Murmur

The day Peter was bit was the worst day of his life. He only wanted to be a normal kid, and not stand out. Not that that had helped with his Flash problem, but it is what it is.  As soon as he had gotten to the floor level of OSCORP with the rest of his class, he collapsed from pain. Of course, the hospital couldn’t find anything currently wrong with him and sent him home, that didn’t stop him from having a ton of rumors, the majority of which started by Flash being thrown around the school for a month or so. 

Everything hurt, he woke up in searing pain. His skin was burning, he swore his insides were literally moving around {they were but he didn’t know that}, and he was pretty sure that his bones were literally snapping. The worst pain though was collarbone up; his eyes stung, he couldn’t have them open for more than 10 seconds at most. His ears felt worse than they had before he had to have tubes added, he was pretty sure they were bleeding at the moment but there wasn’t much he could do or check with everything hurting if he even breathed too hard. Breathing. That was the worst, he was pretty sure his larynx (don’t judge him for knowing the names of his organs, he’s a nerd) was inflamed or something. Each breath he took sent spasmodic pain all the way to his head. If he even tried to talk, he was pretty sure he would sound worse than Batman gargling gravel. Suddenly the pain in his abdomen stopped, something felt different, but he wasn’t quite sure what it was.

It was times like these that he was both incredibly grateful and mournful that Aunt May couldn’t even look him in the eye anymore. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was guilty or if she was so disgusted about what happened with Skip that she couldn’t even be in his presence anymore (he thinks what hurts the most is the stuff she likes on Facebook about how men can’t be raped). Either way he was glad she wasn’t watching over him because then she would feel the need to make him go to the hospital because of how much pain he was in, also the fever he is certain he currently has. Now he just needs to get on his feet without keeling over befo-

“Peter, kiddo, I’m home”

Fuck.

Fuck. Okay, this wasn’t good. Ben actually still cared about him, if he saw how he was feeling he would force him to go to the hospital. They definitely cannot afford that, now or ever. It’s fine, he’s fine, he just needs to regulate his emotions a little bit. Breathe. No, you're not being stabbed in the skull by each noise, even that of a fly. No, your eyes don’t hurt so much that if you cried you were pretty sure the tears would be bloody. Breathe, repress. Everything is fine, sweet as a daisy, is that the right metaphor, simile? He wasn’t sure he could barely think. NO. he could think perfectly fine because he was not in pain not even a little bit.

“He’s been in his room all day; he hasn’t even done anything. My mother would never have allowed me to act so loutish.” OH! He would’ve forgotten May was even home if it wasn’t for the fact that each breath that she took stabbe- nope, stop that he is not in pain. This is a whole, if I can’t see you, you can’t see me type of thing. If he doesn’t acknowledge the pain, then it didn’t exist. 

His door opened, “Hey sport, you feeling alright?” God dammit, stupid kind compassionate people, how was he supposed to deal with this? He groaned, a somewhat positive sound in response, causing him to wince at the pain in his throat and then, if his throat didn’t hurt so much, he would’ve screamed from the pain coursing through his body due to the slight movement. All he could do though was a sharp intake of breath which still hurt like a bitch. He must’ve been doing well hiding his pain because Ben didn’t look more than a little bit worried, just sympathetic. He might as well become an actor; he was sure he could get many roles with this acting job. 

“There’s not much I can do to help that May probably hasn’t already done-” he resisted a sigh, ben has yet to realize that May basically hates his guts now and hasn’t done jack shit to help- “but make sure you get some rest, I’m sure you’ll feel better in the morning.” He turned to shut the door and with a little click (that most definitely did not make him want to jump off a tall building) his fate of suffering was sealed.

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He thanked every single god (God?) out there that the pain increased so much it caused him to pass out. I mean, he would have rather no pain at all but either way was thankful for the reprieve. He was also pretty sure at this moment Ben was a sorcerer because even with his slightly (read: incredibly) sensitive ears, with his eyes closed he could almost pretend that everything was perfectly fine. He then opened his eyes. 

Holy Shit.

What the fuckkkkkk

(every other known expletive in every language he knows {which is a LOT btw})

There were so many colors, was it always that bright, wow. MOVEMENT. His eyes immediately locked into the slight movement of the ‘plain’ navy curtains on his window. His eyes focused like binoculars; he swore that he could literally see his eyes zooming up close onto the curtains. He could see EVERY SINGLE thread. They definitely lied when they said this was plain navy though, there were at least 10 different shades of blue in there, and is that orange?

