16400/So Much for the Afterglow

So Much for the Afterglow
Date of Scene:	30 June 2024
Location:	Gwen Stacy's Apartment, Wavecrest Gardens
Synopsis:	A lazy morning at home turns into semi-serious discussion about jobs, the future, entrepreneurship, and telepathy...
Cast of Characters:	Ghost Spider, Spider-Man

---

Ghost Spider has posed:
Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

Ding.

"Nnnnggghhhh..."

Ding.

"Make.. it.. stopppp..."

Ding.

Gwen's blonde hair is partially matted to Peter's bare shoulder by drool, and she is _not_ happy about her phone, sitting on her nightstand, suddenly deciding to play the one-note chime version of Flight of the Bumblebee.

Eyes still closed, she rolls enough to slap..slap..

Ding.

*Crash* ..That was a lamp..

Slap...

Ding.

Grab.

STRANGLE.

She squeezes the side of the phone and puts it in silent.

"What time is it..."

Yes, she's still holding the phone. She could look.

Spider-Man has posed:
Unlike Gwen, Peter fell asleep near-instantly and, sadly, woke up nearly as instantly. When her phone went off he went from asleep to awake near-instantly. At least no Spidey-Sense tipping him off that something bad was going to happen. That was a relief. "Who called, babe?" he asked, ready to jump out of bed, throw some pants (or his costume!) on, and go fight the dastardly forces of evil.

Or, you know, make breakfast or something. Take a shower. Get cleaned up. Maybe even shave, if she hadn't bogarted his razor by now. Bring her breakfast in bed.

Heeeeey. That was a great idea! Assuming she had any actual breakfast food in her kitchen. Last time he got this impulse, all she had was tofu, some wilted salad greens, and a very lonely carrot. That ... did not go down well.

Ghost Spider has posed:
"I don't.. know..."

Blink. Blink.

Obviously sensing Peter's sudden surge of hyperactivity, she lets out a heavy sigh and turns to scoot up in bed, pulling and tucking the conveniently cooperative censor sheet (since we're on-log) up under her arm pits and tucking it into place.

Thus freeing Peter from the bear-trap-esque confines of having one Gwen Stacy laying on him and rooting him to his spot.

"Glory.. Betty.. Betty.. MJ.. Glory.. MJ.."

She's obviously just mindlessly reading down the list of incoming contacts.

"The band," she sighs. "I think I'm going to quit. I think I've had it. After the last tour and coming back to you gone... I think it's time to hang up the sticks. Plus, this all just... drama. I'm too old for drama that doesn't involve like.. supervillains."

She waves a hand vaguely dismissively in the air as if to say, 'and things like that.'

"Holy crap, Peter.. it's two in the afternoon.."

Her eyes go wide. Then her voice drops.

"Oh, God.. it's two in the afternoon.."

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter blinked. New plan! Lunch in bed!

"You thirsty?" he asked, looking down at Gwen and her Magical Modesty Sheet. "I could go for some water. Tell you what. You stay right there and let me go whomp us up something." he said, then blinked. "But you love being in the band!" he protested. "I mean, you should do what's best for you, but ... you like drumming." he pointed out. At least he remembered what instrument she played this time!

Important safety note: Drummers hate being accused of being the bassist. Don't do that. For your own health.

And with that, he slid out of bed and back into a pair of Emergency Pants he kept at her place. Just for situations like this one.

Ghost Spider has posed:
Important Safety Note: Drummers probably don't mind as much as girlfriends whose boyfriends don't remember what instrument they play in the BAND THEY'VE BEEN TO SEE PLAY LIVE.

"I've still got the water you got for me last night." She set the phone down on the nightstand and traded it for the bottle, twisting off the cap. "I.. apparently never even got around to opening it. So, thank you. For being thoughtful in advance."

Chug. Chug. Chug.

"I do like drumming." She doesn't sound convinced.

"But I _don't_ love being in the band. Not anymore. I've got ten million things going on, I'm constantly late, they're constantly upset about _something_, even if it's not me."

Soft sigh.

"It's just one thing that's easy to take off my plate."

Plate.

"Speaking of which... thank you. I'm _starving_."

She grins a bit.

"Anyone ever told you that you're a great boyfriend?" Her eyebrows dance a bit. "And not just because you like great in those pants. Though it doesn't hurt."

Daily Task #1) Objectify Boyfriend. (Check)

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter laughed and shook his groove thang on his way over to the kitchen to investigate Brunch Possibilities. Yes, at two in the afternoon. It's not like the Culinary Police were going to come and arrest him - if they'd existed, he'd be doing life for the dino nuggies over the age of four anyway.

So he opened her fridge and started rummaging. "Hey, you remembered!" he said with pleasure at the relative cornucopia of available foodstuffs. Just the thing for hungry spiders.

"You want the humongous fungus among us or do you want dead cow?" he asked her as he started pulling out mayo, brown mustard, even a poor probably-way-past-expiration-but-its-pickled-so-who-cares horseradish.

