daretodo: ([smm] I'm not Superman.)
[personal profile] daretodo
Christmas this year couldn't be any different than the last. I wake up alone, for one, still wearing the stuffy Victorian clothes I wore to attend mass the night before, and cold for having passed out over the blankets. The room isn't the one I oversaw being built, but rather a fancier version of the already swanky one I inherited from Tony when I moved into the mansion months back. Most importantly, I actually leave bed at a decent hour, because there's no one to entertain but myself, and I'm pretty lousy company.

I wish Tony and Pepper a Merry Christmas before I head out for the day; I mean, there's nothing really special about Christmas afternoon, right? No one's going to miss me if I prowl around the city for a couple hours in plainclothes, taking in the sights as I see them. Somehow, though, the path becomes familiar, my feet getting a memo that my brain didn't send when I get off the Underground a stop earlier than intended, and before too long, I find myself standing in front of the building that's replaced my old house. I've been here once before since the change, peeked inside to see the extent of the transformation.

It feels emptier than it did before my footsteps echoing against the empty walls. Habit has me starting a fire. Boredom has me thumbing through the pages of one of the books I left behind. A newspaper clipping of Gwen Stacy falls to the ground, and I remember why I kept it here. Crouching down, I pick up the paper, and stare down at the faded newsprint, smoothing it back into the front cover of the book. For a moment I'm lost in memories so old they seem worn around the edges, like a film strip, but I'm quickly brought back into the present when I hear something -- no, not something, someone -- hit the outside wall. I shut the book, sliding it back between the others on the shelf, and walk over to the window.

Jessica.

Color me surprised.

I knock against the glass to get her attention before disappearing to a window that'll actually open, standing aside once the job is done to let her in.

"Thought you were supposed to come through the chimney."

Date: 2011-12-31 11:39 pm (UTC)
notaparker: ([comics] Who am I? I'm SPIDER-WOMAN.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
Now that he's pointed it out, I suppose the red-and-white of the costume is kind of seasonally appropriate. I'm just missing one of those hats.

He's home, though, that's good. I wasn't sure about swinging by Casa Stark. I don't know if the walls would be electrified, in this pseudo-day and pseudo-age, but maybe steam would shoot at me out of pipes.

"I've had a little too much seasonal fare already today to fit," I say, holding the top of the windowframe and swinging myself in.

Date: 2012-01-03 01:36 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] The feminine mystique.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Hey, look at that, you can mention my girlish figure without flinching," I say, closing the window behind me. It's okay when I'm swinging around, but it's too cold to just be hanging around next to open window. It's fire and chestnuts weather.

I wonder if he has any chestnuts.

"Good job. No, I've been doing the Spider-Claus thing. Except not in the costume for most of it, obviously."

Date: 2012-01-04 08:56 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] OH YOU)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Since when are we respectable?" I say, pausing to warm my hands by the fire before following him into the kitchen. "Don't you read the Bugle? Although I guess your JJJ could've had a change of heart, too. Now, what SHIELD run around in, those are uniforms. On account of their being uniform. Ours really aren't, are they?"

Date: 2012-01-06 06:54 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] neeeeerd)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"I count two," I say, holding up two fingers, in case he needs help with the counting. I drop the hand and hop up on the edge of a table. "That's not a lot of Inc to spider with. Unless you have subcontractors I don't know about?"

Date: 2012-01-16 09:04 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] Awkward smile.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"It's Christmas, cuz," I say, shifting on my perch on the table so I'm sitting a little awkwardly on my hands. The awkward isn't so much from the position as it is the situation, but there's nothing new in that. We are old hands at the awkward.

His are older than mine, of course, har har, but that's just part of the all around oddity.

"Did you think I was going to let it slip by without stopping in to wish my clone from another zone a Merry Christmas?"

Date: 2012-01-21 01:47 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([comics] Ta da?)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Not that I'm not learning interesting things about clockwork," I say, holding up my hand and regarding the contraption banded around my forearm, with which the keepers of theme saw fit to replace my former web-shooters. "But thanks. That's- well, it's like you knew just what to get me. Funny, that."

