- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
How is telling May that Liv designed an AI and that she's a superhero, humiliating for Liv?
The Arachne System (SPIDERLIV 3)
- Thread starter open_sketch
- Start date
- Superhero
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
Webside + Introduction are literary common pre-packaged things that can be sent by the press of a button.
It is likewise reasonable to assume that the latter part of the message would already be pre-written by a friend who has been anxiously hanging over one's shoulder the entire time.
And tumb-typing "help she found out!" would take Liv, what, 15 seconds? and provide an adequate cover.
However - it would also be actively harmful to conceal how much mutually aware Liv and Athena are. That is just who they are. In general, lying about system mechanics to assuage external expectations does not lead to good social results. It is as good as the whole "fake girlfriend" routine - it is just not sustainable. Except it is not a whacky comedy plot, but rather a quite tragic and draining endeavour. Think of it more like pretending that you are not in a relationship with someone in front of disapproving parents - perhaps because you have to hide that you are queer, or the like. But you are, of course, exceedingly close to the other person (being part of the same system), and spend much more tiem with each other (even in systems that are not as co-conscious as Liv and Athena).
So yes - in addition to being feasible to conceal, it would also be a horrible idea to conceal that Athena is aware of Liv's general activities, and can pay closer attention as needed.
Now, if you want to instead pretend that this is a normal note from a headmate - that would be much more feasible. For this, you merely have to take the phone, show the same message, and show it to May, pretending that Athena or Liv called up a pre-written text or wrote it out.
You do realize that the current vote doesn't even let the issue of Athena being an AI time to sink in before Liv goes into reveal costume mode, and Athena has to step in to tell Liv to just talk to May about the hotel circumstances; right? I mean I get that this sort of thing is something that can vaguely be classed as teenaged drama. But it's done as a joke at Olivia's expense, specifically set up to be so. AND if Liv has second thoughts on telling May about being Arachne, after talking about the hotel arrangement, we're/she's right back to being in this circumstance for no other reason than because it's funny to/for the readers.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Because the "troll vote" is funny and hits the key highlights of what people actually want out of the vote:
1) We tell May straight-up that Athena is an AI and not a rival for her affections- the two main things she needs to know in the immediate short term.
2) Athena gets agency and appears in the conversation, rather than as a passive subject of conversation.
And it does this while also getting some hilarity, and without overspecifying the conversation in massive detail.
- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I guess we see the vote in different lights then.
I see it more as Liv just venting everything out in the open. I don't see how this can be "humiliating" in universe, what reason would have May to laugh at Liv for this?
Also I'm assuming Athena's message is only for Liv to hear, not something she says out in the open.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Only if followed verbatim. The last vote was "Hey mom, check this out!" and that phrase never appeared in the update at all, with Liv instead taking time to lead up to the whole mesh armor thing.
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
Also the idea that Liv is somehow less prone to Bad Things than Peter Parker feels off, given most versions of Peter Parker have an above average number of arms. Liv is going to experience some shit, that's kind of the nature of these quests, the only thing I can promise you from it is I will never erase character development that occurs from it and I will never arbitrarily kill anyone close to her for cheap tears.
besides yes as noted i am capable of interpreting votes to roll with people's reactions.
besides yes as noted i am capable of interpreting votes to roll with people's reactions.
- Location
- Leeds
Remotely taking control of someone else's mobile device however is not a common way to deliver that package. Also if Athene is a multiple of Liv's surely Liv's body would need to actually fetch the site, it still doesn't explain why Athene needs to text us and message us, or how she does that. Unless we're bringing up that she's an AI.
Thumb typing is new information that wasn't there before I assumed you meant telepathically, might be good to clear that up. However apart from the previous concerns I'm not going to raise that when your girlfriend is concerned that you're cheating grabbing the phone and rapidly typing into it "Help she found out" and then changing the subject is probably among the worse case responses.
My concern wasn't broaching the multiple topic it was
So you're kind of defending the only part of the vote I wasn't concerned about.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I. Um.
I don't want to be an ass about this issue in a way that would be offensive unto y'all, because I respect y'all.
