The End of Happiness

by Art by Ifer (Ihasafandom), cupidsbow

Summary:

Emperor Happiness and their Host have ruled the galaxy for 300 years, but now their Host is dying and their reign is coming to an end. With the throne about to fall vacant, the whole Empire is scrambling for power. Unbonded Symbiotes are desperate for Hosts, as only the bonded can vie for the throne. Every planet wants one of their own as the new Emperor’s Host, and are sending delegations of hopefuls to Klyntar.

Eddie Brock isn’t one of the volunteer Hosts sent by Earth. He’s just a reporter, reluctantly covering the hottest story in the galaxy. When he’s unexpectedly offered the chance to be courted as a potential Host, Eddie says yes, with his eyes firmly on the prize of getting the last interview with Emperor Happiness before everything changes. That is, until he realizes he actually likes a Symbiote called Venom, and finds himself yearning for something more than the grind of work and an apartment he shares with a dead plant.

Will Eddie take the plunge and join his life with Venom’s? Are Eddie and Venom ready to face the deadly contest to find out who will rule the galaxy? Or are they just two doomed losers in love?

Notes:

cupidsbow's note: I started thinking up this story nearly three years ago now, and began writing it months ago, long before the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II. While I’m sure that I’ve been influenced by that, this story is not intended as a commentary or reflection on real events in any way. Any similarities are due entirely to the themes at the heart of the story.

Thank you maharetr, for the epic beta -- you are AWESOME and this wouldn't have been half as good without you!!!

And to Art by Ifer for pom-pom waving, beta reading, and making the most amazing art, my endless thanks. You rock.

~
Images all have descriptions in Alt Text. If anyone needs them in another format, please let me know.

This story can be read with a Mature rating (for canon-typical violence) instead of Explicit (for sexual content) - there is a Note explaining what to skip where relevant.

WARNINGS given in End Notes.

Chapter 1: The End of Happiness?

---

The End of Happiness?

Emperor Happiness is about to lose their Host, leading to a serious leadership vacuum at the heart of our galaxy’s government for the first time in living Human memory.

By Eddie Brock, The Daily Globe

Emperor Happiness is about to lose the partner they are Bonded to on an atomic level.  We don’t know when Emporeen Qewshi of the Vulpecula system will breathe her last, but we do know it will be soon, as even the near-magical healing abilities of the Symbiote race cannot extend a mortal life forever. Last week, the royal physician finally confirmed what has long been rumored – that the much-beloved Emporeen’s health has deteriorated beyond what Symbiont healing can repair. The Emporeen has far outlived the life expectancy of the batlike Vul people she comes from, who on average live around 20 Human years. 

What is also now clear is that for the first time since Earth officially joined the galactic community, there will be an Ascension Contest for the throne. It is shaping up to be one of the most contentious since the Symbiote race established themselves as the rulers of our little corner of the universe.

Symbiote Happiness and Host Qewshi won the throne in the last Ascension Contest in approximately 1722 by Earth’s calendar – long before Humanity reached the stars. They have enjoyed a peaceful joint reign of nearly 300 years. It is Happiness’s third successful Ascension, following their previous reigns with Hosts Zuly also of the Vul, and Amillion of the Puppis system.  

After so long on the throne, Happiness is the clear favorite to once again achieve a full symbiosis and go on to win the Ascension Contest against other Symbiote hopefuls.

However, the current outpouring of grief from around the galaxy is not only for Emporeen Qewshi, much loved though she is. It is also an acknowledgement of the fear that many feel on the eve of this seismic shift in power. After the third reign of Happiness is officially over, we may all find ourselves living in a very different galaxy to the one we’ve become accustomed to.

There has been a significant shift in Symbiont culture since Happiness’s third Ascension, with many of the younger Symbionts naming themselves to reflect their discontent – most notably royal advisors Torment, Agony, Scorn, and Mania, who, while loyal to the current Emperor, have also become the nucleus for a clear challenge to another stretch under Happiness’s rule. 

While hopeful Hosts are already flocking to the galactic capital on Klyntar, following their dream to become the next Emporeen, the Symbiotes are also on the move. It is already clear that there will be more candidates than ever before throwing their pseudopods into the ring as they vie for the throne. 

Whatever the eventual outcome, the galaxy is about to enter into one of the most tumultuous periods since Earth earned its place in the United Galactic Alliance, and the experts are already expressing their concerns with what it may mean for us.

Click to continue…

---

 

Galactic affairs hadn’t even been on Eddie’s radar, is the thing. He’d been busy working on a story about some missing street people, plus some shady rumours about Carlton Drake and The Life Foundation – pretty close to a breakthrough, too. Sure, he was distantly aware of the fact that the Empire was rumbling and the reporters on the offworld beat were looking worried, and there were whispers that some unlucky sod would be sent out in person to report on the Ascension of the new Symbiote Emperor. It wasn’t anything much to do with him, though, and Earth was far enough away from the galactic capital that even if there was a chaotic transition of power, it probably wouldn’t affect Humanity much, at least not in his lifetime.

So sure, Morgan was looking even more bloodshot than usual, and Birdie’s nails were bitten almost to nonexistence as the two of them grimly read through whatever had just come through from the Klyntar embassy, but it was just part of the newsroom’s background noise, like Emily cursing at her computer the hour before the print deadline, Ngyen constantly chewing the end of a pen as ze typed, Vanda fighting with accounts about needing a new dress for some fancy high-society do, and Lopez smelling like donuts.

The furthest thing from Eddie’s mind was the possibility that he’d be the muggins crammed into a tiny berth on the Lucania and shipped off to witness the fall of an Empire along with the soldiers, politicians, support staff, and two dozen hopeful human Hosts that had either won the worldwide lottery or paid an obscene amount of money to be part of Earth’s official delegation. Eddie thought they were all insane – who would actually want to risk their lives for the chance to be worn like a cheap suit by an alien, even one that might end up ruling the galaxy? Not Eddie, that’s for sure.

The worst thing was, it hurt. He’d always known he wasn’t the most popular reporter working for the Scoop Corp family of news services, but he thought he was on good enough terms with people. Networking was part of the job, and Eddie liked it, and was actually good at it. He remembered people’s beverage preferences and birthdays and kid’s hobbies. People bantered with him in the elevator. When he’d been called into the big boss’s office, all Eddie had been worrying about was whether he’d screwed something up, and praying he wasn’t about to be canned. He really couldn’t afford to lose his job; he was still in debt after the whole New York thing. He was sweating a little, as he took a seat with a spectacular view of the bay, and surreptitiously wiped his hands on his jeans. It turned out that, hey, he had plenty of job security after all, and even a pay rise, it’s just that he’d also been voted off the fucking planet. Minchin had stared out the window like a coward the whole time he’d been dropping the bomb. He’d actually had the gall to say, “It’s a great career opportunity, Brock.” 

“As what? An alien’s fancy-dress costume?” is what Eddie had said, instead of something actually useful.

Eddie had thought he couldn’t feel this shitty again after the whole disowning fiasco with good old dad, and yet… this felt worse. His colleagues had turned against him without reason or warning. It made no sense.

He barely noticed the pitying looks as he stumbled through the newsroom. Somehow he made it home, despite the trembling he couldn’t stop. The bed was soft and soothing as he buried himself in the wrinkled sheets, drank way too much booze, and had a good cry. Might as well. Six draft resignation letters later, each one more rambling and embarrassing than the last, he gave up even the pretence that he had anything better to do with his life. He sobered up, filled out one of those ten buck wills you can get at the Post Office, and packed a bag.

Eddie put some concealer around his eyes, because this wasn’t his first time covering a story while feeling like his face was about to crack open and fall off, and took a cab to the spaceport.

The San Francisco spaceport was throbbing like a stirred up termite mound, with cameras everywhere, crying people kissing each other goodbye, and politicians posturing and making pithy soundbites. Much to the politicians’ chagrin, it was the volunteer Hosts who were the media darlings, with the press clamouring after those who showed even the slightest hint of personality. One in particular – a twenty-one-year-old Frisco native called Xan, with a pink bob, nose ring, and a very short mini skirt - was the star of the show. Looking at her bright, happy face made Eddie feel old, but he could see why everyone was flocking around her. She was cute as a button. 

Xan Fransisco [Earthling]

The first good moment of Eddie’s day was bumping into Annie and Dan in the departure lounge. He’d been sent a press packet during his wallow, but since he hadn’t read it, he hadn’t realized that they would be part of the delegation as support staff. Annie hugged him and Dan shook his hand, but it wasn’t until Annie scolded him for not returning her calls that he started to feel like things might turn out okay.

The second highlight was when one of the other journalists making the trip bounded up to him, sporting a Chinese press pass and a beaming smile. Apparently Mrs Chen was her aunt. “She said to tell you to meditate more,” Chen-the-reporter said, “but who the hell has time to meditate when we’re off to meet aliens!” Then she bounded off again to wrangle an interview with the pink-haired kid for the Chinese press. 

Eddie decided to invite her for a drink at the earliest possible opportunity.

But it wasn’t until Morgan – eyes significantly less bloodshot now that he wasn’t the one being shipped off – thrust a mike at him and asked him how he felt about going offworld to cover the biggest story of his life that Eddie decided he’d made the right choice. Eddie was giving the rote answer he’d practised in the shower – a great honour to cover this serious moment in history – when his eye was caught by a figure standing on the upper level of the lounge, looking down at the crush of people milling around as they waited for the shuttle gate to open. 

It took a moment for recognition to hit: Carlton Drake, and he was staring. His gaze bored right through Eddie’s head.

Quite a few things suddenly became very clear, and perhaps it should have made him feel worse, but it didn’t. For the first time since having this story dropped on him, Eddie felt the Earth re-solidify under his feet. This wasn’t Eddie’s colleagues turning on him after all; this was corruption and ass-licking. This was someone powerful trying to get him to shut up and go away. 

This was the familiar muck of Eddie’s job.

Eddie turned away from Drake and smiled into the camera like a shark. “I can’t wait,” he ad-libbed. “The Brock Report is always about telling the stories no-one else tells, and this is no different. I’m going to tell the people of Earth exactly what is going on out there.”

---

 

The Lucania was the size of three top-of-the-line ocean cruisers smashed together - most of it the propulsion system, and only a fraction of it inhabitable. It hung above the Earth like a giant Christmas bauble as it readied for departure. 

Boarding was a whole lot of hurry-up-and-wait, between all the security checks, the hour-long shuttle ride up to the Lucania, and finding his way via a dozen identical corridors to his assigned berth. Eddie spent the first hour or so after getting settled in with his feet up, watching the Earth just hanging there from the viewport next to his bunk. He was tempted to take a nap, but figured now was a good time to get to work while people were still excited and likely to talk. 

Apparently his colleagues had a similar idea, because when he reached the main bar, Chen was already working the crowd – wearing her 全球 Syndicate badge - and Ken Ellis of The Earth News Corp was getting a drink at the packed bar. 

Eddie scowled. Ellis was a douchenozzle who liked to use shock tactics to get his stories. It just figured he’d be here. Eddie went in the opposite direction, and ended up near the giant viewscreen where a crowd had gathered to watch the Earth slowly shrink into the black.

The pink-haired girl, Xan, sighed and turned to him. “I wish my Uncle Joe could see this. He’s a flat-earther, and his face would be priceless.”

Eddie said, “Right, because he’d finally see the rounding error of his ways.”

Xan beamed at him. “Oh, wow. We are going to be besties, I can already tell. I’m Xan.” 

“Eddie Brock.” He tapped the press tag around his neck. “I actually work for The Daily Globe, so I have a bit of a head-start when it comes to flat-earth jokes. I’m still down to be besties though, if that isn’t a dealbreaker.”

“Oh, a reporter.” Xan crossed her arms and looked him up and down. He must have passed muster, because she said, “Well, I guess I can forgive that if you get me a drink. A zombie, please, and then I’ll even let you interview me if you like.”

“One zombie coming right up,” Eddie said, and headed over to the bar.

---

Earth Prepares to Mourn as the End of an Era Approaches

Members of the Earth delegation heading to Klyntar for the final days of the current Emperor’s reign reflect on what’s ahead.

By Eddie Brock, The Daily Globe

On the space behemoth, the Lucania, the Earth delegation heading out to send off the Emporeen feel a mixture of emotions.

For some, it is a distant event, barely real, and for others it is a time of grief.

Xan Fransisco, 21, admits to feeling ambivalent. “At first, it didn’t really seem real. All I could think about was the adventure of actually being able to travel to another planet and perhaps become a Host to a Symbiont. But over time it’s been sinking in. The Emporeen was a dancer, like me, when she was young, and I’ve always taken courage from that. It’s really weird to think about her being gone, when she’s lived for over 300 years; long before my great-grandparents were even born. It will be so strange for her not to be the Emporeen anymore. I’m starting to feel kind of sad thinking about it.”

Dr Cletus Zwerling, 40, feels that “it’s a tragedy of course. I have the highest respect for the Emporeen and the role she’s played in galactic politics. Her patronage of the Arts and Sciences has led to many amazing discoveries, and they have led to a safer and healthier planet Earth. I hope I have the opportunity to meet her, and tell her about the impact the terraforming technology she sponsored has had on Earth’s climate crisis.”

Anne Weying, 32, one of the legal experts in the delegation, has a different perspective. “I feel so sorry for Emperor Happiness. It must be terrible to live so closely with another being, to be in literal symbiosis with them, and then lose them. Right now, I can’t even imagine what life will be like after Emporeen Qewshi is gone, so I can only guess how devastated the Emperor will be. I’ll be very sad when her final day comes.”

Senator Ronald White, 54, the most senior diplomat of the delegation says, “It’s a very sad event, of course. The end of an era. All of Earth will deeply mourn for Emporeen Qewshi. Being able to express that in person is a wonderful opportunity. Earth has been on the fringes of galactic events for far too long, and this is our chance to make stronger connections as we mourn together; and then as we celebrate the new Emperor, whoever that might be.”

Click to continue…

 

Chapter 2: The Palace

The spaceport in the Klyntaran capital, Djor, didn’t look that much different to the spaceport on Earth, except for the very obvious fact that they were in a hermetically sealed section of a much larger building. Every now and then, the wrist-thick windows gave glimpses of the busy landing pads and the alien vegetation and buildings beyond, and occasionally the Symbiotes themselves out and about using their pseudopods with casual grace to complete their tasks. 

It was hard not to stare like a rube. 

The local Earth Ambassador was there to greet them personally and ease their way, and Customs was quick and efficient. With a final reminder to always keep their rebreathers on them at all times, just in case, the politicians and their protection detail were whisked off to the first class cabin at the front of the bus-like transport. The rest of them were herded into cattle class and left to gawk out the sealed windows at the Djoran avenues bustling with an array of aliens in a riot of different garbs. Around them the streets were filled with a mishmash of conveyances, buildings and the weird purplish native herbage. 

“That’s some view,” Ellis said, filming the streetscape out the window. 

There were Symbiotes and aliens everywhere. One dark purple Symbiote was way up on the outside of one of the taller buildings, cleaning the glass with a dozen pseudopods at once; another grey one was selling something that looked like roasted snails on a stick to some bear-like tourists, and a patrol of seven enormous Symbiotes in the unmistakable black and yellow of the Emperor’s Agents watched the Humans in their transport assessingly as they went by.

Eddie agreed with Ellis – he might be a douchenozzle, but it really was amazing to watch so many aliens bustling around their everyday lives.

The Palace, just a silhouette at first, quickly became monumental. It loomed ever larger, until they reached its magnificent gateway and the true size of it became clear. The Emperor’s crest gleamed bright gold under the blood-red sun as they were waved through the gate by the Agents on duty, leaving the bustle of the city behind for the long avenue that circled the Palace.

After just a couple of minutes, the bus turned and entered an airlock for the Oxygen Quarter; a loud warning klaxon sounded as the airlock activated. 

On the other side was a garden filled with surprisingly familiar plants. Overhead, a dome filtered out much of the red sunlight; whatever it was made of gleamed a brilliant honey colour under the setting sun. The majority of the dome was filled with lush plants and a fountain, complete with naked gods, frolicking seahorses and peeing cherubs - obviously from Earth. Between the dome and the water, refraction created dozens of little rainbows throughout the space. It looked like a fantasy land straight out of a fairy tale. 

The bus parked, and they were finally allowed out to stretch their legs. 

In amongst the Earth plants, there were some alien plants Eddie didn’t recognize, alongside some that to his surprise he did – the distinctive red-ish ones from Mefitis, also an Oxygen-rich planet that had steady trade relations with Earth. So much so that some of the Mefitian cactus-type-things had escaped in Arizona and become terrible weeds. Here in the Palace garden, they had been carefully pruned and shaped, likely by one of the uniformed aliens he could see zipping around in little carts full of tools and compost bags. 

Before he could head off and explore the garden properly, a Bonded Symbiote arrived flanked by several uniformed attendants of several different species, most of them wearing rebreathers. They weren’t in the black and yellow of the Agents, but rather a more subdued grey and white – Palace workers rather than soldiers. 

The lead Symbiote was bright green, and also enormous – shaped something like a bear, so its Host must be from one of the planets in the Circinus cluster. Zer made a sound that might have been meant as a polite throat-clearing, but sounded more like a growl to human ears. Everyone stopped what they were doing and gave zer their wary attention.

“We welcome you with happiness, Earthlings,” ze said in a sandpaper voice, and Eddie wasn’t the only one who had to stifle a snicker. The NASA astronauts who had made first contact had a lot to answer for, and announcing they were Earthlings would forever live in infamy back home. “We are Unity, your liaison while you are here.”

Unity [Circinuses]

Xan recovered from the shock of actually meeting a Symbiote first, zooming over and sticking out her hand. “Hi! I’m Xan. It’s so cool to meet you. I’m one of the volunteer Hosts.”

Unity’s mouth opened up into a smile that had waaaaay too many teeth in it, but Xan didn’t even flinch. Ze eyed Xan’s hand for a moment, and then gently pushed it back towards her with a giant paw. “Your offer is valued, little thing. But remember that you should not offer yourself without the Emperor’s permission.”

Xan’s eyes went wide with horror and she slapped herself on the cheek. “Oh my god, I didn’t even mean it like that. I was so excited to meet you that I forgot. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“No harm is done, little thing. We are familiar with the strange ways of aliens.” Unity waved toward the nearest Palace archway and its open airlock. “You will now be shown to your rooms. If you find there is anything you need, you may contact me via the multibuzzers you will find there.”

The politicians were once again split off when they entered the Palace, no doubt to rooms with spectacular views of the city. The rest of them were led down several flights of stairs, and then ushered one by one into small, boxy rooms. Eddie was handed a map to the Oxygen Quarter and a swipe-card to the room and left to his own devices. 

As soon as Eddie was inside, he sealed the airlock behind him with a sigh of relief. 

A bed took up most of the space, and he dumped his bag there before moving on to explore the rest of the room. There were no windows – as expected – but there was a display screen set to a moving pattern of glowing lights that made the room seem less claustrophobic. The oxygenator was gently blowing out air, right next to the promised pre-programmed communication console – Unity’s name right next to Medical, Security, and Housekeeping. There was even a hamper full of Human-friendly snacks. 

He flopped down on the bed; it was soft and springy, covered in Earth-style hotel sheets and a duvet. It smelled a little like lavender. 

The whole room was obviously designed with Humans in mind, and it was reassuring. For the first time since they’d stepped off the Lucania he was able to relax and not worry about whether his rebreather was still in his pocket. Sure, he knew the room could as easily become a prison as a haven. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that everything was built modular so that the Palace guards could suck the oxygen out of the corridors and lock everything down if they needed to. Still, for the moment it was a little slice of Earth in an otherwise alien world, and Eddie appreciated it.  

Eddie reached over to grab what looked like a remote control, and started pressing buttons. He managed to turn the lights on and off, increase the airflow on the oxygenator, and flick the display screen to what was clearly some kind of internal feed. 

He paused, fascinated. It showed Emperor Happiness in full Symbiote mode, bright banana-yellow and instantly recognizable, lounging in the massive Imperial Room in what looked like a giant swimming pool. Eddie hadn’t expected to see Happiness out and about, thinking the Emporeen’s failing health would have limited what they could do. But on the screen there was no obvious sign of Happiness’s Host being ill. Happiness was flanked by several Agents - no doubt acting as bodyguards - and busy running the Empire as usual. Sitting across from them were several other Symbiotes with Hosts of all different shapes and sizes. One of them was speaking in Galactic Universal Sign, although it was hard to make out with the camera angle. A moment later, a caption in Galactic Standard popped up on the screen. Eddie was better at signing than reading Galactic, but he was pretty sure they were talking about something to do with snails. Apparently there was an issue with this year’s crop? 

Eddie watched for a few more minutes, but got lost when one of the delegation of farmers started complaining about algae. He pressed the next button on the remote and found himself watching some bat-like aliens doing semi-aerial manoeuvres that the caption revealed was a dance called The Hunt by a troupe called the Vul Ensemble. 

Another channel revealed a cactus-like alien in mid-speech about… the eroticism of insects? Eddie wasn’t really sure, but they were very passionate about it. He flicked off the display screen, feeling a little overwhelmed by the reality of just how alien everything was. 

After a moment, Eddie groaned and rolled off the bed. He felt too gross to sleep. 

He toed off his shoes, ditched his shirt, and padded into the bathroom. It was small and basic, but there was something a lot like a shower, plus a basin and flushing toilet. With a sigh of relief, Eddie started unzipping his jeans. He pulled out, aimed – and froze. There was something black and snake-like crawling out of the cistern.

He shrieked and leapt back, his socked feet slipping on the polished floor. With a flail he fell into the shower stall.

The water came on automatically, drenching him instantly.

“What the…” Eddie croaked. He flopped out of the shower, pawing the water from his eyes. 

He stared at the snake in the toilet cistern – how had it even got there? Belatedly, he realized the “snake” had two white eye patches the size of grapes. Eye patches that were staring at him judgmentally from an inky black head.

“You’re a Symbiont.” It came out as bemused as he felt.

The eye patches’ judgemental staring intensified.

“What the hell?” Eddie clambered to his feet, holding his gaping pants up with one hand. “Should you even be here? Isn’t oxygen meant to be poisonous for you?” Wait, that was probably why the thing was hiding in the water inside the cistern. Still not ideal if it was too oxygenated, but better than the air.

He wasn’t expecting a response, but one of the Symbiote’s pseudopods popped out of the tank, formed several blobby pseudo-fingers, and in Galactic Universal, it signed, ‘Trapped here!’

Eddie frowned at that. Symbionts without Hosts couldn’t do a bunch of their coolest tricks, like breathe poison air and perform incredible feats of super-strength, but they could squeeze through a crack just about any size. Why hadn’t it just gone down the water pipe? He squinted at the base of the toilet and figured out it didn’t have a pipe, just a big box that made up the base. It must be a recycling unit. Probably the shower and sink had them too, in order to keep the seal on the room completely airtight. Eddie made a mental note not to drink any of the bathroom water. 

The true gravity of the situation was starting to dawn on him, visions of a diplomatic incident of epic proportions unspooling before his eyes. “Shit.” He switched over to Galactic Universal himself, and signed, ‘How long have you been here? Are you okay? Let me call someone.’ He edged towards the door, ready to make this Unity’s problem to solve.

The pseudopod wildly signed, ‘No! No! No!’

“But!” The protest popped out of his mouth.

His meaning must have been clear anyway, as the Symbiote signed back urgently, ‘We would be in trouble. Bad. Terrible.’

Eddie hesitated, wondering what kind of punishment might be meted out to a Symbiont for sneaking into an area full of unclaimed Hosts. Not to mention, could his press pass be revoked for this?  ‘Okay,’ Eddie signed. ‘I get it. I won’t tell anyone. But you can’t stay here in the toxic air. If you die here, the trouble will be apocalyptically bad!’

The thing somehow made its eyespots look bigger, like a dog begging for food. ‘Help?’

Eddie sighed and rubbed a still damp hand through his wet hair. He was such a sucker for pretty eyes. ‘Go back into your lair for a minute until I finish peeing, and then I’ll think of something.’

The Symbiote slithered back into the water willingly enough, although the cistern lid was still cracked open. Eddie was pretty sure it was peeking, but couldn’t be bothered getting too worked up over it. He’d been known to binge-watch Animal Planet during bouts of insomnia, so it wasn’t like he could throw stones about prurient curiosity for the biological functions of different species.

In fact, he felt a fair bit of curiosity himself. It was a shame he couldn’t just offer himself as a temporary Host – it would solve the problem as well as make for a hell of a scoop. But if they were caught… best not to risk it.

He managed to remember not to flush when he was done, washed his hands, and took the towel with him back into the bedroom so he could rub dry his hair and chest. “Back in a sec. I’ve had an idea,” he called. Wait… shit. The Symbiote probably didn’t understand English. He hustled to get what he needed.

His bag was where he’d left it. He upended the contents on the bed and the ziplock bag of dirty socks and underwear tumbled out along with everything else. Snagging the baggie, he tossed the dirty laundry out, then quickly changed into dry clothes. 

With the ziplock bag held aloft, he re-entered the bathroom and triumphantly signed, ‘One Symbiote spacesuit coming right up!’ He filled it with a couple of inches of water, then propped it on the closed toilet lid so he could hold it open one-handed. ‘Hop in,’ he signed. ‘I’ll take you out to the fountain in the garden. You can get out from the pipes there, right? Or at least, it won’t be so bad if you’re found there.’

The Symbiote was lurking beneath the water in one corner of the cistern. It looped out a single pseudopod and gave the bag a poke. Its little eyes were surprisingly expressive, and were currently conveying that it wasn’t at all impressed with his plan.

‘If you have a better idea that won’t end up with us both in deep shit, I’m all ears.’

It didn’t say anything, but the plasma around its eyespots rippled. Eddie was no judge of alien body language, but he thought it looked uneasy, maybe even scared.

‘I promise I won’t hurt you. A quick walk down to the garden, and you’ll be on your way.’ He waggled the bag as invitingly as he could. 

With obvious reluctance, the Symbiote oozed up out of the water and into the bag. Given its size, it was a lot heavier than Eddie was expecting, but he managed to keep hold of it without too much fumbling or water spilling out. Once it was all inside, Eddie carefully pressed out the air and zipped it closed.

There weren’t a lot of ways to hide something Symbiote-shaped, so Eddie went with the classic, beloved by teenaged shoplifters everywhere, and tucked the baggie into the inside of his jacket with the Symbiote pressed up against his chest. A quick check in the mirror ensured there were no suspicious bumps visible. He pulled his collar out a little and looked down at the eyespots staring up at him. He awkwardly signed, ‘We should be good as long as you stay still, okay? Tap me once if you need help; two taps if you’re okay.’

It tapped twice against his ribs, so it looked like they were good to go.

He grabbed his rebreather, map, and notepad for a bit of plausible camouflage, just in case, and swiped open the airlock.

Outside he was surprised to see there was something of a corridor party atmosphere, with several of the potential Hosts – as well as some of the other members of the Earth entourage – hanging out and sharing snacks. Chen was interviewing Xan – judging by Xan’s enthusiastic body language, probably about her thoughts on Unity. Cletus Zwerling was nearby, decked out in a lurid Hawaiian shirt. Eddie swore he looked familiar – a bit like that serial killer who had died in the freak prison-transport accident a few years ago, but less angular and with ditchwater-colored hair instead of a carrot top. Probably just the fact they shared such an unusual first name making Eddie think that. Anyway, he was clearly eavesdropping and casting occasional sidelong looks at Xan as he toyed with an unlit cigarette, but Xan seemed to have that effect on people, so Eddie tried not to judge. Douchnozzle Ellis was surrounded by three of the other women, wearing his smarmiest smile, but the women looked into it so Eddie left them to it and walked on past. Annie and Dan were notably missing, but that was good – they were the most likely to ask questions about where he was off to.

“Hey, Eddie,” Chen said as he went past. “Where are you off to?”

Eddie cursed, having jinxed himself. He tried to look as nonchalant and unhurried as possible while not actually stopping. “Just need to stretch my legs a bit after all that time in a tiny tin can.”

Xan raised an eyebrow. “And you just happen to be taking your shabby old notebook?” 

“You know what they say–” Eddie winked at her and patted the trusty notebook tucked in his pocket, “-the news never sleeps.”

Xan chuckled and Chen grinned at him. “I don’t know how you do it, Brock,” Chen said. “Less than three hours on planet, and you already have a source?” 

Eddie shook his head. “Looks to me like you’re the one with the source.”

Xan beamed.

“And I’m not complaining,” Chen said to her. “You’re a great source.”

“No, I get it,” Xan said. “I’d go for the alien source every time too. If you know what I mean.” She faked an outrageous leer to emphasize the double entendre.

