Summary:Silk and Spider-Girl (Anya) meet up to discuss recent events, and confide in each other over fried chicken and coleslaw. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Silk hadn't talked to any of the others since the raid on the Nightfall - and she certainly hadn't been clued in on Mayday, or anything else. So, she'd sent a message to Anya asking her to meet her in SoHo, and promised to bring something fun for them both.
On a rooftop high above the district, Silk is sitting on the side of the building, legs dangling off and a box of freshly cooked fried chicken, along with coleslaw and mashed potatoes make out the rest of the meal, plenty for both of them - even considering both their caloric intake. A couple large bottles of soda, too.
Considering the five of them… between Gwen, Mayday, Cindy and of course Peter; Anya is the least talented at web slinging. She's had the least practice, after all. She doesn't quite swing high enough to reach the rooftop, and so she lands a couple floors down and crawls the rest of the way up, hand over foot.
At the top of the wall, she kicks her legs out and pulls with her arms, body bending into a flip that sends her over the side and onto the roof. "Hey!"
Turns out Spider-Girl has a new backpack, this one lacking all of the identifying markings of the one she'd had previously.
Almost immediately, she can smell the fried chicken, and her mouth opens wide. "Holy shit, is that Delmar's??"
Decked out in her new costume, Silk waves, "Yep. And, fresh. Guess whose got a job? Doesn't pay -much-, but it's something. And, all off the books too. No questions. It's good work, nothing shady," she amends, quickly with a half-grin beneath her new bright-red veil, before stuffing a piece of fried chicken under it.
Swallowing, offers, "Have as much as you want. It's - a thank you gift, for everything. Not much. But." Her bright brown eyes watch her friend, "Figured it's the least I can do, for now."
"I wish I could get a job," Spider-Girl remarks with a bit of jealousy in her tone. "With this, and… ya know. The other life I live? Don't see how it's even possible." She crawls upon the edge of the building next to Cindy and reaches for a huge chunk of chicken without needing to be asked twice. "You sure know how to thank a girl," she says, with a grin that's soon concealed by the fact that she's shoving a huge bite of chicken into her mouth.
Mid-chew, she turns to study Silk's new costume and grins as well as she can with her mouth full. "Mib ma mew mibs."
Apparently Cindy didn't quite catch that from the look she gives Anya, before gently pushing at the other girl, "You didn't even say anything about my costume! Blackbird made it for me. She's pretty cool. I'd like to hang with her a bit more. You're pretty cool, too. Everyone is. I even met that guy, who was at Times Square? The one who put the spear into the lady commanding all those scorpions? His name is Hod. Really nice guy."
She pauses as she takes another bite of chicken, chewing healthily, and swallowing before asking, "Was that Spider-Woman who was fighting with us? I haven't really met her yet. With the raid, I mean."
Chewing fast and swallowing, Spider-Girl giggles as she's shoved and gives Silk a look. When the light catches her mask just right, one can almost make out the shape of her eyes, but the true detail is clouded. "I just said, dig the new digs!" She laughs again, and takes a moment to really give the costume a once over, grinning.
"Yeah, Blackbird. She gave me this backpack. Thought I'd thought of everything, ya know? Every thing I could do to keep these identities separate. Nope." She shakes her head. "Didn't think about the backpack that's covered in patches. So obviously she ran into the other me when she was the other her."
After taking another bite of chicken, she turns to face Cindy, and talks with her mouth full again. "Mm. Mo. Mbut sheck shis oub." Swallow. "She's not even from here! She's from a parallel dimension. Well, not exactly parallel, just… another timeline. Quantum theory stuff. She went by Spider-Girl in her world, so, we kinda just go by 'Black' and 'Red' when we're in the field. Isn't that crazy??"
"You mean, like on Star Trek?" Cindy at least was familiar with the concept, even if science wasn't her field of expertise. She gives a wry smile that is hidden by the veil but can be seen in her eyes, shaking her head some. "I'm just a hockey-jock who had this happen to her. You, and Spider-Man are super whizzes at all this techno-babble and creative stuff. But that's cool. We're all a little different, I guess."