[deletes long ramble]
...
Suffice to say that I'm stumping for leading with 'Athena is an AI that I created' rather than leading with 'Athena is my headmate.' This is not to say that I'm not also in favor of revealing 'Athena is my headmate!' And doing so quite soon, even in the same conversation!
I honestly believe it would be better to lead with 'Athena is an AI,' though. Simply because without knowing that, May is likely to have a lot more trouble putting other revelations in context, or is likely to become unnecessarily confused. It is purely a matter of sequentially delivering pieces of information.
...
With that said...
[TWITCHES]
Literally. Sorry.
More generally, I am trying to set up this conversation to have May develop as few misunderstandings as possible, and preferably only ones we can correct immediately.
I think that if May develops the impression that Athena is a relatively conventional headmate of Liv's (another 'organic' copy of consciousness.exe running on Liv's brain), then it will be harder to correct that with "no actually she's an AI who also does stuff outside of my head too in addition to sometimes running my body."
Whereas if May starts with "Athena is an AI that I created" then it will be easier to make the leap to "and we share thoughts and sometimes she operates my body believe it or not, so yeah, plurality!"
I have no desire to conceal anything, personally. It's just that, uh, we've got a LOT of revelations stacked up and I think we should seriously consider unloading them in a certain order.
In the interests of informing her while telling her zero lies.
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- Location
- Leeds
Agreed, theres a grey space about whats true and whats a lie, however I think we can stay fully within the true space without explaining literally everything in a random waffle shop.
Well, as someone whom both has clinical anxiety issues, and has been the victim of both the second and third form of trolling throughout my public school experience. Pardon me for not wanting to watch, anyone else, go through that level of embarrassment; even if May overcomes any shock and masterfully restrains any merriment at the circumstance. It doesn't take someone else laughing at one's expense to make circumstances embarrassing, it only takes one being embarrassed to feel humiliated, and is even worse if they feel they themselves set themselves up for it. You see a fictional character that is removed from your experiencing their reaction. I, however, am cursed to actually empathize with any sufficiently humanized source. (which is weird as hell since I'm also introverted and can't stand being around any significant gathering of people)
Okay, I can see how what I've been advocating could be construed as "less prone" to bad luck than Peter. When my platform is more "less bad luck because 'frodo got a lightsaber' thinking, and more because the background was able to actually respond to the character's actions." And while you do adhere to the later, the voter's appear more prone to thinking in the former. And with the above rant/statement of mine, it just drives me nuts that some phrasing seems more concerned with cheap shots than thinking in character. That and I wholly admit to a communications impediment, that goes both ways. And, well, freak out that I either am interpreting what I'm reading correctly, or that I'm not the only one that may not get it (thus achieving the feared results) I'm probably more pedantic about vote wording than what necessarily need be; but that's more me worrying that something either is too vague, or isn't as vague as I would have hoped it to have been. And now I'm talking in circles... did any of it make sense to anyone else.
10ebbor10
DON'T PANIC
- Location
- Present
Just a note, but this does not come across great.
It comes across as if you not only think that your interpretation of the vote/story/whatever is the only possible correct interpretation, but that other people are morally, emotionally and intellectually inferior for not agreeing with you on this.
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[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
This is just Perfect.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
This is just Perfect.
Less of a soap box lecturing and more of a experience that others don't/can't/ or won't consider fictional characters, especially if they are in control of the circumstance of said fictional characters, as anything other an imaginary figment to torture or torment as their whims/desire. It's... honestly quite disturbing to watch what seems to be others cackle in sadistic glee at the suffering they can/will inflict on what they perceive to be an insignificant play doll. Especially as I've been that "insignificant play doll" when the perpetrators decided to do it for real. So I'll cop to the latter half of your attempt to make me feel bad for being concerned for another's well being, imaginary though those other may be.
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- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...
I'm out of this conversation, have fun assuming the worst of others.
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
Yeah, that's not an acceptable way to talk about others in my thread.
