tushanshu_logs | I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite

May's only been turtle-bound for a few days and is making her way through Fire one late evening, not quite night, on her way back to her suite when she sees it- someone in a red and black costume webswinging their way above street level, heading in her direction.

She wasn't planning on pulling her costume on this soon- if people show up here a few at a time, it makes it a lot easier for anyone paying attention to figure out who's in the Spider-costume, after all, and her Dad's definitely made it clear how important it is to preserve her identity, and the events of just a few days ago, back home, made it obvious why- but this is a good reason.

Within moments, her street clothes are stowed in her backpack, her costume's on, and she's on the rooftop of a building that should be within view of whoever's in that costume.

Have a Spider-girl waving in your direction, Kaine.

Kaine had gone out to get the next round of Peter's medicine. The kid was probably well enough that he could have gotten it himself, but truth be told he was going to murder him if he stayed in the suite for one more minute, and decided that this was a much better option for their mutual continued health.

He chose to wear the Scarlet Spider costume because Bianca had first seen him in it and he knew Peter would have a coronary if he decided to subsequently show up out of it...and frankly, web-swinging was much quicker. He now finally understood why Pete and Ben did it all the time.

He actually had Ben on his mind when he looked up to see him waving at him. God, was he losing his mind again? It takes him a moment to realize that whoever was in front of him was a. real and b. definitely not male.

But whoever she was, she was definitely wearing Ben's costume.

How was that--Wait, didn't Peter mention something about female clones? If that was the case, could that be...

"May?" Kaine took a shot in the dark. Ben had named himself after Uncle Ben, so he could only guess that female Ben would name herself after Aunt May.

Edited 2013-11-04 03:11 (UTC)

The immediate reaction to that is a jolt of surprise.

She wasn't actually expecting whoever this was to know her name, but then again, between the giant spider emblem on his chest and the webswinging, it probably makes sense- whoever they are, maybe they know her from somewhere else? The fact that there's an alternate dimension teenaged version of Stinger of all people here made it clear that she can't go into this with the same assumptions as back home.

"Not when I'm in webs." Doesn't he know better? Then again, they are on a turtle. It kind of throws the secret identity thing into a weird kind of flux. "Sorry, I don't recognize the costume."

Holy crap he was right? Then this... really was some sort of alternate reality female Ben? She might want her privacy, but Kaine was an impatient man and he wanted answers. He figured if he joined her, they'd have the privacy needed to have the conversation he wanted--no needed--to have.

He took off towards the roof in question, and propped himself up against a chimney once he landed. ...When did posing like this start feeling natural?

"It was a guess." He admitted once settled. "Since the person I knew in that costume went by Ben."

He glanced around the rooftop, and even brought his hands to his temples when he "asked" the nearby not!spiders if there was anyone around. "We're totally alone so you can drop the act."

Edited 2013-11-04 04:49 (UTC)

Seriously? He just guessed because he knew her uncle Ben? If that was the case, that'd probably mean he knows her dad, too, if he made that guess because of family.

"You knew Ben Reilly?"

"You knew Ben Reilly?"

Because really, he was really thinking you were Ben Reilly, albeit in female form.

...Oh god, this wasn't a female him, was it? He shivered at the thought. That would be officially too weird for him to handle.

Wait. Didn't Peter name his female clone? ...Jessica? Maybe that was--no, that Parker didn't know Ben, so Jessica wouldn't either.

Just who the hell was this girl?

If she had any idea who you were right now and what you were thinking, May would be shivering right now too. Don't think about that sort of thing, Kaine!

"I know who he is, I never knew him personally. He died before I was born."

She's wondering just as much who you are as you're wondering who she is.

How can he not? Clearly the only logical explanation is that you are a female clone of Peter of some sort!

...Except then you have to go and tell him something like that. Great, now the fucking future's involved.

"Wait, what?!"

Wait. Wait. He just had another thought, one that terrified him more than a female him.

"Are you his kid?"

"What? No." ~~That's Reilly, Kaine. Right idea, entirely wrong member of the family.~~

"If you know who he was, then do you know who Spider-man was?" She's guessing he probably does, since he got her name right on the first try, but she's not going to throw her dad's name like that out to some stranger without at least confirming.

Was she trying to say...? No, that was even more ridiculous than his last few theories.

New idea! Kaine ripped off his mask and glared at her. "Just say it, or we're going to spend the next hour playing 20 questions while we pussyfoot around it."

Wait. What. She knows that voice.

"Kaine!?"

That's not the answer, that's just her freaking out because since when did Kaine have spider-powers? Much less wear a costume? And far as she knew, he's always looked like he was run over by a bus a few times. He looks nothing like the Kaine she knows, but he still looks weirdly familiar.

Luckily, he wasn't so dense that he thought that was an actual answer to his question. ~~Besides, he had already ruled female him out~~. However, judging by her reaction, she clearly knew who he was... but he wasn't who she expected him to be.

Just who was he where she was from? A criminal, most likely. Why wouldn't he be? After all, he still wasn't sure he wasn't one in his own timeline. He may be trying a different path, but he never got the redemption Ben promised in prison, and he sure as hell hadn't gotten it on the outside.

"Now that we've solved one mystery... just who are you, May?"

In her eyes, Kaine is actually a good person, if definitely rough around the edges. Even if this one looks completely different, it can't mean that he's that different right? Then again, the version of her father in that one alternate dimension was evil, but Kaine hasn't attacked her and if he was going to do that, he probably would have by now.

