#this is such an octavius coded moment

[the-casbah-way]

my mother, who has never at any point believed in anything i've ever done in my entire life, recently read down then left and really wants me to try and get it published. but at the same time she also said i'm not updating it fast enough and was like "why did you ignore it for two whole months" and i tried to explain that i was busy with uni and my mental health (which she made worse by being very transphobic) and how if you want it to actually be good especially thematically it's not going to be effortless and you do have to sit down and really think about it and i already felt really bad for not writing it fast enough and now i feel worse even though it's just a stupid fanfic that three people care about

[casuallyawkardd]

Close Encounters of the Spiderkind Pt III

Pairing: Miguel O'Hara x Single Mother!Reader

Summary: Miguel and you get the chance to get to know one another better while on a mission

Warnings: fluff, mentions of drug use but nothing crazy, super evil villain watch out, not fluent in Spanish so lemme know if I mess up

A/N: Finally the long awaited next part of the series! Thank you all for being so patient with me and I hope it holds up to expectation 😊 Also I finally made a masterlist for this series!

MASTERLIST | TAGLIST

One thing you liked about Nueva York was that you could see the stars at night. In your universe's New York, the lights alone would drown out their natural light, something you missed seeing back in your hometown. But here, they were plain to see, sparkling down on you from the open sunroof. Maybe someone in this universe developed lights that didn't snuff out the natural light of the world, that or maybe the future was less smoggy.

This wasn't the Nueva York you were familiar with, not technically anyway. What had Miguel called it? Earth-928C? It was another version of Miguel's home, one where there were enough differences that they were their own separate universes, but not so much so that it was classified under a different number. Speaking of Miguel..

"Remind me why I was chosen for this mission?" you asked, breaking the silence between you two. The man in question gave you a sideways glance, not looking too happy with your tone.

"Because Jess is already on one with Peter B and she suggested I take you instead," he answered matter-of-factly, nostrils flaring as he let out a huff.

"And...why did Jess have to be the one to come?"

"You know, you ask a lot of questions."

"And you avoid a lot of them," you quipped back, shooting him a half-hearted glare before sighing heavily, arms crossing over your chest. "I get the whole 'mysterious leader' thing, but I don't think it's too much to ask for a little more detail-"

"I needed someone to pose as my date to this event," Miguel cut you off. You awaited further explanation, but the other spider seemed to think that answer would suffice. It certainly explained the given dress code for the mission. Miguel sporting a suit, appearing like a simple black, but was shown to be a deep red when the light hit it just right. His eyes gave you the up and down, as if just now seeing your ensemble for the first time. "You clean up nice."

"A simple 'I like your dress' would work, O'Hara," you huff.

"Fine, I like your dress, happy?" he retorts and you roll your eyes, the compliment not as sincere when you have to pull teeth to get it.

Yet another moment of silence followed as the car drove on, a divider keeping the driver oblivious to the conversation between you two. "What's the mission?" you asked finally, "I know you mentioned something with anomaly capture, but we were in a rush so..."

"Ay dios mío," Miguel pulled up an image on his gizmo. "A variant of Doctor Octavius was detected here," he pointed to the flashing dot on the map, "that building just so happens to be where Alchemax is hosting their annual charity event. Make sense?"

"Mmm," you hum, "and do you expect that they'll just let us walk right in?"

"Of course they will," he said, clicking the hologram away and leaning back against the seat, "the Miguel of this universe still works for Alchemax, he's expected to be there."

"And you plan to pose as yourself in this dimension?" Miguel nods to confirm your thought. "What if the Miguel from this universe comes too?"

"He won't."

"And you know that because..?"

Miguel didn't respond, looking out the window as the car came to a stop. "We're here, let's at least pretend we like each other."

Stepping out, Miguel offered you his arm for you to get out of the car with ease. The building before you was tall, much like the skyscrapers of your universe, only maintaining that futuristic quality most things seemed to possess in Nueva York. The lights you could see from the top floor told you of your destination, all that was left was to make your way inside.

"Why the cameras?" you asked, indicating with a nod of your head to the flashing lights and large crowd around the base of the staircase that led to the entrance.

The sight made Miguel grimace, "Paparazzi," he spat the word, "makes sense, these things usually attract that kind of crowd. Celebrities, billionaires, anyone Alchemax can sucker into funding their projects." His disdain for the company was evident, as to why he had such a deeply rooted hatred for it, you had yet to hear that story. "Come on, let's just go in. Try not to be obvious." Before you could respond, he was already leading the way; his arm linked with yours as the two of you managed to slip inside.

The way up was uneventful, one high tech elevator ride and you were on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. According to Miguel at least. On the way up, Miguel had shared the plan: lie low and wait, plain and simple. It wasn't like his usual plans, Miguel seeming to prefer getting in and out as quickly as possible, anomaly captured and sent to HQ in the blink of an eye.

"There's too many people," he explained, "one wrong move and this building could come crashing down with everyone inside. Just act natural and let the target reveal itself to us." Just how dangerous was this variant?

You were reluctant, but chose not to argue with his plan, especially once you saw the venue. The event was being held in a ballroom of sorts, designed for events such as this one. The room was large, accented by a stunning silver chandelier. There were tables for guests to sit at on the borders of the room, many already occupied by elite figures chatting away about business and what have you. Horderves and cocktails were being distributed on metal trays that hovered about the room. The room, the people in it, all that you saw combined into a reminder of just how advanced Miguel's universe truly was.

"Miguel?" a man's voice called out, the owner coming through the crowd. He was an older man, tall like the man at your side and equally well dressed, if not more. "Well, isn't this a treat?" There was a teasing tone to his voice, offering a hand that Miguel stiffly shook.

"Mr. Stone," Miguel mused, forcing a smile to maintain the facade, "How are you this evening?"

"Well," Stone replied, looking in your direction, "And who might you be?"

"Oh, just Miguel's date," you tell him, throwing your name out there as well.

Mr. Stone smiled, taking your hand in his, "I doubt something as lovely as you is 'just Miguel's date,'" he said before planting a kiss on the back of your hand. A gesture that made you want to retract your hand immediately, but you kept with the pleasantries.

"Well...I'm-"

"My girlfriend," Miguel interjected, pulling the unwanted attention off of you.

"Girlfriend?" Stone seemed surprised by the bit of information. "Didn't know you had one. Thought you were becoming a sort of recluse."

Miguel just shrugged, despite the comment seeming backhanded, an insult hidden behind a pearly white smile. "Well I have to get out sometimes," was all he said and Mr. Stone nodded slowly in acknowledgment.

"You should spend some of that time coming into the lab. I'm sure your team's been missing you."

"I'll think about it." Before the older man could continue, Miguel placed a hand on the small of your back, gently pushing you forward and through the crowd, finding solace at an empty table.

"You know him?" you dared to ask, based on the sour expression marring Miguel's features.

"Tyler Stone," was all he said, huffing in annoyance, "He's in my universe as well, or I suppose was. This version doesn't seem to be as much of an entitled prick at least."

"Oh," was all you had to say, glancing around the party. Whoever this Stone person was, he seemed to have struck a nerve in Miguel, making him more irritable than usual. Something you didn't plan to tolerate all evening. "Miguel?"

"Mmm."

"Why the hell is everyone in every version of your universe so damn tall?"

Miguel paused, looking around confused before looking back at you, "I'm sorry?"

"I mean really, I've looked this room up and down and I'm pretty sure I'm the shortest one here. What's the average height, six foot three?"

He hummed in amusement, "Six foot one for women."

"Nuh uh."

"And six foot six for men."

"What the hell!?" you guffawed, your dramatics making a small smile appear on your partners lips. "What are they feeding you in the future?"

"Dunno, better food?" he shrugged, sitting back in his chair, posture more relaxed than it had been. "Anti-gravity tech is more normalized in my universe too. It's been proven to have an effect on the development of kids."

"And you know that because..?"

"Did a report on it in middle school."

"Of course you did."

"Keep the snide remarks to yourself," his tone hardened for a moment and you wondered if your attempt at lightening the mood had struck a nerve, but he continued on. "You know, I'm sure Vada could benefit from some anti-gravity therapy."

"Hey, my little lady is perfect at the size she is," you warned, the smile on your face keeping the conversation light hearted. "Plus, I want to savor her being small for as long as I can."

Miguel chuckled, "Ain't that the truth."

The air around you two seemed to shift with that little comment, your smile slowly fading in sync with his. You felt like you should say something, break the ice once more to relieve the somber air. "Miguel, I-"

"Es suficiente," he interjected, rising from his seat and adjusting his suit. "We need to stay focused. Start searching for the target, let's get a move on."

Complying, you rose to your feet as well, stopping after taking the first step to follow. "...No."

Miguel froze at the single syllable, turning to look at you over his shoulder, "What was that?"

"No," you repeated, his eyes now narrowing at you. "You were the one who said we needed to lay low, right?"

"...Yes, but-"

"Well," you interrupted and his jaw set in annoyance, "then we should take advantage of where we're at. Enjoy the party and all, yeah?"

"That's not-"

"If you need to get a hold of me, just call me on the gizmo."

"No, Y/N, we need to stick together," Miguel reached out to stop you, but you were already walking off, a platter of bruschetta catching your eye. Miguel let out a deep breath through his nose, "The anomaly could be anywhere, it's dangerous to be on your own."

"I'm not alone, I have you," you called back to him playfully, trying not to laugh at just how peeved he looked. "Let loose O'Hara, don't be such a stick in the mud. Is that whole wall an aquarium?"

You never knew rubbing elbows with the elite could be so...enjoyable. It seemed many found your conversation refreshing, a change of pace from the usual, high society vernacular. It helped that they had expensive taste as well. The food was immaculate and you regretted not bringing something to stash away extra. Something Vada could have tried when you got home.

Speaking of your little one, she had managed to get a hold of you through Lyla. You had been hesitant to let an AI watch over your daughter, but considering she looked to be in one piece, it looked like this little experiment worked out just fine. Vada was even ready for bed, hair washed and wearing fresh pajamas. The call was to simply say goodnight, you promising to tuck her in when you got home.

"Tell Miggy I said goodnight, too," your toddler demanded, making you laugh.

"I will. Goodnight, baby."

"Goodnight, Mama."

As soon as you hung up, the group you had found yourself in was bombarding you with questions. 'You have a daughter? How old is she? Sounds like she misses her mother, huh? Why didn't you bring her tonight? Who's her father, maybe we know him? Is it Miguel?'

"Oh no, nothing like that," you had to chime in, waving your hands defensively, "I had her with my ex, she's too young to come to something like this." When they pressed for more information, particularly about Vada's father, you provided some dodgy answers before making the executive decision to excuse yourself.

The balcony seemed to be the place most people were going to get a moment of peace. It was dimmer, the only light coming from the windows looking into the ballroom. Some were having a smoke break, while others used the fresh air to keep the alcohol in their stomachs. Miguel was among them, neither drunk or smoking, leaning against the balcony on his own.

"This doesn't seem like the place to find a Doc Ock anomaly," you teased, coming to stand beside him.

He acknowledged you with a sideways glance before looking back at the city below. "Didn't get the chance to investigate much. Too many people trying to talk to me."

"Oh no, whatever will you do?"

"You're hilarious," he matched your sarcastic tone with his own.

"It must be nice though, people seem to like you a lot here. Or.. I guess the Miguel of this universe, at least." You looked over at him, debating your next words. "Miguel, how did you know he wouldn't be coming tonight?" You could see his jaw set, eyes now purposely avoiding yours. It was frustrating to say the least. "Come on, Miguel. Why can't you just tell me?"

"It's none of your business, that's why."

"Oh, but it's yours? Cuz it's you in another dimension? Tell me, when do I get to know the 'business' of every other version of me?"

"You know what? I'm getting real sick of-" Miguel whipped to the side to face you, his shoulder bumping yours and you stumbled to catch yourself. That seemed to give him pause, Miguel going quiet once more as the two of you now stared at each other. You were trying to understand what was going through his head, but his expression was as hard to read as ever. Blinking slowly, he let out a heavy sigh, going back to leaning against the railing. "It's just personal, alright? The Miguel of this universe and I have... a lot in common."

You didn't say anything, not sure what you would say anyway. Leaning forward on the railing, your eyes focused on your fidgeting hands, looking up when Miguel continued. "He's addicted to Rapture, a disgusting drug that Alchemax developed, just like I was," reluctantly his eyes met yours, gaze softer than it had been before. "except I succeeded where he will inevitably fail. He'll perform an experiment to get rid of the addiction, but it'll backfire. He'll be dead by the end of the week."

"Oh, Miguel, I.. I'm sorry to hear that," you placed a sympathetic hand on his forearm. You bit your lip in thought, unsure what to say under these circumstances "That must be hard, knowing a version of yourself is going to... you know."

Miguel just shrugged off your touch, "It wouldn't be the first time," he replied, you frowning at how quickly he brushed it off.

"Still, I'm sorry," you repeated, Miguel only humming to show he heard you. The two of you didn't say much after that, but it wasn't awkward like the other periods of silence between you tonight. There was tension, but time seemed to help melt it away. It began to feel almost natural, the kind of quiet you were used to sharing with a select few people. The breeze came in, cool against your skin, save for the part of you that pressed against Miguel's side, welcoming the warmth he had to give. "Hey," you said, "this might be a bad time to bring it up, but Vada did want to tell you goodnight."

A puff of air escaped his lips, making a 'tch' sound, shoulders shifting in a mute laugh. "Did she now? Well that's awfully generous of her." Miguel savored the sights of the city a moment longer, letting your news sink in before pushing off the railing, standing to his full height. "Come on, we should head back in. We still have a mission to finish."

"Right," you agreed, following after him. You had forgotten how bright the ballroom was, squinting at the brightness invading your vision. After that, it was back to the mission. This time you stuck close to Miguel's side, there to diffuse the small talk as politely as possible while he continued to search the room.

"The anomaly is in this room, stay on the alert."

You nodded at his instruction, eyes peeled for any guests who might be glitching in and out of reality. However, your attention was limited, eyes drawn to the aquarium you had seen earlier. It truly was a sight to behold, Miguel had pulled you away before you got the chance to get a good look. Twenty feet in height and a blue that was equally unnatural and alluring. Decorated to perfection, because of course it was, with well placed rocks that had corals of various colors and shapes sprouting between them. The fish were just as diverse, shapes and colors that glided about the water. Some you had never seen before, while others were a familiar sight. A pair of clownfish nestling into some anemone, a whale shark swimming above the reef, an octopus with a monocle and- Wait a minute.

"Miguel," you patted his arm to get his attention, pointing at the discovery. Your eyes had not deceived you, there was indeed an octopus, sporting a monocle that was reminiscent of a cyberpunk style, the glowing green eye within darting around suspiciously. Upon second glance, you saw that this octopus also sported two mechanical tentacles, the style matching the device over its eye.

"You've got to be kidding me," Miguel groaned, "this was a high threat alert." As if to answer his question, the creature glitched, startling a school of fish that then scattered about the tank.

"Yeah, real threatening, he might take over the entire aquarium."

"Can it, let's just get the thing and- what are you doing?"

"Hold on, I want to take a picture. Vada's gonna get a kick out of this."

Tags: @l0sert0wn​ @deputy-videogamer​ @arctic4life​ @sasaleleselfships​ @autismsupermusicalassassin​ @snert-bees @qundadedingle11 @uniquelyabnormallyoriginal @fangirlreice7 @mouse-teagreat @andr3wgarfieldsupremacist @yellieeeee @thesrtuggleisveryreal @escherichiacolli @sweeteaacorner @marvelouslovely-barnes @meeom @candlewitch-cryptic​ @iwanttogohomeandtakeanap @melovetitties @ilovemycat6808 @vegas-writing-den @pippethealien @shibble @mommyhange1 @chiikasevennn @pokhouu @jenniferdixon05207 @m0sscr3ates @momos-peaches @insanelycrazyanddelusional @miggyoharaswife @justtnat @imliquidesmooth @thedevillovesflowers @mvc2019   @starrynightnight @risinglightmoon @charming4u @whitetearx @blueparadisecollection16s @idontknowwhatimgoinghere @ziyahshinez @migueloharaslxt @obi-mom-kenobi​ @allysunny​ @viriexo @futuristicpandakid ​ @louderfortheback @tomhollandisabae @itzsab @blue-pears-blog @geraskier-thots @saintskully @johnny-pie @keenzinemugstudent @rizahawkeye1380 @realalpacorn @prettylittlebrowngirl​ @leahnicole1219​ @i-feel-violated @fandom-ash @graysonshaven @qiaipia @3zae-zae3 @melovetitties @marcswife21 @the-silvercrow @erissco @stqrlightrs

[burningexeter]

As an aspiring writer and filmmaker, what are the connections or "themes" that my work has and share with each other. It's actually much more simple on my end with this:

• They tend to always focus on unconventional type of protagonists fighting against the highest stakes there is. But despite that sounding fairly interesting for a simple paragraph, there's much more to it than that. First off, the protagonists or even the ensembles are not at all the type of characters you'd ever expect or think of being the heroes. They're the bullies, criminals, blue collar workers, CDC doctors, rat exterminators, cynical schlubs, elderly grandfathers or grandmothers, spoiled brats, cheerleaders, truck drivers, shady and sleazy private detectives, sarcastic grumps, priests, former deadbeat parents trying to put their lives back together, the sexy but quick-tempered goth girl, drug dealers, cartel members, morticians, dysfunctional families, the town drunk, struggling drug addicts or even a little girl with a burnt scar on the side of her face. These are all no matter what the numerous type of people who you don't usually see as the heroic characters who save the day. These aren't the strong jawed, posing, good-looking Hollywood heroes like Superman, the Guardians Of The Galaxy, Optimus Prime, Luke Skywalker or Wonder Woman — god no, instead these are heroes in the exact same category as Jack Sparrow from the Pirates Of The Caribbean Trilogy, Walter White from Breaking Bad, Koichi Shikishima from Godzilla Minus One, Aldo Raine from Inglourious Basterds and Trevor Philips from Grand Theft Auto V.

That said however, all of the protagonists do grow, develop and even at times become better people over the course of the story. Most of them all have moral codes (standards basically) and always end up doing the right thing.

As for the stakes, these aren't just the odds. These are big. Big stakes that affect them and even everything and everyone they've ever loved or cared about. The stakes in my work are always - and I mean ALWAYS - huge. And no, it's not "Oh, it's the end of the world and the final battle is in New York City" but they are big, deadly, dangerous, high-edge stakes.

• Another thing is that the events of any of my work are either caused, furthered or BOTH by the protagonists and characters' actions and thus are more than character-driven. They make HUGE decisions, they even sometimes depending on which or who make the wrong choices, they don't do what they should've done and regardless of whether what they did was right, all of this leads to repercussions that build and culminate to the climax and end.

• The villains are never these one dimensional, generic, mustache-twirling villains who are just 100% evil all the way. Instead, the villains are intimidating, scary, charismatic, intelligent, threatening and even at times tragic characters. The ones who are tragic show it through moments and go out on their own sacrificial terms while the ones who aren't tragic have codes to them and make their presence known whenever they're on screen. We're not talking about again strong jawed, posing, good-looking Hollywood villains like Loki, Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, Evelyn Deavor (good lord, that pun name is just dumb as hell) or Hans of the Southern Isles — nah, god no, instead these are the villains in the exact same category as Jared Nomak from Blade II, Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus from Spider-Man 2, Davy Jones from Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest & At World's End, Syndrome from The Incredibles and Dr. Thaddeus Sivana from Shazam!.

• Last but not least, all of my work have genuinely bittersweet endings where the villain or villains and threat are defeated for good with no chance of coming back but sacrifices are made on the heroes side therefore they don't always end very happily. It shows us that not everything has a happy ending regardless of what it is.

Here's an example:

I have this whole entire, fully fleshed-out idea for a Kim Possible reboot called Global Justice and this is how it'll end:

After Kim and Shego have a heated argument about the former's future now that she's about to graduate high school, Shego realizes that she was wrong and that her reasons for not letting Kim go are selfish of her. But when she goes to apologize to Kim and admit her mistake, she shockingly finds that Kim has gone behind her back and done something that sets in motion the events of the series finale.

The bittersweet ending here is that the main threat that's been built up since the ending of the five-part premiere is finally defeated, all heroes come together and the day is at long last saved with the surviving villains being put to rest.... BUT due to everything that's just happened because of her, Shego has lost all trust in Kim that's been built and earned throughout the whole series with the final scene in the show being this —

Flying through the night sky over a now safe Middleton in their purple car as a full-on homage to the final moment in the original series, Kim in the front seat and Shego driving are sitting in complete silence with their hair blowing in the wind. It's then that a guilty and almost somber Kim says "I'm sorry, Shego. For everything".

To which Shego replies with this....

"I know you are, Kim. You're my girlfriend and nothing will ever change that. I brought you into all this from day one and nothing will ever change that. I will always love you no matter what and nothing will ever change that. But after everything that's just happened, from now until I don't know when, my trust is something that you're gonna have to earn back".

Kim then hangs her head down in shame, visibly heartbroken, while Shego continues driving emotionlessly into the moon.

Cue end credits.

Kim ended up fulfilling her goal in the show but at the cost of a loved one's trust. And it's Shego of all people.

[riley-writes]

Sleepless Nights

Pairing: Otto Octavius x  gn!Reader

Word Count: ~900 words

Summary: Otto really doesn’t approve of your poor sleeping habits.

Tags: @softimaginescity​

I don’t know about y’all, but when I don’t get enough sleep and am stressed about deadlines, I get E M O T I O N A L. Remember to take care of yourselves! 

“Promise me you’ll go home and get some rest.”

It wasn’t for lack of trying that you’d broken your promise to Dr. Octavius. You had gone home and tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep. But the looming deadlines and unfinished work at the lab had consumed your every thought– every time you closed your eyes, you couldn’t help but think that you should be working on those damn actuators. It was a week until the demonstration, and there were still some kinks in the code that you needed to work out. So you gave up on sleep and made the trek to Oscorp.

You knew he’d be disappointed as you swiped into the lab at 3:30 in the morning, but it’s not like he was going to find out, right? He’d come in at 9 and ask you how long you’d been there, and you might be able to get away with a vague answer. You could only hope. 

You sipped at your coffee and drummed your fingers against the hard wood of the desk as you waited for the code to run again. Much to your irritation, the same error messages came up. You painstakingly went over the lengthy code again and made some changes, only to receive even more error messages. Repeating the process several times, you were getting more and more frustrated by the minute. 

Taking a break, you laid your head down on the desk and closed your eyes. If you couldn’t get this code perfected in a week, the demonstration would have to be pushed back. Why couldn’t you just figure the damn thing out? The doc had put you in charge of this part of the project for a reason– you were supposed to be capable of doing this. The last thing you wanted to do is disappoint him! You could feel yourself start spiraling downwards, and your breathing became much more shallow.

A hand on your shoulder made you jump and nearly fall out of your chair. You spun around quickly to find Dr. Octavius staring down at you with a disapproving frown. The two of you stared at each other for a moment.

“Uh, hi?” you asked, trying to avoid his intense gaze.

“If I recall correctly, I explicitly told you to go home and get some rest,” he said, sounding stern. You swallowed and opened your mouth, only for him to continue. “In fact, I believe you promised that you would do so, did you not?” Your throat tightened and you prayed to whatever power that would listen that you wouldn’t cry in front of him.

“I… I did.” Your voice was barely above a whisper. 

“So why are you here, then?”

