[ Ben gives a single nod of understanding. He'll have to grab one of those dissolving people, before they've become dust, and haul them past the threshold of the device He doubts it is going to be pretty, but he thinks he can manage it. And hopefully, Peter won't have to look. Won't have to be exposed to all this again, any more than is absolutely necessary.
Except that when they both get to the cloud, Peter can't seem to take his eyes off it, and neither can Ben. It swirls, begins to resolve into a human-shaped figure. There is only one person, this time. A person whose outline Ben does not immediately recognize; he hadn't shown up in any mirrors or reflective surfaces as a ghost, and he hasn't spent a whole lot of time looking at himself since he arrived here. So he can't tell at first that it is him - same height, same build, same posture, same clothes even. All the details are there, even though the figure itself is dark, vague, indefinite. Ben keeps waiting for it to take on the form of someone Peter loves, or someone he loves, and start to scream as it crumbles.
Instead it turns, takes a step (menacing? pleading?) towards them. ]
What the-
[ Then the figure is clenching its fists, arms out slightly, bending back just a little in a posture that makes Ben's stomach turn with fear in the second before he gets it. Because that's the way he looks when he is opening the portal. When he is bracing to attack - ]
Fuck!
[ That's all the warning (from Ben anyway) that Peter is going to get before giant tentacles come shooting out of the figure's stomach, unfurling in the air, thick and horrible, even if they are only shadowed outlines. Ben can't breathe. Can't move. He knows how much danger they are in, but his body has frozen in shock at what he is seeing. ]
no subject
Except that when they both get to the cloud, Peter can't seem to take his eyes off it, and neither can Ben. It swirls, begins to resolve into a human-shaped figure. There is only one person, this time. A person whose outline Ben does not immediately recognize; he hadn't shown up in any mirrors or reflective surfaces as a ghost, and he hasn't spent a whole lot of time looking at himself since he arrived here. So he can't tell at first that it is him - same height, same build, same posture, same clothes even. All the details are there, even though the figure itself is dark, vague, indefinite. Ben keeps waiting for it to take on the form of someone Peter loves, or someone he loves, and start to scream as it crumbles.
Instead it turns, takes a step (menacing? pleading?) towards them. ]
What the-
[ Then the figure is clenching its fists, arms out slightly, bending back just a little in a posture that makes Ben's stomach turn with fear in the second before he gets it. Because that's the way he looks when he is opening the portal. When he is bracing to attack - ]
Fuck!
[ That's all the warning (from Ben anyway) that Peter is going to get before giant tentacles come shooting out of the figure's stomach, unfurling in the air, thick and horrible, even if they are only shadowed outlines. Ben can't breathe. Can't move. He knows how much danger they are in, but his body has frozen in shock at what he is seeing. ]