Summary:Mary Jane visits Peter with a peacekeeping dinner, and learns all about Spiders. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Peter hmmed as he looked at the readout. This was interesting. He might be able to increase the elasticity AND the strength of the threads with this. ZThe question was, how strong could it be? He made some notes, then peered into the microscope again.. The electron microscope was on the fritz and he didn't have the part to fix it. He could get them from the Kane lab, but that was theft, and he was better than that.
"Okay…integrity stands at two hours, 30 minutes…" he says to himself.
The usual niceties were shared with Aunt May and Mary Jane entered into the Parker residence; hello's and how do you do's, the sharing of brief tales and the long wishes of being home for the holidays like two days past. Mary Jane wasn't on a tear as she was last time, she had at least a week or two to think about what happened, and finally came to a few conclusions. It made sense. It was something that had to happen. But armed with her peacekeeping plate in hand, the door was opened from the top of the stairs by Aunt May so that Mary Jane wouldn't fuss. Booted heels made their way down the stairs which stop with a slight scratch-near-slip at the bottom.
And there she was, beanie keeping her fire red hair down, dressed in a 1960's white and black polka-dot dressed. Her feet were clad with a pair of chucks while her purse hung upon her shoulder loose. In her hands was a covered plate; filled with repurposed barbeque, slow simmered ribs, corn shaved from the cob with red peppers added and butter, hamburger meat with bbq sauce and beans, and ribs, not recooked, but extra that wasn't. Grilled the way her mom liked it with dry rub this time.
She clears her throat then offers an uneasy smile. "Hi Peter." She says carefully. "I just came to drop this off, it looks like you are busy.."
His Spider-Sense didn't go off, but there was a sudden beep. The new compound was suddenly coming apart, losing cohesion.
Then Peter looked up, saw, Mary Jane…and knew what it felt like. His face registered more than one emotion. Surprise, fear, regret, guilt, shame. Then he pulled it together, swallowed hard, and then said, "Oh! No, it's okay. I was working on an experiment, and it…just ended when you walked in, uhm, hi, I hope you're doing okay, I'm not doing anything right now, and I'm babbling right now, aren't I, so I guess I'm going to just shut up now…"
MJ let him ramble, in fact, as he was rambling, she was slowly becoming relaxed. So much so, that the smile upon her face widened with each syllable, and soon her nose wrinkles, and a little laugh pops out. "It's okay Parker." She says, taking the final steps forward to completely enter the basement. "I was actually hoping I'd catch you here. Peace offering." She says, putting the plate of food down on a nearby table, not too close to his current experiment. She was smart enough to know that any small spill could ruin it.
"I'm doing okay. I was actually wondering how you are, how you've been since we last talked." She pulls up a stool and parks it, but not sitting all the way. At least her feet were still on the floor.
"Uhm…I've been…" Since we last talked. Yeah. When she had looked at him and said, "And really, I am glad you told me the truth, it feels like a weight has lessened but all the same, it's worse." She had camped out on the couch that night, and she had been gone in the morning. He wasn't there, which was par for the course.
"…I've been…dealing. Tested a new suit…met a few people. Made a fool out of myself, but I've been doing that all my life, really…"
MJ nods, now fully pulling herself back onto the stool. It looks like she was going to be here for a while.
"Do you want to talk about any of it?" She asks, obviously concerned. She even uses that gentle mom voice whenever Peter was down before, but minus the touching of the shoulder and closeness. And the only excuse to that was, he was over there, and she just sat down. "Before you do, though. I just want to say that.. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. I was just overwhelmed. And I get it. You didn't want to have to worry about me, or my family, or Aunt May while you were out.. being you. It's.. it's a hard thing you've done. And I appreciate it."
Peter looked at her. Those green eyes were kind and caring, but to Peter they were merciless. He couldn't meet them, and looked down after only a few moments. Right now he'd rather face an armed gunman with a hostage. THAT is something he can do well.
"I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have saddled you with the burden. I should have…just kept quiet. I should have just dummied up and let you keep on thinking I was a screwup and a slacker. Because…" IQ of 250 and he can't sort this out for himself. Some genius HE is. "Because I'd rather you didn't have to worry about me or about you yourself hanging around with me."