She finishes off her piece of chicken, grabs another. "I didn't think about the backpack either," she admits. "But then, also didn't know you were carrying it around in your regular life. Me, I'm just - well, this is all I got." She laughs at that, some.
"Wonder how many more of us there are? I mean, if there's this many of us in one city …"
"Omigod, yes, exactly," Anya answers in reference to Star Trek. "Except, I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a beard, or shove people into agonizers."
Then again she doesn't know too much about Mayday's world.
Doing a lot better between chewing and talking, Anya eventually gives Cindy a look. "That's not true. You got a job now, ya know? It's a start. Better than 12 Cloverfield Lane."
Cindy's musing has her shrugging. "I dunno. Kinda got me wondering." She looks out to the city lights. "Wondering if there ain't something else going on here. Something… bigger."
Cindy nods as well. She frowns, momentarily, "I guess we'll find out, if it is?" She exhales, some. "Still not sure what-all I should be doing, but doing my best. And it seems to be going okay. I mean, some things are /obvious/, like helping find the children and combat the Nightfall, or stopping those idiots — did you -know- they were Gods? Real Gods? Like, Ancient Gods of different pantheons? I guess someone did something and they're fighting because of an old feud."
She shakes her head, "But I mean," she returns to her original tangent, "Sometimes it's hard to know when to act, you know? Or, what the right thing is. I don't wanna screw this up, and cause more problems for Spider-Man. Or myself."
Behind the mask, Anya rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I knew they were gods, but I didn't know this is all over some old feud. Fucking…" She trails off and shakes her head. Do NOT go down that tangent, Anya. Not tonight.
With a half eaten piece of chicken in hand, Anya suddenly goes quiet. She's clearly thinking of something, and finds herself a bit hesitant to bring it up. "Yeah," she says, stalling. "I know. I mean… it's just… ugh."
She abruptly turns to face Cindy. "Like why does someone rob a store? Or a person? Or break into a car? Cause they're hungry? Got a drug addiction? Last thing they need is some chick webbing them up just so the cops can come and throw 'em in jail, or worse." She pauses. "I guess they're less likely to shoot someone when they're webbed up, at least. But like… then I think about the shop owner, or the chick who owns the car. Sucks for them too, right, to get vandalized or whatever?"
She shakes her head. "That kinda shit's common place where I grew up. Not as much anymore but." She laughs a bit. "I remember these times Abuela- grandma- would make us hide under the bed while Papa sat there in his nightgown with a shotgun in his lap. Like, his hands shook, but swear to god if one of those gang bangers came through our door, he'd have blown their brains all over the wall."
She looks down at her chicken, lost in thought that comes in the wake of such a tangent.
It's that honesty that makes Cindy realize the difference between her and Anya's worldview. "Wow." She exhales, "The worst problems I ever had were making my parents mad at me for running off and playing hockey with the boys instead of doing science fair shit. They wanted me to be - well, you," Cindy says, but she means it in a positive manner, "You're brilliant with all the inventions and technology and things. They wanted 'more' for me. And I just kind of wanted to have fun."
Given what's happened with her parents, and that not yet being resolved, she's a bit solemn about it all. She confides, "In fact, the whole -reason- I was there, and got these powers was because my mom caught me sneaking out and made me promise to go to try and 'better myself'. That was the last time I saw her. Or dad."
She exhales, "But, I get it. I think we're both smart enough to figure it out. It's like I'm two different people, though. I know what to do in a fight. I'm confident, I don't hesitate. It's like - in a way I can just even go on autopilot. It's weird. But the moment I have to think about: should I help this weirdo in a mask who looks like he was trying to sniper this dude who is into human trafficking and told me he's a mercenary free these ladies and tie him up? - I did, but. He looked like he was a killer. He told me he was a killer. But he didn't kill. That time. We teamed up. Like … Starsky and Hutch. Or whatever that show was that my parents always talked about."
