Post by Cassidy on Dec 14, 2021 23:47:54 GMT
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Music:
Spider-Bite
[attr="style","font-family:'Impact';font-size:20px;text-shadow:2px 2px 1px #40cbde;margin-bottom:1%;"]A Little Help
A flash of green light erupted behind me. The alien took notice first, reeling slightly from the sudden stimuli that had no warning, not even the sixth sense had necessarily detected it beforehand.
Only the air vibrations and the movements of one Lark Athlai. I had not turned my head around yet before the symbiote relayed to me what they looked like.
Hurt.
Bruises covered Lark as their tattered clothing also spoke of a struggle before I completely turned my head around and got a good look for myself. The lenses on my mask widened.
I reached out, almost about to stand.
"Wa-."
And gone. Another flash of light as the Larks swapped places, swapped places in time completely. Maybe it was for the best, but that did not help me shake off my concern for them.
Even if Spider-Bite had to play off the whole thing as simple shock at a new arrival.
"-it."
I glanced at the new arrival. Lark was just standing there, almost all healed up. Anyone else would have assume they had gotten better with time.
I was always a sticklers for examining even the smallest details. That and they were my friend.
I noticed the small scrapes and bruises that had yet to completely go away. Someone was going to pay for this. No one did this and got away with it. No matter if Lark had deal with this person or situation or whatever had happened.
I was going to find them.
The symbiote's own agitation became apparent, more so than before. While the situation now was a bit tense, the alien lifeform regarded Lark as someone who was close to its host, someone that I cared for. And, as part of our symbiosis together, if something negatively affected me, it would negatively affect it. It saw Lark as property or anything so base or terrible like. More like, under its protection and territory, someone whom it would see harm coming to that person as a threat that needed to be dealt with, a great strike against its pride and power.
And it saw that caring for the well-being of this individual was a high priority and responsibility for me, and, so, it made that its priority and responsibility as well.
After all, the alien and I were in this together.
It shook with agitation, devising all sorts of ways to find out what happened to Lark and how to make this person pay. So many ways to inflict great unyielding pain to this terrible interloper who had doomed themselves to a fate far worse than death.
Yes, so many ways, so little time.
I looked at Lark, looked at the situation, before taking a quick mental inventory.
I needed to calm down. The symbiote needed to calm down for a moment.
Let's calm down. Breathe. Buddy, we can't just go around doing that, even if a part of me wishes I could. We're not that kind of person or even that kind of hero for that matter. We'll deal with it. The priority is to make sure Lark is okay and maybe doing something nice so they feel better later, at least mentally rather than physically. They got the latter covered, I think. We'll see if we can find out what happened later.
The symbiote regarded me, the situation, before settling on Lark. It found that reasoning acceptable. After all, Lark was no good to me as a companion if they were mentally unwell as a result of this encounter and it must have been especially stressful, it reasoned.
I chose to take that in the best light possible. Three years and the alien still was not quite all together understanding of friendship and other earth ideas. I was helping it work on that though, and I like to think I have been making great progress. A brief memory of earlier days clouded my head before I turned my head back to the original pair I was talking to as Lark stepped in closer to the situation. I returned to fully sitting, not having gotten up completely on my two feet at all.
Things were not going great.
It appears opening my big mouth tended to be as annoying as ever, even if it wasn't used for trash talking supervillains.
This was going as poorly as I could fear.
I needed to find a way to regain control of the situation, of a modicum of trust. A small bit.
The symbiote suggested our main weakness in this conversation was that we were lacking information. Without it, neither of us could figure more out than what our observaions were telling us in regards to body language, attitude, and what was being said.
Reading between the lines would only get us so far.
The symbiote, hesitantly, also supported my earlier idea of being open and honest, to the best of my ability. Talking to them or convincing them that I was not the problem was nothing compared to showing actions and proving to not be a problem.
Especially with the more aggressive of the two, the psychic with the arm that appeared to be moving on its own,
Okay.
Here goes nothing.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be a bother. Just . . . my bad."
I lowered my head. This girl was hitting me where it hurts, whether she meant to or not. She was right. Not completely, not totally. But was I doing this to make myself feel better?
Yes. I was. But not in the way they thought. Not out of a selfish need to feel assured that I was self-righteous or to lord over this fact over people. I had a different reason.
A much more personal reason.
Still, I kept my general composure. It just took me a moment to think on what she said.
"You're, whoo boy, you're right. A part of it is to make myself feel better. But not in the way you think. It isn't about me, not completely. You got to trust me on that, please."
I looked up.
"I could go into a whole talk about this, but the fact I don't know you or whatever my reasons may be doesn't change the fact that I do genuinely care. For you. Him. Everyone. Right now, I'm just trying to care and be a friend for people who might not have a lot of those right now. I could be wrong though. I have been plenty of times."
I gazed over the psychic now, not moving from my spot, even as my sixth sense flared as more items and junk began whirling around him. I kept sitting, my lenses not hardened or narrowing, remaining soft and open. The symbiote kept telling me to back off, to get out of there.
This could become a fight, and, as much as the symbiote would love a chance to prove its prowess in combat, this was something it knew I was trying to avoid and neither of us knew the abilities of these individuals.
But I kept sitting.
Heroes were bad? They made things worse?
I thought about that question often enough myself.
"Whoa, okay. Let's calm down a second. We don't need to start throwing stuff at each other over a conversation. I'm just sitting here and not moving. I just came to have a conversation and give some food. Offer some help. Everyone does that, not just heroes. You want to talk about how heroes are bad, well, we can talk about that all you want. That's fine. No hard feelings here, heh."
I raised my hands and waited a moment before continuing.
"I don't know who hurt you. I don't want to nor will I ever try to hurt you. I promise that, if you give me the chance, I will find these people and make sure none of them try and hurt you again. But who are these people? What happened? What's wrong?"
I looked at Lark before resuming my gaze at the two of them. I pulled out some money from my suit and a small burner phone. A few quick button presses and a new number was in it. My real phone number. A risk, but one that I had to take
"I'm just trying to understand what's happening. If you both want me to go, I'll go. I hear you loud and clear. Just, for one minute, a few moments, just hear me out. Please. I got money and a phone here with my number at the top you both can call or text me with in case either of you are in trouble. I'll come running. I promise."
I placed the phone and money on the ground before standing up and backing away, arms still raised to show nothing else was going on. No threat of violence, nothing. The amount of cash was not much and it may have been everything that was left in my wallet, but it was worth it.
Now it was up to them what happened next. I just hoped I did good for both their sake as well as my own.
Only the air vibrations and the movements of one Lark Athlai. I had not turned my head around yet before the symbiote relayed to me what they looked like.
Hurt.
Bruises covered Lark as their tattered clothing also spoke of a struggle before I completely turned my head around and got a good look for myself. The lenses on my mask widened.
I reached out, almost about to stand.
"Wa-."
And gone. Another flash of light as the Larks swapped places, swapped places in time completely. Maybe it was for the best, but that did not help me shake off my concern for them.
Even if Spider-Bite had to play off the whole thing as simple shock at a new arrival.
"-it."
I glanced at the new arrival. Lark was just standing there, almost all healed up. Anyone else would have assume they had gotten better with time.
I was always a sticklers for examining even the smallest details. That and they were my friend.
I noticed the small scrapes and bruises that had yet to completely go away. Someone was going to pay for this. No one did this and got away with it. No matter if Lark had deal with this person or situation or whatever had happened.
I was going to find them.
The symbiote's own agitation became apparent, more so than before. While the situation now was a bit tense, the alien lifeform regarded Lark as someone who was close to its host, someone that I cared for. And, as part of our symbiosis together, if something negatively affected me, it would negatively affect it. It saw Lark as property or anything so base or terrible like. More like, under its protection and territory, someone whom it would see harm coming to that person as a threat that needed to be dealt with, a great strike against its pride and power.
And it saw that caring for the well-being of this individual was a high priority and responsibility for me, and, so, it made that its priority and responsibility as well.
After all, the alien and I were in this together.
It shook with agitation, devising all sorts of ways to find out what happened to Lark and how to make this person pay. So many ways to inflict great unyielding pain to this terrible interloper who had doomed themselves to a fate far worse than death.
Yes, so many ways, so little time.
I looked at Lark, looked at the situation, before taking a quick mental inventory.
I needed to calm down. The symbiote needed to calm down for a moment.