“The demonstration is in a week… the actuators… the code’s not working correctly all the time. I just– I laid in bed awake for hours and couldn’t fall asleep. The actuators need to be working correctly for the demonstration, I don’t want to be the reason that your experiment fails! But I’ve been working on this code for months and it’s still not working right! I just need to get this done but I’m too stupid to figure it out!” The tears that you’d been trying to fight finally broke free, and you hunched over and buried your head in your hands.

He sat down in the chair next to you, and a hand came to rest on your back. You let out a quiet sob. The hand rubbed comforting circles onto your upper back as you cried. Dr. Octavius waited until your sobs turned into soft sniffles.

“When was the last time you got a decent night’s sleep?” he asked gently.

“I– I dunno. It doesn’t matter, I have to–,” you started

“It does matter, dear. You need to take care of yourself. You’re working yourself into the ground.”

“But the demonstration–”

“Can be pushed back. Your health is much more important than some silly deadline.”

“It’s not silly! This is your experiment!” you argued, more tears falling, much to your dismay.

“Harry Osborn is the one who wants the demonstration to happen next week. I’m the one in charge here. If I say we’re not ready, it doesn’t happen– there’s nothing he can do about it.”

“I don’t think I’m smart enough to figure this out, doc,” you sniffled.

“You are, I know you are. You’re one of the smartest, most capable people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. But you need to rest. How can you expect to do this without a well rested mind?”

“How am I supposed to sleep when there’s still so much that needs done?”

“I think having the day off will give you sufficient time to get some rest,” he said with a smile.

“I don’t know…”

“Come on, grab your coat,” he ordered, and you didn’t have the energy to argue. You shut down the computer, and grabbed your coat and backpack. Once you had everything, he put an arm around your shoulders and led you out of the lab. “Have you eaten this morning? I know a brilliant 24 hour diner a few blocks away. They have the best pancakes. Let’s get you fed and then you can take today to get some sleep. Then you can come back tomorrow and tackle that code,” he said, pulling you against him for a moment in a half hug.

You smiled and dipped your head as he led you to the diner. Maybe things would work out after all.

[writingsofhubris-a]

Teacher's Pet

[AO3] Rating: E WC: 1137 Tags: Power Imbalance, Teacher-Student Relationship, Blow Jobs Fandom: Spider-Man (Movies - Raimi), Spider-Man - All Media Types Ship: Otto Octavius/Reader Disc: Otto's such a nice, fine boy. He really deserves a nice pearl necklace.

“A ‘D’?” The tenacious student, so often one of your best, was clearly fighting between anger and confusion. His furrowed brow, eyes cast on the paper, and you understood just why he was so confused. 

“What’s going on, Otto? It’s not like you to score anything less than a 92.” You leaned forward, resting your elbows on the desk between you. Looking down at the paper, the red marks couldn’t be argued with. “You’re quite possibly my brightest student, and I don’t want this to become a pattern.” 

His rich eyes looked at the paper, clearly trying to figure out how to respond. Otto’s fingers drummed softly against the arm rest, before he leaned forward and sighed. The sight movement shifted the zip of his sweater just slightly, enough for a few inches of unblemished skin to be shown, more than you had ever seen. 

“I don’t know, sir. I must have had a bad night, nothing made sense.” 

“You should have talked to me before class. With your diligence, I would have been willing to have you take this test at a later date. This test is too important to your grade.” Another sigh fell from his lush lips, and his hands flattened on the armrests of the chair. 

“Is there any way I could make the test up? Retake it, perhaps?” 

“That’s normally outside my policy, you know that Otto.” 

“Sir, I know this material. You know I do. Is there anything at all I can do to make this up?” It was then that Otto stood up, and his eyes finally met yours. “Anything. I can’t stand having that grade.” He leaned forward, resting his hands now on the front of your desk, fingers splayed. 

It didn’t take seeing Otto’s tongue dart over his bottom lip to understand the offer. 

“Otto, do you know how many codes of conduct I’d be breaking?” Your eyes hadn’t left the slight shine of spit on his lip. 

“I’ll retake the test, sir.” Your eyes finally met his again when he started to move around the desk, his body at last coming into view around your desk. Your body turned to him, watching as he stopped only inches from your knees. You could see nerves in his eyes, but desire overshadowed it. Without your permission, your hand reached up to the tab on the zip of his sweater, and you slowly lowered it. 

“You weren’t going to leave until I agreed, were you?” He shook his head, that blush back on his cheeks. Your hand moved back to his stomach, feeling over the just bared skin. Your mouth went dry, and when you shifted slightly in your chair, you realized that it would be pointless for you to deny your own arousal. He’d worked you too well. 

“Get on your knees, Otto,” you finally relented. “Show me how much you’d like to retake that test.” His hands moved to your knees as he lowered himself, eyes not leaving yours. 

“Thank  you, Sir.” As soon as his hand moved to open your belt, you knew that it would be impossible to hear Otto call you sir without getting hard. You were freed from your confines quickly, his hand wrapping around your shaft, loosely. 

Otto didn’t need to stroke you for too long, leaning forward to leave kitten licks around the head of your cock. 

His bright eyes looked up at you with excitement, lips tight around your cock, tongue swirling around the head with a soft whimper. The feeling of his warm mouth was driving you inside, his head bobbing slowly over and over. 

You opened your legs just slightly, shifting your leg to press between Otto’s legs, feeling just how hard he had gotten. Otto shifted slightly, and you felt him trying to find some pleasure for himself with very small movements. 

“Don’t get distracted,” you whispered, Otto taking up your world quite suddenly. His hips froze on your words, but your leg moved once more to press against him properly. “And don’t stop.” It took him only a moment to figure out his rhythm, and then he started to hollow his cheeks, sucking you in. 

Time quickly lost meaning, too focused on the feelings he was pulling from you. Your hand moved to his hair, pulling the curls back from his forehead, slowly taking control of his actions. When he realized just what you were doing, his eyes closed again, and he took the moment to take you all the way to the base. 

Your head fell back against your chair, and without thinking you started to pull him by his hair over your shaft. Your edge was coming closely, and you were sure with the way his hips were thrusting, he was fairly close as well. 

You pulled Otto down to the base of your cock, groaning out at the hot, warm sensation he offered. You could feel his throat constrict around you. It was all you needed, pulling Otto off your length, strings of saliva connecting him to you. Your hand pulled from his hair to stroke your cock for the final few moments. Your hips thrusts forward, a gasp of pleasure falling from your lips. Cum splayed over his chest, a gasp falling from your lips. His tits glistened with soft pearls of cum, and you heard the ragged breath from Otto, finally sucking in the air you'd deprived him of.  

Your hand moved through his soft curls, trying to regain your settings from the onslaught of pleasure he'd brought from his mouth alone. 

"Damn. Fuck, your mouth was made for me, wasn't it?" Your hips wanted to thrust one more, but you relented with a soft sigh. Otto was a beautiful sight, the image of him covered stuck in your mind. Your fingers brushed against the roots of his hair, and his eyes slipped closed, his hands now on your knee as he let himself grind against your leg, the soft whimpers that had been trapped in his throat finally falling. 

He didn’t take too long to cum in his pants, hips hitching through the last moments of his pleasure. The whimper that fell from his lips was ruined, his forehead pressed against your knee and a flush over his shoulders. You couldn’t help brushing your hand through his hair, tugging his head up to look you in the eyes again. 

“I expect you here tomorrow at two PM to retake that test, Otto. Will you please make sure to sleep well tonight?” Otto nodded quickly, dark eyes looking up at you. A smile tugged at your lips, eyes moving over his skin, landing on the glistening drops of cum across his chest. 

"Yes, sir." You leant down, and brushed some spit from his chin, that smile still on your lips. 

"Good boy."

Tags! @randomfandomtrash28 @emotrash1 @unitedfandomsoftheworld @arandomnerdsblog578 @overlookedfile @yesalwayswelles

[overlookedfile]

MasterList - Alfred Molina

My Fiction - Alfred Molina Characters

Author’s Note: Life sucks. I’m sorry that I don’t know when anything is going to update. :-/

Updated: 2024.06.24

This is to help keep a list for me of what I’m working on, need to work on, what I’ve done, etc. A sort of accountability chart, if you will.

For brevity’s sake, I’ve moved everything under a cut.

Listed Alphabetically by Fandom (”The” ignored in titles that start with)

~ ~ ~

Chocolat - Comte de Reynaud

Temper Us in Fire - WiP - Chapters 7 of 8 (Updates on SUNDAYs) - Latest 2024.03.10

~ ~ ~

Da Vinci Code, The - Bishop Manuel Aringarosa

Sins of the Father - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Dudley Do-Right - Snidely Whiplash

The Bad Guy - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Frida - Diego Rivera

Artistry - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

How to Train Your Dragon - Viggo Grimborn

By Definition, A Bounty - WiP - Chapter 23 of ? - Latest 2024.06.24

Gamesmanship - Complete - Posted 2022.04.15

~ ~ ~

Identity - Dr. Malick

Roadhead - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Imposters, The - Sir Jeremy Burtom

Days of Yore - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Indiana Jones series - Satipo

“Para Mi” Series (Posted Order)

Legendary Reputations - Complete - Posted 2022.07.21

Writing a New History - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Law & Order - Gabriel Duvall

Calibrations - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Law & Order: LA - Ricardo Morales

“12 Hours” Series (Chronological Order)

Motive  - Complete - Posted 2022.05.13

Means - Complete - Posted 2022.05.14

Opportunity - Complete 2022.05.24

Suspicions - Complete - Posted 2022.05.10

Intrigues - Complete - Posted 2022.05.12

Consensus - Complete - Chapters: 1 , 2 , 3  - Completed 2022.05.27

Precedent - Complete - Posted 2022.05.29

Corruption - Complete - Posted 2022.06.10

Crime & Court - WiP - Chapters 2 of ? - Updated 2022.07.04

Overruled - WiP (not posted)

Accomplices - WiP (not posted) 

~ ~ ~

Love is Strange - George Garea

Arts & Sciences - WiP (not posted) - expansion on this drabble

~ ~ ~

Man Who Knew Too Little, The - Boris Blavasky

Retirement - WiP - Chapters: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 - Updated 2022.05.07

~ ~ ~

Maverick - Angel

"When the Cards are Down" Series (Chronological Order)

A Good Run of Bad Luck (Omega!Angel au) - Chapters 8 of ? (Updates on THURSDAYs) - Updated 2022.08.18

Desperado -WiP (not posted)

Untitled (Modern AU) - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Monday Mornings - Harding Hooten

Trust Fall (Alpha!Harding au) - WiP (not posted)

Donor Compatibility - WiP (not posted)

Untitled (Vampire AU) - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Moon and the Stars, The - Davide Riete

Miraculous Mistakes - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Nervous Energy - Ira Moss

Kiss Me Again - Complete - Posted 2022.05.03

~ ~ ~

Nothing Like the Holidays - Edy Rodriguez

Not a Moment Too Soon - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Pete’s Meteor - Hugh Wheldon

Bound and Determined - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero - Rippen

Part-Time Lessons - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Pink Panther 2 - Randall Pepperidge

Dickmatized - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Prince of Persia - Sheik Amar

The "D" in "Desert" series (chronological order)

Distraction - Complete - Posted 2022.10.23

Determination

Disinhibition

~ ~ ~

Scorpion Spring - Denis Brabant

The Green & The Pink - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Show Me a Hero - Hank Spallone

The Best of a Bad Situation - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The - Maxim Horvath

Unexpected Inspiration - Complete - Chapters 1 , 2 - Completed 2022.05.11

“Arcane Opus” series - (Chronological Order)

Artificier’s Lullaby - WiP (not posted)

Apprentices’ Chorus - WiP (not posted)

Mirror’s Verse (prologue) - Complete - Posted 2022.08.05

Sorcerer’s Nursery Rhyme - WiP (not posted)

Child’s Coda - WiP (not posted)

Soundtracks - WiP (not posted)

Follow the Leader - WiP (not posted) - expansion on this drabble

~ ~ ~

Species - Dr. Stephen Arden

CrossCultural Studies - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Spider-Man - Dr. Otto Octavius / Doc Ock

Stolen Paradise - WiP - Chapters 4 of ? - Updated 2022.07.08

LoveCraft (mer!Otto au) - WiP - Chapters 1 - ? - Updated 2022.06.11

Kintsugi - WiP (not posted)

Natural Triptych (Mutation AU & College AU) - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Three Pines - Armand Gamache

The Path to Perfect (Isn’t a Straight Line) - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Undertaking Betty - Boris Plots

The Cold that Bites - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

When Pigs Fly - Marty

Collared - WiP (not posted)

~ ~ ~

Multi-Character Collections -

Croissants - WiP (not posted) - Inspired by this post

Inhuman Relations - WiP (not posted) - inspired by past kinktober prompts

Counterparts - WiP (not posted) - expansion on this drabble

Tumblr Prompts / Requests

AO3 / Tumblr - AO3 Chapter 1 is a Master List with details. Tumblr is a list linking to original Tumblr post for each prompt. 