Anya shrugs. "I mean, it's all the same stuff. Grandma doesn't have much, but she was nice. Always nice. I mean she'd run my ass into a gutter for mouthing off or hanging with the wrong amigos, but she was nice. Guess I'd rather have all that then, like, a drunk for a dad or something."
Cindy's tale does well to drag her away from a line of thought that Anya does not want to go down. Not yet. Instead, she takes another bite of chicken and draws her legs up to tuck them under her arms, toes wiggling a bit under spider-silk.
"I don't know if… if I could actually kill someone. Then I think about those monsters, and Nightfall, and what they're doing to kids. Maybe that weirdo in a mask isn't all that wrong, but…" She visibly shivers. "Actually killing someone? Scary thing is, I can punch through a solid cement wall now. Doesn't even bruise my knuckles. If I didn't hold back, I could… you know." A long pause. "What if, some day, I lose my temper?" She turns to look at Cindy with a long expression. This is real talk, and it has her feeling a slight tremble of fear in her belly.
"We're caught up in some shit, Silk," she goes on. "Fighting magic-fueled god-servants with Batman? Having meetings in the Avengers Mansion? We're on Captain America's radar, for Christ's sake. I used to read his comic books."
"At least you had something to say? Me? I had abolutely -nothing- to say of any worth. I was just like: Hi, I'm a Spider-Girl too, and I don't even have a costume! So ignore me!" Silk looks glum for a few moments, but the other? The other she can offer pointers on.
"It's about trusting yourself, Spider-Girl. It's about trusting your gut. And following it. You've got a mouth on you," oh yes, she's noticed, "And you're quick to act when you feel the need." She's been paying attention. There -is- a brain, a smart one, there. It's just not geared like hers or Peter's. "Hot-headed. But." She holds up a finger, the tip of it free from confines to allow her weblines a place to cast without trouble. "You've got one important thing."
She reaches out and pokes that finger into Anya's sternum. "You've got heart. And you're afraid of your power. That's good. You should be. Don't ever lose that. It's okay to enjoy it. To have fun. To webzip through the city, to fight, and even like what you can do. Even that crazy armored thing you can do, which I'd never heard of before. But as long as you respect your power and abilities, as long as you have heart, you won't kill anyone that you don't mean to."
She pauses, "If you want, I can help train you on some control, like the Old Man trained me. Little tricks. But, really? That's the jist of it. This," she taps Anya's heart again, "Is where all your strength comes from. Not in the arms, or legs. Here. Your powers, and your determination. This."
Regarding the meeting, Anya just smirks. "I got a-" she's about to say, then shuts up as Cindy finishes the thought for her. A quiet laugh and a bit of blushing comes next, but she settles down and listens. Talk of heart seems to take her off guard, even causing her breath to catch in her throat for a moment.
There's no way that Cindy could know; her last name, translated from Spanish, is 'heart'.
She looks at Cindy for a long moment before finally turning her eyes away. "I hope so," she says at long last, with a quiet voice. "Apparently a part of it also comes from some ancient artifact that I picked up, and… merged with me. Something very old. Magic. Not sure yet if it's… black magic or what."
"Magic is just another ability, another power," Cindy suggests, reasonably, remembering when Anya had shown her the weird glowing tattoo on her back. She affectionally rubs her friends back, then, before offering her another piece of fried chicken. "I don't think it's good, or bad of it's own. It's what you make of it. What you DO with it, that makes it good or bad. Besides. I haven't met a bad Spider yet."
She considers, "Though that -thing-, person, it? Whatever it was? that helped us against Rhino and Vulture? I mean. I'm not sure about that. But it wasn't a Spider."
Thankfully, Anya tosses the spent bones into the bag and accepts another piece of chicken. Talk of that strange creature however has her lips curling. "Oh, god! That thing. That thing was creepy as hell. Like, literally, it's what I imagine comes out of hell if you portal into it, which." She holds up a finger. "Apparently hell is real, and Limbo is a real place as well." She shakes her head. "I meet some strange people, Silk."