Webs In Ink

The morning of my internship interview, I woke up later than I had planned. I didn’t have time to even make scrambled eggs. So I just showered and ran around, trying to find an outfit that would be deemed interview appropriate. I put my hair up into a ponytail and grabbed my small crossbody bag.

I was making my way to the front door, double checking to make sure I had anything. My keys. I was missing my keys. I looked around, moving miscellaneous things around on the kitchen counters, trying to find them. Then my phone starting ringing, Peter’s name flashing on the screen.

When I answered the phone, I barely heard him say, “Hey, AJ, can I come by to do laundry at your place?” I didn't respond as I ran back to my room to check my dresser. “AJ?”

“Huh?” I responded when I spotted my keys on the dresser.

“Laundry? Your place?” He said again as I walked out of my room, my footsteps sounding through the apartment.

“Why do you need to do laundry at my place?” I asked as I grabbed my back from my kitchen island and walked out the front door.

“Aunt May isn't letting me do my own laundry,” he huffed as I locked the door and walked down the hallway quickly.

“Yeah, sure, I don’t care,” I responded absent-mindedly. I pushed into the stairway and walked down the stairs quickly. “Wait, do you even have a key?”

“Yeah, you’re dad gave me his spare when we dropped him off at the airport,” He recalled simply. It took me a second to register what he said.

“He gave you his key?”

“Yeah, just in case,” He said and I could practically hear his shrug. “Hey, where are you right now.”

“I’m tryna get to the subway,” I said, finally making it to the lobby of the apartment complex. “I have my interview today.”

Peter hummed in response. I walked out onto the street and tried to remember the route to the subway station. “Okay, I’ll…”

I heard him trail off. It was almost like something had distracted him. “You still there?”

“Sorry… I’ll see you later, yeah?”

The lobby of the Horizon Labs was a lot more white than Oscorp was. Horizon was smaller too, the ceilings weren’t as high and there wasn’t as much glass or high tech displayed everywhere. It might have been less of a safety hazard as well.

“Excuse me,” I announced myself quietly to the receptionist. She looked at me blankly before going back to typing on her keyboard. I looked at her and suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. “I’m here for the internship interview with Dr. Morbius.”

“Name?”

“Alina Brock.”

She looked at me again, this time looking me up and down. Then she reached for the phone on the desk, dialing and picking up the phone. “The intern is here for her interview with Morbius… Mhm… Okay.” She hung up and looked at me.

“Is-”

“You can sit down now,” She said, resuming her typing. “His assistant is coming down to get you.”

“Okay, thank you,” I said, turning around and rolling my eyes as I walked to one of the couches in the lobby. The sound of her typing echoed through the lobby. I sighed, silently preparing myself for the process I was going to be put through.

From what I heard, Morbius never really took a liking to new interns on the off chance that he accepted one. He cycled through interns and spurts before he gave up and didn't let any college students into his lab.

My dad thought I would get in. He thought if anyone would be liked by Morbius, it would be me. I just laughed in his face at that. I know where he was coming from, but it never truly made sense.

“Alina Brock?” I looked up at the name and saw a woman in a pencil skirt and a lab coat looking around the lobby slightly confused. She had thick black glasses perched on her nose and her hair was in a tight bun. She looked so much like the typical assistant that it almost made me laugh.

I stood up, catching her attention. She smiled at me in relief and motioned me over to her. I smiled back at her as she took in my appearance.

“Come this way, please,” She said, dragging out the ‘please' cutely. She held open the door she had just peeked out of, letting me go in first before she started leading me down the hall. “I'm Lyla by the way, I’m Dr. Morbius’ assistant. I like your pants.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said, let out a breath, trying to calm myself down. She gave me a look, smiling to herself. I tried to remind myself everything would be fine. But if I didn’t get this internship I would need to find a different job. What would my dad think? What would Peter think.

“Hey, take a deep breath,” Lyla said while we waited for the elevator. “You'll be fine, really. You seem like you know what you're doing, I read your file. Midtown Science?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“That's already more than the five before you,” She said with a shrug. “One of them didn't even know who they were interviewing for.”

I scoffed at the idea, “Okay, now don't inflate my ego too much.” She smiled as she shook her head.

“Believe me, I know what it's like to have an inflated ego here. I'm the only assistant he's kept for this long,” She said as we stepped into the elevator. I hummed, trying to not let that get to my head. “But I’m reminded every day that he still kinda hates me.”

I looked at her strangely, “So then.. Why are you…?”

“He needs the help. He’s still really sick you know,” She said, a bit of sadness in her voice. “He’s finding a way to help other people but… not himself.”

I nodded at her words as we finally got to the 56th floor. I let her lead me down the left side of the hallway and past identical looking mahogany double doors. They were the only interesting pop of colour among the white hallways.

“So, this is our floor, the bio components. We did not choose the name, just to be clear,” Lyla explained bitterly. “It sounds like we work with prosthetics but right now our main focus is-”

“Artificial blood,” I finished for her. I did a lot of research on Morbius when I first heard about him in school. His current work venture is manufacturing artificial blood. He’s close but there are some hurdles. As with most science.

Lyla smiled at me as we approached the end of the hall where we made a right turn this time. At the end of the hallway was larger double doors. She didn’t say anything else as we approached. She pushed open the doors and walked in ahead of me, opening the door for me.

My eyes immediately shot to the cluttered desk and the hunched over man sitting with sheets of paper in his hands. He looked up briefly, seeing me and Lyla and before setting the papers down on top of the other piles. His eyes were sunken and his skin was almost grey.

“You’re…” He trailed off, trying to think of my name as he slowly stood up, grabbing the crutch on his right.