Let's calm down. Breathe. Buddy, we can't just go around doing that, even if a part of me wishes I could. We're not that kind of person or even that kind of hero for that matter. We'll deal with it. The priority is to make sure Lark is okay and maybe doing something nice so they feel better later, at least mentally rather than physically. They got the latter covered, I think. We'll see if we can find out what happened later.
The symbiote regarded me, the situation, before settling on Lark. It found that reasoning acceptable. After all, Lark was no good to me as a companion if they were mentally unwell as a result of this encounter and it must have been especially stressful, it reasoned.
I chose to take that in the best light possible. Three years and the alien still was not quite all together understanding of friendship and other earth ideas. I was helping it work on that though, and I like to think I have been making great progress. A brief memory of earlier days clouded my head before I turned my head back to the original pair I was talking to as Lark stepped in closer to the situation. I returned to fully sitting, not having gotten up completely on my two feet at all.
Things were not going great.
It appears opening my big mouth tended to be as annoying as ever, even if it wasn't used for trash talking supervillains.
This was going as poorly as I could fear.
I needed to find a way to regain control of the situation, of a modicum of trust. A small bit.
The symbiote suggested our main weakness in this conversation was that we were lacking information. Without it, neither of us could figure more out than what our observaions were telling us in regards to body language, attitude, and what was being said.
Reading between the lines would only get us so far.
The symbiote, hesitantly, also supported my earlier idea of being open and honest, to the best of my ability. Talking to them or convincing them that I was not the problem was nothing compared to showing actions and proving to not be a problem.
Especially with the more aggressive of the two, the psychic with the arm that appeared to be moving on its own,
Okay.
Here goes nothing.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be a bother. Just . . . my bad."
I lowered my head. This girl was hitting me where it hurts, whether she meant to or not. She was right. Not completely, not totally. But was I doing this to make myself feel better?
Yes. I was. But not in the way they thought. Not out of a selfish need to feel assured that I was self-righteous or to lord over this fact over people. I had a different reason.
A much more personal reason.
Still, I kept my general composure. It just took me a moment to think on what she said.
"You're, whoo boy, you're right. A part of it is to make myself feel better. But not in the way you think. It isn't about me, not completely. You got to trust me on that, please."
I looked up.
"I could go into a whole talk about this, but the fact I don't know you or whatever my reasons may be doesn't change the fact that I do genuinely care. For you. Him. Everyone. Right now, I'm just trying to care and be a friend for people who might not have a lot of those right now. I could be wrong though. I have been plenty of times."
I gazed over the psychic now, not moving from my spot, even as my sixth sense flared as more items and junk began whirling around him. I kept sitting, my lenses not hardened or narrowing, remaining soft and open. The symbiote kept telling me to back off, to get out of there.
This could become a fight, and, as much as the symbiote would love a chance to prove its prowess in combat, this was something it knew I was trying to avoid and neither of us knew the abilities of these individuals.
But I kept sitting.
Heroes were bad? They made things worse?
I thought about that question often enough myself.
"Whoa, okay. Let's calm down a second. We don't need to start throwing stuff at each other over a conversation. I'm just sitting here and not moving. I just came to have a conversation and give some food. Offer some help. Everyone does that, not just heroes. You want to talk about how heroes are bad, well, we can talk about that all you want. That's fine. No hard feelings here, heh."
I raised my hands and waited a moment before continuing.
"I don't know who hurt you. I don't want to nor will I ever try to hurt you. I promise that, if you give me the chance, I will find these people and make sure none of them try and hurt you again. But who are these people? What happened? What's wrong?"
I looked at Lark before resuming my gaze at the two of them. I pulled out some money from my suit and a small burner phone. A few quick button presses and a new number was in it. My real phone number. A risk, but one that I had to take
"I'm just trying to understand what's happening. If you both want me to go, I'll go. I hear you loud and clear. Just, for one minute, a few moments, just hear me out. Please. I got money and a phone here with my number at the top you both can call or text me with in case either of you are in trouble. I'll come running. I promise."
I placed the phone and money on the ground before standing up and backing away, arms still raised to show nothing else was going on. No threat of violence, nothing. The amount of cash was not much and it may have been everything that was left in my wallet, but it was worth it.
Now it was up to them what happened next. I just hoped I did good for both their sake as well as my own.