Owner	Pose
Ben Reilly	The link from the donations were a pretty obvious tell. A college email address linked to NYU. From there it wasn't too hard to figure out who was sending Ben a little money each day through the HelpFundMe account. And, since it's labor day, Ben couldn't get a day job working labor. Instead he uses the train to head over to Greenwich Village and investigate. See what he can uncover. The freshman quad is a good place to start. He walks up to people randomly. It's not that weird because he looks like a college student. "Hey, do you know Mori? Mori Merritt?" "No?" "Oh, okay." And it goes on like this.
Mori Merritt	As it turns out, Mori Merritt does go to NYU. Seated on the fountain, which has become a staple of her outdoor sketching needs, she occasionally glances towards the dorms where the repairs from a recent dorm fire have been steadily progressing. It almost looks like new again! It doesn't stop her from sketching the dorm as it looked when it was on fire, though. Her pencil moves across the page, the slightest hint of a frown on her face before she hears what sounds like her name from nearby. She lifts her head up, blinking a bit as she scans the nearby area for a familiar face or someone that looked like they were looking for someone. Ben seems to fit the bill for one of those things, at least. "... were you looking for someone? I'm Mori." She raises her free hand to wave, only to drop the sketchpad onto the ground when it's no longer secured by her 'free' hand. Oops.
Ben Reilly	Lickety split, Ben reaches down and grabs the pad of paper before handing it to her. "I am looking for someone. And I guess you're her. Wow. You're much...uh. More than I expected. Anyways, hi, I'm Ben." Awkward. "Ben Reilly, from the HelpFundMe thing? I noticed you've been donating and I thought I'd thank you in person. Because I have nothing better to do." Oh god, he's a stalker. And the wounds from his face are completely gone. No scars or anything.
Mori Merritt	Mori gratefully accepts the paper with a smile, setting it out of the way so she can focus her full attention on Ben. "Hi Ben, I'm Mori, but I'm pretty sure you figured that out." The smile broadens, but she blinks a few times, trying to recall for a second what he means. "Oh! Hey! You!" She holds up a finger in the universal sign to wait for a minute. Fishing around in her bag, she pulls out a scrunched up dollar bill and holds it out towards him. "I found another one, you can have it. I hope you're feeling better. Is the medication helping?" Her concern seems absolutely genuine.
Ben Reilly	Ben doesn't know what to do. Does he take the dollar? I mean, he owes Mike a ton of money. But he totally needs the money. Something inside him, something from before he lost his memory tugs at him. He knows he's not supposed to take it. "Yeah, it's helping a lot. Clears my face and problems right up. I feel great." He winces, still not having taken the dollar, "So, when I put that post up I thought the people who would respond would be rich people who felt bad for a poor person. I didn't think it'd be someone who was a starving college kid. Not that your starving, that's not what I meant. I just mean that you might have better things to spend your money on."
Mori Merritt	Mori doesn't lower the dollar. She still holds it in his direction, smiling. "I've got a pack of ramen or two where I'm staying, so I'm okay. Not starving," she assures him, still cheerful. "It's okay, though. You need this more than I do. These kinds of things are more important than spending it on something more luxurious. Like the deluxe ramen packages." She pats the spot on the fountain next to her that's not occupied by her sketchpad and then sets the dollar there like some kind of lure. "I donated because I know what that sort of thing is like and how scary it is not to know what's going on with you. I can't give you answers but I can give you that to make it a tiny bit easier. It's important not to let it get you down and money's stressful."
Ben Reilly	"I didn't mean you were too skinny," Ben says shaking his head. He takes the hint and sits down, scooting the dollar to sit between them. "I appreciate that. I really do. It means a lot, especially with everything that's going on my life. I don't have a lot to really hold on to right now, so the kindness of strangers is a big deal."
Mori Merritt	She doesn't take the dollar back, but Mori seems to leave it there as an offering. "I am too skinny, though. I can't seem to eat enough to really put on weight these days." She smiles sheepishly. "The ramen probably doesn't help much." She glances over at her sketchpad, then back to Ben. "Well, maybe that first donation was a kind gift from a stranger, but the rest are me helping a friend. I mean it when I say I want to help." Her gaze now shifts down to her shoe. "It's a lot when you don't really have anyone to stick through something traumatic like that with you. So... I'm gonna help. You really don't have a choice about that now."
