Konnichiwa!

Dr. Octavius took one look around this wondrous new dimension and immediately inflated her arms, lifting herself up she was a few inches about the floor. Her loft was a mess too, but it was a clean sort of clutter. At least she cleaned up after herself when she ate. 

“Damn Peni, you live like this?” She would’ve balled up a piece of garbage and thrown it into the trash can to illustrate her point, but she didn’t see any nearby. “Don’t they have robot maids in the future?” Of course, Peni already had a robot, but Liv didn’t suggest putting it to work cleaning. She didn’t want to be kicked through a wall again. It had been inconvenient. 

An examination of the mugshots revealed no one she knew, which she had been expecting. Her attention was better directed toward the nearest window. This was what she was after- the view of a new world. She stuck her head out the window, and then the upper half of her body. If she wasn’t here with one of the least irritating Spiders she would’ve jumped without a second’s hesitation. “Are you going to give me a tour?”

   “Well! Y’know!! I sorta do the whole spider thing alone, so I only really have time to eat, and maybe I get to sleep every once in a while? Maybe twice a week if I’m lucky!!” She has to build, repair, head out and save someone, stop a villain, come back home, eat something, head back out- she never got a chance to relax.

Unless she was intentionally not doing her job, because sweet mother of all that is holy she needs to step away from it all.

“I... did have a robot maid, but... then I got curious, and I reprogrammed it, and then it was she, and she decided she didn’t like cleaning anymore.” Giving things AI for the sake of giving things AI tends to end in? Problems? Who would have guessed.

“It’s brand new to me, I built it,” she muttered, still a little miffed. That vanished pretty quickly, though. She saw where Peni was coming from. “I do love a good challenge,” she admitted, “but I still want to see your future tech.” Especially if she could get her hands on some of her own. Think of the advancements, the innovations, the weapons… 

“That’s what I heard.” It took Doc Ock a second to process the first thing Peni said. She gave her a suspicious look. “Why?” Didn’t she want her enemies dead? Yes, Olivia decided, she probably did, but like all Spiders she didn’t want to admit it. “I still don’t consider it a mistake.” Her only mistake was not taking into consideration how thickheaded Kingpin would be. 

“If I’d regained consciousness a little sooner I could’ve used my own portal.” Once again her bitterness was very short-lived. She lit up when the portal opened, too entranced to care about her broken table. “You know, one time someone called the collider a time machine and I was like ‘no, that’s wrong and you’re stupid’ but if used this way, to travel to a dimension that’s ahead of my own- though of course it’s not my future, it’s somebody else’s- okay, here we go!” Grinning, bubbling over with excitement, she stepped through the portal. 

   Well, in the same way that Peni found older, more outdated tech challenging, Olivia would find the future tech more challenging! Like, way more challenging. Seriously it makes no sense sometimes.

SP//dr is left trying to weld the table back together as the two talk, dropping down a... somewhat lopsided repair job. It’s doing its best.

Peni follows behind, and SP//dr behind her, the apartment... a mess. Scrap and food wrappers are everywhere, a corkboard covered in to-do lists and mugshots sits near the front door, and the door to Peni’s bedroom looks... charred.

       “Mysterio speaks as Mysterio wishes to speak!” Maybe he was taking this a little too overboard, but did he care? No, not really. He only spoke in the third person at times and he was getting better at avoiding it. Though, if it wasn’t broken? Don’t fix it.

“Mysterio does breath oxygen and does not know what you’re getting at.” A pause. “Should you hit Mysterio, you shall have sealed your fate. Do not hit Mysterio.”

   “I mean- you’re a fish in my dimension, so if I break the glass dome thingy, you’d die, but... since you’re a person in this dimension, I can smash the fish bowl up and you won’t die, so I won’t feel bad!” It wasn’t the soundest logic, but spiders hit bad guys. If she can’t hit a bad guy, what is she supposed to do?

