9217/Reconnecting Frayed Weblines

Reconnecting Frayed Weblines
Date of Scene:	22 December 2021
Location:	Coney Island
Synopsis:	Spidey and Mania re-connect after a long hiatus, and try to work out the nature of secrets and lies.
Cast of Characters:	Peter Parker, Andi Benton

---

Peter Parker has posed:
Coney Island Red Hots. One of the signature dishes of the famous place, immortalized in books, films, and legends. Some may consider the dish fattening or gluttonous, but for New Yorkers, a boiled beef frankfurter in a soft bun with chili, cheese, and onions is a staple for a cold night.
And for one guy from Queens, the best ending to a cold, cold night.
He lands lightly on the roof of the hot dog stand, waiting for the three couples to get their food before hopping down and placing his own order. He took out a prepaid Visa card that came in very handy for buying stuff without it being traced back to him.

He just hoped he could get something hot in him before he froze his spinnerets off.

Andi Benton has posed:
The world is a big one out there. New York City and its many suburbs, no different. Yet, even in the most densely populated areas, once in a while chance brings two people to the same place at the same time, unaware of it until it changes.

Making her way through Coney Island, Andi Benton wears a warm-looking coat, if for no other reason than the sake of appearance, over her usual style of clothing, leggings tucked into sneakers with the laces loose and barely tied on. After munching on some funnel cake, she's looking around for something else to get. The place doesn't have a lot of people around, especially this time of the year compared to the summer, which might be why she's there.

As she settles on the same place Spider-Man does, that's when she sees him landing atop the roof. She stops, some fifty feet away, watching at first.

//Look, Andi. The Spider.//
<<Yeah, I know.>>

Not much of an internal conversation, there.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey waits for the last person to get their food before dropping down to street-level. The cashier doesn't seem spooked - probably not the first time he's done this. He cements it by asking pleasantly, "Hey, Spidey. The usual?"
"Yes, and give it wings, please. Stopped 15 crimes tonight. It seems like the wrong time of year for this sort of thing to ramp up, but..." He sighs.
"Three red hots, no onions, add bacon, cherry coke, and give it wings. Give us a few minutes."
Spider-Man nodded and moved to sit down on a nearby bench, leaning forward, elbows on knees, hands clasped. Someone who's had a long day, indeed. With or without powers, the body language is the same.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton moves from where she was, taking a path closer but being a little circular about it. This allows her to take a different angle so she isn't just walking up directly. In doing so, it results in her approaching from the side and slightly behind where he sits, close enough to have caught the tail end of the conversation.

"Probably because there are a lot of jerks out there who like to ruin the holidays for others," comes a familiar voice, if one that hasn't been heard from much in at least some weeks if not longer.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man is suddenly alert and looking in that direction.
Andi Benton...AKA Mania. AKA the lady he hasn't spoken to in...
<Nine weeks, three days, twelve hours, nineteen minutes...>
<THANK YOU, Spider-Comm.> Sometimes he regretted adding certain functions to the system. Like the heuristic prediction algorithms.
He seems to sag a little. Like a guy who's been caught cheating by the missus. Or a boyfriend who's been ignoring his girlfriend for weeks on end.

No, she's not his girlfriend. But they have not spoken in awhile, and it's his fault for not keeping the lines of communication open.

"Hey, you two..." he says, a little glumly. "I...crud, I'm sorry I haven't called or reached out or anything since we came back from Nevada..."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton always had a knack for surprising him, but he doesn't jump in his seat nearly as much as she might have hoped for. She watches his body language. If there's a particular reason for it to be what it is, she doesn't go digging for details. She knows, for the most part, where the lines have been drawn with them, even if she isn't privy to the details of his personal life.

Remaining to the side, but in view, she looks at him with a sense of neutrality. At one point, there was a kind of hero worship thing going on, but it seems to have faded. "It's all right. You sound like you've been busy. I get it. We've kept ourselves occupied." Her tone is a little flat. Mania remains hidden, or at least quiet.

Peter Parker has posed:
For a moment, he wonders if Mania still wears the Spider on her chest. Well...if she doesn't, he can't blame her.
"...Join me for a meal? I can tell you what's been going on. Not to justify my silence, of course...just to re-connect. I owe you that much, at least."
At the VERY least...