Ben Reilly	"Yeah, I'm starting to see that." Ben chuckles faintly, resigning himself to the fact that she's right and his choice has been limited to one. "So, since you're helping a friend, you mind telling me a little bit about you? NYU? Must be pretty smart. What are you studying? Don't tell me--social work."
Mori Merritt	Mori wiggles the pencil in her other hand. "Art. And not smart, just weird. Even the pros can't quite figure me out." She taps her head with the pencil. "I donated because I felt I could relate. I black out too. Well, not really fully blacking out, but I'm just kind of... not here sometimes. Kind of the equivalent, just less dramatic falling over and having people worry. I don't even have a medication I can take because there's 'nothing wrong' medically." She offers him a smile. "So, I figure you've got an actual option to help you, so you deserve that opportunity."
Ben Reilly	"Is it a psychology thing, maybe?" Ben asks, trying to grasp her situation better. "I've read that the brain does all sorts of tricks on us." "I'm seeing a doctor in a couple of days. Hopefully he can help me with it.
Mori Merritt	Mori makes a face. "You'd think that, but it's not really just something psychosomatic. My brain's not making stuff up." She nods towards her sketchpad. "I've got a photographic memory, so I can draw anything I've seen. Seen with my eyes. When you picture something in your head, something you make up? It might be vivid but there are details missing. Like when you have a dream, things feel a certain way, but it's all dream logic." She gives a shrug. "My eyes are seeing stuff that I'm not making up. Because I can draw them. Perfectly. It sounds cool in theory but you add in the fact that I can just zone out while stepping out into a cross walk? Not exactly the safest. It's a lot of processing... like my brain's on fire."
Ben Reilly	"That sounds cool. The photographic memory and all that." Ben think for a moment, "Sounds like a pretty cool power." Memory is the one thing he wishes he had more than his health. "Is it kind of dangerous? Just those missing pieces? You could get hurt or something like that."
Mori Merritt	There's a small smile, but it's not exactly a happy one. "It sounds kind of cool, but it's just... it's always there. Imagine seeing a disaster and then being able to see the faces of all the bodies as vividly as if you were still standing there. It all just... stays up there. It's not always great. I can tell you exactly where I left my textbooks before they got destroyed in a dorm fire, but it doesn't change that they don't even exist anymore." Mori glances over at him again. "I... there's a lot of complications when it comes down to it. The blacking out is one of them and there are other things but they're a little more complicated to explain. To be honest, though, I don't know if I'm more of a danger to me or more of a danger to others."
Ben Reilly	"Well, you've been a big help to me," Ben replies. "And, as far as I'm concerned, you don't seem all that dangerous." He looks to her drawing, "Wow, I can see why you chose art. That's pretty good stuff." A closer look, now. "Is that it? The dorm fire, I mean."
Mori Merritt	Mori laughs. "Yeah, pretty sure I'm at least a very unthreatening person." She passes the sketchpad over so he can take a better look or flip through. "Started doing art when I was a kid, I'd sneak off to the woods and draw trees and animals and stuff. I just liked it and since I could remember what anything looked like, I could see the glimpse of a deer and be able to draw it with a reference just hanging out in my head." She nods towards the dorms, then looks back at the page. "Yeah, that's what it looked like after I got out. There were some pretty cool heroes that helped. I could have died in there."
Ben Reilly	The mention of heroes puts a pit in Ben's stomach. It's been weeks since he found a costume in a backpack. He knows he needs to be out there doing something, but so far he just put it on to meet another spider type. He could be doing a lot of good with his abilities. And he has a responsibility to do so. "The art? Amazing. The tragedy, not so much. What happened? How did it start?"
Mori Merritt	Mori's face falls as he asks about the fire. "I can't tell you for sure. I don't remember all of it. I just remember being in the middle of things, the heat being everywhere, the alarm blaring so loudly I couldn't even think." She glances at the sketchpad. "I think they eventually just ruled it as an accident caused by a short circuit or something, I didn't really look into it after that." She frowns. "I'm just glad no one was seriously hurt or killed. It could have been really, really bad." There's certainly guilt there, even if she hasn't said why.
Ben Reilly	Ben nods solemnly, "Sounds awful. I'm happy you're alive and that all those heroes showed up." And then, he starts to feel slightly duplicitous as he forms his next question. "What all heroes came? That sure must have been something."
