8232/Let the Right One In (Again)

Let the Right One In (Again)
Date of Scene:	13 October 2021
Location:	Basement - 20 Ingram Street - Queens
Synopsis:	Peter shows the lab to Demona, and has a little chat with her.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Susan Sullivan

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Peter Parker has posed:
"You certainly do meet some STRANGE people, Peter Benjamin Parker."
"Yes, Aunt May." Peter took a deep breath. "She goes by the name of 'Demona.' She's...strange-looking."
"How strange?"
"Think a female version of the vampire from that old movie, 'Nosferatu.'"
A long silence. "But you trust her, Peter?"
"Yes, I do, Aunt May." Peter took a deep breath. "And I have."
Aunt May nodded shortly. "Very well. I've always felt you were a good judge of character. I'll just...try not to judge based on appearance."
"Thanks, Aunt May. She should be by soon. She's a tinkerer by nature, so I'm going to show her the lab."
"Think some snicker doodles would be welcome?"
"She doesn't eat food like you or I do."

Aunt May chuckles. "My word..."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    After a time, there comes a knock at the door. Just too late after Peter's conversation to be 'on cue'. Demona stands outside, waiting for whomever may open the door. She is wearing her skull-themed gas mask and stocking cap, all black clothing, and that Beauty and the Beast purple and yellow backpack that ruins the whole gothy look.

Peter Parker has posed:
The door opens, and it's not Peter. It's a thin elderly woman, sixties, wearing a blouse, slacks, and a puzzled expression. Sharp nose, piercing blue eyes. Someone definitely Not To Mess With.

"I assume you are the lady who goes by 'Demona?'"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona is cheerful, her smile reaching to her bloodshot eyes as she waves at the woman. "Yes, ma'am!" she says. "That's what I go by! Is Peter here? Are you his Aunt?"

Peter Parker has posed:
The woman nods. "Well, you are an energetic soul. Well, come in, come in...Peter's down in his laboratory. Would you like me to escort you down there? The stairs down are at the end of the hall, near the back of the house."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "I'm not afraid of spooky, ol' stairs," Demona says. She walks in and through the house. "You have a lovely home," she tells the woman. "It reminds me of my aunt's house." That's an exaggeration...okay, it's a lie. Still, through a gas mask, it's a lot harder to tell. She opens the door to the basement and tries to enter, then leans back and takes a step away from it. "Oh! Okay," she says. "Peter!" she calls down. "I met your aunt! She seems nice! Can I come down?"

Peter Parker has posed:
There is a moment's pause, then Peter's voice comes up the stairs. "Come on down, Demona." The basement is not dark at all. If anything, it's lit rather brightly from all the lights in the ceiling.

Peter is standing near the computer desk, looking at some papers. "Hey, Demona...welcome to the Basement Lab."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona closes the door behind herself and just bypasses the stairs, floating to the floor like gravity is her bitch. "Hey, Peter," she says. Reaching up and snapping off her mask. She takes it off and adjusts her hat. "It's nice down here," she says, looking around at the verious pieces of equipment. "You're better equipped than I thought. Wanna take me on a tour of what you have?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter chuckless, walking towards the machine shop. "Uncle Ben and I moved some of these down here. The rest of them I moved out of the garage when Aunt May was home. Told her Harry and some friends helped out."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "CNC," Demona says, pointing. "Looks like a router table, disc sander...you could do a lot down here," she says. "No SLS printer, but those are a hundred grand for ones that can do metal, so I get it." She nods. "I am constantly wowed, Peter. You are handsome, funny, sweet, charming, brilliant, and I am in awe and envious of your workshop setup. I think...you probably have to outsource microprocessors," she guesses. "Or use off the shelf stuff?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter smirks, then walks over to show Demona the microtech bench. It has a couple of tablets, one of them compiling code for a microprocessor in a homemade coding mount.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "What?" Demona says, putting her hands on it. "It's so small!" she says. "Dang it, I'm out of the loop for a few years, and everything's gone hyper advanced." She looks at it. "Okay, so, I've started working as Mairin's assistant," she says. "I don't remember if she told you that when I was fawning over you in Central Park." She continues talking with her hand on the microtech fabricator. "She's been working on a project I really shouldn't give details about without asking her, but I was wondering if I could potentially get your help with it. I mean...and the van and all kinds of gadget stuff." She lets go of the bench and hugs herself. "I don't know what's asking too much," she says. "You've got so much cool stuff, like the web shooters. I want to travel like that, it looks fun, and I can stop myself hitting the ground if I miss a web shot."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter chuckles. "I suppose if you got permission to get another opinion, I could take a look and see if there's anything I could contribute." He walks over to the computer desk and picks up one of the webshooters. "How's your upper body strength, Demona?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "I haven't really tested it," she says. "I seem to be stronger, for sure, but I can't tell if that's my muscles or my ability to float stuff and move it around with qi stuff. Even my own body movements are now qi stuff, so...that's a thing."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter nods. "Webslinging does eliminate the need to take the subway, but it means a lot of swinging around. Upper body strength is a major plus. Arms, wrists, hands, chest, it all gets a serious workout. A good indicator of how well you can handle it would be doing chin-ups. Find a bar, hang from it for two seconds, pull yourself up and hold there, then lower, and repeat. Do as many as you can before you get tired."