Hakazin
Serpent Admirer
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
Flectarn
Uphold Kali Akuno Thought
- Location
- Queen City of the Ohio
[] sublimate one awkward conversation into another, tell her the truth
edit:
[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
edit:
[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
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[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
- Location
- Leeds
I'd think that Athena usually has a better handle on things rather than throw a third issue into the oncoming disaster train.
[X] "That's... a bit complicated. At a basic level she's a friend of mine but there's a lot more to it than that. And she deserves to have a say as I disclose it to you. Mind if we put her on the phone?"
-[X] Athena: "I'm a fully sapient AI that lives in hardware Liv rents. I was originally a digital assistant and I still help out with her life but I am my own person too. As an example, I have independent relationships, including a girlfriend."
Its not perfect but I think this one is as good as we've gotten.
[X] "That's... a bit complicated. At a basic level she's a friend of mine but there's a lot more to it than that. And she deserves to have a say as I disclose it to you. Mind if we put her on the phone?"
-[X] Athena: "I'm a fully sapient AI that lives in hardware Liv rents. I was originally a digital assistant and I still help out with her life but I am my own person too. As an example, I have independent relationships, including a girlfriend."
Its not perfect but I think this one is as good as we've gotten.
- Location
- France
[X] She's an Artificial Intelligence. That I made. I made an A.I. We should probably talk about this in the car.
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
Inb4 Liv is too stressed to remember to turn off the automated customer surveillance in the rental smart car and her secret identity gets blown to a car rental company
-[X] .....and I should probably show you my other costume that I'm bringing along just in case.
—[X] (Athena) Oh my god Liv! I know what you're doing, talk to her about the hotel!
Inb4 Liv is too stressed to remember to turn off the automated customer surveillance in the rental smart car and her secret identity gets blown to a car rental company
Reveal
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
Aw shit.
Your initial reaction, knee-jerk, was that you had to lie. Just come up with something. Anything. You lied all the time. You lied to everyone constantly. If there was one thing that was true about you, it's that you were a liar.
Except... you weren't, really. The only real lie you told regularly that wasn't by omission was that you were 'going to the gym'. You just danced around what you were actually doing. You didn't have to deny accusation or explain away things very often, save a bruise here and there, and the biggest lie in your life was one Athena crafted and supplied evidence for.
You'd never really been just... confronted with one of your secrets before, and it was paralyzing.
"Liv?" May asked, leaning her head down to meet your eyes as you sagged in your chair. Fuck, fuck.
"She's... she's... she's an artificial intelligence. That I made." you choked out, the words just sort of finding your tongue. "I made an AI."
"... what? Like... a home assistant thing? One of my dad's friends has one that he made-"
Your phone buzzed.
"Kinda but no, not really. Uh... yeah, sorry, can we give this a few minutes? I really... don't want to talk about this in a public space."
Your phone buzzed again, repeatedly, message after message.
"Okay." May said, frowning. "Liv, just... if you don't want to talk about this, I trust you. And I know you're not cheating on me, that's not what this is about, okay? I was just curious, I don't really know any of your friends."
Yeah, okay, telling her about an AI probably sounded a lot like a deflection. Mechanically, you scooped more waffle into your mouth.
Waffle good. Waffle would never let you down.
Buzz.
You finished eating quickly and in an awkward silence, rushed up to pay, and then sat back down in the car. The whole time you felt on the verge of panic, almost vibrating with terror. You had to come clean. You just had to tell her everything. Any lie you told her at this point would spiral out of control and be impossible to manage, and it'd unravel eventually.
But this was May. You could trust May. She was the kindest, most understanding person you knew. She was like, the only cis, abled person you'd met who got it, or... well, she didn't, but she always just nodded and said 'okay!' in her bright and bubbly way to anything new that came up. Even when things were dark, when she was struggling with her own stuff, she was empathetic and patient. She was everything you weren't.
"So... you made an AI, and..." she started, clearly prompting you. Welp, here goes.
"May, I'm going to tell you some stuff, and it's all going to sound completely crazy." you started.
"Don't say that, it's ableist." she corrected, and you nodded.
"Yeah, sorry. But... okay. Here goes." you said, took a deep breath, and started. "I ... no, that's a bad way to explain it. Fuck, um..."
She shuffled closer and leaned against you, her hand resting on your knee. Listening intently.
"I'm Arachne." you said flatly. "That's me. Arachne. Please please please please don't tell anyone."
"... Liv? I don't know if you're joking right now..." she started, and you nodded.
"Yeah... um... here. Let me show you something." you said, willing the car into motion with a thought. As it began rolling and the windows became opaque, you shuffled May to the other side of the car and folded down the seat to access the trunk, pulling out your backpage. You sat it on your lap, unzipped it, and pulled out the metal harness, activating it. Lights blinked on as the arc reactor started up, though it remained folded in the tiny space.
"See? Here's the legs. I'd extend them, but, uh, no room." you said, setting it down between you. May tried to pull it up to look at it, but she struggled to lift it: the unit weighed like eighty pounds, after all, the jansport only worked because it was mostly spider silk under there. She ran her finger down the metal, then realized how easily you'd moved it, staring up at you.
"Oh my God, Liv..." she said softly.
"And there's more. Um, most people just think that Arachne's power is technology and maybe like, super strength, but there's other stuff. I get warnings before dangerous things happen, I'm incredibly tough, I heal quickly. That black eye I had on our first date was from getting hit in the face. And I didn't lose my arm in a car accident, I lost it... fighting. The Red Skull."
"... fuck. That makes sense." May whispered, clearly lining up the timeline in her head. She looked utterly stunned, deer in the headlights. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm... I'm getting there." you said awkwardly. "Alright... okay, so the big secret. I have power over technology. I can make computers do whatever I want, and influence other technology too. And I just sort of... understand things that I shouldn't be able to. I just intuitively understand what I'm doing when I try. That's why I can build all those robots and write apps and stuff, it's like... my brain's connected to a supercomputer or something."
"Okay." she said numbly. Feeling awkward with it between you, you moved the leg harness to the floor.
"Athena is an AI I made when I got started, to help me with the superhero thing. But I didn't really understand my powers at the time, and I ended up sort of... making a clone of my own brain." you said. "A sort of clone. She's different from me, but she's a person. I m-made a person. Um... fuck, I'm doing a really bad job at this."
May made a motion with her head that wasn't quite a nod and wasn't quite shaking, like a sort of noncommittal vibration.
"Do... do you want to talk to her? If she wants to talk." you said, reaching for your phone. She nodded, taking it, and it buzzed as Athena called. Unexpectedly, she answered and then immediately turned on speakerphone.
"Well, Liv, you could have warned me you were going to do this." Athena said, sounding amused. "Hello May. It's lovely to finally get to talk to you. I'm Athena."
"Hi." May said quietly.
"I know this is a lot, but you're doing amazing. I think Liv has done enough explaining, though, so tell me, do you have any questions?"
"Yeah." you said, nodding. Shit, why didn't you think of that? "Nothing off-limits. I don't want to lie anymore."
"... Liv, secret identity stuff is... well I guess it is lying, but I get it." May said, and the release of tension from hearing those words was so great you felt all the muscles in your back unclench at once. "I don't really understand why you're telling me this though? Why now?"
"Can I field this one, Liv?" Athena asked, waiting for you nod before continuing. "Liv is actually a very bad liar when put on the spot. She gets away with the whole secret double life thing because nobody really suspects a disabled trans girl to be the superhero on the news. That, and she feels awful lying to you all the time."
"... by the way, because of my powers, Athena can read my mind sorta." you muttered. "I can read hers too, but I have to be trying."
"Technically, I have to try too, it's just I'm much better at that sort of multitasking than you." Athena continued. "But yes, at this point it's somewhat accurate to say we share one brain which is made partially of the goo in Liv's head, partially out of a computer tower in Yonkers, and partially out of whatever supernatural void her tech-powers come from."
"Wow." May said, then she burst out in nervous laughter. "Okay, so... this is not where I was expecting this to go? I just wanted to know who your friend was! This is... this is so much..."