“We’ll see. Being as you’re from what, from my perspective, is the future, I’m sure all my technology would just be outdated to you.” If Peni could get her access to that tech, though… she could do something even more groundbreaking than she already had. 

Olivia narrowed her eyes. So Peni was allowed to question her decisions, but not the other way around. “That would not have been ideal, but if I was going to die I wanted to see my collider built first. Being one of a limited number of multi-billionaires in the world, Kingpin has quite a bit of influence. If I’d betrayed him- and I would’ve, in a heartbeat, if the time was right- I would’ve had to go into hiding, I would’ve lost the lab, a lot of his goons would come after me- it wasn’t practical.” 

She made a few grumbly noises under her breath. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to outright ask for help from a kid, no matter how smart. Peni could be her assistant, maybe, but not her teacher. “I want the chance to figure it out by myself… But I want to see the portal.” 

   “I’unno, I like working with old tech! I know everything about the technology of my time, but working with the stuff here, it’s more challenging. Makes me actually think about what I’m doing, instead of just throwing something together.” She loved challenges, puzzles, learning and executing, and finally getting it right, seeing it all come together - future tech was... way too easy.

“Hm. Well, for what it’s worth... I’m glad you made it out. Apparently everyone else was arrested, which is also nice.” Especially the jerk with the big robot tail that we do not mention by name on this blog anymore. “I... I’m not gonna pretend I don’t make big mistakes myself. I can... sorta see where you’re coming from, I just... I wish there could have been some other way. A lot of people got hurt that didn’t need to.”

“It’s like you said. Whenever we’ve met we’ve been fighting, so it’s going to take me some time to warm up to you.” She didn’t want to get too chummy with Peni, just in case she had to kick her ass later. 

Olivia winced at the sound. This was another way that exercise balls were superior. She was tempted to replace all the chairs with them. 

“I didn’t actually call you stupid, I just said it was a stupid idea. As intelligent people we should be above those… in theory.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. Okay, fine, she would explain this yet again. “Look, Peni. I never wanted to destroy the multiverse. I just wanted to prove its existence.” At least, that had been her only goal before all the Spiders showed up. “Working with Kingpin was a means to an end. He was the one who tried to push the collider too far. And yes, I did agree to it. How else would I have gotten to build my collider?” 

   “That’s why I’ve just been visiting to build stuff... So, y’know, we can build stuff together, like buddies!” Peni had mostly been building small weapons, or useless stuff like the Knife Tentacle (that she’d be repairing whenever possible).

“Using Kingpin of all people to fund your project was the first of a lot of mistakes. Like, a lot. So many. I don’t know how else you could have done it, but... would you really have been happy dying to prove the existence of the multiverse to a world you’d only end up destroying with that discovery?” If Miles had never reverse the polarity of the beam, the thing would have just kept sucking more and more stuff out of other dimensions - until entire planets were pulled through - and the beam became self sustaining.

Again, Peni has run multiple simulations. She likes doing that. (The holograms look cool)

“Yes,” she said, “Thank you.” Finally someone got it. “It was just one documentary, but I do visit schools sometimes.” An arm handed Olivia her glasses from the hard-shell compartment on her back and stored her goggles instead. Then all four appendages retracted fully. “I’m not being a supervillain right now.”

She shook her head. “It had been tested, just never on a living thing. Smaller arms assisted in the surgery, in fact. It was risky, though. Man, when May found out- heh. She thought it was pretty impulsive.” She was pretty sure May had also used the word stupid. 

“I’m just saying that there are easier ways to stay awake, but if that constitutes being mean I’ll stop saying it. Wouldn’t want your robot kicking me through another wall.” 

   “That’s what I’m saying. You’re not just a supervillain, but... you are kind of a dick.” Peni wanders across the room, grabbing a chair and just sorta flopping into it, sighing.

“I do all my best work on impulse. It’s... I guess a Spider thing, for the most part. A stupid thing for the rest.”

