“Not with their brains. This is Bo’s test, and Bo likes Malik, who is a tutor for my class. Someone obviously let him watch Mean Girls sometime in the past couple weeks, ‘cause he knows this stuff and appears to be purposefully bunking so he gets to talk to his crush.” Bobby could appreciate the strategy – Bo definitely had more game than Bobby did when he was that age. He physically winces every time he remembers making Kitty an ice sculpture of her own face for her birthday. “It’s pretty cute, actually. Still gonna have to talk to him and crush some teenybopper dreams though.”
That is true, and, honestly, Bobby knows plenty of people his age who would still do this kind of thing. Potentially himself included. “Submarine drawings or lack thereof aside, how this gig treating you so far?”
“so it’s a strategic play. interesting. is he actually some kind of weird math genius, then?” harry can’t help but feel slightly amused at the concept, but it’s not a bad idea. flunk the class, spend time with the cute tutor, win win. he’d be destroyed if he’d ever tried a move like that himself, but it’s amusing all the same. nice to know - other kids have easier times when it comes to their schooling, in a way. “ouch, poor kid. maybe try and offer like - advanced tutoring? like, if he can prove he’s actually good at the class, malik can take on some more advanced stuff with him. win win?”
he shrugs his shoulders absently, trying not to delve too far into the question. it’s been.. well, so far it’s been fine, but it’s only been a week. really it’s too early to be sure. “not too bad, i guess. i’m waiting for stark to lose his shit when he realises i brought some oscorp tech with me.”
“well i can complain and work at the same time,“ she shrugged, giving him a small smirk. “i inherited the gift of gab from my father, my mom has always said to me that i’m basically all the annoying parts of him, and the uptight parts of her; which always sort of felt like an insult to me, but… who knows?” she gave a shrug as she rotated around the lab, grabbing a few tools as she went and began to take apart one of the boxes.
she made a mock scoffing noise and turned to give him a playful glare, “don’t be fucking rude harry, it’s not like you haven’t blown shit up too,” she pointed her screwdriver at him, giving a smirk and then turning back to the electronics before her. “listen, if you’re too afraid of seeing me outdo you, then you can scurry back to your lab, champ - i don’t mind stopping by after and pestering you with questions about law and mechanics.”
“or you could not. that would be ideal.” harry suggests with a raised eyebrow, but his amused little smile should tell morgan he’s not serious. “well that explains everything. you talk shit just like him.” it’s a little weird to refer to different tony’s - hell, the tony in morgan’s universe might be nothing like the man here. there’s no way to know for sure. but judging by what he knows about morgan so far, he’s willing to bet they’re not all that different.
rolling his eyes at the suggestion, harry shrugs his shoulders, playing the accusation off. “you’ve never seen me blow anything up, how could you possibly make an accusation like that?” she’s absolutely right, he’s definitely blown things up - usually when playing around on something with peter - but she doesn’t need to know that. besides, any good scientists has blown something up in their lives. “i couldn’t be afraid of that if i tried, nothing to worry about there. i’m happy to sit here and watch you mess up and need my help.” he pauses for a moment, tilting his head to the side just a touch. “have you decided if you’re taking my class?”
Bobby tries not to make a habit of grading during his lunch break, but he, as usual, finds himself just a liittle behind on all things work related. Luckily there were a bunch of younger, nerdier teachers who actually got their assignments back to students in a timely manner, and thus served as pretty quality working buddies.
“Oh my god,” Bobby exhales a laugh, squinting for a second at the quiz in front of him. He elbows Harry in the side and tilts the test in his hand so he can see the page. “Look at this. One of my students didn’t solve a single question on this test – he just drew, like, thirteen different types of submarines and then a cat saying hi. It’s pretty good!” He draws a little smiley face next to the answer in red pen. “Guess yours might be too mature for that kind of thing, huh?”
more often than not, harry feels like he shouldn’t really be teaching here. he’s way too young and he has absolutely no teaching experience as such, and he’s probably got bigger responsibilities to think about. it hits especially hard when he’s around the other teachers - so many of them are older, wiser, have more experience, more of a fucking idea of what they’re doing. harry kind of envies them.