"May?"
"... I... kind of... don't like it." she said, leaning against you and offering you your phone. "Liv... this is really scary."
"Sorry." you said uselessly.
"I know it is. Breathe, May, it's going to be okay." Athena added.
She was quiet for a long few minutes, nothing but the muted sound of traffic outside.
"How'd all this happen?" she asked finally.
"Believe it or not, I was bitten by a spider." you said, and after a moment she burst out laughing.
"Seriously? That's your superhero origin story?" she said, shaking her head. "You're not an adopted alien or carrying a ring of power or been granted a wish by a wizard? You just got bit by a spider?"
"To her credit, it was a really big spider." Athena added.
"Yeah, um... so, to start saying some truly wild stuff, my current working theory is that the spider is extra-dimensional in origin and something about its venom has connected me to something." you said. "Uh... New York apparently has some sort of magnet for extradimensional weirdness, it's where that robot bank robber and the golden figure came from."
"How do you know that?" May asked.
"... I was told it by the Norse god Loki." you admitted.
"She's very hot." Athena said. Yeah, important you get that in there.
"... Okay. Okay okay." she said, nodding. "Fuck."
"Yep." you and Athena said, apparently on the same wavelength.
"So... heh... this one has hit a gee willickers on the golly scale, I'll say that." she said, a smile creeping on her face a moment. "I'm like... not really sure how to feel about all this. I'm... okay, I want... I'm not angry at you for not telling me, I'm really not. I'm actually sort of... I kinda wish I didn't know."
"May?"
"I thought... I thought I knew who you were?" May said, the smile vanishing, her face screwing up. "God, L-Liv, I thought I knew you. I feel like... I feel like you're... somebody else."
"Oh..." you muttered. You didn't know what reaction you were expecting, but this was not it.
"I'm sorry I asked." she said, leaning stiffly against the other side of the car, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I... I don't really want to be dating Arachne. I want... I want to be dating Olivia Octavius."
"... I'm sorry." you said, adjusting the course of the car mentally to stop at the next place on the highway. "I understand. Um... do you want me to go home? Do you want to go home?"
"I dunno." she said, shrugging helplessly. "I dunno."
You leaned against your own side of the car, listening to the sound under the tires change as you headed up off ramp, as the car pulled into the parking lot of a McDonalds and slowed. The two of you sat there for a few long minutes, as far apart from one another as you could be, May sniffling, you just trying not to scream.
Finally, slowly, May shifted from her seat, slid carefully, hesitantly toward you, and lay her head on your lap. Instantly, without thinking, you reached over and swept the hair from her eyes, feeling the moisture on your fingers from where her tears had touched it.
"Liv?" she asked quietly, voice a little hoarse. "Do you love me?"
---
Your initial reaction, knee-jerk, was that you had to lie. Just come up with something. Anything. You lied all the time. You lied to everyone constantly. If there was one thing that was true about you, it's that you were a liar.
Except... you weren't, really. The only real lie you told regularly that wasn't by omission was that you were 'going to the gym'. You just danced around what you were actually doing. You didn't have to deny accusation or explain away things very often, save a bruise here and there, and the biggest lie in your life was one Athena crafted and supplied evidence for.
You'd never really been just... confronted with one of your secrets before, and it was paralyzing.
"Liv?" May asked, leaning her head down to meet your eyes as you sagged in your chair. Fuck, fuck.
"She's... she's... she's an artificial intelligence. That I made." you choked out, the words just sort of finding your tongue. "I made an AI."
"... what? Like... a home assistant thing? One of my dad's friends has one that he made-"
Your phone buzzed.
"Kinda but no, not really. Uh... yeah, sorry, can we give this a few minutes? I really... don't want to talk about this in a public space."
Your phone buzzed again, repeatedly, message after message.
"Okay." May said, frowning. "Liv, just... if you don't want to talk about this, I trust you. And I know you're not cheating on me, that's not what this is about, okay? I was just curious, I don't really know any of your friends."
Yeah, okay, telling her about an AI probably sounded a lot like a deflection. Mechanically, you scooped more waffle into your mouth.
