1833/The Fall of Peter Parker

The Fall of Peter Parker
Date of Scene:	25 May 2020
Location:	Parker Residence - 20 Ingram Street - Queens
Synopsis:	Peter commiserates with MJ over the loss of his job, and talk of plans for the immediate future.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson

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Peter Parker has posed:
It would be so easy to just blame the Parker Luck, Peter thinks as he steps inside the front door.

Aunt May knows, and they have had their own talk about what he had done. She sympathized with his determination, but had expressed her disappointment in his choices. "Not even for me," she had said, and that had hurt worst of all.

He looked down at the box. His personal effects from the lab. A pitifully-small amount of items.

Peter headed up to his room, putting the box aside and looked at the movie poster of ROCKY on the far wall.

"Peter Benjamin Parker, you have to be the DUMBEST genius in existence," he told the poster.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane heard, of course, and hustled over to the Parker house. Knocking on the door, she was shown in by Aunt May, and they exchanged a pair of sympathetic glances.

Aunt May then added, "He's up in his room, dear." Which was all the prompting MJ needed to go up to the door and knock very lightly.

"Peter? It's MJ. Can I come in?" She left the sword at home, since she obviously doesn't take it //everywhere//.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter looked up, sudden panic filling his face. It might as well have been the Green Goblin on the other side of that door.
For a long moment, he debated the concept of just fake-snoring, like he had done for Aunt May. Then he realized that MJ's Hyborian Hitchhiker might just see it as a challenge.

He takes one long, slow breath. "...The door's open, MJ. Come on in."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane peeks open the door, and smiles a little bit, "Hey." She steps inside and closes the door behind her. No cackling and no pumpkin bombs here! Then she looks over at Peter with a concerned expression, moving to him and reaching out to (if he lets her) take his hands in hers.

She doesn't say anything else, yet. But at least there's no judgment in her eyes, just concern for him.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter doesn't look up. He's not sure if he can keep it together if he does.

"I screwed up everything, MJ. I had the dream job and I screwed it up. It's my fault. I tried to do an end run around my own boss, the guy who gave me this job, just so I could keep a promise I had no business making..." He shakes his head.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
MJ nods, and just draws Peter into a hug, "Hey, come here. You didn't screw up //everything//." There's no judgment there. Maybe later she'll have some coaching, but for right now, she's just going to comfort as best as she can. "What happened, Peter?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter sighed. "I...can't talk about it. I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the whole thing. Even if you just asked for hints, I could go to jail for saying if you were hot or cold. Just realize that it was my fault. And that's not just unwarranted guilt. I am responsible for what I did."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane nods at Peter, "Okay, that's fair. And okay, you screwed up. But you know what? That's just what people do, Peter. Even you." She grins a little at Peter, "So what we do here, is we learn from the mistake, pick ourselves up, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done, remember?"

At least she didn't advocate for finding your enemies and bathing in their blood or something. Though Sonja's got her own era-applicable self-help pep talk...

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter looked up to MJ at that. "...keep moving forward..."

Peter smiled slightly. "Never imagined I'd hear you quoting Rocky Balboa. Even though I'm the one who knocked MYSELF down." He exhales. "I'm sure JJJ will be THRILLED to see me back. Probably going to haggle me down to the barest minimum he can. So...that means heading out a lot more."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
MJ shrugs, "Hey, these things happen, and Sonja liked the latest movies, I got her to watch them the other day." She grins at Peter, "Just don't let Jonah push you around too much."

"Besides, it's not like Stark is the only tech company that exists in the world, and... well, hey, you //just// graduated as a valedictorian from high school. There's plenty of time to figure out what you want to do and not lock yourself into any one thing, Peter Parker. Or as my Latin teacher would say, you have the opportunity to carpe that diem."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter sighs. "Yeah...I'm sure OsCorp and LexCorp would be eager to seek me out, now that the whole Blevins mess was resolved." He rubs his face. "I don't know how I'm going to dissuade Harry from pitching hiring me to his father. I can't work for OsCorp...primarily because the spider that bit me came from there."

And considering the CEO is the Green Goblin, but why drop THAT bomb?

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
MJ nods, "And... yeah, that just seems like bad mojo over there, Peter. Norman Osborn gives me a strong case of the creeps." She grins wryly, "I mean, if it was Harry running things over there, or even if he got some seed money from his dad and you were working with him instead... that's doable. But otherwise, yeah, I'd have to voice some reservations about that tiger."

She hmms, "Well, it's not like there's a lack of any serious companies out there, and hey, you can even do this thing. It's called college." She winks at Peter, "I hear it's pretty fantastic, and you can make all sorts of connections there too."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter nods. "Yeah, but know i'm going to have to scramble like Hell to AFFORD it. Maybe I can get in some work-study arrangement, try to see what scholarships are available...it'll be a mess." He looks back to the poster. "...But life is a mess, isn't it?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane leans on Peter a bit, "Yeah, life is a mess, but you're brilliant. You can figure it out, and we can make it work. It's not necessarily going to be easy, but hey... if it was? I don't think either of us would be happy about it." She grins a bit wryly, "Not that I wouldn't mind a little less difficulty, but we got this." And she gives Peter a look, emphasizing the 'we' just a little bit, while giving him a crooked little grin.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter smiles again. "Hmm...yeah, we do. You are some kind of amazing, MJ. TOTALLY believable you come from a long line of red-headed warriors."