[sunnymusingsao3]

i studied code because i wanted to do something great like you

Words: 2425 Ratings/Warnings: General Audiences, No Archive Warnings Apply There are mentions of grief, though, so proceed with caution Relationships: Otto Octavius & Peter Parker  Summary:  Otto Octavius has too many thoughts to hold them in, even if it ruins his reputation with this new spider boy. He's fairly sure that it went out the window when the kid laughed at his name, though, and since it's this or death, what does he have to lose by unburdening them to a copy of someone he once mentored...?

Preview:

Even without his spider-sense (he refuses to call it his “Peter Tingle” with supervillains in the room, even if he’s only thinking it—because he has no idea if one of them is secretly a telepath, and he refuses to take that risk), Peter could have known without turning that Dr. Otto Octavius was staring at him.

Even when he’d had his sunglasses on earlier, the doctor’s gaze had felt like it could drill down to his bones, and now that he wasn’t wearing them anymore, there was no barrier between those chilling eyes and the hairs on the back of Peter’s neck.

And since leaving The Sanctuary, they’d been on end.

The other villains had made themselves comfortable about the apartment upon arrival, and even Otto had briefly spoken to his aunt in the kitchen, but apparently that hadn’t held his attention long, since the doctor had then walked himself into Peter’s makeshift laboratory—and he didn’t seem intent on leaving of his own volition.

Which would have been fine, except—he had yet to speak. It was like he’d walked in just to stare at Peter, who tried not to imagine that the doctor was searching for some kind of weakness he could exploit. It made Peter hypervigilant of every move he made; was he favoring his right leg or his left in which one carried the brunt of his weight? Was the twinge his left wrist made when he curved it a certain way visible? Could Otto see scars peaking above the collar of his suit, ready to be re-opened if he felt threatened?

His spider-sense was… odd, sometimes. It wasn’t always on an all-or-nothing setting, because sometimes it went off differently for different levels of urgency. Otto Octavius staring at him as he worked was registering at a solid two-point-oh out of five, but it could very well climb up to a two-point-five, or a two-point-seven-five, depending on how long the villain sat in silence.

Peter continued to code anyway, though, his fingers flying over the keys at an unnatural pace, as his eyes flicked meticulously through the program he was writing. If Tony was still—er, if Tony had been there, Peter would have thanked him endlessly for the A.I. programs he’d already made, because figuring out how to create one for Otto was ridiculously easy when he used F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s old software as a base code.

He was just typing in a string of commands that would allow Otto’s cerebellum to more rapidly transmit commands to the tentacles, when the doctor cleared his throat, causing Peter to flinch so hard that his knee came up and banged against the underside of his desk.

“Dude!” was the first word out of Peter’s mouth (that wasn’t a curse for which May would have crucified him had she heard, anyhow).

As he whirled in his chair to face Otto, Peter just barely caught the tail end of the doctor’s amused smirk, and he was tempted to make the guy’s own arms wrap tighter around him for that, but since the remote was in the other room, he settled for a flat glare instead.

“Apologies, boy,” bullshit, “I simply wanted your attention for a moment.”

Peter folded his arms on the back of his chair. “And you couldn’t have asked for it the moment you walked in? You had to stare at me for five minutes first?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You just did—”

“Quit whining. I’ve been watching you,” Peter tried not to look dumbfounded at the man’s audacity, “And you clearly know that code like the back of your tarsus, so I thought that now might be a good a time as any—seeing as how you’re not giving me much room to breathe here, anyway.”

Peter wasn’t sure if Otto meant the restraints or the speed at which he was working to get him home—safely—but he decided not to ask questions he didn’t want the answers to, and instead rolled his eyes. “Clever.”

“What? You’re a spider, are you not?”

“And you’re an octopus. Should I start calling your arms—” Peter stopped short when he realized that octopus arms were indeed called just that.

“Whatever,” he changed the subject, once more shooting Otto a chagrined look when he smirked, “What was your very important interruption for? Because if it’s to tell me I’m wasting my time again, then I’m just gonna put headphones on and ignore you.”

Otto, surprisingly, snorted, almost good-natured, despite his general disposition about Peter’s endeavors, and shook his head. “It’s not that. Although—”

“Don’t—”

“I just don’t think you should rule out the possibility—”

“I will drown you out with ABBA, don’t even try me.”

[Read the rest on AO3]

[tanzmajor]

So… I’m not quite sure what you write, like if you do sadder stuff or not but I came up with this idea bc I’m currently going thru a loss (she took her life) and otto and Norman are two of my comfort characters, I was wondering if you could maybe do a lil fic with reader and otto and/or Norman where they comfort the reader because they/she is dealing with said loss? I completely understand if you won’t want to as it is sad, but if you do, I would honestly find some comfort in it 🤍 xx

of course! i hope this helps you a little bit. xx

fandom: marvel

pairing: otto octavius/reader (not specific, can be read as romantic or platonic)

warnings: death of a loved one, mentions of a parents passing, angst

word count: 667 words

It feels odd to go back into work.

The lab feels so much more empty now – without your friend by your side. It’s been quieter – the air in the lab uncanny to the touch. You were still determined on finishing your work, of course – but you couldn’t help but notice the decline of speed in your coding.

You couldn’t give yourself a break. You didn’t want that. The thought of asking for a few vacation days made you feel more uneasy the more you thought about it – alone in your apartment, with no one to call.

No thank you. You’d rather have the lab eat you whole.

“Y/N? What are you still doing here?”

You look up from your hunched over position at your desk. The difference between the lighting from your monitor and the usual fluorescent lamps that illuminated your place of work making you furrow your brows – eyes straining as you look for the source of the voice.

“Dr. Octavius? What are you still doing here?”

It was a little past midnight, so the question was redundant. You knew why he was here – you were on his team and this was his lab. But for some reason you didn’t think about that in this moment. It just didn’t register in your mind. You take your glasses and take them off of your face, and rub the bridge of your nose.

Octavius closes the door behind him. He crosses the room to take a look what you were doing. He then places a hand on your shoulder to make you shift your attention towards him – away from the troubles that the current state of code was giving you.

“Norman told me to not be so hard on you.”

He starts, and you tense up – which he notices. You were hoping that he would get the hint, to leave you alone with the topic – but unfortunately he had other plans. He takes the moment to grab a nearby chair for himself, to sit next to you, but at an arm’s length.

“How have you been dealing?”

You turn to him briefly, trying to look confident about what you’re about to say. You failed, and you know that you will always fail. He always has been able to read you like an open book.

You shouldn’t even try to lie to him.

“I’ve been doing alright. Really – don’t worry about me.”

You try, a smile on your face that speaks anything but honesty to him. He decides to play a long, the expression on his face is one that you’re familiar with – he’s thinking about what to say next. He had his way with words, but even sometimes, he had to dwell on them. Even if just for a brief moment.

“When I lost my mother, I was around your age.”

Now why did he have to say just that?

He leans an arm on the desk, and looks to the side, just so you’re not stuck with being watched.

“I felt like my entire world fell apart around me. She left a hole that nothing could fill or mend.”

It hit hard, right were you needed it, and you averted your eyes from his face. You were trying hard to not breakdown in front of your mentor, and he didn’t mention a word about it.

“She’s still there, you know? I will forever grieve her,”

He places a hand on your arm that’s leaning on your desk.

“I’ve gotten to accept that she’s no longer there. Some people can’t be replaced and that’s okay. You can learn how to live without their guiding hand.”

He smiles at you now.

“It helped that I had people around me that cared for me.”

A tear spills across your cheek now, and you wipe it away with the sleeve of your lab coat. You lean back into your chair, you expression falls and you meet his eyes again.

“I just hope you know you’re not alone. I’m there for you.”

[abandonedcyberpunkspidermech]

Character Bio: Peni Parker (SP//dr)

Name: Peni Parker

Hero Alias: SP//dr

Bio:

Let’s do this one last time.

Peni Parker was born on October 15th, 3132, to Richard Parker, the first SP//dr, and New York City chief of police Yuriko Watanabe, the latter of whom died shortly after giving birth. Being the daughter of SP//dr, and all that came with it, defines her life. From a young age, Peni had little opportunity to actually bond with her father. He made sure she was well-fed, had a roof over her head, and fixed her boo-boos, but he was always too busy defending the city to really BE with her. Part of why the kid got into robotics and science was to try to bond with her dad, to give them something to talk about. School has never been an issue for her, with her regularly acing her classes. As the daughter of a celebrity (most superheroes are idolized in this world, and SP//dr, New York City’s finest outside the police, is no exception), she always attended private schools with enough protection to make villains think twice about trying to attack her to get to SP//dr. There’s also the fact that most people only want to befriend her for the clout, but that’s a story for another day. She isn’t necessarily friendless, though. One of her closest friends is Harry Osborn, son of Norman Osborn, CEO of Oscorp and one of her father’s bosses in the SP//dr program. The two of them hung out a lot as kids due to their fathers’ setting them up on playdates while they were busy with Oscorp and SP//dr, and they have been friends ever since. All in all, Peni leads a fairly normal life. However, things change at the ripe age of 9 years old.

Richard Parker was a hero. The guy who was bit by a spider and became the one and only SP//dr. The hero who saved the city again and again. The man who, no matter how many times he got hit, always got back up. But after one too many battles with one Doctor Otto Octavius, he didn’t. Couldn’t. Just like that, the man she wanted so badly to be with was gone, and with him, her world shattered. To say she was heartbroken would be an understatement. The next morning, still raw with grieving, Peni moves in with her aunt and uncle, fellow SP//dr program employees May and Benjamin Parker, but not before they introduce her to a certain opportunity. As it turns out, Peni had the right genetic material to be able to pilot SP//dr, just like her father. And so, May and Ben inform Peni that she’s the only suitable replacement for her father as the pilot. Basically, they tell her “Let this spider bite you and get in the robot, Peni”. In spite of knowing how dangerous it is, how massive the responsibility is, and how great a legacy she’ll need to uphold, she accepts. She lets the spider bite her, forming a psychic link with it and gaining a supportive friend in the process. But there’s one problem: She is nine, and thus has no idea how to actually fight or be a hero. After a few months of training under the tutelage of SHIELD and Daredevil, a friend of her father, and connecting with the other heroes based in New York City, she finally takes the leap of faith and starts her life as SP//dr, the hero of New York City.

Abilities:

Psychic Link: The spider bite granted Peni a psychic link with her spider by essentially setting up a wireless connection between their brains. What this means is that the two have access to one another's brains, including senses, thoughts, memories, emotions, and instincts. However, this isn’t always a good thing. While it does allow the two to share experiences, it also has possible consequences such as sensory overload and mental contamination.