Except not entirely. But I don't think I need to aspire to being completely incomprehensible to Peter. Being my own person doesn't have to mean being utterly opposite or thinking in an entirely alien way.

Although I am a girl which means that obviously I'm already from another planet, so that's convenient.

"I, uh, did get you something, hopefully it doesn't come off as... super creepy. It might. Maybe I should get you an IOU instead."

Date: 2012-01-21 02:06 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] Tight-lipped smile.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Smaller," I say, with a shrug, reaching into the satchel I've been swinging around with. The steampunk get-up might be a little better than the usual costume on the pockets front, but there's still some things you don't jam in there.

"What's red, in a jar- I don't know any good riddles about blood," I concede, taking out the little vial and shaking it.

I debated a bit, but the fact of the matter is, he's got years of scientific practice on me. I've had a look myself, and I know he's going to want to investigate it, so it kind of works out. My reluctance is understandable, though, I think. Bad things have happened from leaving this stuff in other people's hands.

I happened, for instance.

Also as a present it is as discussed a little freaky. Hopefully he gets the sentiment. I mean, if I can't trust him not to do awful things with it or lose it, who can I trust?

Date: 2012-01-22 03:24 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] neeeeerd)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Oh, no, I just bought it from some guy on the street, so it's only secondhand theft," I say, holding it back for a sec, then putting it in his hand. "It's mine, it is one hundred percent genuine clonejuice."

This reaches my ears. To be fair, it didn't sound great in my head, either, but it was too close to my mouth at that point. "Ew. Clone blood, we're going to never say the other thing again."

Date: 2012-01-23 07:41 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([comics] Sass.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"If you've already got one, I'll take it back to the store and get you something else," I say, waving it off with a literal flap of one hand. It's still not unawkward, but maybe it's a little better. Maybe it's about as much as a gift exchange between clones can get, especially when one half of the exchange is basically saying, 'hey, I give you permission to research me.'

"Maybe a walking cane."
Edited Date: 2012-01-23 07:41 am (UTC)

Date: 2012-02-07 08:04 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] The feminine mystique.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"No one says hip any more, gramps," I say, following a long, because he did the follow-along head tilt and it's not like I have places to be.

No, that's not fair. I'm here because I chose to be here, and I'm not running out of the place because we're... whatever we are, and it's not nothing. I'll stick around.

"We say, 'groovy,' and 'da bomb.' 'Phat,' with a pee-aitch, that one's big nowadays."

Date: 2012-02-10 07:07 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] Tight-lipped smile.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Well, lots of people have trouble with Shakespeare," I say, with great tact and diplomacy.

Ooh, steampunk laboratory. Sure, mine turned into one of these, too, but I do like to see what other people have got going on. Kind of especially what's cooking in Peter's, because if we're duplicating effort I'd like to know about it.

And if we're not, well that's a thing to be proud of. Moving in my own direction.

"I was kidding, anyway, in the hopes of getting you to say 'da bomb.' It's mostly acronyms these days. Oh-em-gee, this lab is oh-tee-tee."

Date: 2012-02-11 07:08 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] Soooooo about that)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Maybe not in your universe," I say, although actually the attempt to convince him of this patently false statement isn't as interesting as some things. "You taught high school? Before the island sabbatical?"

Date: 2012-02-13 07:20 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] neeeeerd)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"...your pictures?" I say, perching on a chair, since I'm not going to get up on one of his lab tables and knock stuff around. "Huh. Peter -- the my universe edition, obviously -- worked on the website for the Bugle. No picture taking. Well, he tried to start with, but they were terrible."

Date: 2012-02-15 07:12 am (UTC)
notaparker: ([pb] The feminine mystique.)
From: [personal profile] notaparker
"Just don't tell me triple-J is calm and reasonable, or I'll lose faith in there being anything sacred in the universe," I say. Nice to know the Bugle is in the same capable- well, the same hands.

No, that's not fair, even if the guy hasn't exactly been helpful in the past, it's not like he's running a hack tabloid.

"JJJ used to completely have it out for Spider-Man. Not recently, though, nowadays he's a big fan. It's pretty weird."

about

Peter Parker, also known as the vigilante, Spider-Man, is one of Marvel Comics' flagship characters. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, Spider-Man first debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15.

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