18027/X Spiders = N Symbiotes

X Spiders = N Symbiotes
Date of Scene:	22 May 2024
Location:	Columbus Park
Synopsis:	Dagger and Mania meet. How many Spider-adjacent people are in this city again? Chocolate is shared.
Cast of Characters:	Tandy Bowen, Andi Benton

---

Tandy Bowen has posed:
Dagger is doing solo patrol tonight. Cloak is still healing and her light has been somewhat low while trying to feed him, so she's spent the day recharging naturally and looking for some lower scale perps that she might be able to have repenting on her own. Sometimes hopes and dreams are enough to turn things around. Maybe she'll seek out addicts, see if those hopes and a purge can make a real difference. When it does, she feels like she's flying. When it doesn't... well. You can offer the cure, but you can't make someone take it.

Still, she's not really expecting to see ANOTHER of... whatever Lil Teefies is. It's not him. The figure is too small, the looks are - well, she's pretty sure they're the same species, looking at this one in the eyes, but she doesn't see the razor sharp teeth that she nicknamed the other for, and there are no giant spikes being shot at the late night park wanderers. Dagger approaches cautiously.

Andi Benton has posed:
There are spikes in Mania's 'design,' and there's a spidery insignia or logo front and back. The visual looks like it could be in the same vein as Venom's, except there are some differences in size, proportion, all that.

She'd been weblining her way through the city, going from one place to another. Patrolling, looking for just the right thing to eat, simply wandering. Whatever the case, she's stopped to check out something in the park. A claw-tipped hand pauses where the mouth would be, then she turns in the direction of the one closing in on her to look, one solid white 'eye' larger than the other.

Tandy Bowen has posed:
Dagger tilts her head. "You have a spider symbol... but you look like Lil Teefies.. uh, that's not his real name, I definitely gave it to him when he was chasing some purse snatchers, but big dude? Mouth full of big, razor-sharp teeth? Tentacles? Taste for human flesh and chocolate?" She rubs the back of her neck, a little awkward. "You two uh... related? Same experiment? You multiply like the spiders do? I swear I meet one spider-person, next day there's three, then more, pretty sure we're all gonna be spider-people, it's like the crab of metahuman powers." She might be babbling a bit. Just a bit. But damn, she's curious.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's arms cross, head tilting at all the questions. In a dual-sounding voice, female and something other, she says, "We look like what?" A few of those spikes flex at the mention of human flesh, but there's also a shifting in place when the chocolate is brought up. "Uh..chocolate, at least. We would have that. But you're asking some questions we don't want to answer." Internally, she's trying to figure out if she's seen this one around before or not.

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"Oh yeah, that's fair, sorry, I'm just really curious about the whole" Dagger waves her hand up and down. "I didn't get to ask Teefs many questions, and it's not like I can just put up signs like "HAVE YOU SEE A BIG GOO MONSTER WITH THE TEETH" or something, I don't want him to get hurt." She pauses. "I'm pretty sure he sounded like a him. But yeah. Big eyes, slick black skin. You got spikes instead, but you're not shooting them at me so that's a real one-up on the first one like you I met." She dug in the very small bag attached to her hip, and produced a small piece of dark chocolate. "Here, chocolate. I'm Dagger."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's response to this is something that's rather on the aloof side.

<<Mania>> What is this person going on about, Andi?
<<Andi>> I don't know, but it sure sounds like she met Venom and is still here to tell about it.

"For starters, it's probably not a good idea to call him that," she says aloud. "But..yeah, we know who you're talking about. And we don't, uh, do the 'eating brains' thing. That's why we have..that." There's a pause when the chocolate is pulled out, and without much thought about it a tendril snaps out to snag it, causing it to disappear moments later. Not via the mouth, either. It just..gets absorbed in somehow.

"We are Mania. And you're smart to carry chocolate."

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"He can introduce himself next time then. I didn't want to call him Gooey or Goo Monster while we were trying to keep him from eating the dude. I mean, then we found out the dude was purse snatching from grannies and I had a little regret about not letting him eat the guy, but it was too late. He seems alright if you aren't being all evil and shit." Dagger blinked as the chocolate was absorbed. "Huh. You need to meet my buddy Cloak, he eats kinda the same way. Less with the tentacles though. So you don't eat the brains? Is that the diet?" Ew, prions. "Smart of you, brains are gross. Chocolate's way better."

Maybe her hindbrain's just a little dumb in the face of potential terror. She breaks off two pieces. One is popped into her mouth, the other one is held out. "So, the spider thing. Are you spider-people too, Mania? Can you be both? That's pretty rad."

Andi Benton has posed:
"We..." This is leading to a little bit of..what is it, exactly? Confusion? Frustration? It's hard to tell. "..probably would have beaten up someone who did that, but we wouldn't have eaten him." For now, the little voice inside doesn't even tease Andi about it.

Mania adds, "And we don't have to 'eat' that way. We just..decided to. We'd rather have chocolate." One doesn't need to say it's the much safer option, really.

Of course, when more is offered, more is accepted. This time it's held up to the part of the 'mask' where the mouth would be, and basically pushed inside to eat. See? It can be done normally! No visible teeth, though. No overly large maw.

"We learned from Spider-Man," is her simple enough answer to that part.

Tandy Bowen has posed:
Dagger nods like this makes perfect sense. Of course, anything is possible at this point, and well. She knows Peter pretty well. He's absolutely the type to teach someone in the hopes they'll be a force for good. The other spiders seem similar, in that respect. "I'm pretty sure he's just building a Spider Army on the DL," she says out loud. Army of do-gooders. She's one of them sometimes, they just don't agree on the containment method. "It's cool though, somebody's gotta stop the goo dude with the hedgehog spikes, right? Why not a legion of spiders? I mean, Cloak ate him last time, but getting him back up was pretty nasty." She was going to have to start carrying more chocolate.

Andi Benton has posed:
There were things that happened. Right place, right time, Mania ended up mentored by Spider-Man himself. It would explain a few things.

She shakes her head, admitting, "We don't talk to him as much any more, but he helped us when we needed it. And..which one are you talking about? We thought we saw something about Carnage being out again recently." /This/ causes her own spiky 'accessories' to bristle, the eyes narrowing.

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"Yeaaaaaaah, that's the dude. Angry about everything, wants to get his murder monster on? Maybe he should've gotten a spider mentor or something, he needs a whole factory of Snickers." Dagger shook her head. "You're all reasonable and Teefs was... reasonable enough, just kinda making a ruckus right outside my work and crashing my date night, so I had to step in. Bad for business, eating folks right outside the diner like that."

Andi Benton has posed:
If the eyes can give away a scowl, that's the effect right now. It helps with Mania's body language, hands making into fists, her own spikes flexing more prominently. "We helped stop him once, and we'll do it again. It was hard, but he would kill anyone just because he can. And he's another reason we don't do..that."

At least one of the symbiotes has to set a good example, right? Or at least, not the sort where you really don't know if you'll be getting eaten that night or not?

Although, it seems she's getting weary of some of the topics at hand, showing in her pacing a little this way and that, looking at her surroundings for a few seconds. "Why are you called Dagger, then? Do you stab people?"

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"He's awful, I'm glad you aren't following that sort of example." She's glad that 2/3 of the goo monsters she's met seem... fairly reasonable, either not trying to kill or only going after criminals. Dagger holds her hand out, and a small, bright bit of light sharpens into the shape echoed on her suit. "I make daggers out of the light, and I can do things with them. We're not fighting, so if you stab yourself with it you'll just feel like someone gave you a light slap in the area. It shouldn't do more than sting. Normally they knock people out." Or worse, but generally she did the mental equivalent of setting phasers to stun.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania paces on, evidence of a restlessness that lingers. Could be any number of reasons behind it. There's still a pause after nodding once. "We try to help people, not eat them." A good thing, for sure.

The pause is extended as the demonstration is given along with the explanation. "That's different," she says, the eyes shaped so it looks like she's peering more closely. "But if it stops someone..good enough?"

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"If they're a small time criminal... sometimes it's enough," Dagger admits. "They see how their life could be different. If they're an addict, or poisoned, some diseases... if they truly want to be healed, and they're going to try and be better. I can heal them. Just of that one thing, but sometimes just that one thing is enough." Her smile softens into something very fond. "Cloak - is like the other half of my soul. Where I see hopes and dreams, the cure. He sees the shadows, the fears and nightmares." She shrugs, and her voice hardens.

"Sometimes, the only way to excise the rot is to burn it out."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania will just say nothing about potential addictions to chocolate, but when it's that or brains, you stick with the safer option.

"If it works on some of them, it's better than nothing," she supposes, a tilt of the head at what she hears of Cloak in comparison. It doesn't tell her a lot that she understands yet, but she hasn't met him. "So you usually go out together?" comes the question, seeking clarification. Back to being in motion, chunky footwear of some sort thudding with her steps.

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"It is better than nothing, yes," Dagger agrees. "We do normally go out together, but he's injured. It's just me tonight, but I can be plenty scary on my own." She gives Mania a 'grrr' face that isn't actually anything more than stern, then breaks into a laugh. "I'm very scary, see?"

Andi Benton has posed:
The arms cross again, claw-like fingers resting across one arm with the opposite tucked under the other one. An eye enlarges, then she shakes her head seriously and informs, "No, sorry. We weren't scared at all. You look like you're trying to scold a kitty." If only Dagger knew what Mania thought of cats. Maybe one day.

But, the fidgeting is getting to her enough to say afterward, "We do need to get home, but we are around this city a lot. Send us a private message sometime if you want to talk again, with or without your friend." Everyone's got a social media account these days.

Tandy Bowen has posed:
"I would never scold a kitty. They are a small innocent thing and have never done anything wrong." Okay, she would, but mainly only to scoop a cat out of danger. She wouldn't actually be mean about it. "We're around the city a lot too, maybe we'll run into each other again. Nice to meet you! If you see Teefs tell him I said I still owe him an egg sandwich!" She waves, then turns towards the edge of the park. It's getting late. Time to find an alley and request a 'port from Ty.