“You should.” Her expression softened ever so slightly. She was always receptive to praise. Was a little recognition once in a while too much to ask? The city might think she was evil or whatever, but no one with an ounce of sense could deny that she was brilliant. “You wouldn’t like working with me.”

One silicone arm trailed between her hands in a gesture that was almost affectionate. “Am I a person? Can I call myself human?” On another person’s lips those words might hold a deep sadness, but Olivia sounded mildly introspective at most. 

“Is this because I said it was stupid to shock yourself, or are we still stuck on the collider project?” She had been nice, nicer than she could be expected to be given that Peni was a Spider. “I’m not mean to my friends. You might know that if you knew the first thing about me, but none of you do. And what’s to know, anyway? I’m just a supervillain.” 

   “You’re not just a supervillain. You’re a brilliant scientist, an innovator, you’re... you have your own... science show or something, I- you’re so many things, but the only times I see you, you’re... being a supervillain, or just... being a jerk.”

Peni’s whole thing is that she tries to forgive everyone she can, but some people make it so difficult, and being rude is just like? Unnecessary? Don’t do it. Stop.

The amount of times felicia has been handled terribly makes me lose 20 yrs off my life

In response Doc Ock put her arms away, looking a tiny bit smug as she did. She’d just gotten the office repaired, not to mention herself. She was in no hurry to break either again, though she would if she had to. 

“Are you looking for an apology?” She wasn’t getting one. Olivia had thought about the consequences of firing up the collider too often, but that didn’t mean she regretted building it or trying to defend it. The Spiders should be the ones apologizing. Did they even know how much the collider had cost? All the time and effort put into it? She also blamed them for the truck incident. 

“If this is some misguided attempt to turn me to your side I would advise against it. It won’t work. All it’ll do is get you worked up again, and then your robot will try to kill me. Now, I like a good fight, but I would not consider that the basis of a strong friendship.” If Peni was more interested in bonding over a shared interest in science, though… that she might be open to. 

   SP//dr is seconds away from putting Liv through another wall - this time a brick one. Just like at May’s house. But much harder, and more painful, because Olivia is made of flesh. Weak.

Peni is doing her best to hold the very angry robot back.

“It’s not that. I know it wouldn’t be that easy, but... I respect you. Your inventions are incredible, your research is way beyond anything I have, except... for, y’know, the dimension thing, but that’s- the point is that I don’t like hating people. Criminal or not, supervillain or not, you’re all people, and... I’unno, I like working with other scientists, other inventors.”

It might be a personal thing - the only inventors as smart as her that she knows in her dimension, are... well, her Aunt and Uncle, and we all know how bad her relationship is with those two.

And yet, Peni still can’t bring herself to hate them - to hate anyone.

Just as she thought. Peni couldn’t read between the lines no matter how many hints she dropped. No, if she was a villain then everything she did must be pure evil. They made morality out to be such a simplistic thing when they weren’t exactly perfect themselves. For her part Olivia had always considered good and evil vaguely-defined things and rather frivolous. 

“Language.” She didn’t bat an eye when SP//dr threatened her, but two of her arms re-equipped themselves with saws and hovered, ready to attack. A third wrapped itself around the robot’s leg. “Call it off or it’s going back out of the window.” She’d thrown it out of May’s house, she could throw it out of Alchemax. 

Doc Ock gave a single derisive laugh. “You really believed that. If I’m such a fucking bitch, why did you come here? To catch me with my guard down? To attack me when I’m minding my own business?” 

   Peni, in a stark contrast to her attitude moments ago, is currently looking pretty worried - she doesn’t want anyone to get hurt (especially SP//dr - sorry Liv), and is currently trying to pull her mech away. Being that Peni is just babey, this isn’t going well.

“SP//dr, get back!! That’s not why we’re here!!” It takes a little more convincing, but eventually the mech loosens up, still glaring daggers at Liv, ready to punt her into next week, or like... maybe use the plasma cannon that Peni keeps forgetting to remove.