Given she was volunteering to Host an alien inside her body, Eddie was pretty sure everyone got it without the visual aid, but her enthusiasm was cute, and both he and Chen laughed. 

“Well,” he said, “This walk isn’t going to take itself. I’ll see you guys later.” Eddie picked up his pace again and much to his relief, none of the others milling around tried to stop and chat, although Cletus eyed him up and down as he went by. Eddie ignored it.

“Let us know if you find anything good,” Chen called after him.

“Definitely won’t,” Eddie called back, and turned the corner. 

Once he reached the stairs and there was no chance of being overheard, he murmured, “Still doing okay, buddy?” and patted it twice. He got another couple of pokes in the ribs. “Good, we’re just about there.”

He’d been half expecting there to be guards on the entrance out to the dome garden, but there weren’t. The airlock was open, just as it had been when they’d arrived. It brought home to him just how secure the Symbiotes were in their power. There no doubt were security features throughout the Palace, likely ones Eddie couldn’t even recognize, but the lack of visible shows of strength was its own kind of power play.

The garden was lit by the two newly-risen moons, everything limned with gold rather than blue. Neither of them were as big as Earth’s moon though, so it wasn’t that much brighter than a full moon back home.

Eddie wended his way through the gravel paths towards the sound of water. The clearing housing the fountain was screened by a tall stand of bamboo until he rounded the final corner, and then suddenly he was in the centre of the dome where many paths converged. At the heart of it was the giant fountain. Water sprayed in arcs from the statues in the middle – a heavily muscled nude Human man bearing a trident and a curvaceous woman with a crown of flowers, both being borne through the water by seahorses and surrounded by three adoring cherubs. The adult figures were saved the indignity of spouting water, but the seahorses were vomiting it in an endless stream, and all three of the cherubs were peeing. 

Eddie settled down on the lip of the fountain and trailed his fingers through the water. It was tepid and smelled slightly metallic. Probably okay then. After a quick glance to check there wasn’t anyone around, he slid the baggy out from under his jacket and straight into the water before undoing the zip.

The Symbiote eased out like a puddle of ink. It didn’t shudder or curl up or any of the other worrying scenarios Eddie had been imagining, but he still signed, ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yes,’ it signed back, flexing its pseudopods in the water like a stretching cat. 

‘And you’ll be okay here?’

It stared up at him from under the water, and Eddie was just starting to worry when it signed, ‘I am Venom.’

Eddie bit his lip so he wouldn’t laugh. Of course it was one of the young edge-lords who were chafing under the rule of Happiness III. So much about this situation made sense now. ‘Nice to meet you, Venom,’ he signed. ‘I’m Eddie. But if you’re okay, I should probably get go–’

‘Eddie is a new Host?’

“Ah,” said Eddie, all the humor fleeing from the situation. Better nip that whole idea right in the bud. ‘No, no; I’m not, buddy. I’m one of the tag-alongs. I’m a reporter, sending stories about what happens here back home.’

Venom’s pseudopods retracted a bit, but instead of retreating it asked, ‘Are the other Earthling Hosts like you?’

‘How about a deal. I’ll tell you about the Earthling Hosts, if you give me stories about being a Symbiote that I can share with people back on Earth.’

‘What kind of stories?’

Eddie flipped open up his notepad and propped it on his knee so he’d still have a hand free to sign. ‘How do you feel about the upcoming Ascension?’

Venom hunched in on itself. ‘Try not to think about it. My turn?’

Interesting. Eddie wanted to press the issue, but sometimes you had to let an interviewee find their own way to the hard topics. ‘What do you want to know?’

Immediately perking up, Venom signed, ‘Those small stone Earthlings are pissing,’ it waved a pseudopod towards the statues. ‘But you said no looking when you did it. Was the fountain made wrong? Why did you say no looking?’

With a growing feeling of surreality, Eddie thought sure, why not have The Consent Talk with a sentient goo monster? Better than letting it spread rumors that there had been some terrible breach of Earth taboo when the fountain was installed. 

“Well,” he hesitated, trying to figure out where to start. ‘Humans sometimes like being watched when they do something intimate, like pissing. But it’s considered rude to watch someone like that unless both people agree it’s okay. Coming to that kind of agreement can take time, and it’s usually not done between people who have just met, like you and me. A statue doesn’t need to give consent to be watched. It’s made for that purpose. The person doing the watching can decide for themselves if they consent to look at it. Humans often show things in art that would usually not be okay to do for real. It’s a way of enjoying intimate things without hurting anyone. So the statue is fine, even though I asked you not to look at me.’

Venom’s eyespots pulsated as it thought that over.  ‘Watched you even though you said not to.’

‘Yeah, I know. I’m not offended. I knew you didn’t understand the rule, but I still tried to give you the option not to watch in case it would bother you.’

‘Not bothered.’ Venom undulated a bit closer. ‘Show you my way? Make things fair.’

Eddie had always had a terrible problem with curiosity. His dad used to say he reacted to secrets like a dog smelling a half-rotted bone, unable to rest until he’d dug the damn thing up. Eddie could feel his curiosity rise now. He should probably say no. Even if it risked giving offence, he had no real idea what Venom was offering, so a polite refusal was definitely the safer course.

“Sure,” he heard himself say. 

Venom’s eyespots slitted up like a happy cat’s.

Eddie wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it wasn’t for Venom to split open and reveal a maw, complete with – wow, those were a lot of teeth. How did they even all fit? Venom wasn’t exactly big. A tongue-like pseudopod lolled out. Eddie couldn’t really tell in the moonlight, but he thought it was maybe a different color – less inky anyway. And then nothing much happened. He was just starting to wonder if maybe Venom didn’t really understand what pissing actually meant, when he realized the water around the – hell, call it a tongue – was starting to darken. Gross. And also cool. Eddie wondered if Symbiotes kissed, because yuck.

Eddie stared, as more and more goop slimed its way off the tongue and dissolved into the water. “Wow, that’s really…” Disgusting. Fascinating. Alien. ‘... incredible.’

The tongue retracted back into Venom’s mouth which stretched into a toothy grin. ‘We are even now?’

Before Eddie could answer, the dome’s lights flicked on. Eddie winced and shaded his eyes as Venom darted under the overhang of the fountain’s rim to hide.

Eddie got up and looked over towards the Palace entrance, trying to see what was going on. There were too many plants in the way, but it looked like a bunch of people had entered the garden. ‘I’m going to check out what’s going on. You still owe me an interview, though, so don’t think you can weasel out of it!’

A pseudopod popped up out of the water and made a sign that could have been agreement, or could have been fuck off, loser. Given they’d just completed a kinky watersports bonding moment, Eddie was going with the former.

“Stay safe,” Eddie said, and headed off. 

As soon as he was past the stand of bamboo, he could see Unity and her uniformed assistants bustling about. A honking alarm went off near the airlock leading out to the front gate, and with growing anticipation, Eddie realized another delegation must be arriving.

Sure enough, a few moments later a bus trundled up and disgorged a dozen or so of the bat-like bipeds from the Vulpecula system – the same planet the dying Emporeen came from. Eddie wasn’t sure if they were more volunteer Hosts, or a mourning party, or a mix of both. Only one way to find out.

He hadn’t yet reached them when a god-awful wailing sound started up, coming from a tiny baby bat, clinging to the fur of what was presumably its harried parent. Instantly, most of the other Vul milled around patting the baby and parent and ignoring Unity’s welcome. Rather than try to get into the middle of that, he made his way over to a smaller group of bat-people who were struggling to lift a basket bigger than they were from the luggage trailer hitched to the back of the transport. 

‘Can I help?’ he signed.

The oldest of the Vul gave him a critical once over. She was tiny, only reaching thigh-high on Eddie, with grizzled grey fur, but with a gaze as sharp as a knife. Something about him must have passed muster, as he was waved forward. For Eddie the basket was only about the size of a large backpack and he could carry it easily enough. She made him hold it tipped towards her, and his new acquaintance wasted no time unlatching the lid and rummaging inside to retrieve something that looked a bit like a mangy frog made out of some kind of soft material. It was promptly handed off to the wailing baby, who snuffled a few more times and then started sucking contentedly on the frog’s snout.

The group broke out into smiles, and petted each other some more. Several of them stretched their hands up towards him too, waggling their digits, until he realized they wanted to pet him and obediently bowed his head. They stroked through his hair making chirping sounds, and Eddie felt pretty darn pleased with himself. Two positive alien contacts in a single day! Carlton Drake and his bribe money could go screw himself. This job was going to make Eddie a galactic name in the news business.

“Thank you, Earthling,” the elder one said in English, with barely any accent at all.

Eddie gaped, because he was not expecting that, and then rallied and said, “Happy to help.”

It turned out his new friend with the pretty grey fur was named Khushee, and with her endorsement the rest were also very pleased to make Eddie’s acquaintance. Khushee readily put Eddie’s muscles to use carrying several of their larger pieces of luggage to their assigned rooms, which left Unity and the Palace helpers to take care of the less important things. 

Khushee [Vul]

It definitely paid to be related to the Emporeen it seemed, as the group of Vul had been assigned enormous, airy rooms right at the top of the Palace overlooking the whole domed garden and beyond to the city outside the gates. Eddie could only stare out of the many windows for the first minute or so as he was bossed into where exactly to put the luggage.

Once he’d set them down as directed, Khushee waved him over to where she was sitting, regal as any queen, and patted the spot next to her on the big, squishy quasi-sofa most of the clan had gathered on.

Eddie sat, and whatever the sofa-thing was made out of, it was amazing. He sank deeply into it until it felt like he was in a well-loved armchair, but even so, none of the lighter people perched nearby were pulled down with him.

After thanking him for his help, Khushee commanded, “Tell me about Earth.”

Eddie did, starting off in English but then switching to G.U.S. when most of the group clearly couldn’t follow what he was saying. He explained about the oceans, forests, and cities. He answered questions about animals, about his job and how he loved telling important stories that changed people’s lives for the better. He tried to describe ice-cream, demonstrated how his shoelaces worked, and found himself being used as a jungle gym by the baby – bright-eyed and curious now it had been fed.

When a tray of food was delivered by Unity’s helpers, a plate was handed to him. “It’s Earthling-safe food,” Khushee assured him.

He cautiously tried one of the purple berries, and it tasted pleasingly like pineapple, and then he had to gently fend off the baby who was determined to try some of the Human food too. The crowd seemed amused by Eddie’s plight, until the parent finally took pity and scooped the child up and took it away. Figuring he’d earned plenty of good will by this point, he hazarded a question of his own.

‘Can you tell me a bit about the Emporeen?’ Eddie asked.

Khushee gave him a quizzical look, slowly chewing a bite of their banana-thing. The rest of the clan also looked at him, as though he’d asked a weird question. Finally she said, “What do you want to know?”

Eddie shrugged. ‘Anything you’d like to tell me. I probably won’t ever get a chance to meet her, but I’m curious. You must have met her, so what is she like?’

The Vul clan all started chirping in their own language at that, and Eddie worried that he’d committed some kind of faux pas, but Khushee reached out and dragged her digits through his hair, and the chatter quickly died down.

Head rubs were the best; Eddie had always been weak for them, and Khushee was magic at it. She did something that sent a happy shiver all the way down his spine. Eddie just wanted to shut his eyes and sleep. His eyes fluttered closed, and Khushee sighed, as though she could sense Eddie’s pleasure. Maybe she could. She pulled back after another few spine-melting strokes, and Eddie wondered if it would be rude to ask for more.

‘The thing that made the Emporeen stand out as a Host,’ Khushee began, and Eddie was suddenly wide awake again. His fingers itched to pull out his notepad, but he didn’t want to risk interrupting. ‘Was that she was interested in outsiders. Before she was chosen by Happiness, she was a collector of stories. Like you.’

Oh, wow. This was gold. Eddie had never read that in any of the biographies about her. 

‘Were any of the stories published?’ Eddie asked.

‘Perhaps,’ Khushee allowed. ‘One or two.’ 

Eddie made a mental note to try to track those stories down. Talk about a scoop.

Khushee continued, ‘What made the Emporeen a good Host was being completely open to her Other. Loving them for their Otherness.’

Eddie clarified, ‘So the Emporeen is in love with Happiness.’ 

‘Very much.’

Interesting. The briefing sheets Eddie had read always stressed that Symbiotes wanted a good biological match, not an emotional one. ‘Is that what Symbiotes are looking for? Love?’

‘True symbiosis is always love.’

Eddie was amused by the thought of the edge-lord cohort of Symbiotes pining away for love. Xan probably wouldn’t mind the idea of an interspecies love match, though. He didn’t know her that well yet, but he was pretty sure she’d think it was romantic. ‘I’ll make sure all the Earthling Hosts know that,’ he signed, imagining how Xan was going to react to the news.

Another wave of chittering passed through the clan, and Eddie hastily added, ‘Unless it’s meant to be a secret?’ 

‘Not a secret,’ Khushee confirmed. Her knife-like gaze swept over him again, trying to read something from him. ‘You would share this advantage with your competitors?’ 

Oh, no. Eddie wondered what he was doing that people kept thinking that. ‘I’m not one of the volunteer Hosts. I’m not really the Host type. I’m here to report what happens to the people back home.’

Khushee smiled at him with her sharp little teeth, and said, ‘You are very wrong, but you are in good company. The Emporeen thought the same thing before being chosen.’

Eddie didn’t quite know what to say to that, but was gamely working out how to fish for more information when Unity came in and gave Khushee a speaking look. 

Things wrapped up quickly after that, with the Vul giving him several more head pats as they ushered him to the door, inviting him back to visit again another day. Eddie was bemused with how quickly he’d been kicked out, but overall pleased with the evening’s work. 

He found himself out in the corridor being watched by Unity’s two assistants – one that looked like a giant cactus, and the other like a spider and crayfish had found a way to have a love child. A spiderfish? An arachnocean? He vaguely remembered them being introduced as Amity and Calamity, but he couldn’t remember which was which. He gave them a little wave, and headed back to his room.

Amity [Mefitian]

Calamity [Scorpius]

He was about halfway back when he remembered Venom and changed direction.

The moons were just setting as Eddie finally made it down to the garden. Everything was still and dark, and he had to use the light from his phone to find his way back to the fountain. 

“Venom,” he hissed. “Are you still there?”

No response. He shone the light from his phone around the rim of the pool, but couldn’t find any inky blobs lurking there. 

Unable to hold back a jaw-cracking yawn, Eddie gave up the search, hoping Venom had found its way home. It was definitely time for bed. 

Right after he finished writing and submitting the day’s dispatch.

---

 

 

First Impressions of Klyntar Palace

By Eddie Brock, The Daily Globe

The Klyntar Palace exists on a scale hard for a Human to fathom. There are four Quarters with four dominant atmospheres - Oxygen, Methane, Nitrogen, and Hydrogen. Officially, there are 3,467 rooms, but the count may well be higher if the mysterious rumors of underground tunnels are to be believed. Of those, 330 rooms belong to staff, 35 are official function rooms, 1800 are guest suites, and the rest are kitchens, infirmaries, guard stations, offices, and other sundries. In short: it’s a big place. And that’s without even considering the grounds, which include a domed garden in the Oxygen Quarter, and a lake that bisects the capital city of Djor.

Perhaps the most famous of all the rooms in the Palace is the Imperial Room. It’s where the Emperor meets with honored guests, where delegations can air their grievances, and where the Ascension Contest takes place whenever a new Emperor is chosen.

It is also generally acknowledged to be one of the most spectacular rooms in the galaxy. The floor is studded with precious gemstones, and is designed with a cleverly constructed water feature so that it can be filled like a giant swimming pool at the whim of the Emperor. Four glistening quartz pillars mark each corner, intricate mosaics cover the walls, and the ceiling has vaulting that would put any cathedral to shame.

A typical day might see the room used to greet a dignitary from one of the many planets in the Galactic Alliance in the morning; then, using an ingenious system of pipes and siphons, the lower third can be filled with water to accommodate aquatic guests in the afternoon; and finally, the air can be converted to one of six different breathable atmospheres in the evening in order to welcome guests to one of the Emporeen’s highly sought-after parties. The Imperial Room is a miracle of engineering, disguised as something out of a fairy tale.

Click to continue...

Chapter 3: Courting

Eddie woke to the sound of the alarm he’d set the night before, and blearily stumbled through his morning routine. 

He was just about feeling Human by the time he figured out how to read the map and successfully navigated his way to the communal dining room.

The politicians were notably absent – according to the itinerary they’d all been given, they were off touring “essential infrastructure,” and they’d taken half the press corp and all of the security with them. Eddie figured that was the Symbiotes’ strategic way to get rid of them while they sussed out the hopeful candidates. The other Humans were all present, though, sitting together at one of the long tables. A few tables away, several of the bat-like Vul had also arrived; they waved at Eddie when they spotted him, and he waved back. Near the rear of the dining hall were a handful of bear-like Circinuses, looking a lot like smaller versions of Unity, but with rough purple-striped skin instead of the bright green of zer Symbiote. There was even a lone Mefitian, bearing a striking resemblance to a sentient cactus and sucking at something liquid through its root-like phalanges

Eddie went over to the buffet and found the Earthling foods. Cletus was smothering a bowl of deep-fried locusts in ketchup, which Eddie side-eyed before helping himself to a bowl of porridge and a cup of almost-coffee. He headed over to join the others, Annie and Dan shuffling along to make space for him. No-one shuffled for Cletus, but he didn’t seem to notice as he took the last empty spot at the far end. Eddie got a chorus of good mornings from around the table and Dan, who was looking disgustingly chipper, had just asked Eddie how he slept when Ellis reached over and flicked Xan’s ponytail and said, “What? I don’t get a good morning, but Brock does?”

Xan swatted him away. “I was saving up my personality for someone who’d appreciate it.”

“Ouch,” Ellis said, clutching at his chest. “Girl’s got teeth.”

“I am not,” Xan slammed her spoon down, “a girl.”

Ellis put on an exaggerated look of apology. “Sorry, what gender-neutral pronoun should I be using this week?”

“I’m an adult woman,” Xan said, and judging by the way she was looking at Ellis, Eddie thought she was about two more comments from braining him with her bowl of fruit.

“Barely,” Ellis said, gracing the rest of the table with a smirk, as though he thought they’d agree.

Maybe some of the others would have given it a pass, but Annie rolled her eyes and said, “Really, Ellis? You know she’s old enough to have signed all the forms to come here.”

“Spoken just like a lawyer,” Ellis said, picking up the sausage on his plate with his fingers and biting into it with relish, clearly loving the drama he’d stirred up.

“What exactly is your damage?” Xan demanded. “Why are you like this?”

Ellis shrugged. “I just don’t get how you’d rather get turned into a puppet than find a real partner and live a real life. What’s your damage that that seems like a reasonable life choice?”

If some of the table had been sympathetic to Ellis before, there was a distinctly frosty air now, with all of the prospective Hosts giving him the eye. The Nigerian woman, Oluchi, shook her head as though she’d never seen such stupidity before. On the other hand, Eddie was starting to think Ellis was being pretty clever. Borderline unethical, yes, and definitely not winning himself any friends, but Eddie had been trying to tactfully ask the same thing for weeks now with not much to show for it.

“Fine,” Xan said. “You want to know so bad? When I was fourteen, I was kidnapped by a psycho when I was at the airport. She thought the fact I was blonde and a girl meant she had a right to my body. Newsflash, she fucking didn’t. I get to choose who I share my body with, and I like the idea of sharing with someone I’ll have a mental and emotional bond with, and I don’t give a shit what they look like or even if they’re Human, as long as I’m an equal partner. That’s my damage. So now you have your answer, leave me the fuck alone.” She got up, taking her bowl with her, and stormed over to the table with the lone Mefitian, to eat there instead.

After a beat of silence, Chen said, “You’re a prick, Ellis,” before picking up her own plate and going over to join the other table.

Ellis made a kissy face at Chen’s retreating back and then looked over at Eddie. “That’s my scoop, so hands off.”

“You’re welcome to it,” Eddie said. Reporting on traumatized teens wasn’t exactly his idea of breaking news, unless it was to help empower the victim or stop a predator.

“Jeeze,” Dan muttered, “I thought it was the Russian dolls that were full of themselves.”

The whole table burst into laughter, except for Ellis, who just gave a fake grin and said, “Funny,” before going back to eating his sausage. Eddie mentally awarded Dan the Breakfast MVP Award.

As they were finishing up with breakfast, Unity arrived at the food hall with zer attendants and gave zer usual throat-clearing growl before launching into Galactic Universal Sign. ‘Happiness be with you, guests. I hope your accommodations have been suitable so far.’ Ze paused and actually waited for people to nod before continuing to sign. ‘It is time to begin preparations for the Choosing. If you are a contender for Host, please follow me. Your credentialled observers may also attend if they wish.’ Ze then turned and headed off.

The Hosts eagerly scrambled to follow.

“I guess that’s us,” Ellis said, jumping up and starting to film the melee of eager Hosts following along after Unity like disorganized ducklings.

Eddie slurped his last mouthful of coffee-ish drink before tagging along at the end of the line. Dan fell into step beside him, still munching on a piece of fruit, and said, “They look a lot bigger in real life, don’t they?” he waved at Unity. “I wonder how much of that is Symbiote and how much is the Host’s musculature.”

Eddie shrugged. “I can’t stop looking at their teeth. The stories about them biting off heads seem a lot more plausible now, don’t they?”

Dan stopped walking. “They what?”

Annie dropped back from where she’s been talking to Xan, and frowned at Eddie. “Seriously, Eddie. Maybe try not to piss off everyone around you. One shitty reporter in the group is enough.” She took Dan’s hand and tugged him along, although he was still looking a bit wide-eyed. “Dan, don’t listen to him. Under the law, Symbiotes can only eat people in very specific circumstances.”

Dan blinked a couple of times. “That… definitely wasn’t mentioned in the medical dossier.” He stared at the last bite of his fruit. “Do you think they unhinge their jaws? Do they even have jaws? Does the head end up in the Host’s stomach?”

Eddie was suddenly regretting eating quite so much breakfast.

“Maybe they have a second stomach, like a cow. And re-chew their food like cud.” Dan popped the bit of fruit into his mouth and ate it with an audible crunch. “You should ask them if you get the chance, Eddie. For science.”

“Right, science,” Eddie said, aware that Annie was quietly laughing at him.

---

 

Last night, Eddie hadn’t really noticed much about the Palace itself, too busy with arriving, rescuing Symbiotes, and making new friends. Now he noted that the walls and floor were covered in a detailed mosaic that reminded him of paisley. The pattern was created by lustrous white stone tiles alternating with black gaps, some of them large, some small, some almost too tiny to see. He wondered how it was all kept air-tight, until he discovered that there was a transparent film covering the tiles, obviously added long after the original construction.

A movement caught Eddie’s eye, but when he turned to look, there was nothing but the patterned wall. Or at least… he abruptly realized there was an inky black pseudopod poked out of one of the smaller holes. It was pressed up against the transparent wall-covering, two white eyespots trained on him. He wasn’t sure if he should play it cool and pretend he hadn’t noticed or point it out to the others. Eddie could feel the weight of the gaze on the back of his neck as they reached the airlock out of the Oxygen Quarter. 

‘Please put on your rebreathers now,’ Unity instructed in both speech and sign. Zer helpers handed out small oxygen canisters about the size of a lipgloss tube that clipped onto the rebreather’s frame near the ear and out of the way. ‘Remember to switch to Galactic Universal once we’re inside the Imperial Room.’

Once they cycled out of the airlock on the other side, Eddie tried not to gawp like a back-country hick. The Imperial Room was gorgeous – the ceiling stretched high above them, meeting in a series of arches, and the airtight film no longer covered the paisley mosaics that made up every surface. There was a raised dais at the far end of the room, made of something black and glossy, perhaps obsidian, and beneath their feet precious jewels occasionally shone in the mosaic pattern.

“Oh, wow!” Xan said, spinning around in an attempt to see everything at once.

The rest of the potential Hosts were milling around pointing things out to each other. Ellis was filming Xan, while Chen had her camera pointed up at the vaulted ceiling. The other reporters were scribbling notes and muttering into their phones. Eddie was content to take it all in for the moment so he could describe it in detail later on. He spotted a familiar pseudopod and eyespots a moment later, and then observed, no, this one was red, not black. And right near it was a sky-blue one. Glancing around, it became clear that many of the gaps in the walls contained watchers.

Beside him, Dan shivered. He signed, ‘A goose just walked over my grave.’

Eddie side-eyed him. Who even said that anymore?

“I know what you mean,” Annie murmured. She patted Dan’s arm. “I keep feeling like I’m being watched.” 

Eddie said, “I think it’s pretty safe to assume we’re always being watched.” He tilted his head at the wall. “I mean, if you were looking for a life partner, wouldn’t you want to check them out before the wedding day?”

Annie frowned at Eddie and then looked over at the patch of wall he’d nodded at. She spotted the red watcher almost immediately, her face taking on an expression of delight. Following her gaze, Dan clearly spotted it too. “Gosh. That’s an alien!” he said, and then pressed his hand to his mouth as though he hadn’t meant to speak out loud at all.

Ellis rolled his eyes, not bothering to look up from his camera. “Four-billion years of evolution, and this is our best and brightest.”

Eddie’s fingers accidentally formed the Galactic Universal sign to fuck off, but perhaps fortunately Ellis didn’t see it, distracted as the honking alarm sounded for one of the airlocks on the other side of the room – coming in from one of the other atmospheres.

A moment later, another airlock honked, and then another, and dozens more Host candidates and their support teams entered the room. Eddie didn’t recognize many of them – clearly people from planets Earth didn’t often have dealings with – although the dolphin-like Puppis were easy to recognize in their full-body skin suits and motorized trolleys.

The other groups were also taking this opportunity to check out the aliens in their midst, as several were pointing at the Oxygen group and very obviously staring.

Unity ascended the obsidian dais, Amity and Calamity flanking zer as usual. Unity growled to attract their attention, the sound amplifying and echoing throughout the room. The crowd fell silent.

‘On behalf of Emperor Happiness, we welcome you to the Palace and this year’s Choosing. Look around you,’ ze signed, and then waved to encompass the whole room and everyone in it, including those lurking in the walls. ‘These are the people you are likely to be living with for the next century or more if you become a Host.’

“Epic,” Xan sighed. 

Eddie wasn’t so sure about that. Seeing the same workmates day after day could get pretty wearing, and that was for a job that he could always leave if he decided he’d had enough. A hundred years of the same people with the same annoying habits? Not really his idea of a good time.

Once Unity had let the gravity of the situation sink in, ze continued. ‘You have done both the Empire and your home worlds a great honor by volunteering, and we thank you. It strengthens our ties to spend this time together and learn each other’s ways. However, now that the time of Choosing is near, there is no shame if you change your mind about becoming a Host. There will be other Choosings, and other chances for our unbonded siblings to achieve symbiosis. It is not a responsibility that rests on you alone, even though the stakes are higher this year, with only those Bonded able to take part in the upcoming Ascension Contest.

‘But that is for the future. Today, you will confirm your candidacy, and the courting period will begin. Take the coming weeks to meet our unbonded siblings and see if any of them please you. Reflect on your own desires, and if you think you could be happy here. Symbiosis is a serious commitment, so if you have any doubts, heed them. A true Bond can only be created when both Host and Symbiote are sure of each other and content in a life together. 

‘When we call your name, please come forward and receive your courting token. It will grant you access to any of the Quarters in the Palace. Use it to explore and get familiar with our way of life, and spend time with the unbonded. Happiness be with you.’

As each person was called, one of their appendages was inserted into a machine being operated by Amity, and a small temporary tattoo with inbuilt circuitry was printed onto their epidermis. 

At first Eddie thought the names were being called at random, with the cactus-like Mefitian first, and then one of the Puppis, and then an alien from a different Quarter that Eddie didn’t recognize – maybe one of the hydrogen-breathers. The pattern quickly became clear after that - a person from each of the different Quarters was being called in turn. Xan was the first Human to be called, much to her delight, coming back with the tattoo on her palm. Everyone crowded around to take a look, while names continued to be called. The mark was a tessellation pattern of overlapping hexagons, a lot like the patterns on the walls and the door keys they’d been given. 

“Coolest engagement ring ever,” Xan said, stroking it.

Ellis rolled his eyes so hard it was amazing he didn’t create a diplomatic incident, clearly thinking the whole thing was stupid. That didn’t stop him from filming as each of the Earth candidates were given their slightly different tattoos.

There were perhaps two hundred candidates, so after the novelty of the first few, Eddie mostly vagued-out, only keeping half an ear open for anything newsworthy as he mentally wrote up the day’s dispatch.

The sudden silence made him tune back in, only to find that every eye in the room was focused on him. 

“...What did I miss?” he hissed at Annie.

Annie looked furious. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d volunteered?” she whisper-hissed back at him.

