1726/With Aftermath You Get Egg Roll.

With Aftermath You Get Egg Roll.
Date of Scene:	18 May 2020
Location:	Tenement building, rooftop, near Chinatown
Synopsis:	Spidey touches base with Miss Winters, and offers are made.
Cast of Characters:	Cecily Winters, Peter Parker

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Cecily Winters has posed:
    The aftermath of the warehouse raid is followed up, finished, and people part ways. There's an invitation, and though Cecily isn't a web slinger by any means, she doesn't have the most trouble scaling her way up to a rooftop. A fire escape here, a drain pipe there, and some protruding bricks over there. But the fox-tailed vigilante's legs hang over the edge as she gazes off into the night, hands busy untying a plastic shopping bag that says 'Thank You' six times on one side and 'Lucky Dragon Chinese BBQ' ont he other, holding some of those square, wire-handled takeout boxes.

    "Chicken curry and chow mein for me.... some egg rolls..." she investigates a couple of the containers, then sets the others on the edge of the roof. "...what did you order again?" she asks, tails flicking behind her.

Peter Parker has posed:
The one who had extended the invitation is perched on the edge of the roof in a low crouch, but doesn't seem to mind. He looks over to Cecily, lifting the mask partway to just above his nose. No mandibles, no six eyes, no bristles. A fairly ordinary face.

"Mongolian beef, beef chow mein, chicken egg rolls, and plenty of that soy sauce, thank you very much. And the cherry Coke."
He smiles, a lopsided smile. He sounds...a little young, but very sure of himself. Someone who had to achieve adulthood on the accelerated-learning path.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily is unmasked, always, and just has to deal with it. The sight of a hero doesn't both her, masked, unmasked, or half or otherwise. She chuckles quietly, sliding the drink over and dumping a small bag of soy sauce packets on top of Spidey's takeout boxes. There's also a pack of chopsticks, and one of those little pre-wrapped fork/knife combos and a little stack of napkins.

    Cecily, to her credit, actually seems older than she looks or sounds, and she daintily begins to extract one of her egg rolls to nibble on. "You're welcome," she says, sounding a little bit warmer than she did when dealing with the police captain. With Stacy, it was all business, as professional as can be. Here, she seems like she can exhale, loosen up her shoulders, and just stare off in to the distance.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey pours the teriyaki sauce from the little plastic bowl onto the Mongolian beef, then pours the soy sauce packets into the bowl, setting it aside, then eyes the spork and eschews it for an actual fork from a plastic container in his backpack. He dips one checken egg roll into the soy sauce, then takes a bite of noodles and adds a bite of the egg roll to it in his mouth, mixing noodles, soy sauce, and egg roll.
He swallows, then takes a swig of cherry Coke. "This is pretty good. You should check out the Golden Dragon restaurant in Chinatown, though." He takes a few more bites, then asks, "Would it be too personal to ask how you got all...furry?"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily eats a bit more 'straight,' taking slow but thoughtful bites of one thing at a time. She doesn't set on something new until she's finished her egg roll, ever so careful to not drip sweet and sour sauce on her clothes. Her still surprisingly immaculate attire after the scuffle in the warehouse. The scent of burning Franks has at least given way to the meal they're having. "I would have ordered from there were we in walking distance," she says in answer, taking up her fork to twirl some noodles around it.

    She eats quietly, thoughtfully, pausing to dribble some soy sauce into the paper box as Spidey's question meets her ears and bounces around in her brain. She just offers him a smirk, "No more personal than asking how you can stick to walls, shoot webs, and bend like a Slinky walking down an MC Escher painting, dear."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. "Fair point." He looks thoughtful. "Well...mine was a science experiment with unexpected circumstances. Plus some innate brainpower I already had." He holds up the arm holding the egg roll to show her the web-shooter mounted on his inner wrist. "Had to build this myself, reverse-engineering the spidersilk from actual spider webbing. Kinda better this way. Beat having it come out of my butt."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    There's a soft laugh from the fox, a surprising sound coming from the usually intense woman. "...not only would that be obscene, but also terribly impractical, no?" she asks. "You would be hard pressed to swing about like you do, were that the case. Though more traditional spiders are the sorts to set meticulously woven traps, not zoom about the city..." she muses. Then she lifts her shoulders in a shrug and looks back to the skyline, nibbling thoughtfully on a slice of curried green pepper.

    "Best I can come up with? It just sort of happened. Two years ago, portals in the sky, alien ships and things all over..." she closes her eyes, recalling her 'awakening' and shaking her head. "It was rather jarring, to say the least. Whether it was some cosmic energy accident or divine intervention, I'm quite unsure..." her voice trails off, then a soft laugh comes. "I took a trip to Japan over a decade ago and prayed at a shrine I found while on a walking tour, but outside of that one trip I haven't bumped into Japanese culture otherwise... unless my love of teriyaki chicken and fried tofu caused it?" she suggests, tails waving behind her.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey shrugged. "If that was true, I think the anime community would be nothing but catgirls." He digs into the chow mein. "Life's not really fair. No instruction manual, no guidance, no hint sheet. Just Here's the Powers, Do Something With Them." He sighs. "It's why I hung around. It's also why I was kinda glad to see Rave deferring to you. A lot of would-be heroes need guidance."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Another soft laugh, the fox's head shaking. She digs into her own noodles, listening, one ear swivelled to take in his words, the other listening to the city. "I'm lucky enough to have my parents. My friends on the force. Support goes a long way. It can be difficult to be a good person when you suddenly have godpowers at your fingertips.." she sets her fork down, looking at her fingertips and swirling a bit of that blue-white flame around in little spirals.