“seriously? don’t.. you teach maths? how do your students get submarines out of maths?” harry asks with a laugh as he observes the so-called artwork. while it’s not half-bad, it’s definitely not the correct answer. “oh i don’t know, some of my classes are younger. maybe not young enough for that, but..” harry pauses, tilting his head to the side a little. he’s pretty sure it’s something he’d see peter do, even now. “i guess there’s no real age limit for that kinda thing, so you never know. it might be my turn next week.”
maybe he’d gotten the numbers mixed up. or maybe he’d just wandered into the wrong classroom in general. well, he wasn’t really sure, and he was about to leave before the guy at the front of the room mentioned pizza. that certainly caught his attention. “okay, first question,” xander speaks up before anyone else can after clearing his throat. “what class is this? second, i don’t think i’m supposed to be here? third, is this for some nerd shit or something? ‘cause that’s kinda boring.” he wasn’t stupid – though, he’d totally argue he was – but he wasn’t science or tech smart either, like some of his siblings were. “or are you going to do a cool, like, experiment? or something? entertain us, dude.”
there’s a second there where harry’s brain stalls for a second. he can understand maybe getting mixed up or mistaken with the rooms, but at least try to pay attention. his immediate reaction is to snap and tell the kid to come back when he knows where he’s going and who he’s talking to, but that sounds very uh.. norman-y of him. and that’s not where he wants to go. “this class is legal studies. if you were looking for my biotech class, you’re two hours early and - well, entirely in the wrong department.” he says with a laugh, relieved that his little moment passes. “depends on what you call nerd shit. my only real plan was to do.. this. answer questions, offer pizza. which, by the way, you’re not quite entitled to yet. a question about the class has to be a little more in depth than what’s the class.”
a small bitter laugh escaped her as she turned to look at the other, “no.” she responded quickly, giving him a widened smile. “come on man, i’m from the future all of this is blade runner in your time. except without harrison ford, i guess - but anyway, yeah? it needs a massive upgrade.”
she gave him a long look before picking up what looked to be a rubber stress ball and threw it at him. “if you can keep up with me and how i work, maybe i’ll let you work with me in upgrading all of this. but…” she sucked in air through her teeth, dramatically widening her gaze and looking away, “i don’t know if your twenty twenty mind can handle it.”
“because complaining about it is going to make the tech suddenly update and be all futuristic, right?” harry asks with a laugh. he’d probably be exactly the same if he were in her shoes. god knows he’s not up for dealing with terrible tech at the best of times. but, he’s not about to let morgan off for whinging.
he catches the stress ball easily enough, tilking his head to the side a little. “you know i have my own lab and my own work to do, right? i don’t exactly need to hang around here and make sure you don’t blow anything up.” harry points out, but he doesn’t make a move to leave. instead he tosses the ball in the air a couple of times, pretending to consider the offer. “my twenty twenty mind can handle it more than fine. you just don’t want me to show you up.”
“You? No. Everyone else? Yes.” Tony shot Harry a grin that betrayed the fact that he was kidding. “Come on, it may be green, but it’s not going to turn you into the Hulk. You’ll need a lot more gym days for that.”
Clapping Harry on the shoulder, he pulled him into a one-armed hug, ignoring any protests that that might have engendered. “The authentication protocols are new - we were experimenting with facial recognition before, but that’s pretty easy to hack, especially given that some of these kids might be shape shifters. So… how’s everything? Facilities okay? Lab up to scratch? Oh, and are you staying on campus?”
He nodded in approval as Harry mentioned that the first day was going well. “Let’s just hope this place doesn’t burn down before the week is out. It feels almost unreal that this is actually happening.”
harry suspects that threat isn’t exactly serious, truth be told. the grin on tony’s face tells him as such too, and he can’t help but laugh himself. “anything green and liquid and non-alcoholic is bound to be bad, come on. you really expect me to ingest this - whatever it is?” he asks with a raised eyebrow. “lucky i don’t want to be the Hulk, then.”
the clap to his shoulder takes him by surprise, but the hug makes him freeze. just for a second. it’s hard not to - harry’s not exactly used to this kind of thing. usually there’s an overly tight, almost painful grip on his shoulder and a too tight hug that makes him feel like he can’t breathe. his father just.. isn’t the best at physical affection. but the moment passes and harry’s fine, aside from hoping tony didn’t notice it. “i’m not surprised. facial recognition isn’t always reliable at the best of times.” the questions take him by surprise - the last one especially. it shouldn’t really matter where he’s staying, should it? “facilities are fine, i brought some of my equipment for my lab so i’ve got everything i need. no offence to your stark tech or anything. i’m not staying on campus - it’s not like it’s hard for me to go back and forth from the city, so i’m doing that.”
harry lets out a chuckle at the comment. “are you always this doom and gloom? i’d be willing to bet you have at least ten safeguards for fires. look - you put a heap of work into this place. i’m sure it’ll be worth it.”
peter gasps dramatically as he looks over at his best friend, faking offense as his hand clutches his chest. “how dare you. this means war, you know? war of the science teachers. and, i’m sorry, but – physics and chem? gonna kick your ass.” he replies with a laugh, joking of course as he playfully elbows his friend before taking the burger offered to him.