Andi Benton has posed:
He won't know unless Mania shows, and without a clear reason for it here, that isn't happening so far. Andi eyes the red hots place, giving it a look of scrutiny. "Chili cheese dogs are no cheesesteaks, but they'll do. We don't need to know everything. We haven't even seen the one we went to rescue." This, as much as anything else, seems to have her in a more moody state of mind.

"Like we wasted our time or something. So we've been doing everything by ourselves." Isolated. Not exactly alone, but close to it if not for the bond he is well aware of. "Just helping where we can."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods, then looks up as the guy from the food stand brings his food over. He crooks a finger to Andi, then says, "Whatever she wants, put it on my bill."
The guy nods, looking to Andi. "What'll you have, miss?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton looks to the one delivering the food, then she eyes the order itself and says, "Two of those," as she points to the loaded up hot dogs. "And don't put it on his bill."

Sounds like she's aiming to pay for herself tonight.

This leads to the guy looking between them for a couple seconds, possibly wondering what that was all about, before he confirms things and heads back off.

This leaves Andi to ask, point-blank, "Did we screw something up at some point?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey blinks, startled. "What? No! No, you didn't screw up anything." He sounds instantly apologetic. "If anyone did, it was me. I should have reached out to you sooner...tried harder to stay in touch. But I was..."

I had distractions. I had a girlfriend. I had school. I had had crimefighting. I had...

...he had excuses. None of them was anywhere close to being a valid reason.

"...I messed up. I didn't make the effort I should have, Andi...Mania. I have no excuse good enough to justify it. And all I can do is ask for your forgiveness. And if you don't feel like giving it...I'll understand completely."

Andi Benton has posed:
"Good, because..we thought we were going to help..Lesion? Yes, Lesion. But he has also been hard to find and we have been feeling.." A simple shrug. "Lost." And that's probably not good for someone with a symbiote. Given some of the things Venom has been in the news for, whatever's actually made it into the news, feeling without a purpose can't be great.

Andi maintains an expression that suggests disinterest, something she's had a lot of time to practice when she was in school. "Maybe we haven't texted much either, but we like just..being in the moment. And we couldn't remember how long it'd been. We enjoyed patrolling. So we still do it."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nodded. "I had been hearing rumors from some of the low-level contacts on the street. Various informants talked about a 'black spider' or the 'boogey-girl.'" He paused, then continued, "...but you're still showing restraint. So I'm proud of you for that."
He takes a sip of soda, lifting the mask to nose-level to make eating possible. "I don't know a lot about the symbiotes. I know a few things, but not a lot. I think I've nailed down the composition of the planet they come from. But the rest is a blank page. And...out of respect for the both of you, I haven't even considering anything close to experimentation of any kind."

He took a bite, chewed, swallowed. "Anything else other than patrolling? Anything going on with your regular existence?"
He paused, then began to sing (using the melody from "Sunny Side of Life" from THE LIFE OF BRIAN) "What's cooking on...the Andi side of life?" He begins whistling as well.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton waits, whether patiently or not is unclear. There is a moment of hesitation at the mention of what Spidey brings up, leading to a scrunching of her brows, and she admits, "We don't know anything about that. And we haven't got much about where they're from. Mania hasn't..told me anything." So it may be a secret being kept, or the symbiote might not be able to share any info.

There is a very brief surfacing of Mania's own head, near the shoulder, as it says, "Good. No experiments." Then, it disappears just as quickly.

She hasn't sat down yet. At his question about what she's been up to, she sighs and admits, "Nothing very interesting. We are still working so we can have money. Our father..we are still keeping the secret, trying to keep him safe, but we are afraid he will find out sooner than later."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "I've been...dealing with something similar. I have my aunt...and I feel worse and worse lying to her. I'm worried about her finding out, too, but it's killing me to keep deceiving her. I wish I could help with that. I swear, brain the size of a small planet and I can't think of a good way to gently break it to her."

