162/Enter the Spider Lair

Enter the Spider Lair
Date of Scene:	27 February 2020
Location:	Peter Parker's Crib
Synopsis:	Peter comes down to the lair to converse with Gwen. BOMBSHELLS!
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy

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Peter Parker has posed:
"Bye, Aunt May. Have fun at the bridge game!"
Peter smiled as he waved to Aunt May, who was going to a friend's house. It was good for her that she found solace with her friends, and that she had connections outside of Peter. Even since the Spider-Bite, he'd had to spend a lot of nights away from her. Fortunately, she had her support network, who helped her mourn her husband's death.
He tried not to look at that spot on the floor, just inside the front door, where Uncle Ben had breathed his last.
He shook his head, dispelling the images. He looked behind him as he closed the door, then headed to the back yard.

The night was quiet, cloudy, but the temperature was only slightly above freezing. He closed the back door, walking to the edge of the deck...

then headed over to the heavy bag, lifting it easily, and stepped down into the trap door access to the lab.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
There was no place Gwen could go in this Universe that she didn't stick out or run the risk of creating some kind of vortex of paradox or whatever... She's still working out the science of it all, since so far reality hadn't collapsed. It begs to reason she's not the first person to cross the barrier between two universe, then.

Standing in the hidden lair of the Spider wearing a pair of blue-jeans and a white hoodie with a rainbow graphic wrapping around her middle, she holds a coffee mug in both hands while sitting at one of the computer monitors. A foot up in the chair with her, sipping.

A deep search of the Galileo database for articles the nation over on dimensional bridge theory.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter spotted Gwen as he stepped down from the external-access hatch, hidden behind the big-screen TV in HARRY'S HOVEL, the side area that had been the place of refuge for Harry Osborn...and, more recently, the sleeping space for Gwen Not-Dead Stacy.
He smiled, but there was still that odd pull that his Gwen had on him. He was going to have to accept that. She may be from an alternate universe, but she was dealing with HIS death on HER world, and that had to be tough. It was foolhardy to assume that they could just...plug into that dynamic. It would have been "mondo gonzo," as Harry would say.

"So...what do you think of the place?"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen glances up at the sound of the access hatch loosening and turns to look over her shoulder with an easy enough smile for Peter Parker. She hadn't been keeping her distance, staying here as she was, but it was clear there was a lot of baggage to unpack surrounding his demise on her world. Specifically her involvement in it.

"Hey Petey pie." Waving her mug absently as she looked back to the screen, flipping through article with a mouse click, which so far had come up mostly empty... or a few that had promise initially, but proved ineffective towards gleening information that might get her home.

Yet more to unpack.

She might be stuck here.

Which wasn't terrible, just inconvenient. "It's nice... dark, but nice. About what I'd expect, though. You always did like to be over prepared for the end of the world.." Eyeing the wall of video game systems, and over her shoulder at Pete again, "Or the crippling collapse of Gamestop.. whichever comes first."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter chuckles. "Harry paid for all that. I don't know what he's like on your world, but here he's dealing with his own stuff with his father. It's basically a place for him to find sanctuary." He gazes fondly at the entertainment center. "I almost never use it unless he's here. He needs...time to just be Harry, you know?" He looks back to Gwen. "The reinforcements aren't so much Doomsday Prepper and more a result of when I was testing a new chemical and blew out all the above-ground windows. Uncle Ben made me pay for and replace all of them."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"A lot like that, yeah." Gwen says with a rueful grin, leaving out the part where he'd become the Hobgoblin following in his fathers footsteps. She turns back to the screen with a frown developing as she's lit by the soft glow, "It's good that he has a place here.. It's good that you're able to be there for him too." And unfortunate that she can't be. "I haven't heard you mention MJ..." Another itch she needs to scratch. Get it out of the way, pull the bandaid off. It's easier that way, "She .. uh.. around? Is she even here in this universe?" They really do have interesting lives. Smirking backwards, "Blew out the windows, eh..?" Uncle Ben. So many questions... Instead of asking them, personal as they are, she looks down into her coffee and takes a hesitant drink.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter took a deep breath. "Yeah, we have a Mary Jane Watson here. She and I are friends, but...well, we tried dating. That didn't work out so well. In the end, she told me that until I became more reliable, we couldn't have that kind of relationship."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen inclines her head and nods, rubbing at her neck, "Cool, cool... coolcoolcoolcool.." Said quietly, "Cool." The beauty of being from an alternate Universe is she can expand on her history as much as she wants without bothering the people here in this one! It's a blessing, but it's also a curse. The blond sucks down more coffee and sets the mug down on the counter. "So how close to reliable are you, PeeBeePee?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter looks around. "I spend a lot of nights webslinging around. I'm doing well in school. In fact, I'm on track to graduate as Valedictorian. But I also got fired from a pizza delivery job because the Rhino showed up and...well...I prioritize helping people over attendance at work. I get by with a lot of freelance jobs, including taking pics of Spider-Man in action for the Daily Bugle."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen catches the corner of the desk and turns herself in the swivel chair to fully face Peter with just a jerk of her wrist, "Is'at a fact? You ever think about doing a webseries or something? You're tech savey... between the two of us, I bet we could dominate the youview market with hit programming that we could release at our own speed? Ya know, so we don't have to give up our night jobs?" Which brings her to the next point, "You also don't have to... webswing.. as much I mean... we can.." Motioning to her costume, standing out like a big sore thumb next to his red-blue design, "We can split shifts, ya know? It doesn't have to be like it was for either one of us alone.."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter smiles slightly. "It would be nice to...have help. Going out for 3-4 hours to cover the five boroughs can be tiring. I think I'm the only one of the capes-and-tights crowd to cover the whole city." He pauses. "We'd need a communication system, though. Something to stay in touch, share information. I've been working on a database of all the schmucks I've run into...something online that we could access at any time would be a big help."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
"Yeah?" Gwen grins playfully, perking a blonde brow. Her knee adjusts to lay across the other, turning her hips in the small swivel chair at impossible angles, "Kind of like a ... Spiders-Web? Eh? Eh?" Air nudge, "Yeah, you get it.." She jokes, but gets low key serious, "That'd help out a lot.. Being able to share information. Where I'm from? I was the only hero. Everyone else was SHIELD or.. just not heroing. There weren't as many as there are here by a /long/ shot. Maybe ten. Now there's enough to fill enitre teams. Which makes me wonder why you and /I/ are the only ones worried about the neighborhood level criminals."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter steps forward, his eyes bright with inspiration. "Yeah! Exactly! Someone's gotta look out for the regular Joes and Janes, right?"
He was pleasantly surprised how GOOD it felt to talk about this. The hope in his face elevated it from average to nearly handsome. "So we gotta help because we CAN help! That's what Uncle Ben told me. I was too stupid to understand it then, but I GET it now. 'With Great Power Must Come Great Responsibility.'"