Besides, he trusted her enough to remove his mask. May pulled her own mask off in return.

"I'm Peter Parker's daughter."

Hoo boy, he was right. ~~Eighth time's the charm~~. But just how did Peter Parker of all people settle down long enough to have a... teenage girl?

...A teenage girl roughly the same age as the tiny Peter Parker currently crashing at his suite. Yeah, this wasn't awkward in the slightest.

"Parker had a kid?" He couldn't think of anything remotely more intelligent to say on the matter.

Wait till she finds out.

"I have a younger brother too." She needed more time to process this herself, because something very weird is afoot here and she doesn't know what. Not that that's a complete surprise. The Kaine she knows was always pretty closemouthed about his past.

That's actually not helping him make any remote sense of this. Because now Parker has two kids.

"But... Parker?!" ...Still the best he could come up with.

He's not exactly making the best impression on her like that, but to be fair, sometimes she's surprised her dad ended up with her mom too.

"Is my dad. Since when were you able to do that, much less wear a Spider-costume? Not to mention look like... that."

Kaine's never been much for "good first impressions" pretty much ever, so this isn't anything new.

He can't help but be surprised that this comes back to him, not because she was surprised to see him, but more because of what about him she seemed to be surprised about. How could someone who knew him, who knew Ben, not know where--

--Because Parker never told her. Fuck.

"It's amazing what a good dermatologist and a haircut can do." It's a bit drier, a bit more sarcastic than the rest of his family, but god help him he's slowly developing the Parker sense of humor.

Deflecting? Maybe. But it bought him a few more seconds to try to figure out exactly how he was going to explain this. On the one hand, Peter--her dad (seriously, how?)--obviously didn't want her to know. On the other hand, Peter--the half-dead kid crashed in his suite--knew exactly who he was. And he'd be an idiot not to think they'd talk... and more importantly, compare notes.

Why was it all of his problems always circled back to Peter Parker?

It takes her a moment to realize that's a joke, which disarms her as much as anything else that's suddenly different about Kaine.

"Was that a joke? Did you either develop one or did you just lose it in my world? Because you've always been kind of serious in my experience."

"Do you honestly expect me to know how a me from a hypothetical future I know nothing about thinks?" This was just one of the reasons why he hated superheroes, they didn't think anything was weird about questions like this. How could he possibly know how this other him (--her him?--) thought?

If he still had his scars, his theory about this other him still being a criminal was probably correct. But if that was the case... why wasn't this girl afraid of him? She wore Ben's costume, did she take his place as his "you can be redeemed!" cheerleader?

"Maybe? The you I know's helped me out more times than I can count but he's never exactly been about his past." Pretty much all of her questions regarding Kaine, whether she asked him or her dad had been carefully deflected. "Which apparently involves spider-powers."

She wasn't going to let him pretend he hadn't answered her question before, either.

Great, so even other him was vague on the details. Clearly this girl was not supposed to know.

Well, if she figures it out on her own, everyone can go home happy. He unsticks himself from the wall and positions himself near the light of a nearby lantern. "You mean to tell me I don't look familiar at all?"

Come on now, he knows he's not exact, but he's pretty damn close to looking like your dad on steroids.

She stares at him for awhile, taking in his features. "I can't really say you do, you're being about as cryptic as the first time I met the... other y-"

It's been over a year since that first encounter, but it was enough of a doozy and made enough of an impression on her- even without the scrapes and bruises that Kaine gave her in that fight, the one where he wasn't even trying and she was still so green that thinking back on it it was insane that she even thought she had a chance, even after he broke her confidence in her abilities down- May didn't think she'd ever forget anything said that night.

'In some ways we are closer than brothers.'

The fight against Norman Osborn and the Other May, to save her dad and convince the Other May they could coexist, that she didn't need to replace May to have a life, to have a place in their family, was still fresh in her mind as well. It had only been days ago, after all.

'We could be come friends. Even closer than sisters.'

With those two similar phrases echoing through her mind right now, she really could spot the similarities, the features of Peter Parker that in her world, had been hidden under all the scars that that Kaine had. Features so similar that could have been explained as being those of siblings, or even twins, they were so close, but her dad had no siblings.

"Oh my God. Y-you're some kind of clone of my dad, aren't you?"

Her dad's paranoia about the Other May suddenly made much more sense if- no. She wasn't going to think on that idea further.

At first he thinks she isn't going to get it. The way she looks at him like he was a crazy person when he says to look at him is pretty much a dead giveaway. It's a bit surprising, given how much he thinks he resembles Peter.. but who knows what her father looks like. He could be completely different for all he knows. With a silent groan, he concedes that he might have to be upfront about this.

Then her expression changes, and he knew they were getting somewhere. He just nods in response to her question. Good, he wouldn't have to say it after all.

"I take it we're not close."

"You and my dad? Definitely not." Which suddenly makes a lot more sense now. The only other person her dad had ever been that vehement about was Normie, and that was because of the whole Spider-Goblin thing.

"But after our first couple encounters," the one where he beat her up to make a point about what she shouldn't be doing, and then when she successfully stopped him from killing the Kingpin, "you've always been one of my closest allies whenever I'm in costume."

Enough that she actually thought of him as family, another uncle, like Uncle Phil- which, since Kaine was a clone of her dad, he actually was. She almost wished that she had called him that out loud in front of him or her dad, just once, now. That definitely would've resulted in an interesting reaction, that was for sure.

Kaine

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject