tushanshu | Video;

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[Even though he had been shown how to use the console in his suite close to 5 times now, Kaine still finds himself fiddling with it when the feed turns on. There was a reason why, after buying him a laptop (with Kaine's money) and multiple attempts at teaching him how to use it, his friend Wally just accepted the 3 AM visits whenever Kaine needed to run a simple Google search. But the clone was desperate, and now here he is.

How desperate, you ask? Well, he's currently wearing an over-sized, tacky "I <3 NY" souvenir t-shirt and an expression that's a cross between a pout and a scowl.] Where can I buy a normal shirt? I'm down to this one and there's no way in hell I'm wearing it again. [A pause.] For the record, by "normal shirt" I mean a t-shirt or something along those lines. I'll take a jacket at this point too.

[He shifts in his seat, discomfort pouring out of him as he tugs at the hem of his comically large shirt. He hates asking for assistance, but he's been searching for something for a couple days now and keeps coming up empty.

His face turns to a scowl again when he adds:] And to the person who took my good shirt--you know who you are--I want it back. Take this one.

[He pauses after that, as there's something else he wants to say, but doesn't actually want to say it. The thought of asking it causes him to grit his teeth, and the beginning of it comes out like a growl.] I'm also looking for a job. Something like a bouncer or a bodyguard... [Glances down at something off camera.] I'm, uh, good with my hands, and not that it matters here but I'm fluent in four languages.

[With that, he's officially gone past his comfort zone and he attempts to quickly turn the damn thing off--key word being attempts. He lets out a slew of curses, and right before he finally manages to turn it off, he can be seen depositing some juulan into a large, clear container labeled "Swear Jar" already a quarter full just before the screen finally goes black.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good point.

[He frowns a little, brow furrowing as he tries to get all the details straight in his head first. Then he lets out a sigh before getting into it.]

I kind of told you about the whole clone thing, right? And how that happened where I'm from? Well, the night that whole thing started, MJ had gone missing. So I went looking for her, and when I was checking our old house, I found Gwen - my friend, Gwen Stacy - there, but she'd died a while before that. So when Aunt May came around to find me, she saw Gwen, and just… freaked. I couldn't let her call the cops, so I just had to level with her in order to even try to explain what was going on. She made me prove it, too. She was- She was so mad. And then the clone that thought it was my father showed up, and it turned out that he'd gone and talked to Aunt May some time before and didn't tell me that my dad was supposedly not dead.

And then S.H.I.E.L.D. showed up and started shooting at us, which literally gave Aunt May a heart attack - She's fine by the way, so don't panic - and the Fantastic Four showed up to help us out. So that's how Aunt May-- Oh, and I'd gone to see the Fantastic Four earlier that day because of the clone thing. I fought one of them in the mall and didn't know who else to go to.

Gwen Stacy... [Everything he said after that was lost on Kaine, as it was all drowned out.

Gwen Stacy, his unofficial sister. When he got down to it, she was the reason he was ever created in the first place. But somewhere... somewhere out there a Gwen Stacy clone was able to find happiness. It made him think of the first Gwen Stacy clone, the one who went by Abby, the one he killed. The one who almost killed him. He can still feel her hands around his throat, somehow draining his life force with a simple touch. He can still hear them fighting, begging him to help them, but it sounded muffled, far away, as if he were underwater and they were yelling above the surface. He could still feel the fire on his back as he pulled the Jackal from the explosion.

And then there was the latest one. The one he had just met in New York. The one whose only sin was to be created by the Jackal... The one who refused to take his hand. He could still feel the fire on his back from that explosion as well.

He dropped his head into his hands at the thought of his sister, of Gwen Stacy. Somewhere, she was alive. She was happy. She was safe with Peter and Aunt May, able to live a normal life that he nor any of the Gwen's he knew about were able to live. Not even the other Gwen clone, the one who went by Joyce Delaney, who had probably the best shot of them all at normalcy.

Then Kaine was struck by a thought, and he looked back up at Peter.] Gwen... she's still... nothing happened to her, did it? The clone, I mean. She... is a clone, right?

[The words catch Peter by surprise and he blinks, momentarily disoriented. He recovers soon enough, simply nodding his head.]

She... Yeah. Gwen's totally fine. She... [He looks thoughtful again. There's really no easy way to say this.] She's kind of a clone. She used to be the thing you called Carnage.

[Kaine screws his eyes shut. No, she couldn't be a monster too...] Not her too.

[And then opens them, keeping his gaze steady.] How? I thought you said Carnage was you.

I said Carnage was made out of a sample of my blood, that it was something Dr. Connors was doing some experiments with, and that it went around sucking the life force out of people.

Gwen... Back when the Carnage thing was going around killing people, it got to Gwen. When the whole thing was over, I thought it was gone for good, but-- apparently not. I think it took on Gwen's- her essence or something. She was completely herself, memories and all. And she showed up in the middle of all the clone chaos and S.H.I.E.L.D. got a hold of her. But- she's not Carnage anymore. Eddie- Venom kind of sucked it out of her. Now she's just Gwen.

[Knows how easily memories can be implanted, as both he and Ben (...and Spidercide) were proof of that, but the less Peter knows about that the better.]

Monsters have a way of lying dormant. [He can hear his whispering now.] But if you say she's Gwen, she's Gwen.

[Peter just nods firmly.] She's Gwen. It's been months and she's had nothing. Not even nightmares. Tony Stark did a full bio-scan on her and she came out totally clean.

[Seriously, it took some convincing before even Peter could fully grasp and accept what had happened.] She's been living with us, too. It's been a full house.

And Aunt May... she just... let you be Spider-Man?

Well... Yeah?

And she bought a gun.

Well that's....

She'd fit right in in Texas.

I have no idea where she even keeps it. So I can't confiscate it.

If she thinks it can protect her, let her keep it. [Even though it totally wouldn't.]

She's been pretty good with it so far, actually.

Who'd she shoot?

[He wasn't gonna mention this, but now that Kaine's asked...]

Electro.

[Laughs at that. Go Aunt May.]

[He just smiles.] It did a real number on him.

Where'd she hit him?

[His head tilts slightly, brow furrowing as he tries to remember. A lot was happening at the time, so it takes some mental sorting.]

..Right in the chest, I think. I'm not sure where exactly.

I wish I could have seen that.

[He shrugs slightly. At the time, it had struck him as more alarming than anything else.]

It was definitely a shock. [Pun not intended. ...Or is it?]

[Groans.]

...Don't.

Don't what?

[He can't help himself with this stuff. He really can't.]

With the puns... just... don't.

I have no idea what you mean. [...He says as he keeps smiling.

Then the smile wanes a little as he turns to look in some random direction, letting out a small sigh.] There's just... no other word for what it was like to see that.

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