#shadowcodingshipping

[skellebonez]

Hear me out: Spider Macaque in the Spider Monkie AU with prompts 14 and 35?

I hear you and oh this was way too much fun... I took a great deal of liberty with exactly how Mac transforms into his Spider Monkie form and who says what and the TIMELINE because I... re-wrote this into a ship fic because of you. I call it ShadowCodingShipping because someone had to name MacaqueSyntax eventually! I guess you could say this is definitely a what-if story more than anything.

Warning for body horror because Mac is slowly turning half spider and that's kinda gross and painful. Also this is hurt/comfort but heavy on the HURT. This does not have a happy ending.

Am I scaring you?/I believe I can be of some help here.

"Am I scaring you?" Macaque asked with a smirk, pain clearly barely held at bay behind it. The monkey demon was a mess, fur tussled and miscolored splotches that hadn't yet grown in properly littered his torso. His torso that had gained a good inch in the last failed attempt at... what they were trying to accomplish. "... are you going to answer me, scientist?"

Syntax did not answer. Whether it was out of fear or knowing that regardless his answer would not make the demon leave him be even he didn't know.

"Queenie calls you Syntax," Macaque continued, moving around the computer to watch him over the screen. "That can't be your name, can it? I didn't give enough of a shit to ask before now. Hey. Hey. Hey. H-"

"No, it is not my birth name," the scientist snapped eventually, watching as Macaque smirked in victory. "Only a complete fool would agree to work with someone as infamous as the Spider Queen and use their legal name as if they were sending an unencrypted message containing confidential information across basic messaging applications without a VPN. What in the world are you trying to accomplish?"

"Ooooo, wordy," Macaque chuckled out as he leaned against the monitor and made it tilt at an awkward angle. "I'm. Bored. Entertain me, scientist, you're the most interesting person in this place. believe it or not."

Syntax raised a brow at the demon, sighing as he continued to type into the computer. "Do you want this to be finished any time soon? Because the more you bother me the longer it will take. I may be able to multitask but humans have limits."

Macaque scowled for a moment before shrugging, failing at hiding a grimace of pain. It must have made the new bones in his spine ache horribly. But he moved easily past Syntax without a word, only whipping his tail against his shoulder as he left.

It didn't hurt at all... he wondered what the point of the gesture even was.

~

The screaming rang through the entire hideout, Syntax's ears ringing even as he covered them. They'd tried twice more in their attempts at Macaque's twisted idea, Spider Queen slowly seeming to become less and less comfortable with not only their methods but with what they were even doing. It was working, sort of, but not correctly.

The changes were supposed to be immediate, so fast that the pain receptors wouldn't register properly. Not for the comfort of the converted, but so that it would happen so quickly they wouldn't be able to fight it. Less pain, less of a change for your body to try to fight off the transformation. Syntax had insisted on mechanical changes, nano-bots or something of the sort instead of organic growth. Macaque himself had vetoed this, saying something about how it wouldn't make him feel whole again.

This made the changes slow. Too slow, so much so that the mixture was fought off by his immortal monkey biology too quickly for it to take hold the way it was supposed to, requiring Syntax to make it stronger and stronger each time in the hopes it would finally kick in.

Now Macaque laid on the ground, holding his face and screaming so much Syntax feared his vocal cords would give out. The last two treatments had lengthened his torso even more and changed his fur consistency entirely. Once soft and thick black fur was a mixture of that and the coarse purple hair of a spider, not meshing together at all and instead forming an odd pattern on his body. At some points silver had begun to peak through, though if that was supposed to happen or if it was a reaction to the sheer stress of his body undergoing a change that should not be happening he was not sure. Syntax could see the red mark on his face warping, changing into the same purple on his torso around his eyes and moving up on his face as two more eyes grew above the ones he already had. It was fascinating to be sure, and he would have said that it was almost pretty had it not seen the build up of them forming in a fashion he wished to never see in slow build up ever again.

He was a scientist. He was supposed to be impartial to his work above all else, and he had agreed to help of... mostly his own volition. But this... This made him more uncomfortable than he was ready to admit.

"Help him up," Spider Queen said after Macaque collapsed onto the floor, screaming ceased as his body fought off the mixture for the fourth time. She looked... perturbed. Discomforted. "After his last treatment... move on to your idea. We are not doing this again."