Mori Merritt	"I think she was called the Wasp? Or Waspette? She was pretty cool, rescuing people and shrinking them down into a container to carry them to safety. Some guy who could float around metal, someone who could phase through things, I think... there was my friend Cecily, who helped me get out. I'd call her a hero," Mori seems thoughtful. "I think a lot of people were just there to help, not just be heroes of some kind. They were great. I was really impressed. Wish I could help people like that. So I guess I'll just give people who deserve some help a dollar or two." She pauses. "Oh, hey, maybe I can do a fundraiser for you. Make some cool art, have one big piece for an auction and a bunch of sketches for a set price... I bet we could get you a good chunk of money right there!"
Ben Reilly	"Yeah," Ben replies as she goes into the details of everyone who helped those people. It strikes him as a trickle down effect. They save this girl and this girl tries to save him. It's like he needs to ...OH GOD, ITS THE PLOT TO PAY IT FORWARD... Ben snaps out of it, even doing a shake of the head as if to clear the cobwebs. "A fundraiser? Yeah, that would be fun. Great I mean."
Mori Merritt	Mori's smile is back, even if the mention of the fire had clearly been a bit difficult. The focus on fundraising is a better option, she thinks. "I dunno if they'd let me do it on campus or somwhere, I'd have to find somewhere to put a stand. I don't know if there's anyone else who would be interested in donating things to auction or working a booth or something. But you've got me at least. I'll set up a stand and sell art on the corner if I have to, like a lemonade stand." Really, it's pretty clear something about Ben's story really resonated.
Ben Reilly	"I'll be honest, I don't know anything about fundraising," Ben admits. Well, maybe he does. Maybe he was an expert fundraiser in his past life. But, the only evidence of those days was the pizza shop paycheck. Doesn't seem likely. "Where are you from? Originally, I mean."
Mori Merritt	"I lived out in Washington, near Mt. Rainer. Kind of a quaint little backwoods type area. It's really nice out there, really peaceful. Not much of an opportunity to study art there, though, and after all the weird medical stuff, I kind of wanted to get away to somewhere else. So I came here," Mori offers him a warm smile. "I'd ask you more about yourself but I think that's probably a sore spot, yeah?" She pauses. "Or I could ask you things like your favorite color and dessert and stuff. That's something you should know... or at least be able to figure out easily. Then you've got stuff you can say about yourself that doesn't involve memory loss. 'Hi, I'm Ben, and I like the color orange.'"
Ben Reilly	"I've never really thought about my favorite color," Ben says as he looks out on the courtyard. "Let's go with red. That would make sense." He tilts his head, to look back at her. "Washington? That's a long way from here. ...And don't worry about bringing it up. It is what it is at this point. Keep thinking there will be a switch and I can just turn it back on. Hope so anyways."
Mori Merritt	"Yeah, I do hope that works. Maybe something will flip that switch for you," Mori does look hopeful. "I kind of hope something like that would work for me, but... not sure there's a switch for what's going on other than off." She shrugs a shoulder. "I know Washington's the other side of the country but... I don't know, sometimes you have to try to live your life even if really weird and not great things are happening, right?" She grins. "Like making friends and having ice cream and doing cool fundraisers. Life doesn't just stop. So what ice cream do you like, then? You strike me as a strawberry kind of guy. That's my favorite."
Ben Reilly	"Strawberry. How'd you know?" Ben says with a smile as he laughs just a little bit. "At least out of the ones I've tried recently." The smile doesn't reach his eyes, though. Sometimes you have to try to live your life even if weird and not great things are happening. Those words seem to haunt him. "Strawberry's first, but I'm a fan of chocolate, too."
Mori Merritt	"I figured you and I had a lot in common," Mori certainly looks pleased at the correct guess. "Chocolate's good too, you're right. Have you tried any chocolate covered strawberries yet? I know a place that sells these giant strawberries, sweetest ones I've ever tried, entirely covered in chocolate. If you don't mind a slightly smaller donation next time, I'll pick some up and we can share next time we meet."
Ben Reilly	"I...I think that'd be good, I'd like that." All this talk about food has made Ben's tummy gurgle a bit. And if he doesn't get back to the shelter, dude doesn't eat. "Listen, I've got to get going. Would you mind if I emailed you? Maybe meet up again?"