capeandcowllogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

WHO: Peter Parker and Amanda Waller
WHERE: Amanda's office and elsewhere
WHEN: 'round when peter came back
WARNINGS: NONE WHATSOEVER
SUMMARY: WELCOME BACK, NOW GET TO WORK, DORK
FORMAT: whateverrrr

Monitoring the network. Managing projects at Stark's. Working out dates with Hank. Working out ways to deal with various threats, how much she should get herself involved, making sure Blake doesn't do something completely stupid - there was a lot for Amanda to concern herself with.

Like the fact that Parker seemed to have taken an uncleared absence from work. Ported out? Quite likely.

When the phone started ringing, though, she was so wound up in work that she didn't bother to check caller ID before she answered?

"Waller." She answered, flat and direct.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was an effort, but Peter took the time to clean up, change, and grab a bite to eat (an omelet made with three of the four remaining eggs in his fridge) before calling work. He was in trouble, but it wasn't the kind of trouble that charging in on a post-pigeon adrenaline rush would help. Calling Amanda Waller without a game plan was a recipe for -- well, maybe not disaster, but something. The trouble was that he was fairly certain his psychic blindspot still worked in this universe, but he had no actual proof.

He considered waiting a few more days, to make it seem like Peter Parker was 'ported back in at a different time than Spider-Man. No; Waller would see through a ploy that transparent immediately, and wouldn't respond kindly. Even if she didn't catch on this time, she certainly would the next -- and there would be a next time soon, at the rate Peter was 'porting in and out. All he could do was hope that the blindspot would bolster his feeble excuses.

He took a deep breath, and dialed. "Boss, it's Peter Parker," he said, as soon as she picked up.

"Parker." She said, her tone changing - only slightly, though. Caught somewhere between a positive lift and an investigatory sensibility to the way she spoke. "I'm assuming you know you haven't been in for awhile." Not just maintaining odd hours, but outright gone.

"Ported out, or something else?" She said, though it was quite obvious she wouldn't accept any answer without some sort of evidence to it.

Five seconds into the conversation and he hadn't been fired yet. That was a good sign, right?

"The former," he said, letting the ruefulness come through in his voice. "Whatever the Porter's agenda is, apparently she's decided that my schedule should align with Spider-Man's. Because we don't see enough of each other already, I guess."

Now that was a strange comment for Parker to make. She wasn't even thinking about Spider-Man. True, she did need to get in contact with him again, bug him some more about what was going down with Spider-Woman, but other than that, he'd been completely out of her thoughts, as of late.

A very strange comment indeed. Her mind rolled on what he said for a moment.

Then came to two conclusions:

1. Parker's sense of humor is weird. At least it wasn't puns? (yet)

Secondly, this.

"Oh, right. You used to take photos of him, if I'm remembering right?" Waller spoke, mixed in with her clacking away at a keyboard, dialing up Parker's file.

Oh, bravo, Parker, well played. He'd spent most of his time here around people who knew him, or knew of him. It was too easy to forget that for most imPorts, Spider-Man was a nonentity, his connection to news photographer Peter Parker entirely unremarkable. It would've been refreshing, if he hadn't just drawn attention to that connection from exactly the wrong person.

"Yeah, we've known each other for a few years," Peter said, hoping he sounded casual. "I guess the Porter's decided that makes me his sidekick."

"Huh. Well, stranger things have happened."

And Waller moves on from the Spider-Man bit without hesitation. This feels like it's going in a direction towards arachnid based puns, and she doesn't like that one bit.

"Well, your job hasn't been replaced yet. And taking a look at what you last handed in... you're far enough ahead of schedule that I can't really fire an overachiever for involuntarily missing some days."

He pulls the phone away from his ear, enough so that the sigh of relief isn't too obvious. He'd really been expecting to be fired in absentia, and the relief is such that he wouldn't have contemplated punning even if he knew it were expected.

Okay, maybe considered. But he wouldn't have said anything.

"Thanks, Boss. I won't let you down," he promised. "I even have some ideas for a program I could write to notify people automatically if I get 'ported out again ... if it works, I could even distribute it so everyone can use it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only