Andi Benton has posed:
"You're afraid of what she might say, and that it'll put her in danger, aren't you?" Andi asks, getting straight to the point. She's eyeing those around them, to see if anyone decides to come seek him out for an autograph or a photo or take things in a different direction. Mania is watching, too.

The guy comes back over with her food and her change, cash given before, and after a muttered 'Thanks' she bites into one. Almost magically, there is no real mess made from the food. A sneaky symbiote makes sure of it when an opening exists.

Peter Parker has posed:
"Not just that...it's that she might think it's too dangerous...that she'll ask me to give it up. Because she loves me too much to risk losing me...like she lost her husband. My uncle...he died standing up to a thief with a gun. The thief thought there was money buried under the house. There had been...but it had been paper money, it had not been sealed well, and silverfish had gotten in and destroyed the entire fortune."

He looks down. "I'm not sure how she could handle another family member being in harm's way."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton frowns between bites of food, which she doesn't comment on aside from a brief, "Not bad." Then she grimaces. "Dad might do the same thing. If he knew half of what we've been doing..." She shakes her head and pretty quickly finishes the first hot dog. Mania is also hungry.

"Mom left us after I was born. I don't even know what she looks like except for pictures. Dad's never really gotten over it. I don't think he's even tried to have another relationship. I don't know how he'd react to all of this. I already had to lie to him about everything when he was kidnapped. But I don't know how much longer I can lie about this. I don't know what you should do, either."

Notable during much of this is her speaking in the singular, not the plural. That isn't the dual side of host and symbiote, but rather Andi alone. "We're not, you know, ashamed of this, but I don't want to make things worse."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey devours one of the red hots while Andi speaks, then nods. "It's okay. I don't want to put this on you. It sounds like you have enough to worry about. But...tell a lie because the truth is dangerous...and then you have to build on it, and suddenly you have a whole network of deception. MJ, the thespian of my neighborhood would quote Shakespeare: 'What a tangled web we weave...when first we practice to deceive.'" He chuckles. "Man, does THAT ever fit."

Andi Benton has posed:
"But aren't we doing it for the right reasons? Or are they the wrong ones?" Andi asks, and by the way she gestures between them she means both of them, not just Andi/Mania. "On one hand I don't want to hurt him, but I also don't want to..I don't know, disappoint him. Or whatever. Would he be proud if he knew what we've been doing? What if you know who tries to go after him again?"

She busies herself with the second hot dog, not quite to the level of speed they get to at the contests of gluttony every 4th of July, but not far from it either. "Damn right it's tangled."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods sagely. "But I have decided that I am going to tell her. I just have to figure out HOW. But I feel she's going to need to know..."

He glances over to Andi, then looks down. "...and because it hurts my heart to keep lying to her."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton's eyes turn evasive. Spider-Man has seen the attitude she often projects, and also seen evidence that in many cases it's a front, intended to keep others from getting too close to her, or to keep herself from having to admit she has feelings of a particular nature. It's easier and safer, in ways, to be aloof, to remain at a distance.

Then she admits, "Yeah, I kind of feel the same way," said very quietly.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man smiles slightly. "We seem to have that in common, at least." He takes another bite. "I wish I had all the answers. But what I can do...is to try and be there more often. Even if you like to live in the moment. I'm going to try and reach out to you more. You're a friend, and I haven't been treating you like one. So I'm going to try harder."

He pauses, then adds, "If I do make the choice and tell my aunt...I'l tell you how it went."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi Benton's on to her own soda by now, her fingers and mouth remarkably clean. Again, thank you Mania. "Nobody has all the answers. This could go well, or it could go really bad. But maybe your aunt deserves to know, and maybe my dad does too. And..yeah. We should. I always have Mania, but we don't have many real friends."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "All right, you two. I promise I will try to do better. And the only way to prove I'm telling the truth is if I actually do it. So...here's to proving myself." He extends a (clean) gloved hand to Andi.

Andi Benton has posed:
"Yeah. Well. Soon, then. We should find something fun to do soon. If you can pry yourself away from all the girls who are probably chasing you," Andi replies, stating it in a deadpan tone but with a hint of something on the verge of a tease, for her. "And we will think about what to tell Dad."