Daily Task #1: Feed girlfriend <strike>breakfast</strike> lunch in bed. (In Progress)

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Well, I mean, I thought you were dying. So, it seemed important to be able to.. I guess make you a sandwich? I'm not sure. This is why I'm not a doctor."

Beat.

"Yet."

Get it? Because she's working on her doctorate thesis in molecular biochemistry? Ahhhh, yeah. These are the jokes, kids.

"Mooooooo."

Important Safety Note: Do not 'Mooooooo' at your girlfriend, no matter how tempting it might be. Even if she's not fat, you have no intention of calling her fat, and you can reasonably justify it by saying you're answering a question she just asked you, she will assume you are calling her fat. Every time. This is one of those double-standard things.

"Hey, I think that horseradish was in there when I moved in." Beat. "It's probably fine, though."

Soft sigh.

"So.. in other news, I'm probably gonna get fired from my research assistant job at Alchemax. I was supposed to be there... three hours ago."

She purses her lips.

"One of the messages was from my supervisor saying not to come in today."

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter winced. "I know how that goes. I'm just lucky I've got JJ by the short and curlies or he would have fired me years ago. It's a good thing my whammy happened on ESU grounds by an ESU student. Made it real hard to fire me." he pointed out as he started to construct deceased moo-cow sammiches piled distressingly high. But hey, spider-metabolisms. As his hands constructed sandwiches, his brain was secretly so very, very grateful that neither of them got the Spider-Mating thing where she'd have to eat him after the act was done. He kinda liked living and boy howdy it'd be a bitch to explain to Aunt May.

And where would she keep all the eggs, anyway?

"Lunch will be incoming shortly." he promised her.

Ghost Spider has posed:
"I still can't believe you work for him," Gwen laments, dramatically flopping back onto her pillow and rolling her eyes. "He makes your life hell. You're a freaking _actualy_ genius, Peter. You don't have to go around taking selfies to send to a guy who's just going to drag your name through the mud for it!"

This is......... not the first time they've had this conversation.

"Two words."

She caps the bottle again and sets it on the nightstand next to her phone.

"Parker Technology. I've got connections through GIRL and.. well.. I _had_ connections at Alchemax. Maybe not anymore. But who knows? Maybe if I go grovel hard enough. _You_ know Tony Stark. He came to your birthday party! You could do it. I've been _telling you_ you can do it. You can start your own business. Let Jay Jay Jay Jay Jay go take his own blurry selfies."

Spider-Man has posed:
"Because he _pays me_. OK, I freelance, but I've learned a lot and, yanno, I got this powerful need to eat. And to buy stuff to make new costumes out of." Yes, ladies, Peter Parker can sew. But he's taken so don't get too excited. "As far as a design firm goes - oh, I don't know if I'm good enough for that." he said. "And Tony came to my birthday party _once_. And got drunk. And he might have been hitting on May. I'm not sure, I don't want to know, the idea creeps me out." he said theatrically. "Plus I can't afford all the stuff I'd need. And the last thing I need is debt." he said.

Well, more debt. He had plenty already that trying to pay off was breaking him.

Ghost Spider has posed:
"I _know_, but..."

Gwen sighs and rubs her face, sweeping sleep out of the corners of her eyes and dragging her fingers through her hair. It always came back around to can't. Not enough money. Not enough time. Not enough ideas. Not enough experience. Not enough people. Not enough space...

She sits up again and flops her hands up in a shrug.

"I could try to help..."

She's broke, too. That's never been a viable option.

"I just..."

Another sigh.

"You're _so_ talented, Peter. There's so much more _you_ could be doing than taking pictures for Jameson, you know?"

There's the defeat in her voice. It always comes back around to this point. She knows how hard it is. He could be telling her _exactly_ the same thing. She's a talented scientist. Why doesn't SHE open up her own business?

Because she can't, either.

But she wants more for Peter than she does for herself.

And it bothers her more that Peter feels like he can't.

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter plastered a smile on his face and brought two plates back to her bed with him with a sandwich on each, piled high with dead cow and root vegetable shavings and seed pod dust. Yes, they're roast beef sandwiches with horseradish and brown mustard. "Lunch is served." he said, handing her one plate before parking his butt on her bed with his own plate.

"So something's bugging you." he said, with his occasionally uncanny insight. "And it's not Jameson. Am I not making enough money for you? You want me to quit the Bugle and open up an engineering design firm with no budget? Tell me what you want, babe." he urged her, then took a bite of his sandwich.

Fun fact: Some horseradishes grow more potent with age. This ... was apparently one of those.

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen reaches up to take the offered plate with a gentle, apologetic smile hovering on her lips. "Thanks. It looks amazing. You... really are the best."

Because she really was hungry. And what girl doesn't love a hunky-science-genius bringing her brunch in bed?