He chuckles. "By the way...I can do 2,736."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Show off," Demona says. She looks around. "I presume you don't do them down here," she says.

Peter Parker has posed:
"In the gym, after hours. A few weeks after the Bite. One of the MANY impromptu tests I put on myself." Peter sighed. "That was the worst part. Not knowing. Half of knowing what my abilities are was putting together the tests and equipment to FIND OUT what they were, and what their limits were. It's why I put together the gym at King's Landing. So I could train without blowing my cover."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona smiles at him, his nerdy-talk only reinforcing that crush she's building up on him. "Nerd," she says, playfully. "Stop being so cute," she insists. It's one of those requests or demands that girls make that they get upset if you actually do. "Seriously, though, that's a really good idea." She lifts off the ground as if gravity really wasn't a thing. "This is going to be my problem when it comes to pull ups," she says.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter raises an eyebrow. "You might have to mentally shut that off. Can you just...hover like that? Become weightless? Or is it actually flight?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona holds out her hand. "Do you want to feel what it's like?" she asks. She doesn't seem to have any fear about this at all, and it would almost certainly be safe. She does, after all, have a huge crush on Peter.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter tilts his head.
He's never had this opportunity, not even with Kara. But he is curious.
"Well...just for a few seconds, though. Just to make sure there's no worry about motion sickness." He steps closer to Demona, then takes Demona's hand in his. "I've always wondered how it felt for Supergirl to fly..."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona falls, her feet impacting the cement floor of the basement as her eyes go wide. "That's Kara?!" she calls out louder than she perhaps intended.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter blinks. "No...wait, no. You misunderstand." He takes a deep breath. "Awhile ago...over a year, really...I asked Supergirl out. It went on for about a month. And then, one of her Rogue's Gallery, someone named Toyman, sent a bunch of killer toys to this house. We...decided to end the relationship then. There was just too much to risk."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Okay..." Demona says. "I'm so conflicted," she says. She takes a few breaths to center herself. "Don't want to have to be in competition with Supergirl, even with the memory of Supergirl. She's so pretty!"

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter sighs. "Looks, she's WAY out of my league. Besides...I'm dating Kara now. No drama, no weirdness, and no supervillains wanting to show up at my door with a death machine and a smile." He sighs. "And Kara...she has her own special qualities. I might be out of my league with her, too."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona's heart seems to break a little as Peter says he's still out of his league. She takes a step forward, still holding his hand as she brings up her right hand to caress his face. She looks deeply into his eyes as she says, "Peter, you're amazing and wonderful and you are so far out of my league, I couldn't even see the tiny speck that is you so far above me. If my heart still pumped, you would make it thump like a drum. You are gorgeous and brilliant and cute and sweet and nerdy and clever and if there wasn't someone already in your life I would kiss you right now."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter looks into those crimson eyes and sighs for a moment.

