2013.04.28 - Silence is Loud

Ben Reilly is in the terminal working away at one computer. An Ipod with snug in a docking station it sings, "Maybe I should cry for help! Maybe I should kill myself! Blame it on my ADD!" Ben bangs at the desk with his pencil with the following drum beat. He jots notes into a nearby pad of paper then types at the computer. He forgets people live down here and so sometimes the teen just likes to jam out when working.

While Ben may not keep in mind that some may actually live here rather than show up for meetings and some background work, it's not like anyone said anything when he started up the music at the docking station. But with quite a delay, when he starts jamming out along with the song, there's a shriek coming from the girl's car, "YO! VOLUME! KILL IT!" But it's too late already, Kiden has been stirred from her exhausted sleep. Stepping outside of the girl's car a few moments later, her hair all messed up, Kiden yawns and looks towards Ben with sleepy and somewhat reddened eyes, "nobody put up a party on the schedule, what gives?"

"Sorry. I was just taking notes and working on the computer," he turns down the docking station. Smiling at the woman he looks her over, "Kiden, right?" They haven't really met beyond the meeting. "Speedster or something?"

"We're doing work here too?" Kiden groans, not sounding too pleased as she reaches to brush her hair out of her face, squinting as she approaches Ben to take a look at this work he's doing. "Yup, Kiden's the name, don't wear it out," she shakes her head as Ben asks if she's a speedster, "that's not me. Well, not really. You're the Spider-Man wannabe, right?" While her question may come out as quite rude, at least she keeps her tone conversational. Maybe she just likes to instigate for the sake of doing it, even if she has nothing against a person.

"Superior Spider-Man. You can call me Scarlet Spider or Ben. Why do I want to be someone that's hated by a guy with a hitler mustache and bad haircut? I mean all he does is get shot at, ridiculed, has a bad date life and lord knows what else. Me? I'm on a team talking to beautiful woman, I work with the Fantastic Four, I do a lot and it has me hated a lot less. So...Why would I want that?" a smirk pulls on his lip. "Tell me your story. Whatever you want to tell. The only thing I know about you is that you're very attentive when I strip and your name," the smirk pulls into a bright smile. Yes, he hates Spider-Man in a lot of ways and takes pleasure in putting down the webhead.

"Superior Spider-Man, huh?" Kiden grins, perhaps liking Ben's reaction to her slight jab, "I guess you do kinda have to keep the Spider no matter what, right? I mean, Scarlet Panda wouldn't quite be the same." Kiden arches a brow suspiciously once Ben gets on a roll and touches on Spidey's sucky dating, "bad date life? You actually stalk the guy? How do you know he has a terri-bad date life?" Kiden wonders. When Ben mentions talking to a beautiful woman, Kiden works her hair back to cover her eyes, "please, I just woke up, no way I look good right now, but working with the Fantastic Four sounds pretty cool." Grabbing herself a chair and sinking into it, Kiden reclines and stares at the ceiling while stretching her arms, letting out another big yawn, "my story? Boy...it's such a drag. I can make up a better one, but I guess short version is, life is a bitch." She's quite eager to shift topics back, and so interjects, "hey, at that point in time you were the most interesting thing in the room."

Chuckling, he lookst at Kiden, "You don't give yourself enough credit when it comes to your looks. And you give yourself too much credit when it comes to your wandering eyes. You were practically drooling, so that's more than just 'you were the most interesting thing in the room,' it's okay people can dig Spiders," smiling he turns back to the computer. Notes on security locks are taking, "Trust me. I know what it's like to have a shitty life, but try me. I won't judge if you've got a complex. And if you're worried about being boring or something just tell me an interesting part." The spidey questions are ignored for the moment. He notices the smalll digs and prods, no need to waste his breathe on giving answers on those.

"How would you know?" Kiden starts before nearly falling from her chair as Ben mentions how he saw things, flailing her arms to keep her balance as she sits up straight quickly, "hell no! I was not drooling! No way! You're just flattering yourself now." She sounds pretty adamant about it, although she does seem just a bit flushed. "I usually squish spiders, if we're going to be honest, I don't like bugs." She looks a few moments at Ben as if trying to measure how serious he is, and then just shoots at random, "ok, try this, my father was a great cop. He got shot infront of me when I was 6 and we were on our way to celebrate his birthday. That's just the start, you sure you wanna hear me? You don't need that kind of drama in your life, heck, I don't need it in mine! At least you have a choice."

"Because I've had a shitty life too." Noticing her nearly loosing her balance he smiles, "You lie as bad as you stand," a wink is tossed to the woman. "You probably don't squish all spiders, but you just gotta give em' a chance." Measuing the woman up he puts a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure he'd be proud of you. You may not be in the blue or have the badge, but you have the heart." Pausing for a moment still unsure if this is a game or not he decides to take a shot, "Whatever you tell me will be private. It won't effect any team dynamics or whatever. But if it's eating you up inside not only do spiders have good eyes, we have good ears too," a friendly smile tugs at his lips as he tries to get her to open up more.

"Oh stuff it!" Kiden snaps, groaning as Ben is starting to poke a bit of fun her way. "Well, not the ones I don't notice, anyways," she gruffly notes, blowing air which causes a few strands of her hair to lift momentarily in the air, before falling back down on her face. "I don't need a pep talk," Kiden snorts, acting all tough like, and it could well be just that, an act. Either way, she swats Ben's hand away from her shoulder and gets up from her seat, taking a few steps away. "He was everything that was good in my life, so from that respect, my life ended at a real young age. Yay," she does a little fake cheer with a very obvious forced smile on her face. "I always took care of my own shit, so if you get the impression I'm some damaged kid who could benefit from a little Dear Abby pep talk, well, that's not me." She starts to head right back towards the girls' car, before stopping midway to look back, "by the way, congrats on being second in command."

"My father made me into a weapon and the only true father figure in my life died in front of my eyes. You don't need to put on the tough girl front or explain to me how you're something you're not. I know that your Dad's death rocks your world in every way that's not fun," he smiles grimly at her looking at her. Turning back tot he screen, "Thanks. I'm flattered. I...I wanted to vote for myself, but didn't think it was right. I obstained most of the times. IF you voted for me or not, doesn't matter. Everyone needs faith in me. Whether they have it or not, I'll do my best to make sure they get it," his fingers thump against the desk as he pushes away feelings of guilt. Bringing up memories of Uncle Ben always hurt. Even if Ben Parker isn't Ben Reilly's true blue Uncle, it still hurt...a lot.

Kiden remains halfway to the girls' car when she hears Ben reveal his own father dying before his eyes, well, at least the father who cared for him because it sounds like his biological father was a 'Grade A' Jerk. She almost feels like saying something, but then Ben also presses on her acting up, which makes her feel all the more need to keep the act. That way she won't be proven wrong. Not wanting to end this on a somber note, she quips at the mention of the voting, "I totally thought you voted for yourself when Hawkeye was choosen leader with 8-1 vote." She takes a few more steps towards the car and leans against the door for a moment. From this vantage she can't see Ben is actually suffering every bit as she does. Heck, she might have offered him one of her happy pills if she saw. Instead, she just blurts, "I voted for Hawkeye as leader, and nobody else. When I was asked to vote for a second in command, I voted for Channel. No hard feelings, I don't know enough about anyone else." She lingers a moment longer, pondering whehther to leave with everything so depressing, and then mutters, "for the record you got a cute ass," and with that she quickly disappears into the girl's car.