31 Plays in 31 Days, #8 - “Spider Sense”

[breakinglight11]

I have decided to count bits written for Texts from Avengers Tower in this challenge. I sometimes feel weirdly guilty about all the ways I violate the original rules of the 31 Plays in 31 Days challenge— writing scenes instead of plays, not always reaching a full page, using screenplay instead of script form, working out scenes eventually intended to be prose as dialogue-only versions, et cetera, et cetera. But then I remember the original challenge doesn’t even formally exist anymore; if I’m going to keep doing this on my own, it should serve my creative needs, not some arbitrary standard. And my creative needs happen to include writing dumb text-speak exchanges between MCU characters to flesh out what is far and away the most popular thing I’ve ever written.

Last year’s 31P31D came on the heels of having challenged myself to write and post a new text every day for a hundred days, between April 9th and July 25th 2022. I was really proud of what I wrote, and as I said, given that it’s generated over 41 thousand hits, it’s definitely the most read piece in my oeuvre— for whatever that’s worth! I can’t help but wish my more important, original, and labor-intensive pieces had that honor, but, hey, it’s better than nobody caring about nothin’.

So here’s one more. I’m up to 114!



Day #8 - “Spider Sense”
From Texts from Avengers Tower
By Phoebe Roberts

PETER PARKER, Spider-Man, late teens
MICHELLE “MJ” JONES, his classmate and girlfriend, late teens
~~~

Queens, New York, 2024

PETER
U know it was weird getting spider powers at first but theyre actually pretty cool

MJ
Oh bet
Like climbing on walls n spider strength n stuff

PETER
Yeah I even have this sense that goes off when I feel like something bad is going 2 happen

MJ
Wait thats a super power
Isnt that just a shitty thing everybody has to deal with

PETER
Uh no?
I don’t think most ppl have the ability 2 feel dangerous events b4 they occur?

MJ
Oh you mean real danger
Not just like
Anxiety

PETER
Lol no
Though honestly it doesnt feel that different sometimes

MJ
Still sounds more useful than my version
U can use urs to like dodge a missile or something
Mine just makes me worry abt cringe things I said at 2am

PETER
Oh I still do that too
Just now spider sense tells me it’s coming at 1:59