Oh - the one who helped me is here, actually. I mean the one from my world. I haven't seen him for quite a while.
[He's a tad wistful about it. After this much time, he's closer to the two here, but - well, there's something about it. He'll probably always feel indebted to his original Spider-Man, even if his path took him elsewhere.]
Of course, these ones are young too. It's interesting to hear about these worlds where he's a long-established hero.
They're idealistic. That can be dangerous, but it's needed sometimes.
[Otto's regularly gobsmacked that so many of them are willing to grant him the benefit of the doubt, too. He's still not sure it was worth it, for the young Peter who helped him. But he's grateful nonetheless, and it would be...rather sad, to see him reach a point where he'd just agree with Strange and cast them all back to their deaths.]
Yes, I think that's true. Certainly worked for me. Things would have been much easier for him, if he hadn't tried so hard to help.
[Norman was the one who really turned those tides, but there's really little difference between them. It could've just as easily been Otto, had he managed to escape his restraints somehow.]
They are good people. They see the best in even those that hurt them. I put myself between one young Peter and his Quentin Beck. The man who kept manipulating and hurting him. It was all I coudl do to protect him from his own kindness.
[Otto's friendly with the guy, after having established immediately that he wasn't going to go after any of the Spider-Men. He figures he has no room to judge past actions. Still - he'd sort of like to know.]
Well, there's plenty of ways to do that without being a supervillain about it. He'd be better off re-inventing himself as a hero somewhere that still likes those. Could get some of those bootleg action figures.
Oh yes. Not here, because Excelsior is stupid, but it's a thing. In fact, there's one on the desk of Jessica in accounting. Actually, there's one on Chad in HR's too. I'm jealous that they found some.
[Otto chuckles, because - okay, it's sort of embarrassing, but it also feels too silly to actually be annoyed over.]
Oh my god. They're importing them. What, has he got -
[He shifts the actuators so that one is behind his back and one just sort of...is in the middle, he guesses? Why would you have an odd number of them?]
I mean, you could always sign on to a merchandise deal with the Guild. Then they could make licensed ones that look good, and you would get your cut of the pie.
[It's the fact that it's all unlicensed merch that is denying Otto money.]
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