Reilly Tyne (darkdevil) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-10-13 23:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, ben reilly / spider-man (616), reilly tyne / darkdevil (mc2) |
WHO: Ben Reilly and Reilly Tyne
WHERE: Ben's room
WHEN: First day of the body swap!
WHAT: Ben and Reilly have swapped bodies. Angst ensues.
RATING: PGish.
STATUS: log; complete.
You’d think that moving out of the Tower would have saved them from the brand of weird that seemed to be attracted by the tall building and its myriad of unusual occupants. Nope. Not the case. Instead Ben’d woken up in a room that very much was not the sofa or his bedroom in the new house or Buffy’s bedroom. Luckily, the sparse studio was familiar. The voices in his head and his reflection in the mirror however… He’d tried. He really had. But even with Matt’s attempts at helping, trying to get the red-head face he’d gotten used to over the past few months wasn’t coming as quickly as he needed. Plus burning his son’s place down by accident? Definitely on the list of things to get Reilly never wanting to talk to him again. At least he was pretty sure that was on the list. So, instead, he grabbed a hoodie and a scarf and the webshooters. Good thing he was a pro at the mummy ninja look. Even better that he’d given Reilly his gift when he had. It’d make getting across Queens quicker. But not quick enough. He needed to get to the house. See what was going on. Make sure what he thought was going on was going on and it wasn’t… worse. They’d already had one bad body swap experience. If it was tied to that… He needed to get home. Come up with a way to prove he was himself and boy did he always hate when that question popped up. His focus pushed that out of the way, narrowed down to getting home. His room. Sneak in the front windows, at least get his phone. He could almost picture it in his head as he swung through the air... ...and then instead of his arm moving out to shoot out the next webline, the street and houses jarred around him in a burst of smoke and brimstone only to resettle into the dishevelled mess of his room. He swore as he twisted in the air as quick as his- Reilly’s reflexes allowed. He rolled into his stacks of books, piled against the wall waiting for him to find a bookshelf for them to live in. He stayed sprawled on his back on the floor, groaning as he looked up at the photos haphazardly stuck to the walls in a half-assed attempt at decoration to make due until he actually decided on a wall color. “Shut up, Double D,” he muttered. “Yeah, yeah, nothing said, but I still know the smug-ass look you have on your face. I can hear it in the quiet. So, shut up.” Reilly woke up to silence. This was the first sign something was wrong. He lived his life with two other presences in his head, the demon and Matt, and he never felt alone or silence with them around. He also knew the way his body felt in comparison to a non-demon, and while Ben was superhuman, he was still mostly human. Reilly woke up and noted these differences, and immediately started to panic. He jumped and clung to the ceiling, certain there was danger even if the Spidey sense wasn't going off. Something was wrong, and when he tried to teleport, he remained stuck in place. After taking several deep breaths, he dropped to the ground and went immediately to a mirror. The face that looked back was familiar, and he jumped between two feelings: relief and fear. Relief that it wasn't Kaine or Peter, and fear that Ben had to be elsewhere. His body? Someone's body? This wasn't the first time he came across bodies being stolen or changed. Or too many people being in one head. He started searching for Ben's phone, since he could look at the network that way, but he might have knocked it over when he jumped and messed up the bed. The question was how quickly he could make it over to his apartment from there. Were the webs going to be easier to find than the phone? Luckily (or unluckily) Ben chose that moment to unknowingly teleport himself right into his own apartment. In Reilly's body. The Spidey sense went off for real in this case and he dove backward, looking for a weapon. It wasn't until he heard the voice he relaxed a little; Ben was all wrapped up so it wasn't obvious at first who he was. "He has a lot to say." Reilly wished he could hear him, because right now he was starting to panic again because Ben was in his body. And knew a whole list of things he never thought he'd have to explain. "Did anyone see you like that?" Was his first quick, sharp question. His head whipped in the direction of, well, his voice and wide yellow eyes stared at the blond. Ben should be used to this. He ran into enough clones of Peter after all and he was sharing a house with Pete and Kaine. It wasn’t like he was a stranger to seeing his own face on someone