“Because I didn’t!” Eddie protested. He could feel the weight of hundreds of aliens staring at him.

Dan clarified, ‘They just called your name.’

Eddie had no idea what to say to that. It was absurd.

Ellis looked at him with disgust. “For real, Brock? I thought you were here as a reporter, but you’re one of the muppets?”

“It’s a mistake,” Eddie protested. “It must just be someone with a name that has the same signs as mine.”

Annie sighed at him and then stepped forward. She signed, ‘There’s been a misunderstanding. Eddie Brock isn’t on Earth’s list of volunteers.’

Unity smiled, flashing all their many, many teeth. ‘The Emperor has invited Eddie Brock to join the courting as their personal guest.’

A susurrus filled the room as people responded to that.

Annie spun around and glared at Eddie. “You met the Emperor and didn’t tell me!”

“No,” Eddie protested. He was rapidly thinking through the possibilities, and the only thing he could come up with was… “It must have been the Vul. I helped them carry a suitcase last night.”

Annie looked like she was grinding her teeth. Eddie didn’t blame her. This was the kind of diplomatic disaster she probably had nightmares about. But how was he to know he’d made that kind of impression with one conversation and a few head pats?

She read the confusion oozing off him, and like a trooper, Annie pasted on a smile and turned back around to face Unity. ‘Earth is very flattered by the Emperor’s offer, but Eddie Brock hasn’t had a chance to read the rules.’

Of course he’d read the rules (belatedly, on the ship); they were part of the press packet. It was also occurring to him that if he said yes, he’d probably get a chance to interview the Emperor. 

‘I’ve read them,’ he signed hurriedly, ignoring the death-glare Annie was directing at him. He looked over at the wall until he spotted a familiar black pseudopod and white eyespots. Yep, still a sentient silly-putty. If Venom was anything to go by, the Symbiotes weren’t all that scary. Saying yes to a few days of courting would be fine. Probably.

‘If I say yes now, I can still say no later, right?’

‘Of course,’ Unity assured him. 

‘Then sure,’ Eddie agreed. Dan made a coughing noise, and Eddie dredged up his manners. ‘I mean, I’d be honored. Thanks to the Emperor for the invite.’

Doing his best to ignore the fact he was still being gawked at by everyone present, Eddie took himself up to the tattoo device, and got his very own state-of-the-art key to the Palace. Amity glared at him while working the tattoo machine, their cactus spines quivering, but maybe that was just what they always looked like. In any case, Xan was right, the tattoo was pretty cool.

He made his way back to the Humans, doing his best not to catch Annie’s eye.

After an awkward pause, Dan said, “Congratulations, I guess.”

“Thanks,” Eddie said, as he obediently let Xan grab his hand to compare their tattoos.

Up at the front, as Amity and Calamity were wheeling away the tattoo machine, Unity cleared their throat and announced, ‘We will watch a short safety presentation now, and then after lunch we will begin the first training session. You will be able to ask any questions you have then.’

Unity stepped down from the dais, and a large white web-like screen unspooled from the ceiling, and started displaying an infographic about symbiosis.

Annie sidled up next to Eddie and breathed, “You’re an idiot. And I’m going to kill you after this.”

Eddie nodded, because he definitely had just been an enormous dumb-ass for the sake of a story. “Fair enough.”

---

 

Eddie could still feel eyes on him as the presentation unfolded, right up until the moment that it started to show the process of a Symbiote opening up a pocket dimension inside a Host. At that point, all visual apparatuses were glued to the screen. Eddie was just as enthralled as everyone else, but still felt the uncomfortable sensation of someone staring at him. Sure enough, he found two white dots on a black Symbiote squinting in his direction in what Eddie suspected was an accusing expression.

He tried to ignore it, but Venom’s accusatory expression was so obvious it was impossible. Eddie sighed, giving in. He surreptitiously signed, ‘I didn’t lie to you.’

When he risked another glance at Venom’s hidey hole, the Symbiote had retreated – a barely visible shadow within the shadows.

The presentation finally wrapped up, and they were all released for lunch. As Calamity bustled over to usher them through the airlock, Eddie could still sense a fair bit of interest in him, but he did his best to ignore all attempts to engage him in conversation. It was all a bit much, and he needed a few minutes alone to regroup. When the airlock finally opened, Xan stumbled going through. When he reached out to steady her, she winked at him. He wasn’t sure why until she turned to Dan and said, “Hey doc, do you think one of those pocket dimensions would hurt a fetus? Just, you know, hypothetically?”

Eddie watched the pandemonium unfold in awe, as all attention immediately left him, and Dan squawked, “Hypothetically?” The other girls all cooed and gathered around Xan, and Ellis instantly had his camera up and filming. Xan twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she looked at Dan innocently and said, “You don’t know what hypothetically means?”

Eddie made good his escape. The corridors remained thankfully empty as he dashed toward the exit.

He burst out into the garden and was instantly surrounded by humidity and the distant buzz of what were probably the most expensive bees in the universe. The smell of plants and dirt were a balm as he meandered to the fountain.

He lay down on the stone edge and closed his eyes against the sun beating through the dome. He dropped one hand down into the water. It was pleasantly cool, and he instantly felt better. 

His phone pinged. 

He reluctantly pulled it out and checked, discovering seventeen requests for meetings had arrived in his inbox almost simultaneously. As he watched, another three appeared. He put his phone on silent and put it back in his pocket.

Eddie didn’t consider himself the smartest reporter on the block, but he was one of the most dogged, and right now he couldn’t figure out what was happening. Oh, he understood the interview requests well enough – he was suddenly a hot ticket and people wanted to curry favor. That was obvious enough. But why he was a hot ticket was the mystery. He’d really only met two Symbionts for any significant amount of time - Unity and Venom. Neither of them looked like the videos he’d seen of Emperor Happiness, who was enormous and muscled and bright banana-yellow. Hard to miss, and definitely not someone he’d met so far. So how the hell was he suddenly a pawn in the whole Ascension shitshow? None of it made sense.

He tried to puzzle it out, but didn’t get far. The garden was warm and quiet except for the burbling of the fountain and the buzz of bees. Dozing off was a very real possibility. He was just about there when the steady flow of the water from the fountain stuttered, as though something had blocked one of the pipes. Eddie cracked an eye open and saw that one of the baskets being held by the nude woman was no longer flowing. He frowned at it, wondering if he could safely ignore it, or if he needed to let someone know. Before he could decide, an inky blob catapulted out of the basket, and plopped into the fountain with a splash. The basket immediately started flowing again.

Eddie leaned over and found himself eye to eyespot with Venom, who was lurking just underneath the surface of the water. Venom’s eyespots didn’t look much like the windows to the soul of a political mastermind, but what did Eddie know? 

Before things could get awkward, Venom signed, ‘You’re a Host now?’ with a palpable sense of eagerness.

Eddie shrugged, wondering how you let an alien down gently. ‘Technically, I guess. But not really.’ 

If a blob could be said to pout, then that was definitely what Venom did in response. ‘Why did you say yes then?’

Eddie didn’t really want to admit he was trying to avoid a diplomatic incident and maybe get a career boost at the same time. Trying to redirect the conversation, he said, ‘Hey, can you tell me what Emperor Happiness is like?’

Venom signed, ‘A Symbiont,’ with a definite sense of sarcasm, which maybe Eddie deserved. 

‘Sure,’ Eddie signed. ‘But do they often make impulsive decisions? Like putting people on the courting list without asking them first?’

‘Why don’t you go talk to them and find out?’ Venom signed with so much attitude water splashed up and hit Eddie in the face.

Yeah, that was definitely jealousy. Eddie decided the only way to salvage this was with some honesty, even if it wasn’t the politically wise thing to do. ‘Buddy, if I knew the Emperor, I’d be less worried about this whole situation. But I’ve never met them, and I have no idea why they asked for me to be added to the list today.’

Venom stared at him, and then signed, ‘Yes, you have.’

“No, I haven’t,” Eddie said.

‘Heard you talking to them yesterday here in the garden.’

Eddie got a horrible sinking feeling. ‘I only met a Vul called Khushee while you were here yesterday.’

‘Yes,’ Venom agreed. ‘Emporeen Qewshi. She spoke to you in Earthling.’

“English,” Eddie corrected absently. The sinking feeling was setting all new subterranean records. He ran his hand through his hair and then gripped the back of his neck. It didn’t really help. “Shit,” he said, then signed, ‘I’ve only ever seen pictures of them when Happiness was doing the driving, or when Qewshi was young-looking. I didn’t know she looked different now.’ Symbiote healing had kept Qewshi looking eternally young for Eddie’s whole life, so he hadn’t expected her to look like a grey-furred grandma, even with the news that the end was drawing near. He’d kind of expected her to keep looking young right to the end. He felt stupidly Human and naive.

‘I didn’t even know that was her.’ He thought back to the night before, and the way he’d waxed lyrical about Earth to the Emporeen, and wondered just how badly he’d screwed up. 

Venom edged closer. ‘But you helped them. They thanked you.’

‘Sure,’ Eddie signed, visions dancing through his head of Earth being targeted for special attention due to his big fat mouth. 

‘Why help them if you didn’t know it was the Emporeen?’

‘Because I thought they needed help,’ Eddie admitted, suddenly realising that Happiness could probably have lifted the entire bus if they’d wanted to. God, he was such an idiot.

Venom didn’t say anything for a while after that, which was just as well because Eddie was wondering how the hell he was going to tell someone about all of this before it could get any worse. He’d just reached the point of imagining the President’s face when she was briefed, when Venom reached up and tapped him on the leg, leaving a small wet dot on his jeans. ‘Eddie?’

Eddie tried to push aside the parade of horror currently filling his mind and looked down at Venom. ‘What is it, buddy?’

‘Can we make another agreement?’

“Um,” Eddie hedged. ‘I don’t really need to pee right now.’ Which was a lie, actually, but he was already in enough trouble and the last thing he needed was to be caught urinating in the Emperor’s showcase exotic garden.

‘Not that,’ Venom signed. ‘I want to court you.’

Eddie’s mental processes ground to a halt. “What?”

Venom looked up at him and did something with its eyespots that made them look pleading and anxious and freaking adorable. ‘Can I?’

‘Why would you want that?’ Eddie managed, feeling just the slightest bit flattered amidst the shock.

‘I like you,’ Venom signed.

It probably said something pretty terrible about Eddie’s life, but he hadn’t received an awful lot of declarations of being liked. Quite a few insults. Several personal vendettas seeking to destroy his career. A few thugs paid to send him a message of active dislike via roughing him up. But not all that many heartfelt declarations of affection. He discovered that he had quite a lot of feelings about getting one now from an inky alien blob. And maybe, in the heat of the moment, he blurted out the stupidest possible answer in reply.

Chapter 4: Politics

Chapter by cupidsbow

Eddie escaped the garden with his dignity in tatters, and had only been back in his room for a few minutes when Annie sailed in, announcing, “You’re still a shithead, but I’ve forgiven you.”

“Thanks?” Eddie said, bemused.

“It has been pointed out to me,” Annie said, and Eddie figured he probably owed Dan a beer at some point, “that outright refusing a request by the Emperor might have been bad for diplomatic relations between Klyntar and Earth.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Eddie lied. Although to be fair, Eddie had belatedly come to this conclusion himself in the last two hours, given the barrage of requests for meetings he’d received from various alien delegations, as well as a demand for a meeting from Senator White.

As though reading his mind, Annie demanded, “Who’s already been in contact with you? Give me your phone.”

Eddie hesitated. It was his work phone, and he’d been extra careful about what he’d used it for since hooking up to the Palace network, but he still wasn’t excited about someone else pawing through it and seeing his drafts. Or seeing his miserable score for Star Cooky.

Annie snapped her fingers, and gestured to give it already. “Unless you want one of Senator White’s PR monkeys handling this?” Eddie shuddered, and Annie looked vindicated. “Then  we need to be smart and get on top of things now. If we play our cards right, we should be able to wrangle it so that things work out well for Earth, and you can gracefully decline being a Host after the Emporeen has passed.”

When Annie was right, she was right, so Eddie handed over his phone, and went to sit next to her on one of the weird elbow-shaped chairs. 

“You should probably start with the Senator,” Annie said, pulling up his groaning inbox and scrolling through it quickly, eyes sharp and taking everything in. “Keep him sweet. Do your charming thing, and don’t pull that face” – Eddie continued to frown at her – “you can be charming when you want to be, and right now you need to be. Then the Emperor, and don’t think you’re getting out of telling me about that either! And then maybe two or three interviews a day, going in a cycle like they did to give out those tattoos. Do you have a preference for who you want to start with?” 

Trying to sound casual about it, Eddie said, “The Symbiotes. I mean, obviously.”

Annie gave him an assessing look, abruptly reminding Eddie that she’d always been good at seeing through his bullshit. She didn’t call him on it though, just started setting up a gruelling schedule of interviews. 

Eddie was going to win so many journalism awards for this. 

Or start an interplanetary war. 

One or the other.

---

 

The thing was, there were stories. Jokes. Of course there were. As a reporter, Eddie had heard his fair share over the years. They were mostly crass, focused on bodily functions and humiliation.

Did you hear about the first time humans found Symbiotes on other planets? Yeah, a scientist realized there were parasites living in Uranus.

A Symbiote crawls out of a plate of spaghetti and goes, “Wow, that was some orgy.”

What’s the difference between a lawyer and a Symbiote? One is a spineless parasite that will take you for everything you have, and the other is an alien.

What do a spouse and a Symbiote have in common? They’ll both leave you for someone else after sucking you dry.

Why did the Symbiote leave the party? Bad Host.

A Symbiote walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “How did you do that?”

How do you know if a Symbiote is hiding inside you? Just a gut feeling.

And that was without even getting into the whole genre of jokes about feeling Happiness deep inside. Ba-da-DUM!

Eddie hadn’t ever found them particularly funny. Well… Maybe the one about lawyers, not that he’d ever say so to Annie. But for the most part, Eddie ignored them. They were just cultural background noise – the kind of casual slander humans always indulged in about others who scared them.

Even so, a tasteless double entendre was the last thing he was expecting to hear from Senator White. 

It was his bodyguard, Treece, who greeted him first and set the tone. He met Eddie at a guard station that had been set up outside the Senator’s suite. He didn’t respond to Eddie’s, “Hello,” except to say, “Arms out,” so he could pat Eddie down. Then, as they were waiting for the Senator to open the door to the suite, he murmured, “I always knew you were a fucking freak.” He said it without inflection, not even looking at Eddie.

Eddie was still staring at him, taken aback, when White opened the door. 

“Ah! The man of the hour, Eddie Brock.” White said, as he ushered Eddie inside, not seeming to notice the tension. Treece took up position at the door, blank-faced. 

Eddie pulled himself together. “Hello, Senator,” he said, and offered his hand. 

White’s teeth were unnaturally pearly as he flashed his trademark aw-shucks, good-old-boy smile. He shook Eddie’s hand and clapped him on the shoulder to usher him over to a plush set of chairs with a magnificent view of the city. “Can I call you Ed?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Ed, I’m not sure how you pulled off getting the ear of the throne, but I admire your chutzpah! Man-to-man, I’m not sure I’d be willing to take the whole beast-with-two-backs thing quite so literally for the sake of politics,” and he winked, as though he hadn’t just basically accused both Eddie and the whole Symbiote race of bestiality and prostitution, “but this is a real potential coup for Humanity. We need to strike while the iron is hot and make the most of it.”

“That’s me,” Eddie said, “A real political animal,” and was pleased when Treece’s blank expression actually wavered for a moment, nostrils flaring in disgust. White just laughed and slapped his own knee, as though this was a normal conversation. 

Eddie had interviewed a lot of people like White, and the secret was to channel Columbo and look like a slightly dishevelled but affable idiot. Fortunately, he had a natural disposition to be all those things, so it was pretty easy to channel it now, despite the insults being hurled at him from all directions. Were White’s on purpose, or was he really that tone-deaf? Eddie couldn’t quite tell, but he was leaning towards it being purposeful. Senators didn’t get to be senators without some sense of politics. And then there was the whole Treece thing. In Eddie’s experience, minions often echoed the attitudes of their employers, but with less subtlety. 

Still, Eddie had no idea why White would want to make an enemy of him while seeming keen to ask a favor. “What iron is it that we need to strike?” he asked.

“Right to business,” White boomed. “I like it.” He leaned forward conspiratorially, even though this was an interview he’d asked for on the record. “There are a couple of things that would strengthen Earth’s position galactically, if you could whisper them in the right ear at the appropriate moment.”

Leaning forward to match White, Eddie agreed, “I’m all ears,” although he doubted White would spill any real secrets.

Sure enough, White launched into a sales pitch. 

Eddie did his best to keep his expression genial and interested as White waxed lyrical about General Dynamic’s robot chassis that could take the place of a Host for unbonded Symbiotes, and The Life Foundation’s tablets with an interface adapted to pseudopods, and Lockheed Martin’s adaptive membrane technology that would let unbonded Symbiotes wear an environment suit that maximized flexibility and movement. 

It wasn’t exactly a surprise to find out that White was here as a brand ambassador – it wouldn’t even really make a news story, as promoting Earth’s businesses and cultures was part of his mission. But the sheer scale of the sales pitch was unexpected. It was not only a bottom line worth billions of dollars, but if successful, it could potentially make the Symbiont race reliant on Earth’s technology for decades to come.

“Wow,” Eddie said. “I’m not sure I can do justice to all of that.”

White seemed pleased by that reaction. “We don’t expect you to. These things will sell themselves, they just need a nudge.” He leaned down and picked up a box that contained the Symbiote-sized prototypes. “These are fully functional,” he said, standing a tiny dog-like robot a little bigger than his hand on the arm of his chair. Eddie could see how a Symbiote could wrap around it easily. White picked up a small Life Foundation tablet and slid his finger along the screen, and the robot bounded forward like a kangaroo, and then went still again. “A Symbiote can interface with the robot directly, of course, but it can be demonstrated from the tablet, or your phone if you prefer. It’s pretty intuitive.” He held the device out to Eddie.

Eddie gingerly accepted it. “Are you sure you want to give these to me?” 

“How else can you give them to the Emperor?” White said. “Just don’t lose them, or we’ll bill you,” and he laughed like a good-old-boy, and not someone making a threat.

The interview wrapped up after that, and Eddie was slapped jovially on the back one final time, and then ushered out by Treece, who stood slightly too close the whole way back to the guard station.

Treece hadn’t said a word as he escorted him out, but Eddie wasn’t foolish enough to think the man’s opinion of him had improved in the last hour. He swiftly made his getaway without a goodbye. All the way to the stairs, he could feel the weight of Treece’s glare between his shoulder blades. 

Just to make sure he wasn’t being paranoid, he glanced back before taking the first step, and sure enough, Treece was watching him. Eddie was glad there were twenty feet between them, because otherwise he wouldn’t have been surprised to find himself having an “accident” on the way down. 

Whatever Treece’s problem was, Eddie made a mental note to stay out of his way.

---

 

The dining room was abuzz when he arrived, with several tables pulled together and the candidates from all the different planets sitting in one big group. Even the cactus-like Mefitian was slurping their liquid dinner while chatting to Chen. Eddie grabbed a bowl of something that looked and smelled like spaghetti, and slid onto the bench next to Annie. It was only after he’d taken a bite that he realized that this little section of the table was more subdued than the rest, with Xan patting Oluchi – red-eyed and clearly upset – on the back.

“What’s up?” Eddie murmured to Annie between bites. He was starving.

Annie toyed with a carrot, which meant she was feeling ineffective and hating it, and said, “Oluchi’s decided not to go forward with the courting.”

“Oh.” Eddie wasn’t expecting that, but probably should have been. The press packet had said that only about 20% of volunteers ended up Bonded. “Sorry to hear that.”

Oluchi shrugged, and blew her nose on a rather soggy handkerchief. “I just can’t get over the idea of those pocket dimensions opening up inside my body! It’s so weird!”

Eddie nodded. It was pretty weird to think about. “Sounds like a good reason to me.”

“That’s what I said,” Xan agreed.

Oluchi gave a watery smile but was clearly cut up about it.

“Hey,” Eddie said, realising he had the perfect distraction. “Look what I’ve got.” He dug the little robot out of his pocket and set it on the table, then pulled out his phone which he’d installed the controller app onto. “Capitalism at its finest. Do you reckon this’ll be the hot thing all the unbonded Symbiotes want to wear this year?” He slid his finger along the app’s interface and the robot leapt forward and landed in Oluchi’s plate of soup with a splash.

“Oh goodness!” Oluchi exclaimed, grabbing the napkin Dan was holding out, and wiping the soup off her blouse.

“Shit,” Eddie said, “I didn’t mean to do that. I’m still learning to drive it.”

“No, no,” Oluchi said. “I don’t care about my shirt. It’ll wash. Do it again!”

Eddie tried again, and this time the robot jumped out of the bowl, leaving little splotches behind as it hopped across the table. He managed to stop it just before it jumped off the edge.

“That is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” Oluchi said, picking it up and wiping off the last bit of soup with her napkin. “What is it?”

So Eddie explained. Then he handed the tablet over to Oluchi and let her try that out too. It’s not like he could actually go tell the Emperor about it, so why not.

She cautiously jumped the robot around her plate, and then out of curiosity, Eddie tried controlling it from his phone at the same time, causing it to contort like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. It made Oluchi laugh, so Eddie figured: mission accomplished.

It was as Oluchi was making the robot jump an obstacle course hastily constructed of cups, condiment shakers, and utensil structures that Eddie caught Xan’s eye. She mouthed, “Thank you,” and for the first time all day, Eddie felt good about his choices.

Chapter 5: The Symbiotes

Chapter by cupidsbow

Unity and zer two helpers appeared after dinner to escort the remaining volunteer Hosts to meet the unbonded Symbiotes at last. None of the others were invited this time, which Dan, Annie and Chen took with good grace, but Ellis protested. He tried to kick up a fuss about not being able to attend and film everything, but Unity smiled at him with all of zer teeth on display, and he suddenly decided he needed to go back to his room and edit the day’s footage.

Eddie wasn’t sure how he felt about the upcoming meeting, but it was hard not to be swept up in Xan’s obvious excitement.

“Do you think they’ll feel squishy, like chewing gum?” she whispered to him. “Or maybe slick like oil?”

Eddie shrugged. “Latex, maybe?”

Xan nudged him with her elbow. “I like the way you think.”

They had to put their rebreathers and oxygen tanks on after that, each of them using their tattoos to go through an airlock at the top of a long flight of stairs. As they descended to the bedrock of the Palace, the atmosphere turned humid, and the walls started glistening with moisture. Eddie’s skin prickled with sweat. Eventually, the stairs ended in an antechamber, and the other volunteer Hosts started to funnel in from the different Quarters of the Palace. There were only about sixty of them left now, and there was a palpable sense of excitement running through the crowd. Roped off were several archways with Hosted Symbiotes standing watch, and beyond them Eddie could make out an enormous pool of dark water, casting reflections against the rough-hewn rock walls. Occasionally a shadowy pseudopod would break the surface, and then sink away again and become invisible once more.

‘Friends,’ Unity signed, and a hush instantly fell as people stopped shuffling around trying to get a better view of the pool. ‘Today our unbonded siblings get to meet you in the age-old way of our people. They will be able to taste your chemosignals, and to some extent you will be able to sense theirs as well. Once you have completely disrobed, go through the arches, and you will be assisted into the pool. You can stay in the waters for as long as it makes you happy to do so.’

There was a brief flutter of consternation, and then most of the volunteers started to remove their clothing. Xan cheerily shucked out of her tube top and jean shorts without a qualm. Cletus, Agrima, and Patsy all started undressing too, but the other Humans balked. Eddie was toying with one of his bracelets, wondering if he really wanted to do this. He didn’t mind nudity in general, but it was a lot for a first meeting.

Unity approached them, and signed, ‘There is no judgement here. Remember that you can always leave if you wish,’ and then moved on to speak to the dolphin-like aliens, none of whom had yet undressed.

One of the women Eddie didn’t know very well said, “I’m out,” and headed back towards the stairs. After a moment, two of the others followed, and several of the dolphin-like aliens did too. 

“Chickening out?” Xan asked.

Eddie thought about Venom, and decided he wasn’t quite done with this adventure yet. He shook his head at Xan, and pulled his shirt off. Xan exaggeratedly leered at him, and then with a flick of her hair she was striding off towards the pool, saying, “Catch you on the other side.”

Eddie started to peel out of his jeans, but could feel someone watching him. He looked up to find that Cletus was being a creeper. The man smiled at him, flexed a bit, and then strutted off. Eddie shared a look with Patsy, who seemed just as put off, and then they both went back to undressing.

Once Eddie had stowed his clothes in one of the nooks carved out of the walls, he gingerly followed after the others. The rock floor was cool and slightly rough under his feet, despite the humid air. 

When he reached the archways, he could finally see the pool properly. Or rather, the pool system, as it was made up of a large, slow-moving river that stretched further than he could see, disappearing off into the dimness. It was ringed by smaller pools that fed into it, and the water cascaded from one to another, the sound of it echoing around the space. Drifts of steam skimmed the water here and there, and ripples spread as the Symbiotes clustered around each potential Host.

As he watched, Xan checked her rebreather was firmly in place, and then ducked under the water. He quickly lost sight of her as one of the Symbiotes guided her down to whatever was below.

At the edge of the pool, the steps were slick with years of wear as well as the slightly viscous water, and Eddie suspected that if he wasn’t wearing the rebreather, it would smell like chemicals. It felt nice against his toes, though; warm and soothing, a little warmer than his body heat.

Calamity happened to be watching when he flailed on a particularly slippery step, and offered him a pincer, but Eddie shook his head and belly-flopped into the water.

Several Symbiotes immediately swarmed him, wrapping around his legs and torso. To Eddie’s surprise, he could tell them apart by some quality of their touch – perhaps he really could sense their chemosignals. One was tasting him, but not with its mouth – it was searching for something. Others were saying, hello, or even just being nosey, nudging curiously at his genitals and rubbing against his body hair. The one who was tasting him was irritated at not finding what it was looking for and swam off, with several of the others following suit. The nosey ones stuck around a bit longer, gently exploring and poking wordless questions at him that he couldn’t quite understand.

One of the two remaining dolphin-aliens let out a bark of warning to the Symbiotes nosily exploring its nether regions. It torpedoed back towards the stairs and leapt right out of the water and skidded back towards where its motorized trolley was waiting for it.

Another one bites the dust, Eddie thought. He was starting to see the purpose for all of this – letting someone share your body was about as intimate as you could ever get with another being. It wouldn’t work very well if the Host was body shy or got bent out of shape about oversharing. Getting naked and letting aliens stare at your bits was probably a pretty good test for compatibility.

Eddie sank deeper into the water and started to swim around to explore the rock pools - they seemed to be congregation spots for the Symbiotes to gossip with each other. Most of his initial admirers drifted off along the way, and almost as soon as the final one lost interest, Venom appeared. Eddie wasn’t sure which of them reached out first, but Venom glomped onto his outstretched hand, its eyespots vibrating with pleasure. Venom felt like silky bread dough as he pulled it closer - giving to the touch, but with a sense of ropy strength underneath. A steady thrum of hello and happy to see you, crisscrossed between them. 

Venom was just as curious as the other Symbiotes had been, and trailed its pseudopods across the planes of Eddie’s chest, drinking in the way his body chemistry changed with each touch. This time Eddie didn’t ignore the invitation – he was also exploring, fingers teasing through Venom’s ever-shifting plasma and tendrils. A feedback loop started to ping between them as they each discovered things the other liked – Eddie gently stroking the sensitive spot between Venom’s eyespots, Venom whorling a dozen pseudopods through Eddie’s hair. When a wave rolled them together, Eddie went with it, sliding his leg between Venom’s tendrils and encouraging them to wrap around him. Venom quivered in delight, and Eddie felt it too: it was blissful and Eddie wanted more. Wanted to know what it felt like to press his teeth into the doughy give of Venom’s pseudopods, wanted to know what it felt like to be completely wrapped up in them. Eddie’s skin tingled at the thought, his nipples going hard and tight, and he started to get hard, right there in public, pressed up against an alien. 

He jerked away, and Venom recoiled too, retracting into itself. Its eyespots radiated anxiety and it reached out a single, tentative pseudopod. 

Eddie reached back, letting Venom feel the overwhelming mix of apprehension, curiosity, anticipation, and self-doubt that was coursing through him. 

Through their touch, Venom returned a similar mix of anxiety, eagerness, and yearning.

‘That was intense,’ Eddie signed. ‘I need a break before we try that again.’

Venom didn’t protest, emanating similar feelings. ‘I could show you the burble pools?’

Eddie had no idea what that was, but he nodded, and let Venom tug him towards one of the shallow rock pools at the edge of the main body of water.

