longestnight | [video] the spider-teen has questions

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[video] the spider-teen has questions

[ Now she's out of her suit, Gwen is wearing a sweater that's visibly hanging off her shoulders to show the straps of the tank underneath, and some leggings. She is, however, still wearing her web-shooters and her dud of a multiverse-traversing watch on her wrists alongside the magic watch. ]

Hi, I'm Gwen. Otherwise known as Spider-Woman, but, well, you don't have to call me that. [ beat, visible thought, ] Probably don't, actually, it'd be kind of weird when you already know my real name.

Anyway.

I'm just, you know. [ she shrugs ] Curious. About a couple things. First, how many people here have done the whole multiverse song and dance before? Because there's at least a few of you, I know that.

Second, do like. Any of you that aren't Spider-Man yourself, or Loki who's already kinda answered this one, have a superhero called Spider-something in your world? Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl, Spider— any noun, really. We get a lot of variety, if I tried to list even the most common ones we'd be here all day.

[ Call it her testing a theory. She's got some thoughts swirling around up in that head of hers. ]

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Oh, are you taking a census? Well, you may count me as one who has done the "multiverse song and dance" for several years now.

Suuure, a census. Let's call it that. [ totally not mostly her trying to gather information that might help talk to Miguel ] You said this is your... fourth time? Were all of those times like this? You know, the surprise! kind of multiverse jump.

Not always. The first time, I woke up somewhere strange.

Like. Woke up-woke up? From being asleep?

Yes. They said I had been reconstituted as part of the retrieval.

...you know, I'm not sure I like those words in that order.

[ Tim's fiddling with some of the yeti tools that he convinced one of them to let him borrow. Really, he's just relieved to be normal-sized again. ]

Hey, Gwen. I'm Tim Drake. Also known as ... a few other things, which I'm trying to get over being a secret. So, Robin, Red Robin, and Rook. Traditional mask-no-mask rules apply.

[ No sense in hiding it, really, given what the other former campers remember. There's still a sense of wrongness to saying it outloud. ]

I've done the multiverse song-and-dance. By my count, which could be under but not over, this is the 9th, and that's not counting pocket universes and previous iterations of my own world. So I've been to worlds that have Spiders and Lokis, but they're not native to mine. Well - we might have a Loki, but he's not doing the green halberd gold horns mage routine.

From what a Loki once told me, the Spiders and Lokis section of the multiverse doesn't overlap with the Supers and Bats.

Edited 2023-09-02 16:29 (UTC)

Yeah, I feel you there. [ being open about being Spider-Woman around anyone but other Spiders doesn't feel natural, exactly, but it also feels pointless to bother with secret identities right now ] I might've approached things differently if I hadn't turned up in all my gear to the middle of a fight.

I've been to a couple dozen dimensions at least, but before this, they were all other Spiders' dimensions. And only once was caused by outside factors. Supervillain scientists, gotta love 'em.

[ Can you feel the sarcasm? ]

That's interesting, though. And something I was kinda wondering about. In our corner of the multiverse, we see a lot of remixes of the same kind of thing, right? Clearly, you all exist, but it's like you said. No overlap.

Turning up in all your gear in the middle of a fight kind of forces the issue. You can either live in a mask indefinitely and let the adhesive ruin your skin because it’s not made for constant use. Or this, which is awkward, but I got used to the team knowing my name. Give it a few more weeks. It’ll feel normal.

Yeah - almost all of them I’ve been to or met people from are remixes. The only thing I can think of is that our universes must have diverged tens of thousands of years ago, if not earlier. I wonder if it predates Vandal Savage, or maybe he’s the issue.

Ugh, and mine's a full-face mask. That would have been so uncomfortable. Sure, it's breathable enough for a night out in the city, but long term that would have sucked. I probably would've had to give up based on that alone.

Vandal Savage?

Domino here. Any more coverage than that, and there's a cowl involved because I don't even want to know how much alcohol you need to get a full ace worth of adhesive off.