Psychically-Operated Mech: SP//dr, the mech, exists on the bleeding edge of mech control systems. How it works is that the spider is half of the mech’s CPU, and a human pilot can link with the spider and become the other half. For Peni, this means that she can control it in tandem with her spider like it was her own body, with all the relatively enhanced agility and dexterity that entails and few of the harmful side effects normally associated with using brain-computer interfacing to control extra body parts. However, like the psychic link, this comes with consequences, such as mental contamination, sensory overload, and the sensation of damage. With the ability to move the mech like a body comes the ability to use the mech’s senses like her own, which extends to feeling damage like physical injuries. The mech’s armor and coding reduce the sensory data her brain receives, but she still feels pain when hit.

Physical Strength: The mech is capable of lifting and moving approximately 45000 kilograms of mass without risk of critically damaging itself. However, both pilots hold back to preserve the mech’s internals and to avoid collateral damage, such as undue property destruction, injury, or death. Without restraint, the max lifting capacity of the mech has been measured between 60000 and 70000 kilograms.

Webs: SP//dr is capable of shooting webs composed of fluid that solidifies into an adhesive solid in the presence of atmospheric conditions. These webs serve a variety of functions, including but not limited to the mech’s famous web-swinging, incapacitating enemies, and grabbing objects from afar. SP//dr can utilize a variety of varieties of web fluid (with different chemical compositions) for a variety of functions, such as electrocution, bandaging, and temporary welding. However, most webbing breaks down within an hour, the only exceptions being designed to last longer.

Adhesive Limbs: The hands and feet of the SP//dr mech are designed with microscopic, artificial “hairs” that allow the mech to adhere to objects by use of van der Waals interactions.

Magnetic Suspension: SP//dr is equipped with a magnetic suspension system enabling it to manipulate its limbs (as many as eight limbs composed of two or three segments) in ways that would be impossible with a conventional articulation system. However, this does come at the cost of increased power consumption, and the limbs are paralyzed without power.

LCD Screen: SP//dr’s cockpit is headed by a screen with an LCD display allowing the mech to display emoticons to show emotions, messages, visual aids, or other images. However, the screen is more fragile than the rest of the hull.

Hull Durability and Armor: The chassis and limbs of SP//dr are durable and well-armored enough for the mech and pilot to be able to walk away from being struck with a bus without losing function.

Miscellaneous Gadgets: Depending on the need, SP//dr can be outfitted with a variety of tools, such as scanners, enhanced sensors, saws, welding torches, fire extinguishers, and weaponry.

Neurogenetic Technology Compatibility: Peni Parker has the correct set of genes to be able to interface with SP//dr (and other technology by proxy) given the proper apparatus. The effects, in addition to operating SP//dr, consist primarily of limited neural hacking ability and enhanced thinking speed (mostly subconscious), memory backup, as well as other general abilities usually granted by neural cybernetics. Oscorp scientists have noted a similarity to a cyberbrain, except entirely organic.

Spider-Sense: One of the few superpowers not entirely dependent on a giant robot, Peni Parker, the spider, and the robot all have a Spider-Sense. It functions as a general danger sense, allowing them to sense dangers other senses can’t detect and avoid them almost autonomically. It can also detect other Spider-People. However, scientists have noted that the sense sometimes acts in complete defiance of scientific possibility.

Intelligence: Even as a child, Peni Parker was a genius, having been one of the brightest kids in her school, a trait that will only grow with age. However, she isn’t a “Renaissance woman”. She specializes in STEM subjects, most specifically robotics and computers, but would be nowhere near as competent with Shakespeare (unfortunately, still taught in schools) or ancient history. She’s also trilingual, with fluency in English and Japanese and some knowledge of Braille.

Fighting Skills: As part of her training to pilot SP//dr, Peni learned fighting skills to enable her to better fight villains. This included boxing, self-defense, martial arts, firearms training, general combat skills, and enhanced physical condition. Aside from “anime moments”, she isn’t superhuman though, merely an athletic baseline human.

Emergency Response Skills: As another part of her training, Peni received training in responding to a general assortment of emergency situations she’d face during her career as SP//dr, including fire rescue, first aid, and water rescue.

Weaknesses:

Peppermint: Spiders hate peppermint, Peni’s spider is no exception, and the psychic link means that Peni shares that resentment. A sufficient dose of peppermint around an area will make SP//dr run from it, at least temporarily.

Vibrations: One of a spider’s most powerful senses is its ability to detect vibrations. This hypersensitivity can also serve as a weakness, as the psychic link means that if the spider senses a particularly strong vibration (or the mech does through onboard sensors), the feedback would be paralyzing. The effect is like a loud guitar riff being played on an amplifier turned to 11 directly attached to both of one’s ears.

Pesticides: Any pesticides that would affect an arachnid would affect SP//dr, so if the spider gets exposed to (or detects through onboard sensors) any of several pesticides, the mech will flee the area as soon as possible to allow itself to stave off the effects of the pesticide. Onboard filtration systems would and do nullify this weakness, however.

Power Grid:

Intelligence: 3 (Grows to 5)

Strength: 2 (5 in mech)

Speed: 2 (3 in mech)

Durability: 2 (5 in mech)

Energy Projection: 1 (2-3 with specific mech weapons)

Fighting Skills: 1 (Grows to 4)

Additional Trivia:

Ideal English VA: Kimiko Glenn

Ideal Japanese Seiyuu: Rie Takahashi

Peni Parker is a vegetarian (like in the comics). This is due to her finding it weird to eat other animals after psychically linking with SP//dr. Similarly, she has an aversion to any animal products requiring killing the animals. Except for insects for reasons most likely related to the psychic link.

As a consequence of being psychically linked to a spider, Peni is one of the more “spidery” Spider-Heros/Spider-Totems/Spider-People. This means that she has a few additional miscellaneous traits only actual spiders would have.

I’m aware of the Web of Life and Destiny and the supernatural aspect of Spider-Totem powers. Thus, I’m going to leave the balance of technological/scientific power origin versus mystical power origin for you to find out.

The SP//dr program has multiple mechs for various situations. The abilities above mostly refer to the primary mech (The same as ITSV), although some things could change with in-universe time and upgrades.

Peni and her spider use “SP//dr” to refer to the spider, the mech, their hero identity, and the program of which they are a part. Due to the psychic link, they always know what they mean.

I don’t have a section on her personality because that would change a LOT in-universe. She goes through a lot, both good and bad. SP//dr stays a supportive friend though.

The SP//dr program is run by Oscorp under the supervision and oversight of SHIELD and the Commission on Superhuman Activities.

In case you’re wondering, I use “neurogenetic” instead of “psychogenetic” because psychogenetics, the word her comic uses, is actually another world for behavioral genetics, the study of how genes influence behavior. Neurogenetics, however, is the study of how genes affect the function of the nervous system. Thus, considering SP//dr’s control mechanism, “neurogenetics” is a more accurate word.

Also, I apologize for any formatting flubs. I copy pasted this from a Google Doc.

[fantasticstoryteller]

Kingdoms ch. 24

Priest Octavius glared at his loom, as if the threads on it had personally offended him. The horn on the feral spider was distinctive; there wasn’t another rider spider that he had ever seen to have a horn like that. It had to be distinctive enough to track the spider’s breeder down—and yet, every lead was coming up empty. No one remembered even hearing about someone trying to breed a spider with a horn.

“If the loom has offended you that badly, you can disassemble it and try again.” Priest Octavius looked up into the amused eyes of his young High Priest, and he sighed as the man took a seat next to him, at another loom.

“I can’t find any leads on breeders working on horned spiders,” Priest Octavius grumbled.

“That’s because no one has been working on horned spiders,” Peter said bluntly.

Octavius stared at him. “That’s—” he began. That horn, that jagged horn from the top of the spider’s head, was its most distinguishing feature. He’d never seen another spider like that before. How could it not have been on purpose?

“Calm down. Think it through.”

The words, uttered hundreds of times a day to the acolytes, sank in and he automatically took a deep breath as he straightened his posture. He released the breath and allowed the tension to leave his body as he forced his mind into a purely analytical state. “The horn is absolutely unique.”

“Go on.”

“And so is the color. That vibrant shade of pink is rare for rider spiders.”

“Go on.”

“However, while no one has ever heard of rider spiders with horns, or any spiders with horns, there are several breeders experimenting with the color of their spiders, crossing for certain characteristics.”

“True.”

“Which means—instead of looking for a breeder breeding horned spiders I should be looking for a breeder breeding pink spiders,” continued Octavius.

“Yes.”

Octavius opened his eyes and regarded his High Priest. “You already knew that.”

“I did, yes.”

Priest Octavius eyed the young man sitting next to him. “You’ve already figured out who the breeder was.”

“Yes. Commander Osborn has already gone to search for more evidence and arrest him.”

Priest Octavius sighed. “I see,” he said wearily. Then he looked up with narrowed eyes. “Why aren’t you with him?”

High Priest Parker frowned slightly. “I’m not certain,” he admitted, clearly puzzled. “When I told him who I suspected the breeder to be, he requested that I stay away.”

That was odd. Having the High Priest to the goddess could only add weight to Commander Osborn’s search. Why wouldn't he want to have it. “Who is it?” he asked with curiosity.

“Nobleman Thompson.”

Priest Octavius was speechless. That alpha, that noble that wanted to force a bond on High Priest Parker—was responsible for the feral rider spider? No wonder Commander Osborn had told Peter not to go with them. He’d probably heard all about the incident in the court. In fact, Peter was probably the only person who didn’t know about it. Even Wade had made a comment about how it was probably a good thing that he didn’t know Nobleman Thompson from the rest of the color coded squad that surrounded the Queen in her court, followed by a humble request to be introduced to the man. A request that, with as much dignity as possible, Octavius declined.

“How do you know?” asked Octavius.

Peter sighed. “He’s been working with the brighter colors,” he explained, “in order to make, for lack of a better term, unnatural colors. His little spiders have been popular with the ladies of the court.”

“That’s no excuse.”

“Less of an excuse than the common might have,” High Priest Parker stated simply. “After all, he’s been breeding spiders for years. There is no way he didn’t understand the consequences of having a touch starved spider.”

The two of them were silent for a moment as they thought about it. Priest Octavius stared at his loom vacantly, the white, almost clear thread forming cloth. Did Nobleman Thompson come up with his idea to bond to Peter before or after the feral rider spider appeared? It could be that he was just one more of the people obsessed with the High Priest—or it could have been an attempt to save his hide. Allowing a rider spider to be touch starved to the point of going feral was a crime that could be punishable by death—and he knew that was how Commander Osborn saw it.

His thoughts were interrupted as Wade strode into the weaving room. Octavius stared; the man had two blankets tied around his waist, had a woven food basket (the kind with a lid) over one arm, and was holding a huge water flask. “All right,” said Wade cheerfully as he picked Peter up with all the effort one of the acolytes used to carry clothes, “time to take a break Pete.”

Priest Octavius opened his mouth to argue—and then, for the first time since the army went on its rescue mission—he realized he could smell Peter’s distinctive scent. “Have fun,” he said instead. “I’ll take over while you’re gone.”

“You can’t, we’ve got to—put me down!”

“Don’t worry about the delegation,” Octavius told him as Wade, unconcerned and whistling to himself, continued on. “I’ll postpone the talks. And I can handle everything else.” He had to raise his voice to be heard as Wade didn’t stop in his abduction of the High Priest. He chuckled as he set his loom to the side and then went to tell Queen Mary Jane and her court that High Priest Parker was going into heat.

[comicbookuniversity]

Game Idea: Spider-Man_Goblin Empire

Introduction

Spider-Man’s the best. He has the most fully realized character and franchise of any superhero in terms of supporting cast (civilian and heroes), villains, and recurring themes that still manage to feel relevant. As a result of the work put into his franchise, Spider-Man has developed a number of heroes who have not seen enough of the spotlight, despite being awesome enough to first appear in his book. I was thinking about the sheer scope of all of the heroes and villains within the Spider-Man franchise, and it occurred to me that there is a game that should be made that could show off the sheer size of it all and be fun as hell. Basically, a squad-based 3rd person combat game; or shorthand- Overwatch with Spider-Man but more story-driven. I call it- Spider-Man: Goblin Empire.