else before, but then the other person had never actually been him. Weird. Super weird. He blinked out of his stare. “That hasn’t changed over the years.” He pushed himself up to sitting as he shook his head. “Well, I had been thinking ‘bout hitting the nearest bagel shop for coffee and breakfast.” Ok, bad joke. Definitely not something he should joke about, but that knee jerk reaction was hard to fight when the other option was panic and he was still getting used to the peanut gallery. Still, not a joking matter considering he knew how close Reilly kept this to his chest. Plus his first glimpse at himself in the mirror that morning? Not one of his finest moments. So, he understood Reilly’s reaction. At least he thought it was Reilly… He puffed out a sigh before rolling to his feet in a wary crouch. “No one saw me.” His head tilted to the side curiously and his eyes narrowed. “Reilly, yeah?” "No, he's only gotten worse. I'm sure he has plenty of things to say to you right now." Matt only had Reilly to talk to for a long time. He probably enjoyed the idea of preaching to someone else, or messing with Ben. And he was starting to worry about what kinds of things Matt would say to his father. It was bad enough he saw his real face, but if Ben got the rest of the story, then all of Reilly's cool zen composure would be pointless. Matt would think he was helping them bond. Oh god someone knock him out and put him out of his misery. Seeing his own face was not unusual, since Reilly focused on the mirror to fix his image regularly. He still hated the sight of it, and the disdain showed on Ben's face. It was funny that it could be the same face, and yet be drastically different just due to the expression of the person. Reilly was closer to Kaine in temperament. "Yeah it's me. And that'd confirm you are Ben." He assumed as much, since teleporting into the room only happened if the person pictured it. Still he was nervously appraising his father. "You can't let anyone see you like this. I can probably teach you how to fix it, but it took me months. This better be temporary." “Oh, y’know, just the usual,” Ben said with a shrug as he relaxed up to standing. “A bunch of ‘my, Reilly, how you’ve immatured’s. Luckily he hasn’t started in on his stand-up routine. Yet.” Ok, this was weird, but when wasn’t their life not weird and at least it was Reilly. It could be worse. A lot worse. Although definite note to try and not look at something that way. He’d be happy if he never saw that look on his face again. A hand went up to push his hood back before he glanced at the double windows that looked out towards the street. He really should have listened to MJ and gotten those curtains… He doubted that anyone would see in, but, well, it never hurt to stay on the side of paranoid. He flicked his arm out in an easy movement, obscuring the windows with webs, and then flipped the hood off and tugged the scarf down. At least with Halloween coming up (which everyone seemed so intent on mentioning non-stop), the webs wouldn’t look too weird. He ran a hand over his head and boy it was weird to not have hair meet his fingers… “Yeah, it’s me. And they managed to sort out that whole weird aging business after a week, so fingers crossed that that’s the high end of time we’re looking at. Just got to ride it out until then…” He ducked his head and made a face. “And yeaaaaaah, Magoo was trying to help with that, but that got abandoned for getting here quick and not checking to see if your smoke detectors worked.” Great to see that the babbling happened no matter what body he was in. And the fidgeting. Which he should stop doing because poking at the horn coming out of his temple was probably not a good thing to do. But it felt weird and was interesting, like playing with where a loose tooth used to be… “Except well, not that quick.” He gestured with his other hand towards the scattered books. “That… um… ok, still not sure how I fully managed that, but, we’re both ok, so no harm there although boy that’s a weird feeling and my mind is boggling at incorporating that into fights…” Fighting brought the image of the Darkdevil costume to the front of his mind. He blinked and tapped his fingers against the horn as his thoughts tangented. “Huh, so, they’re real, aren’t they? The horns on the cowl, not just part of the costume like Darede-” He snapped his mouth shut, realizing that probably wasn’t the best conversation topic, and jerked his hands down to shove into his pockets. “Er… Nevermind…” Tell Matt to keep his mouth shut. Reilly was thinking that, but saying it to Ben meant Matt would hear it and probably ignore him on purpose. He was going to talk anyway. Reilly wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing it bothered him. At least not when he was alone in his head for the first time in awhile. "It's