[ he scuttles along the ceiling a little bit further before dropping down to the ground; he lands near noiselessly, and if he's aware just how much like a spider his movements are, it's not reflected in anything else, no self-consciousness or apologeticness. when otto had taken over his body, he'd been taken by surprise at the muscle memory, the way that peter gravitated to ceilings and to walls without really giving it a second thought.

he doesn't do it to unnerve rosalind, then; doesn't even consider that it might (she's seen stranger, surely?). instead, he does it to buy a couple of seconds of time, to think about his answer.

it hadn't been to save others, not originally. that hadn't been anywhere near his first, second, or third thoughts. he'd gravitated towards figuring out how he could use it to make money, to support may and ben, to look out for himself and no-one else.

that had backfired in just about the worst way possible, and so had being cavalier about his powers. being arrogant and thinking he could save everyone. ben and gwen represented the worst of his choices and his mistakes, and he's not sure how much of that he wants to elaborate on.

so what he settles on is: ]

Someone important to me once told me that with great power there must also come great responsibility. [ a beat. ] I didn't get it until it was too late. There are a lot of people out there who can't do what I can do, which means if I don't do what I can when I can, when the worst happens, it's on me as much as it's on the bad guy.

If you can do something to make a difference, you do it. [ he eyes her, just for a second. ] Why are you a scientist?