The water was hotter here, steam rising in curls and lingering just above the surface. All around the edge of the pool, Symbiotes were strung along the rocks, half in and half out of the water. Xan was at the far end of the pool, surrounded by a ring of Symbionts all vying for her attention. Venom showed him to an empty spot, where there was a ledge beneath the water to sit on. It had a smooth stretch of rock above it that was perfectly angled for Eddie to lounge against, which meant Venom could lounge on him. As soon as they were settled, several other Symbiotes started drifting towards them. 

Eddie had been so caught up with the sensations coming at him that he hadn’t really paid much attention until now, but these pools were clearly designed to be meeting places. The Symbiotes were brushing each other’s tendrils, and occasionally making abbreviated signs, as though they were using them as punctuation rather than the main form of communication.

A bright red Symbiote was the first to reach him, and it butted up against his arm for attention, completely ignoring the baleful glare that Venom was giving it.

‘Hi,’ Eddie signed.

It sent a burst of pleased curiosity through the point they were touching, and clumsily signed, ‘Greetings, Earthling.’

Eddie tried not to laugh; the last thing he needed was to dislodge his rebreather in the middle of an underground lake. ‘I’m Eddie,’ he signed.

‘I am Carnage,’ it announced, snaking a tendril into Eddie’s hair and surreptitiously tasting it, all the while looking up at him with innocent eyespots, as though it didn’t want him to notice.

Venom was definitely starting to bristle, so Eddie petted it while carrying on the conversation one-handed. ‘What are you doing there, Carnage?’

Carnage’s tendril felt really nice as it brushed through his hair, right where all the Vul had petted him the other day. ‘You don’t taste very much like Happiness,’ it said. 

Venom tensed in his lap, and Eddie sensed a wave of anxiety coming from every Symbiote nearby, all of them listening in and waiting for Eddie’s response. Eddie was a little surprised that Carnage could pick up what must be a very faint chemosignal – Happiness hadn’t even been visible when the Emporeen was touching him, and that was ages ago now. 

He wasn’t surprised by the implied question, though. Of course the Symbiotes wanted to know why Happiness had invited him into the pool of Host candidates. He’d been expecting some kind of political fallout for a while now, so he’d had time to think about what he might say if this came up. ‘Well, I only met them once,’ he signed, trying to radiate disinterest.

‘But you’re their favorite,’ Carnage pressed.

Eddie shrugged. ‘Not really. They only invited me because it was good PR.’

Carnage squinted its eyespots in a way that Eddie already knew meant they were puzzled, so Eddie explained the most positive theory he’d come up with. 

‘Happiness knows I’m a storyteller, and they want me to spread the word among my people that you’re all awesome, and that more of us Earthlings should volunteer to be Hosts. Gotta be a candidate to get a chance to talk to a bunch of you, though, so here I am.’ 

Eddie’s skin tingled as a veritable deluge of chemosignals surged through the water. He was still sensing doubt and mistrust and anxiety, but there was also a rising wave of relief and even cautious excitement.

‘You would help us find Hosts?’ Carnage asked, a strong thread of disbelief coming through.

Eddie nodded. ‘Sure. For a start, I’m going to tell the folks back home about this pool. It’s amazing. I bet a bunch of them would want to see it.’

A dark green Symbiote who was shamelessly eavesdropping instantly puffed up. ‘I designed this pool!’ it signed. ‘Do you like the rocks? I made them good for stretching out on! You should tell the Earthlings they’re good rocks!’

‘Did you?’ Eddie took another look at the pool, and now he was paying attention he could see that there were cleverly placed deep areas and shallows, and rocks of various sizes for Symbiotes to cling to. ‘It’s fantastic. How did you do it?’

And then they were off. Screech - the pool designer - eagerly told Eddie more than he’d ever wanted to know about rocks, and then a pink Symbiote called Toxin explained their role in regulating the water quality in the Palace. After a long anecdote about a pipe blockage that Eddie struggled to follow, a stripey Symbiote called Frenzy butted in to explain the ins and outs of tending the small, edible shrimp that lived in the lake. A silver Symbiote called Riot scoffed at them, claiming that snails were much more important, and a brief tussle broke out that Riot eventually won. With Frenzy out of the way, Riot waxed lyrical about how big and crunchy the snails in the pool were, all thanks to them. Once they were satisfied that Eddie understood just how important snail herding was, a little blue slip of a thing called Euphoria shyly explained how they cared for the newly spawned Symbiotes that were too young to leave the safety of the pool yet.

Eddie wished he had his notepad or phone, but did his best to memorize key details as Symbiote after Symbiote explained their passions. They were all so desperate to be seen, to be appreciated, and after a while Eddie stopped seeing them as aliens, and just saw them as people trying to make a connection.

Eventually, the stream of Symbiotes lining up to tell him about themselves trailed off, and Eddie could take a break. 

At some point in the long string of stories, Venom’s eyespots had disappeared, but it was still perched on Eddie, its tendrils coiling and uncoiling around his knee. He lifted his feet and propped them on the ledge so that Venom was more firmly cupped in his lap, and then splashed some water at it. An eyespot reappeared, giving him a baleful look. Definitely pouting at having to share.

Eddie stroked gently around the one visible eyespot, until Venom went limp and the second eyespot reappeared, both of them vibrating with pleasure. ‘How are you doing there, Cuddlebug?’

‘Not a bug!’ Venom complained, as it snuggled closer.

‘I see.’ Eddie wished he didn’t have to be so careful about the rebreather, because he really wanted to kiss Venom’s sulky head. ‘You haven’t told me what you do yet, Snugglepie.’

He could see Venom thinking over whether it wanted to take offence at being called a pie, then picking up on the wave of affection Eddie was giving off and very obviously deciding to be pleased instead.

It looked up at Eddie searchingly, and then tentatively admitted, ‘I make things.’

Nearby, Carnage made a dismissive splash, a handful of droplets landing on Venom, but missing Eddie. ‘Useless things,’ Carnage signed. As it had boasted about being a pest controller, which mainly seemed to involve eating worms and insects, Eddie didn’t think it had much of a tendril to stand on.

Ignoring Carnage, Eddie signed, ‘What kind of things?’

With an air reminiscent of a dog that had been kicked too many times, but was still hoping for a pat, Venom opened its maw and coughed. Something small tumbled out, landing on Eddie’s chest. In the gloom, it was hard to make out at first, because it was so utterly unexpected. It was round and hard, with a hole in the middle. A bracelet, he marvelled, made out of some kind of carved shell. When he turned it to and fro to capture the light, it glittered, striations patterning it like a honeycomb. 

“Wow,” he breathed. ‘Can I try it on?’

‘I made it for you.’

Delighted, Eddie slipped it on. It fitted over his hand snugly – just loose enough not to snag on his knuckles, but tight enough to sit well on his wrist. He held it up admiringly to show Venom. ‘Thank you. I love it.’

Venom ducked under the water, eyespots vibrating with pleasure.

A few rocks away, Carnage splashed off noisily, once again sending a spray of water their way, although this time it also hit Eddie. Several of the other Symbiotes followed after, although with less drama. 

Eddie sighed and slumped back against his rock. It was exhausting being the centre of so much hope and swagger. Being courted by one Symbiote at a time was more than enough.

Venom had crept back above the surface of the water and was coiling tendrils around Eddie’s wrist, as though not quite believing he was really wearing the bracelet. He wondered what he could get Venom in return. He wasn’t very good at making things; he’d have to think about it.

Eddie was about to suggest they go for another swim, when across the pool Xan’s rebreather alarm pinged to signal it was down to the final reserve. A moment later, Eddie’s went off as well. Eddie glanced around, and discovered that they were the only two candidates still in the water – he hadn’t even noticed the others leaving. 

Xan swiftly crossed the pool, heading towards Eddie. Eddie slipped into the water to meet her, Venom riding along.

“I don’t want to go,” Xan said. She had a couple of tag-alongs too. The small blue one Eddie recognized as Euphoria, and the self-proclaimed snail expert, Riot.

“I’m pretty sure we can come back,” Eddie said. “Now we’re official and everything.”

They made their way back to the edge of the water, and clambered out of the pool. The three Symbiotes remained behind on the steps, staring after them forlornly, while he and Xan pulled their clothes out of the storage cubbies and got dressed. 

Amity was still standing guard, taking their duty as chaperone seriously. They glared sternly at Venom, Euphoria, and Riot until the three Symbiotes slunk off back into the water. They then turned their attention to the two Humans, clearly ready for them to be gone, and Eddie found himself hustling to get his shoes on.

“I feel like I’m about to be sent to the Principal’s office,” Xan muttered as they made their way to the exit.

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed. He risked a final glance back; Amity was watching them leave, looking surprisingly forbidding for a giant plant.

It felt like a lot more stairs going up than it had coming down, but he and Xan chivied each other along until they made it back to the Oxygen Quarter. 

Once they were through the airlock they lingered together for a moment in the deserted corridor, like children who had snuck home after a forbidden adventure. 

Xan peeled off her rebreather and looked at him searchingly in the dim nighttime lighting. “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” It was a whisper, a breath, as though she feared the question might scare him off. “Bonding.”

Eddie fumbled with his own rebreather, heart pounding. He couldn’t look at her. He hadn’t let himself even think about it, not for real.

She stepped closer, slinging an arm around him and resting her forehead against his shoulder. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m scared too.”

Eddie pulled Xan into a proper hug and hid his face away from her. It would be easy to pretend that it was her he wanted, even though she was too young and trying so hard to be grown up. It would be so much simpler to pretend.

Her hair was still wet, and smelled like Symbionts where it pressed against his face, and it made his body tingle with the first electric itch of a craving he could see himself never wanting to give up. “I don’t know how to want things,” he confessed to that scent. “I don’t know how to want this.”

Xan’s hands clenched in his sweater, and he noticed she was shaking, and not with cold. “I don’t think I’m brave enough to want it if I’m the only Human who does,” she said, sounding for the first time like the twenty-one-year-old she was. “I don’t want to live here on my own and outlive everyone I know.”

Oh, god. That had never even occurred to him. 

From the beginning, he’d been playing this whole courting thing off as a business decision. Maybe he wasn’t as offensively dismissive as Ellis, but deep down, he’d been just as judgemental. The actual Symbiotes hadn’t really entered into his thinking at all. He’d come all this way to the other side of the galaxy instead of quitting his job like a sane person, because, he’d told himself, his job was what he was. He’d agreed to Happiness’s invitation because he wanted an interview. He’d indulged Venom’s courting request because, yes, he was flattered, but it was also a good story. 

And here was Xan, basically coming out to him, seriously wanting this, wanting to Bond to an alien and turn her whole life upside down forever, and Eddie hadn’t even bothered to think about what it would actually mean to do that.

He really was an asshole.  

Because he did want things, they were just things he’d been telling himself on and off for thirty years that he couldn’t have. In those first, fragile years of trying to figure himself out, he’d tried to do what Xan had just done, tried to speak his truth and tell his father that maybe he liked boys as well as girls. The heavy-handed lesson he’d learned that day, to shut up about it, thanks to his dad’s belt, had stuck real good. It had forged a lock on his tongue and heart that he’d never quite managed to break, despite the endless words he’d spilled out trying.

Eddie cradled the back of Xan’s head in one hand, wanting to give her what he’d never had. He closed his eyes, took a ragged breath, and said to his fifteen-year-old self, “You’re not weird for wanting that. Every human needs love and connection. It’s normal to worry about leaving home, getting hitched, and thinking the in-laws are from another planet. All of that is normal even when aliens aren’t in the mix. People still figure it out all the time.” Xan sniffled into his chest and nodded. He stroked her damp hair. “Admittedly, the tentacles are a bit more niche, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

Xan choked out a laugh. They broke apart and she smiled shyly at him.

“I’m really glad you’re here,” Xan said, looking at him with a bucketload of undeserved trust.

Eddie could not imagine in his wildest nightmares pulling out his belt and hitting her right now. What the fuck had been wrong with his dad? It was a mindfuck to see this moment from the other side, but it made him feel steadier, like he’d passed a test he hadn’t known to study for.

“I’m glad to be here, too,” he said, and found he really meant it.

---

 

Eddie couldn’t sleep. He lay in bed, staring at the patterns in the tiles that covered the ceiling. He didn’t really want to think about the future, but Xan’s words niggled at him. 

What did he want? He still had no idea. He’d never been very good at figuring that out.

He’d loved Annie, loved her with all his heart. But he could admit now that he hadn’t let her love him back the same way. There had always been soft, tender secrets he’d kept back. They were trifling shames; banal, puckered discomforts he lived with and barely thought about. Like the sepia-toned memory of disappointment when mom and dad hadn’t shown up to his third grade school play. Or the stupid tattoo of a motorbike on his calf he’d got as a drunk college student after his first not-boyfriend had dumped him for being in the closet. Or the mark he still carried on his hip from his dad’s belt, almost faded into nothingness, except for the bump against his fingers if he searched it out.

He’d never shared those things with Annie, but she had been smart enough to figure it out and understand what it meant that he didn’t.

He wouldn’t be able to hide like that with a Symbiote, if he actually took this whole crazy adventure seriously. His partner would know him, right to his soft, cowardly core. 

Eddie toyed with the bracelet on his wrist. He didn’t know Venom very well yet, but… Xan was right. The idea of Bonding wasn’t just hypothetical anymore. He liked Venom. A lot.

He was starting to understand why the Symbiotes had so many rules about courting. The strict no touching policy for unbonded Symbiotes until courting had officially begun, the explicit consent requirement for potential Hosts, and the constant chaperoning when they were together. That moment of connection in the pool with Venom had been… really something. He’d been able to feel the ghosts of Venom’s emotions, the yearning and hunger and eagerness to get close. It was overwhelming enough that if it had happened without the whole courting circus as lead up, Eddie was pretty sure he’d already be Bonded instead of just worrying about it.

But all those rules and safeguards had done their job, and it meant Eddie had to think about it first. Make a decision about whether it was something he really wanted.

He finally dozed off and dreamt that he was lined up to buy a ticket to a movie at an old-fashioned movie house with a big sign in flashing lights that read, Pure Mettle. The ticket-seller was a giant bat, and they smiled and said, “Good choice. I really loved this one,” as they slid the ticket through the window.

Inside was dark, and he made his way down a rickety set of stairs covered in dusty old red carpet. He handed his ticket to the usher, who waved him through a set of double doors.

Inside, the room was enormous, stretching up several floors to a giant screen taking up the whole ceiling. Instead of chairs, there was a giant pool of water; it was a serene blue and lit from below. As he looked, Venom lifted a pseudopod and waved him over. Eddie floated over to him in an inflatable donut, and they lounged together, side by side, as the lights dimmed.

Across the ceiling, Clint Eastwood rode through the desert on a horse that was also a blue Symbiote. 

“Why did the horse cross the road?” Venom asked, and snuck a pseudopod around Eddie’s shoulders.

Eddie smiled up at the ceiling, where Clint and the Symbiote-horse were leaping across an improbably wide abyss. “A horse joke? Really?”

Another pseudopod slid into his hair and started to massage, just the way he liked. “Because someone said, ‘Hey!’” Venom said, and snickered at its own joke.

Eddie woke up laughing, and feeling more rested than he had in days.

Chapter 6: The Emporeen

Chapter by cupidsbow

It turned out that Eddie was one of the first people to arrive at the dining hall for breakfast. Only Ellis and Cletus were sitting together at the table the Humans had claimed as theirs. Cletus was once again eating something weird – Eddie was pretty sure he saw something move in his bowl. 

Yesterday, Eddie would have assumed it was some kind of flex, but today he wondered if Cletus had it right. He seemed to be open to new things, and trying out whatever was on offer. That felt like something Eddie wanted too. He headed their way, running conversation-openers in his head – maybe something about Cletus’s work. He was a scientist, right? And then maybe he could edge the conversation around to Cletus’s take on Bonding. As Eddie neared the table, Ellis looked up and spotted him, and his expression morphed into a shit-eating smirk. 

Clearly he’d heard about the swim last night from someone, although Eddie couldn’t think who. Surely it wasn’t one of the other potential Hosts? Maybe one of the staff? Hell, maybe it had been broadcast on the Palace live feed? In any case, it soured the happy mood Eddie had woken up with, and he decided he couldn’t face it.

He veered over to the buffet and picked the (plain, from Earth) porridge, and then made his way over to the Mefitian that Oluchi and Xan had befriended.

‘Mind if I sit here?’ He signed.

The Mefitian waved one of its prickly arms at the empty table, ‘There is space for you here,’ and so Eddie slid onto the bench opposite.

It seemed happy to have company, introducing itself as Bujny. Its skin puckered into a thousand tiny wrinkles every time it moved, and its spines lay flat whenever it touched the utensils it was using. It was drinking some kind of syrupy liquid from a bowl as its breakfast.

Not wanting to be rude and stare as its skin wrinkled and unwrinkled, Eddie asked, ‘What did you think of the pool last night? Really something, wasn’t it?’

Bujny’s flower-like eyes opened very wide, and its skin took on a yellow tint. It excitedly signed, ‘Chemosignals are loud! The Symbiotes liked us! We could hear them without a Bond!’ Its expression turned bashful, and it leaned forward, clearly wanting only Eddie to see as it signed, ‘They made us feel spring fevers, and the need to bloom and fruit.’

‘Yeah, ’ Eddie signed, the back of his neck prickling with a blush. ‘That happened to me too.’

‘It is a balm to know it was shared.’ Bujny sat back, looking relieved, and they both ate their breakfasts while the shared embarrassment subsided.

The companionable moment was broken by Ellis who called out, “Oi, Brock! Too good for us now?”

“Yep,” Eddie called back, not having the patience for Ellis’s brand of bullshit, even though that answer would probably just poke the bear. 

Ellis clearly took all the offence Eddie intended, because he yelled out loud enough for the whole room to hear, “How’s it feel to be a monster-fucker, then? Was it a sweet night of I love yous or were you gangbanged like a–”

Eddie spun around. “Give it a fucking rest, Ellis.”

“Just doing my job,” Ellis smirked, and held out his phone, clearly already recording. “Gathering information of public interest.”

“Oh?” Eddie said. “I didn’t realize it was in the public interest for you to act like a jealous prick. My mistake.”

Ellis’s smile slipped, and he snapped, “That’s rich. Unlike some people, I don’t trade sexual favors for stories, Edward.”

“And yet you’re the one who keeps asking about what it’s like to be fucked by an alien,” Eddie pointed out. “After a while it starts to sound like projection.”

Surging to his feet, Ellis bellowed, “Shut your fucking mouth, pervert!” and grabbed the spoon out of his cereal bowl and chucked it at Eddie’s head. Eddie ducked, and the missile whistled past his ear. The spoon struck one of Bujny’s finger buds and sheared it right off.

Bujny’s skin flashed a bruise-like purple at the site of the wound, and several drops of sticky sap seeped out. In seconds, the sap turned into a gluey substance and sealed the amputation. 

“Shit,” Ellis said, clearly realizing he’d fucked up. “I didn’t mean…” At some point during their confrontation, the dining hall had filled up, and he was getting a lot of disapproving looks.

Wound sealed, Bujny made a mournful yawp and bent down to pick up the severed piece from the floor. Everyone watched as it gently brushed the bud off and slipped it into the remains of its bowl of nutrient drink.

Eddie wasn’t sure about whether it could be reattached, or grow into a new Mefitian. Leaning forward, he tentatively signed, ‘Are you okay?’

Bujny nodded, looking serene. ‘We will grow.’

Before Eddie could ask any of the questions crowding his mouth about what that meant, Amity and Calamity swept into the dining room. They beelined straight for Eddie, and Calamity announced, ‘The Emperor requests your presence.’

Then Amity noticed its fellow Mefitian was injured, and its gaze slid to the little bud sitting in the bowl, purple glue still obvious all along the side where it had been severed from Bujny's hand. Amity’s spines sprang up and glistened. ‘Did you do this?’ it demanded of Eddie.

‘No,’ Bujny intervened, and pointed at Ellis. ‘It was the other Earthling.’

Like a whip crack, Amity’s Symbiote wrapped around them, and they turned towards Ellis, teeth bared and dripping ichor. Ellis cowered, and looked ready to make a dive under the table. 

Before things could escalate further, Calamity stepped in the way. ‘The Emperor is waiting,’ they reminded Amity.

Amity glared at Ellis over Calamity’s head for a long moment. But after an irritated clickclick from Calamity’s pincers, Amity’s Symbiote melted back inside them, and they turned to glare at Eddie instead.

‘Come now,’ they commanded, and marched away without waiting to see if Eddie followed.

---

 

Eddie tried not to let his nervousness show as he followed Amity to the Emperor’s suite. Even though he had been expecting something like this, it was still nerve-wracking. It wasn’t every day he was summoned to meet with someone who had publicly coerced him into agreeing to be courted, and was also the most powerful person in the galaxy. He didn’t know what to expect, but there was a very real possibility he was about to get a proposal, and how the hell was he supposed to respond to that? Was it even possible to say no and still try to get an interview? 

Could he say no? 

A small… okay a big part of him was flattered at the idea of being an object of vaguely stalkery affection, but it was drowned out by the bigger fear of being stuck in a life he hated. He didn’t want to be the Emporeen and spend most of his time in meetings and doing paperwork and being polite to people. That sounded like hell. He liked being a reporter. He didn’t want to offend the Emperor, though. There was a lot at stake for him and for Earth if he did the wrong thing, and he wasn’t even sure what the wrong thing was. His experience in the pool with Venom had taught him that he couldn’t lie to a Symbiote if they touched him – they’d be able to taste it on him. So maybe that was the answer? He’d let Happiness touch him and sense his answer, and hope they didn’t take offence?

Eddie hadn’t come to any better decision when they arrived at the Emperor’s rooms. Unity was there, carrying a tray of food towards a day bed set up near the enormous windows. Ze beckoned Eddie in, and ushered him to an ornate chair next to the bed. Amity and Calamity didn’t follow him in, although Amity looked like they wanted to.

The Emporeen – Qewshi not Khushee Eddie reminded himself – was lying on the bed, gazing out over the city. Outside the window the Vul Ensemble were performing one of their aerial dances, and Qewshi was quite obviously enraptured. Happiness was also visible, present as a small, yellow snakelike head resting on Qewshi’s chest, a pseudopod wrapped tenderly around her. 

Eddie couldn’t help staring – this was the Symbiote who had ruled the galaxy for over a thousand years, with three different Hosts. It was an impossible stretch of time to try and imagine. 

Eddie hadn’t known what to expect of the Emperor – maybe a sense of deep wisdom – but what he was faced with was a slinky banana. 

Happiness observed Eddie intently as he sat down in the chair. The Symbiote didn’t look at him with any of the same eagerness that Venom did. If Eddie had to hazard a guess, he thought its eyespots looked sad.

Out of Qewshi’s line of sight, it signed, ‘Indulge her and I will reward you.’ Without waiting for a response, a pseudopod tenderly stroked Qewshi’s cheek to attract her attention.

As the Emporeen turned to face Eddie, he finally looked at her properly and was shocked by how much things had changed in just a few days. Qewshi had looked elderly when they met in the garden, but now she looked impossibly frail – her fur white and thin, and her skin a map of wrinkles. Despite that, her eyes still gleamed with intelligence, and she smiled at him, showing off all her sharp little teeth.

A pang of shame pealed through him. Somehow Eddie had managed to forget that all of this – the delegations of volunteers, the courting, the political manoeuvring, all of it – was because the Emporeen was dying. 

That fact was now hitting him in the face, and he felt like a fool. 

‘Ah, my sweet Earthling storyteller,’ Qewshi signed. ‘Have our children been telling you their stories?’

Eddie nodded and responded as tactfully as he could. ‘Thank you for the opportunity to take part, Your Radiance. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. It’s been amazing.’

‘We are happy our little indulgence has pleased you. That is what we hoped. Will you share the stories our dear ones told you with other Earthlings when you go home?’

‘I will,’ he promised. ‘I’m sure there will be a lot of interest in what it’s like to be courted by a Symbiote.’ Understatement.  The folks back home would eat it up.

Happiness spoke up then, signing, ‘Do you think more of your people will volunteer once they hear your stories?’

Eddie wanted to laugh at himself, but managed not to. Because of course. Of course, their motive in inviting him really was public relations, not an extraterrestrial remix of Cinderella. He was such a dumbass sometimes. For the first time since he’d been told about this meeting, Eddie felt like he was back on solid ground. There were worse ulterior motives than being wanted for his wordsmithing. ‘I think it’s pretty likely more people will volunteer,’ he signed. It probably wouldn’t take much for it to become a fad, although Eddie wasn’t sure how he felt about that. 

Happiness looked satisfied by that answer, and settled back on Qewshi’s frail chest.

‘I knew it would be a good idea to invite you.’ Qewshi turned and smiled mischievously at Happiness. ‘Wasn’t I right about him?’

‘You are always the wiser of the two of us,’ Happiness agreed, and some other silent communication clearly passed between them. Qewshi rubbed her hand affectionately over Happiness’s head, in much the same way she had with Eddie the other evening.

When Qewshi’s attention returned to Eddie, she asked, ‘And what about you? Have you made any particular friends?’ She twinkled at him, clearly hoping for gossip. She reached out and touched the bracelet he was wearing, two clawed fingers brushing against his skin at the same time. 

Eddie blushed. He hadn’t known what her touch meant during their first meeting, but now he could very faintly feel her bone-deep tiredness through that brief point of contact, although it was nowhere near as strong as the sensations that transferred through water. He knew exactly what she and Happiness were picking up from him, too – Venom’s traces would be all over him.

Qewshi beamed. ‘Venom has a curious mind and an ardent heart. A good match for you.’

Squirming in embarrassment, Eddie pointed out, ‘It’s early days yet. We haven’t decided anything.’

‘It’s a big decision,’ Qewshi agreed. ‘Back when I was trying to choose, I was full of doubt too.’

‘You were?’ Eddie hadn’t really thought about what Qewshi must have been like when she was a young volunteer. Something like Xan, perhaps. Full of passion, and afraid to leave what she knew, but eager for it too. He wondered if she’d left behind a mother, a sister, a child, gone now in the relentless march of years.

Qewshi looked fondly at Happiness, who looked back at her with obvious adoration. ‘Oh yes. I was so afraid of making the wrong choice,’ she signed. ‘Choosing happiness was the most terrifying thing in the galaxy.’

The words had the feeling of a well-worn joke, a sweet-nothing she’d said to Happiness a hundred times before. It was pretty adorable. Eddie looked away to let them have their moment. Out of the window, the Vul dancers were still gliding and swooping through the air. He groped for his phone, hoping to take some pictures, but everything was tangled up in his pocket and he found himself fumbling with the little robot chassis, before managing to stuff it back into his jacket pocket. Now really wasn’t the time for a sales pitch.

He finally found his phone and started recording the dancers. When he looked up, he found that Qewshi and Happiness were both watching him.

“Uh,” Eddie said, caught off guard, he hit the stop button and signed, ‘Sorry. I’ve never seen a dance like that before. I just wanted a picture.’

‘I’m sure they won’t mind,’ Qewshi said, sounding amused.

Belatedly, Eddie realized they had probably expected him to take pictures of them, not the dancers. Telling himself to pull it together, Eddie asked, ‘I was hoping I could maybe ask you some questions? If that’s okay?’

‘Of course,’ Qewshi agreed, looking pleased. ‘But I was hoping you would do me a favor too?’

Eddie hesitated and then cautiously asked, ’What kind of favor?’ 

---

 

Eddie stumbled out of the royal suite, still astonished, and headed straight for the dining room: shock required something sweet and a good sit down, right? 

A few paces down the corridor, he clocked that Amity was trailing behind him. He pulled himself together enough to sign, ‘I’m okay. I can find my own way back to the dining room. Thanks though.’

Amity just gave him a look, and kept following. Then Eddie remembered the whole spoon-throwing fiasco, and that they probably didn’t trust him after poor Bujny’s bud had been snapped off like that, and figured he probably deserved to be escorted out of the royal wing. They were just a step too close for comfort, though, so he hustled a bit, wanting to get to the stairs, where hopefully they’d back off.

‘Sorry about what happened to Bujny. I didn’t expect Ellis to attack me like that.’

Amity didn’t back off at the stairs. The two of them passed several people as they descended, as it was the busiest time of day in the Palace, with delegations and Palace staff and paper pushers of various stripes all bustling about. Eddie kept one hand on the wall, not wanting to be knocked over. Amity didn’t seem to have any trouble keeping their footing, staying within touching distance the whole way down.

Finally, they exited the stairwell into the quiet corridor that led to the guest area. The hair at the back of Eddie’s neck was prickling unpleasantly, and he tried to edge away without looking like he was nervous.

‘Well, this is me,’ he signed, backing away towards the dining hall. ‘Sorry again about Bujny.’ He’d only taken a couple of steps, Amity still pacing him – were they getting bigger, or was it his imagination? – when Treece popped out of a doorway with a smarmy expression, clearly having been lying in wait.

“Eddie!” he said, and clapped him heartily on the shoulder. 

“Treece,” Eddie winced, flexing his arm – he was pretty sure that was going to bruise. At least Amity had paused, watching Treece as he pretended to be friendly. 

Treece gave them a fake grin, and signed, ‘Excuse us, I need a word with Brock.’

Amity gave Eddie a final, judging look, and then headed back into the stairwell. 

“What’s up?” Eddie said, glad to see Amity go, but not looking forward to talking to Treece.

Dropping the friendly act, Treece said, “The Senator wants a progress report. What did the Emperor think of the items?” 

“I didn’t get a chance to show them yet,” Eddie said.

Treece scowled. “Why the fuck not?”

“Because the Emporeen is on her deathbed, asshat.” Eddie really had to wonder how Treece thought that sales pitch would go. Oh, hey, I know your partner is nearly dead, so how about you buy this mobility aid? Definitely an A+ for tact. Not.

“Yeah, and that’s why we have to move fast! The window of opportunity is closing while you fiddle about.”

“If you’re so keen to cause an intergalactic diplomatic incident, why don’t you do it?” Eddie snapped. “Oh wait. You don’t have access to the Emperor, so you can’t.”

Treece’s nostrils flared as he glared at Eddle. “For fuck’s sake. I told the Senator you’d be a fuckwit about this.” 

“Last time I checked he wasn’t my boss and neither are you, so go suck a lemon,” Eddie said, and walked off. He was determined not to get into a fight today, no matter how much the universe tried to provoke him.

“Get it done if you know what’s good for you,” Treece called after him.

Eddie gave him the finger.

---

 

“You fucking fucker! ” Chen said. “You’re lying.”

“Nope.” Eddie ate another bite of pie filled with the sweet purple berries. Maybe it wasn’t as exotic as some of Cletus’s choices, but Eddie was okay with baby steps. He was sitting at the dining table with Bujny and most of the Earth delegation, minus Ellis who was hunched over at the far side of the room. Chen had gleefully informed Eddie that Ellis was on probation – one more infraction and he’d be locked in his room until departure back to Earth. Eddie had decided to celebrate with pie.

“No, I refuse to believe it,” Chen exclaimed. “Because if you really were the official biographer of the fucking Emporeen of the galaxy, I’d have to take a leaf out of Ellis’s book and assault you with cutlery.”

Bujny edged away from Chen.

‘She’s joking,’ Eddie signed, while grinning obnoxiously at Chen, even though he was pretty sure his teeth were stained purple. He hadn’t expected the favor the Emporeen had asked for to be that he write up her life story, and he’d stammered out, “Really?” before getting it together and signing, ‘Yes!’ probably sounding like a complete idiot in the process. Everyone in the galaxy was going to read that story, and he got to write it. Take that, dad!

“That’s awesome news, Eddie,” Annie said, and most of the others were nodding and looking impressed. 

“Fuck!” Chen said, and thunked her head down on the table. “It really is. That’s such a great scoop, you asshole.”

Ellis had clearly overheard, because he looked like he’d just eaten a Symbiote, and wanted to vomit it back up all over Eddie. Eddie caught his eye and winked. Ellis glowered at him.

“But I still hate you,” Chen declared.

“I know,” Eddie said, and ate the final bite of pie. 

Chapter 7: Present

On the way down to the Symbiote pool that afternoon, Xan lagged behind a bit, and Eddie slowed down to walk with her. 

“You okay?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Are you?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Eddie asked, puzzled.

“The whole biographer thing is a bit of a curveball, isn’t it?” she said. “I mean, a good curveball, but I guess we all kind of thought Happiness was going to ask you to be their next Host.”

“And thank god for that curveball.” Eddie pulled a face. “I was not looking forward to playing the role of Cinderella. Can you imagine me as an Emporeen? Just, no.”

Xan cracked out a laugh. “I mean… I wasn’t going to say anything, but… I could definitely see you as a queen.”

“I’ll have you know that I have never owned a feather boa,” Eddie said with great dignity. “Or anything in gold lamé.”

“Liar, liar, gold lamé pants on fire.”

“A nice mesh top is as far as I will concede,” Eddie said. “But seriously, it’s a weight off my mind. I was starting to have visions of single-handedly getting Earth blacklisted from the Alliance when I turned them down.”

“That would definitely suck a lot of the com out of the rom,” Xan said. “I’m glad it’s all worked out.”

“Me too.”

They walked on, but Xan continued to dawdle, the rest of the group now well ahead of them.

Eddie kept to the same pace and waited her out.

“It’s just,” Xan finally said, “didn’t the Emporeen used to be a dancer? Before she became a Host?”

“Yeah, she wrote some stories too, but she danced with the Vul Ensemble. They do all that aerial stuff. They’re pretty good.”

Xan stopped walking. “How could she stand it? Just…” She made a chopping motion. “Cutting off her life like that? I don’t get it.”

“I’ve been worrying about that too,” Eddie said. “And I don’t think we can judge what it’s like to Bond with a Symbiote based on the Emporeen. It’s a special case. Based on what I’ve seen, most Symbiotes, once they find a Host, they go out and do whatever they and their Host want. Some stay here and become Palace staff, but most leave and become snail farmers, or go into the military, or wash windows, or grow exotic plants, or make weird sculptures, or raise bees. Some go offworld as diplomats or dancers or teachers, or even criminals. I think we just need to ask what our Symbionts want to do, see if we want the same kind of adventures. Assuming you don’t have a secret yen to become Emporeen, I think the galaxy is your oyster.”

Xan considered that. “Are there oysters on Klyntar?”

“The galaxy is your mollusc of choice,” Eddie offered.

“Sounds about right,” Xan said, and started walking again. “Thanks, Eddie.”

Eddie tried not to puff up at that bit of praise. “Any time,” he said, managing to sound casual.

By the time they reached the pool, everyone else had already disappeared to visit with their favorite Symbiotes. Eddie paused at the cubby holes that they used for storing their clothes, and pulled out the ziplock bag he’d put together, setting it aside before undressing.

Amity was once again acting as chaperone, and gave him a baleful look before stalking off to growl at someone who’d just done a divebomb into the water.

Venom was waiting for him at the steps, lighting up as soon as it spotted him. It swarmed towards him, wrapping a pseudopod around his ankle in greeting. 

‘Hi,’ Eddie signed, ‘sorry I’m late. I’ve got something for you, though. Let’s move a little further out of the way.’ He shuffled them down to the dark edge of the steps, well out of the path of any other latecomers. Plopping down, he found himself with a lapful of Symbiote. 

‘Everyone said you were meeting with Happiness,’ Venom signed, an odd mix of jealousy, curiosity and worry seeping through Eddie’s skin.

‘Yeah, they want me to write a story about them, that’s all.’ Holding out the ziplock bag, Eddie signed, ‘Here, I brought you a present.’ 

Venom looked at the bag, and then back at Eddie, a wash of confusion and interest pushing aside the other emotions. ‘What is it?’

‘Open it and see.’

Venom cautiously took the bag, and after some fumbling managed to get it open. Inside was one of Eddie’s spare notebooks and a couple of mechanical pencils. Venom took out one of the pencils and examined it.

‘You said you were an artist, and I thought you might like to try doing art the Earthling way.’ Eddie pulled out the notebook and flipped it open to the first page. He picked up the other pencil and clicked it a couple of times until the lead was showing, making sure Venom could see what he was doing, and then did a quick sketch of Venom. It was a bit rough, but Eddie thought it got the point across.

Venom traced over the image’s eyespots with a pseudopod, a sense of recognition and excitement starting to thrum through to Eddie. ‘It’s me?’

‘It’s meant to be, but I’m not that good at drawing.’ Eddie flipped to a new page, and held it out. ‘Want to try it?’

After a couple of awkward fumbles, Venom found a way to hold the pencil to the paper and started to press down. The first stroke ripped right through, and the next was too soft, but after that, they quickly got the hang of it. The image they created was clearly an attempt at drawing a Human, but was too wonky to really look like anyone in particular. Venom seemed displeased with it.

‘That’s really good for a first go,’ Eddie signed. ‘With a bit of practice you’ll be awesome.’

Venom perked up at that. ‘You’ll bring it back so I can practice?’

‘It’s yours,’ Eddie signed. ‘That’s why I put it in the bag, so you can keep it dry and take it with you.’

A surge of excited affection swamped Eddie. 

‘Thank you, Eddie!’ Venom signed. And then more tentatively, ‘You like my art?’

That question broke Eddie’s heart. It was pretty clear that no-one held Venom’s work in much regard. ‘I love your art. Back home writing is considered a form of art, and that’s what I do. I wish I could make something as cool as the bracelet you gave me.’ 

Venom gave a happy wriggle, and wound pseudopods around the wrist with the bracelet. ‘I’ll make you another present, if you like?’ 

‘That would be awesome,’ Eddie agreed.

With that settled, they flipped to a new page, and Venom started work on a new sketch.

Figuring now was as good a time as any to take his own advice, Eddie waved a couple of fingers to re-capture Venom’s attention, and asked, ‘Is that what you want to do when you find a Host? Work as an artist?’ 

Venom stopped drawing and watched him intently. ‘Is that what you want?’

Eddie shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Are there art schools here or something? An internship you’ve always wanted to do, maybe?’

‘Internship?’ Venom fumbled the sign for the word.

With a sinking feeling Eddie explained, ‘It’s when you work with an expert who teaches you what they know.’ 

Venom just looked at him blankly. 

‘Hasn’t anyone talked to you about your options once you have a Host?’

‘General Torment visits sometimes and tells us about being an Agent.’

Eddie tried not to make a face at that, but Venom must have picked up on his distaste, because they hastily added, ‘Sometimes snail farmers need our help with the harvest.’

Jesus, no wonder all the younger Symbionts had chosen emo names. They got to sit in an underground puddle while waiting for a stranger to turn up and pick them, and the only career paths they’d been told about were soldiering or farming. Eddie would pick an emo name too with that kind of childhood.

‘Do you want to be a snail farmer?’ Eddie asked, just to be sure.

Venom looked disgusted, but then swiftly tried to hide it. ‘Do you?’

‘Not really.’ He tried to think how to explain what he was getting at. ‘Do you remember our conversation about consent?’

Venom nodded jerkily, clearly a bit of body language it had picked up from Eddie. It looked confused by the conversational detour, but willing to go along with it.

‘Right. That would also apply if I decided to share my body with a Symbiote. We’d both have to agree on what we want to do together. That’s why I’m asking if there are things you want. I know you want to get out of here, and I don’t blame you for that, but once you’re out, what then? That’s what I’m trying to ask you about.’

Venom digested that for a moment. ‘What if you don’t like what I want?’

Eddie stroked Venom’s head. ‘What if I do like it?’

Venom seemed utterly taken aback by that idea. 

‘We’ve gotten along pretty well so far, haven’t we?’ Eddie asked.

Venom nodded, more smoothly this time.

‘Would you really want to be Hosted by someone you didn’t get along with?’ Eddie thought through the current pool of candidates, and offered, ‘What about Cletus?’

Venom shook its head decisively.

‘Okay then, but how will you know if you want the same things as your Host if you don’t tell them honestly what those things are?’

While Venom thought that over, Eddie paddled his feet in the water. At first, it had been so strange to swim naked in such a public venue, feeling a constant edge of embarrassment. He’d worried a lot about people looking at him, or the possibility of being accidentally groped by a curious Symbiote. Now he found himself actively enjoying being naked. Sure, the rock was a bit hard under his ass, but there was an animal pleasure in feeling everything without a barrier. The best part of it turned out to be experiencing the ebb and flow of a Symbiote’s emotions through touch. He could sense the moment that Venom made a decision, emitting a mix of worry, trepidation, and hope.

‘I like to explore,’ Venom confessed, watching Eddie anxiously. 

Eddie remembered back to their first meeting and smiled. ‘Do you want to see new planets instead of just toilet cisterns?’

Venom nodded, laser-focused on Eddie’s reaction.

‘Cool,’ Eddie said, relieved, as this was an ambition he could get behind. ‘I’d love to see more of the galaxy. I bet there are a lot of interesting stories out there that need telling.’

The tension running through Venom eased off a little, and the membranes around its eyespots began to flutter at being met with acceptance rather than rejection.

‘What else?’ Eddie prompted.

The pseudopod around Eddie’s wrist cinched a little tighter. ‘Make pretty things.’

Eddie was expecting something along those lines, but was still pleased Venom was willing to admit it. ‘You’ll be awesome at that. I’d love to see what you make.’ Eddie prodded again. ‘Anything else?’

Venom stopped making eye contact, and wriggled as though Eddie’s lap was suddenly uncomfortable.

Eddie had a terrible thought. ‘You don’t want to be Emperor, do you?’

‘No!’ Venom signed violently, followed by a wash of distaste.

Relieved, Eddie asked, ‘Okay, then what terrible desire has put ants in your pants?’

Venom didn’t answer right away. It gave off an emotion Eddie couldn’t parse, containing longing and anxiety, but something else as well, something completely alien. It extruded several more pseudopods and wrapped them around Eddie, and the feel of them sliding along his skin made him shiver.

‘I want…’ Venom’s eyespots were fluttering like crazy as it gazed up at him. ‘To taste your body. From the inside.’

Eddie sucked in a breath. He knew Venom’s desire wasn’t to eat him, despite the words used. It was a different kind of hunger. Venom’s admission shouldn’t have been a surprise, but hearing it skin-to-skin carried a charge he wasn’t expecting. All the briefing documents he’d read had included the Symbiote lifecycle, and he had known intellectually that taking a Host was part of it, that they couldn’t spawn without it, but this raw sense of alien hunger oozing out of Venom brought it home in a more visceral way. Eddie really understood for the first time that symbiosis wouldn’t just be having a buddy sitting on his shoulder as he walked through life, like a beloved pet. It would be a deeper sharing. Probably a sexual sharing, as Eddie’s and Venom’s biologies combined. It would mean Venom sharing his breath right from his lungs, tasting food from Eddie’s tongue. It would mean both of them feeling the sense of fullness after a meal, the clench of his muscles, the simple release of pissing and shitting. It would mean Venom feeling the lightning-strike of arousal through Eddie’s skin, and pleasuring himself would be mutual, never again private. It would go the other way too – Eddie using pseudopods to pick things up, Eddie being able to breathe alien air, Eddie feeling Venom’s emotions from inside his own body. 

A jolt of feeling coursed through him, a mishmash of fear and yearning that was frightening in its intensity.

Picking up on Eddie’s reaction, Venom was starting to shrink down into itself, like it was expecting to be kicked.

Eddie instinctively jerked Venom into a hug. “Hey, no, it’s okay.” He gently bumped his forehead against Venom’s. “I’m so glad you told me that,” he whispered. 

Venom was still oozing out a jangling mash of feelings, but its pseudopods crept around him in return.

Eventually Eddie sat up and signed, ‘I’m not ready to talk about what that means yet, but not because I think it’s bad. It’s just a lot.’

‘Too much?’ Venom asked.

Eddie bit his lip, ‘I don’t know. But do you want to hear the things I want?’

Venom perked back up a bit and nodded.

Eddie took a deep breath, and did his best to return Venom’s honesty with his own. ‘There’s one thing I’ve wanted for a while, but I keep talking myself out of it. Thing is, I want kids. I always thought I’d have them one day. But I haven’t yet because I don’t want to be a fuck-up like my dad. But yeah. Kids. I’m not sure how you’d feel about that.’

Looking confused, Venom asked, ‘Like… spawn?’

Realising that Venom had probably not been given the Human version of the birds-and-the-bees talk, Eddie did his best to give the key points. ‘A bit like that, but we do it differently to you. To make our… our spawn, we don’t need a Host, we need another Earthling to share some of their body with us, and we mix those bits together to make kids. Then we look after the kids for a long time. Eighteen years. They can’t grow up without us, so once we have them, it’s a commitment we can’t break. So if that’s not something you’d be into, that would be a dealbreaker on my end.’

Venom clarified, ‘You want to make more Earthlings, and brood them for a score of years?’

‘Yeah, that’s pretty much it.’

‘And if we were Bonded, I would help brood them?’

Eddie nodded. ‘If you’re in my body, you’d be involved.’

Venom thought that over. ‘Will they be like you?’

Feeling a little choked up at the thought, Eddie signed, ‘Probably. It’s hard to know for sure.’

Relaxing back against Eddie’s chest, Venom signed, ‘I don’t mind helping brood your spawn, but you will have to show me how.’

‘Fair enough. We have time to talk about it more before any of that happens.’

Venom didn’t sign a reply – the sense of contentment that washed between the two of them was more than enough. They sat basking in it, until Eddie’s ass was well and truly numb. 

‘Swim?’ Eddie offered, and Venom nodded. 

They packed the pad and pencils back into the bag, and Eddie demonstrated how the ziplock worked. Once it was sealed, Venom swallowed it, assuring Eddie it would be safe, and they slid into the water still wrapped together. 

Eddie checked his rebreather quickly, just to be sure it was properly in place. ‘Show me the sights?’ he asked, and Venom happily tugged him along by the wrist into the depths of the lake.

Once Eddie’s eyes had adjusted, he could see surprisingly well. There were patches of glowing algae along the walls, illuminating the many tunnels that disappeared in every direction. Venom led him through one of the larger ones, which opened up into a cavernous space. It was filled with spirals of waving kelp, covered in thousands of happily munching snails. Above the waterline, Eddie could see the outlines of a courtyard within the Palace, and far above, the blood-red Klyntar moons just cresting the Palace roof. Venom plucked one of the snails and threw it into their maw, eyespots squinting with pleasure as it crunched it between its teeth.

Eddie signed, ‘If we ever go to Earth together, remind me to take you to France.’

Venom didn’t even ask what France was. ‘I hope we can go soon.’

‘Me too,’ Eddie said. Travelling around Earth with Venom would be amazing – they’d both see the planet with new eyes, and be able to experience things no Human could on their own. 

Venom led them through a series of tunnels next, some with fractal-like patterns carved into the stone. When Eddie paused to run his hand along a set that looked like interlaced flowers, Venom explained that they were signposts that worked a bit like braille and could be read even in the dark. Eddie wished he had a camera, because he’d never seen anything quite like it. Eventually they emerged into another large cavern, this one filled with bubbles. Deep down were dozens of vents that were jetting out warm water. Tiny transparent shrimp were drifting near the base of the geysers, and equally tiny Symbiotes, clearly only spawned recently, were dive-bombing into the gushing water and riding back up like it was a rollercoaster. Venom noticed Eddie watching the sprats, and pulled him down to one of the biggest vents. Eddie gripped Venom’s pseudopod tightly as the rushing water grabbed them and propelled them up towards the cavern’s roof. It was like being tossed by a giant, and Eddie whooped into his mask. Once they were drifting back amongst the bubbles, Eddie signed, ‘Again?’ and Venom grinned at him and tugged him back down. 

After the next go around, Venom darted away. Eddie kicked towards him and reached out, wondering what was going on. Venom scooted away again, and blew a bubble at him.

‘Oh, I see how it is,’ Eddie signed, grinning fiercely, and lunged at him.

Venom dodged and bolted off towards one of the tunnels nearby. They chased each other down several tunnels and through a weed patch until finally Eddie snagged one of Venom’s pseudopods. Venom immediately cuddled up to him, radiating delight at being caught.

Exploring the Underwater Palace

Around them was a cathedral-like cavern, awash with light from thousands of glow-worm nests up in the ceiling, well above the water. The nests dangled down towards the surface like draped shawls, sending beams of light through the water as lures for unsuspecting prey.

‘Wow,’ Eddie signed. It was one of the most romantic places he’d ever been.

They lingered for a while, pressed together and watching the light show, before Venom finally tugged them onward.

They came to a junction of dozens of tunnels, half of them capped by blocks of stone. ‘Water pipes,’ Venom explained. This was how they piped water up into the pools throughout the upper Palace, including the Imperial Room. If the caps were shifted in the right sequence, the water would flow upward or drain away again. Eddie was about to ask more about it when a weird clicking sound echoed through the water, a little like the chatter of dolphins but more mechanical.

‘What’s that?’ he asked.

‘Just Euphoria calling some of the little sprats to lessons.’

Sure enough, a handful of tiny Symbiotes darted past them, heading towards the call.

‘Where are they going?’ Eddie asked, and instead of answering, Venom tugged him along until they arrived back at the main pool.

A whole passel of the tiny sprats were clustered around Euphoria and Xan at one of the shallow rock pools, and when Euphoria clicked a couple of snail shells together, the sprats scattered and started swimming around in an inward spiral. Another couple of taps and they reversed. It was like something out of an old Hollywood musical, and Xan clapped her hands together, delighted.

‘Wow,’ Eddie signed. ‘That’s amazing.’

Euphoria looked shyly pleased.

Together, Eddie and Venom settled on one of the rocks to watch as Euphoria put the sprats through their paces. It drew quite a crowd – all the Humans and most of the other potential Hosts gathering around to watch.

When the alarm on Eddie’s rebreather finally pinged, it was much too soon. He reluctantly said goodnight, promising Venom he’d be back the next evening. Xan joined him as he left the pool, still looking delighted, and they headed back to their clothes together.

When he and Xan reached the cubbies, and hopefully were out of hearing distance of curious aliens, Eddie asked, “How did it go?” intensely curious about Xan’s attempt at The Talk.

Xan beamed. “Really well, that was good advice!” 

She cast a look at Agrima and Cletus, who were already nearly dressed. Xan pulled her towel out of her cubbyhole and started towelling herself off.

Eddie figured she didn’t want an audience for whatever she was going to tell him. He took the hint and dried off slowly giving the others a chance to finish dressing and leave.

As soon as they were gone, he said, “Well? Don’t leave me in suspense.”

Draping her towel around her neck, she confided, “It turns out Riot wants to do pest control on a snail farm.” Xan’s face was a picture. “But Euphoria wants to teach, and she seemed pretty keen on learning how to dance with me and maybe teach that.”

“That sounds promising.” Eddie started pulling on his clothes.

“It does. I feel a lot better about things now.” Shoving the towel into her cubby, she started to get dressed too.

Eddie paused with his foot half-way in his shoe. “So you’re going to say yes?”

Xan shrugged. “I’m still deciding. But it seems much more viable now.” She shimmied into her mini skirt. “How about you? You seemed to be talking to Venom for a while.”

Eddie ran a hand through his hair, trying to get it to sit right. “Yeah.” 

“And?” 

“Jesus. It was fucking terrifying.”

Xan lifted her eyebrows at him, a flipflop in each hand. “Wow. What the hell did Venom say?”

Resting his head against the smooth rock wall, Eddie said, “Venom wants to travel, and is okay with doing that on Earth, but they’re also okay with travelling around to see the galaxy. I could write so many stories about aliens if we did that. I’m starting to think… I mean, yeah, that would be completely viable as a life plan for me.” 

“You sound surprised.”

“I honestly didn’t think it could work, but that’s a future I could go for. Am I crazy? I must be crazy, but that sounds really fucking cool!”

“Yeah,” Xan said. “We must both be crazy, because I think so, too.”

Eddie patted down his pockets to make sure he had everything. “You know what I need? Cake. Let’s go find something sweet, and see if the world makes more sense afterwards.”

“Word.”

They both picked up their damp towels and headed off. Xan was still rubbing water from her hair as they started the long climb back up the stairs. It wasn’t easy going – Eddie’s legs felt like overcooked noodles after all that time cavorting in the pool. He really needed to do more cardio.

“Come on, old man,” Xan said, and grinned at him as she bounded ahead.

“Young whippersnappers these days,” Eddie said, and forced himself to speed up a little.

They were about three flights up, and just crossing the short section of corridor between one set of stairs and the next, when Amity loomed out of the dimness. Eddie was already starting to sign ‘hello,’ when he realized something wasn’t right. Its Symbiote was out and looking at Eddie as though he were a particularly tasty midnight snack.

Xan didn’t pick up on it, and she signed, ‘We’re not going the wrong way, are we? That would be so embarra–’

Amity swatted her aside, and lunged at Eddie. Its teeth were huge and pointy, its maw opening wide enough that Eddie could believe his head would fit inside.

Eddie yelled and dropped straight down onto his butt. He managed to scrambled away far enough its lunge missed.

Before it could try again, Xan sprung up and threw one of her flipflops at it. Spinning around to face her, it lashed out with a pointy pseudopod, stabbing her right in the shoulder. Eddie’s heart was in his mouth as he staggered back to his feet. The pseudopod went all the way through Xan with a horrible squelching sound, and pinned her to the wall. Her expression was agonized as she met Eddie’s gaze. Eddie was frantically trying to think what to do as the Symbiote turned back to him. He groped for his phone, thinking maybe he could call for help.  

‘Why are you doing this,’ he signed one-handed, as he backed away. Phone, phone, where was it? There seemed to be a dozen things in his pockets, but none were his phone.

‘Happiness cannot take the throne again!’ it said, and attacked.

Eddie had dodged his fair share of drunken punches in his life, so he managed to duck left and miss the worst of the blow, merely scoring a shallow scratch, and losing his shirt sleeve to Amity’s teeth. He could feel the unmistakable trickle of blood, but didn’t dare look.

‘You will never Bond! You will never Ascend to the throne!’ Amity practically punched the air with each sign. Then it formed several more spear-shaped pseudopods, all pointing at Eddie, and lunged.

Eddie didn’t really have any other moves, so in desperation he put his hand in his pocket and threw the first thing he found – the robot prototype – right at Amity’s face. When it flinched, he dropped to the floor and rolled, gaining a good few metres. Its pseudopods went right over his head.

The little robot ricocheted off their head without doing any damage and Amity swatted it aside. 

Eddie scrambled back to his feet, digging the Lockheed Martin membrane prototype out of his pocket next. When Amity lunged again, he threw it as hard as he could. This time Amity didn’t flinch, just opened their mouth and chomped down on it without stopping, but instead of cracking, it wedged between their teeth. Eddie barely managed another feint, faking a doge left and then throwing himself to the right, scraping both hands and ripping a hole in both knees of his jeans. He knew he didn’t have much left in him, but he’d gained some more space. Amity growled, and Eddie finally managed to grab his phone out of his pocket. He nearly fumbled it, but with a shaking hand managed to stab the activation icon for the prototype.

With a hum, the adaptive membrane expanded like a balloon. It wasn’t big enough to encase Amity fully, designed for just a Symbiote without a Host, but it wrapped around their head, sealing tightly at their neck. Amity screeched and clawed at the membrane, but it just rippled, looking completely unmarred.

Giving up on getting it off, Amity shrank itself, trying to escape the trap that way, wrenching its pseudopod from Xan’s shoulder in the process. 

Xan moaned and slumped to the floor. She was pale and sweaty, but she gamely attempted to wrap her towel around the wound. It was bleeding a lot.

Eddie hesitated, he had his finger poised over the app that controlled the device. “Just stop. I don’t even want to Bond with Happiness.”

Amity paid no heed. It sank into its Host’s body, oozing itself out of the prison of the membrane via the Host’s neck. As it did so all the cactus spines on the Host sprang up in some kind of instinctive self-defence. Amity manifested a tiny head, and zeroed in on Eddie, it was almost free. Several of the Host’s spines nearest Eddie spat out in his direction.

He spun around and ducked his head, feeling the bite as they sunk into his back. Jabbing the button on his phone, he heard a terrible sound like a smashing watermelon, and when he risked a look, the Host was lying on the floor, trembling, its head popped clean off, and sticky purple sap spilling out.

Amity re-encased the headless body and tried to get it to move, but it just flopped around. 

Taking his chance, Eddie leapt over them and rushed to Xan. He picked her up and booked it to the stairs. Behind him there was a racket, and he risked a quick glance back. Amity had abandoned its Host, and was scooting after them horrifyingly fast. Before Eddie could react, a black blob fell out of one of the small access ways in the ceiling, right in front of Amity.

“Venom!” Eddie bellowed.

‘Run,’ Venom signed and threw itself at Amity. They rolled together into a writhing ball, Venom attempting to cage Amity with its pseudopods, and Amity hitting back with everything it had.

Eddie turned and fled up the stairs. Xan moaned at the jostling.

“Sorry,” he gasped, but didn’t slow down.

“Shut up, go faster.”

Eddie did as he was told. He’d just about made it to the Oxygen Quarter when Calamity loomed out of one of the side tunnels.

Eddie skidded to a halt. He could feel blood trickling down his arm from Xan’s wound, and he knew there was no way they’d both survive if Calamity attacked them now.

