FUCK OSCORP !

norman osborn was dying. his reign as the green goblin was finally over, and harry realized, by his father’s bed, that he was finally free. “i’m going to destroy oscorp,” he said, and he felt like he was outside of himself as he did. like his body didn’t belong to him. it was the best he’s felt since his father first fell into a coma and he’d thought he was dead. “i’m going to put it in the ground with you. i’m going to bury you and this company so deep that no one will ever remember you existed. your whole life will have been for nothing. even i’ll forget you.” his father remained undisturbed. harry wasn’t even sure that norman could hear him. harry didn’t care. “you’re a waste of space and a waste of oxygen. no one has ever cared about you. no one will care that you die. they’ll be relieved. no more norman osborn. maybe they’ll even celebrate in times square.”

he leaned in close, then, nose wrinkled in a half-snarl. “and do you know the best part, norman?” he tightened his hands into fists. “no more green goblin.”

norman moved so quickly and so suddenly that harry could have never pulled away fast enough. his scaly hand wrapped a round harry’s wrist in a grip so tight he began to lose feelings in the tips of his fingers. norman’s long, yellow nails dug into harry’s skin and the harder harry pulled, the tighter norman held. “let me go,”  harry said, and for the first time since this nightmare started, his voice wavered. “LET ME GO.”

norman turned to face him, a cruel grin on his twisted face, teeth yellow and sharp, eyes wide and piercing. “you’re more like me than you know,  boy.”

fiery pain shot up harry’s arm and he looked down, and where norman’s hand met harry’s body, it started to change. his skin grew pale and dry, scaly, green in places, and the disease crawled up his arm – and harry started screaming while norman laughed, high pitched and wicked. he released his grip and harry fell backwards, his whole body shaking in pain as the green goblin infected him, crawling across his chest, down his abdomen, up his neck –

and from the corner of his eye he saw a flash of purple, something that didn’t belong, something that should’ve made him realize that none of this was real but it didn’t click – his mind was on what was happening to his body, norman’s screaming laughter, and the realization that he had become his father, the man who tormented him, who had worked so hard to kill peter and gwen – who smacked him around like a rag doll –

it was a portal, and someone walked through it, and norman kept laughing, and harry could feel himself changing.

“GO AWAY!” he shouted, and a new wave of pain made him keel forwards, and his body hit the ground but his bones didn’t break, and there was blood on the floor but it was a horrible green – “GET OUT!” – and norman was still laughing and harry dragged himself to the bed and his father didn’t touch him, didn’t move, and harry screamed and gripped norman’s top and shook him as hard as he could and norman just kept laughing because he won and harry lost – he always lost and that’s the only thing norman had ever wanted –

There’s agreement in the quick nod of her head, blue eyes still trailing over the vast and admittedly surprising Sanctum. She knew what he meant, once she’d only heard of alien invasions and people of miraculous abilities on the news – now, she’d seen so much. Now, she knew she was different too. “I don’t think I’ll ever really be used to any of this.” Karolina admitted, looking back to Harry with a warm smile as he seemed to apologize. 

“Oh no, don’t worry about it, no problem at all. You just surprised me, that’s all.” She tried to provide some small reassurance. As he offered his hand to her, Karolina took it without hesitation, only just then noticing the way it shook just slightly in hers. On instinct, her own grew warmer until her fingers danced with light. That part wasn’t intentional, as she was still learning to focus her light. Karolina could only hope though that the warmth she emitted was enough to provide some comfort and wasn’t just – weird. She moved to pull her hand back a moment later. “ – I’m sorry, I shouldn’t.. I should ask first.”

Truthfully, Karolina couldn’t imagine Peter talking poorly on anyone, but there was still a moment of relief at the his confirmation. Her attention focused on him as she listened intently, a small nod of her head to acknowledge that she understood. “I think Peter could make friends anywhere. Maybe the most popular guy in that stone.” She tried to lighten the his mood with the mostly accurate statement – sometimes there was relief in knowing that someone you cared for was okay even when you couldn’t be there for them. “But any friend of his, is a friend of mine.”

