a study in scarlet

“sorry for bringing you down, kid.“ she stated, nudging him a bit with her elbow and genuinely feeling a bit bad that she’d dragged his mood into the proverbial gutter. “if it helps, it wasn’t my intention.” a shrug. even if it wasn’t her intention, the conversation wasn’t an easy one and sometimes she just said things to fill air. finding that nothing was an avoided topic when it came to other people. “to put it plainly? yes. but you have a sort of tragically cute look to you. try to appeal to tony stark, he might adopt you.”

He laughed then, because she was right, because of course he looked like a street urchin, because even on a good day he looked a little bit abandoned on a doorstep, because you couldn’t get more orphaned than being grown in a test tube. “Oh, I might,” he said. “If he adopts me, think I can get a helicopter?” As far as Ben could tell, Stark hadn’t given Peter a helicopter, but he was also pretty sure he’d never asked for one. He looked up at her, leaned back, only kind of, sort of, a little bit threatened by her presence. “If it wasn’t picking on innocent children, what was your intention?”

rhodey stood there as if he were in a daze, his jaw slightly slacked open as he slowly blinked and turned to the nearest person. “you’ve got to be kidding me,” he stated, before taking a step forward and gesturing at the ship, “pirates!?” he half yelled before giving one of the said pirates a stink face and turning back to the other. “i know i saw a dinosaur on main street and some weird ass romans, but pirates? come on, at least they could have given us something less disgusting and lethal?” he shook his head and heaved out an irritated sigh. “come on, let’s go see if we can convince them that there’s treasure or something on the other side of that portal of theirs.”

He might have cried when he saw the ship. Maybe. He wouldn’t admit it, or anything, but god damn. Pirates. New Gotham was the gift that kept on giving. Of course, Ben’s first instinct had been to swing himself onto the ship, stand atop the mast, and crow like he was in Peter Pan. Of course, he had at least enough sense to know that that was objectively a terrible idea, so he hadn’t. But god, did he want to. Instead, he stood on the street, stoked, imagining what his suit would look like with a big old-fashioned pirate hat. That’ll be Captain Scarlet Spider to you. 

“Oh, c’mon,” he says. “You’re no fun. They’re pirates. Like in that movie--Pirates of the Caribbean? Maybe they’ll teach us how to sword fight.”

Kaine hated all of this, being stuck in this random forest just because there was some creatures living in it. What if they just left them alone maybe they wouldn’t come wandering out. He doesn’t want to call them monsters, having been called one many times before being cured of his degeneration. “We could be watching something on the television right now.” He admits as he shrugs as well, but sighs. He doesn’t have his suit on him, but luckily his webbing is organic. “I vote we go offense. I like a good fight, punching something sounds so much fun right now.”

TV--god, this felt like a bad episode of some campy late 90s, early aughts TV show. Two brothers, under-prepared and under-equipped, stuck in the woods with a horde of monsters.... But it’s fine, they’re fine, they’ll be fine. And Kaine wanted to watch TV with him, a major success. “Once we figure this out, we’re gluing our asses to the couch and not leaving until you’ve seen every episode of Doctor Who--new and old. Like Kaine, Ben doesn’t have his suit; unlike Kaine, his webbing isn’t organic, but he wears his web shooters under his jacket anyway. “Okay,” he says, pushing up his sleeves. “Let’s punch some stuff. Where do we start?”

folding her arms over her chest, natasha looked the kid over before softening a bit at the edges. “it’s okay - i have the same vibe,” she admitted before expressing a small sigh. the way she stated it - it wasn’t really socially acceptable but she was looking for a way to relate. “then again, there’s a lot of people here who have the whole ‘dead family’ vibe - which you know, in this line of work, it’s pretty much a guarantee.” she had no relatable family within this place - and the only family or people she considered as family were mostly there.

