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[myresponsibility]

[So, Peter's actually been back for a while by now. More than a month. And he never really got around to announcing... that... Publicly, anyway. And while most people have probably seen him wandering around, looking a little older and a hell of a lot sadder since the last time he was here, and even more glued to Gwen Stacy's side than usual, he still feels like maybe this is a necessary step.

Forgive her, and forgive yourself James had said. Maybe it's time to start trying that.

So he still looks a little weird and hollow eyed when he turns on the video feed, but he looks less so than he has. A little more actively engaged in what's going on around him.]

This is Peter. Parker. [He clears his throat, hoping now more than ever that no one tries to tell him he's Spider-Man, or that they'd read about him and looked up to him and thought he was a hero.]

I came back a couple weeks ago, I'm a warden. And I guess I kind of never got around to this, so. Hi.

[This is harder than he'd thought it would be.]

I've been here for almost two years? [He says it like he's not sure, because time can be hard to keep track of when you get booted home and come back a week later, even though it's been a long, long time for him.] I help out in maintenance, and I hang around the lab sometimes, so if you want to do something with that, let me - or one of the other guys, I guess - know.

[And that seems like the end of what he has to say. Except...]

And I guess I play lacrosse now?

Comments

[fireincarnate]

Hey. [Jean's voice is soft. She hasn't sought him out, since that first day - though she may have kept an eye on him psychically, when he was out of his room. ]

...I've never played lacrosse. [Look, it's conversation.]

[myresponsibility]

[He manages a smile. It's small, and not quite hesitant so much as just fractured, like the rest of him, but he tries.]

Me neither, until Scott talked me into trying it out. I'm not really into sports.

[fireincarnate]

I liked them when I played with friends, but in, say, gym class... [Her nose scrunched.] Too many rules for games, if you ask me.

[Also, later, no one wanted her on their team. Too strange, too dangerous, no matter how many smiles she gave.]

[myresponsibility]

[Man, kids suck. :C]

Especially when one of them is "no one wants the kid wearing glasses".

[fireincarnate]

[Her lips quirk in a wry, weary smile.] Or the one with a psychiatrist.

[myresponsibility]

Kids are kind of the worst, huh?

[fireincarnate]

They can be, yeah.

[She wonders, sometimes, what it could have been like. She was popular, before the accident.]