so quiet in here." He tapped a finger to his head lightly. "I forgot what it was like." He wasn't sure if he liked it. It was too early to tell. Being alone with his thoughts was nice in a way. "A week." He hoped that wasn't where it was going to go. He had to figure out what to do for work. Today he'd call out. He hadn't taken a day off since working there, so hopefully they'd be fine at the short notice. Much like Ben was still babbling, Reilly was still being silent and introspective rather than talking. He talked more when he was in costume, because he knew the wise cracking was a Spider trait. And he wanted to be more like them, even if he didn't consider himself one. It was strange to see his demon face so animated, and the demonic voice sounded less so when Ben gabbed away. "If you were picturing where you wanted to go, your apartment, the teleport goes straight there. The fire will be easier when you're not as … energetic." Or borderline panicking. Which Reilly couldn't blame him for, he was feeling the same way. That was definitely a faux pas, and Reilly tensed at the reminder. "Yes, they're real." At least he didn't have a tail. He took a small amount of comfort in that. "That's what happens when someone makes a deal with a devil." The someone in this case being Kaine, and it probably made more sense now why his anger burned hotly toward the man. Every time he looked in the mirror or focused on his face, he was reminded of why it happened. Kaine saved his life by putting him in the chamber, but he didn't tell anyone like Peter or Reed Richards. He stored the boy instead, and then unwittingly served him up to Zarathos. That was not something easily forgiven, and never forgotten. "I know you're not very good at sitting still, but you'll have to learn. It takes focus to look normal." All day every day. “And here I thought it was always so loud in there,” Ben said with a soft laugh. “All ‘bout a change of perspective there.” Because there certainly was a difference between his brain never just shutting off and quieting down for a few seconds and having other people taking up that headspace with you. Especially someone that he was used to sassing back and forth with. He forced himself to not fidget and pick at the inside of his pockets as he rolled his eyes. Which probably would have been more effective if they weren’t glowing yellow orbs. “Hey, I can sit still. I can be very good at sitting still.” Not a lie. He’d had to sit in wait enough times. Hide. Deal with traveling like a normal person. He could sit still… but that happened to be at the bottom of the list of things he wanted to do right now. A joke was on the tip of his tongue, about how at least this demon wasn’t that bad, he could’ve ended up with the snot covered, antlered one that the Buffy crowd kept mentioning, but he pressed his lips together to keep it in and swallowed it down. He knew what it was like to not like the image staring back at you in the mirror, granted at least his didn’t require effort to just fit in and disappear into a crowd, but he knew… He tugged at the hood, wondering whether to put it back up until he got this under control for Reilly. He nodded as he puffed out a sigh. “Right. So. Sitting still. No imagining any places I really want to go to. And trying for the calm.” His shoulders slouched a little. Not that difficult a task, but… Anxiety twisted his stomach. What if he couldn’t get a handle on it? Reilly said it took him months, right? What if this just all ended him in disappointing Reilly. Again. He pushed those thoughts down, pasting on a wide grin instead. “That’s easy enough. So, other than those big broad points, what’s next?” "Somehow I suspect you and Matt are both to blame for it being loud in there right now." He saw how they bantered in real life. It was a wonder Ben was able to focus at all instead of trying to out-sass Matt. "You haven't experienced weird yet until you meet the real Matt Murdock with his comment on himself." It was also funny, but very distracting. Reilly missed him. He was biased toward all Matt Murdocks. It sucked seeing him go again. "That's mostly it, but it's easier said than done. We'll get a fire extinguisher just in case." He bit back a snap that it wasn't easy enough, but he understood Ben was trying to look at the sunny side of things. That's what he did. "This better not to be too long. I'll have to see if I can work from home if it does. Even if you learn how to make the face, it's tough keeping it going for long without practice. Sorry, but you'll mostly be grounded for now." Ben could probably keep the face in short doses. He didn't have the level of concentration Reilly did, with good reason. It felt strange to be in a human body. "Do me a favor and keep it private." Reilly didn't want to hear anything like come on it's not that