She moved out of the room quickly, to fast to even tell her if he would or not, covering the side of her face with her hand to shield her from the sight of the collapse man on the floor. Yes... discomforted indeed.

Syntax didn't have that luxury. And he would not leave Macaque to lay on the floor regardless of orders. But the way he shook and covered his new eyes and the small amount of tears leaking from his normal eyes made a pang of pity shoot through him. He was a scientist... but he was still human.

"I believe I can be of some help here," he said softly, taking off his lab coat and folding it part way before shoving it under Macaque's head and laying the unfolded part over his face. The demon let out a half whimper, clearly bit back as he didn't want to show weakness, but eased ever so slightly as he realized the coat blocked out the light of the lab just as well as his hands had. "It's not a perfect solution, but it gets the job done.

"Th-thought Queenie s-said to help me u-up," Macaque stuttered out, moving his hands to grip the coat instead of his eyes.

"Yes, but that would be a bad idea," Syntax explained, sitting on the floor next to him with a sigh. He pulled his tablet down from a nearby table, there was no point in not getting at least some work done, and began scribbling away with the attached pen. "Your eyes are far too sensitive and with the other changes you have gone through your body will likely collapse again before we could get you to a cot. It's best you remain stationary for the time being until I am able to assess your pain tolerance properly, then I will move you to your quarters."

Macaque didn't say anything, just huffed in reply and seemed to relax. Syntax wondered if he was thankful he wouldn't have to move immediately this time, and he could have sworn he heard something... rumbling.

Maybe it was the machinery behind them.

He felt Macaque's tail hit his side after a while, thumping softly against him... but he didn't push it away.

He wondered if this would change anything at all.

~

Syntax saw more of Macaque than usual after that. Sometimes he would wander into his lab and just... stay there. Silent as the shadows he liked to hide in. Sometimes he would just watch him work, other times he would bring him plums or mangoes. Syntax never had much of a taste for fruit, not really enjoying any form of sweets, but he would not pass up free food when his stomach rumbled in protest from his long hours. One time Macaque had brought in a book, sat on his desk, and just read it.

That was bizarre, even for him. But Syntax found he didn't exactly mind the company. It was quite... lonely in the lab. He was the only human in the Spider Queen's entourage and her other two companions weren't exactly the best company. Oh, the big guy was nice and all and Syntax even enjoyed his presence well enough. But he would grow bored of the scientist's techno babble and science talk eventually and leave with a nod and a wave goodbye. He was grateful that he seemed to listen, however, even if he wasn't interested in the specifics.

The other one, however, was a pain in his ass. Constantly one upping him, trying to belittle him for being a human, just being an all around annoyance. He tried to act cool and suave but Syntax just found him obnoxious.

Macaque... Macaque stayed, listened even if Syntax ran out of things to talk about. And it was oddly nice. He felt himself growing excited for when the part-spider part-monkey would make his presence known.

He wondered, distantly... if Macaque was starting to mean something to him. To matter, in a way.

~

The day of the final treatment eventually arrived and Syntax actually dreaded what might happen. This was their last shot to make this work completely, there was a greater than 0% chance that this would cause irreparable damage to the monkey demon if they had to continue farther. But it seemed his worries were unfounded. He was smart, a genius even. He had done his job properly, even if it had taken far too long and was the least beneficial way to accomplish the goal.

Macaque screamed worse than with every other treatment, and understandably do. It would have shocked him if Macaque hadn't since he was growing two new arms.

The Spider Queen had taken her leave shortly after, disgusted by the sight before her. It was Syntax's job to watch as Macaque slowly changed before him, bones and muscle and sinew growing slowly and bit by until finally... finally it was finished.

They had learned from last time, placing a cot on the ground for him to sit on while this happened, and he collapsed onto his back. Two new arms limp against the floor as he shook and twitched and cried cold tears in agony. But it was finished.

Syntax couldn't stop himself. He rushed forward, kneeling beside Macaque's head, watching his eyes and expression for recognition and any sign that he was alright. It had only been two weeks since the last treatment, the time needed for him to recuperate, but in that short time... he had grown oddly fond of the man on the cot. He did not know what he felt for him, not yet, but he knew that he did not dislike him in the slightest.

