[ voice; ]

[quiptionary]

So, in the past few weeks I've been:

• Burnt, frozen -- twice! -- and  then screamed at so loudly that it felt like I was burning; which, lemme tell ya? Is murder on the ear drums,
• Slammed through a wall, then another wall, then a third and a fourth, all because I asked a suspiciously girl-shaped monster if she'd lost her way,
• Had to catch the same gang of crooks more times than I would've liked, and then had to watch them break out of prison and almost get eaten by what looked like a flock of fire hydrants with teeth. Yeah, time travel? Not cool when it's wild.
• Forced to squeeze pennies like I was trying to give the inside of hand a tattoo of good ol' honest Abe, which is just nuts. I mean, seriously -- I know we're in a recession and whatnot, but a gallon of milk is five dollars and I'm officially the most broke healthy person on the planet!

And now, Valentine's day is coming up. The big two-fourteen: bane of every single person and job-addicted superhero everywhere. I've got good memories of the day from back home, but truth be told? Manhattan is not the place you want to be come dusk on Valentine's day. Especially if you main mode of transportation is web swinging at a height of just high enough to not have to deal with all the lovey-dovey proclamations of, well, love; but, also not so high that you can't help but accidentally see couples in pent houses getting, ah -- well, you get my point!

[ A beat, as if he's thinking of something. ]

What were your Valentine's days like, before you came here? Can't be worse than mine, I bet.


[ ooc | as usual, Peter is posting from a second NV specifically designated to Spider-man, and his voice sounds nothing like his normal "Peter Parker" voice. ]

Comments

[quiptionary]

[ Too fast. ]

NoIdidn't.

[bodyreads]

Lying.

[quiptionary]

Maybe.














Did you like them?

[bodyreads]

Thought so.

[There's a pause on her end.]

Like what?

[quiptionary]

I, uh. Well -- Smooth one, Spidey -- I might've...maybe...possibly left you cookies and some, ah, other stuff way back around Christmas.

And I never actually got the chance to ask if you'd found the package or not.

Yeah.

1/2

[bodyreads]

Oh.

[Even smoother on her part. Yeesh, Cass.]

[bodyreads]

[There's a very long bout of silence on her end before she finally speaks up once more. There's a smile in her voice.]

Yeah, I got them. It was really nice of you to... [to think of me] ...leave them for me. Thanks.

[quiptionary]

Well, I just thought...[ He trails off. ] I run around keeping the same schedule as Bats, so I know what it's like to survive off fast-food and anything else that can be cooked under a minute. So.

Yeah.

[...Awkward.]

You're welcome...?

[bodyreads]

A lot of that. Yeah.

[At least she has the budget for it, even with her bottomless pit of a stomach. But when she first arrived, it wasn't so great.]

Ever eat Chinese food on a rooftop?

[quiptionary]

Yeah, soggy fortune cookies are the worst, lemme tell you. And then you can never read your fortune, and knowing us it's always something doom and gloom like: 'Your clone from another dimension shall attempt to eat your doughnuts today! Ps: You have no lucky numbers.'

[bodyreads]

[She actually laughs at that.]

And when you can read them, they're vague. It says: 'There's a surprise in store for you.' Like a mugger.

[quiptionary]

And I'm like: dude, seriously? [ He laughs back. ] Why are you still -- It's amazing to me, personally, that there is even still crime in New York. The Vigilante-to-criminal ratio has to be like two-to-one in some places. In New York!

[bodyreads]

That many vigilantes?

[Gotham has its share, sure, but--]

I just wonder...why they keep coming back. Why they think we're not still there, watching.

[quiptionary]

A lot of them come and go, but yeah -- New York is kind of a hotspot for things in our world. I patrol Manhattan and the Bronx, Daredevil has Hell's Kitchen and the boroughs around it, Moonknight and the Punisher treat the entire city like their hunting ground...It kind of gets hard to tell who's where at any given moment, sometimes.

[...]

Maybe whatever drives us to do what we do works the same way for them.

[bodyreads]

Seems so. Who all are they?

[She thinks about his last comment for a long while. The criminals she's met - most of them, anyway - are greedy, corrupt, full of malice. They strive to topple the hope in Gotham and they feed into the darkness the city seems to exude on its own.

Heroes, of course, aren't exactly noble either. They're just people doing what needs to be done, even if it makes them a part of that darkness. Bruce knows that too well.

She frowns.]

You really think that?

[quiptionary]

--Good people, for the most part. Daredevil's usually the only one I get along with, though. Moonknight and Punisher are kind of...Intense. And not in the good way.

[ And they're killers, he doesn't say, but even then...Even Peter's had his bad days, where it seems like he's not even making a difference. The argument is a complex, oft repeated one in the community he is apart of, and it's never as black and white as either side makes it out to be.

He shakes his head, maybe only a little hesitant. ]

With great power...[ He trails, deciding against it. ] We're all given the choice of what to do with the gifts given to us, and it's how we make that choice that defines who we are.

[bodyreads]

[Intense. Like Jason, all fire and hate, or Huntress with her anger. She knows that well enough. She continues to be silent as she listens to him.

It's how we make that choice that defines who we are.]

Why did you make the choice you did?

[quiptionary]

[ He hesitates, briefly. ]

I lost someone important to me, and I vowed that I'd never let it happen again.

[bodyreads]

[Oh. She frowns a little more.]

I'm sorry.

[quiptionary]

It's -- it's okay, really. It happened...a long time ago.

[ But it still hurts. He tries to hide it as best he can. ]

--Anyway, enough about me, right? I could go on for hours if you'd let me, I'm such a narcissist. [ He laughs, but it's without mirth. ] Since I know I probably don't have any plans for Valentine's, is there anything you do want to do, but haven't, yet?

[bodyreads]

[She wants to say that, too, that he's still hurting, but she hardly knows him. It's not her place.]

I wouldn't mind listening. [And that's the truth.] I... I don't know. Never thought about it.

[Her life is all about training and protecting people. She hasn't looked outside of that in at least two years.]

[quiptionary]

Well, maybe someday I'll have enough guts to tell you it. [ Maybe someday soon, he doesn't say. ] But if I show you mine, you have to show me yours, savvy?

[ The moment he says it, he wants to smack himself in the face. Smooth moves, Spidey. ]

Good. Since the cat's already out of the bag -- so to speak -- I could probably swing by with something instead of leaving it around, this time.

[bodyreads]

[Maybe someday. She figures he won't, which is why she replies with:]

Okay. Deal.

[Identities are everything. He won't tell her. But his offer does finally get a smile to color her voice.]

Sounds nice. When and where?

[quiptionary]

Well, innit obvious?

[ Now that they're getting away from that topic, more pep is returning to his voice. ]

All this talk about a non-traditional Valentine give on Valentine's day, I think it'd only be fitting for us to meet the day after. You know, as a sign of mutual protest and respect.

[bodyreads]

[She chuckles a little.]

Mutual protest. I like that.

[Even if she should stick to training, working, and fighting...it can't hurt to have a little fun, right? And she's wanted to meet him since she heard Damian was going to be training under him.]

We'll find a rooftop to meet on, I guess.