3730/Spiraling Down

Spiraling Down
Date of Scene:	07 October 2020
Location:	Tenderloin District
Synopsis:	Spider-Man crosses paths with an eight-limbed non-spider.
Cast of Characters:	Spiral, Peter Parker

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Spiral has posed:
Most people would find flipping attention between Tahiti (a magical place), Belle Reve, and New York to be quite hard, but teleporting sure does make it easier. She's been a bit slack in making cyborgs of late, but yesterday she made a few improvements to three people in a single day. Cheap ones, as she doesn't want to use up any of her expensive materials.

And she did it in the warehouse she's sitting on the roof of, legs dangling over the side of the building. It's not where her ACTUAL Body Shoppe is. She just moved some of her cheaper kit to here for those three especially. Then she sent them out into the world with a nice dose of psychotic drugs, knowing they'd cause trouble, and making sure she turned them loose with some witnesses, at least some hobos or something here to see them leave this building.

And now she waits. Silly heroes, what's taking so long.

Peter Parker has posed:
Better living through technology. Sometimes it works...sometimes it doesn't.

Spider-Man's had an interesting night. A trio of gunslinger gals firing rifle rounds from their arm was a lot trickier than he thought, but they are now trussed up with a drone re-purposed to put them in debug mode for the NYPD. CCTV records has their backtrail ending at this location, and this particular building.

So, when Spidey lands on the billboard facing the shop, his gear is already up and scanning.
Some serious power usage. getting some interesting RF signatures and...

Okay. A six-armed samurai girl. Okay. He can work with this. He is registering some HEAVY body mods on her, so, best to be careful.

He jumps from the billboard, swinging to his left to bounce off the nearby parking garage to land on the roof about fifty feet from Spiral.

"Tell me...were those cyberpunkettes yours?"

Spiral has posed:
Ah, here they are! And a spider-man of honor too, no suddenly being smashed over the back of the head or anything. She's certainly weird, and modified - a blasphemous blend of science and magic, a bit like the cyborgs she made actually, she doesn't use purely scientific techniques to warp peoples bodies.

She gets up quickly and turns around to face him, going up on tiptoe and skipping forward a step or two like a ballerina. No sense in not being prepared after all, as all six hands weave in various patterns and forms around her, almost hypnotic. She has two swords in her belt and doesn't go for them, at least.

"Mine? Not really." she says. "Much depends on your point of view after all, I don't consider them mine. Why?" she asks, smiling a bit, her solid white eyes glowing inscrutably.

Peter Parker has posed:
Yeah, there goes the old Spider-Sense. She's dangerous, that's for sure. But apart from the cybernetics, he's not sure HOW dangerous.

He is getting that old, familiar You-Are-In-Over-Your-Head feeling, though.

"I'm looking for the party responsible for letting them shoot up Midtown. With guns implanted in their arms. Seriously, we got gun laws in this city."

Spiral has posed:
Spiral spreads four of her six arms - the top two though keep weaving through the air, tracing out magical patterns, perhaps. She really doesn't seem like she wants to hurt him though, she's just being cautious!

Or... devious.

"I didn't order them to shoot up Midtown. I didn't even provide the guns. I did sort of... combine them though.". Two of her hands are held out to face him, palms out, and then she moves one behind the other, a definite 'merging' gesture.

"Entirely voluntarily I should add. Someone pays me to do it. I am just the costume designer, not the director.". Her tone, despite her naturally quite assertive voice is a bit meeker than normal, and her four lower arms droop a bit submissively. Acting, darling!

Peter Parker has posed:
"...Combine them." Peter eyed her speculatively. "Maybe you should try to find a better clientele."

Costume designer...director. Interesting terms. The camera takes a video picture of her face for cataloguing, looking for similar faces. He is not sure what he'd find, but she's talking either Broadway...or Hollywood.

"So, what should I call you? 'Hey, You' seems kinda rude, lady."

Spiral has posed:
It's fair to say that she has a distant background in Hollywood alright, but Spiral doesn't exactly look like Rita Wayword any more. Maybe the face... vaguely. On the other hand there probably aren't too many stuntwomen who mysteriously disappeared either.

"I am trying. In fact I do, now, but I have not yet weaned entirely off of the New York street punks. I'm in demand too much around here.". She licks her lips when he asks for her name.

"I'm Spiral." she tells him, hardly shy about handing it out. "And you are...? I suppose you're not going to be a new customer.".

Peter Parker has posed:
"Spiral, eh? Sounds like a pseudonym with a story." He pauses, regarding her.

"So you've never heard of me? Wow. That means I get to do the full intro." He bows. "I go by many names, but my full offical title is Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. There's a hyphen. Please use it. I go by Spider-Man...or just Spidey...or even Webhead. I go by other names, but they aren't really names I'd like you to use...or even hear about. I'm the original blue-collar superhero. And...on the eternal crud-list of one J. Jonah Jameson, editor at the DAILY BUGLE."