“thanks, haz. for the burger, that is. not for dissing my lab. ‘sides, everyone knows chemistry is the fun science class. i mean, elephant toothpaste? a classic.” he adds, unwrapping the burger and taking a bite. “okay, but, on a serious note – how do you feel about all this, though? like, in general. teaching, and stuff.”
if there’s one thing harry’s known about peter basically since the day they met, it’s that peter can be dramatic as hell. and he expected nothing less at such a comment comparing labs. “war? seriously? what are you going to do, pull some lame chem prank on my lab? like there’s even a chance you could get in there in the first place.” harry says with a roll of his eyes, the smile on his face betrays him though - he’s not actually angry.
“you’re welcome. for the burger, not for the absolutely false comments about which science is best. i mean - you’re doing physics, too. basically maths. no one’s interested in that. and besides - what i specifically said was that my lab is better than yours. which it is.” they could go on like this for hours, mock-arguing. which is hilarious considering they basically know the same things, just specialise in different areas. he pauses for a moment, halfway through unwrapping his burger, as he considers peter’s question. it’s a perfectly valid one, all things considered. “right now? i’m - alright, i think. i never thought about teaching before, but.. i guess we never had a bunch of kids coming from other universes to learn stuff, so it’s unprecedented overall. right now i just want to - get into it and see if i’m even any good, take it from there.”
Despite being enrolled in Stephen’s classes, Sebastian wasn’t about to give up his muggle studies. Science, to him, was just as important as magic … and besides, there was pizza. Who could say no to that?
His aborted dash for the boxes stopped before it could even start, when he heard the conditions to getting a slice. “Doctor Osborn, right? Or is it Mister? Or Professor?” Being the son of one Doctor Stephen Strange had taught him a bit (a lot) about salutations and the important of Getting Them Right.
“So, biotech, right? Is there going to be a particular focus on any type, or is this more of an introductory 101 thing? Or will it be research based? Any pre-reqs?” Pausing, he counted back. “That counts as three questions, right?”
“doctor is fine.” still sounds a little weird. harry’s life has been a whirlwind over the past two years, trying to catch up on the time he’d missed in stasis. trying to make sure he wasn’t falling behind. getting his doctorate was, surprisingly, the easiest of those, but it still takes him by surprise sometimes.
he needs to start owning it, though. and he does like being called doctor. he listens to the questions with an amused sort of patience, taking them in with a raised eyebrow. “technically, yes. it counts as three questions.”
pausing, harry tilts his head to the side, watching the guy carefully. “three i will happily answer, but - if you want the three slices, you have to actually be interested in the class. there’s more than one course - 101 for the younger or newer students, more advanced for specialisation. nothing research based right now, but there’s space for it in the future. pre-reqs depend on which course you’re aiming for. so - you’re guaranteed a slice, unless you’re actually taking the class. then you get all three.”
natasha raised a brow as she looked over at the younger man, a part of her was amused by his proclamation and the other part of her wanted to venture closer for the pizza. but he was nervous - she could tell, and that was something she could advance upon for fun. “and what about fellow faculty? do we get a slice if we ask a question?”
she asked, giving him a brightened smile. she was touring the school for herself, getting a good feel of it so that if there were a need to fight or escape, she would know all of the best positions to be. “the meat smells divine.”
truth be told, romanoff scares him a little. harry is very well aware she could kick his ass in about two seconds flat, abilities be damned. but he’s also here as a member of the faculty, a teacher, and he has a responsibility to do his job. which means getting along with the other teachers - even the terrifying ones. “members of the faculty are included.” he confirms with a smile.
he’s not sure what she could actually want here, but he appreciates the effort anyway. “a slice is all yours if you have a question about the class. what would you like to know?”