"Ma-Macaque?" He asked softly after no response for nearly 15 minutes, waiting and watching and finally Macaque's eyes turned to him. "How do you feel?"

Macaque didn't say anything to him at first. Just blinked before a weak chuckle resounded from his throat.

"Whole."

~

The transformation was a mistake. Syntax had never felt guilt for any of his scientific achievement before, and he did not feel guilt for helping the Spider Queen in her endeavor, bit this? This he felt guilt for.

Macaque was in pain. Constantly. Sometimes it was just a dull ache, other times he almost collapsed as something moved the way it shouldn't and he had to bite back a scream. But there was no taking it back now and Macaque reveled in "feeling whole" again.

Syntax felt a mix of awe and wonder whenever he looked at the demon. He was... handsome, the purples and blacks and silvers of his fur blending together properly now. His eyes brilliant gold and green. And when he wasn't in pain his smile was nice, soft even if he could call it that. He was unsure of how much of it was true, he knew the Six-Eared Macaque to be a trickster. But he hoped some of it was, at least when directed at him.

But when he was in pain his face twisted in a way that made Syntax sick to his stomach to see it each time the agony rang true on his face. But Macaque brushed it off, not seeming to pay it much mind. Not when he had his eyes and arms "back".

The Spider Queen agreed with him, he could tell, but probably not for the same reasons. She seemed frightened of him. Goliath and Huntsman were just scared of him too. They avoided him like he would kill them on sight.

Syntax, despite his guilt, welcomes his presence still. He was not frightened of Macaque in the least. No, he just felt guilt that he was in pain. And he would never not want to help him through that now. The spider monkie had grown attached to him, almost a constant companion at his side. And he had grown fond of him as well.

He learned that Macaque had a flair for the theater. He made shadow puppets when the Spider Queen wasn't watching, though for what purpose and what audience Syntax had not asked. He liked to watch Syntax work, and eventually as he started to rest his head on the human's shoulder he learned the rumbling from the second to last treatment was a purr. He didn't know demons could purr, let alone to speed up recovery from injuries.

But the day of the Lunar New Year was coming and Syntax could tell he had something else... someone else on his mind.

~

The next day was to be the day. Syntax's last chance to get the new formula and tech right. It almost felt like a repeat of the past treatments but with less screaming. He was worried.

Macaque wasn't, however. He had never been worried, assuring the Spider Queen (sometimes through growls and bared teeth) that it would be done in time. He'd been a success after all. (Syntax said nothing each time.)

They'd never been this close before, but Macaque had eventually dragged the scientist away from his computer for rest. Taken him to his room, sat on the bed with him, and just. Held him. Purring loud and deep and eventually Syntax was lulled into slumber sitting up against the soft-coarse fur of Macaque.

He realized that Macaque mattered to him more than he cared to admit.

~

Syntax had failed. His formula and tech hadn't worked. They only had one shot left, and there was no time for him to fix his mistakes before the end of the celebration. Macaque had been in too much pain, on the other side of the room, to tell Spider Queen off this time. It was all over...

Until she came. The young woman in white and blue. She'd done something, added an ingredient he had not been able to calculate for, and then...

"Let's give it a spin," Spider Queen had said with a smirk as she turned toward her human scientist... her human guinea pig.

"Wait, no!" Syntax backed up, knowing that it was almost pointless to attempt escape. There was nowhere to run. "I helped you! You need me! Maca-AGH!"

Before the spider monkie could rush to his side the little spider drone had jumped on Syntax, adhering itself to his face before he fell backward over some machinery. It crawled around him, situating itself on his back and digging in it's injectors and

pain agony pain pain something came out of his back pain another painpainhescreamedandscreamed ANOTHER AGONYISTHISWHATMACAQUEFELTPAIN one more

And then it was over. Syntax felt... nothing. No pain. No agony.

No... guilt.

He stood straight, facing forward before kneeling. He knew what he had to do.

"My queen."

Yes. His queen. The Spider Queen.

She was the only one who mattered to him.

He heard his name spoken from the other side of the room but paid it no mind. That voice didn't matter to him.

That wasn't the voice of his queen.