bad or you're beautiful on the inside or any of that. It didn't work for him. “I don’t know. Sounds like it’s got the potential of the three-way Parker sass fest.” Ben started to scrunch up his face, but his lip catching on a fang distracted the motion. “Well… two-way sass fest and a lot of ‘shut up you two’ from the grump of the trio.” He absently ran his tongue over the fangs, his curiosity getting the worst of him again until he flinched at the admonishment inside his own head. “Sorry,” he mumbled before puffing out a sigh. “Most stuff’s easier said than done. And maybe I should sit in the corner away from the books and sheets and all the flammable things…” He kicked a few things out of the way before flopping down to sit on the floor. The tension was already lacing through his body at the idea of staying inside that long, especially if this did last a week. “Well, if worse comes to worse there’s always lurking in the night as Darkdevil, right?” Yeah, that’d work. He wouldn’t have to worry ‘bout the face with the mask, so at least he could go outside without being a huge hazard to his son’s well-being. He reached a hand up to go through his hair, but quickly changed course to run it over his face as soon as his fingers touched his smooth scalp. Right, he’d need to work on those fidgets… “I am good at keeping things to myself… I wouldn’t… not really my place to say anything, right?” He gestured towards the door. “Even if I’m sure they’ll just stare a few moments and then shrug it off. Or bring on the jokes about how you’re really not a morning person.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out Reilly’s phone and tossed it to the blond. “Have you checked anything yet? I mean, with the age thing that happened, that was all over the place.” Reilly waited a beat and then his mouth twitched in a small smile. "When I first saw Peter while in the costume, he was giving me a hard time. Declaring I was taking on Matt's mantle without permission and sullying Daredevil's good name." He knew it was personal for Peter. Matt was one of his best and oldest friends. It was an open wound, his death, and of course some random upstart using the name would've been offensive. "The first thing Matt said, was 'what a jackass.'" Reilly managed not to laugh at the time. Reilly nodded his approval when Ben moved away from the most flammable objects in the room. "Just avoid being excitable." Twitchy was probably off the table in terms of control, but he could probably handle it. "Yeah, that's fine. I've got the costume." He followed that up with a deadpan. "Careful though, you might be sullying Darkdevil's good name." It was a sign he was doing better and less panicking, that he was able to make jokes, even wry ones. He felt less frantic about it. Not happy, of course, and very uncomfortable, but he wasn't going to have a panic attack. This was when that zen ninja training came in handy. "I don't care what they think," he said a little too quickly, which meant that yes he did. Reilly shrugged. "I'm sure they've seen worse, but I prefer it this way." Superheroes saw all types of different people. They dealt with the Hulk after all, and aliens. Reilly knew it was a personal problem more than theirs, but he wasn't anywhere near coming to terms with it. He finally managed to find Ben's phone. "I'll post about it to our people. I doubt it's just us, although if it is ... that's random and strange." It seemed unlikely. After a moment he sat down on the floor across from Ben. "It'll be all right," he said. For them both. He didn't exactly feel all right, but he was going to say it. “So that’s a no on hanging Christmas ornaments from the shoulder spikes and yelling ‘Geronimo!’ when I jump into battle?” Ben teased, a bit of the tension easing out of his shoulders. Ok, not the ideal situation by any means, but when did he ever get an ideal situation? Even if they weren’t in the right bodies and there were the million issues this raised up, it was time with Reilly. And Matt. That was a nice perk even if the reason was crap. “Random and strange sounds like the story of my life.” He studied Reilly, wondering whether to circle back to the other point. Different situations for sure, he could still at least walk down a street without having to worry about everyone seeing how different he was (even if he felt like he had a giant flashing sign over him some days), but he knew about hiding. “Well, if you ever change your mind, those schmucks I got for housemates are a great group to throw yourself in with.” He shrugged, an understanding smile quirking his lips. “But it’s easier holding it on your own sometimes. Or with one or two chosen few.” His grin turned warm and reassuring as he stretched a leg out to nudge Reilly’s. “It will be alright. They’ll get this cleared up in no time. They always do.” |