“Alina Brock,” Lyla finished for him, smiling politely at me. He nodded in agreement with a tight lipped smile as if it were right on the tip of his tongue. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it.”

She whispered a quick ‘good luck’ to me as she passed me to leave the room. I approached the desk as he held his hand out for me to shake. I heard the door shut quietly and I took that as a sign to sit down.

“Brock,” He trailed off as he sat down as well. I was about to respond, confused, until he looked up at me. His eyes were bright blue. They were so bright that it startled me. They were such a contrast to the dullness of his skin, his figure. “Any relation to Eddie Brock?”

I thought about lying. But what good would that bring me? “Yeah, he’s my dad.”

He nodded, looking down at my resume that I saw Lyla put down before she left. “Is that why you’re here?”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re dad couldn’t get an interview with me last time he was here,” He said simply, his eyes running over the words of my resume, probably for the first time. “I’m just wondering if he’s really as stubborn and persistent as people say he is.”

To say I was offended was a bit of an understatement. I never thought being my father’s daughter could fuck up certain opportunities for me. “My dad is living in San Francisco now. I’m here because I’m actually interested in your work here. I doubt he would really want an interview with someone who hasn’t actually figured out their own science yet.

”Maybe that was too far, I concluded after he looked at me blankly. His head tilted to the slightly to the left and I felt the internship slip from my grasp. I was thinking about how I was going to start looking for job openings at a cafe or a restaurant. Maybe I would even ask Gwen if there was spot opening at Oscorp.

“You went to Midtown Science?” He asked me suddenly. I nodded quietly, feeling a sudden gust of wind. My clothes felt wrong like they clung to my skin awkwardly. “And you studied Physics and Chemistry. As most people, I’ve heard.”

“I graduated the second highest of my class-”

“And where is your valedictorian?” He asked, setting down the paper.

I cleared my throat and adjusted uncomfortably in my seat under his sharp eyes. Maybe it was the colour. “She’s working at Oscorp. She interned there last year.”

“Norman must have known what he was doing,” He said, picking up a different sheet of paper with a pie chart on it. I bit my lip when he went back to working. He was clearly losing interest in the information I was giving him. “Hiring someone who was top of their class. Probably the smartest thing he did, may he rest in peace.”

“She was actually working with Dr. Conners… Before the incident…” I explained, realizing what he said. Morbius tossed the sheet of paper on his hands aside. He seemed like he was remembering why he was avoiding the work to begin with. “Wait, did you say-”

“What do you think you could bring to the table if you worked here,” He asked, finally starting to get to the interview portion of this interview. I looked at him strangely, trying to wrap my head around his words. When did Norman die?

“I- uhm… I thought the point of internships were to learn more about working in a company setting with a field of work you want to go into,” I said, looking at him confused. I was slowly checking out of the conversation myself.

His lip twitched. “So, you’re interested in the work we do here?”

“I’m interested in the work you do here,” I told him, sitting back into the chair. I crossed my arms. “If I wanted to explore artificial blood sciences, I would go somewhere else. They don’t actually care about what they’re doing, if they come up with something, they will hurt more people than they will help.

“They also aren’t nearly as close as you are in their research. Mostly because you won’t let people know what you’re researching or how you’re planning on doing it until you're done. But they don’t care, because they just want to have the patent. The nobel prize. The notoriety. I would much rather be learning from you, someone who cares, and someone I can trust.”

Morbius’ eyes looked me up and down for a moment before he himself sat back in his chair. He closed his eyes and let out a tired breath. “You are a lot like your dad. I spoke to him once, you know. He was really… assertive. And he knew his shit.”

I watched him silently, letting his words echo through my mind. I never saw my dad in action unless it was from seeing the Brock Report. My dad is persistent. Even from what I’ve seen. His original interview with Carlton Drake was a perfect example of his insisting. And it got him fired.

“You’re going to NYU?” He asked me suddenly, opening his eyes but keeping his gaze on the ceiling.

“Yeah,” I nodded although he couldn’t see me. He didn’t say anything, letting my voice sit in the air. I didn’t understand his questions when they were clearly on my resume.

Then he sat up and reached for the office phone. He pressed a few buttons and held the phone up to his ear. “Lyla… Yeah, I think we’re good here.”

I felt my heart sink at his words. I blinked a few times, hoping that I had heard him wrong. Maybe he meant ‘good here’ as I got the job. Right? I didn’t have the will power to call my dad and tell him I fucked up the interview. I couldn’t tell Peter either. God, I couldn’t tell them I screwed up that bad. Did I insult him somehow? Maybe me simply being here was enough to offend him. Not just because I was applying as an intern but because of my dad. That son of a bitch. How dare he be my father-

“Thank you for your time,” He said to me with a small smile right before the doors opened back up. I quickly tried to compose myself as I stood up.

I reached out my hand, “Thank you, Doctor.”

“Morbius is fine,” He said, shaking his head at me. “Get used to it if you’re going to be working with me.”

I stood there stunned, hoping that it hadn’t shone on my face. I swallowed hard, replaying his words over and over. I turned to Lyla and walked over to where she was holding the door open for me and walked through the door.

Lyla smiled at me when she let the door close. “I told you, you had a chance,” She gleamed, leading me back to the elevators. I let out a surprised breath and couldn’t suppress the giggle building in my throat.

“Shit,” I sighed, stepping into the elevator with her.

“Look, I will call you to tell you when you can come in to get your badge and authorization pass,” She explained, her smile not leaving her face. “And we will tell you then when you come in for your first day.”

“Okay, great,” I confirmed, biting my bottom lip in excitement. I did it.