Calamity bustled forward. ‘What has happened?’ they demanded. ‘Did you fall?’

Eddie let out a sobbing breath of relief. He didn’t have a free hand, so he said, “Amity attacked us. I had to hurt their Host to get away – I’m so sorry. They’re hurt bad and need help. Venom stopped Amity from following us. It might need help too. And I need to get Xan to Dan. Amity stabbed her. Dan’s a doctor. He’ll know what to do.”

He wasn’t sure how much of that Calamity understood, but it was clearly enough. They used their little communication clicker to send some kind of message, and then gently ushered them through the airlock. ‘I have asked the Palace guards to bring Earthling Dan to one of our medical suites. The guards will also take care of Amity and Venom.’

Eddie gratefully followed them. Now the adrenalin was wearing off, he was shaking and felt wobbly in the knees, and had to focus not to drop Xan.

At the medical suite, he gratefully let Dan and a team of local medics whisk Xan away. He carefully sipped on his hot, sugary medically mandated cup of not-coffee while sitting on the edge of a chair so his back didn’t touch anything, and answered about a million questions. He was too exhausted even to feel afraid of General Torment when he came in looking extremely military, and casting his judgemental compound eye over Eddie.

General Torment [Trifid]

Eventually Dan came back, tsked at everyone asking him questions, shooed them all out, and ushered Eddie to one of the beds. 

“Is Xan going to be okay?” Eddie asked, as Dan cut away his shirt and started injecting local anaesthetic so he could remove the cactus spines from his back.

“Yes,” Dan assured him. “You got her here in time. She’s going to have a rakish scar, but she shouldn’t lose any mobility.”

“Thank god,” Eddie said, and pretended he wasn’t crying.

A little while later, when Dan had finished removing the spines and turned Eddie over to check his other injuries, Annie came in and sat by him. She was still in her pyjamas and fluffy slippers. She kissed his forehead and said, “That was from Xan. She says thanks for saving her ass.”

Eddie was so relieved he couldn’t even think of a wisecrack. He wiped his nose on the remains on his shirt and confessed, “That was the most terrifying thing that’s ever happened to me.” 

Annie gave him another kiss on the cheek, ignoring the fact that he was a disgusting mess. “That one is from me for being so brave.”

Eddie huffed out a shaky laugh. Annie started running her hand soothingly through his hair as Dan tended to his scrapes, and Eddie dozed off feeling safe and doted on.

Chapter 8: Aftermath

Chapter by cupidsbow

Amity couldn’t be found. 

General Torment had looked even more stern than usual when he broke the news; Eddie assumed it was because he was sick of chewing the asses of the Agents assigned to the task.

Eddie didn’t understand how it was possible for Amity to just disappear like that, until Venom pointed out that there were literally hundreds of miles of tunnels in the Palace, and that it had been built that way on purpose so that any non-Symbiote invading force would never be able to conquer it.

‘Stealth is one of our superpowers,’ Venom signed. It had been bashful at first about the sudden respect from its pondmates for fighting Amity. Even Carnage was grudgingly impressed, despite clearly being jealous they hadn’t been the one in the thick of it. Venom seemed to think it should have been able to stop Amity from getting away, even though Eddie pointed out that a squad of Agents couldn’t manage it either.

Eddie was also having issues. That sound of smashing watermelon haunted him, and he also felt weird around Hosted Symbiotes in a way he hadn’t before. Now Eddie had seen an actual Symbiote in action, he realized the documentaries about the Emperor’s soldiers, especially the Agents, hadn’t done their strength and speed justice. He could only imagine what it must have been like when they first left Klyntar and descended on an unsuspecting galaxy. He tried to hide his unease, hoping it would pass quickly, because he didn’t want Venom to pick up on it when things were otherwise going so well between them.

It made him see Qewshi and Happiness in a new light too. As a Bonded pair, the two of them had won the Ascendancy over all the other Hosted Symbiotes. They must have been fucking terrifying, and Eddie was finding it hard to reconcile that knowledge with the reality of Qewshi’s growing fragility.

At their next interview, she took his hand, gently stroking the scratches there with her delicate little claws. Her skin was papery and thin, and Eddie could see the veins beneath. ‘I’m so glad you were not badly hurt.’ 

Eddie could sense her fondness for him seeping through her touch, a constant, silent reminder of Happiness’s presence and the chemosignals that allowed that kind of communication. ‘I’m tougher than I look,’ Eddie signed. ‘Xan got the worst of it.’

Qewshi’s eyes glistened. ‘The poor pup.’

Happiness chimed in, ‘Please pass on our sympathy and regret to her.’

‘Sure,’ Eddie agreed, and then got down to the business of asking questions for the biography.

He passed on the message during his next visit to the infirmary. 

“They should be fucking sorry,” Xan said. “I know it’s not their fault, but seriously, the politics here are fucked up, and Happiness doesn’t seem to have done anything at all to try and ease the tension. It was only a matter of time before things blew up, and it’s total shit that I’m the chump who paid for it.”

“It’s definitely shitty that you were hurt,” Eddie agreed, and handed her a cookie he’d smuggled in, hoping that a rise in blood sugar would lead to a slightly lower volume of anger.

Xan took a giant chomp of the cookie, and mumbled through it, “They can stick their sorry up their ass.”

Eddie nodded. “I’ll be sure to pass that on,” he lied.

Xan glared at him. “Don’t be a noodle brain, I’m just venting. You can’t tell the Emperor of the galaxy I said to fuck off.” She ate another bite of the cookie. “Nope. Nope. Nope.”

“Thank god,” Eddie said, and took a bite of his own cookie. 

Later that day, Xan was finally released from the infirmary and insisted she wanted to go and thank Venom for saving them, even though she wasn’t yet allowed to swim. Eddie acquiesced and accompanied her down the stairs to the pool. It was only mid-afternoon, and none of the other potential Hosts were there yet.

As Amity still hadn’t turned up, General Torment assigned them a protective detail: two hulking Symbiotes who loomed about in their Agent uniforms looking intimidating any time anyone so much as glanced in their direction.

“I feel like I’m being sent to the principal's office, again,” Xan muttered, as yet another Palace worker scurried out of their path.

“Better than meeting up with Amity again on our own,” Eddie said, because the thought of that still gave him shivers.

“Word.”

Once they arrived poolside, Xan was treated like visiting royalty. A platform had been set up and covered in pillows, so she could lounge in comfort while looking out over the water. Euphoria and Riot were both jostling with each other to help her position the pillows and get settled.

Xan put up with their fussing for a bit, and then signed, ‘That’s perfect,’ before things could devolve into fisticuffs.

While Xan was dealing with her admirers, Venom appeared and zipped up Eddie’s leg, and wrapped itself around his torso. Eddie endured pseudopods skimming over his injuries until Venom was satisfied that they were healing well.

‘Hello to you too,’ Eddie signed.

“Venom!” Xan cried out when she spotted the Symbiote. ‘Here’s our tough guy! Good job saving our asses.’ She reached out and snagged one of Venom’s pseudopods, and whatever emotion she was feeling was enough to make Venom’s eyespots flutter as it ducked its head.

Xan didn’t let go and kept tugging until they were all lounging on the platform together, in what could really only be described as a group snuggle. Prior to this trip, Eddie would have found a situation like this mortifying, but now it just felt pretty damn good.

Once they were all settled, Euphoria announced they had a special treat for Xan, and whipped out their snail shell castanets. A few click-clacks, and a whole school of sprats appeared in the water near the steps, and started performing a synchronized choreography that started as a spiral, turned into fractals, and included a series of energetic leaps and splashes. Every now and again, Euphoria would click the shells again to signal the start of a new pattern.

Xan only had one working arm, so couldn’t clap, but she whistled and hollered to show her appreciation. 

“Jesus,” Eddie said, after an especially spectacular stunt that included a slowly rotating floating tower of Symbionts. “Captain Von Trapp would eat his whistle if he could see this.”

Xan giggled. “I know, right? I’m living the dream right now. Getting stabbed was almost worth it for this.” 

Just as Eddie was feeling the munchies and wishing he had more cookies, Unity appeared at the side of their platform. Eddie gently nudged Xan, who reluctantly looked away from the dance.

‘My apologies for interrupting, but there is urgent news.’ Unity looked sombre, and the fur around zer eyes was wet. 

Eddie could feel Venom tense, sensing bad news was coming.

Unity snuffled, and then signed. ‘I am very sorry to inform you that the Emporeen has left us on her journey to the endless sea. The Palace will now enter the official period of mourning.’

---

 

Emporeen Qewshi: A Life Remembered 

By Eddie Brock, The Daily Globe

Emporeen Qewshi died peacefully on Tuesday at sunset, while watching the Vul Ensemble perform one of their most famous aerial ballets, The Skylark.

Qewshi Bonded with Happiness in 1722 (Earth era), and they won the Ascension Contest that same year.

She leaves behind her beloved Bondmate, Happiness, who said in their eulogy that they “felt her loss deeply. She gave her heart to our people, and they gave their hearts back to her.” 

Her many-times-great grandniece, Rajai, said that she would “dearly miss my beloved Aunty Q.”

Qewshi’s closest friend and Palace chief-of-staff, Unity, added that “her loss will be felt throughout the galaxy. She brought light and beauty to us all, and we will live in a darker world without her.”

Click to continue…

---

 

Lunch in the dining room was subdued, everyone still taking in the news of Qewshi’s passing. Eddie barely touched his salad. His stomach was in knots, and his thoughts were all over the place.   

“What we need,” Xan said moodily, “is alcohol.”

“Amen,” Eddie said.

Cletus cleared his throat. His appetite didn’t seem to have been affected, and he’d cleaned his plate of worm stew without any trouble at all. “I happen to have three bottles of gin in my room,” he said, “if anyone’s interested.”

Everyone was interested, and the whole party decamped there immediately.

After the first round of drinks, Eddie found himself sitting next to Bujny, and awkwardly apologising for decapitating their fellow Mefitian.

‘Do not worry,’ Bujny signed, and patted Eddie’s arm. ‘Żywy has already germinated a new head-stalk, and is sorry that their spines were used to attack you.’ Bujny’s sensory flowers quivered with indignation as it confided, ‘They said Amity had been abusing the Bond. Żywy was going to ask for an annulment at the upcoming Bonding ceremony.’

Having been nursing guilt ever since pressing the button, Eddie felt a bit left-footed by this information. ‘That sucks,’ he signed. ‘Can you tell them I hope their head-stalk grows back quickly?’

‘Thank you, friend. I will pass on your happy wishes for green growing to Żywy.’

‘Great,’ Eddie signed, and went off to find them both more alcohol.

After a couple of hours of solid drinking, the gin was all gone, and everyone started to disperse. Eddie staggered back to his room, and didn’t realize that Xan had tagged along until he was fumbling his key out of his pocket.

She followed him inside and threw herself down on his bed, making it bounce. “I think I’m gonna say yes,” she said. 

“To Euphoria?” Eddie toed his shoes off and flopped down next to her. She’d already seen him naked, and he refused to feel weird about sharing a bed fully clothed.

“Yeah.” She rolled over, buried her face in the pillow, and screamed.

Eddie nodded. Fair reaction. Euphoria seemed pretty great. “Cool.”

“Cool?” Xan lifted her head and gave him a disbelieving look. “That’s such an old man thing to say.”

Eddie shook his fist. “Get off my lawn, you young whippersnapper.”

Xan laughed and shuffled over to rest her head on his chest. “I wish my dad was like you. When I told him I wanted to be a dancer, he said if I wanted to sell my body I should go live on a street corner with the other hookers and kicked me out.”

“Shit.” Eddie clumsily patted her hair, wishing he hadn’t drunk so much. “Massive parenting fail. I’m sorry, kiddo.”

“Right? But when I told you I want to share my body with a Symbiote, you looked happy for me, and said, ‘Cool,’ like it’s a normal thing to do, and I... If I could pick my own parental unit, I’d pick someone like you.”

Eddie fought back an attack of feelings and protested, “You can’t be all honest and shit while I’m drunk. It’ll make me get all choked up and cry. Not cool.”

“It’s a hard-knock life.” Xan looked up at him, unrepentant. “So?”

“Yes, you’re the best ersatz daughter too. Jesus, just reach into my chest and mash my heart, why don’t you.”

“Really?” Xan looked absolutely thrilled, but also suspiciously wet in the eye region. “Wow! I did not expect that.” She used his shirt to wipe her face, and Eddie didn’t even bother to protest. “That’s not what I was asking, but best misunderstanding ever, though.”

“What were you asking?” Eddie asked, feeling mellow and indulgent.

“Are you going to say yes to Venom?”

And there went all the mellow – so long, and thanks for all the fish.

Eddie sighed and stared up at the ceiling so he didn’t have to look at Xan’s hopeful face. “The problem with that question,” he said, “is that it’s a yes or no question.”

“Ah,” said Xan. “That was very inconsiderate of me.”

“Yep.” 

“How dare I ask a yes or no question about something you’re going to have to actually say yes or no to in less than a fortnight.”

Eddie groaned. “You think you’re helping, but you’re not helping.”

After a moment of silence that got Eddie’s hopes up she’d fallen asleep, Xan said, “You do know that if you don’t want to say no, you’re probably just being a weirdo about saying yes, right?”

Eddie put his hand over his face, because this being known bullshit was excruciating. “Yes, I am aware that I’m in denial. Thank you so much for pointing it out to me.”

“Whatever,” Xan said, and when Eddie snuck a look, it was just in time to catch an epic eyeroll. “Be in denial then. I’m going to sleep.” And she stole the good pillow and rolled over, curling up into a ball.

A few minutes later she started to snore. Eddie pulled the blanket up over her, and stared up at the ceiling for a bit longer. There was a spider-like thing building a web in one corner, and a shadow cast by the oxygenator that looked a bit like a dog, but nothing that helped him find the answers he was looking for. Eventually the sound of Xan’s snoring lulled him to sleep.

---

 

Eddie’s days for the next two weeks were jammed full of interviews with dozens of the V.I.P.s arriving in a steady stream. There had already been a lot of visitors who had come in the weeks before the Emporeen’s death, and the number of people around the Palace had been steadily increasing since the Earth delegation arrived. But now it was a deluge. The Palace was groaning at the seams, as was the city outside its walls, and still more people came.

It was great for Eddie professionally speaking, and had the added bonus that he didn’t have much time to dwell on his own grief, which snuck up on him each time he realized that he’d never have another chance to talk to Qewshi. He hadn’t known her long, but she’d been a friend. He’d miss their talks. 

The press of work also meant he didn’t have much time to worry about his ongoing inability to decide on the looming yes or no question. Despite that, each evening he made his way down to the pool to hang out with the Symbiotes for a few hours before he fell into bed and did it all over again.

Before he knew it, the day of the funeral arrived. The Earth delegation had their own boat on the lake that abutted the Palace where the final rites were being held.

While they were waiting for things to begin, Annie joined him at the prow where he was watching some sprats darting around in excitement at being out in the open. A couple of them popped pseudopods out of the water to wave at Eddie.

“That’s adorable,” Annie said. “Friends of yours?”

Shrugging, Eddie said, “Not really. They’re just babies, but I see them around when Venom and I are hanging out.”

Annie turned to face him. “That seems to be going well.”

“You sound just like Xan.”

He only realized he’d made a tactical error when Annie tilted her head at him in the particular way that meant she was putting a case together.

“I can’t figure out if you’re having a midlife crisis over an alien or a twenty-one-year-old.”

Despite his irritation at this entire conversation, Eddie figured that was probably a pretty fair worry for Annie to have. “I’m not even slightly interested in fucking someone half my age. That’s not what’s going on there.”

Annie had always been good about believing him; she nodded and said, “The alien then.”

Eddie sighed. “Yeah.”

Annie reached out and rested her hand over his where he was white-knuckling the railing. He expected her to say something about his uncanny ability to fuck up his life with bad choices, but instead she said, “There isn’t really a wrong choice here, you know.”

“Easy for you to say.”

Annie patted his hand. “You should just toss a coin.”

Eddie stared at her.

“Toss a coin,” Annie repeated, “because if it doesn’t land the way you want, you’ll know what you want.”

That… made sense. He tried not to grimace too obviously.

She patted his hand again. “You’re welcome,” she said, and left him to watch the sprats chase each other across the surface of the water.

At sunset, Qewshi’s floating pyre was set alight. Ripples covered the surface of the water as all the Symbionts rose to honour her for the final time. Boat after boat added their own glowing tributes, each one instantly whisked off to jostle and spin in the swirling water. Eddie set his own little lantern down to float off and join them, saying a quiet goodbye under his breath as he did so. Beside him, Xan let go of her lantern too, her face wet with tears as she slid her hand into his. Together they watched the lake fill with endless reflections as the lights bobbed and twirled in the wakes of the Symbiotes, creating endless reflections that shone like a sea of stars.

Chapter 9: Bonding

Notes:

This chapter is rated Explicit for sexual content. If you wish to skip that, read until Eddie and Venom finish their conversation with Oluchi, and then jump to the next chapter. A summary of the key plot points you will have missed is given in the end notes for the chapter.

The morning of the Bonding arrived crisp and clear. Eddie woke early having only slept in fits and starts, and wandered down to the domed garden to drink his almost-coffee and soak up the peace.

A few bees were already buzzing from flower to flower, and one of the gardeners – a small Spiderfish, with their distinctive spidery legs and paddle hands – was pruning a dead-looking tree a few beds away. It looked a lot like Calamity - perhaps a younger relative - and was holding five different tools at once. From where Eddie was perched on the rim of the fountain, he watched it pause and sniff a flower, before carefully snipping it off and winding it between its antennae.

Eddie sipped his drink and thought about how he’d forgotten to ask his neighbor to take care of his snake plant before he left. It would probably be dead now. He thought about his dingy little apartment with its dodgy radiator, and the press room at The Daily Globe that always smelled like ozone, donuts, and feet. He thought about the sound of his alarm going off on days he was hot on a story, the feel of his motorbike under him as he travelled the coast highway during autumn, the taste of hot wings from his favorite bar. He thought of Mrs Chen pressing her meditation tapes on him when he looked rough, and occasionally letting him take bread on credit, and how Vanda always knew the best new restaurants and would often drag him along when she went to review them, and the way Annie had somehow managed to stay friends with him, real friends, even after he’d fucked everything up.

He thought about his life on Earth, and listened to the fountain and the bees.

And then he went inside to take a shower and put on his best shirt.

Most of the Earth delegation were already waiting in the corridor when he emerged from his room. Xan immediately bounded over and gave him a hug.

“I’m so excited, I can’t stand it!” she said, and then bounced away again to do the same thing to Oluchi, who had just come out of her room carrying a travel mug. Eddie wished he’d thought of that.

A moment later Ellis, Annie and Dan joined them, and their party was complete. Ellis stayed well away from Eddie, walking with Cletus who looked cool as a cucumber in one of his usual Hawaiian shirts. Chen sidled up to Eddie, phone in hand and pushed it in front of his nose. “Anything you want to say before the big moment?”

Eddie shrugged.

“Yeah, I figured,” Chen said, and went off to ask someone else.

He ended up walking most of the way with Annie and Dan, who chatted with each other about the differences between galactic and Earth medical law, and let him brood in peace.

The Bonding ceremony was taking place in a huge courtyard that was open to the sky, which meant nearly everyone present was wearing rebreathers. It wasn’t anywhere near as big as the Imperial Room, but it had a pool in the middle that looked deep, and with a jolt Eddie realized this was the courtyard with the snail garden he’d seen with Venom. What he hadn’t noticed from below water level was that there were tiered seats all around the edges of the pool, with a small jetty jutting out over the water.

Each of the delegations had been assigned several rows of seats, and as Eddie made his way to the section that was reserved for the Earthlings, Treece grabbed his elbow and pulled him aside. 

Eddie had been expecting this. The Lockheed Martin environment-membrane had been recovered at the scene of the fight, and returned to White covered in dried purple sap. The tablet had still been in his pocket, so he had returned that as well. The robot, though? No-one had been able to find that.

“You’re in so much shit,” Treece gritted through the smarmy smile plastered over his face. “That robot was a billion-dollar prototype, and Senator White is pissed.”

Eddie looked over at where the Senator was seated, watching their confrontation. His mouth was pursed with anger he wasn’t bothering to hide. “I can see that.”

Treece jabbed a finger into Eddie’s chest. He barely got out, “You’re going to pay–” when one of the Agents in Eddie’s protective detail loomed up, and Treece recoiled. 

Eddie was fed up with Senator White’s bullshit. “Yeah,” he said, loudly, “and that membrane prototype saved my life. Just as well I had it, right?”

Treece hissed, “I don’t give a shit that you’re alive. It’s about the money!”

Even more loudly, Eddie said, “You can pat yourselves on the back for a PR job well done. Everyone knows about that tech now, and that it saved me and Xan.” 

“You think you’re so smart,” Treece snarled, “but this isn’t over,” and he stalked back to his master.

Eddie went over and slid into the seat Xan had saved for him.

“What was that about?” Xan whispered.

“Capitalism,” Eddie said shortly, and Xan pulled a face.

A chime rang out, and the final latecomers hurried to find their seats as a hush filled the courtyard.

Unity stepped forward, flanked only by Calamity, the space at zer other shoulder glaringly empty. ‘Welcome to you all on this joyful day, and especially to those of you who are about to join our family. However, before we begin the festivities, we bid farewell to some friends who are leaving us.’

At her gesture, three people came forward, one of the bear-like aliens, a giant snakey-looking being of a kind Eddie had never seen before, and one of the bat aliens. This particular bat-person looked just like a younger version of Qewshi, making the back of Eddie’s throat ache. All three walked down the jetty together. The first two aliens dipped their hands in the water, and Symbiotes slithered away from them, quickly disappearing into the depths. The snakey one took longer. The Symbiote emerged slowly, and lingered in front of them. The two of them gazed at each other, each of them drooping with sadness. Finally, the Symbiote oozed away and dropped into the water, but stayed floating on the surface until the snake slithered back to the courtyard and out of its view.

All three of the aliens were ushered away before Unity returned to centre stage. Ze smiled, showing all zer magnificent teeth, and with a ripple was covered in the bright green of their Symbiote, who was also smiling with even more teeth. ‘Now it is time to Choose.’

Starting with the dolphins, Unity asked them one-by-one if they were willing to Bond with a Symbiote. They each trundled down to stand before the pool full of watching Symbiotes to give their answer.  Most said no, but then a dolphin with sleek purple skin and the occasional streak of yellow came down to stand before the pool.

Unity asked it, ‘Will you join our family in Symbiosis, sharing your body with your Chosen, as they will share their protection and strength with you, giving your friendship freely as you travel together through tides and seasons, tranquil waters and bountiful crops, tempests and cruel harvests?

The dolphin fumbled a little with their answer, clearly nervous. ‘Before you all as witness, I take my friend Screech to be the companion of my body, to accept them and work together with them as we swim as one through the seas of life.’

Unity smiled at them. ‘Then I welcome you, Bahr, to our clan.’

Calamity escorted them through an archway festooned with flowers to the pier. The wheels of their little motorized scooter squeaked as they bumped onto the wooden planks of the jetty. They came to a stop as close to the water as they could get, and a moment later, a green Symbiote hopped up onto the wood. It held out a pseudopod, and the dolphin dropped its snout until they made contact. And then the Symbiote just… melted into the dolphin’s body.

Screech & Bahr [Puppis]

“Whoa,” Eddie breathed, and Xan reached over and gripped his hand tightly. She was shaking a little, but also craning forward eagerly to see what was happening.

The dolphin shuddered all over, Calamity steadying it for a moment, and then they trundled back to the courtyard for Unity’s final blessing. After they were checked over by their waiting physician, they went back to their seat. Their fellow dolphins crowded around, making soft noises and nosing their friend, but settled down once Unity started asking the next group – the batlike Vul – the same question.

Group by group, Unity worked through the stands. Quite a few said no, but about a quarter said yes. The Humans’ turn came about two thirds of the way through.

With a final squeeze of Eddie’s hand, Xan bounded down the steps to stand before the pool. She said her vow to Euphoria, voice quavering a little with excitement, and barely waited for Calamity before setting off down the jetty. She knelt down near the water, hand outstretched. Euphoria leapt up onto the wooden planks with a splash and zipped over to Xan. Even having seen it dozens of times already, it was still peculiar watching Euphoria melt into Xan’s skin. A moment later, Xan said, “Hi!” and tilted her head as though listening to some reply the rest of them couldn’t hear. She nodded, then accepted Calamity’s help back onto her feet.

When they stepped off the jetty, Unity took one of Xan’s hands, and signed, ‘Euphoria, we welcome you to the ranks of the Hosted. We charge you with the duty to cherish your Host. Do you promise to go forth together, and care for their body as your own, share all the bounty you create together fairly, and protect them through all the perils you face?’  

Euphoria must have sent through a positive chemosignal, because Unity nodded and let go of Xan’s hand.

“A joyful Symbiosis to you both,” Unity said, smiling at them.

Xan rested her hand on her chest looking choked up, and Eddie figured Euphoria was feeling a lot of emotions. After that, Calamity led her back to the stands. Dan gave her a quick once-over, and then she reclaimed her seat. “Piece of cake,” she whispered, as Oluchi was saying a slightly teary, “Thank you for opening your waters to me, but I will continue to swim alone.”

Cletus was the only other Human who said yes, and ended up Bonding with Carnage.

Then it was Eddie’s turn. It felt a bit like he was floating above his body, his head bobbing along like a balloon attached to his shoulders with string. He grunted out the vow to accept Venom, barely aware of Xan fist-pumping up in the stands, and stumbled down to the end of the jetty. He collapsed in a heap, grateful he didn’t have to pretend to be functional for this bit. The water roiled, filled with gawking Symbionts, and he had a horrible moment of not being able to see Venom in the tangle. He leaned forward, searching, still not able to see – oh thank fuck – there was Venom’s familiar ink. Venom leapt onto the wood and scooted towards him, a pseudopod already stretching out. Eddie held out his hand, welcoming Venom’s touch, and with just that one small point of contact between them, Venom hesitated for a moment, like a dog taking a sniff. Eddie had no idea what Venom was making of the cacophony of emotions rolling off him, but Venom seemed reassured and barrelled forward eagerly. Eddie watched, not quite believing what was happening, as Venom seeped into him. He was watching, and then he was feeling: his skin prickling all over, his whole body shuddering at the creeping up his spine, and then something flared inside his head.

Radiating joyous relief and wonder, Venom said, Eddie! You are perfect!  

Eddie, too overwrought to speak, patted his chest, and hoped the sentiment translated.

With Calamity’s help, he somehow made his way back down the jetty, endured Unity’s final ritual admonishment to Venom, and let Dan shine a light into his eyes. Then he slumped into his seat, feeling exhausted, and let the world go by without him for a little bit, the rest of the ceremony passing in a blur. Through the haze, just as exhausted and overwhelmed and happy, was Venom, curled up in the back of his mind. This was going to take some getting used to. 

Eventually, he roused enough to get up when the others did and followed them back to the infirmary in the Oxygen Quarter.

One entire wall of the infirmary was taken up by a buffet table absolutely crammed with food, which seemed a bit like overkill for only three Humans and the handful of other oxygen-breathers who had said yes. Eddie didn’t pay it much heed, as he immediately collapsed into his assigned bed. He conked out while Venom was murmuring in wonder that Your pseudopods really do stay the same all the time and making individual muscles twitch.  

Some time later he staggered out of bed absolutely ravenous, and had already eaten half a roasted bird before he had really woken up. His hands and face were covered in grease, his stomach still growling with a need for more, and Venom moaned, Food! so loudly, Eddie expected someone to shush them. He looked around as he finished eating the drumstick in his hands, but no-one else was paying him any attention. Xan was still snoring in her bed, Cletus was devouring a plate of fried tubers, and Bujny had its toes shoved into a bucket of liquid nutrients. Dan was busy writing up some notes about a small Spiderfish who looked a lot like the one Eddie had seen doing gardening that morning; it was shivering a bit with fever, and Dan looked worried.

Eddie crammed more of the meat into his mouth, still desperately hungry. He paused mid-chew. Without any warning, his stomach rebelled. He clutched it and scrambled for the bathroom, making it just in time to vomit spectacularly into the toilet.

Dan came in and took a good look at what he’d thrown up, then patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. That’s totally normal. Just try eating a bit slower.”

Eddie moaned in agreement. 

Dan went back out into the main room, and Eddie washed his face and rinsed out his mouth. Hungry! Venom complained.

“I hear you, buddy,” Eddie said, avoiding the sight of his pasty, sweating face in the mirror. “But I think we need to take Dan’s advice.” After patting himself dry, he went back to the table, avoiding the remnants of the bird, which one of the dining staff was clearing away. There was a whole array of drinks, so he poured himself some purple fruit juice, and took a few cautious sips. His stomach grumbled a bit, but began to settle.