when karolina took harry’s hand, he was almost taken aback by the calm nature of it – so used to business handshakes, even from dear old dad. that’s when something really curious happened – her hand began to glow and grow warm in his. it was a glow like nothing he’d ever seen before; it was full of color – pinks, blues, yellows – and his mouth opened in surprise.  but just as soon as it happened karolina was pulling her hand away and apologizing for it. harry shook his head, his hand lingering in the air for a moment before “no, no, you’re fine – that’s... actually amazing. really amazing.”

he wondered if she, like so many others, like peter, was persecuted for being different – and he felt a primal rage inside of him that was reserved for norman osborn and the friends of humanity. he swallowed, trying to hide that side of his reaction, and re-focused back on the present. “well, uh – peter’s out right now, he’s getting popcorn because for all the stuff the doctor has in this place, that’s not one of them. probably because peter and i ate it all.”

they spent most of their time at the sanctum now, which made most nights date nights, and date nights pretty much always meant movies. “but there is chocolate pudding, but... a whole bunch of rooms i’m way too scared to go into, so i’m not much of a tour guide. i’m also a little terrified of what wong would do if i stumbled into the library or something, so, you know.”

Blue eyes had immediately moved to flitter around the large Sanctum opening, busy taking in all of her new surroundings that she nearly missed someone standing off to side. To be fair, it was one of the most unique places she’d ever been and part of her was very concerned about just walking in here after not speaking to anyone since their time in the stone. Karolina had never truly been on her own before, even after running away, she’d had her friends. The last thing she wanted was for them to turn her away for trespassing. It didn’t seem likely from what she knew of them, but there was lingering concern anyway.

His greeting grabbed her attention and despite herself, Karolina practically jumped in place as she was snapped from her thoughts. Her surprise changed quickly, though, her lips curving upwards into a friendly smile. “Hi!” Too over-enthusiastic, Karolina, calm down. “Hey, I mean – sorry, I wasn’t ignoring you before I just – this place is so wow.”

She cleared her throat in a half effort to stop herself from rambling on, her hands shoving awkwardly into her coat jacket. Part of her wondered if she should go, come back when Tony or Stephen became available, but he was introducing himself and that’d be rude. Her jaw went slack a moment, ready to introduce herself, but he already seemed to know who she was.

“Oh – yeah, I’m Karolina, Karolina is me… Karolina Dean.” Oh good god what is wrong with you. Her lips pressed together a moment, realizing that he’d mentioned Peter. “He did? Uh, good things I hope? It’s nice to meet you, Harry.”

her smile was bright and cheerful, and in a way, it reminded him of peter. really, he suspected it would remind him of any positive thing in his life – but peter happened to be it, so he latched on to that. it made him smile, too – there weren’t that many people he interacted with day-to-day that smiled like that, and it made him feel light. it was the kind of smile that, just for a moment, made him forget that he was dying. the moment was underlined – and not inhibited by – the fact that she seemed so unsure, and he wished he were as easy and kind as peter so that maybe she wouldn’t need to be. “i said the same thing,” he admitted, motioning around him. “all the magic in the world since the attack in new york and i still can’t quite believe it.”

harry rubbed the back of his neck and bit his bottom lip. “sorry. i didn’t mean to introduce you for you. kinda jumped the gun on that one.” still, he held out his hand to shake, and hoped that she wouldn’t notice the way it trembled. not out of nerves – his hands were always shaking, at least a little, because of his retroviral hypodisplasia. a rather dull name, he thought, for the osborn disease. perhaps GREEN GOBLIN was a better name after all.

“nothing but good things,” harry promised. “he uh… we’ve been friends since we were kids.”  more than friends, now,  but as much as karolina’s smile had invited him to trust her, he was nervous to say it. he could almost feel norman breathing over his shoulder, waiting for an excuse to kill peter and harry both. “i spent a lot of time with his aunt after… well, you know. he caught me up on what happened. we were worried that he’d been alone. leave it to peter to make friends after death.” he choked on the last word, but it was getting easier to say – easier to accept that peter hadn’t been dead.

times square was busier than usual, so harry kept his head down, not wanting to be spotted by paparazzi or, god forbid, one of norman’s many spies that he thought harry didn’t know about. he wore sunglasses and a long winter coat, and right as he was thinking that all these people were out of their mind for standing around and looking at the screens surrounding the square in this kind of weather, the crowd broke out into a roaring cheer.

harry stopped pushing through the crowd, tilting his head curiously as he listened to the unbridled joy surrounding him. it was funny – he should’ve known that something was wrong. new york was never this happy unless it was new years, and the world’s attention had really only been on one thing for the past few months: mutants. enhanced humans. harry’s blood ran cold and even as he looked up at the enormous screen in times square, he hoped his gut feeling was wrong. he hoped that the people of new york – the people of the whole fucking world – weren’t that cruel. but he was wrong.