She was right; they all did. Ben didn’t know anyone, really, with an intact family (though degrees of tragedy varied). Superheroes and Thanksgiving didn’t mix. He sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know,” he said. In the scheme of things, he was pretty lucky. He had his brothers, he had Aunt May, he had more of a family than he’d ever had before. “Did I look that pathetic?” he asked, looking up at her again. “Like, so miserable you had to come check on me? Because, I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s just my face.”

❪ ´ ･ . 🕷️ — ❛ i was swinging and i smacked right into the police department - saw detective bullock laughing at me. wasn’t great, kinda hated it. i swear i’ve narrowly avoided the department countless times before, so what gives? ❜ ┊@scarltspidr​​​​​​ ​ ❫

peter laughed as he hears ben give the story, a wide grin spreading across his face. “oh, honestly, i’m with detective bullock on this one. i bet that would’ve been hilarious. i wonder if the cop cams would’ve caught it…” he trails, off thinking for a moment before he turns his attention back to his brother. “something weird is going on, though. everything’s weird– like it’s shifted and stuff, you know? i’ve been narrowly missing building myself, or… straight up smacking into them.”

“You laugh now, but they can’t definitively prove it wasn’t you, Pete. First thing tomorrow, I’m breaking in there and labelling all the footage SPIDER-MAN SMACKS INTO WINDOW: DUMB; DEFINITELY PETER PARKER. But it was stupid and my face hurts,” Ben says, gently massaging the bridge of his nose and wincing slightly. “Yeah, it’s like, not where I left anything. My muscle memory and my brain and this damn city just won’t sync up right--d’you think we can just push everything back to where it was? Like, shake the city and start over?”

Good thing no one in horror movies had spider powers. At least that meant they had a fighting chance, right? Maybe? Well, there was only one way to test out the theory. Cindy walked towards the door, pushing it open and sighing at all the commotion on the streets. People were scrambling, eager to get places. Everything about the rush felt overwhelming for her silk senses, there was too much to focus on, too much to analyze. 

“I don’t get it. Is there treasure hidden on the island? Or in the woods?” 

He followed her outside, sensing the commotion well before they found themselves in the midst of it. Yeah, this was bad, and he’d known that. The whole world was laughing at them--happy new year, suckers, you thought it couldn’t get any weirder? It was a lot on his spider senses, and all Ben wanted was to hide with some Tylenol and a nap, but they had to keep pushing on.

“I’m gonna go with--maybe? Maybe everyone’s just suddenly playing Pokemon Go again, and there’s a Legendary in the woods.”

          Pietro settles down on the bench, wincing as his body makes it known exactly where all of his bruises were. The crowd hadn’t been calm once the cops had shown up, and then the cops weren’t exactly trying to be gentle as they rounded up the protesters. He was going to be feeling this for a while he was sure.           “He was pointing a gun at a kid. A little kid.”           He didn’t even think about doing it. Had seen the gun, had seen where it was aimed, and he’d thrown the brick without a second thought. It was a moment of instinct - if he’d thought about it, he would have used his powers to take the gun away from the officer, or the kid away from the situation. Instead, the brick to the man’s face.           “Seems like cops are dickbags whatever country they come from.”

Damn, okay. He’d been hoping to tease the guy some more, but that’s a surprisingly valiant way to get arrested, trying to defend a kid--if he’s not lying, which is possible, because this is a jail cell, and Ben would also rather not look like an asshole in here. He feels like an idiot, anyway, no decent sob story to defend himself with, just some good old-fashioned idiocy. Next time he gets arrested (god forbid there be a next time), it better be for something badass.

"Oh my god,” he says. “That’s horrible. Why would he--” He trails off, not wanting to finish the question. There’s no good answer for it; he doesn’t think he wants to know. People in power don’t always use it right, and he’s spent too long dealing with the consequences. So he sighs and nods. “Sounds like you did the right thing. But still-- a brick? Where did you get stray brick? Do you just carry it around for fun?”

