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@halfdent ASKED: “ I was naive .” (HARVEY)
The Spider was like a bad cold: he just kept coming back. At least this time, he remembered the words of his Aunt and had brought a gift for his 'host'. She would have been appalled if he went to see a friend empty handed.
He'd come with two different boxes of dollar store desserts ( that was all he could afford right now). At least he'd paid attention to which kinds of flavors both Mr. Dent and Mr. Face had liked.
"I don't think you were naive." He replied, " if anything, it sounds like you were pragmatic."
The spider thought on this a moment more, taking the other's words in with serious consideration.
"Well... it sounds like it boiled down to one thing really: this sort of thing shouldn't be allowed." He laughed and the sound was nothing more than a gust of air passing through his teeth. His mask expanded against the breath, "And this argument is shit. Take away the camouflage and the coverup and the victim blaming and what you really have is a nut job saying “'I do not consent to this and i am not comfortable with my own personal agency'. Gee, that's everywhere with folks." He shifted his weight on his feet and continued.
" Listen, any normal guy off the street has the critical and, i should hope, the comprehensive thinking skills to look at everything around them and take it all in---normally. " he was talking with his hands, " See, he says “'huh, this is something that i do not consent to. This makes me uncomfortable. this doesn’t seem like my kind of thing'. and just keeps on walking!
" But what happened with you, Mr. Dent? From what you've said you ran into the real scary people. My, uh, my friend's dad, Mr. Osborn, oh but that's back home you wouldn't know who he is-- Well, he used to say that a person who is not comfortable or confident with their own personal agency goes through this in-depth thought process in response to what they are taking in, or trying to think about. It's like... How did he put it...? Ah!" The Spider snapped is fingers as he gathered his thoughts.
"He stops and says ' I do not consent to any of this. I do not like what's happening. It's scary. it's different. I do not feel that I am in a safe enough space to withhold my consent. i feel unsafe. i need to be protected. i can’t make it about my feelings, because i am not allowed to. Why am I not allowed to?' and then this sense of displacement happens and that's where the scary stuff starts. Now, it's not about him. No, now this guy, he says others need to be protected. and it comes back to the thick and thin of it. This should not be allowed."
Beneath his mask, Peter frowned. He felt proud that he could talk this way with Mr. Dent, and at the same time felt homesick and out of place in this world. He wanted to go home to his Aunt May and hear her ask if he wanted canned Cambell's soup. He was tired. He wanted to be done.
Being done simply wasn't an option.
" And that's how good people get hurt. That's-that's how you got hurt. It shouldn't have happened. " he concluded. " it shouldn't have happened at all, Mr. Dent."
