"Demona, I'm an emotional trainwreck. Survivor's guilt, overdeveloped sense of duty, an inability to distance myself from the people I help...or fail to help...and torture myself incessantly over the ones I've failed." He steps back, smiling apologetically. "And a mask makes it easier to hide how frightened I get when facing off against more powerful enemies. Which is often."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona takes a step forward, as if trying to match him, somehow. Is this...flirt-sparring? "I am a monster," she reminds him. "Every breath you breathe is laced with the most delicious qi, spidery or not. The temptation is constant to taste you. I have to endure agony atop a bed filled with rice to get the bad qi out of myself while meditating to absorb fresh life force from the environment itself. I killed my master in a sunrise after a qi-sucking struggle, which sounds dirtier than it is, then I had to spend seven YEARS locked up in a cave sucking qi from tigers and bears and other predators." She gets a little insistent. "My parents don't know I'm still conscious!" Yeah, now they're doing a 'my backstory is more tragic' competition, apparently.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter tilts his head, looking utterly flummoxed. He opens his mouth...then closes it again. He hold up one hand...then lowers it.

After a long silence, he shakes his head. "Well, it seems we're both imperfect people. Which, I guess, isn't as bad as you'd think. But I think we're both better off if you stick to the Osmosis Method of gathering qi. I think this relationship with Kara could work...if my being Spider-Man doesn't get in the way."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona takes a step back and looks down, almost bashfully. "I'm sorry," she says. "I don't know why I'm so into you. I've never been like this around anyone." She risks a glance back up at him. "I really don't want to hurt you or Kara. I would love it if you wanted to be happy with me, but mostly I want you to be happy with whoever you choose."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter smiles sheepishly. "You'll find that person who's right for you. You have to have faith in that. I could tell you stories about my dating history that might curl your hair..."

The smile becomes a smirk. "So to speak."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "We'll see," Demona says. She smiles at him. "I need to keep reminding myself that I'll be whatever beauty you see in me still when you're gone in a hundred years or however long spider-people live." She takes a few deep breaths and centers herself. She raises up off the ground again and says, "Okay, let's skip all that or rewind or whatever." She holds out her left hand. "Let's do this."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter takes Demona's hand. "Just make sure you filed your flight plan with JFK an hour in advance. The airspace is supposed to be congested."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Smartass," Demona quips. She closes her eyes and concentrates. Peter can feel gravity's pull lessening. If he's ever been in microgravity in space, it becomes closer and closer to that. Soon, his feet lift off the ground, and it looks like he's been filmed against a green screen in space. His clothes and laces and anything about him that can floats, defying gravity's pull. "Don't let go," she says, slowly and softly.

Peter Parker has posed:
"Whoa...okay..." he looks down. "Okay...wow. Little vertigo there...oh, I'm good now." He looks around. "Longest time I've been weightless that I can remember."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona keeps her eyes closed as she smiles. "Is it good?" she asks. She's the one in control of the flow of everything, so her posture looks much more like 'flying' or 'controlled hovering' than 'freefall' like Peter.

Peter Parker has posed:
"It's...strange. I'm trying to analyze the sensations, but there's a curious lack of them. It's a little like sensory deprivation. I can usually feel the wind, hear the sounds, when I'm webslinging. Right now, it's almost...peaceful." Peter sounds almost puzzled.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Yeah," Demona admits. "It's still down here, first of all," she says. "Second, even the air flows with qi. It is the breath of the world. The city's heart beats twice a day. This is about the limit of my ability, and I'm only able to lift you because you're alive. A weight as heavy as you made of iron would be impossible for me. It's too inert."

Peter Parker has posed:
"Interesting. Maybe worth further analysis..." Peter looks around. "Probably should come in for a landing."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona lowers them both to the floor with effort and sighs. Their clothes and limbs get heavy and sag with weight once more. Only once Peter's got all his weight back and is standing properly does Demona let go. "I'm not fast like supergirl," she says. "I can fly about as fast as I can move by foot. Still...I'm feeling VERY connected to you, right now...I should go so I don't tackle you."

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter sighs and nods. "Yes...that might be best."

Peter takes a few steps back, then gives her a gentle smile.

"I think there's someone else out there. Someone who's going to treat you the way you should be treated. Aunt May had Uncle Ben...and they made each other very happy for a long time. I think there's an Uncle Ben for you, somewhere."

He shrugs. "He's just not me."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona's face looks like she should be crying, but her eyes do not seem to DO tears, anymore. She smiles weakly at him. "I need to go," she says. She doesn't bother with walking, bypassing the stairs to float up and rush out, the sound of doors opening before she gets to them, but not closing behind her. From the basement windows, he would, however, see her at least prescient to be power walking down the sidewalk, and not flying over it.

Peter Parker has posed:
Peter watches her go, then closes the window drape. "Damn..." he said quietly.