legionworld | Gone through this before

Who| Gwen & You
What| Someone's healthy enough to leave Medbay
Where| Medbay & beyond
When| Before the Earth Trip
Warnings/Notes| N/A

For all the information she had to take in, Gwen was handling it... pretty well, all things considered. She was already aware of multiple universes out there, visiting some of them already. Part of this still remained new to her, but there was a lot that remained familiar. She could've done without the part of suddenly being ripped out of her universe, with a little prior notice being much better. Not much that she could do about it now. If they didn't have the tech to send her back home then she may as well help them out, right?

Okay, maybe the jury was still out on whether or not Gwen actually believed that they couldn't send her back. But for now, she'd help them out.

Honestly? It all sounded kind of cool. This ship was already pretty damn neat, and the medbay team seemed decent enough. Gwen was feeling good enough that she was about ready to leave, just making sure that she had her backpack in order. Phone, earbuds, web slingers, really sweet costume... Yep, all there. She'd probably have to do something her phone, though.

Something told her that she wouldn't be finding an actual charger anytime soon...

In any case, Gwen was dressed and ready to go, slinging the backpack over her shoulder and heading deeper into Legion World.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I bet that all the villains out there tell each other whenever we're trying to get on with our lives. You know, actually try to make something of ourselves outside of putting them in jail all the time. And they keep planning their things around that just to be extra spiteful." Yep, this made perfect to Gwen, who was willing to subscribe to this train of though.

"But if we're talking about other heroes out there, then yeah, there's a few. Captain America is one of the big ones. She's always been dad's favorite. Thing is, they uh, don't really like me all that much." And there's was a simple enough reason for that.

"It's, uh, a long story. But pretty much everyone thinks I'm a criminal. Makes me super popular with the police, too." Fun times.

Super fun. The most.

"Ooh, lemme guess, according to everyone, you're a masked menace, right? Got people in the papers calling for you to be arrested?"

With newspaper editors screaming that they want pictures! Pictures of Spider-Woman!

"Probably because of some accident that wasn't really your fault, or some situation that went down bad, sure, but definitely wasn't you being a criminal. That everyone looks at in the wrong light. Am I close?"

You could just hear the groaning coming from Gwen. He was right about everything, it hurt. Not in the literal sense but in the... 'you're-so-right-it's-actually-kind-of-obnoxious' sort of way.

"Got my own hotline and cash reward out and my dad's a cop, so that makes it even better."

"You try clearing it up with anyone? I know the cops would probably drag you in but I mean...that could be as easy as a masked youtube video saying your piece, recorded in a completely untraceably random part of the city, and uploaded to a dummy account with a burner phone."

Rich shrugged.

"You know, something that explains whatever really happened. Or does She-Hulk exist in your world? Or Nelson and Murdock? They're lawyers that handle superhero cases back in my universe. One time I got into some legal trouble -- and wow, this'll sound bad, but I accidentally killed my friend's husband. He was crazy, though. He thought because he saw us having lunch that she was cheating on 'im and so he went after her with an ax. She was pregnant at the time even and he was gonna kill her and the baby. The police weren't gonna get there fast enough so I had to try to save her, but my powers were on the fritz and I accidentally threw 'im too hard."

That was a long time ago and he'd long since gotten more comfortable with death -- and with being someone that caused it. But back then it'd be hugely upsetting.

"I'm not proud of it. Even if he was a rotten piece of work, up until then I'd always tried to make sure I never killed anybody. You know, did it all by the book, left the criminals sitting pretty for the police. But he was armed with a deadly weapon so it was covered under the self defense laws. Still, I had to clear it all up. The press and the police were calling for my head, so I lawyered up. I went to She-Hulk and she arranged for me to answer questions with the cops, to do it up all proper so they got their answers without them arresting me right off. Any chance you can maybe do that? If your dad's a cop he might know of a defense lawyer that's not a total scumbag. Whatever one's least rotten."

Edited 2016-05-03 06:18 (UTC)

"You're giving me way too much credit. There's nothing really left except my word against a 24/7 propaganda campaign and the entire police department. And between you and me? The other side really isn't interested in listening to my side of the story." All Gwen really had was her dad, but his own hands were tied with just how much she could do.

"There's just one problem with all that. Asking for help, I mean. There's pretty much nobody out there like that for me to reach out to." Actually, that wasn't true, there w as one person.

"At least, nobody I can ask. And I'm going to guess that you're talking about Matt Murdock, right? Sure, he's actually reached out to me. Recommended that I lawyer up and all that. Problem is... I can't stand the guy. It's more than just the sight of his face makes me want to punch him, and more along the lines of... He's literally working for the Kingpin. You know, Fisk? Murderdock's been asking me really nice to partner up with him, too."

"That's a shame. Sounds like he's crooked in your universe. In mine, he wouldn't be caught dead working for Fisk. There were even rumors for a while that he was Daredevil -- and Daredevil and Fisk are archenemies, everyone knows that."

Rich shook his head.

"But look, even if you can't clear it up like that, 'the other side' that you're working against -- that's the public itself, not just the cops or the news-people. And regardless of whether you think they'll believe you or not, they deserve to have trust in their heroes. When I went to the cops to clear things up, I was hoping it'd make my life easier, sure, but I wasn't expecting it to.' The reason I went was because people deserve knowing that people like us aren't going to just do whatever we want to the little guy."

He shrugged.

"Maybe most people still won't believe you. But these things, there's an ebb and a flow to them and you never know exactly what it is that's going to turn the tide. You have to start earning their trust somewhere and telling the truth is a start. Then even if they don't believe, later, when there's that inevitable moment where you're single-handedly saving the whole city from aliens or zombies or whatever supervillain is wreaking havoc -- when you're the one holding up a building so it doesn't fall on their heads -- that's when people start to believe in that truth. Not when you tell it, when you show them it's true. But you've still gotta tell it first."

Edited 2016-05-09 03:14 (UTC)

"I like the guy already." And Daredevil had a nice to ring to it. "Too bad mine's cozied up really nice to Fisk." That's how it usually went in the Multiverse, right? Different versions of the same person. Heroes and crooks would be flipped around, and so would the ones that are supposed to be alive and dead.

Oh yeah, she knew a lot about that.

"Telling the truth, huh?" The truth that she still got Peter Parker killed? That he died because he wanted to be like her? That he was the Lizard? They all loved Peter, they really did. Telling the truth would essentially be ruining everyone's idea of what Peter Parker was like. That he wasn't... the way everybody kept making him out to be.

"What if clearing my name comes at the expense of someone else's? What then?"

Rich mulled it over.

"Depends on how much it'll ruin their life. If it's just making them look bad for something, then...then if they're a good person, they'll accept it's the right thing to do. If they're a good person they'll want it. If they'd rather sit back and let you take the blame, maybe they don't deserve that good name."

He suddenly looked thought, as he considered another option.

"And if they're someone that's already gone, it's the same. Either they were a good person and they'd want the truth to eventually come out. Or they weren't, and it should anyway."

Edited 2016-08-22 08:18 (UTC)

It was a case of the last one, for her. Peter was already dead but still very much actively influencing her life. And there was the part where she practically thought about him every day. He brought up a good point, though.

Peter idolized Spider-Woman and died because he wanted to be like her.

What would he... really have to say if he could see that his hero had become public menace #1?

"That's... a really good point to make."

Gone through this before

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