He's ... huh. Trying to think of how to explain someone that's always been. I don't know his exact age - not even sure he does. But imagine someone who's been human since before humans, and the impact they'd have over the human race. Especially once that neat civilization idea kicked off - and he's the one that started it.

The gold horns are for formal occasions and glorious battle.

And for showing off.

That goes without saying.

You could show off for the Elves.

Formal occasions and glorious battle only. And I do hope it never comes to the latter where the elves can see.

I was in one just before arriving here. Also, my universe has had occasional interactions with a reality we call the Mirror Universe.

It's populated by people who are dark mirrors of the one's in mine.

Huh. Well, that's specific. Sometimes we find out other dimensions have versions of us that uh... [ are mostly dead, in her case... ] are varying levels of different from us-us, but that's more random probability I think.

There's a few theories bouncing around for why it's only ever that one that crosses over, but nothing really concrete. It's not really my area of expertise either.

I'm Lieutenant Nog of Starfleet, by the way.

I know someone who'd probably have theories. [ Miguel, it's Miguel. She knows he's already been scanning people. It's only a matter of time before he's coming up with new structural theories for the multiverse. ] But yeah, a lot of the actual mechanics of this stuff is above me.

Oh, cool, Starfleet! Space stuff. I haven't seen much space stuff. Some Spiders get super sci-fi, buuuut...

[shyly:]

My teacher has visited other planes before, multiple times. She... knows a way to let one project into another reality and inhabit a copy of their body made of its substance, but nothing can be moved from one plane to the other, and the return is perilous to the inexperienced.

But she was also moved physically without making an effort of her own will, as well, a few times.

Projecting between dimensions, huh. I know someone who can do that, but for her it's all technology.

[ Shout-out to Margo. ]

Definitely seems to be a theme of people getting transported without their say so. Guess I shouldn't be surprised. This is just... different. Than how I've usually seen it work.

[ Holes in the multiverse are kind of the entire problem the Society was dealing with, after all, but that's not what she's been hearing. ]

There are many ways. I believe some are... more permeable? than others are. But, I have little understanding of such things.

[Need knows more but Need is Too Paranoid to just talk to people right now, and it's not really important enough to just tell Nyara and have her relay.]

Will you tell me of how it usually works for you?

Well, in my experience, usually if you're tumbling face first into a new universe, you've been pulled through a weird portal thing. It's like falling through a really strange, glowy hole you can't climb out of. Which obviously, how we arrived here super wasn't that.

If we're travelling on purpose, [ she holds up her wrist with Hobie's bootleg multiversal gizmo on it ] we use gizmos like this. Key in the universe signature, open up a portal, and travel with a bit more dignity.

I see... that is very dramatic. My teacher told me, when a traveler projects herself elsewhere she sees a kind of doorway to step through but it is a construction for the mind. The body remains as if in deep sleep.

I am hoping I am fully here. I was... it would go poorly, I think, if it is otherwise.

I bet you are. I think what happened here is totally different than anything we're used to, in our own universes. All that stuff about belief... us being here is a quirk of this dimension, not any of ours.

Yes. I suppose something good is due to happen.

[This is a dour sort of joke. Nyara knows she's on the pessimistic side.]

-oh, my name is Nyara. I am sorry, I should have begun with it.

[ There's a grim little laugh, there. ] Yeah, I feel that.

[ It's been one thing after another for a while now and the cheerful, quippy Spider-Woman face is often just as much a mask as the actual physical mask. ]

Nyara, got it. Don't worry, I once failed so badly at introducing myself I called myself Gwanda to a boy's face. Forgetting for a second's got nothing on that.

[Eddie, for his part, is dressed in his usual jeans and jacket, his long hair a total mess around his face.]

Deeeeefinitely familiar with Spider-somethings in my universe, yeah. Oh, uh- not for real, though? As a comic. So. Probably not what you were actually asking and not actually helpful? Sorry.

