The flashbacks take place before Ben has named himself Ben: Cain = Kaine Abel/"Peter" = Ben

For some context, you can read "From the Notes of Dr. Miles Warren," which is a metafictional piece presented as Warren's notes from 2009 to 2011, and which has a little bit more information about some of the briefly skimmed over flashbacks in this fic, though not everything, exactly. (Please check the warnings first / You will need to be logged in to read it due to the subject matter)

—

[read on ao3]

[softgrungeprophet]

taking a break from my monstrously large AU to work on a very self-indulgent fairytale oneshot ft. Kaine as a Rapunzel-esque figure and Ben as his (platonic) rescuer, because I made an offhand comment about Kaine's hair while talking to someone and was seized by the concept 😂

i'll post a snippet:

—

That night, Ben slipped away during dinner—wolfed his food down and excused himself to explore as the sun set and purple marlins swarmed the sky…

…except for the airspace around that strange bronze tower.

There was a man outside, across the field, silhouetted in the darkness. Ben crept low to the ground and kept his distance, careful not to be seen as he followed the stranger up the hill toward the tower.

He'd left his chatelaine inside, of course (no need for sewing scissors out in the fields, anyway) but the good luck charm Peter had given him, he'd fastened to his boot, a comforting little weight.

Just in case.

Up the path, to the gate…

Ben hid out of sight and peeked around the brambles to watch as the man he'd trailed up to the tower shed his cloak and—suddenly—was no longer a man at all.

The glamor fell away to reveal some kind of ogre or fae monster, with wide bat-like ears and long limbs; taloned fingers and clawed feet, green skin in the falling dusk almost the same color as the pine needles in the trees, strangely waxy.

The monster called out: "Kaine!"

Ben's breath caught in his chest, eyes wide.

It couldn't possibly be…

The monster shifted, tilted its head, and Ben held himself as still as could be,

A moment passed.

The tension dropped, and again—

"Kaine! Let down thy hair so that I may climb up!"

Above—a backlit outline against the golden glow from inside the tower—a figure moved.

The long braid that fell down from the window caught the fading sunset, highlighted in a flash of copper and fastened with a hook. Its bearer was silent, and remained in shadow as the being who must have been the Jackal—a boogeyman from Ben's childhood—leapt up and grabbed hold, using the length of hair like a rope to scale the smooth side of the tower.

Kaine's braid was unhooked and drawn up, and they disappeared from view.

The Jackal spoke some words, quiet and unintelligible from this distance, and even lower received a response, equally undecipherable.

Ben could feel his heart hammering in his throat, and slipped away.

—

the dramatic reveal lol

heads up, gang! it's that time of the week again. EF is as proud as ever to present WIP Wednesday.

we encourage our community's writers to reblog this post and tell us about your latest idea, show us a snippet of an upcoming work, write in a vague prompt that's eating you alive... we wanna hear it all!

excelsior!

[softgrungeprophet]

for every new fic or story, some new reason to be put on some kind of govt watchlist

[softgrungeprophet]

i know that superhuman registration is like, overdone, but also in a setting where there have been superhumans for centuries i just can't imagine the us gov not, like, developing bureacratic bullshit...

[softgrungeprophet]

me: i'm not gonna post this fic

also me: ugh my instant gratification machine

[softgrungeprophet]

i'm just like this unfortunately

realized something while editing my plot notes this evening

[softgrungeprophet]

i think the biggest reach (AU) is gonna have to be the fact that aracely has a cellphone so the likelihood of no one trying to contact her and/or kaine is slim to none but also i think kaine just leaving the room if he so much as sees her cellphone out is probably reasonable enough. self sabotage and so on.

i mean i guess he could just stop paying the phone bill...

actually wait how does phone bill pay work if it's 2016 and you have mostly cash but also a credit card (paid off in cash) and no backup phone number or address......... i guess credit card autopay probably huh and then just focus on maintaining the credit card...

[softgrungeprophet]

going to say the most "Me" thing ever but fun fact: the big ol' Kaine-centric part of windowverse initially began with me saying "haha what if i wrote a silly little roadtrip fic about kaine and aracely buying a supercar"

well 💀

[softgrungeprophet]

including something symbolic or grammatically unusual in your writing is like

once: comes across as an accident or mistake

twice: "was this... on purpose...? or still a mistake?"

thrice: Purposeful

[softgrungeprophet]

kaine wip 60k and it only covers like 2 months' worth of events

the power of... *checks document* describing kaine taking a bath for half a page, and all these scenes of him half conscious in the hospital... 3 page dream sequence... buying a $400k car... etc...

[softgrungeprophet]

retiring from writing plot to focus solely on kinky erotica

[softgrungeprophet]

NO

it's been up on ao3 with this phrasing for over a whole year....

[softgrungeprophet]

how many fairytale retellings have i done...

i did a beauty and the beast one back in the day for spn

did the peterflash 17th century genderbending cinderella one

did a spideytorch glass coffin fic

did the peterflash beauty and the beast/eros and psyche 1920s time-traveling (sort of) one

[softgrungeprophet]

forgive me my pretensions (straight up calling them cain and abel)

[softgrungeprophet]

ah, 🥁📀

[softgrungeprophet]

if i present the sexually charged undertones of my fic and its violence thru the lens of gendered sexuality, othering and semi literal and semi metaphorical symbolism surrounding consumption, penetration, intimacy and physical closeness, etc. then it's cerebral, right