She hadn't even really gotten her fingers around the sandwich when the statement (notably, not a question) about something bugging her hit her, and she kind of.. froze.

_Was_ something bothering her?

Peter knew her better than anyone on the planet. They've known each other since college. They all but live together. And there's the whole Spider-thing they have in common.

'Am I not making enough money for you?'

"NO!" Her eyes snap up and there's a distinct shake of her head. "No! That's not.. please don't ever think that. It's not about money. It's about the fact that you have a degree in something that..."

Sigh.

In something he's not using. At all. At least she works (worked?) at Alchemax. Peter was a photojournalist with an advanced science degree.

What _was_ she on about this morning? Why had she picked this morning, of all mornings, to start laying into him about JJJ again? They had had _such_ a good night...

"Emma Frost."

The name just drops out of her lips.

"My mind's been everywhere, ever since those whole things with Emma Frost. I've been worried about the world finding out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. I've been worried about Dam..."

It's like she suddenly swallowed a fly.

She never told Peter who the man she slept with was. It had been Miles she'd told, and she was getting her conversations mixed up.

Her eyes dip to her sandwich, and she shakes her head.

"I don't know what she heard. I don't know if I was thinking PETER too loudly, you know?"

Smooth, Gwen.

Real smooth.

She takes a bite of her sandwich, then. And chews.

And after a few seconds starts fanning her mouth.

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter was more experienced in the area of super-heroics. He was good friends with the Human Torch, he'd worked with the Avengers. This ... he knew about. "Look." he said gently, putting his plate on the nightstand so he could reach over to take her hands, to pull her to face him directly. "Look at me." he said firmly. "We have an advantage, as Spider-People. We're stubborn. We don't quit with things get rough. And you can use that to keep a telepath out. Someone like Emma? She wants your secrets - or mine - she'll get them eventually. But there's ways you can harden your mind, keep casual scans out. I can show you." he said with a tender concern for her well-being. "But after lunch, okay? We're both starving."

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen sets her plate aside, too, and pulls her legs up to criss-cross in front of her, giving Peter's hands a grateful squeeze when he takes them. The Emma Frost thing was _heavy_ on her mind. It's there as clear in those blue eyes as it was her mask-eyes in real time, as it was happening.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not stubborn," she pouts stubbornly.

But she's smiling a moment later, using Peter's hands to lean herself forward a little kiss him. Just for a moment.

"Thank you."

Because even taking just those few seconds really does mean the world to her.

Plus he made her a sandwich.

Plus there was the whole... night before thing.

She was _really_ going to have to step up her relationship game before she got _super_ behind.

Spider-Man has posed:
Peter looked into her eyes. "OK. Here's how this works? We're scientists, right? Or at the last starving grad students." he said with a grin. "Telepaths have a hard time with repetition. So - recite the periodic table. Sing songs - you're a musician. Count out the beats. Orbital shells. Equations. Use them as a screen and you keep your real thoughts beneath that. Takes practice, but as mentioned, you're stubborn. You'll get it in time." he told her. "Unfortunately, I'm no telepath and outside of Professor Xavier and his bunch, I don't know anyone that could help you practice."

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Okay, that makes sense," Gwen nods. "Fill my head with garbage data... jam the signal."

How hard could it be for her to fill her head with garbage data? She had 745,234,563,345,724,156 things going on at any given time. Actually, the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if Emma ever actually had a chance of gleaning anything useful from her at all except for a calendar, grocery list, song she'd been rehearsing, song she'd been singing, notes on her thesis paper, location of her next modeling gig, the latest (astronomical) price of designer handbags...

Maybe there asn't as much risk as she thought there was. Frankly, it's a wonder she can have a coherent conversation with Peter at all.

"She gave me an address..."

This, in response to her having 'no one to practice with.'

So, she wasn't outright saying, 'Maybe Emma will met me practice with her!'

But anyone could be forgiven for thinking that was the implication.

"She... wants me to come visit her. I don't know why."

Spider-Man has posed:
"Look." Peter said. "That group she hangs out with, the Hellfire Club? They're not just a 1% circlejerk." he pointed out. "There's an Inner Circle and I think Emma's on it. She's _dangerous_, Gwen. They all are. You'll need backup so pick a day after I get done teaching." he said firmly. Like he was going to entrust her safety to anyone else.

Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen's smile spreads a little more fully across her lips at that -- so much so that it not only reaches her eyes, it results in that lower lip disappearing between her teeth for a moment.

My dear Peter, this girl may just be smitten with you.

"Why Peter, you keep talking like that, and I might just get the impression you want to keep me around for a while..."

It's so playful, but then she's crawling forward, up against him, up on her knees, and smiling down at him.

"I don't hate this protective side of Spider-Man. Just don't let it get in the way when we're out there. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself."

Then she nuzzles the tip of his nose with her own and places another kiss on his lips.

Already forgetting about the sandwiches...