Waffle good. Waffle would never let you down.
Buzz.
You finished eating quickly and in an awkward silence, rushed up to pay, and then sat back down in the car. The whole time you felt on the verge of panic, almost vibrating with terror. You had to come clean. You just had to tell her everything. Any lie you told her at this point would spiral out of control and be impossible to manage, and it'd unravel eventually.
But this was May. You could trust May. She was the kindest, most understanding person you knew. She was like, the only cis, abled person you'd met who got it, or... well, she didn't, but she always just nodded and said 'okay!' in her bright and bubbly way to anything new that came up. Even when things were dark, when she was struggling with her own stuff, she was empathetic and patient. She was everything you weren't.
"So... you made an AI, and..." she started, clearly prompting you. Welp, here goes.
"May, I'm going to tell you some stuff, and it's all going to sound completely crazy." you started.
"Don't say that, it's ableist." she corrected, and you nodded.
"Yeah, sorry. But... okay. Here goes." you said, took a deep breath, and started. "I ... no, that's a bad way to explain it. Fuck, um..."
She shuffled closer and leaned against you, her hand resting on your knee. Listening intently.
"I'm Arachne." you said flatly. "That's me. Arachne. Please please please please don't tell anyone."
"... Liv? I don't know if you're joking right now..." she started, and you nodded.
"Yeah... um... here. Let me show you something." you said, willing the car into motion with a thought. As it began rolling and the windows became opaque, you shuffled May to the other side of the car and folded down the seat to access the trunk, pulling out your backpage. You sat it on your lap, unzipped it, and pulled out the metal harness, activating it. Lights blinked on as the arc reactor started up, though it remained folded in the tiny space.
"See? Here's the legs. I'd extend them, but, uh, no room." you said, setting it down between you. May tried to pull it up to look at it, but she struggled to lift it: the unit weighed like eighty pounds, after all, the jansport only worked because it was mostly spider silk under there. She ran her finger down the metal, then realized how easily you'd moved it, staring up at you.
"Oh my God, Liv..." she said softly.
"And there's more. Um, most people just think that Arachne's power is technology and maybe like, super strength, but there's other stuff. I get warnings before dangerous things happen, I'm incredibly tough, I heal quickly. That black eye I had on our first date was from getting hit in the face. And I didn't lose my arm in a car accident, I lost it... fighting. The Red Skull."
"... fuck. That makes sense." May whispered, clearly lining up the timeline in her head. She looked utterly stunned, deer in the headlights. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I'm... I'm getting there." you said awkwardly. "Alright... okay, so the big secret. I have power over technology. I can make computers do whatever I want, and influence other technology too. And I just sort of... understand things that I shouldn't be able to. I just intuitively understand what I'm doing when I try. That's why I can build all those robots and write apps and stuff, it's like... my brain's connected to a supercomputer or something."
"Okay." she said numbly. Feeling awkward with it between you, you moved the leg harness to the floor.
"Athena is an AI I made when I got started, to help me with the superhero thing. But I didn't really understand my powers at the time, and I ended up sort of... making a clone of my own brain." you said. "A sort of clone. She's different from me, but she's a person. I m-made a person. Um... fuck, I'm doing a really bad job at this."
May made a motion with her head that wasn't quite a nod and wasn't quite shaking, like a sort of noncommittal vibration.
"Do... do you want to talk to her? If she wants to talk." you said, reaching for your phone. She nodded, taking it, and it buzzed as Athena called. Unexpectedly, she answered and then immediately turned on speakerphone.
"Well, Liv, you could have warned me you were going to do this." Athena said, sounding amused. "Hello May. It's lovely to finally get to talk to you. I'm Athena."
"Hi." May said quietly.
"I know this is a lot, but you're doing amazing. I think Liv has done enough explaining, though, so tell me, do you have any questions?"
"Yeah." you said, nodding. Shit, why didn't you think of that? "Nothing off-limits. I don't want to lie anymore."