Gwen Stacy has posed:
The moment he starts saying it, Gwen says it with him, but she doesn't put sound to it, just mouthing out the words with her lips, Great power, Great Responsibility, "You know what's funny?" She probably doesn't think he'll think so... she certainly isn't laughing. "It was you that told /me/." Motioning between them with her thumb and index finger, "But it's still true. We have a duty because we're.. us.. we can, so we should. Which means between us? We can do a whole lot more.. And then have super crazy cross over events like in the comicbooks? It'll be a gas." Winking playfully and leaning back in her chair to stare upwards, "So what kind of villiany are you working with here? Shocks? Scorpion? I've seen a few of the headlines, but I didn't dig too much for fear-" She'd find //that// article. She wasn't ready to read it yet.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter may be a dim bulb when it comes to interpersonal stuff, but he automatically twigs to what she might be worried about seeing. He takes a deep breath. "Avoid December 5th...through the 14th of 2019. That's during and immediately after." He looks down, taking a deep inhale and exhale. "Well...a lot of super-criminal types. I have an Excel datafile with my list. It's on the computer at the forensics station in the corner. Which reminds me..." He headed over to another desk, where a laptop sits next to a desktop computer with a cracked monitor screen. He picks up the laptop and walks it over to Gwen. "Here...I thought you should have this. Your own computer to do stuff on."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen takes in a sharp breath, "Over Christmas?" That smarts.. Her poor dady.. and so recently. She blinks slowly and pushes up from the chair, unable to stomach accidentally flipping through those pages by some morbid curiosity. Instead joining Peter as he heads towards the corner desk with a laptop now held out in her direction... she accepts it in both hands and turns it over to press against her sweater, "Thanks.." Glancing down, brow furrowing, "Thanks for a lot of things, Petey. You could have, by every right, turned me away.. This is a whole bucket full of world altering crazy."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter looked at her, both startled and wounded. "No...I *couldn't.*" The word seems to hold all the depths of his convictions. Refusing to help her would be like...well...like killing her all over again.
He pushed that thought away, unwilling to give it too much room in his head rght now. Although it would show up later, as it always does.
He blinks, then reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out a cellphone, a StarkPhone that had been all the rage...when Peter was in middle school. "Here. There's a crack down the center, but it's not that noticeable. It's one of those month-to-month phones. You got your own number...all you have to do is set it up."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
The phone is taken and turned over in her palm, eyeing the crack with a tiny grin which is half smirk.. Her thumb moves over that imperfection, "Thanks Pete." Said again, with no less affection for everything he's doing for her. "I need to figure out what I'm going to do long term.. There's only so much hiding in a, admittedly well put together and stocked, basement I can do, ya know?" Eventually she's going to have to shit or get off the toilet. Assume Gwen's life or put it behind her.. living with one foot in the grave isn't going to work forever.

She wiggles the phone, "I'll get it set up tonight. The Quik-E-Mart still sell minutes?" Does it even exist?! God, she needs to go exploring. Phone disappears into her tight back pocket, laptop goes back onto the counter. She'll have to decorate it later... set it up for her purposes.. get a bag. Things a normal person would do. Thinking about those things grounds her.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter takes a deep breath. "Months, not minutes. You've got two months before you have to renew. It's $35/month. Very few bells and whistles, but I did boost the performance a little.." Peter walks over to the desk and pulls out a laptop backpack. It's green, a little beat-up, but otherwise functional.
"Lemme show you something."
He unzips one part of the bag, and then...it's odd. It looks like he is turning it inside-out. When he is done, the backpack is now white, with a bright purple spider on the back panel. The same purple as Gwen's Ghost-Spider hood and inner arms.

