deernet | Video; UN: Spider-Man

Hey, everyone! Spider-Man here — AKA your favorite Peter! Sorry to all the other Peters, but them's just the breaks. I've worked too hard the last three years around here to not get top-billed spot as Peter! ... Alright, alright, maybe I'll share with Peter Graham. But only because he's as old and tired as me. We're like a thousand years old in spirit, right? Right. The Peter Pack old boys.

Anyway, I used to give people informational packets, back when we lived in, uh... Deerington. You know, in Maine? You remember that old chestnut? Yeah, me too. Lucky me, my house and lab came with me! A little less furbished, but I do what I can. I'll be starting up my new job as a teacher here at the school soon, because old habits die hard, but I suppose I don't mind doing some teaching outside of the school, too, sooooo...

If you wanna know anything about the world that existed before Trench, I can answer questions as best I can. You guys all deserve that. And, uh. If it helps — I've attached a copy of the PPPP(S). Yup, that's right! The original! The O.G., as the hip kids call it.

[FILE ATTACHED.]

Super sorry if anything's confusing; I can fill out any of the weird blanks or things that don't quite make sense. And for everyone who doesn't need this info because they swam their little squid tuckuses behind me.... Hey! How's it going! Tell me a good joke, if you've got one. Let me know how you're settling while you're at it. I've been pretty good, personally. Lots of fighting, y'know. Creepy monsters away from the outskirts of town.

So basically nothing's changed.

Well, nothing other than the month, I guess! Wow, wait, is it already a new month? Can't believe...

[He trails off, and seems to realize, belatedly, loudly, and with great concern:]

OH NO, NOT OCTOBER!

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Yeah, Boomer!

Don't tell me distant space didn't have 'boomer' in their slang still!

If we did, I didn't hear it.

It means 'out of touch old person stuck in the past', pretty much.

We're Deerington Boomers.

"Stuck in the past" doesn't... really describe what we went through, I don't think.

... Deerington War Vet Boomers?

[is that more accurate???]

How about just... Veterans?

Ugh, I guess. But I was kinda enjoying the idea of a 26-year-old Boomer.

Veterans it is.

How're you doing by the way, fellow veteran?

Dreading October.

But I should probably be asking you that.

Mm? Ask me what?

[#innocent]

... Your shoulder, Peter.

Oh, my bad.

Ask my shoulder what?

Peter.

You know what I mean.

Well, my shoulder says it's fine and not to feel guilty about it.

I've got super healing, remember?

[Sure, it's slower than back home, but he's a speedy recovery in a nice bow-wrapped spider package!]

Right, right...

I - I knew that.

[But he's going to feel guilty about it. He's absolutely going to feel guilty.]

... Seriously, Shiro. It's fine. I mean it.

We're all friends who get caught up in the town's influence, right? How many times have we all gotten hurt without the other person meaning to? You're fine. I don't even scar, y'know. I'm baby-smooth!

[Maybe there's something kind of sad in that. In the fact that he'd be head-to-toe covered in scarring if he hadn't had that ability all these years. But he has it, and he heals, and it doesn't matter.]

It doesn't change what I did.

[Doesn't change that he lashed out at someone he cares for. At someone who'd only been trying to help. Nothing is going to change that.]

[No amount of "it's fine" will, either.]

Yeah, well, if it were anyone else but you, you wouldn't be blaming them for it.

Not everyone has a hand that can burn their friends like that.

You sure about that?

Because Trench seems to make sure everyone's got something.

I'm pretty sure, Peter.

[Maybe it's a little flat. A little sharp. But it's becoming clearer and clearer that Trench didn't see fit to give him much of anything to help the others with.]

[All it left was this useless hunk of metal. That hurts.]

So if I was in the middle of hallucinating during an event that I didn't sign up for and I punched you hard enough to dislocate your shoulder with my super-strength in a panic, you would blame me for it. Right. Got it.

Excuse my language, but that's some bullshit.

And you should know I'd see that, because we're both 100% the same kind of hypocrite.

Edited 2021-10-21 07:38 (UTC)

It's -

[It's different.]

[He doesn't say that - because Peter's right. They are exactly the same.]

You didn't do that. You've never done that.

[He sits there, quiet for a moment.]

... You really think I've never hurt people, all that time in Deerington?

That isn't -

[That's not what I meant]

[Except he doesn't finish. Doesn't have it in him. So he just falls quiet, himself.]

- I just need to apologize. Please.

... Alright. Okay.

But once you've completed your apology, that makes this forgiven.

The slate's clean, and there's no reason to ever apologize for this again. Got it?

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shiro2hero - 2021-10-26 04:02 (UTC) - Expand

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