He sighs , looking down at his hands. "It was easier when we were kids…"
"Well.." She says, her hands lifting to smack against her thighs. "The way I see it Peter, it was going to happen one way or another." Even though she smiled, it was a little sad. In fact, this all was a little bit bittersweet. She stands and approaches him, moving to the side of him to sling an arm around his shoulder, gripping him in that way that could near make for a noogie. "I never thought of you as a screw up or a slacker. Never, not once. A bit of an airhead yes.." Head, her hand lifts to ruffle his hair. "But never anything negative. Ever." She hugs him with that one arm, while the still playing with his hair, purposefully picking it apart to make it even more messy.
"I'm going to worry about you, Aunt May, everyone no matter what. That's my job, its who I am. That's something you can't stop. I'll always and forever be okay." She laughs a little, then pats his shoulder, moving away. Then.. is when she gets a little sad. "..it was.." She says to finish his sentence. "..but we always knew we'd have to grow up sometimes and do the hard things."
Peter is suddenly filled with the presence of her, and it still stirs warm thoughts in him. Thoughts of childhood innocence, when everything was okay and nothing bad could happen.
She can always do that to him. Even though they weren't dating, weren't any more than friends. *She is going to win the Academy Award for Best Actress,* he thinks, he knows it without a doubt.
He smiles for the first time. It is an uneasy smile, but it is a smile at least. "If that's your job, you oughtta ask someone for a raise, MJ." The smile grows, as if finding rich soil. "I…wish there was something I could for you. As Peter, or as Spider-Man. Something to make up for…all the nonsense I put you through."
"Well.." She says, creating a purposeful strut. An exaggerated one, one that has her foot kicking out as if she were apart of a cabaret. ".. I do think I deserve one. Mayhap you can at least loan me a twenty so I can get back home?" She was kidding, and broken into a light laugh which has her returning to her stool. With a hop and a flop, she begins to swing her legs, seriously thinking of what he could do for her.
"I could torture you and make you apart of my Instagram video feed. As Peter. So awk." She laughs, but then shakes her head. "No.. nothing. Just call me once in a while, and don't forget about me when you become.. Prince Peter Parker-Wayne, CEO of Wayne Sciences Division!" Does he have one of those?! Who knows! She was making it up! "And of course, if my phone breaks or Aunt May cooked up a shephards pie…" Yes, she was going for broke. "..I did leave my bike next door too.."
Peter's smile widens as he finds himself on sturdier ground. "Let's just shoot for going beyon 'lab assistant' and this new project working out. I submitted a proposal of a next-generation hip-joint system with a 100-year activity life. And they TOOK it. We're working on it now. I'm pushing to get it done soon, because Aunt May's is giving out. You notice how she favors her right leg? She says she can feel the joint GRINDING when she walks…"
See! There was the old Peter. As he becomes more excited about his project, she leaves the stool again, this time approaching the workbench to see if -this- is exactly what he was working on. Even though she couldn't give heads or tails of what she was looking at, she was still interested. So much so that the beanie comes off, the ponytail is produced, she was ready to get to work to help him.
"Aunt Anna was saying something about it, and I did notice it the last time I was here. May.. made me breakfast." She smiles sadly. And then she went and got drunk. "In the meantime, I know a very good herbalist who can make something to put on her hip. It's a cooling salve, has a bit of mint in it. I use it when I .. " She pauses. "..oh my god when my hips and ankles hurt." Mary Jane is going to need a hip replacement in thirty years! Cripes! "But it'll hold her over for a while. I can show her how to apply it when the inflammation gets worse.." She reaches over to poke at the edge of the experiment. "Is this it?" Dumbdumb!
Peter chuckles. "I think Aunt May would appreciate it. This is…Spider-Man related. I'm working on a stronger web, for the really powerful ones. The ones I am using are okay for the usual crooks." He looked to MJ. "If you want, I can lay it out for you. I'll know if you've lost me if I look at you as see your eyes are crossed."
MJ nods. "She usually loves my gifts more than yours." She grins at that, and as he explains.. well. She gets a weird look on her face. It's just completely bizzare to her to know that HE is Spider Man. That.. -HE- is the Menace and Crook that Mr. Jameson always rants about! And someone that so many kids adore! "Hold on!" She teeters back to ger her stool, then slides up to plop her bottom right down upon it. And..
"Okay. Hit me."