"... Liv, secret identity stuff is... well I guess it is lying, but I get it." May said, and the release of tension from hearing those words was so great you felt all the muscles in your back unclench at once. "I don't really understand why you're telling me this though? Why now?"
"Can I field this one, Liv?" Athena asked, waiting for you nod before continuing. "Liv is actually a very bad liar when put on the spot. She gets away with the whole secret double life thing because nobody really suspects a disabled trans girl to be the superhero on the news. That, and she feels awful lying to you all the time."
"... by the way, because of my powers, Athena can read my mind sorta." you muttered. "I can read hers too, but I have to be trying."
"Technically, I have to try too, it's just I'm much better at that sort of multitasking than you." Athena continued. "But yes, at this point it's somewhat accurate to say we share one brain which is made partially of the goo in Liv's head, partially out of a computer tower in Yonkers, and partially out of whatever supernatural void her tech-powers come from."
"Wow." May said, then she burst out in nervous laughter. "Okay, so... this is not where I was expecting this to go? I just wanted to know who your friend was! This is... this is so much..."
"May?"
"... I... kind of... don't like it." she said, leaning against you and offering you your phone. "Liv... this is really scary."
"Sorry." you said uselessly.
"I know it is. Breathe, May, it's going to be okay." Athena added.
She was quiet for a long few minutes, nothing but the muted sound of traffic outside.
"How'd all this happen?" she asked finally.
"Believe it or not, I was bitten by a spider." you said, and after a moment she burst out laughing.
"Seriously? That's your superhero origin story?" she said, shaking her head. "You're not an adopted alien or carrying a ring of power or been granted a wish by a wizard? You just got bit by a spider?"
"To her credit, it was a really big spider." Athena added.
"Yeah, um... so, to start saying some truly wild stuff, my current working theory is that the spider is extra-dimensional in origin and something about its venom has connected me to something." you said. "Uh... New York apparently has some sort of magnet for extradimensional weirdness, it's where that robot bank robber and the golden figure came from."
"How do you know that?" May asked.
"... I was told it by the Norse god Loki." you admitted.
"She's very hot." Athena said. Yeah, important you get that in there.
"... Okay. Okay okay." she said, nodding. "Fuck."
"Yep." you and Athena said, apparently on the same wavelength.
"So... heh... this one has hit a gee willickers on the golly scale, I'll say that." she said, a smile creeping on her face a moment. "I'm like... not really sure how to feel about all this. I'm... okay, I want... I'm not angry at you for not telling me, I'm really not. I'm actually sort of... I kinda wish I didn't know."
"May?"
"I thought... I thought I knew who you were?" May said, the smile vanishing, her face screwing up. "God, L-Liv, I thought I knew you. I feel like... I feel like you're... somebody else."
"Oh..." you muttered. You didn't know what reaction you were expecting, but this was not it.
"I'm sorry I asked." she said, leaning stiffly against the other side of the car, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I... I don't really want to be dating Arachne. I want... I want to be dating Olivia Octavius."
"... I'm sorry." you said, adjusting the course of the car mentally to stop at the next place on the highway. "I understand. Um... do you want me to go home? Do you want to go home?"
"I dunno." she said, shrugging helplessly. "I dunno."
You leaned against your own side of the car, listening to the sound under the tires change as you headed up off ramp, as the car pulled into the parking lot of a McDonalds and slowed. The two of you sat there for a few long minutes, as far apart from one another as you could be, May sniffling, you just trying not to scream.
Finally, slowly, May shifted from her seat, slid carefully, hesitantly toward you, and lay her head on your lap. Instantly, without thinking, you reached over and swept the hair from her eyes, feeling the moisture on your fingers from where her tears had touched it.
"Liv?" she asked quietly, voice a little hoarse. "Do you love me?"
---
Write in.
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Barondoctor
The things I chase come to me.
- Location
- The other side of the mirror
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Frying pan.
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Fire.
Yeah I don't have an answer for this but a "gosh" question escalated all the way to a "holy shit" question real quick.
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Fire.
Yeah I don't have an answer for this but a "gosh" question escalated all the way to a "holy shit" question real quick.