"What do you think? I made a similar one for myself."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen grins as Peter comes out with a bag and... turns it inside out to resemble her own unique spider symbol, "Okay, that's absolutely rad." She says with an even brighter grin, reaching out to flip the bag and slip her laptop inside to see how well it fits. Finding it snug enough that it wont bounce around when she's swing, she is absolutely satisfied. "Two months to figure my whole life out... I suppose that's doable, eh?" Laughing to herself, belly rumbling without much sound. "Hey... you think m-... you think dad would.." Flicking her hand, not sure.. "God, what if they..." So many pitfalls. Stop thinking about it. "Screw that.. Do you know Tony Stark?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter smiles wryly. "His company made that phone you're holding. Hang on, be right back."
Peter certainly moves quickly when he has a purpose. He scampers up the stairs, taking them three at a time, as he heads up into the house. After about thirty seconds of putzing around, he comes back down a little more slowly.
He carries in his hands a large bowl of beef stew, steam rising from the bowl, a small dish of green bean casserole, and a tall glass of his favorite drink - half lemonade, half iced tea. An "Arnold Palmer." He carries these down with the eerie grace of a lifelong waiter...or a spider.

As he places them on the large table in the center of the lab, he says, "Aunt May let it cook in the crock pot all day. There's more if you want it...and dessert is her award-winning apple pie."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen watches Peter bounce off up the stairs and turns to look around the spider lair with a wry grin of her own.. half sadness, half amused... An' Arnold Palmer of expressions. Hearing his return, she looks back and brightens at the delicious smell coming down towards her, "Oh my lord, PeeBeePee, you're spoiling me." Reaching out hungrily, she's not moved more than a handful of steps from where he left her in all that time.

Now she does though, scooping up bowl, plate, and glass as easily as ... well... yeah.. a spider and spinning back down into the swivel seat she'd abandoned. She tries to remember her manners while she eats, chair still turning in a lazy rotation that clearly doesn't bother her in the slightest.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter watches her eat in silence for a few moments, then says, "I'm not sure how things will go with your father. But I don't know how strong he would be if you told him the truth. He's a stand-up guy, and I admire the man...I hate to lie to him to give him false hope. it's easier for him to hate me..."
He sits down in a chair. "In the end, you do what you must do. That's all you can do. But...he might surprise you."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen looks down at the advice from her friend and nods agreement with those wise words, "The alternative seems really screwed up.. I feel like... I mean I've lost everything, Petey. Now I can't even be me because..." She absently eats stew, liberally of green-bean cassarole, and guzzles Arnold Palmer. Inwardly wishing there was a little spice on it.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter smiles gently. "Not everything, Gwen. Uncle Ben told me that the winner of a boxing match is usually the last guy to get knocked down...and GET BACK UP AGAIN." He looks around. "I'll give you all the help I can, Gwennie..."

...all the help he couldn't give his own Gwen.

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen grins up and over at Pete sharing his uncles wisdoms with a brisk nod, "He always did know just what to say, didn't he?" Quiet, Pete had his own wars to fight internally, she knew that. After a few more spoons full of stew she pops up to her feet and pads over to give him a hug. "I'm here for you too, for what that's worth."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter hugs her, and for a moment, he can lie to himself, that this is the Gwen he fell in love with, that she is okay.

But only for a moment.
He pulls back, looking into her face. He has the same hangdog smile, useful for surviving lectures and not getting slapped when explaining why he was late...for the 15th time...

"Gwen...I have to say this. My Gwen is gone...and it would be wrong for me to think of you as her, no matter how much you ARE her. I can't make you into her...and I want you to slap me HARD if I forget that."

Gwen Stacy has posed:
Gwen would be lying if she pretends like she hadn't noticed the way Pete looks at her... She weathered that storm because this is a genuinely odd circumstances. She'd been close with Peter, in her own universe, but she'd been a lot closer with someone else. When they seperate and he offers up free reign to smack him, she grins playfully and pantomimes popping him on the cheek.

She never does, but she does make a quiet paaak sound with her mouth.

"I kind of skirt the details because..." She shrugs and rubs at her neck, scratching at her scalp, "But I feel like I should probably put it out there.. I was.. listen.. I was kind of seeing someone? And I don't know if you picked up what I was putting down, but she exists here. Which doesn't mean she'd be my Mary Jane, she's not.. I get it, but.. like.."

Shrug. Eyes down. "So if I start doing that? Acting like she is? You've gotta wing man me, bro.. you look after me, I look after you? No awkwards?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter blinks? Gwen...and MJ?
Stupid Mouth woke up, cranking up the mental machinery to make him look stupid (again) but he shut that down in a hurry. He was only human, powers notwithstanding.

"All right. I promise. We keep each other grounded. Now finish up your dinner."