daybreakacademy | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Peter Parker + you!
What: Various open prompts.
Where: Aube, STARR Club HQ and Soleil
When: The week after zombie mission and Gwen's arrival.
Warnings: None anticipated!

Fixer-Upper (Aube Floor 3)

[ Multiple midnight dumpster runs later, Peter finally has a decent collection of stuff to work on here. The common room on the third floor of Aube has been temporarily taken over by junk and tools, which have been loosely sorted into different piles. Here's a bunch of electronic parts. Here's some casings that seem mostly intact. These are screens, that appears to be a pile of ancient game console tidbits... The biggest item is an old CRT TV that is just wrecked. But - it's not what he's working on right this second. No, he seems to be focused on multiple funny-looking bracelets laid out on a cloth. He's had at least three requests for webshooters by now, and he aims to get them done today. Also, finally fix the one that Kano busted.

See what he's up to? Yell at him for taking up all the space? Or maybe if you ask him nicely, he'll build something fun for you.

In this prompt (as well as all of the others!) Peter has a fresh set of claw marks on his face. The cuts are clean and healing nicely, but obviously very fresh. Someone ran into something nasty lately. ]

STARR Club

[ Who the hell was dumb enough to let Peter start a club again? Oh wait, this is technically Gohan's fault probably. Though honestly, it's safer than just letting all these technically inclined idiots blow up their dorm room or something.

The STARR Club (Science, Technology And Runes/Robotics) was technically up and running in the first few days of school. Pete's definitely been in and out doing stuff. But now? It's officially, definitely open, and Peter is heading up the first meeting. He's. Frankly a bit overwhelmed? Please someone else take this over so he can go back to making webshooters in the corner like he actually wants to do. ]

So uh - I guess we need rules? Or something? To be official.

[ He has a whiteboard set up, on which he already has a helpful list started:

DON'T BE A DICK

Clean up after your own explosions

Annnd that's it. ]

Soleil, Returning Late

[ Of course that just covers the daytime activities. At night ... Peter tries to sleep, he really does, but inevitably he wakes up at some point and just needs to leave. Swing out to Soleil, get some fresh air come back at an ungodly hour, whatever. Today he's donned his hobo spider suit to go foil some midnight muggings in the local town. He's also taking a swing through campus too, so maybe you see this mysterious Spider-Man out and about?

Or, perhaps worse, you catch him just as he's sneaking back into Aube at 3 AM. The suit is tucked away, but he definitely is sneaking through the hallways up to his room, trying not to look guilty. ]

Spider Astronomy - CLOSEDish

[ Whose idea was this again? It doesn't really matter, honestly; Peter would have been up here regardless and the other two spider kids are nerdy enough this likely appealed to them too. Early in the morning of January 21st, Peter sneaks his way up to the roof of the Aube dorms, carrying a duffel bag full of junk with him. It's cold, as always, but the night is clear, and they have a perfect view of the moon. Pete's here to set up some blankets, put together the world's worst telescope, and watch the lunar eclipse with Gwen and Miles. He's even gotten a couple thermoses full of hot soup from the kitchen. ]

D'you think the faculty does some kind of weird blood moon ritual or something for this?

[ It wouldn't surprise him, honestly. This place is weird enough already.

Of course if you're up on the roof at about the same time (doing the same thing, maybe!) it wouldn't be hard to run into the trio. ]

(( Hit me up @

katoptron if you want me to write up a starter just for you! Otherwise all prompts are OTA. Will match format. ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He sort of reddens at that? When she puts it in those terms, uh. That makes all his hard work seem incredibly cheap. ]

Well ... no. I mean, I scavenged some of it? As much as I can. Some stuff I had to save up for.

[ The tools are obviously mismatched, some new some repaired many, many times. They're all old. Or second hand. And well loved. ]

... I guess the webbing's not cheap. I bought a lot of the stuff online at home, or borrowed it from school.

[She doesn't mean to embarrass him, but sometimes she can be a little blunt. She softens a little as she sighs.]

How much of that do you put into each one?

[ He gives her some numbers. Amazing, when she makes him convert it into math, the answer sort of becomes obvious, doesn't it. ]

... Oh. I never actually worked that out.

[She lifts a brow at him, as if to say 'See?']

Never sell something for less than its parts are worth. And that includes the time you put into it. That's a limited resource, too.

What's my time supposed to be worth, though? I've never really had a job or anything.

That depends on what you're doing, and how much you feel that effort is worth. A good starting point would be to look at local wage standards.

Oh. Like a minimum wage or whatever?

[ That seems weird, but it's a start, at least. Converting this into math does wonders. ]

Yes, something like that. Like I said, it's a starting point. If you feel it's worth more, you shouldn't be afraid to take that into account.