“so, we should definitely think about tightening security around the forest - do you think the swamp will need it too? or is that just better at keeping things out than in? wait - that seems worse.”

Kaine knew that coming in the forest was a terrible idea, so why was he in here? Oh, that’s right! He didn’t want his brothers going in alone, something about wanting the three of them being in this together. “Why don’t we just leave?” He thought that was a good idea, as he could think of many places in the city that would be more fun than here. The clone rubs the back of his neck, not sure what to call the creatures. Monster doesn’t feel right, not when he considers himself one too. “If we’re guarding around the forest we stop anyone from getting in, but brother keep in mind that means we’re stuck in here.”

[ @scarltspidr​ ]

The more time Ben spent in the forest, the worse it got. More fog, more monsters, more trees catching at his suit, more new and exciting opportunities to die. But he’s here, and so are his brothers, and they’re in it together now. “I mean, I would also rather be literally anywhere that isn’t here,” he says, and shrugs. “But I also don’t want to let any of the defenseless people out there get eaten by werewolves, y’know? I just... I don’t know the best way to go about this. We could lock ourselves in, I guess. Take one for the team. Or we could stand outside and try to fight them off? Do we want to be offense or defense?”

“That’s like the fifth accident today - what the hell is going on?” [ @dialedsenses ]

 Attempting to preserve any semblance of his dignity, Ben latches onto the side of building he’s just crashed into--this was definitely totally intentional, absolutely. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he calls. He meant to do this, in no way had he been planning on swinging smoothly back to his apartment, not hitting any windows on the way. With a flip, he lands on the ground near the woman. “I think the city’s--this is gonna sound crazy, please bear with me--I think everything’s... shifted? Just like, a few inches. That corner was not there yesterday.”

“So, we should definitely think about tightening security around the forest - do you think the swamp will need it too? Or is that just better at keeping things out than in? Wait - that seems worse.”  [ @magicandiron​ ]

Ben frowns. Other than the general boilerplate keep everyone safe!, he doesn’t know what to do. There’s a whole mess of storybook monsters ready to battle royale, and he is just one small (sorta) boy who can stick to walls. He can only do so much. “Okay, wait,” he says. “Do we care more about keeping things in or out? Like, are we more worried about stray kids wandering into the Forbidden Forest, or about Aragog having dinner plans downtown?”

“You give me a ‘dead family’ kind of vibe.”  [ @occultbat​ ]

He blinked, frowned, looked up at her. “Um. Thanks, I guess? I, uh. I don’t really know what to say to that.” It wasn’t not not true, he supposed, but the whole cloning thing kind of threw a wrench in it. If Ben was grown in a tube, he couldn’t ever really have had family who died--but he still felt Peter’s losses clearly, pressing tightly against his chest--and what did that have to do with anything? Did he look that pathetic? Alone on the street, slightly lost, in an impossible city that was definitely not quite where he had last left it. He probably had Dickensian orphan written all over his face.

as he listens to ben’s different concepts of what could happen as the night went on. “y’know, as funny as either scenario of kaine vs bruce wayne would be, i think my money – which, by the way, i don’t have very much of. can we bet in like… food? like mcdonalds is on me if i lose, vice versa? – would be on either of the last three. should someone step in between them?” he asks, glancing over at tony and steve before turning his gaze back to his brother. “i could see someone confusing us for each other. i vote we then switch identities but kaine stays the same, ‘cause no one’s gonna believe kaine is me or you. i mean, southern, tall, has longish hair…” he laughs, shrugging his shoulders. “you wanna steal and entire cake? i’m game. should we get kaine in on the scheme? if it all goes to shit, we can blame him.”