“just admit it.” harry says as he hops onto an empty bench with a takeout bag in hand he’d picked up on his way to campus. it’s not fair to compare labs, he knows - they’re not teaching exactly the same subjects, they’re bound to have different set-ups. but at the same time, what would their friendship be if harry didn’t spend a decent amount of time poking fun of peter? it’s practically the foundation of their relationship, at the end of the day.
swinging his legs absently, harry takes a cheeseburger out of the bag before holding it out for peter to take. what kind of jerk best friend picks up a cheeseburger for himself and not for his best friend? “what I mean is - admit that my class lab is infinitely better than yours. it’s okay, admitting it will make you feel better.”
morgan scratched the back of her messy bun and let out a deepened sigh. traveling back to the past wasn’t exactly how she would have envisioned it - more like going by her own tech and not by the brainy wizard. but beggars could not be choosers. glancing around the supposed lab that she was to be assigned to, the eldest daughter of tony and pepper made a face.
“this tech sucks ass,“ she stated - more to herself but anyone who may have walked in would hear. “i mean, not to be ungrateful, and probably because you’re limited to two-thousand and twenty, but like… yeah, if you want kids to learn that are from the future, you might want me to do some upgrades here - right?“ she remained having the conversation with herself, before turning around to spot someone listening and watching her. “oh hey, just you know… chilling.“
“are you ever going to stop complaining about the tech here?” harry asks with a raised eyebrow and an amused sort of grin on his face. he’s not really fussed about it if he’s honest - he can only imagine what it’s like, to come back from the future and have to deal with tech that, in your mind, is outdated. he can only imagine how that would drive him insane.
however, he’s not going to let morgan get away with giving them shit. mostly because it’s way too easy to pick on her, and he knows she doesn’t mind it. “if you’re not going to share your twenty-fifty secrets, make do with what you have. maybe i’ll even help you upgrade some things, if you’re stuck using some old janky tech that’s drastically far behind what i use.”
“welcome to the best room on campus. no, your eyes do not deceive you, these are pizzas.” harry says with as much enthusiasm as he can muster, doing his best to mask the nerves. this is all new for him, he’s still figuring out whether or not teaching will actually go well for him, but hey. if he can get it right, he can make a difference. he can help some of these kids.
he sets the pizza boxes down on the desk and opens them, revealing three different kinds - the cheesiest cheese, pepperoni, and vegetarian. “the rule is you ask a question about the class, and you get a slice. go ahead, any question you like.”
“Do you want a smoothie? Here, have a smoothie. And don’t worry, it doesn’t have motor oil in it, I checked.” Handing over one of the dozens of glasses of smoothies that he’d prepared for the first day, he shot the other a big grin.
Was Tony nervous? Hell no. Was Tony anxious? Hell yes. This whole place was starting to fill up nicely, and that made him helluva happy - but at the same time, he kept expecting the first explosion to happen at any second, or for someone to start screaming. He hadn’t been this worried since his first product launch back when he’d been 19. Hell.
“Welcome to the Academy,” he said, sweeping a hand grandly at the buildings behind him. “So, do you like it? By the way, the wifi’s configured for bio-signatures - once you’ve signed up with registration, they’ll automatically put you on the permitted list.”
“uh.. do i have a choice?” harry asks with a raised eyebrow, taking the glass with very little intention of actually drinking it. he’s more amused by the long line of smoothies that seem to be waiting for someone to come along and drink them, and harry can’t help but think of how hilarious it would be if no one did.
but he figures that kind of teasing isn’t something tony needs today, so he decides to leave that for another time. “you already said that when you hired me. i get that you’re happy to see me, but try not to make it too obvious.” harry jokes, taking a sip of the smoothie. okay, it’s not so bad.
“figured that out already. i would’ve been worried if you hadn’t put that in place, to be honest." not that he needs the wifi so much, he’s going to be home a lot of the time but - it’s a good to have anyway. “day one seems to be going well so far.”
he appeared via portal into his newly minted classroom. surprisingly the designer had listened to him and made the room as clinical and neutral as he’d asked for. he knew that his students would likely be disappointed in the fact that he… didn’t have the ‘mystical’ or ‘occultish’ artifacts that they’d hoped but; this was a learning environment and not a place of play.
looking up when he heard the door open, he smiled friendly enough and gestured with his arm for them to come in. “exciting isn’t it? all of this?”
stephen’s not wrong, it is exciting. this is a whole new world for harry, stepping out and doing his own thing, going against norman’s wishes and picking up teaching of all things. teaching at tony stark’s school of all places. not that it’s just his school, but.. as far as his father’s concerned, it is.
and yet, harry’s still excited. nervous as all hell, but absolutely excited. “the school? sure. your classroom? not in the slightest.” harry points out with a bit of an amused grin on his face. “what did you do, ask them to fashion it based on an operating room?”