Peter smiles, that hangdog smile that seemed to elevate his whole face. He cannot conceal his excitement as he brings out the suit, a gleaming improvement over the last suit, which was an improvement over the hoodie-costume he had kludged together. "Okay. Uhm, well, the tensile strength of the spidersilk I cooked up matches the standard strength of natural spidersilk, which is plenty to web up crooks, but it's not strong enough to hold the really heavy hitters for long, and it's easy to cut." He points to the microscope. "That's a mix with stronger hold, but it's easier to cut. The way the fibers lock together are an improvement."
Already, MJ was lost. But she tried her darnest to not look at him with her eyes glazed over. It seemed like.. she needed some true and honest background. The only thing she's really saw of Spider-Man was in the papers. She often muttered to herself about never meeting a hero, after all.
"Wait wait. Wait. Let's back up." She says, waving her hands. "So.. those.. shooty thingies. The webs. They didn't come from you?" She furrows her brow. "I mean… whenever I see Spider-Man in the news he does that.." She even makes the hand-gestures, all weird. "..that's not really you?" Gosh, now she was looking at her arms. "You actually make that stuff?" And then. "You're making it to hold people together for longer.." She wonders. "..Right? Am I right?"
Peter snap-points at MJ. "Yep! Here, let me show you the new ones!"
He runs over to a cabinet, then opens it and takes out two streaming-yet-oddly-shaped bracelets. He brings them back to MJ to show one of them to her. Thicker over the inner wrist, with some kind of feeder for cartridges that encircles the wrist, with a small paddle that apparently fits over the palm.
"Want to give it a try, MJ?"
When he said he thought that being children were easier? This.. this is much easier. Adults, talking and working together. One excited to teach and the other eager to have her mind blown. This was the stuff that was missing in her life! Still eager beaver, her mind was working it out. If they were just mechanical..
"Okay, so what -is- natural.." She says, and as he shows her the bracelets, she reaches out to touch.. hesitant.. then.. "YEAH!"
It was a near loud screech, but she was practically bouncing in her seat. "So natural like like.. Please don't think this is an insult but.. do you eat bugs?" She asks. "Do you save your food for later? Not like everyone else does, but like.. in the corner of the room somewhere?" She glances around the room. "What do your feet look like? And how did you stick to the ceiling in your shoes?"
Peter chuckles. "Hold out your arm, MJ."
As he slides the web-shooter around MJ's arm, he says, "No, I don't eat bugs. I eat bagels and cheesesteaks, and Big Jake's chili dogs, and sliders from White Castle. I…just tend to process food better. I think I might blow your mind if I took my shirt off. And my feet and hands look fine, but there is some kind of field or something, something that allows me to get a better grip. I was barely managing at first, but last week I was able to run UP the side of a building." He adjust the fits, making sure the paddle fits snugly. "Okay, Spider-MJ, here's the shock treatment. The basic use is to press on the paddle using your fingers. I don't have a cartridge loaded yet, but there's a reason. When you press, you will FEEL the lever click. There are four basic settings. One click is wide web. Two clicks is webline. Three clicks is cloud webbing, like cotton candy. Fourth is a thick, gel-like glue. Try it out before we load it."
"Better -how-? I can barely handle eating bread without blowing up during my lady week.." But, he was okay. Still Peter. She almost wanted to ask him to take his shirt off so that she could see, but she'll settle for playing with the wrist bands first. "So a field.." She says quietly. "..are you a mutant?" It was the next logical step. But after he goes through the instructions, she quickly clasps ahold of his wrist, light.. but only to turn it over so that she could touch the palm of his hand. "Maybe you have control over gravity?" She presses her fingers down right where the fleshy pad beneath his thumb was, then lets go. "You still feel the same."
Somewhat done with her experiment, she curls her fingers to press against the paddle. When the lever clicks, she jumps a little, but resumes the clicks. "One for wide web. Two for web line.. three for.." She frowns. "..cotton candy? You eat this stuff?" She clicks four times, then wonders. "Why is it gel? Is that the part you're working on to keep them tied up? Or is it the wide web version?"
Peter chuckles. "I'm not a mutation. It's…I'm more of a spider-human hybrid. DNA of both. Remember the trip in our junior year? That was when it happened. The visit to the OsCorp lab. I was bitten by a genetically-engineered spider that had been recently irradiated."