No, no, that's still interesting! Some universes with real Spider-People have comics printed in them too, funnily enough. Fictionalised versions of their Spiders' lives. Questionable accuracy.

Huh. Man, I know this must be really god damn strange for you, and I'm trying to completely respect that when I say that it's kind of really cool to be talking to a real life actual spider-person.

Can you, uh. You know, do the thing? [He makes a gesture that is unmistakable as anything other than web shooting.]

Eh, don't worry about it, my strange scale is broken as hell. Plus, you should see the faces of some Spider-People meeting more established, cool-as-hell Spider-People. They totally geek out.

[ It's her. She's the Spider-Person that met a more established, cool as hell Spider-Person and lost her little mind. Shame things with Jess went... well.

Anyway. Even after a few months with the Society, it's actually still kind of nice when someone has positive associations with the Spider title. Hard to fully shake the impact of coming from a world where half of the people you save think you're a murderer.

The only sign of that specific thought track is a perfectly normal smile, though, a second before she waves a wrist into view. There's a pink band wrapped around it and a little button against her palm. ]

Oh, you mean this?

[ And then, in what is totally not a poor use of web-fluid that will absolutely contribute to her needing Miguel's help later, she shoots off a web and swings herself up to some high vantage point. She even holds the magic watch feed mostly steady. ]

[ Ooh, conversation fun times. Stacia will bite. ]

Like I said in the big announcement I made right after we all got here, this is the third reality I've been to that isn't my own. I wouldn't say I'm old hat at this, but my life was already so ridiculous that it's kind of like "alternate realities exist, okay, sure, why not?"

And I don't have a real-life Spider-Man, but he's a popular fictional character. I don't think I've gone a single Halloween back home without seeing some little kid dressed up as him. There's been three movie franchises based off of him in twenty years, and a whole bunch of cartoons.

Edited 2023-09-05 20:34 (UTC)

Right, yes! You were one of the ones I overheard. Yeah, I stopped being surprised by the existence of alternate universes after my first surprise hop, but this is uh. New. This kind of hop is definitely new?

But, hey, like I told mister fluffy hair we totally get Spiders who have fictionalised versions of their lives in their dimensions. That's almost the least weird thing about all this, except for the idea it exists in a world without a real Spider... [ her head tilts a bit thoughtfully ] Wonder if it's anything like how it works here. The whole writers getting ideas from across dimensional thresholds thing.

Suddenly being on my ass in another reality is the only reality hopping I've experienced. Including the time I went through a portal, given that it was supposed to take me home and yet: completely different reality. At this point, it's not hardly even worth throwing a tantrum over.

[Granted, modern-day suburbia was one of the nicer landings. Even if it had been in New Jersey.

She shrugs in answer to Gwen's musings.]

I mean, it could be? Stories are powerful. It wouldn't shock me if ideas can pass through realities. Though again, my life is already so weird, etc. My sense incredulity is extremely battered; but it does still exist.

My first time I got yanked through a portal and shot into the middle of downtown New York like a human nerf dart. But that was to another Spider's universe. Something something super collider something something spider-DNA...

[ She waves her hands vaguely. It was different. And she was home within a week. ]

Which, yeah. My idea of 'weird' is already kinda skewed too. You get bitten by a radioactive spider in class one time in middle school, and suddenly you have spider powers and have to fight a bunch of animal-themed supervillains and sometimes an evil lawyer trained as an assassin tries to get on your good side by having people killed for you.

[ Seriously. ]

You uh, said werewolves? Back during the announcement, I mean. That's your thing?

[ It's nice that other people's lives are also incredibly weird, but in different ways than Stacia's is. Refreshing.]

To be fair, if you get bitten by radioactive spiders on the reg, you're definitely doing something wrong. Either that or you're really, really devoted to getting some kind of horrible necrosis.

[Radioactivity doesn't not give you super powers in Stacia's reality, but they're the bad kind of super powers that warp your mind, body, and spiritual essence. She wonders if Gwen and the other Spider-persons would get picked up by Sense Wyrm, or if their radioactivity is Just Different.]