Story and Gameplay

Taking a cue from Dan Slott and Insomniac Games, the story sees a veteran Spider-Man, four or five years into his superhero career, having to organize and lead the heroes of NYC to help the police fight the Goblin Empire and their allies, the Sinister Six. In a swift and impressive display of power and organization, The Goblin King Norman Osborn has managed to block off and gain control of NYC in a single night. He has ambassadors, industry leaders, and celebrities as hostages to leverage against the world as they grapple whether to recognize the hostile takeover of NYC and the sovereignty of his newly proclaimed empire. His Goblin Commanders are going to precincts to ensure that the instill martial law until the Goblin King lays out all of the new laws; many are complying operating under the assumption that compliance is less risky and thus harmful to the citizens than resistance to this overwhelming new power. But others are not, and the resistance is led by Deputy Chief Yuri Watanbe with the support of Spider-Man and the heroes gathered with him. Spider-Man and allies must work to secure the future of NYC from Osborn and Octavius as well as keeping citizens safe from other threats within the city such as the combined forces of Kingpin and Hammerhead, Mister Negative and his Inner Demons, and the ‘neutral’ but greedy Alchemax.

The game will have a more cartoonish over realist visuals and would have single player, co-op, and multiplayer campaign modes as well as different PvP style matches. Players in campaign mode would play through different missions that would move the story forward, but against an internal clock. In single player campaign, you can build a team of up to 3 support NPCs for missions. The goal is to complete certain missions by a certain times within the game or the Goblin Nation becomes official, which represents ultimate failure. There is no particular order in which the missions must be completed, but the series of missions completed will affect the ‘Hope meter’ or measurement of confidence in the rebel forces by the world community as the delay or accept the power of the Goblin Nation. Certain series of missions will create greater hope than others, so the goal is to try to keep the ‘Hope meter’ up as much as possible in order to gain enough time to defeat Osborn.

In the comics or a show, this story might play out with the Goblin Nation being recognized to drive up tension, but within the game this will mean a hard reset of progress. Why? One, because of the challenge of figuring out what order of missions will keep Norman from being recognized as a legit King and the urgency it creates. And two, because Norman wouldn’t negotiate a deal that doesn’t grant him help against ‘rebels’ from other nations, ie America and Canada. ‘Help’ being code for later Avengers and Alpha Flight updates/expansions.

The campaign would not be all that there is to the game. Players could have team deathmatches, king of the hill, escort missions, capture the flag, or control style matches. The maps would be based on the five boroughs of this fictional NYC with each borough having 5-7 maps of varying sizes for different size of teams. All characters, no matter their faction, would be available for play in non-campaign mode. And obviously upgradeable gear and appearances will be available.

Villains would only be playable after the completion of regular campaign, and a new campaign would be available where you play as the villains to defeat the rebels. In the villain campaign, instead of a ‘Hope meter’ there would be a ‘Support Meter’ that measures how many citizens accept Osborn, Octavius, Kingpin, or Mister Negative as their new leader depending on which villain faction you choose to play the campaign as. It would still be the same basic game, but seen from the other side and with a new set of characters with new combat abilities to play with.

Factions

With the goal of showing off how big and awesome the Spider-Man franchise really is beyond the main man, I decided the golden rule for who gets to be a playable character is that they must have first appeared in a Spider-Man title. This being the first game, I decided that I wanted to go big, but there are some exceptions. That all being said, here are the following playable factions.

Rebels:

1. Spider-Man (Parker)

2. Spider-Man (Morales)

3. Araña

4. Prowler

5. Silver Sable

6. Puma

7. Cardiac

8. Jackpot

9. Ghost Spider

10. Agent Venom

11. Black Cat

12. Silk

13. Rocket Racer

14/15. Cloak and Dagger

16. Solo

17-21: The Slingers (Dusk, Prodigy, Hornet, and Ricochet)

22. Alpha

23. Rumor

The rebels are supported by NYPDR, New York City Police Department Resistance.

Kingpin’ Syndicate:

1.Hammerhead

2.The Spot

3.Molten Man

4.Shocker

5.Tinkerer

6. Hydroman

They are supported by their combined Maggia criminal battalions.

Mister Negative's Shadow Captains

1. Overdrive

2. Big wheel

3. Tarantula

3. Screwball

4. Tombstone

5. Shriek

Backing up the Shadow Captains are the Inner Demons.

Sinister Six

1. Doc Ock

2. Vulture

3. Mysterio

4. Rhino

5. Kraven

6. Sandman

Ock-bots of various size and firepower roam the city and support either Goblins or members of the Sinister Six; Sixers are first priority protection over Goblins.

Goblin Commanders

1. Hobgoblin (Leeds)

2. Menace (Hollister)

3. Dark Goblin ( Urich)

4. Goblin Knight (Harry)

Goblin foot soldiers are known as Greys, because of the tint of their skin with the modified formula they have. The Greys are not as strong or well equipped as the Commanders, but they are formidable and can easily toss over a police precinct if left unchecked.

Neutral-ish: Alchemax and Alistaire Smythe

They are supported by Alchemax security and Spider-Slayer drones. They may or may not assist the player depending upon what missions have been completed and where the ‘Hope Meter’ is at.

Assorted Notes:

I think Agent Venom needs a new look. I’m not sure what direction to go necessarily, but a new look would be good. I’m also thinking not strictly military; could be a SWAT dude beforehand. I will give further consideration to this development.

Flashback narrative sequences would be achievable after related missions to help flesh out backstory. Basically, these would be 1-4 minute stories, and hypothetically, I’d like one for each character. That would clearly take some time to work out; possibly released as updates depending upon development.

I think it would be fun to have a single player fighting game style mode as well, but I’m uncertain if that would be with launch or a new expansion.

I think a larger Symbiote and/or Clone expansion is definitely in the future. Those could be tied together narratively, or more likely, done as two different expansions. The Clone expansion could even be tied into a Spider-Island style narrative, but that’s just speculative for the moment. I’ll need to think of something more for those expansion ideas.

I do think the larger Marvel Universe exists, but I wouldn’t even mention them within the first game or within the first couple of expansions to keep with showing off the Spider-Man breadth and depth.

I’ve avoided different universe/timeline versions of characters for now, but that could be a whole sequel.

*

This is my vision as succinctly as can be put without making the actual game. Hope you enjoy the idea as much as I did.

[elysiianisms]

         ❝             ----- the life of cassius octavius was not so well - documented as his written prophecies were, the existence of the prophet only known to those who knew him. before he was elysia's nostradamus, he was a vampire, though not turned of his own will. born the son of a wealthy senator in the city of pompeii in the heart of the massive roman empire, he was skilled in languages by a young age, provided with a philosophers education. on a fateful night, early in his human adulthood, an unknown vampire met his path and turned him into a vampire --- perhaps taking pleasure in the way he awoke confused and overwhelmed, having felt his human life ebb out of his fingertips, only to awaken as a new being, alone. the well - known rule that forbade unwilling participants from being forcibly turned against their wills was not implemented yet. wracked with a painful thirst, stronger than anything he had ever felt before, cassius stumbled through the city cloaked in nightfall --- happening upon another young vampire and his sire. that young vampire was antony, who later held a seat on the council of elders into the beginning of the 20th century. perhaps his sire took pity on him, and knowing what kind of trouble newborns without a watchful sire could be, agreed to raise cassius alongside antony as if they were brothers through their father's blood.

                        the two brothers became as close as brothers could be, learning from each other through the decades. however, on the day of october 24th, 79 AD, the roman city was rocked by the eruption of mount vesuvius. hundreds of thousands of pounds of ash and rock exploded into the sky, blanketing everything in an artificial night as blasts of fire rained down on the city. many humans and vampires alike perished ; among them, antony and cassius’s father. he had protected his fledglings by helping them get to the harbor and on a boat headed for safety, but he did not return after rushing back to the city to help other vampires. with the destroyed city and the lava that flowed so freely from the mountain tops slowly fading as the boat rushed to leave the harbor, the two younglings were lost without their teacher and father. only the bond of brothers kept them together through the following centuries.

                        it was within those centuries that cassius began having prophetic visions and he spent many weeks at a time locked away, scribbling everything he saw on papyrus scrolls. the vague premonitions foretold of a vampire that would be born, not created. a savior for elysia. this would become what would be known to be the pravus prophecy. his study in the mediterranean villa contained dozens of cabinets, all with glyphs burned into the wood to protect the hundreds of books and scrolls, all written in elysian code so that no human may stumble upon them. it is said that in between his writings, he welcomed only one son into elysia, perhaps the trauma of his own birth weighing heavily on his mind. it was during a journey to the north, to the scattered viking provicines, where he consensually created a young man known only by an anglo - saxan name, kensley. the two returned south after a few years, back to the villa owned by the two older roman vampires. as is custom in training fledglings, antony and cassius both swore to teach each others’ children. antony’s daughter, a vampire only known by the name of em — a figure who occupies the highest seat of vampiric authority to this day — was taught under cassius’s guiding patience. the two empathized with one another, becoming very akin to an uncle and a niece.

                        cassius continued writing prophecies up until his untimely death in the middle of the 8th century. an earthquake rocked the mediterranean, causing the villa to sway and violently crumble — cassius had been in his study, perhaps writing one last piece of the prophecy, when he was buried by the rubble. em, desperate and frantic to save her teacher, was small enough to crawl under fallen pillars, eventually reaching where cassius had been pinned and crushed. only his upper torso was visible ; his lower extremities having been crushed beyond even the healing abilities of a vampire. even a large chunk of rock had impaled him through the chest, ensuring that he would not be leaving alive. unable to verbally speak, cassius and em spoke telepathically in his final moments — even dying, he filled her head with all of their memories together and spoke of how proud he was of her. with his last breath, he promised her future would be full of many more people that would love her and cherish her. the telepathic connection was not broken until after cassius’s passing, but it was rumored he died with a smile upon his face.

                         many vampires attended the pyre ceremony of a vampire as profound and beloved as cassius octavius. while his body returned to ash, his writings were locked away by antony, never to be seen again.

                         one vampire who occupies a seat on the council of elders can trace his vampiric lineage directly to cassius through his only son, kensley. vikas was created three hundred years after the death of his grandfather, but many of those who knew cassius could tell that his descendant would have a very similar personality. as for the writings of the first prophet of the pravus, they may have been forgotten to history, never to resurface again.     ❞

[payaso-pastel]

Spiderish Villains

A quick refereshee that categorization goes from 1 to 10, 1 being minor felonies and 10 being that they can easily destroy a whole town.

Doc Ock

Category 5. Otto Octavius was a scientist that worked at Oscorp. Sometime after the war he developed the ability to form tentacle-like appendages from her back. He tried to gain control of them via technology, but Norman Osborn shut down his project as it seemed to lead no where. Otto has been working on the project for years, and this led the Doctor to go haywire. He works for Kingpin now. He's not entirely willing to harm innocents, but would destroy Osborn in a heartbeat.

Green Goblin

Category 9. Not much is known about his origins. It's theorized that he was among the first to be mutated. He's maniacal but clever nonetheless. Goblin has a specific amount of time until he appears again to wreck havoc. It always happens once a month. It's commonly known as Panic day (for in-universe and out-of-universe reasons).

Sandman

Category 7. His body is completely made up of sand. He's five years old, which is often shown in how he speaks, but he often presents himself as tall burly fellow. He steals mainly to live. At one point Spiderish stopped him, and had a tantrum to a point he almost killed her. He now considers her a bully and attacks her whenever he sees her. Water sometimes works against him, but he's been able to stay together even then.

Kingpin

Category 8. The biggest crime boss of Tokyo. It all eventually leads to him. He directs a very large criminal organization consisting of various parts(yakuza, human trafficking, etc). Kingpin, himself, is dangerous to deal with, having the force and strength of a speeding truck. He's slow, but if he catches up, you're done for. He was affected by the radiation too, but he retains a very human appearance. It's apparent in the ridiculously large size of his body. He uses his riches and appearance to his advantage, and become a influential business man. No one seems to talk or even know about his questionable deeds.