“no,” he whispered, his stomach dropping. images of the compound and the school up in smoke filled the screens, quickly followed by thaddeus ross’ smiling and triumphant face. harry wanted to kill him. “it’s about fuckin’ time, huh?” a stranger said to him, grinning, and elbowed his side in attempted comraderie. “yeah,” he said, clenching his jaw. “sure.”

he turned his head away from the screen, looking at the faces around him in shock and horror – until his eyes landed on someone familiar. “shit.” he pushed through the crowd, keeping his eyes down, hoping nobody noticed that one of the people they hated so much was amongst them. “hey,” harry whispered, grabbing their arm gently, hoping not to surprise or scare them. “you gotta go. it’s not safe here.” he took off his sunglasses and offered it to the person, quickly followed by his scarf to cover their face. it would’ve been easier if he could call his driver – but even he reported to norman, harry knew, and his monster of a father would never approve of this. “come on.”

adjusting to life after he had ‘died ’ and been trapped in the soul stone for months was far from easy. it was easy to put on a smile and pretend everything was okay, but it wasn’t. it was hard, to say the least, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t happy to be home. he was. but it was still a difficult adjustment, and he hadn’t gotten a response to any of his texts yet from harry. a sigh escapes his lips as he perches on a rooftop before he pulls his phone out of his backpack. he opens up the phone icon and calls his voicemail. his phone volume isn’t turned up that much, so he holds his phone up to his masked ear, and it’s only a few seconds before UNCLE BEN’S voice fills his ears.

“peter, i know things have been difficult lately and i’m sorry about that. i think i know what you’re feeling. ever since you were a little boy, you’ve been living with so many unresolved things. well, take it from an old man. those things send us down a road… they make us who we are. and if anyone is destined for greatness, it’s you, son. you owe the world your gifts. you just have to figure out how to use them and know that wherever they take you, we’ll always be here. so, come on home, peter. you’re my hero… and i love you.”

he hasn’t listened to this voicemail in MONTHS. it’s years old, and he can’t bring himself to delete it. in times of stress or sadness, it either helps him or makes him more sad. it’s calming, hearing ben’s voice, but at the same time he knows it really only UPSETS him further. by the end of it he’s sniffling, but not crying. not now, anyway. he locks his phone and drops it into his backpack. at this point he’s glad to have his mask so no one can tell he’s feeling emotional. so that no one knows he’s ON THE BRINK OF TEARS.

AND HE STICKS OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB as he drops down from his perch and into an alley, then promptly exits the alley and steps onto the street. among crowds of people, here is spider-man, still in the iron spider suit gifted to him by tony stark. a sleek suit made of nanotech, colored red, blue and gold with the spider emblem on his chest and eyes that glow, though that’s not as noticeable in daylight. when he spots a familiar head of sandy blonde hair, his heart skips a beat. he runs to the person he knows is harry, spewing apologies along the way as he walks straight into multiple different people. when he catches up, he shoots webs at his boyfriend, pulling him into an alley way, their bodies colliding with one and other. normally peter might’ve actually caught harry, but this time, for some reason, they fumble to the ground, peter laying flat on the ground with harry over top of him.

“uh…” peter begins, masked eyes widening before dismissing the mask, as the nanotech of the suit reveals his face and stops at the neckline. “hey.” he says, NERVOUSLY, as he stares up at harry, tears welled up in his eyes. it had been about eight months since he had DIED. and he didn’t even know if harry had lived through the snap or not… if harry had also died. THE THOUGHT OF THAT BROKE HIS HEART. “i…” he gulped. “i love you.” he said, his voice barely a whisper before his hands come up on either side of harry’s face and he kisses him gently.