Yep, I'm a werewolf. That was a surprise for me, too; I grew up thinking that supernatural things weren't real and then bam! Suddenly my life looks like an urban horror movie with fewer pairs of black leather pants.

I bet there's a Spider-Person out there who got bit at least twice. We have a Spider-Man who's a living plushie. Like, at that point, anything's possible.

[ That's not even getting into Popsicle Spider-Man. Or Spider-Ham. Sorry Porker you are, inherently, a very weird example. ]

...we even have a werewolf Spider-Man, actually. Huh.

[ Anyway, ] See, I at least knew superheroes were a thing. There's others, like, out there. Not knowing it's even real must have been uh. Disorienting?

'Disorienting' is one word for it, but I usually go with 'traumatic'. There was a lot of screaming and crying, and someone fed me sandwiches until I calmed down enough to be coherent. Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with it alone. Everyone involved may have been a traumatized weirdo, but any support network is better than none at all.

[ Stacia says "traumatized weirdo" with every sign of affection. ]

Edited 2023-09-25 22:38 (UTC)

[ Gwen laughs a short, grim laugh, ] Yeah, I hear that. That's not the worst description you could slap on the place me and the other Spiders came from, really.

[ The Spider-Society is full of traumatized weirdos. And for all her anger towards Miguel and the whole system, well. There's a reason so many people went with it. Well, besides the fact almost every Spider have responsibility complexes a mile wide and the Society was trying to save the whole multiverse. ]

Before that, though... [ a huff of air ] well, most of us operated alone.

[ Yeah. There's a reason so many people stayed a part of the society. ]

Maybe it's because I've got the social animal thing coming and going, but trying to operate alone seems like the absolute worst.

[Granted, the Garou and the various Spider-People aren't generally dealing with the same kind of thing, Stacia's pretty sure. There's enough nerds around that she's pretty sure she'd have heard if Spider-Man regularly fought against the corrupted concept of entropy.]

In the last universe, I chatted with a kid who was new to the whole costume crime-fighter situation. I'm pretty sure the major points I hit were "build a support network" and "you're small, jab people in the eyeballs".

It's... not easy. [ an understatement ] But it's not easy because it's complicated. You know? My dad—

[ A visible pause, as avoidant tendencies war with what is, here, now, an inconsequential detail that provides context. ]

—he was a cop. Not the biggest fan of vigilante justice. I can't speak for other Spiders reasons, but that was mine. [ among... other things... ] But the jabbing people in the eyeballs trick is legit. I was also very fond of webbing people in the face, which unfortunately isn't exactly transferable advice.

Yeah, I found out that my mom knew she was bringing werewolf-potential to the kid-making party and never warned any of us about it. She and I still aren't really speaking over it. Which isn't the same as you and your dad, but it does make the support network a lot more DIY.

I mean, spraying webbing on their face isn't not similar to eyeball poking! They still can't see, and you can therefore run away or reposition yourself to hit them again. But yeah, no, I don't have the option to spray goo from my body in any of my shapes, so not really transferable.

Oof. That's uh... yeah. [ insightful, Gwen; but no, for all of her father's faults, it wasn't as if he was ever the one keeping a secret ] Not the same, but I kind of feel it. The first time I ever had a network... well. Let's say it was a recent development.

[ God, what she wouldn't do for Hobie and the others to be here... ]

But, okay, actually, see, only some of us actually make our web organically. Which, for the record—always weirded me out? There's just something about spewing bodily fluids everywhere that feels... eugh. Anyway, point is, I guess anyone could take advantage if someone built them web-shooters.

Wait, wait, wait. Hang on. Web shooters? I mean, I guess that makes sense: humans don't usually have orifices in their wrists, and spiders don't either. But where does the web come from, then? Do you keep the mutant spider that bit you in the web shooters or something?

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[video] the spider-teen has questions

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