We’re thrilled to have HAROLD OSBORN, also known as HARRY, join us as FACULTY of the Academy, to teach BIOTECH & LEGAL STUDIES! They look at lot like CHARLES MELTON and are 26, going by HE/HIM. They’re said to be LOYAL and are able to CONCEAL HIS POTENTIAL SPIDER-POWERS. Please join us in welcoming them aboard!
BASICS FOR CHARACTER:
name: Harold “Harry” Osborn
alias: NA
age: 26
face claim: Charles Melton
pronouns: He/Him
if they are an adult/parent: do they teach at the school, and what do they teach?: Biotech and Legal Studies
BACKGROUND:
biography - I am using the ps4 Spider-Man game for Harry’s background:
Harry was born to Norman and Emily Osborn and had a relatively happy childhood until his mother died. He absolutely adored her and stuck close to her as soon as he was old enough to do so, and losing her was not only incredibly hard for him but left him incredibly lonely
With Norman being such a busy distant, borderline abusive father, Harry largely grew alone until he began at school. Fortunately he became close friends with Peter Parker when he was younger and eventually the rest of the future Spidey Gang. They remained friends through their childhood and teen years
Both his friends and their families - namely Peter’s aunt - helped Harry feel that gap that had been left by his father’s negligence, giving him the love and care and support he needed
Unfortunately, Harry inherited the same genetic illness that took his mother’s life - Oshtoran Syndrome. The complications began in his teen years, but Harry did his best to hide them from his friends to save them from the pain he’d felt watching his mother be claimed by the same illness when he was a child
He used easy excuses like being busy with school, college, and eventually his Oscorp work, or claiming hangovers from partying to avoid suspicion when he was unwell
During his work with Oscorp he was determined to carry on his mother’s work, hoping to become an environmental attorney. He used his time, resources, and intelligence to try and better the city via Oscorp
Eventually his condition became critical and Harry couldn’t continue on without deteriorating rapidly as his mother had. Norman suggested they attempt an experimental treatment to which Harry agreed and, planting the cover story that Harry would be managing Oscorp’s European operations, he was put into a type of stasis to undergo the treatment. None of his friends knew at this point that he was sick, or where he was really going.
After deriving a treatment from Devil’s Breath failed in 2018, Norman went down the process of a last resort treatment - to bond with a version of the Spider-Venom made specifically to fuse with his cells and DNA and - somehow, it worked. Harry now has spider powers!
Fortunately he’s now healthy, cured, and has been out and about for just under two years now. he’s come to terms with his abilities and what the venom did to him, he’s grateful to be alive, but he doesn’t really use his abilities. He slotted right back into his life, finishing off his studies in law, specialising in environmental law, and biotech before being picked up to teach at the academy.
powers and abilities:
harry has most of the powers you would expect of a spider-person. he can grip to walls, he has superhuman strength, stamina, durability. however, unlike peter, he has organic webbing from his wrists, and his webbing is black rather than white.
he doesn’t know the full extent of his powers because he uses them as little as possible, so there’s always a chance he has more powers he doesn’t yet know about!
anything else? headcanons?
Harry loves pizza and will choose pizza from some dingy corner place in Brooklyn over some fancy dinner anytime. Seriously. Bribe him with pizza.
He is way more comfortable in a friend’s living room with his friend watching tv than at home in his big empty apartment alone - but that or his office is usually where you will find him
He’s a sucker for cheesy movies sue him
Harry adores his friends, he is extremely loyal to them and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for them. But if anyone betrays that they will have a very hard time earning his trust again, and he has been known to lash out or snap when his trust is betrayed
He has a very strange and distorted opinion of his father. Norman’s treatment of him when he was young was less than ideal, and he’s grown up under extreme pressure to measure up to his father’s expectations of him as the Osborn Heir, and he knows Norman isn’t a good man or a good father. But Norman also went to extreme lengths to try and save him and he has shown love for Harry, and did so for his mother, so Harry has trouble reconciling these two images of Norman in his head. I definitely imagine that when he was younger and his mother was still alive, some of Norman’s tactics to help cure them bordered on child experimentation and abuse, always under the guise of trying to save his mother, and then trying to save him. It’s a tricky thing to try and discuss with him as his confusion and struggle with the subject will probably make him lash out in anger and confusion, so tread carefully.