~

"Syntax?" Macaque called, unable to stand from his spot as his arms throbbed in ghost pain. He had tried to stand before, when the drone had lunged at him, but the pain shot through him for a split second and send him to his knees too quickly.

His screams... his screams made his ears pull back not from the pain of the volume but from fear and something else.

Then Syntax stopped screaming and stood and knelt before the Queen.

"Syntax!"

... he never responded.

Macaque wondered if this is what guilt felt like.

[skellebonez]

Tumblr Messed Up Fill #4

OK WE’RE ALMOST THERE! @strange-lace this one is for you, and special shout out to Pixel Anon for asking about this pairing yesterday!

I know of your reputation all too well./Why do you have a picture of me?

“Oh no you don’t!” Syntax heard before he was slammed into sideways and downwards by someone he hadn’t even known was in The Cloud with them.

“Macaque!” MK yelled, surprise and excitement in his voice before he yelped, faced with the two large figures they'd seen at the entrance to the building.

“I’ll help you once I’m done!” The spider demon yelled back to the Monkie Kid, wrestling with Syntax to keep him from trying to escape into the shadows once again.

The two rolled and laded on the other side of the building, far away from where MK and the Guardians were doing whatever it was they were doing in their own fight, and Syntax used his mechanical spider legs to jump away from the other.

“Syntax!” Macaque yelled, standing tall before the other. He was huge, four arms and four eyes and shirtless, fur a pattern of purple and black.

“Six-Eared Macaque! I know of your reputation all too well,” Syntax gloated with a smirk as he stood back up, one that only faltered slightly when this statement seemed to make the other demon... upset, somehow. “What? Not happy your past deeds precede you?”

“You don’t remember me at all... do you?”

“Did I not just say that your reputation precedes you?” Syntax sneered, bringing out his extra limbs even farther and using them to stand taller above the other demon. “Although the stories don’t seem to match up to the reality. What, pray tell, happened to turn you into this?”

There was a flash of hurt across the monkey demon’s face as his extra limbs flexed and his lower fists clenched together.

“I don’t want to fight you,” he said instead of answering. “But I will if I have to. Unless you return what you took from this place and call off the guardians.”

“Hmn... denied,” Syntax said with a smirk as he snapped his legs out farther. “As much as I love outsourcing, I know when running is not an option.”

And then he lunged at the other, aiming for his legs.

The two fought for a while, Macaque spending most of his time dodging Syntax’s assault and Syntax doing his best to either wear him down or incapacitate the other so that he could not follow him. He knew that running from the other was a pointless endeavor, now that he had shown he was more than fast enough to catch him with ease.

But he knew large demons and large demons tired out far quicker than smaller ones such as himself. That’s why Huntsman was always so smarmy about his good of a tracker he was, he was able to follow his prey day and night without tiring nearly as much as them. And Syntax was significantly smaller than the bizarre mishmash of a monkey demon before him.

Of course it was only a matter of time before the other lost his cool and actually landed a hit on the other. It was when Syntax had been aiming for his legs again, the other managing to slam his palm into the pack on his back.

Pain exploded from where it made contact, something digging into his spine painfully as he flew into a nearby bookshelf. He’d barely managed to snag onto a pocket in Macaque’s pants, the contents of it spilling everywhere.

It was when the spider demon struggled to stand as quickly as he could that he realized... Macaque was not coming after him...

Instead he stood, looking dazed and... afraid...

What was he afraid of? That’d he’d hurt Syntax? No, that didn’t make any sense, why would he even consider that? It... it didn’t make... sense.

That was when he saw it. It having been one of the items that exploded from Macaque’s ripped pocket and sprawled out on the floor between them.

Syntax couldn’t stop himself from picking it up and staring at it in confusion and disbelief.

“...Why do you have a picture of me?” Syntax asked breathlessly, holding the worn object in his hands like it would burn him at any moment.

It wasn’t old, but it had clearly been handled more than it should have. Folded over in quarters with the picture on the outside, bizarre and wearing down the quality more than it would have otherwise. But the picture was still clear enough.

The face staring back at him was his own... or at least... it was. Once.

Same hair. Same smirk he would give when he was thinking of something to work on. Same mustache. But the hair was black, his smirk was not sharp, his face was adorned with glasses instead of his visor, and his skin lacked the purple tint of his spider demon status. He knew he was human, once. He had some memory of his old life.