Electro

Category 7. Electro was an old bitter electrician. He blames the war on the Asians(long story), but lives in Japan for financial reasons. He was always violent towards them. One day while trying to fix a fuse box, he got electrocuted. Before that he was already diagnosed with the same affliction as those affected by the war, and that was all he needed to mutate. He's now entirely made of electricity, and can manipulate it too. He typically uses his control over technology to emit an hypnotic pulsating image via screens, to some it works, to others it causes seizures(both of which can easily benefit him). Water has been the only way to stop him.

Rhino

Category 8. She was originally a very intelligent SHIELD agent. She went under numerous treatments for the radiation effects, but ended up snapping under the pressure of these experiments. With the help of Doc Ock and Oscorp, she was able to get a semblance of control of her new form and abilities. Sometimes her old self peeks out, but only for brief moments.

Scorpion

Category 6. They were, of course, affected by the radiation and now have scorpion-like abilities. They're about the same age as Spiderish, if only a bit older. They're usually seen wearing torn pieces of a traditional school uniform and pieces of armor provided by Kingpin. The way they produce venom from their pincer is similar to how a younger scorpion does it. Excessively and with little control. They seem to attack just to attack, and don't appear to have much of a moral code. They do as they please. They also hold a platonic relationship with Rhino, a mother-to-child one.

Black Cat

Category 4. A young man that steals whatever strikes his fancy. He can turn into a white Persian cat at will. While retaining more humanoid look, he has the ears, eyes, claws and legs of a cat. He's very flirtatious and charming, and often tries to use that to his advantage. He's effeminate and ridiculously flexible. Black Cat relatively neutral, mainly stealing for show and to get what he wants.

The Spot

Category 3. A man whose entire being is a portal. He can rip himself into smaller portals and stick them onto flat surfaces or in mid air. He's usually brought along because he makes for a good escape route. He doesn't seem to be very dangerous or evil for that matter. The villains give him approval, and he sticks around.

The Lizard

Category 9. What they lack in intelligence, is completely backed up by the fact they're essentially a giant wingless dragon. They can shift from a human man, to a man-lizard hybrid, to a giant Godzilla-like monster. They're often not seen, since they mainly live in the sewers.

[meowloudly15]

Stranded: Day 5 - SECURITY CALL

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Gwen woke up at the sound of her alarm and rubbed her eyes. It was Thursday; there were only two more days until the weekend. On the other hand, there was only one day left until her back assignments were due. She had completed part of it last night but had grown fatigued rather quickly. Additionally, she had been distracted by worries about being trapped in this dimension for the rest of her abbreviated life.

Out of curiosity and suspicion, she had paid more attention to her atomic disjunctions. They had increased in frequency over the past five days. Also, they had become more painful and had lasted for longer.

The atomic disjunctions had been a pain during class, pun not intended. Gwen had to leave roughly once every two periods to spaz out in peace. It was a good thing that her spider-sense warned her about upcoming disjunctions, because otherwise, matters would have been even worse.

Gwen's history teacher, Mr. Adams, had grown suspicious from her asking to be excused to the bathroom every day. After she returned that day, he asked, "Forgive me for intruding, but why do you keep leaving class?"

Gwen managed to stammer out, "I-I-It's, uh, es ze feminine issues."

Mr. Adams was taken aback and stopped inquiring.

The excuse wasn't worth the laughter garnered from her classmates. Cover stories were not her forte.

Gwen returned to her room around 5 pm, thoroughly worn out. She'd had five separate atomic disjunctions, and her whole body ached, especially her head. She wanted nothing more than to relax and go web-swinging. No, that wasn't right. She wanted to go home.

An idea that had lain dormant in her head for a couple of days resurfaced. She could go to Alchemax. They had a dimensional transporter. They could help her get home.

No. That was a terrible idea. No way was she ousting herself from her undercover position just for the slim likelihood that she might be able to find help.

But it might be her only ticket back. What was the likelihood of some quantum boogaloo picking her up and tossing her home?

Gwen steeled her resolve. She was going to Alchemax. She was going home.

She flipped through her physics notes which serendipitously contained the location of the facility. She stuck all of her belongings in her backpack and donned her Spider-Woman costume. With any luck, she wouldn't return.

She took off from her dorm window and headed west. Alchemax was about two miles away as the crow flew or, alternately, as the mutant dimensional castaway swung. All that was left for her to do was to figuratively sit back and enjoy the ride.

PERSONS TAKING NOTICE

Gwen swung a bit too close to a restaurant window, and several patrons gaped at her. One of them pulled out his phone and snapped some pictures. She paid them no attention and kept going. They would never see her again.

The sun sunk ever lower as she closed in on Alchemax. Before long, Gwen was perched on top of a tall birch tree. She could see the skyscraper not too far off.

She landed at the front door to the facility and walked right in, feeling more confident than she had felt in quite some time. She rapped on the receptionist's window. The lady at the desk on the other side looked up and screamed.

"GHOST! No, wait! INTRUDER!"

SECURITY CALL

Yes, this was a terrible decision. But Gwen refused to back down from her terrible decision. It was too late, anyway.

The woman's hand inched under the table to press some manner of button. Gwen quickly pulled open the window.

"Wait wait wait!" she exclaimed.

The lady paused, her face stricken with terror.

Gwen held up her hands defensively. "I'm not a ghost. I'm not here to hurt you. I just need some help, ma'am. Please."

The secretary looked at her suspiciously. "What is it?"

"Could I talk to one of your head scientists, please? This is really urgent."

SECURITY CALL

Gwen backed away slowly as the lady glanced at something on the wall and reached back under her desk. "I, uh, we'll see abou-"

All of a sudden, a blaring alarm sounded. Gwen jolted. A voice crackled from the intercom in the ceiling: "Security breach on lobby floor. Code turquoise. Evacuate all visitors and non-essential employees immediately. I repeat, evacuate all visitors and non-essential employees immediately."

Gwen took the opportunity to burst through the door and enter the facility.

The secretary leaped up and threw out her arms to block Gwen, two seconds too late.

Gwen ran through the halls of Alchemax at random, looking for any place that seemed helpful.

Should she be here?

MEH

That definitely didn't sound promising.

Alchemax was a creepily polished place with a confusing floor plan. Did research facilities in this dimension typically consist of white-coated scientists toting handheld plasma cannons and running to stop a superhero invasion?

The facility was surprisingly well-prepared for such an unlikely scenario. Those plasma shots hurt, and the scientists had decent aim.

Maybe it wasn't all that uncommon? Maybe Spider-Pete had broken into this place before?

After beating a few nerds senseless and taking several wrong turns, Gwen stumbled across a directory placard mounted next to an elevator. She stopped and read it. Maybe what she was looking for – she wasn't quite sure what she was looking for anymore – wasn't on the ground floor.

The label for Floor B-3 read "Dimensional Studies; Neuropathic Technology; Mail Room". That looked promising. Gwen pressed the elevator call button.

Right. There was an emergency. Code purple or something. The elevator wouldn't work. She'd have to take the stairs. Where were the stairs?

Gwen looked around for a set of stairs. There was a door not far down the hall that looked like it led to some.

She ran across the hall, evading plasma cannon fire, and flung open the door.

ATOMIC DISJUNCTION

A spasm struck Gwen while she fled down the stairs. She lost her balance and fell down a level, bowling over a lady on the landing.

They pulled themselves to their respective feet.

OCTAGONS

Gwen took a look at whom she had ran into and gaped. "Doctor Octavius?"

Doctor Octavius grinned. She didn't seem taken aback by Gwen's attire. "Yep, that's my name. Sorry for knocking you down, sweetie."

"D-do you have a moment?"

The doctor, who had started climbing again, turned around. "I'm a very busy woman, but it depends. What do you need?"

Gwen pulled off her mask and stammered, "I, uh, I, you see, I'm from another dimension. D-do you, do you think you can get me home, Doctor?"

Doctor Octavius blinked, absorbing the revelation. "Hmm. Is that so? Oh, and you can call me Liv. That's what all my friends do."

"Yeah, uh, Liv, it's true. I got here almost a week ago. You do research on that type of stuff, right?"

Liv grinned. "Yes, I do."

There was something unsettling about the researcher's smile that Gwen couldn't quite identify. Maybe it was because her mouth stretched a bit too wide; maybe it was something about the slant of her brow; maybe it was the way in which her glasses reflected the harsh fluorescent light and obscured her eyes. Whatever it was, it made Gwen nervous. She started to back away.

Liv reached under her lab coat and continued, "I'll see what we can do about that."

RUN NOW

Gwen turned tail and leaped down the stairs, but a long plastic arm shot out of Liv's coat and grabbed her by the neck, smashing her head into the wall. She struggled to free herself, but its pincer grip was too powerful. The arm bashed her head into the concrete again and again until she went limp, consciousness giving way to a dizzying blackness.

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[sswarehouse-blog1]

Superior Spider-Man: The Complete Collection Vol. 1

Along side new comics I’ve been catching up on key events in the big wide world of comics. So if you are like me and don’t like waiting a month to read the new issue, I’ve got some trade reviews coming your way! This week is focusing on Superior Spider-Man Vol 1! 

This collection consists of issues: Amazing Spider-Man 698-700 Spider Dreams Date Night Superior Spider-Man 1-16 It’s a pretty thick paperback, and I’m not really the biggest Spider-Fan, but I think it’s well worth the effort! To give a bit of context, this series follows after Doctor Octopus, Otto Octavius, viciously attacks Peter’s mind using an octobot. You see, Octavius is dying in a high security prison trapped in an iron lung, unable to move. His last ditch effort is to use his mental connection with his robots to match brain frequencies with Peter in order to transfer their minds. Spoiler Alert. He succeeds. The Superior Spider-Man is none other than Otto Octavius, now inhabiting the body of the man he left to die in his place.

As always, spoilers and reviews under the cut! See you space cowboys...

Story & Visuals As I’ve stated before, I’ve never been a huge fan of Spider-Man, so my knowledge comes mostly from the cartoons as a kid. BUT. I have always thought those cartoon villains were some of the best! Kraven, Morbius, Lizard/Dr Connors... those guys always stuck out to me as great characters because they were multidimensional. They lived by some sort of code, constantly reflecting on their actions and redirecting their goals. At the time, Doc Oct was none of that. He was a joke, someone who’s ego drove him mad and who never failed to be a failure. This book changed my view on him as a character. Do I still think he is a dingus-bat creep-a-zoid with greasy hair and a sleaze face? Absolutely.

Let’s start with visuals. Being a collection, the artists change quite a bit, but it’s not distracting and is consistent enough that when you are absorbed into the book, you hardly notice the shift.I wasn’t so sure how I felt about the art style when I began reading as everything was so dramatic with hard, harsh shadows and the regular use of black as the color margins between panels. But then, I realized how well it fit with the narration. Parker’s mind has been taken over, he is losing control of his life, and Otto Octavius is the drudged up slime pit that is doing it. It makes sense! Otto is an edgelord drama kween!

The writing gives Octavius brief moments of brilliance, these flashpoints where he is happy, where he is doing something good for someone, and then at just the moment where you want to congratulate Otto for his deeds he takes it a step further. As the reader I can’t do anything to rectify the situation and I can just feel this disgusting sinking feeling in my gut because I know what happens next, and it’s not good. At some point Octavius, as Spider-Man, creates an army od Spider-Bots to keep watch over the city and allows him time for personal affairs, such as visiting Aunt May during a physical therapy session. Except it goes big-brother level and soon he has infested the city with a crawling swarm of spy cams... Gross.