Spiral has posed:
"It's not a pseudonym, it's my name. Who I am. I'm a vat grown slave from another dimension." she partially lies. "I don't pay that much attention to what humans get up to these days." Spiral admits. "Especially ... newspapers. That and I am fairly new to this city.". She shakes her head a bit about the 'respect the hyphen' thing. "I probably won't be writing your name down, Spider... Man.". She even pauses a bit between words. NO HYPHEN.

"So. Now we know each other... and are friends, Friendly Spider Man... Does that mean we can go about our respective businesses now? Whatever it is you do. Being a friend in need?".

Peter Parker has posed:
Dang. It's just the TINIEST pause between words. Is that so hard?

"Figured I should give you a little advice. You being so new in town, you might need a little knowledge."

He took a deep breath. "If you want to do Uri Geller stuff, bend bodies of people willing to do that sorta thing, as long as it doesn't break the law, then you do you, as they say. But if they go out and shoot up a street, that means you're on the hook. It's called aiding and abetting. Supplying weapons. Accessory before the fact. One or more of those. And if I see any more people with your hallmark committing crimes, then I'm going to come calling. Asking uncomfortable questions. Maybe even make sure the NYPD asks you more of those questions."

Spiral has posed:
"Uri... Geller?" Spiral asks, blinking. She has no idea who the hell that is, clearly, and her nose wrinkles a bit. But the laws she does know, and laughs, with each extra crime laughing a little louder. "The NYPD? Why would you inflict that on them?" she wonders, finding the threat of arrest quite hilarious.

Probably she shouldn't, as Amanda Waller wouldn't be very happy, but never mind.

"So that's it?" she asks, a bit annoyed it seems, her lower two hands going to her hips. The meek and friendly facade is fading a bit. "You're just going to threaten me with the human cops? You really ARE friendly - well, not to the cops. Maybe we should go to Elizabeth's dance club one day.".

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man looks at her for a long moment.
"Not sure what you're used to, but I don't engage in idle threats. You get a pass tonight because no one got hurt or killed. But this is your ONLY free pass, Spiral. After this...it's consequences-and-repercussions time."

Another brief pause, and his voice is firm.
"Don't confuse gentleness for weakness, Spiral."

Spiral has posed:
Spiral narrows her eyes at him for a long moment, the hands on her hip joined by folding the middle ones over her chest. Evidently, the cogwheels are turning. "I am not buying anything for my customers, or in general forcing them do anything they don't want to do already." she eventually says, and shakes her head a little. "Act One is not going as I planned." she mutters under her breath.

"Well, fine then." she says, irritated now. "You know even if you get rid of me nothing will really change here. If you are trying to be the NYPDs errand boy.".

Peter Parker has posed:
Spidey chuckles. "Oh, if ONLY I was considered high enough in the NYPD's consideration to qualify for ERRAND BOY. No, it's more the Starfish Thing. Shall I regale you with the Starfish Story? Haven't told it in almost a week."

Spiral has posed:
"Go on then. I'm here now.". Spiral sounds quite pugnaciously bored though, so it better be good! She actually starts dancing around in front of him, pirouetting, swaying her hips around, and all six hands spiralling through the air and forming odd patterns and shapes. A few sparkles appear in the air around her, but she holds the magic there rather than promptly bamfing back to Belle Reve to eat some of the prison gumbo.

"Well..?" she asks, the dancing slowing a bit, but not entirely stopping.

Peter Parker has posed:
Spider-Man watches her warily as she moves. He's actually recording her as she dances, which will be broken down and analyzed for later.

"Guy walks out on a beach in the early morning. He looks out and sees the tide's gone out, leaving hundreds of starfish stranded on the beach. He also sees another guy walking along the beach, picking up starfish, and throwing them out into the surf, one at a time."

Something's building, but to what?

"The first guy yells, 'Hey! There's hundreds of them! You're never going to save them all! In the end, it doesn't matter!' The second guy looks at the first one, then picks up another starfish, slings it out into the ocean, then points at where it landed. '...Mattered to THAT one.'"

Spiral has posed:
Spiral rolls her eyes, though its hard to tell given her eyes are solid white and glowing. "That's actually quite sweet, if naive. What if you threw the starfish, with bad aim, into a shark's mouth, or a fire, or under a car?" she asks him. "Would you feel bad in your hastening of the end?".

She sways and whirls a little more, though she lingers a little longer yet out of frustration. "Something is going on in this city, I don't know what. I do know that I have very little to do with it though... I prefer to dance my own twisted path through time and space, though sometimes I find I must deal with you humans. Maybe next time a dance club really will be a more productive place to meet than a cold rooftop in this horrible place.".

And with that she does a final twirl and a leap, and vanishes with a pop of displaced air.

Peter Parker has posed:
And...she's gone.
In retrospect, her dance was precise, and had the flavor of procedure. So, some sort of ritual.

Spidey looked around once more, knowing she was already gone, but had to reply in one final rebuttal.

"You do what you can...because doing SOMETHING is better than doing NOTHING."

Another alert pops up. Robbery in Brooklyn. Time to get back to work.

A hop, skip and a THWIPP, and he is back on patrol.