But... looking at this picture...

He realized he could only remember bits and pieces of it. He was a scientist but where had he worked? He was human but he didn’t know if he had family. He worked for the Spider Queen for a time but he didn’t know for how long.

Macaque stood in front of him, fighting stance dropped in favor of a pained hunch as he wrapped his lower set of arms around his torso. He... he knew the other hadn’t always been like this... somehow. Somehow he knew that the Macaque before him with two set of arms and eyes and swirled colorful fur wasn’t the Six-Eared Macaque he knew of from the stories.

And when he looked back down at the picture he noticed something else.

A hand on his shoulder.

A hand with dark black fur.

He unfolded the picture down and revealed both the lower half of his body and a similarly dark fur tailed wrapped around his ankle.

He unfolded the other half of the picture so fast he was fearful he almost ripped it. But in front of his eyes, plain as day, was-

“Ah, come on!” Macaque chuckled out, setting up Syntax’s phone on the other side of the room. “This’ll be a great way to record progress. See if anything happens between treatments.”

“I think if anything were to happen we would have noticed by now,” Syntax rebutted, but did not stop the demon from doing as he pleased. It was not the first time he had done something like this on a whim, something that was clearly a veiled attempt to either spend more time with the scientist or to break the boredom of the day when his body didn’t ache as badly. “But I cannot deny that it would be at least moderately beneficial.”

“That’s the spirit, Syn,” Macaque said with a chuckle, clicking a button on the phone and the soft beeps of a count down timer began as he rushed over to his companion’s side.

As Macaque put his arm around Syntax’s shoulder and he felt his tail brush his ankle the scientist tensed a bit and looked up at him in confusion. The monkey demon was roughly his own height, once, but the multiple treatments had done a number on the other. His once slick black fur was now striped and dotted in coarse purple and his spine and torso had elongated awkwardly, allowing him to not exactly tower over the other but at least stand taller than he was.

“Syn?” He asked cautiously.

“You can call me Mac if you want,” was the other’s far too casual and carefree answer, accompanied by that chuckle he gave out so easily now that he used to find frustrating but now felt... oddly endearing.

And as the camera shutter let out the last loud countdown beep Syntax couldn’t help but look away and smirk a bit at the idea of calling someone so powerful by such a casual nickname.

“OK, Mac, th-”

“NO!” Syntax screamed, throwing the picture down before grabbing his head in his hands. It ached and throbbed, like he’d been hit with a baseball bat enough to shatter his skull.

He didn’t remember any of this, not a single bit, but yet there was nothing here that could have possibly implanted him with false memories. As far as he knew Macaque didn’t have that ability... but then again... as far as he knew...

Six-Eared Macaque wasn’t supposed to be a Monkey-Spider hybrid.

“Syn?” He heard Macaque call out softly as he bent down to pick up the picture. “I don’t want to fight you. Please, we c-”

“STAY BACK!” Syntax yelled, hissing at the other as he backed away. He felt so much more familiar to him now, so familiar, but he couldn’t remember anything about him except passing glances around the lair before the New Year. He... thought he might have remembered seeing him around the lair on New Year. Gloating to Sun Wukong. Leaving with him. Infuriating and worrying his Queen-

“Let’s give it a spin,” Spider Queen had said with a smirk as she turned toward her human scientist-

Another pang of agony in his head, making the human turned spider curl in on himself with only his extra mechanical legs to hold him up. His fingers dug into his scalp, pulling at his hair as he grit his teeth in the pain. White dots exploded at the edges of his closed eyes, they were clenched so tightly.

He didn’t know exactly what happened after that. He remembered Macaque trying to come closer. One of his legs lashing out. Feeling them graze something solid. Something wet sounding hitting the floor. Macaque yelling his name as he ran from The Cloud as quickly as he could.

When he came back to his sense he was already back in Silken Web Cave, inside his personal quarters and shaking as he was wrapped around the box he was sent to retrieve with Goliath pounding on his door, gentle for the large spider, and pleading for him to come out and tell them what happened.

What was he to tell them when he didn’t know himself?

[skellebonez]

So... something came in the mail today.