He points to a bare wall. "The cotton candy one is useful for when I'm falling from a high point, like when the Vulture dropped me from 10,000 feet up. It acts like a parachute. Gel is good for temporarily bonding two things together. 1,001 uses." He steps back. "When you feel comfortable, use your thumb to press the green button on the side. That will load up a cartridge filled with the webstuff in a fluid state."
"Ooh.. I remember. You were.. no wonder. You were a bit off a week after that." She grins, and then turns to face the bare wall. She felt she had to stand for this, bracing herself upon the floor, turning her wrist so that she could spy the green button which was pushed. The series of clicks let her know that everything was loaded, and with an unsure look towards Peter, she closes her eyes and..
*CLICK*
She jumps as she feels the lever click, the wide web jettisoned towards the empty wall. It wasn't a perfect center, for half of the web winds up upon the floor and the other clinging to the surface of the wall, as if it were trying to get away from her. "HAH!" She shrieks out, jumping in place, even clapping her hands but making sure she doesn't shoot out the ceiling. Could it shoot out the ceiling?
Peter steps back, then chuckles. "Boy, does this bring back memories. It looked like Halloween the first day I tested the stuff. Relax, there is no appreciate impact. You don't have the suit wired in for the advanced web stuff. Stick with the basics until you get a handle on them. Okay…try a webline."
"I imagine you can decorate a whole dorm room with this stuff.." Mary Jane comments! She was still nervous as all heck, mentally going over the instructions, holding her arm out now to get a better aim with a tightness to make it true. Maybe! She clicks the paddle twice, jerking prematurely in anticipation of the click, and fires off a webline that splats itself against the wall, right in the mess of webbing she left there near the bottom half. "Hooo…" She says quietly, even whistling. Her hands were shaking, this was exciting! "So I remember in the news, he.. I mean you.." It was coming! Slowly! "This is what you use to swing from building to building, right?"
Peter nods. "When you let go, you have a half-second to grab it, because it cuts it from the web-shooter after you let go. You get into a rhythm. Breath in, breath out as you fire, release, then grab. Try it.
"Okay.." MJ breathes in, exhales.. double clicks and.. MISSES! She tries it again, slow and deliberate, getting a little frustrated the second time over. The third time? She fires the webline and tries to chase after it, only stopping midway and grumbling loudly with a stomp of her foot against the floor. While she'll never make it as a hero, she was definitely good at playing one on TV (if she ever had the chance). "Ok ok.. you have to be seriously fast to catch that thing." Was she going to try it again? Nope! But it does get her thinking. "How fast are you, Peter?"
Peter chuckled. "Okay. Remember when you saw me in my swim trunks at the end of sophomore year? That was Flash's last year, and he made that joke about 98-pound weaklings. Remember that? You were wearing the blue one-piece with the iridescent colors, and I thought it made you look like a mermaid."
"Funny you remember that.." MJ teases.. "..Go on.."
Peter thinks with some rueful amusement, "And I thought I could be your Prince. Saw how THAT worked out, didn't we?*
Then he takes off the shirt. It's like an odd Photoshop picture, only in real life. Someone took Peter's head and stuck it on a male swimsuit model. he's not muscle-bound, but his body is sharply-defined, finely-cut, with a clearly-illustrated torso.
(ooc: https://data.whicdn.com/images/298858969/superthumb.gif?t=1507455639 )
"Well.." MJ manages to squeak out. "..things worked out okay so far?" But, once the shirt comes off, her jaw drops and snaps right up. The paddle clicks and a wide web splatters onto the floor which causes her to jump, hop from one leg to the other like a trotting horse and laugh. "Holy smokes Peter!" She manages to say, wanting to reach out to poke. And pr.. yup. She was doing it. Close as she was, she begins to poke an ab. And two. Three. Feeling the pecs like she was an artiste shaping a mold. "The spider bite did -this-?" Tap. Taptap. She even flicks a bicep! "So. Spider DNA, with Human DNA.." she says, tapping, poking.. prodding. She even steps behind him to press at his back. Firm! "There had to be something in your DNA and the Spiders DNA that made it bond so easily to produce these results! Did you ever figure out what it was?" See, MJ is -kind- of smart.
Peter did not mind the prodding. He had done a little of his own the first morning afterward. "My theory was that the irradiation caused the spider to transfer its DNA into the venom it used when it bit me. There are various papers that certain types of radiation, of sufficient strength can make the DNA of a living thing volatile, acting like stem cells, only transmitting their DNA instead of being affected by mine."