@fuckoscorp

harry had spent a few weeks with may in the beginning, on and off. he’d buy her groceries, make sure she actually ate them. he’d cook for her when he had the energy. mostly he just spent time with her so she wouldn’t have to be alone. so neither one of them would have to be alone. both of them should’ve prepared themselves for this. death that young didn’t just happen to regular kids peter’s age but then, peter wasn’t regular. he was a hero. he made it his responsibility to put himself between the good guys and the bad. harry and may both knew that. 

but even in harry’s worst nightmares – all the horrible scenarios he’d imagined being the end for them – they’d never gone like this. he’d always imagined it the other way around. his own premature death. or norman getting in the way. worse, green goblin. he imagined a flaming meteor crashing into the earth and killing them all. he imagined peter getting sick of him. he imagined peterrealizing he was too good for him. not a single scenario, not even the wildest ones, involved peter’s death.

may hadn’t recovered any more than harry had, but she got on her feet easier. was, in general, an adult about things. found her own ways of grieving. that’s what really set the nail in harry’s coffin – he went back to work, and he fell apart. when he was at work he was spending all of oscorp’s money on research – trying to find a way into the infinity stones so he could bring peter back. he, of course, assumed that this was possible because if it wasn’t, he might as well drop dead.

harry hadn’t even heard about their return yet. there was on reason for him to have. at home he slept and he drank, alone. every day. he didn’t turn on the television – couldn’t bear news hosts going back and forth in a game of debate ping pong as they discussed whether or not superheroes were the good guys are just dangerous vigilantes. those made his blood boil more than anything. “you have no idea,” he used to say, wishing the person he was talking to was standing in front of him rather than in the screen. “they protect us. they save us, you ungrateful little prick.” so instead of watching the news, when he wasn’t at work, drinking, or sleeping, he was buying necessities. milk. fruits, sandwich meats and cheese.

harry felt something touch him, and he tried to yank his arm away from the culprit, but no sooner had it happened when he was yanked suddenly and forcefully into an alleyway. he stumbled forward, wishing he had some kind of pepperspray – until, slowly, his assailant’s face becomes clear.

“PETER...”

i love you too. when peter’s lips met his, harry closed his eyes, allowing himself, for one moment, to suspend all disbelief, all questions, everything that didn’t make sense so he could have this. peter parker. love of his life. trupping over each other in an alley. but even harry couldn’t only hold onto the good. it didn’t take long before he could feel his eyes stinging as tears formed at their corners, threatening to roll down his features at any second. he pulled away, but kept his forehead pressed against peter’s, breathing hard. thinking.

“i thought you were dead.”

he hadn’t allowed that realization to manifest itself until then, and it was the first time he really, truly understood what it meant, and what it would mean, for peter to be dead.

harry put his hands on either side of peter’s face again, and shook his head.

“don’t leave me alone in this world.”

It was odd to Karolina, that she ended up in New York after exiting the stone opposed to California, where she’d been when the snap first happened. She had a few theories, about how that happened – maybe somehow the stone knew what was best, or it was because she was with others being returned to New York at the time. Regardless, she figured it didn’t matter much now, because she’d already chosen to stay. It was better to let her murderous alien father think she was still gone than put her friends in danger yet again.

With a gentle knock, the blonde alien pushed open the door to the Sanctum. Stephen and his group had kept her safe while they were trapped in that realm when she discovered her powers couldn’t work there without the proper solar energy the world would normally provided her. From this, she remembered where it was said she could find them if she were in the area on the outside. Hopefully they’d meant that, because Karolina had been on the streets in New York in the meantime and a real bed was seeming incredibly inviting. 

“Hello? Anyone home?” She called out, shifting a bag of belongings she’d accumulated over her shoulder and waiting for a response.

harry was at the sanctum often, now, for peter. it was the safest place for him, and while norman was his father and bad at keeping secrets, harry wasn’t ready to take the risk of inviting peter to his apartment. norman was bad – the green goblin was worse. both of them wanted spider-man – and thus peter – dead. harry would die before letting that happen. thankfully, that wasn’t necessary. thankfully, all he had to do was go to peter. and that gave him something to live for, anyway.

the sanctum was large and mostly quiet, so he and his boyfriend – still a new and fresh word for it, something that gave him goosebumps that he’d never admit to – had time they could just spend together as peter and harry. watching movies, just... talking. the types of things couples were supposed to do together. when he was at the sanctum, he often even forgot about his disease. it was like another world.

harry had only just arrived and was still taking off his coat when the sanctum door opened again and a young woman with delicate features walked in. he stopped in his tracks and stared in surprise at the arrival of someone he hadn’t met. “hey,” he greeted stupidly, slowly sliding his coat down his arms. “i, uh – tony and doctor strange aren’t really here right now.” truth be told harry wasn’t sure where they were. he didn’t really care as much as he was probably supposed to.