The light was burning into his eyes, and he had to slam them shut after only like 12 seconds, okay. Remember, breathe and repress. Deep Breath. In. Out. okay… He opens his eyes again; he just has to get used to the light level. Based on the fact that he can hear everything happening for 7 blocks (which is not causing him a headache, it’s NOT) and feel every single thread of his sheet (which feels super gross), he is pretty sure he has superpowers now. Come on, you're a giant nerd, who is the best superhero to compare your senses to right now? Doesn’t Captain America have super senses? 

“Cool,” it was supposed to be a whisper, and he’s pretty sure it was but to his current hearing it sounded like a yell. Okay, okay; he’s got this. It’s like a bad superhero comic’s origin story. He stands up and he barely makes any noise. Okay... that might be concerning. I am touching the ground, right? Yep, definitely touch this ground. Do I not weigh anything? He goes to sit back down; he does make an indent on the bed but not close to what he should have. Okay, super light, that's fine. He goes to stand back up but for some reason the sheet sticks to his hand. 

“Okay, actually, what the fuck”

Think. What caused the powers. He hasn’t done anything out of the ordinary this past week except the OSCORP trip but nothing even happe- aw fuck. Are you telling me I’m a BUG now?!? Nope, not fully bug, don’t think that way, you still look human, right? He quickly cuts off his internal panic and runs to the floor length mirror. Okay, so, I still look human. I mean, he does still look human if you ignore the slightly elongated pupils and the definitely-too-sharp-to-be-normal canines (fangs). His abdomen felt extra weird last night so he quickly slightly lifts his shirt just to immediately drop it. Okay. He has abs now. That's not weird, nope not at all. The quiet dorky nerd that needed glasses and had asthma; no longer has asthma, needs glasses, and has a 6-pack. It’s totally fine. He can just pop the lenses out of his glasses, no people would notice, do people outgrow their lenses, maybe I can wear no lenses with Ben, May wouldn’t notice, maybe I can tell others I got Lasik? No, we're poor. That wouldn’t work. Oh he's so screwed, what is he going to do? If he doesn’t do anything S.H.I.E.L.D. won’t attack-.

His worry is cut off by an extreme hunger pain. Okay... he should not be that hungry he ate last night. Oh fuck, is he like The Flash now? Not Flash but The Flash, you know, Barry Allen. Speedster with an extreme metabolism. Shit. They do not have the money for an extreme metabolism. Does that mean he’s super-fast? No, right? I mean he can only assume that his powers are spider related. It’s a safe guess based on his current senses that everything is spider-level to him but in human form. He needs to do a lot of research.

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Author: this is basically me finding a way to info dump on the baseline of all his powers (they all range around this level) for now

Spiders have nearly a 360 view, so it makes sense that he can see like that, plus spiders are near-ish sighted which makes sense with how much detail he can see stuff in (spiders also see better than photographic lenses). Plus, the average jumping spider's sight is only about 7 times worse than a human. So, if his human vision is multiplied by the spider's vision basically if he tried hard enough, he could probably see individual grains of sand. That is literally so cool. He might be scared to death of arachnids now, but still, so cool. Also, spiders have great memories so guess what!! He has a photographic memory now. He loves these powers (not really) but it's a little worrisome that they literally impacted his brain? Hearing, hearing is so fucked up. So based on the hearing of spiders not only can he hear higher and lower than before BUT he can hear at least .5 miles in each direction without focusing or trying to. He also can sense vibrations, but that likely stems from what likely makes him sticky now, tiny hairs all over his body. Gross, but also really cool. Since he broke the door trying to open it to get his computer, he can assume his strength also stems similarly from spiders meaning that he can probably lift around 27,000 pounds. WHat the fuck, so cool but still, what the fuck. His new ‘fangs’ can literally bite through wood; he doesn’t have anything harder to safely try at the moment. That seems to be all at the moment.

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So, he is basically Superman in senses and strength with the bonus of possibly venomous fangs. Now what. He’s figured out how to stop sticking, he’s realized he’s going to have to live the rest of his life in a headache and sensory overload but now what?