He was just starting to contemplate trying the fried tubers – Cletus was eating them without any trouble, so they were probably safe – when Xan bolted upright like something out of a horror movie. She practically levitated off the bed and lunged for the food. Grabbing up handfuls of cake, she shoved them in her mouth, moaning with pleasure. 

“Hey, you might want to slow down a little,” Eddie tried, but it was like Xan didn’t even hear him. She kept right on shovelling cake. A moment later she paused, one cheek still bulging, hiccuped and dashed for the bathroom.

The sound of retching wafted out, and Dan went to check on her. He came back out a moment later, shaking his head, but clearly not worried.

Eddie served himself a modest plate of fried tubers, despite Venom’s urging to take the whole bowl. “Let’s focus on keeping our lunch on the inside this time, alright? We can always come back for seconds.”

Venom grumpily acquiesced, and they went back to his bed to eat. The tubers tasted a bit like Tater Tots. Venom was vibrating with delight at each bite.

Xan shuffled back out of the bathroom looking just as pasty and sweaty as Eddie had earlier. She looked at the food, clutched at her stomach, and went to pour out her own glass of purple juice instead.

She came over and sat next to Eddie on his bed. “You could have tried a bit harder to stop me, asshole.”

Eddie noisily crunched a Tuber Tot at her.

“Ugh,” she punched him in the arm.

They both paused. Xan was still holding her glass of juice in both hands, and there was a sky-blue pseudopod sticking out of her shoulder.

“That’s awesome,” Eddie said.

“Heck yes, it is!” Xan jumped off the bed, and said, “Go-go-Symbiote-suit!” At first nothing happened, and then in fits and starts, blue plasma slowly engulfed her body, until she was covered from head to toe. “I have to see this!”

Xan raced back to the bathroom, and Eddie followed her. He found Euphoria admiring itself in the mirror, wearing a great big goofy grin all over its face. Wearing the Symbiote, Xan’s body was bigger somehow – still clearly her, but with more muscle and maybe three inches taller. Without warning, half of Euphoria’s face peeled back to reveal Xan wearing exactly the same goofy grin.

“Come on,” she urged, “do yours!”

Focusing inwards, Eddie thought, What do you say, buddy? and he could feel Venom’s excitement to give it a try.

Eddie’s eyes changed first, slowly turning white, and then like a carpet unrolling, the change cascaded down over his body. 

“Wicked,” Xan breathed.

She wasn’t wrong. Eddie turned, trying to see himself from all angles. He was covered in inky black, but here and there were streaks of white that made the whole thing look fantastic. He was also ripped, massively, enormously so. He touched one of his pecs, and it felt a bit like a balloon filled with cornflour – hard as a rock when he tapped, but kind of giving when he pressed more slowly.

“We’re non-Newtonian!” Xan crowed, conducting a similar experiment on herself. “I wonder if that means we’re bulletproof. I bet we are!”

“Don’t try that!” Eddie said. “Your mind is terrifying.” 

“Spoilsport,” she said, pulling at Euphoria’s mouth to see how wide she could make it.

Eddie left her to explore her body in peace. The Tuber Tots were calling him.

---

 

Once they had all managed to keep a meal down, Dan did a final physical – shone a light in Eddie’s eyes; made him say Ahhh and looked in his mouth; pressed a freezing cold stethoscope to his chest; took his temperature and blood pressure; hammered his knees to check his reflexes. Venom thought the whole thing was hilarious, and kept offering to tell Dan what Eddie’s organs looked and tasted like.

Stop nibbling on my insides, Eddie thought. It’s distracting. You can play once we’re alone.

In reply, Venom did something that sent tingles all up and down his spine.

Dan finished washing his hands and said, “Your temp’s still a bit high, so make sure you drink something at least every couple of hours until your body settles, but otherwise you’re fit as a fiddle.”

“Thanks, Doc.” Eddie gratefully started putting shirt and shoes back on. “So I can leave?”

“Sure,” Dan said. As Eddie headed to the door, he called out, “Enjoy your honeymoon.”

Xan looked up from her phone and snickered. Eddie could feel the blush burning across his cheeks and the back of his neck as he made his escape.

What’s a honeymoon? Venom asked, its curiosity at the heat in his face coming through loud and clear.

“Dan’s idea of a joke. Don’t worry about it.” He’d instinctively started heading for the domed garden, but paused as a group of unfamiliar Hosts walked by; they had arrived in time for Qewshi’s funeral, but were still here, by the sounds of it, because of the upcoming Ascension. One flexed a giant pseudopod and boasted, ‘Our training regimen has achieved perfect Symbiosis!’ and received cheerful jeers from their friends in response.

“Should we do that?” Eddie asked. He didn’t really fancy working out, but the information packet on Bonding had said that physical training could help strengthen their connection. It wasn’t like they were planning to fight anyone, though, let alone challenge anyone for the title of Emperor. 

Venom shrugged inside him. Later, maybe, it said, sounding distracted, thinking about something else entirely. Could… is it okay if… could I use your hands to practice drawing?  

Eddie hesitated. The idea of giving up control of his body was weird, but he also kind of wanted to give it a try. Maybe not in his room, though. He wasn’t quite ready for the added intimacy of being alone with Venom. Alone in his body with Venom.

He continued his trek down to the garden and perched on the edge of the fountain. The sun was warm on his face, the air smelled like growing things, and next to him the fountain chuckled endlessly to itself. Some of the tension in his muscles loosened.

Venom pushed out a pseudopod which transformed into a head. Its tiny mouth yawed open comically wide and out popped the baggie with the art supplies inside. Eddie managed to catch them before they tumbled into the water.

“What are you planning to draw, buddy?” he asked, opening the bag.

You, Venom said, its eyespots big and adoring.

Eddie probably should have expected that. “Okay, I’ll just…” He put the pad and pencils down next to him and let his hands curl in his lap. He tried to remember that meditation technique Mrs Chen was always trying to teach him. He focused on his breath. The movement of his chest and the feel of the air in his nose.

At first, Venom didn’t quite understand what Eddie was doing or how something as Human as breathing worked. Then came a growing sense of pleasure and wonder as it figured it out. Eddie could feel a tendril wrap around his ribcage to better experience it expanding and contracting, and then the gas exchange inside his lungs became noticeably more efficient. A deep serenity blossomed between the two of them as they started to sync up, each of them working together to achieve their common goal. In… pause… out…

As carefully as a child picking its first strawberry, Venom’s thoughts eased forward, and somehow Eddie found himself looking through his own eyes as though they were a television screen – a step removed from his own senses. His right hand lifted, flexed – the muscles and tendons looked strange and new. Venom fumbled with the pencil until Eddie figured out how to offer the muscle memory and it became firm between their fingers.

Eddie, Venom marvelled.

Keep going, Eddie urged.

Venom picked up the notepad and started to draw. The first few lines were tentative, but were soon assured – fingers much better designed for this kind of art than pseudopods. The image taking shape was recognizably Eddie, although Venom wasn’t satisfied with the nose. It flipped the page and tried again.

Eddie, warm and content, dozed a little, only vaguely aware of Venom’s labor. The minutes flowed by, marked by flipping pages and the occasional click of the pencil lead. Three pictures. Four. Eventually Eddie’s hand cramped, and with a jolt he was back in the driver’s seat and digging his left thumb into his right palm to rub out the pain. He looked down at the final image. It looked just like him, although happier than he’d ever seen himself.

Always look like that, Venom protested.

Eddie shrugged, unwilling to fight about it. Maybe he did always look like that these days.

“What next?” he asked.

Swimming? 

Eddie agreed and packed up the art supplies, offering them back to Venom to re-swallow. He started to head to the underground pool as usual, but Venom protested, No, the lake! 

Eddie hadn’t been to that part of the Palace often. It required going through an airlock, and he pulled out his rebreather and held it ready in his hand before entering, despite Venom’s amused assurance that it wasn’t needed. The methane tasted strange on his tongue as the atmosphere changed composition, but it was as easy to breathe as air always was. Venom radiated smugness at him as he tucked his rebreather away again.

They made their way towards the lake, the corridors becoming steadily more busy the closer they got. When they finally arrived outside, they were faced with dozens and dozens of Symbiotes leaping over obstacles, swinging themselves to and fro using whatever was available to grip on to, racing each other through the lake, and wrestling, tossing, and punching each other. General Torment was drilling a whole squad of Agents, and everywhere they looked, Symbiotes were undertaking improbable feats of physical prowess. Even Xan and Euphoria were throwing and catching a ball with another bright pink Symbiote.

Eddie and Venom froze as one. Without a word, they slunk off before anyone spotted them, heading back to Eddie’s room.

As they were unlocking the door, Oluchi popped out of her own room, and her sunny smile dimmed. 

“Oh,” she said. “I thought you were Xan coming back.”

“No,” Eddie said awkwardly. “Just me… and, you know. Venom.”

Venom extruded a pseudopod and waved at her.

“Wow,” she said, watching it with wide eyes. “Um. Hi Venom. Congratulations on your Bonding.”

Venom manifested a tiny face at the end of the pseudopod and said, “Eddie is the best Host! ”

It was a thoroughly weird sensation, because Venom took the words in English from Eddie’s brain, but they came out via Venom’s mouth.

“I’m sure he is,” Oluchi said warmly.

“He let me use his hands! ” Venom said, vibrating with delight. “We shared his body! ”

Oluchi dropped her gaze and bit her lip. Eddie could feel the back of his neck heating up again.

“We should really–” Eddie began, and Oluchi said, “Yes, I have to–” and waved at her own door, already shuffling back towards it. “Enjoy your, um–”

Don’t say it, Eddie thought, hastily swiping the key card against the lock. Don’t say it.

“–honeymo–”

“Great, thanks,” Eddie said, and dived through the door.

The door hadn’t even finished shutting, when Venom demanded, Honeymoon? Its little head had gone slit-eyed with displeasure, unwilling to be put off again.

Eddie could feel Venom’s irritation, worry and curiosity mix with his own frustration and shame, turning into a pulsing ache inside his head; he grasped at his hair with both hands and tugged. It was too soon and he wasn’t ready, but he was probably never going to feel ready, so he figured he may as well rip the bandaid off. He reached back and grabbed the neck of his shirt, pulling it up and off and dropping it on the floor.

“A honeymoon is what Humans do when they get married.” He unbuckled his belt, yanked it out of the loops and dropped it on the floor. “That’s our version of Bonding. It usually involves going away somewhere nice, eating good food, and spending time together. Kind of like what we’ve been doing.” He popped off a shoe and lifted his foot, hopping in place as he peeled off the sock. He tossed it towards his discarded shirt. “But the reason everyone keeps saying happy honeymoon to us, like a joke, is because the main thing a honeymoon is for is sex.” He repeated his shoe dance with the other foot, flinging this sock away without looking. “And they think because you’re an alien, we’re not going to have sex. And that difference in what the word means and what they think is going happen is what makes if fucking hilarious. ”

Venom was wafting waves of confusion as it watched Eddie strip.

Eddie emptied his pants’ pockets onto the bedside ledge - phone, notebook, pen, screwed up tissue. “But what they don’t really get, because they don’t really understand Bonding, is that sooner or later we are going to have sex. Because it’s something I need to do, and we share a body now. Do they think you’re just going to close your eyes and hum fucking Greensleeves or something? Pretend I’m not jerking off?” He popped the button on his pants, and shoved them down, briskly stepping out of them. “Fuck, no. You’re going to watch, just like you watched me piss. Like you’re watching me now. You’re going to be nosey about it. I want you to be nosey about it. God knows if you’ll like it or not, but it’s definitely not going to be a solo endeavour.”

He paused with his fingers slid into the elastic of his boxer shorts. “Questions?”

Venom cocked its head to one side. What’s sex?

Eddie paused, and barely resisted facepalming. Of course it didn’t know. The education system for Symbiotes, if it could even be called that, really fucking sucked. Everything must be so weird for Venom right now. 

Letting the elastic of his boxers snap back into place, he snagged Venom’s pseudopod, pulling its head close, and smooched it right between the eyes. “It’s the way Humans make babies… spawn.”

Venom screwed up its face. It’s not spawning time yet.

“Humans don’t have a spawning time. We can spawn whenever we want.” And to cut off the next inevitable question, “It feels really good, so we tend to do it a lot.”

Sounding dubious, the If you say so remaining unspoken but present between them, Venom asked, You want to spawn now?

“I don’t want to make a baby now. I just want to show you what it’s like. I can do that without actually spawning anything.”

Venom nestled trustingly into Eddie’s hand. Okay. 

“We don’t have to,” Eddie said. “It’ll keep if you’re not ready.”

You did my art. It’s your turn to choose. We can spawn the Human way if you want to.

Eddie took stock. Venom was nudging into his hand for more touch, which was promising. Inside, Venom’s anxiety had eased, and Eddie was feeling calmer too; all that was left was Venom’s endless curiosity and an edge of worry that Human spawning might be boring.

“Right.” Eddie shucked off his boxers, and clambered onto the bed until he was right in the middle. Lots of room. He stayed on his knees because that had always been his favorite, and if he was doing this, he wanted it to be good.

Venom still had a head extruded, keenly watching Eddie’s every move. Eddie felt less embarrassed than he thought he would. This was one of the big things he’d worried about, and one of the things he’d most carefully tried not to anticipate. Now it was here, he found all of that baggage had sloughed away, and he really wanted to see Venom’s reaction.

He ran his hands over his thighs, enjoying the warmth and the simple feeling of being touched. Venom shivered and looped itself around his neck so it could dangle down over his shoulder to watch more closely.

“You could, uh,” trailing his fingers up his belly to his chest, Eddie pressed down on each nipple in turn, enjoying the pang of pleasure. “If you still want to taste me, you could lick here.”

Venom willingly let its tongue loll out, and laved at his chest without any finesse. The sight of all those teeth so close to his skin sent a pulse of heat through Eddie, and Venom paused, clearly feeling it, then licked again with more enthusiasm. Slime oozed down Eddie’s chest towards his pubic hair. A month ago, that would have been gross, but now it was warm and felt like the water in the Symbiont pool. Eddie trailed his fingers through it, and brought it up to his nose. Yeah. That scent. His cock started filling, jerking a little in time with his pulse.

With his slime-covered fingers, Eddie trailed a line from root to tip. His balls twitched, and his skin slicked with the first pricks of sweat. He could tell the moment the sensation hit Venom: it jerked back, tongue lolling heedlessly out of its mouth, forgotten, its eyespots huge. 

“Yeah,” Eddie said, grinning. “Hang on to your tentacles, it gets better.”

His cock was shiny red now and desperate for touch, but he ignored it for a bit longer. He reached down and cupped his balls, enjoying the crinkle of hair and the way they were going taut, gently raking his fingers over the sensitive skin. His hips jerked, seeking out more.

Eddie, Venom demanded, watching his hand intently.

Eddie obediently scooped up a bit more of the slime on his belly, and used it to ease the way as he traced around the crown of his cock. His whole body was singing, and he started to pant. At the first tiny blurt of wet, Venom shuddered. 

Letting go again, Eddie ran his fingers up and down his thighs, already feeling the first hint of tremors in the muscles there. He wanted to touch himself, and he didn’t, and the anticipation was delicious.

Eddie! Venom wailed, completely overwrought. 

Before Eddie could offer reassurance, a pseudopod blossomed from his dick. It flowered open, curling into multiple tendrils that arched above his groin like an umbrella. 

“Oh, fuck, oh wow.” Eddie dug his fingers into his knees to steady himself. His dick felt fucking amazing. “Go on,” he coaxed.

Each of the tips of the pseudopods touched down on the yearning skin of his cock. They slicked over his skin, almost like fingertips, tracing up and down, up and down. 

Like that? Venom sounded wonderstruck, eager to please.

“You’re doing great.” Eddie shivered. “So great. Wrap around me,” he urged.

The tendrils irised around him and Eddie moaned. So good. Fuck. “Keep doing that,” he managed, and started playing with his nipples. Venom paused and stared at his fingers, as though only now realising the point of licking him there. 

Venom jolted when Eddie pinched himself, immediately opening its mouth and snaking its tongue out to join in while still wringing his cock. The tendrils didn’t feel like a hand; they didn’t feel like anything he’d had around his cock before. It was firing him up like nothing else.

Venom’s tongue was coiling and uncoiling around his left nipple – a sweet pain that ached through him.

Eddie hips helplessly thrust up into Venom’s grip, thighs quaking. He was sheened in sweat now, and gasping for breath, neck tendons straining. He wouldn’t need much more to get there.

Abruptly, Venom’s tongue curled back into its mouth.

“Okay?” Eddie rasped, hips still circling into the slick clasp of tendrils. Venom was staring at his face – likely all flushed and screwed up with too-much pleasure – or maybe at the pulse fluttering wildly in his neck. Eddie didn’t care; he was close now, sparkles of white light starting to fill the edges of his vision and lightning zipping up his spine and down into his dick. He rocked forward into Venom’s grip again, and instead of rocking with it, this time Venom leaned in closer. It opened its maw and pressed its teeth all along the straining tendons in Eddie’s throat. Eddie could feel each point, pressing into his thundering pulse, wet and sharp. 

“Fuck!” Eddie shouted and came, a jet of white streaking through and over the jet black tendrils suckling his cock. He whimpered, clutching Venom’s head as he writhed through each endless throb. Collapsing on his side, Venom beneath him, he shook through the last of it, Venom echoing each pulse of pleasure with its own shiver a moment later. Another, and Eddie groaned with it, near pain.

Finally it eased off, leaving him wrung out and blissed out in equal measure. Venom’s tendrils stilled when his cock started to twinge, and gently oozed back inside him.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie breathed, and gave in to the urge he’d had all those weeks ago. He mouthed at the bit of Venom’s head beneath his cheek, feeling the give of the plasma under his teeth. Venom licked him back, tongue brushing against the lobe of his ear, and sending a pleasant aftershock through them both.

“So that’s sex,” Eddie mumbled. “The Human way. Thoughts?”

Venom popped a pseudopod out of his shoulder, and stroked it down Eddie’s sweaty back. Can we do it again?

Eddie huffed a laugh, and kissed Venom’s little squinty face. “Sure, I just need a little nap first. Then we can do it in the bath if you like. See if you like it with water.” 

Venom loved that idea, and was still full of energy, ready to go again, but instead it affectionately wrapped itself around Eddie like a blanket and settled down to wait. We have the best training regimen.  

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed and nodded off to the pleasant feeling of Venom’s anticipation.

---

 

It turned out that Venom did like the bath. It also liked Eddie on all fours on the floor, unable to touch himself. And cradled in a pseudopod sex-swing, stroking him on the inside and outside at the same time.

During a refuelling break, in which Eddie was making serious inroads on the complimentary snack basket, Venom announced, Eddie, I like our honeymoon.

Eddie shuffled the bite of dried-something-like-a-pear into his cheek and said, “Yeah? Me too, sweetheart. A+ would recommend.”

We should try it while you’re inside of me.

Eddie imagined that for a moment, the feeling of being encased in Venom, both of them moving together. Beneath his arms sweat started to prickle, Venom’s excitement matching his own. He hastily swallowed his mouthful and said, “You have the best ideas.”

 

Notes:

Summary for those who skipped the Explicit part of this chapter:
Eddie explains that most Humans' understanding of symbiosis is superficial, which is why Dan and Oluchi made honeymoon jokes, but that he is okay with Venom experiencing all his bodily functions, including sex. Eddie and Venom then spend most of their acclimatisation period having sex instead of training together.

Chapter 10: Ascension

Chapter by cupidsbow

Eddie expected the lead up to the Ascension Contest to feel ominous, but instead it felt more like a festival. Most of the dignitaries who had come to pay their respects to the Emporeen had left, and while the Palace felt much less crowded, there were still hundreds of Symbiotes who were bouncing off the walls in excitement – sometimes literally – for what was to come.

Another thing Eddie had been wrong about was who would be attending. He’d thought it would just be the Bonded, but the unbonded Symbionts were also welcome, as were guests. Unity came by to tell them they could invite two people each, and explained it was because Symbiotes liked Hosts to stay connected to their birth families for as long as possible.

Eddie figured that was pretty sensible, as it meant family members were more likely to feel comfortable volunteering as Hosts in the future. 

Venom was fascinated by the very idea of birth families. We don’t group ourselves that way, it said, when Eddie asked about it. When he pressed for more on how they did group themselves, Venom gave the mental equivalent of a blank look, so Eddie figured it was a touchy subject and he’d revisit it later.

It was a no-brainer for Eddie to invite Annie and Dan, although Xan complained, “You dick, I was going to ask them!”

“You snooze, you lose,” Eddie said smugly, as he added them to the list of guests.

In the end, she asked Chen and Oluchi, who were both surprisingly excited.

“Are you mental?” Chen said. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I don’t care if it’s full of violence and mayhem. I’m going to record everything.”

Oluchi just said it sounded “Interesting,” which Eddie had to grant was definitely true. However, he suspected her real interest was actually in Xan.

It turned out that Bujny invited Ellis, much to Eddie’s confusion. When Eddie asked why, they said they wanted to “re-grow peace between them.” Personally, Eddie thought Bujny had more chance of spontaneously sprouting a set of Christmas baubles, but as they were the injured party, Eddie kept his opinion to himself.

However, the real surprise ended up being that Senator White and Treece were on the guest list. Eddie stared at their names, until Annie noticed and told him that Cletus had invited them. Cletus shrugged and said, “There’s no-one I wanted to invite, and they asked,” and ate another bite of his latest Dinner Surprise.

On the day of the Ascension, they all headed to the Imperial Room well before things were due to kick off, having already been warned that the doors would be locked once the Contest started. Eddie felt smug about his life choices when Annie and Dan put on their rebreathers, although he tried not to let it show. He and Venom had eventually gone for their swim in the lake, waiting until dark when there were fewer other people around; Eddie was now pretty comfortable not wearing his own rebreather. It was strange but awesome not to have to worry about having enough oxygen anymore.

Xan started to put on her rebreather, then paused, obviously listening to Euphoria. “Oh, right,” she said, and sheepishly took it off again, shoving it down into her pocket.

The Imperial Room was set up like the Colosseum – bleachers had been brought in and covered three sides, with the obsidian dais still at the front. In the middle, the football-field sized space was bare, although all the drainage holes were plugged. The four quartz pillars looked different, but Eddie couldn’t figure out how, until Venom said, They’re full of water, and then it was obvious. Eddie wasn’t sure how much they held, but it would easily be enough to fill a small lake.

The bleachers quickly filled up, everyone chattering and laughing. Some of the more energetic unbonded Symbiotes zoomed up and down the stairs or popped in and out of the holes in the walls. The Humans were all sitting together, although Cletus, Ellis, Treece and White slightly apart from the rest. Bujny was sitting with another cactus with a tiny little head – presumably Żywy. Eddie gave them an awkward wave and shuffled into a seat that put Xan between him and them. They were still sitting close enough that Bujny could share snacks. Eddie had remembered to stuff his pockets with food, and he wasn’t the only one, with nearly all the Hosts in the stands having brought something, and some other groups even having picnic hampers they were sharing between them. Annie and Dan were stuck with drinks, which they could sip through a special straw that fitted into their rebreathers. Dan looked longingly at Eddie’s bag of nuts. Eddie, again, felt smug about his life choices.

Finally, as the sun reached its zenith, Unity entered and made zer way to the dais. Groups of Agents started shutting and locking all the airlocks and doors, leaving only the crawlways in the walls as access points, too small for any of the Bonded to make use of.

Up on the dais, Unity gave their usual growl for attention, and once the room had quieted, signed, ‘Welcome my friends. This is the last time I will be your guide until we have a new Emperor. I thank you all for the joy you have brought me as I served under the reign of Happiness III.

‘I ask you one final boon – remember the rules of the Contest. Once the waters start to flow, we become a leaderless people, and so we will remain until the waters cease. When only one of our Bonded siblings remains standing, we will have our new leader. If you do not wish to take part in the Contest, remain above the waters. For those who wish to Ascend, enter the waters before the third column flows. Be aware that your fellow Contestants can use any means to win. They can work alone or with others. They can maim you or kill you. The only rule is that you must not Contest someone who has not entered the waters, or anyone who has ceded. If you wish to cede, kneel or bow before leaving the waters. Once you cede you cannot return. Good fortune be with us all.’

Unity stepped down from the dais, and joined the small Spiderfish gardener Eddie kept seeing in the domed garden; they both sat tucked out of the way at the far end of the bleachers.

Just as conversation was starting to rise again, the distinctive sound of running water echoed out from one of the quartz columns. Eddie craned to see, and spotted a gush of water falling down and turning into a rivulet that made its way towards the centre of the room.

Nothing much happened after that. No-one leapt out and tried to stake a claim to the Empire. People continued to picnic and chatter as though nothing momentous was happening. No-one wants to be first and get tired before the end, Venom explained. 

By the time the water had formed a sizeable puddle a few people had dropped down into the arena and were horsing around and splashing each other. None of the fights were very serious – it was more showing off than anything else. A few of the more outrageous stunts got some scattered applause or stomping, depending on the appendages in question. Eddie offered around his bag of salted nuts and took a few cookies from Xan, and a handful of dried fruit from Bujny.

Fifteen minutes later, the first column sputtered to an end, and the second column gave a loud gurgle. The young bucks in the arena all fell to their knees (or equivalent leg joints), or in some cases bowed low, and scrambled back up into the safety of the bleachers. A moment later, Eddie could see why. A dozen or so burly Symbiotes were making their way together down the stairs on the other side of the room. The largest – one of the bears – was in the centre, the others fanned out around it in a protective detail. Eddie recognized them as the snail farmers who had been meeting with Happiness when the Earth delegation had first arrived. They jumped down into the arena, and formed a circle facing outwards, looking watchful but confident. Eddie wouldn’t want to fight any of them, and Venom agreed.

Next to enter were a group of uniformed Agents in a similar circle formation, with General Torment at the centre. They looked even larger and more intimidating than the snail farmers. 

“Jeepers,” Dan said. “Do you really think they’re going to kill each other?”

Venom took over Eddie’s mouth and said, “A few might die, but most will yield first.”

Dan looked relieved. 

Down in the water, some of the farmers and soldiers were eyeing each other up, but no-one had made a move yet.

A few more groups had formed at the bottom of each set of bleachers, but hadn’t yet jumped down into the arena. Eddie figured they were waiting for the two main groups to get into it, so they were less likely to be instant targets.

Things stayed at posturing until one of the Agents called one of the farmers a “snail head” and the farmer responded with, “sprat!” and it was on. The Agent’s Symbiote came out first, turning the already big bear into a great white beast with a frankly ridiculous number of teeth. The farmer was a slightly smaller bear, but its Symbiote was metallic copper, and had a wicked set of spikes. After a few test jabs, the snail farmer landed a lucky blow to the head of its opponent, and from there it turned into a snarling ball of teeth and spikes. The Agent’s weight won the fight in the end – it pushed the farmer down onto their knees with a splash, then used several pseudopods to hook them up over their head and throw them back into the bleachers.

The other Agents all bellowed or rattled their chitin and slapped their pseudopods together, while the farmers snarled and paced.

From there it turned into a melee.

Eddie winced as a particularly small bat Symbiote was kicked into the air by an enormous spine-covered cactus. The bat spun around a few times and then managed to glide back down to the water. It landed well outside the central mass of the fight, just shy of the main dais, and immediately started paddling back into the fray. Eddie’s attention was dragged away from it when Venom hissed, “Amity!” It jabbed a pseudopod, and sure enough, there was a dark splotch lurking under the water in the shadow of the dais.

It moved oddly, creeping into the deepest part of the water where it was hard to spot. “Is that…” Eddie squinted. “That little shit’s got my robot! No wonder no-one could find it.”

Eddie whipped out his phone, and pulled up the app. He dragged the icon towards them and the robot jumped several feet closer to them in response. However, after a few paces it started to jerk back and forth in a familiar way. “John freaking Travolta!” Eddie snarled. He swivelled to look at White, and sure enough, the Senator had the tablet in hand and was jabbing at it. Eddie flung out his arm, Venom piggybacked and shot out a pseudopod, slapping the tablet hard enough to break it in half.

Eddie fully intended to give White a piece of his mind as well, but Treece snatched Eddie’s phone and flung it down into the water. 

“What is your problem?” Venom/Eddie ground out, whipping a pseudopod around Treece’s throat. It took no effort at all to hoist him into the air, and Eddie could feel his mouth water with the desire to bite him.

“Eddie!” Annie slapped the pseudopod. “Put him down!”

Eddie growled, and Annie whacked him again, this time on the ear.

“Ow,” he said, the brief sting of pain reminding him why biting was bad. He reluctantly let Treece drop.