"Well, what happened to the spider after? Did you find it?" She asks. And then she was taking a step away from him, behind him. A few more steps and she was good, and lifts her wrist to level right at his backside. She -did- want to see how fast he was. She heard that Spiderman could dodge bullets!
Ready..
Set..
She clicks the paddle once, and a wide web flings out..!
Peter begins speaking, apparently lost in thought. "No. I think OsCorp recovered it. No idea what happened to it after that, though. But a lot of…"
And then he is suddenly on the ceiling, the web passing under him, coating the far wall. She got some decent distance on it. It was so fast, it was almost instantaneous.
Peter looked at her, his face upside down, and said dryly, "…misfire?"
If Peter was watching her before, he would have noticed that almost everytime she clicked the paddle, she blinked while flinching. This time was no different. A blink and he was gone, and her head darts right, left, then upwards, watching him from the ceiling with a huge ass grin. Yup, he was super fast. So much so, that she cracked up, clapped once, set off a web in a true misfire towards the wall she was facing. Heck, she probably even had gotten something in the 'second' misfire!
"Uh.. yes!" She fibs, which she was incredibly bad at around Peter. "I.. uh.. really just wanted to see how fast you were! But stay there!" She quickly shuffles out of her shoes, then grabs the stool to move it closer, carefully attempting to fix herself to stand upon it without setting off the bracelet. Once she was up there, though not high enough, she starts to examine his form. "What happens if you let your hands go?" She reaches out with her own hands, as if that'll help him.
Peter only has to dodge his head to dodge the second "misfire," then is looking back at her with a wry smile. He moves to an upside down crouch, then his hands let go from the ceiling and his upside-down palms press lightly against MJ's. The balls of his feet, and apparently nothing else, are keeping him on the ceiling. "Kinda wild, isn't it?" he says almost playfully.
Feeling his hands once again; they don't feel any different. She expected to feel some weird, octopi like suction, but there was nothing there but his hands. And she held them, smiling and squeezing them tight. "Yeah.." She says off-handedly. "What does it feel like? All of this." She asks, still hanging on. If this happened when they were twelve, she'd probably try to swing from his arms and dangle, but she wouldn't dare do that now.
Peter thinks about it. "Ever look at a play—all your scenes and such? How long do you usually have to work at it before you feel you have the part locked down, every line, move, and blocking planned out? Think about that…and then imagine opening a play and automatically knowing every line, every step, every pause…immediately. And if you have to improvise, you know what you are going to do."
"So it's like breathing." She says, nodding her head in agreement. "That's what it feels like to me." She lingers for a moment, then draws her hands away, carefully balancing before she takes a hop down. She lands with a crouch, stumbles forward a little, then straightens herself out with a loud 'hew'!
"Once you teach me how to backflip, I think I can be just like you now. We can be partners." MJ grins, clearly she was teasing, but her actress' sense kicks in, just to make it seem like she was serious. "And I can help you test out the web-thingies. I throw an apple. You shoot it. And we examine." Plus, it's just damn fun.
Peter chuckles, then drops down to land on his feet on the floor. "Well…I *HAD* been working on a concept. Suppose I could share the powers with you? They'd be at half-strength, but half of ten tons is still five tons."
"Peter! I was kidding!" MJ laughs, then shakes her head. "I don't think I'll be cut out for the type of life that you lead. But I'm still willing to help whatever way I can." She sighs happily, then holds out her wrist for him to remove the bracelet. "I do mean it though, if I learn how to do flips, I think it'll increase my chance for more action roles."
Peter grins, then slides the webshooter off, putting it with the other one. "Yeah. It might look odd anyway, if you can suddenly execute an hour-long gymnastic performance without looking tired in the slightest…"
Once the shooters were off, MJ rubs her wrist, still thinking of the light offer. "If you think about it, a person can still -be- tired but not look it." She shrugs her shoulders. "Anyways, get back to work. I'm going to take this food up and heat it. Be down in a few minutes? It's enough for us to share."
Peter nodded, then paused. "Mary Jane…? Thanks…for coming back. I thought I had ruined everything with you. I thought you were going to go back to Julliard and the next time i saw you was going to be in the movie that won you the Academy Award."
"I'm always going to come back Peter, you know that." MJ takes the plate of food with a smile, "Now get to work, Parker. World isn't going to save itself." And up the stairs she goes!