Peter ohs. "I never gave you your Spider-Comm set, did I?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane grins, "Oh, yeah, that! Though, Tiger, if you wanted to slip a choker on me..." She laughs a little, fearless in her flirtations as she is, in fact, wearing the choker right now. Though she doesn't have on the gloves right now, she has everything else either nearby or ready if necessary.

Hey, you never know when the Vulture is going to drop by for afternoon tea, right?

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter blinks. His eyes had that Network Reboot, Please Stand By glaze to them.
After a few seconds, he blinks and coughs. "Uhm...wow, did it get hot in here? Hope the A/C didn't conk out again." He takes a deep breath. He seems to need to do that a lot around MJ. "I...never saw you as the goth/steampunk/Victorian archetype...I didn't know you were interested in that sort of thing. Or am I way off track, again?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane chuckles a bit, "Well, there's a phase..." She grins, "Wasn't a very long /lived/ phase, but I think I have some shredded fishnets and black outfits hidden somewhere." She tilts her head towards Peter, and she gives him that crooked smile again, "If you ever have an interest in stress-testing the A/C, anyway..." Her eyes dance a bit, as she definitely is having too much fun teasing Peter.

Though, one suspects she's not really teasing...

Peter Parker has posed:
"I...oh, gosh." His face seems to be stress-testing the A/C himself as it goes a deep blush. One could also expect steam to issue from his ears with a teakettle whistle.

"Mary Jane...may I make a confession?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane grins, "Sure. Go ahead, Peter." She arches a brow, seeming to enjoy the fact that he's having some overheating issues right now. She adores him, but that doesn't mean she won't have fun with it...

Peter Parker has posed:
He takes a deep breath. No one attacking? No crimes in the area? Mugging? Car crash imminent...?

Nope. Spider-Sense is reading a flat zero.

"I...when we were dating, I felt SO guilty about it all. I didn't know you knew, of course...but I always felt I was disrespecting you in some way. You were always one of the best friends I ever had. But it was the day you marched up to Carl King and told him how you were going to sic the cops on him that I..."

Say it, Peter Parker. God hates a coward.

"I had...feelings for you. Not Just-Friends feelings, either."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
MJ blinks, as... well, it's one thing to be boyfriend/girlfriend. But Peter seems to be saying something a bit more, as she smiles, "Oh, Peter... I've always felt like that about you." She grins, and leans in a little bit, "I just wish I hadn't been so scared before."

Of course, having a barbarian queen in your head tends to help with the courage thing. And helps with perspective.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter's breath comes out in a shaky exhale. "I...guess I...wait. YOU were scared? I didn't think you were scared of ANYTHING."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane looks a bit sheepish, "Well, yeah... what if the Goblin or Rhino or someone got lucky against you? What if you never came home one night, Peter?" She pauses, then leans in, resting her head against his.

"But then I realized, with a little help, that... well, it'd be worse if I didn't have you there with me."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter lifts one hand to stroke MJ's soft crimson hair absently.

"Look...this may be extraordinarily geeky, but there's a comic book convention coming up in a few weeks. How would you feel about going with me?"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
MJ grins, "Sure, I'd love to!" She pauses, then gets a bit of an impish look, "Does this mean that we're going to be cosplaying? Because I could probably whip something up..." She mmms and nestles a bit closer, enjoying the fingers on her hair it seems.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter nods. "Well, yeah...I was kinda hoping. I didn't know if you were an anime fan or anything, or if you had any other favorite characters from books or something. I've been meaning to ask..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane shakes her head, "Well, not really... I mean, I have a few but it's a bit more mainstream I guess." She grins, "Maybe I should break out the chainmail and go as Sonja." Her eyes dance at that idea.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter blinks, his hand pausing along her hair pressing lightly against her cheek. "I...don't think I've actually SEEN that. You've mentioned it, but...well..."

The blush returns. Almost immediately.
"You'd have to keep the sword peace-bonded, but...as long as it's not TOO risque..."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
MJ laughs a little, blushing a bit herself, "Well, it's... rather drafty. I wouldn't mind wearing it for /you/, though. But I think I could manage to whip something together for this, without too much of a problem." Her eyes dance a little bit at that.

Peter Parker has posed:
Is he tempted? Ohhhh, yeah. She can see it, too.

But acting rashly cost him his dream job, and he'll be damned if it's going to cost him his dream girl, too.

"Yeah, maybe we should...keep it sedate. Besides, I think that 'armor' might jumpstart a few boys into puberty. Maybe something stylish, but still on the body-covering side. If we are talking anime..." He reaches for his tablet and taps a few keys. He eyes the screen, then holds it up for MJ. "How about this one?" (OOC: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/db/d7/ff/dbd7fff0d773d93a91f152ac2bcf7b6a.jpg )

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane looks at the outfit, and hmmms, "Not bad, I could do that, but I was thinking something more... actiony." She grins, "We can definitely go over a few things... since it's a few weeks, I have some time to prepare."