Treece landed hard on his butt. “Fuck you!” he gasped out, rubbing his throat. “We finally have a chance to show off our hardware, so stop fucking everything up.”

Ignoring him, Eddie said to Annie, “Amity is not allowed to be the Emperor. I refuse this reality. Is using a robot even legal? It’s not a Host, is it?”

Annie got her thoughtful lawyer look. Eddie knew that look and admired that look, but also hated it in this particular context. “It might be,” she said, “and if it is, it could potentially win a get-out-of-jail-free card for the attack on you, too. The new Emperor makes the rules, right?”

That was not the answer he was looking for, so Eddie stormed off to where Unity was sitting, nibbling at a piece of cake. Unfortunately, once Eddie pointed Amity out, and explained about the robot, ze said, “Actually, I think it probably is legal. A Host is mostly a chassis. Of course, a sentient Host needs to consent, which is what the Bonding ceremony is for. But a robot isn’t sentient, so technically Amity doesn’t need consent to use it as a Host.”

“Fascinating,” Annie said, because of course she’d followed him.

Eddie glared down at where Amity was lurking. They were watching him with a smug look on their face, clearly having overheard. He propped his left foot on the bench so he could unlace his shoe. 

“What are you doing?” Annie said, and grabbed his shoe before he could finish. “You are not going down there. That is a terrible idea.”

Eddie took hold of Annie’s hand in his, while Venom wrapped a possessive pseudopod around his ankle and finished untying his laces before she could notice. “I promise, I’ll just go down there, rip Amity off that robot so they no longer qualify, and get the hell out again. Ten minutes tops.”

“No way,” she said, “Venom, tell him it’s a terrible idea.”

Eddie pointedly lifted his foot, and Venom popped the shoe off. 

“Jesus, you two deserve each other.” Annie rubbed her forehead. “Give me one good reason it has to be you.” 

Trying to be as patient as he could, given how angry he was, Eddie said, “I just married into this family. They’re mine now. I don’t want to have to endure a shitty government for who knows how long because I couldn't be bothered to get off my ass. And Amity?” He jabbed a pseudopod at it. “Stabbed Xan, and tried to kill me, based on nothing but a bullshit rumor. I’m not risking them pulling some kind of sneaky stunt and ending up Emperor.”

Annie heaved a sigh, but held out her hand. “Give me your shoes.”

“You’re the best,” he said, popping off the other one and handing them over. 

He took a quick look at the arena. While he’d been talking, the fight had spread out. Several of the farmers and soldiers were already back on the bleachers, dripping wet and looking sorry for themselves. Smaller groups of two or three had entered the arena now the odds were a bit better, and there were many smaller fights happening all over. Most of them were a good distance off. Eddie flexed, feeling Venom moving inside him, ready to follow his lead. He jumped over the railing as close as he could get to the dais, landing in the surprisingly chilly water with a splash. 

He waded straight for Amity, Venom powering his legs into longer, faster strides. He punched down into the water with both hands, but Amity shot away from him like a prawn escaping a fish. How about a net? Venom suggested, and sprouted a dozen pseudopods. Eddie wobbled a bit, figuring out how to move his arm and chest muscles and then they cast the net into the water together, but Amity bobbed and dived and – fuck – managed to escape.

Venom sucked everything back in, and Eddie gave chase. He was peripherally aware of a change in the sounds of the fight. There was a horrible squelching, and several screams came from the crowd. He looked over and saw a giant red Symbiote biting off someone’s head. There were already three other headless bodies floating in the water surrounding him, blood and ichor creating a spreading stain.

Eddie gaped. The giant white bear from the Agents made a beeline for the red Symbiote, claws and a tonne of mass barrelling down. It was an awesome sight. 

Watch out, Venom hissed and took over, lurching them to the left. Instead of skewering them, Amity scored a deep scratch near Eddie’s clavicle. “Ow,” Eddie yelped, falling back into the water with the force of it even as Venom healed the wound. 

Amity skittered away again.

“Thanks for the save,” Eddie said sheepishly, clambering back to his feet. He couldn’t regret their time honeymooning together after Bonding, but maybe a bit of training would have been a good idea after all. 

Pay attention, Venom scolded, thrumming with fear for Eddie’s safety. Be with me, not alone in your head.   

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed, even as somewhere behind them, the deep bass growl of the white bear cut off in a yelp. Eddie risked a lightning fast glance, and regretted it. There were intestines in the water. He seriously considered cutting his losses, and even Venom seemed shaken.

As he hesitated, the second column started to gurgle, nearing the end of its flow. Eddie realized that Amity was between him and the column that would start next. If he and Venom timed it right, the initial burst of water would push Amity right to them. 

He figured they’d give it one more try before admitting defeat, and Venom pulsed agreement through the Bond. They positioned themselves right in the path of the oncoming flow, and wound their pseudopods together into a new net.

Something splashed down right behind them, and Eddie twisted to make sure it wasn’t a threat. 

Xan grinned. “Let’s get this done.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Eddie protested. He could still remember the feeling of Xan’s blood running down his arm as he carried her, and didn’t ever want to feel that again. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Too late!” She and Euphoria created their own pseudopod net, and positioned themselves to cover the gap.

Behind them, General Torment roared a challenge, but they couldn’t afford to turn and look. 

The water from the third column gushed out, and exactly as planned, Amity washed towards them. Xan and Euphoria whipped their net out faster than Eddie could follow and snagged Amity on the first try. Amity bucked and flexed, pseudopods lashing out. They snuck one through a hole and clocked Xan in the nose. Xan flinched back and Euphoria made a worried cooing sound as blood poured down Xan’s face. 

Eddie’s breathing seized.

“I’m fine,” Xan assured, wiping her face on her t-shirt’s sleeve. She grinned at Eddie, still streaked with blood. “I’m fine, stop worrying. ‘Fora healed it great.”

Fists clenched, Eddie turned on Amity. Their attempt at distraction had worked, and they were almost free of the net, just one leg of the robot still trapped. Eddie lunged and added their own net to shore up Xan’s. Venom and Euphoria’s pseudopods wound together creating a prison that finally held Amity between them.

“Yield,” Eddie demanded.

‘No!’ Amity signed. They writhed and struggled, and Eddie could tell that if they didn’t neutralize them soon, they’d probably get free again.

“Now what do we do with them?” Xan asked, obviously coming to the same conclusion.

“They can’t take part in the Contest if they don’t have a Host, right?” Eddie looked up at the walls until he found a hole that would be an impossibly tight fit for the robot. He pointed it out to Xan, who nodded in agreement.

With a heave, they both jumped up into the bleachers with Amity swinging between them, and sprinted up as high as they could go. 

“On three,” Eddie said, and counted them down. On the mark, they shoved Amity in the hole as hard as they could, wedging the robot firmly into the tiny rock tunnel. Perhaps another Hosted Symbiote might be able to get it out again, but Amity surely could not.

“That’s for stabbing me,” Xan said, and gave Amity the finger.

Eddie wanted to do more – maybe punch them in their horrible face – but they slithered off into the darkness before he could. Good riddance, Venom growled.

It wasn’t justice, but at least Amity couldn’t win the throne now. Eddie could live with that. “Come on,” he said, “let’s get back down there and tap–” 

General Torment’s scream cut him off. The red giant held aloft two of the General’s detached legs, golden blood splattering from them onto the water.

Torment skittered away, and bowed, clearly yielding. The red Symbiote didn’t seem to care, stalking towards him. Before Red could attack again, allies from the stands grabbed Torment up in their pseudopods and dragged him back out of the water.

The other three remaining Contestants stopped fighting each other as they became aware of the silence filling the arena. Red turned to look at them. Two immediately dropped to their knees and scrambled out of the water. The third, a vicious-looking Spiderfish, darted towards Red.

“Who is that?” Eddie said, jabbing a finger at the red Symbiote.

Xan’s voice wobbled as she said, “Cletus and Carnage.”

Eddie didn’t want to believe it, but he did. His stomach lurched with guilt as he remembered back to his idle comparison of this Cletus to the serial killer – Kasady. He’d known then that something was off, his story sense had been telling him, and he’d ignored it. 

The Spiderfish got in a single hit, and then Carnage stomped on its tail so hard it tore off, gushing blue blood.

Carnage opened its mouth gleefully, looming over the flailing Spiderfish, and Eddie squeezed his eyes closed for a moment. It did nothing to block out the squelching, tearing sounds. He felt sick. 

He opened his eyes just in time to see Carnage tossed the remains of the body aside, and look around for any other Contestants. 

There were none.

The third pillar had already started to empty, no-one else could enter the arena now, and Happiness was a no-show.

Carnage was going to be Emperor, and Cletus would be the Emporeen. The galaxy was fucked.

Eddie glanced over at Xan, and found her looking back at him, the same realisation written on her face. 

“Do you think we could beat him together?” she whispered.

Eddie shook his head. He was pretty sure it would take a whole army to stop Cletus and Carnage at this point, and there wasn’t one of those around.

After prodding at a few bodies to make sure they were dead, Carnage scanned the stands. His attention fell on them almost immediately. He started plowing through the body-filled water towards them.

“What do we do?” Xan asked, taking an instinctive step back.

Eddie got an idea. Possibly a really terrible idea. He took Xan’s hand. Venom, he thought. Tell them to use their castanets. 

He could feel Venom exuding the message to Euphoria, plasma to plasma.

Xan’s eyes widened – message received – and she nodded at him.

We’ll hold him off as long as we can, Venom passed along without Eddie having to verbalise it. Eddie gave Xan’s hand a final squeeze, and let go. Ignoring the fear sweat soaking through his shirt, he walked down the stairs.

Xan and Euphoria made their way along the back of the bleachers, putting distance between them and Carnage.

Carnage leapt up out of the water, and the people in the stands scattered before him. Eddie’s heart was hammering in his throat as he closed the distance between them. Carnage lifted one giant fist and bent his knees to spring at him, but instead of engaging, Eddie darted away, leaping over picnic baskets and cushions. Carnage slammed along behind him, the bleachers shaking beneath each step. Eddie was just a hair faster, managing to stay ahead, but he could also hear screams and cries of pain as Carnage charged uncaringly right through the audience.

Seeing Annie and Dan up ahead, Eddie veered off, back towards the water. He made a running dive, and shot halfway across the pool before surfacing. Carnage followed, and was gaining fast.

And then the sound echoed across the water: click-clack.

Xan and Euphoria were standing in the shallower end of the pool near the dais, as far from the audience as possible. They did it again, sending out the call to all the unbonded sprats.

Carnage whipped around, like a dog scenting a rabbit. He’d seen Euphoria do this down below, and knew what it meant. He snarled, and surged towards her.

A ball of rage filled Eddie’s chest. Fuck that. No-one was putting another finger on his kiddo if Eddie could help it. He closed the distance between them and leapt onto Carnage’s back. Eddie pummelled him with everything he and Venom had – fists, teeth, feet, and pseudopod skewers. They hammered and hammered, until they punched a hole right through Carnage’s side.

With a roar of pain and rage, Carnage rolled over into the water, taking Eddie with him. They became a writhing mess of limbs and pseudopods. Carnage had the weight advantage, but Eddie was faster. Carnage threw punches that landed like anvils even though none were a direct hit, and Eddie was starting to feel dizzy. He twisted and squirmed, and managed to get away, hoping for a chance to catch his breath before Carnage attacked again. 

Carnage waded after him, relentless. As Eddie backed away, the red plasma split open to reveal Cletus’s face. “It’s a shame it’s come to this, Eddie. I was hoping we could be friends, and you’d write up my biography like you did for the last Emporeen.” 

Eddie snarled, “Fuck you, asshole.”

Cletus scowled, and the mask snapped back into place as Carnage shot a dozen steel-hard slivers of plasma into Eddie, sending him sprawling into the water. The pain was so bad, Eddie couldn’t even scream, just gasp and clutch his chest, Venom’s panicky, No, no, no seeming far away. Eddie didn’t even see the kick coming, but it hit him hard enough he flew through the air and crashed into the second row of bleachers. The world blackened at the edges of Eddie’s vision; he was barely able to see Carnage turning away to go after Xan.

There were a dozen or so sprats in the water around Xan now. Not enough. And Carnage was closing in fast. 

Eddie groaned and tried to sit up, but… the blades. Fuck. Everything hurt, and he thought maybe he was dying. No, not allowed to die, Venom moaned, sounding equally fucked up. Eddie could feel the shanks cutting right through Venom’s plasma as well as his own flesh. He flinched when General Torment loomed over him. Without a word, the General started pulling out the blades. Eddie looked down and could see his own intestines. He watched the wounds close up and hide his insides from view again.

‘Get up,’ the General ordered. ‘You’re not done yet.’ 

Eddie nodded. There was no way he would make it in time; he got up anyway. He lurched over to the railing and fell into the water. There was something wrong with his back – Working on it, Venom grunted.

Xan was retreating, but not fast enough; the growing cloud of sprats moving with her.

Carnage snarled, way too close.

Eddie staggered towards them, knowing he’d be too late.

Carnage made a grab, but Xan ducked at the last moment, barely managing to escape.

Before he could try again, a missile flew out of the stands, bouncing off the back of Carnage's head. Carnage spun around to look.

Ellis was standing up in his seat. He gave Carnage the finger and shouted. “I’d rather have fucking Brock as the Emperor than a fucking cannibal, dickweed.” With that, he pulled back and flung another drink bottle full force. It sailed through the air, dead on target. Carnage batted it aside easily, but it was like a shockwave ripped through the audience. Someone else threw a piece of fruit, another their shoe, a third some cutlery from their picnic basket. And then it was a deluge. Food, clothing, chunks of metal, cups, knives, walking sticks, anything people could pick up and throw.

Carnage whipped his pseudopods around his head, bunting the attacks aside. None did any damage, but just enough of the objects were dangerous that he couldn’t ignore them.

Eddie swayed on his feet, trying to figure out how to keep all of them alive for five more minutes. He doggedly staggered onwards, and then his back cracked, and the next step was easier, and the next. Eddie took a deep breath, enjoying the painless rise and fall of his chest. 

You’re welcome. 

On Eddie’s next inhale, Venom came out and covered him. They silently submerged, eeling their way forward – fast, very fast. They didn’t surface again until they were between Xan and Carnage. 

When the audience’s barrage finally petered out, Carnage lifted his arms over his head like King Kong and bellowed so hard that phlegm hit Eddie in the face.

That’s a mistake, you fucker, Eddie thought, and darted in close. He kicked Cletus in the balls as hard as he could, then ducked away again.

Carnage yelped and almost fell to his knees. He teetered on the edge of it for a breathless moment, and then steadied.

Eddie put up his fists and felt Venom brace too, preparing to fight, but they didn’t even get the chance. Carnage hit them with another round of the plasma projectiles. This time Venom managed to push them out again almost instantly, but Carnage had already grabbed them and pulled them close. His breath stank before he even opened his mouth. It yawed wide, and the tongue lolled out, dripping slime onto Eddie’s face. Eddie retched, but couldn’t look away: there was a hand wedged in there, amongst far, far too many teeth.

He closed his eyes and thought, I love you.

Instead of pain and the nothingness of death, Eddie felt Venom leaving him, and that was worse, so much worse. His eyes shot open, and there was Venom, wrapping itself around Carnage’s head like the Lockhead Martin device had surrounded Amity.

“No!” Eddie shouted, but found himself gasping for air, unable to speak. He tried to call Come back! but the link between them was severed.

Carnage dropped Eddie and tore at his own face, ripping into Venom’s plasma. Venom’s pseudopods jerked, but hung on.

A hand landed on Eddie’s shoulder, but he was too busy trying to breathe to pay it much heed. Xan hastily pulled her rebreather out of her pocket and put it on him. He coughed and gratefully heaved in a breath, the terrible burn in his chest starting to ease. He was still recovering when she gently pushed him aside. Flowing around her were an army of tiny Symbiotes. They swarmed forward, surrounding Carnage, and darted up his legs, climbing him until he was completely covered.

It took Carnage a moment to notice them, still focused on Venom, but then he stopped trying to rip Venom apart and started batting at the sprats.

Flashes of skin started to appear in place of the bright red of Carnage’s plasma, and Eddie caught on that the sprats were feeding. Each sprat taking just a tiny bite. 

Cletus screamed as bright red human blood began to flow into the water. The sprats kept biting in a frenzy, occasionally parting long enough to reveal a flash of a terrified eye, a clawing hand devoid of skin, a mouth open in another scream – this one silent - until there was nothing left but bloody bones and cartilage.

Euphoria clacked her shells, and the sprats slowed. They flowed away from the remains, and surrounded her and Xan in an adoring cloud again. 

Eddie staggered forward. “Venom,” he called, raking through the muck-filled water with his fingers.

A ripple. There. Poking above the surface was a battered pseudopod. Eddie scooped Venom up tenderly, and it melted back into him.

“Don’t ever fucking do that again,” Eddie shouted, heart still thumping with terror. “What the hell were you thinking?”

Eddie. Venom said, feeble but alive, alive, alive. Love you too.

That took all the wind out of Eddie’s sails. “Oh, fuck,” he wheezed, and knuckled his eyes to hide that he was crying with relief.

Beside him, Xan was cooing over the sprats, praising them and giving them pets. “Who’s pretty? You are. Yes, and you, and you.”

Once he’d calmed down a bit, Eddie took off the rebreather and was about to hand it back to Xan when the third column started to gurgle, signalling that its flow was coming to an end. Eddie realized they weren’t quite done yet.

Without even pausing for thought, he dropped to his knees, the dirty water coming almost to his neck.

Xan stared at him. “Oh you fucker,” she said. Then she dropped down onto his lap and threw her arms around him, hugging him like she’d never let go. Eddie clung to her just as tightly.

All around them, the audience started to clap, stamp and holler.

Unity made zer way over to the dais, and without bothering to wait for the fourth column to start flowing, signed, ‘Long live Emperor Euphoria!’

The crowd roared and raised a sea of arms, pseudopods, and various other limbs. Long live Emperor Euphoria! Long live Emperor Euphoria!

Chapter 11: Epilogue

Klyntar’s Revolutionary Arts Centre Revealed

By Chen Bó Wén, The Djoran Times

A new precinct was revealed to the public in the Klyntar capital this week as the Francisco Academy of the Arts opened its doors. Sponsored by Emporeen Xan, the new centre will transform the city into a galactic hub for writing, fine art, dance, film, and theatre. The facilities include film and recording studios, a cinema, rehearsal spaces, venues for live performances, and a digital editing suite. However, the focal point of the campus is a Symbiote pool to enable the unbonded to undertake studies there, alongside their more mobile peers.

The Academy buildings are located on the remnants of the old marketplace near the Palace that has been empty since a fire two years ago. Costing K24.2m, the project is jointly funded by Emperor Euphoria and Earth – one of the newer members of the Galactic Alliance and the home planet of the Emporeen.

At the opening ceremony on Tuesday night, the Emporeen said, “The Klyntaran people are talented artists, but until now they have lacked the opportunity for state-of-the-art training. The Academy will provide many new career pathways, and encourage experts from around the galaxy to call our city home.”

Click to continue…

---

 

Serial Killer who Faked Death Dies in Contest for Emperor

By Eddie Brock, The Djoran Times

Infamous serial killer, Cletus Kasady, 46, faked his own death in an attempt to become Emperor.

Kasady supposedly died when his prison transport was hit by lightning in January 2018; his body and those of his three guards were too charred to be visually identified. No DNA testing of the bodies was done, as they were positively identified using dental records. 

However, recent DNA testing of the body of a man using the alias Dr Cletus Zwerling was found to be a positive match for Kasady. Bonded to the Symbiote Carnage, Kasady died during the recent Ascension Contest, when the pair were both eaten alive by unbonded Symbiotes.

It is still unknown how Kasady changed his appearance and passed the psychological and EBI screenings required to join the Earth delegation to Klyntar.

Earth Ambassador Rachel de Groves told The Times, “It’s just baffling. Someone seriously dropped the ball, and we have already launched an investigation to find out what happened.”

Click to continue…

---

 

Before Eddie headed out to the Academy to teach his morning class, he took his mug of coffee to the domed garden and settled in his usual spot on the edge of the fountain.

The bees were buzzing, and the smell of pollen and growing things permeated the air.

Eddie broke his muffin – a new dish in the Palace kitchen’s repertoire – in two, and offered half to Venom. Sure, it would all end up in the same place, but a pleasure shared was a pleasure doubled, they’d learned together.

Venom scoffed its half in a single bite, and then liberated Eddie’s new phone from his pocket. It had one of The Life Foundation interfaces designed to be compatible with Symbiote pseudopods as well as Human fingers.

One of Xan’s first campaigns as Emporeen was to demand that Earth tech come up to code, so it met Galactic standards. There had been a bit of push-back at first, but Xan had said, “The standards are voluntary right now. Do you want Euphoria to make it a Law instead? Because we totally could do that.” Unsurprisingly, the next generation of tech mostly had hybrid screens. Eddie wasn’t exactly thrilled about putting money into Drake’s pocket; he was still pretty sure Drake was up to something dirty, but with no way to continue his investigation unless he went back to Earth, that was a problem for another day.

Venom went straight to the app with their travel wall, and flicked through to look at brochure images of the planets in the Eridani system. They were heading there in just three days, when the current semester was over. Venom was practically vibrating with anticipation and excitement. In particular, it lingered on the images of the water-covered planet – Nước. Eddie was looking forward to reliving some of their courting adventures as they explored the wonderland the pictures portrayed.

“Soon, love,” Eddie said, and ran the fingers of his free hand through Venom’s plasma, making it quiver with pleasure, and sending a thrill to his own skin through their Bond.

Eddie hadn’t been entirely convinced at first that he wanted to stay and teach at the new Academy; exploring the galaxy with Venom had been a far more tempting proposition. But Xan had crossed her arms and said, “A twenty-one-year-old Human and a former shut-in Symbiote have no business running the galaxy on their own. I need advisers I can trust, and you’re the one who called me your ersatz daughter, so man up and stop being a deadbeat.”

Eddie knew he was being emotionally manipulated, but it had worked, goddammit, and so he found himself the new Head of Media Studies at Xan’s shiny new Academy, as well as Adviser in Chief to the Emporeen. 

When Eddie had worried about not being able to fulfil their mutual desire for exotic travel right away, Venom had pointed out, I’ve never even been to the city. A flash of anxiety came through the Bond, and Eddie decided maybe they should start off with baby steps.

He’d whisked them off to the Palace bus that very afternoon, letting Venom look out the windows for a while before they stepped out into the bustling streets. They’d wandered through the city for the rest of the evening, looking in shop windows, eating snails on a stick from a dodgy-looking street vendor, and buying jewellery that Venom insisted it wanted for Research, Eddie, while making big, pleading eyespots at him.

Life was just about perfect, and Eddie basked in it as he sipped his wake-up coffee and soaked in the peace of the garden: the endless splish-splash of the fountain; the bumbling dance of the bees over the frangipani blooms; the little Spiderfish gardener trundling along with a wheelbarrow full of new flowers to plant, occasionally bending down to pull up a weed or nip off a dead leaf as it headed to its next task.

The one thing missing was a kid. He wasn’t in any particular rush over it – he and Venom still had a lot of exploring they wanted to do in adult-only locations. But it was increasingly on his mind.

When Eddie had mentioned he’d been thinking about it, Dan had asked, “Oh, wow. Are you and Xan…?” but trailed off at the expression of horrified disgust on Xan’s face.

“Gross. That’s my dad you’re talking about,” Xan had said, loud enough for the whole dining room to hear. It had made Eddie’s chest clench up with affection, and had also been very effective at nipping that particular rumor in the bud. Although, it had started up a whole new set of rumors. More than once, Eddie had had to clarify to journalists that, no, Xan wasn’t a secret love-child; she was his adoptive daughter.

Venom looked up from the phone and pointed out, We really only need an egg. I can fix things so we can incubate the spawn ourselves.

This was an argument they’d had before, with Venom offering to “make” an egg from a gene sample he “borrowed” from whatever unsuspecting Human Eddie picked out.

“Consent is still a thing,” Eddie reminded. Venom grumbled half-heartedly about Eddie’s weird body hang-ups and went back to looking at the aquatic tourist porn.

Apart from the consent problem, Eddie had to concede it was a good idea. Incubating the kid themselves cut out the whole issue of finding a woman who was a) up for a threesome with Eddie and Venom, b) could handle the craziness of living in the Palace, and c) wasn’t some bonkers groupie. Which Eddie now actually had, largely thanks to the live feed of the Ascension Contest that had apparently been broadcast everywhere in the galaxy.

Mind-blowing what some people would do for power and fame.

He was thinking maybe they could visit Earth soon, check out fertility clinics. Find an egg donor that way, all legal and above-board.

Venom perked up. AND THEN WE CAN SEX THE EGG!

Eddie chuckled fondly. The way Venom had taken to sex was one of the highlights of their partnership.

“Yeah, we can.” Eddie kissed Venom’s head. “I guess we’d better do some practice, so we’re ready.”

“YES,” Venom growled, and licked him, because it knew that set him off. “NOW? ”

Ignoring the heat in his belly, Eddie finished the last mouthful of his coffee and stood up. “Tonight, I promise. Time to go teach class now.”

Venom pouted, but it slipped the phone back into his pocket and melted back inside his body without any real protest.

Heading out of the garden, Eddie paused to smell one of the new frangipanis that Xan had insisted on. The scent was sweet and familiar, reminding him of his childhood backyard before mom had died. It would be nice to see children playing here, making messes and getting into mischief. 

Picking up on Eddie’s nostalgia, Venom insisted on smelling the frangipani flowers too, so Eddie let himself be moved into the perfect smelling position – yes, like that, which apparently entailed him holding both arms out so that Venom could bunch and slide between the two, stretching to compare the different flowers. Like candy! Venom said, eyes squinted up in pleasure; it had discovered its sweet tooth thanks to a farewell package sent to Eddie by The Daily Globe team when he’d finally submitted his resignation.

Pushing the now-empty wheelbarrow back down the path, the Spiderfish gardener made its way to a nearby bed of rose bushes. It parked and looked over the plants assessingly, before reaching down into the wheelbarrow and selecting the pruning shears. At the same time, a banana-yellow pseudopod exuded from its carapace and snagged the squirt bottle marked with a warning label, and they considered the bushes together.

The Spiderfish, intent on snipping precise angles, didn't notice the pseudopod snaking out and plucking one of the tiny sweet-scented white buds.

With a flourish, the Symbiote presented the flower to the Spiderfish.

The sensory spots along the sides of the Spiderfish’s carapace flushed a dark blue as it accepted the gift in one of its pincers. It made a happy cooing sound as it breathed in the bud’s scent.

The Spiderfish started to snip off the thorns, making the flower safe to wear, but paused mid-snip. It held the ragged stem up, pointedly, and the yellow pseudopod affectionately wrapped itself around the Spiderfish’s arm.

Examining the ragged end of the stem more closely, the Spiderfish made a series of fast-paced clicks, like a dozen people snapping their fingers, its sensory spots shifting to a brighter blue.

'Would biting it off have been neater, my dear?' the Symbiote signed. An affronted shake of the Spiderfish’s fan-like tail said possibly, yes, but an antennae also floated down and stroked the Symbiote between the eyespots.

The Symbiote vibrated in pleasure, then plucked a spare set of secateurs from one of the Spiderfish's back legs and turned to the allegedly mistreated rose bush, shifting their bickering away from Eddie's sight.

Hurry up, Eddie, or we will be late! Venom said, as though it hadn’t just been using him as some kind of smell-o-vision interactive experience.

“Heaven forbid,” Eddie said, amused, and obediently headed off towards the bus. As they passed the Spiderfish, Eddie nodded politely, and signed, ‘Good morning,’ having to resist the instinct to add Your Radiance.  

The Spiderfish, busy snipping off the last few thorns from its flower, gave them a quick wave, but the Symbiote grinned at them and signed, ‘Harmonia is teaching me gardening. Growing things is harder than it looks.’

Venom signed back, ‘Eddie has been showing me how to teach art at the school Xan and Euphoria built. The students ask questions all the time, and Eddie answers them all. No matter how many they ask. He’s very smart.’

Eddie’s cheeks heated, and he hastened a bit to turn the corner. Just before he did, the Spiderfish finished snipping off the thorns from its gift and handed the flower over to a waiting pseudopod. Gleaming bright yellow in the morning sun, the Symbiote lovingly wound the rosebud into its Host’s antennae, and once again the Spiderfish’s sensory spots flushed a deep, vibrant blue with happiness. 

 

Eddie Brock [Earthling]

THE END

Notes:

WARNINGS

(Non-sexual) Watersports, Cannibalism, Assault, Blood, Character Death, (Brief mention of) Child Harm, (Brief mention of) Homophobia, Vomiting, Bad Language.