    "Rave is still very much a teenager. Having so much thrust onto oneself when there's still the rest of your life ahead of you must be quite a burden. She has a kind heart, and though wild and impulsive, is willing to learn. I only hope that I can be there to lend a hand should her eagerness put her in trouble that's way above her head."

    A quiet sigh is exhaled, and Cecily snuffs the flame, "I'm only her guardian part time. I can't be there every waking moment. She needs to learn that even superheroes can fail... but there's strength in standing back up after everything falls down, and moving forward with a willingness to do better and be better. Not give in." She picks up her own drink, steam rising from what could only be tea.

    "..but now I'm just preaching to the choir, aren't I, Spider-Man. Great power and all. I'm just a woman with a lot of toys trying to stay on the light side of the gray."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey chuckles. "I stick to things. I fire spiderwebs, and I have a lot of quick. The only 'god power' is my Spider-Sense. And my brains...I had that before the rest of them. But I agree with you about not giving up, even when you get knocked down. There's a reason that *my* hero is Rocky Balboa." He takes a sip. "My uncle once told me that in many fights, the winner is just the last person who gets up again after being knocked down."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Now you're just selling yourself short..." Cecily says over her teacup. "...you've been doing this for how long? And I'm quite sure I've seen you just about lift up a car... though I suppose my memory can be hazy..." she considers, looking thoughtful for a moment. But after the teasing and thoughtfulness slips away, there's a gentle little smile on her lips. "...Rocky? My hero shares traits like that..." she says quietly, looking down into the little plastic lid for a moment. "...but my hero is my mother."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks to his food. "I...had my uncle." Suddenly, he's not very hungry. "He...was killed about two years ago. By a guy I had just let pass me three weeks previous. Because I was selfish."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily continues to stare into her tea, then shakes her head slowly. "My condolences. My mother was injured during 9/11, but there was nothing I could have done to prevent that. Not then, not now. But mistakes that may have been made when it was in our power to do otherwise can and will hurt the most," she says quietly. "It looks to me like you're still standing, at the very least, and that has to count for something, yes?"

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man nods. "Because I have to. Because if I don't, it will happen again. It's terrible enough to make a mistake of that magnitude. What does it say about me if I make it *twice?*"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Just keep your head above the water. Mistakes will come and go, ones you can and can't control, but you're doing well, from all I can see," Cecily says quietly, taking another sip. "The guardian in me hopes, for Rave's sake, she doesn't have to contend with something tragic that makes her question herself and all she does. She's not just a paycheck, I do care for the girl. But I know in my heart that day -will- come, and I only hope that I can be there to help her pick up the pieces afterwards. Not everyone is afforded that luxury."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks thoughtful. "Have you thought about getting her some kind of training in her powers? Someone who might be able to train her responsibly? You seem to have a basic grip of yours, but hers are substantially different..."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    A light shrug, and Cecily is still taking a nibble of her food here and there, another small egg roll disappearing into her mouth. She crunches away on it for a few moments, then washes it down with a slow, deep drink of her tea. "The thought had crossed my mind, but I would need approval from her family. I was hired as her bodyguard. Or as Rave puts it, her assistant. I can make suggestions to her, but she is her own young woman and I was hired by her family. You saw what she did in there, yes?"

    There's a shake of her head, "She's a household name in the underground clubs, and there's no mask to hide her when she's in class either. At the end of the day, she can just as much turn off her light as easily as I can remove my tails and be Cecily... Her family is quite worried about her safety, from what I can gather. Whether it be familial sincerity or trying to keep any potential fallout from reflecting back on them, I can't be sure... but any kind of additional hands in her training would have to be not just well thought out and approved, but also something Rave herself would sign off on."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey nods. "Well...I can't move as fast as her. But I know someone who could teach her a martial art. Less chance of hurting herself if she's trained in fighting."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Another soft laugh, "Few can. She's just about literally light speed. Makes it a bother to keep up with her. Which is why I prefer to perch on rooftops like this and watch her work from afar. At the least I can pick off threats before they hit her instead," Winters says with a faint smile. "If you have any names or references, I would certainly enterain them and pass them on. I doubt she would have issue with learning hand-to-hand combat from you, either. She seemed impressed that you and I were.. hanging out."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man finishes off the Monglian Beef. "I wonder how cool she might think if I told her I was learning ninjutsu? From an actual ninja, too."
Spidey puts down the empty carton, goes to work on the chow mein.
"Less punching and risking being hurt, more, using speed to her advantage. I could ask my teacher how she feels about another student?"

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "If you could, please?" Cecily asks, a gentle, heartfelt request. "I was NYPD before my ... awakening. My hand-to-hand combat style is entirely defensive, arrest-focused. I may have been hard pressed to drop that entire warehouse with my bare hands, but even before I had powers I could disarm and arrest a pair of combatants at my peak. Hardly compatible with Rave's quickness at all. She is a striker. Also..."

    There's a little sigh, "...she'd likely be more receptive to advice from a real superhero, like you. Perhaps I'm just imagining it, but I feel she sees me as more parental oversight and a reminder of her family's influence. She would prefer to call me 'assistant' to keep as far from the term 'bodyguard' as humanly possible. I admit that I do not know what her opinion of me is, but at the absolute least, she trusts me. And that's enough for now."

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man smiles warmly. "Listen...if you want to talk to her, let her know that I sympathize with what she is dealingg with and I'd like to ask her if she is willing to learn martial arts to help with her new career." He takes a thin card out of his backpack and hands it to Cecily. "You can reach me at this number. It has voicemail. Just...let me know what she says. And if you want to reach out to some others I know to teach about police procedure and forensics...let me know."