[She's pretty sure that work like this is worth more than minimum wage, but she'll let Peter decide that for himself. She does smile a him a little, teasingly.]

So... Still think they're worth five euros?

[ It absolutely is, which Peter may realize, but. Even this basic conceptualization helps.

He reddens again, looking down. ]

No. I - I dunno what they're worth, but way more than that.

[And Peter's going to get another hair ruffle for that.]

Good. I'd hate to see you selling yourself short. [A small pause.] If you think about selling anything you make, that is.

[ That sort of is the key question, isn't it? He's gonna stick with gifts and trades as much as he can, because that's how he rolls, but. ]

I mean, I probably should. My aunt and I - we get by okay? But I could help her out if I didn't have to ask her for anything.

[ He hates to admit outright that he's poor, but. There it is. ]

That wouldn't be a bad idea. That, or finding a job on campus. I'm sure your aunt would appreciate your efforts, and there's a lot to be said for financial independence.

What kinda jobs do they have?

[ He's not gonna turn down anything, but. He knows that any kind of webslinging tends to. Uh. Interfere. ]

Well, there's the usual in town... Restaurants, retail stores, those sorts of things. [But she imagines that Peter isn't going to be happy just holding down a cashier job. And honestly, she thinks he can do better than that with the talent he's showing here.] You're good at making these things... If you're just as good with computers, I'm sure you could find some part-time work in town fixing those.

[ Peter Parker in any form of customer service would be a disaster. She's seen evidence of that already. ]

There is the shop that I usually get my junk from. I guess they'd probably be interested in someone who could fix it?

You should ask them if they're hiring the next time you're there. [She imagines that he can make a good impression if he's already a customer there... with a little practice, perhaps.]

Have you ever made a resume before? Or sat down for an interview?

[ "Customer" would be stretching it. "Weird kid who rummages through their garbage" is more accurate.

Anyway, he shakes his head. ]

May and Ben didn't want me to get a job until I was sixteen.

[Well, that's a sentiment that she can't fault them for. She gives Peter a brief but sweeping up and down with her eyes, then lifts a brow at him.]

How old are you right now?

Sixteen. Birthday in August. I - uh -

[ He sort of looks her over in turn. And decides not to even try the Stark Internship bullshit. ]

I was going to get a job over the summer, but my powers turned up in July, and ... things got crazy.

[She makes a small 'hmm' behind closed lips. Crazy. Yeah, she can imagine that, but she also gets the impression that he's not giving the whole story.] What kind of crazy?

[ Does he even try to keep Spider-Man secret? He'd sort of tried before, but he feels like after leaving a care package on her windowsill with Kano, he kind of can't keep that BS up. If he ever could before. Sigh. ]

It's a long story. Some of it's weird? Some of it's great, and some of it's not.

[ He wants to tell her? But he's not sure she actually wants to hear all of it. So there's her chance to back out. He won't judge. ]

[She sees that opportunity to back out, and she settles in where she is.]

Go on. I'm listening.

[ Well. He warned her, anyway. He's gonna start idly picking up some of his things - mostly the parts that are legitimately a mess, leaving his tools where they are. ]

So. Early July. I'm dumpster diving outside this tech company? Found out later it was super sketchy, also a bad idea to get anywhere near it. But - there was a Blighted spider, it bit me, I almost died? I was sick for a week straight. I know that scared the heck out of Ben and May both, so they hovered a lot. Right when I suddenly found out I was strong and athletic for the first time in my life.

[There's a lot of things she could say right off the bat... Dumpster diving at a tech company doesn't sound like something an almost-16 yr old should be doing. The fact that he says he only found out later that he shouldn't have been... It requires patience not to sigh at that. The bit about the blighted spider... She could understand that fear, maybe a little too well.]

Not the best introduction to this world, I'm sure.

[ Look. Peter was and always will be kind of a dumbass. That's just the Parker constant. ]

Definitely not. But I didn't die, so. I got that going for me.

[ The next part is ... harder. He has to look away, fiddling with one of his tools instead of meeting her eyes. The rest will go quickly, but this? Never easy. Not even all these months later. ]

Uncle Ben and I fought. Like, a ton. He was still worried about my health, I just wanted to go out and like - have fun? I could stop cars with my bare hands. Do backflips between buildings. Like hell I was gonna sit around at home. He gave me a lot of lectures about being responsible, and I ...

[ He sets the tool back down. ]

I got mad and stormed off. Stayed out late on purpose, just to spite him. I came home and - he was out in the neighborhood looking for me. That's when the lycan showed up and tore out his throat.