My favorite issue in the collection is Joking Hazard, which I believe is issue 6 of Superior Spider-Man. There are a lot of quick, short bits of personal development that fit perfectly into the pacing of the issue, but I’m going to focus on Jester and Screwball. These two are essentially internet pranksters who get their entertainment from humiliating prominent public figures (they hit Jameson with a pie in the face and depants him in the first 3 pages). Octavius, a man of pride, can not handle the humiliation. It breaks him. This is the most aggressive, most fearsome depiction of Spider-Man in the whole book. He loses his humanity, and you can see the instant that it happens. It’s a great lead in to the next half of the collection because you know it’s over. It’s all down hill from here and we are just along for the ride.

Thanks for reading! Let’s wrap this up before we get too tangled in the webssssss, haha get it?

Ratings: Overall 9.5/10 - As much as I hated watching Peter’s life fall apart, I have to admit that it was an interesting read and a good narrative. Butts 2/10 - I guess old Otto is a pretty conservative guy and doesn’t often point his butt towards the camera... The cheek shots you do get are WEAK! Creep Factor 154315431/10 - Bruh. Chances of Picking Up the Next Volume: I’m gonna do it. I’m really going to read another Spider-Man book...  

[pandacommander24a]

A brief summary of what has happened for the last month in my Rogue Trader game...

The ship pulls into Zlatan's Luster to refuel, rearm, and crew up. It's been a hellish three months, first trapped in the warp, attack by a demon, attack by dark mechanicus, and finally almost eaten alive on a plague planet filled with zombies controlled by a greater daemon. Its enough to make someone turn to drink.

So, Octavius goes for a drink, that's right, the crazy demon slaying Astropath goes for a drink. He thinks he can find a job, mostly he finds booze. He asks the sheltered Astropaths that he just got to replace the poor fellows who kind of mentally exploded, both literally and metaphysical, for cool places on the station.

 So armed with shut in knowledge Octavius goes for drink, but he understands he is important, and important people don’t drive. No that’s plebe work. He requests a driver. He gets Veremund, the Petty officer sort of reassigned to help Command Staff when they set out several months ago. Well everyone seemed to forgot about him, so he has been doing whatever he wants on the ship which mostly has been taking levels in badass because of all the crazy shit that has been happening.

So Octavius goes to a snazzy bar to drink and a quiet evening with other Psykers. Meanwhile outside the snazzy bar Veremund has kicked the shit out of the Valet for daring to suggest he move the ship’s car. The Valet calls the Arbiters about the beating. They show up demanding papers and start telling Veremund to move the Car, because they are the law. Veremund kicks the shit out of them as a rebuttal. A group of riot squad shows up, Veremund demonstrates his point to them as well. Octavius finishes up inside comes out to the scene, saying nothing, they leave to go on further drinking adventures before the Arbiters can call for backup.

Normally this would have been it, but the ship’s marines, not the Astrates, were given shore leave only hours before, which leads Octavius to realize he could score free drinks since he is like the coolest person on the ship. So he has Veremund take him to the dive bar where the marines are drinking for fun and drinks. Well, while Octavius is retelling the story of how much of a badass he is, Veremund is outside with the car.

Now this seedy backwater of a port in the middle of the space lanes is a good criminal spot, lots of space, lots of ships coming and going, no one really does anything to mess shit up. However, that’s come to an end. See the signal the ship picked up that brought them to the Demon Zombie plague world was an Inquisitional Coded broadcast. While the crew never learned what it was, it was still important. It was a distress code and a dead man trigger that the world was compromised. So an Inquisitional Task force, namely a crusader fleet, assembled and is on their way to liberate the world. Good news, they don’t have to. Bad news, they don’t know that. The inquisition however is using a Crime Syndicate to take over the back channel methods of transportation and information spreading, in a way to keep everyone one on the down load and control the responses of world along the way to the planet. 

This Syndicate’s local boss is a man named Merriweather. Now Merriweather thinks he is a badass because he’s the biggest dog in town, spoilers he isn’t. With the Inquisitional backing Merriweather can do no wrong, using this notion for inspiration he goes on the offensive and takes out the other gangs, either absorbing them or destroying them. A few months of brutal gang fighting and it’s clear that Merriweather is on top.

Merriweather goes out for a stroll this particular night. He wants to be seen as the biggest and baddest, so he goes out to peacock his way around town. People avoid him because he is kind of big deal. They get out of his way, except Veremund.

Merriweather and his goons cruise up, first because the car is snazzy, and it’s weird. Like foreign car from another planet weird, it is. They ask about he car, Veremund is a petty officer on a ship that literally went to hell, he does not care about these guys and ignore them. Merriweather gets upset. He touches the car. Veremund cares about the car and smacks Merriweather’s hand off car, and goes to wipe off the hand print. Merriweather’s goons are not going to stand for this disrespect. They get loud. The marines come out, because someone is shouting in a now mostly quiet street because everyone has gone quite after Vermeund hit Merriweather. Octavius comes out, drink in hand, wondering why he has to buy the next round, because that’s plebe work and Octavius is not a plebe. The marines shout at the goons. The goons shout at the marines, and Veremund. Veremund wipes the hand print off the car’s finish. Merriweather backs off, he can sense what’s going to happen. Octavius runs out of drink, the straw making a pitiful noise and the ice rattles. A Goon go to touch the car. Veremund breaks that idiot’s hand. That idiot screams. The goons go for their guns. The Marines go for the goons. The next few minutes are a literally curbed stomped as a bunch of drunk, pissed off combat vets that have been needing a good blow off event have a blow off event. The goons provided wonderful volunteers.

Anyway after the fight, a bunch of Crime boys are dead for picking a fight with a group that basically seen the bad side of the warp’s anus for the last few months. Everyone still alive fucks off. Our party of marines, the helper and the psyker go back to the ship after the fight because it soured the mood. Merriweather runs to the hills in the confusion.

Meanwhile Master Petty Office Konrad goes out for a night of fun as well. He sees the fight start and ignores that tall glass of Nope, but he wanders down the street. He too is looking to find a good information source for jobs. He wanders into an odd bar down the street and while pretending to just be getting information learns about the Syndicate however he is soon involved in the group he was dropping his ease on. So there is Konrad drinking, telling stories about the ship, drinking, talking about this and that, and drinking. Soon he has drank too much, and spoke too much and he is told to leave as it is morning and the bar really does need to turn out. Well Konrad shouts his opinion at the bar man and leaves wandering down the street.

Since the fight from what is now last night Merriweather gets some of his boys and goes back to the first bar. Well everyone has pissed off in the morning so Merriweather is mostly shaking down a poor bar owner for someone else’s social faux pas. Merriweather is a cruel, stupid man but he knows his position is only as strong as it is perceived.

Enter mostly drunk Konrad in the same style uniform as Veremund from last night. Merriweather stares, the goons stare, while Konrad looks around in confusion of a man who forgot where he parked because he doesn’t have a car. Merriweather tells the goons to grab that man, Konrad, for questioning. Konrad pulls his bolt pistol out, and shoots one of the goons. As that goon’s head explodes sending bits and pieces into the air and on everyone nearby. The goons pull their guns and return fire. Konrad is soon pin down by automatic fire in an alley with dwindling ammo.

He gets on the vox and demands/requests aid. A nearby Marine sleeping it off on the bar helps. Climbing up onto a nearby roof the marine throws a Molotov at the goons. Merriweather serves being set on fire but several of his men, and the car they came in do not.

While this plays out we cut to several hours earlier. Where Cassias Thule is visited by an old friend who pays off an older debt and tells Thule to get off the station. Thule use to belong to the Syndicate on a footfall station years ago, things went bad and Thule is lucky to be alive. Merriweather however feels it makes him look weak. Again see the poor fella whose bar is now on fire. So The Patriot’s Glory, who is taking one everyone with a simple question, can you read, join well it’s in the bag and a good idea to get off the station where the most powerful organization wants you dead for very stupid personal reasons.

Thule quickly gets himself hire and presents himself as a man to help with security on the ship. Thud is happy to have an ace in the hole following everything, makes arrangements. Thule is now the master of whispers and it pretending to be the Vox master so he can monitor all communication on the ship.

Well several hours later everyone is one this ship when a Messsager from the Syndatic shows up to talk to the head man. The captain is resting, so he’s out. The XO is mostly dead, so he isn’t going to work that leaves Konrad. As he goes down, Thule who is known as Holt on ship and to Konrad, tells Konrad not to trust these guys as they are lying cheats and are armed. Konrad thinking it’s a setup orders more Marines down to the gang plank. Konrad arrives moments later and tells the marines to be ready. The Marines already put onto high alert by the order of more bodies nod in understanding at this new order. Konrad goes out to talk with the messenger.

The messenger opens his mouth, shows his hands are empty and then a sharpshooter puts a bolter shell into his skull. The Marines swarm out of the ship firing their weapons. Before the massager bodyguards get a chance to react, they are gunned down by stubber rounds, las shots and bolter shells. One of the cars tries to make a break for it. The Marines shoot the driver. Tear open the doors and pull out two screaming women. One of them too loud and too much in shock of the rapid turn of event takes a rifle butt to her nose which breaks it and knocks the poor woman out. The Marine shoot everyone not a prisoner again to be sure. The two prisoners are dragged out of the station into the ship as the marines set demo charges and blow the cars before retreating back into the ship. Under the cover fire suppression systems and fire alarms no one notices the security cameras watching all of this silently.

Dragged into a now unused shower the two women are looked after briefly while Konrad does his best interrogation and intimidation attempt on two brutalized and scared women. Octavius, using his psychic powers to mind probes the one that didn’t get assaulted to find out who she is. Her name is Maggie, she is the daughter of the boss of the whole crime syndicate, who is on his way with Inquisition Crusader Fleet. Why Merriweather has been the queen of the ball he knows he has an army to get his back never mind the Judge or the other organizations. The Syndicate has pack up everything and now every criminal under its umbrella is going to fight as soldiers in a holy war to buy indulgences for the organization's members. The massager that the marines vaporized? He was Donnie, the boss’s son. The woman the marines assaulted, his wife, and the Boss’s beloved Daughter-in-Law. Donnie was coming to talk peacefully about coexisting and hopefully sort out the disrespect the organization clearly showed to the Merritt Family’s crew. There is a moment of silence for peaceful respect being shot like Franz Ferdinand on parade.

Konrad only gets like half of this, Maggie is less than pleased and likely thinking that information or her worth is the only thing keeping her alive. Octavius tells Thule, because he mind probe him earlier and learns all his secrets, everything. However neither of them tells Konrad. Likely because Konrad is who everyone is letting be in charge and make decision, regrets are twenty/twenty. Konrad in the meantime goes off to think about all this, and figure out what he can do.

While the Crew was assaulting family members of a VIP Inquisitional Asset. Thurd was getting more soldiers for the ship, namely sanctioned Kroot Sell knives who were contracted to deal with the WAAAGH to the south but got stuck on the station. He reaches a good deal and recruits Cyrax the first Prime, and first amongst equals to the ship. As they are returning because it’s believed that the massager was kidnapped by the crew, the group is stopped by angry Goons, a fight breaks out and everyone leaves with a bloody nose. The Kroot settle into the ship without any other issues.

Well while everyone is trying to figure out what to do about Maggie and Margie. The Judge has figured out what to do.

Since the crew has assaulted Arbiter officers, started a bar fight that killed people, started a gun battle, not once but twice, set fire random buildings, again not once but twice, responding with overkill to pretty much everything including just ringing the doorbell, has aliens aboard their ship and now kidnapping VIP Nobles off the Station. The Judge has a clear understanding of how to approach the ship.

Namely with an army of soldiers. An army of Arbiters with any weapons he can get like tanks. So he does, with a subpoena for the Captain, and demands the captain show up so he can be arrested and charged for the crimes listed above. Konrad is informed of this several times as he comes down to the gangplank to find the army waiting and ready to try and take the ship. In any case the Judge is not taking come back later as an answer.

However, Thule has a cunning plan thanks to the memory mind probe he dresses up as Maggie and gets Octavius to sync his minds up to Maggie’s. For Thule is a Master of Disguise, it is how he made his living on the station. He leaves the ship escorted by one of his Agents to save the ship, unaware a of critical detail he has missed...