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 Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 2:54 pm
 Peter startled as he looked up from his camera sensing a presence next to him. Why hadn't his spidey senses let him know before.
"Easy there," said Christine, smiling down at him.
"You!" exclaimed Peter.
"So it would seem," she replied, almost chuckling. She gestured to the camera in his hands. "Since when did you start taking pictures?"
"Oh, um... I thought would give it a try."
"Just out of the blue?"
"Well, I do need a job to pay for rent and school and... such..."
Her eyes shifted to the Media Press badge hanging from a lanyard around his neck and her smile widened as she saw the name of the business printed on it.
"I hope Jonah isn't giving you too much trouble," she commented, taking a sip from the glass in her hand.
"Wait, how did you..."
"He always did try to get me to work for him," she continued. "But I told him it was probably for the best we didn't. I'm too much of a free spirit to be tied down in one subject area on the newspaper floor."
"You know Mr. Jameson?" inquired Peter, looking amazed.
"Family friend of sorts."
"I never would have pictured you attending one of these."
"Nor you. Even though it is because of work," she retorted.
"So, why are you here?"
She looked down at her glass and glanced over her shoulder at the young gentleman Peter had seen her standing next to earlier. Turning back to Peter, she gave a faint smile.
"A bit because of family... and a bit for business."
"I overheard one of the gentleman call you Octavius," Peter mentioned tentatively.
Christine laughed. "A common misconception."
"What is?"
"Octavius. Despite constantly telling them otherwise, they keep thinking I'm his daughter," she explained. She held up a hand, "Not that I'm saying it would be a terrible thing to be. He's a wonderful man. But he never had children of his own."
"So... how are you connected to him?"
"He's my Uncle."
The camera almost slipped from his hands.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:10 pm
"Honestly, Christine, haven't they told you by now to start hanging out with someone your own age?" said a voice from behind them.
Peter and her turned to look at the source of the voice. He couldn't help but notice a disappointed frown appear on Christine's face as she saw the young gentleman approaching taking a deep, long drink from his glass.
"Harry," warned Christine.
"What?" the gentleman retorted. "It's a party. We're allowed to drink."
"Drink like it's a social gathering among important business partners, yes. Not drink like you are partying with your frat friends from college," she retorted.
"You were always a buzz kill."
"And I always wondered how you ended up the way you were considering the people we grew up surrounded by."
"So, what are you?" said Harry, turning to Peter, obviously tired of her nagging. "Her charity case?"
"What, me? No, I..." Peter stumbled over a response.
"Peter is my mentee at the university, Harry. Don't let his age fool you. He would give Norman and Otto a run for their money with how much he knows."
Peter noticed Harry take a drink at that again.
"You were always their favorite," he mumbled over his glass.
"Just try to retain some form of composure, Harry. Please? For my sake."
"I only came here because of you. So, whatever."
Peter watched Harry blend back into the crowd as he headed to the opposite side of the room, presumably to refill his now empty glass. He turned to see Christine watch him go with a concerned look on her face.
"Truth is," she finally said after a moment. "He's the one that told me this party was even happening."
"He didn't seem pleased you mentioned those names. Any reason why?"
"Norman Osborn was his father. And obviously we already discussed about my uncle Dr. Otto Octavius."
Peter tried to keep the shiver running down his spine to a minimal as his spidey senses seemed to tingle at the names mentioned. Could it be the same men he had met only some time ago? But it couldn't be. Those men were from another universe who interacted with that other Peter Parker.
"Harry still hasn't accepted his father's death," she continued. "Despite all of his misconceptions surrounding it being cleared up. Afraid he's taken up his father's habit of drinking."
"And what about you?" asked Peter.
"Me?" she looked at him with confusion.
"It must have been hard losing your Uncle."
"Yes. We were quite close. It was even harder to learn of his passing when I wasn't even in the area."
"And you've come back to New York."
"For... business reasons."
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:11 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:31 pm
"Dearie, I finally fond that bottle I was talking about. Buried behind the 1918 one. Who the hell thought to look there?"