"Okay, first of all, hell yeah, we can bet in food. Second of all, Captain America’s bicep is bigger than my head, so I think we should probably leave them alone. They’re big boys, they can handle themselves, right? Aren’t they, like, supposed to be our role models?” He looks across the room towards the men, who are decidedly larger and scarier than he is. As much as he wants the bragging rights to say he broke up a fight between Iron Man and Captain America, they could also probably both kill him with a sneeze, and he’d rather live. Ben frowns, then shrugs. 

“It’s not really stealing if he’s crazy rich and invited us here to eat all his food anyway, right? We should blame Kaine anyway, though. If he gets angry, we can pay him off with some of the whole-ass cake we’re about to get.” With a smirk, he watches the waitstaff filing in an out of a door towards the back of the room. “I bet the kitchen’s that way,” he says, pointing.

They both have memories that aren’t their own, and this is something they Kaine continues to struggle with figuring out — what is HIS and what belonged to PETER? It was easy with most of them, anything that was GOOD couldn’t be his. He was making pleasant memories now, but he didn’t get a childhood. He was thrown into traumatic situations until finding some common ground with Ben.

Kaine always wanted a taste of HAPPINESS, wishing to drown in it at least once. He raises an eyebrow at the idea, not that he was great at the internet — but st least knew what YouTube and Instagram are. He doesn’t understand the rest. The clone was trying which is all that matters. “We can try one of those if you want. Whatever makes you happy, we could try doing — what are is called … ah! VLOGGING. Being twins might get us some attention.” He was giving this his best effort, trying to break out of his shell again. “YES. I had three friends in Houston. A bartender, a doctor, and a cop. We would hang out together, and they kind of forced me to go with them to experience the rodeo. Somehow I was convinced to put on a cowboy hat — only to make them happy really.” He smiles at the memory of his old friends.

“They sort of stopped wanting anything to do with me after Kraven came after them as a way of getting to me on another day. They saw a side of me that scared them, and thought I was a monster like the rest of the world does. Anyway, the rodeo was interesting though. I ended up having to ride a bull in my suit — turns out I’m good at using a lasso, brother. I’m glad there’s no footage from that day it was a disaster. I’ll take you to one sometime if we ever get out of this. If you want.”

“Yes. Vlogging. Perfect. I’m pretty sure the internet loves twins, because there’s more of us to go around--or triplets, if we can get Pete on board, and then we can all be doubly famous and have a massive fanbase in both our suits and our civvies. It’ll be like Hannah Montana.” He laughs. It’s stupid, it’s so stupid, but it’s something. He likes the idea of Kaine drawling into a camera, even if it is just to humor him. 

The two of them, they’re getting there. They’re almost real boys. Soon enough, they’ll have their own jobs and hobbies and dreams, he’s sure of it. He could set up his social media, get his own college degrees, stop wearing clothing scavenged from donation boxes and pretending to be someone he wasn’t. From here on out, he and Kaine can be real people, make real memories, together.

But more importantly, Kaine had had friends that he hadn’t told Ben about. Three of them. Mister Lone Wolf hadn’t been quite as lonely as he’d feared after all. He loves the idea of Kaine in a cowboy hat, decides he has to see it for himself, makes a mental note to buy three as soon as possible. “Somehow, I have more questions than I started with. Why did you ride a bull in your suit? How are you so sure there’s no footage, because I would sell an organ for it. And what did you do with that lasso, Kaine?”

She nodded, understanding. It was one thing to be a superhero, it was another to pay the bills on time. And as far as she knew, no one was getting compensated for heroism … right? Cindy still needed to figure out her whole income situation too, especially now that her family had disappeared —guess she should’ve really paid attention during finance class when she was in high school. 

“It’s … been better.” Or maybe not, not with those pixies. 

“I feel the same, my silk senses are going haywire.” And it was driving her up the wall, she wanted to shut out the entire world and hide again. Just like being back inside the bunker.  

He took a sip of his coffee, trying to conceal his frown. It was still too hot, but his burnt tongue would heal quickly enough, and something horrible was going on outside while he was in here making lattes. Could he set up a GoFundMe for his heroics? Write his Venmo on the back of his suit? Your friendly neighborhood spider-clone could do a lot more if he didn’t have to pay rent, and he’s taking tips! 