“i’m harry. i’m just here for...” he trailed off, realizing he didn’t really know what to say yet. my boyfriend would be the obvious one, but he hadn’t actually said that one out loud yet. it still felt surreal. peter would’ve been the next step, but what with his identity having just been revealed, it might have been a fresh wound. but as he was debating, something dawned on him. they’d never met, but he knew exactly who she was.

“wait – you’re karolina, right?” harry asked, awkward grimace slowly turning into a smile. “peter’s told me about you.”

“ you must be lost ”   elektra wrapped her hands around a bottle of hennessy black, quick to drown her malaise with brandy. she would’ve preferred gin and vermouth, something as perfect as a sonnet. but she was borrowing from the liquor cabinet of a debased acolyte, a deserter that refused to acknowledge her sovereignty. apparently, they weren’t fond of her decision to kill alexandra. said she was too precarious, erratic  —  they were right. elektra was losing her mind. 

“ you can either leave the way you came, or i can bury you alongside my friend here ”   and she refused to acknowledge her downward spiral. elektra murdered her acolyte to drown the truth, abhorrent to weakness. now, their fractured body was the only barrier between the assassin and the intruder. it wasn’t a pretty picture. 

harry was there on business – a demand from his father that he dared not ignore, lest things get worse. after all, with the publicized identity of peter parker as spider-man, norman osborn’s behavior would become... questionable. harry couldn’t let that happen. so no matter how miserable it made him, he existed, at that time, for the sole purpose of pleasing a monster.

but someone had beat him, and the man harry was here to see was dead. the woman who killed him was helping herself to his store of fine liquors. he stopped for a moment in shock, but stared emotionlessly at the corpse near her feet. the long pitch about oscorp’s funding rang around in his mind, useless now, and he wondered how he would approach his father about this disaster. no doubt it would be his fault, too.

“is that what it’s like to be your friend?” harry asked, ignoring the dangers of interacting with the woman in a situation like this. “there’s no need. he was as soulless as the company that’s ruining my life, so consider this a thank you.” he put his hands in his pockets, eyes moving from the dead body to its killer and the drink in her hand. “care to share a glass?”

@fuckoscorp

Gwen didn’t know what she was doing, or really… why she was doing this. Harry was probably going to freak out that someone else was in Peter’s suit- maybe she should have come as normal Gwen instead of… Spider-Gwen… but that was the point of this visit. Peter had been taken, she was worried about Harry- and he still had no idea she was Ghost Spider.

She’d wanted to tell him when they got home from being in the stone. That was the plan. But she’d chickened out before even showing up. Which was stupid- Harry knew Peter’s secret, so what was another spider kid, right? But unlike Peter, Gwen was a wanted murderer. And now- her main suspects in Kevin’s death had taken Peter- unmasked him- and he hadn’t even put up a fight. Her dad had several dozen cops watching May- on her request. It made Gwen feel a little bit better. But with Peter gone, and the rescue mission being put together… she wanted Harry to know… just in case she got caught too. He deserved to know why she was putting herself in danger.

She slipped into his place through the window at almost midnight, careful not to alert anyone around.

Stupid. This was the stupidest thing she could have done.

As she dropped off of the ceiling and onto the floor, her spider senses went off telling her that yeah, he was awake, and very much aware of her presense. “Okay- Harry, don’t- don’t freak out.” she began, holding her hands up to show she wasn’t going to attack. “This probably looks like some- weird wanna-be Spider-Man fan stealing Peter’s suit , but- I- I swear-”

That wasn’t going to work. She sighed, lowering a hand before she pulled the Spider-Man mask off. Blonde hair, with dyed pink tips fell around her shoulders and she averted her gaze. “It’s me. Gwen. We need to talk.”

harry had been drinking, which is pretty much all he was good for right now. or ever. for all his money and all the overpriced suits, harry osborn wasn’t very special. a nineteen year old boy with a disease that was killing him and no powers. no exceptional skills. not even a particularly high iq. he couldn’t even convince the avengers to let him into the soul stone to go after peter the first time – why would this be any different? why did the young osborn think for one god damn second that he could do anything to save the only person who’s ever seen him as just harry?