Peter froze as he recognized the slim older man coming into view in the living room before him. Instead of the casual, almost-homeless attire he had been used to, this one clearly had taken time to clean up and was wearing fresh pressed shirt and slacks. The man stopped in his tracks when he laid eyes on Peter.
"Oh, s**t," whispered the man.
"How are you..." Peter started saying.
"Peter?"
Peter turned to look in the direction of Christine's voice, seeing her come down the stairs. His heart did a double stop as he saw the larger man behind her.
"But that's... That's..." said Peter, almost stumbling backwards.
Christine glanced over her shoulder and then looked at Peter apologetically. "Um... yeah... sorry about this. But I did indicate I was here for... business reasons."
"But how are they here? They're supposed to be..."
"In another universe?" finished Christine.
Peter looked at her wide eyes.
"Yeah, technically, so am I," she replied. "It's the whole reason why I came back here. Someone on the lower floor of the house called to let me know they heard noise coming from this penthouse and didn't think I was back in town, and just wanted to make sure things were okay."
"That was me," said Norman, holding up his hand.
"So, all this time... you've been pretending they were still... dead? For what reason?"
"If OsCorp knew these two were alive again, they would quickly try to bury the information they have about their projects away and would prevent me getting any access to them. It's the whole reason why I came back. And got a good lawyer. I'm working on buying everything about my Uncles' projects from them, so they can properly own their projects again."
"Why isn't Harry doing it?" asked Peter.
"Harry?" echoed Norman. He glanced over at Christine. "You didn't tell me Harry was alive."
"Norman," said Christine sadly. She paused for a moment before continuing. "He isn't."
"What do you mean?" retorted Peter. "I just saw him with you the other night at that party."
"A rare fluke in this multiverse craziness," explained Christine, waving her hand in the air. "Something shifted just long enough for Harry to be present for that party. Alive and... mostly well." She glanced over at Norman apologetically. "He had taken up drinking. It's a miracle I managed to succeed in charming any businessmen for my cause with that disaster lingering in my presence."
"Not too surprising," said Norman, shrugging. "He was always doomed to be a disappointment."
Peter looked at him in surprise.
"My niece has done quite an amazing job working with all of this mess," said Otto, smiling at her. "Between working on getting our projects back under our name - and just our name, not OsCorps - and keeping the fact of us being alive secret all this time is quite an accomplishment."
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 3:56 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 4:15 pm
 "Hey," she said, lightly touching his arm as she turned towards the chalkboard. "I think I found the missing piece of the equation. You'll just have to look over it to make sure it sounds right."
Otto turned to look at her as she began writing numbers and symbols on the board.
"I still can't believe you've been tackling this after all this time," said Otto.
"It's a brilliant idea," she replied. "I wasn't about to let it die. Especially not because of Oscorp."
"How on Earth did you manage to find this?" He gestured toward the board.
"The credit should actually go to Peter. He's the one who found it."
"Peter?"
He turned to glance at the young man stooped over a pile of scattered paperwork and various open books stacked on top of each other. During his brief time interacting with him in the past, he could tell the young man was brilliant. But looking at him now, he questioned whether Peter would be able to keep up with the work college certainly was placing upon him.
"Don't worry," she commented, looking over her shoulder in the direction of his gaze. "He's not going to crumble under the pressure. Despite everything he's had to deal with, he is committed to seeing it through."
"You really think so?" he asked, looking over at her.
"The dear boy has worked alongside Mr. Stark, Norman, and yourself. That sort of experience is going to leave an impression on his mind. He's meant to go into science. I can tell. He's on the right path."
"Like just we left an impression on you?"
"Everyone may know me mostly for my English Literature degree. But I didn't get my two science degrees for nothing."
Otto smiled and chuckled in response.
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Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2022 4:16 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:56 am
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:05 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:10 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:12 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:19 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 1:03 pm
Going to be going to see the last show of my friend's Star Trek: The Next General improve musical tonight. She doesn't know I'll be attending, so I'm excited to surprise her. Especially since this will technically be our first time seeing each other in person, I believe. We've always communicated via online through her Twitch channel.
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 1:07 pm
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 1:09 pm
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