Hey, at least he was off now, and he had backup, and they could (maybe) do something about it. “I’ve seen enough horror movies to know I shouldn’t say let’s go outside and check it out, but, um.” With one last sip, he finishes the coffee and tosses the empty cup in the bin. “Let’s go outside and check it out.”

@scarltspidr·

          “-right to remain silent, you have the right to a lawyer. If you can not afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you.” The officer finished his sentence with a well timed shove into the middle of Pietro’s back, and slammed the cell door shut behind him. “And kid, I’d think real hard about who could cough up some ID for you, cause this will go way easier if you weren’t illegal.”           “Я трахаю собаку твоей матери,” Pietro spits on the ground, watching the police offer leave. When he turns around, he notices that he’s not the only one in the holding cell. Wincing, he walks over to the bench and sits   falls   into it. “You throw one brick at a cop, and they’re trying to deport you.”

Today was one of those days where it was probably for the best that Ben Reilly didn’t legally exist. As far as he could tell, New Gotham didn’t have birth certificates for clones, so he could blame the whole thing on Peter and walk away. Because apparently web-swinging while (very lightly) intoxicated too close to a police car was a criminal offense in this city. Yeah, he’d also definitely made fun of the cop, but so what? They had bigger problems to worry about.

Ben slumps back against the bars of the cell, looking up as the officer shoved in his new companion. Company. Nice. He should be afraid of whatever criminal he’s about to be locked in a metal cage with, but his spider senses aren’t going off, so he’ll see how this one plays out. 

“You threw a brick at a cop.” He raises an eyebrow. “---And why would you do that?”

“Hey. I didn’t know you worked here,” she stated, smiling. “I’m good. I think. I don’t know, things are kind of hectic on the streets.” By that she meant the two phenomenons that occurred out of the blue, startling and confusing everyone. The island and the woods, both of them calling out to the public. Surely it was a trap, right? Or maybe her silk senses were going haywire again, not picking up on things as they should. Wouldn’t be the first time. 

“Are you - do you feel weird? By whatever is on the news?” 

He shrugged. “Gotta pay the bills somehow.” With her refusal, he clocked out and slid around the counter to meet her. “Oh, god. Is it-- how bad is it out there?” Ben took a sip of his coffee, burnt his tongue, winced. Shit. Too hot.  His spider senses hated everything about the situation, and he was trying to listen to whatever logical instincts he had left--stay out of trouble, don’t mess with the demon forest or the nightmare island. Don’t die. 

“I always feel weird. Kinda comes with the DNA. But, I mean, yeah. The evil trees are really doing a number on my, uh. Y’know.”

@scarltspidr·

Cindy needed to find a quiet spot, some place to gather her thoughts ( and senses ) since the emergence of the strange island … and the eeriness of the woods. She found herself more drawn to the trees rather than the water, however, she wasn’t sure what to do. Or how to do it? It was complicated — being a spider and all. Cindy sighed, entering a random coffee shop instead, hoping it’d be calmer inside than the streets. To her pleasant surprise, she found a familiar face. 

“— hey, Ben.” 

Ben was keeping himself busy. Distracted. A job, some money, (free coffee), and an excuse to stay away from the scary island and horror-film woods. No thank you; he could stay safe and sound right here, making lattes for the discerning public of New Gotham. It wasn’t particularly exciting work, but it was honest, and he was good at it, and it seemed as good a way as any to keep himself occupied. 

As his shift ended, he poured himself one last coffee in a to-go cup, ready to clock out and head home. Before Ben could hang up his apron, still half-behind the counter, someone called his name. He set down his coffee, turned, and smiled. 

“Cindy, hi,” he said. “I was just, uh--just about to get off shift, but can I get you anything first?”