he was slumped behind his kitchen island – too fancy for anyone his age to really own – with a half empty bottle of cheap vodka on the floor next to him, still loosely clutched in his fingers. harry was in and out of sleep, drifting between buzzy nothingness and the unbearable awareness of what was keeping him up. he was drifting back into the preferred sense of nothing when he heard it – the quiet, almost imperceptible sound of a window sliding up. his first thought was peter, but that was impossible.

his second thought was norman. that’s why he grabbed the gun. it wasn’t hidden in a cookie jar – it as taped under the counter, a trick he’d learned while nearly bankrupting oscorp.

harry meant to leap up from behind the counter, gun raised, but it was really more of a stumble. he held himself up with one hand on the counter, weapon wielded in the other, and for a moment, he couldn’t believe his eyes. a spider suit. but... different. and peter was still captured. he opened his mouth to talk and slur his demands for an answer, but the intruder spoke first, and before he could question any of it –

“GWEN?”

that was sobering. mostly. he stared at his friend in disbelief, trying to wrap his already overworked mind around what he was seeing. at first it didn’t make sense. at first he thought she really had stolen one of peter’s suits, but that didn’t follow. that wasn’t gwen. and that... wasn’t peter’s suit.

“you’re ghost spider,” harry said quietly, stupidly. the arm holding the weapon fell back to his side. it was gripped loosely between his fingers, caught mostly on his index finger, which was lucky. it was long forgotten.

The city of New York was in pandemonium. The anti-mutant groups had started abducting and attacking enhanced individuals – including some of Shuri’s friends – sending her panic into overdrive. She had been holed up in her lab working on tech that she hoped would help to rescue those who had been taken, and prevent these kind of attacks from happening in the future, but today she found herself in the Wakandan Embassy, on damage control. 

A few particularly nasty individuals had made their way into the Embassy and were currently bombarding her with questions about T’Challa’s abilities. Though her brother wasn’t technically a mutant, the fact that he could do things they couldn’t seemed to have these people rattled, though he – like almost all of the enhanced individuals – used his powers only for good, for the defence of Wakanda and her people, as she had explained multiple times. 

“The Black Panther is enhanced, yes–” She started, before being interrupted by one of the men who had surrounded her in the Embassy building, “Let me finish,” She bit back, “But he uses his abilities for good, and he has no intention of changing what he can do to suit your fragile sensibilities.” 

That didn’t seem to appease these people, and soon they were back to shouting. Shuri noticed somebody else entering the floor, and she gave them a look as she tried to get herself away from the worked up people. She really had better things to be doing than trying to calm the fears of intolerant fools.

the osborn name – the first of many curses inherited from his father – afforded him opportunities that should not have been available to an eighteen year old boy. like being a ceo. and having access to the wakandan embassy as a civilian, no questions asked. harry strolled in in a suit, professionally pressed and dry-cleaned, creased everywhere it was supposed to be creased. it was a stuffy thing that made him feel like he was just trying to look like his father, and he combatted it with younger, more fashionable hair and a pair of sunglasses that cost more than a very fancy bottle of wine. dying rich boys had a funny way of rebelling.

they were also to hide the bags under harry’s eyes. he’d been reunited with peter for what felt like seconds before they were ripped apart again, and he was scared. with the world turning to shit and anti-mutant bigots were getting out of control, he knew peter was in danger. and he knew peter was too good to fight back. so when he disappeared – stopped answering his phone, didn’t come home – harry’s worst fears were realized.

he didn’t exactly have the avengers or the x-men on speed-dial. that was one benefit not allowed to the once-ceo of oscorp, and besides, he wasn’t sure he’d call them anyway. they were all powerful superheroes with magical hammers and the ability to move things with their mind, but that’s not what harry osborn needed. he needed someone better.

“princess,” he greeted coolly, with the air of someone not dying and not in a panic. he nodded to the crowd of people shouting after her ‘questions and concerns’ about the black panther and his placement within the world of mutants – or god’s mistake, according to one bigot. “no offense, but i don’t think they really came to listen as much as do... well, that,” harry said, trying at a joke, and motioned again. “my name is harry osborn. i don’t suppose i could steal a moment of your time in a room not connected to this one?”