1963-11-16 - Spider-Fam
Summary: After getting Sue safely home, Spider-Girl and the newest member of the Spider-Clan get to know each other a little better.
Related: Catch and Release
Theme Song: None
drew anya 


After enough time for the mystery web-woman to get patched up at the Baxter building, Spider-Girl lowered into view, just outside the high-rise window of Drew's room. She's upside down doing the classic spider-fam dangle, knocks on the window, points up toward the roof, and then disappears in that direction.

And the roof is where we find Spider-Girl waiting. She's in her mostly black outfit and the eye-band mask, leaving her hair and the lower half of her face visible. She's also taken her gloves off for now, confirming that she is definitely a latina under that spandex.

She's taking the gloveless opportunity to inspect some of the slices in her costume, bloody, but not currently bleeding. She frowns and grumbles, "Dios mio, I'm gonna have to start over fresh. This much mending'll make me look like a Frankenspider…"

*

The knock on the window had taken the brunette by surprise — it nearly knocked her right off her new crutches. This is all very new to her.

Even so, she doesn't come out onto the roof via door. Nope. Opting to keep this meeting quiet from her hosts, for some reason, she opens the window to the guest apartment and scales the side of the Baxter Building on her palms and one good foot, allowing the bandaged one to awkwardly hang.

There is a quiet 'hup' when she finally pulls herself up onto the ledge, thinking a moment before she just… sits. Yes. There. This is all totally normal.

*

"I… " Anya says awkwardly, then she steps closer, realizing she should start with an introduction. "Hi. I'm Spider-Girl. I've been doing this for a while, and I think I might be able to help you," she says, offering her hand.

*

That actually gets a laugh and a very odd smile from the brunette. Anya does not seem to be the only one feeling incredibly awkward. "Hi," she echoes, reaching over to shake the offered hand. "Thanks? I mean, I'd be lyin' if I said I couldn't use all the help I could get," she mumbles, running her free hand back over her hair. Pfuh. Maybe she should cut it off, this is… this is too much hair.

*

"That's ok," Anya says with a smile. "What can I call you? You can use a made up name if you want. I won't laugh." She's used to being friendly in her civi outfits, and kind of mysterious and stand-offish as Spider-Girl. Time for things to change. "I only just met Spider-Man the other day. It seems like there are a few of us who can… do what we do." Anya turns her hand over to show Drew the underside of her wrist where a cluster of spinnerets are visible when she flexes. "I think I saw you using a web line, didn't I?"

*

"Spider-Man?" the other girl echoes, her brow furrowing. She tries to delay the question of what to call her by leaning over to peek at the spinnerets, and after a moment's thought, she gives her own fingertips a very curious inspection, prodding at them with the opposite hand. "Honestly? I have no idea what's up with me," she admits, a bit of a laugh in her voice. "At all. Though it sounds like we should start with maybe putting 'Spider' in front of the suffix of your choice and rolling with it, I guess?"

*

"Sure, Spider-suffix" Anya says, grinning. "I know I've been doing this… for about four years, I guess? I've had a lot of time to get used to what was happening. My best guess, and the guess of some smart people I trust - they think a magical effect triggered my own mutation." She shrugs to show she's not totally sure on any of this. "How long have you been feeling different?"

*

"It's… it's complicated," Spider-suffix replies in what may be the understatement of the century. She rests her hands in her lap and peers down at them, occasionally flicking a hesitant, hazel-eyed glance over towards Anya. And despite the fact that the other young woman has just come out with magic and mutations: "You'd probably think I was crazy."

*

Even with her eyes covered, Anya's look of amused incredulity is unmistakeable. "Amiga, you have /no/ idea what I would and wouldn't find crazy," Anya says, crouching down and then settling in to a crosslegged position on the surface of the roof. "I mean, you don't have to talk about it. At all. If you don't want to. I mean, we could just go swinging around on webs and beat up jerks. That's pretty much all I did the first few months." She grins and shrugs.

*

With a wry smile, she just stretches her leg out and points down to her heavily-bandaged foot. "I would, but…" Also, she doesn't know how to swing around on webs. Yet.

She drags a hand down over her face, thinking for a moment. You know what? Why not. "…so, I have no memory of the last three years," she explains, apparently deciding to just dive right in. "And the memories that I do have are… are probably not mine. So that's awkward."

*

Anya listens quietly, not wanting to make Spider-suffix feel even more awkward than she already does. Finally, after a long thoughtful moment, Anya nods and says, "Well, I have bad news. That is not even close to the weirdest thing I've ever heard. I mean, not to say that isn't hard and traumatic. But I don't want you to think less of yourself." Anya gets up and moves to put a comforting hand on Drew's shoulder, then she sits on the ledge next to her and gives her a sidehug across the shoulders.

"But honestly? The best think I ever did was just jump in. It put all the why's and how's and problems away for a little while," Anya says, glancing down over the ledge behind them. "So you know what? Hold on real tight…" Anya stands and picks up Drew in a one-armed hug. And in one smooth motion, she has stepped them off the roof with a 'whoop!'.

She doesn't let them drop very far though before reaching her free hand out and thwipping the corner of the building. Arc and swing, arc and swing, all the way around the Baxter building, and back to approximately where they started. Anya is very careful to make sure Drew doesn't have to put weight on her bad foot, and steadies her until the other woman is definitely stable.

*

The hug is unexpected and actually makes her tense up, at least momentarily. She does relax into it, though, with a very tired-sounding laugh. "Think less of myself. How could I do that when I'm not sure I have a self to think anything of?" she asks playfully, hiding the truth of the statement beneath as much levity as she can bring to bear.

Even as Spider-Girl is adjusting her grip, the brunette keeps talking, oblivious. "I mean, none of this is right," she explains, gesturing down at herself. Hmm? Hold on? Yeah, okay. Absently, she wraps an arm around Anya's neck. "I mean, the last thing I remember, I was a gggggguuuuUUUUUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY— "

Yeah. She has definitely never gone web-swinging before. Hopefully, the surprised, very tight grip she winds up clinging to Anya with isn't too tight. By the time her good foot is back on solid ground, she looks utterly frazzled.

At least she's laughing.

*

Anya is grinning like a fiend when they set down again. And somehow, she was /listening/ to Drew. The web swing was fun for her too, it seems. Gets the blood pumping, good for the skin. Except for the bugs, perhaps. "So, you were a guy huh?" she asks, like it's a normal question to ask someone. Maybe about their outfit. You wore blue? Neat! "I know some guys who… they like to dress up like women, you know? They feel better like that. Is it kinda like that?"

*

Still laughing, she loosens her grip around Anya's neck, moving her hands to her shoulders while she steadies herself. "What? No, no, nonono, it's…" She's still smiling, but her expression does sober considerably as she tries to find the right phrasing. "…the life I remember? I don't… it's not mine. It's someone else's. It all happened to him, while I was…" She waves vaguely with one hand, glancing over the side of the building. Oh, lord, they're up high, aren't they.

*

"Oh ok," Anya says. Her brow furrows when she thinks, but she doesn't seem put off by the conversation. "So maybe they like… Xeroxed a guy… Actually, you know what's funny? There's a thing in computer programming where you need to reuse some piece of it, right? So you make the basics, but leave the details blank. Like if you're storing records for people, you make a place to store names, addresses, phone numbers… that kind of thing. It sounds almost like you got someone else's records mixed up."

*

"Which just raises a whole bunch of questions," the brunette frowns, leaving one hand on Anya's shoulder, expecting to need the help keeping her balance. Oddly, though, she feels remarkably steady on just the one foot. "Why him? He isn't anybody special, he's just a guy. And why…" She gestures at herself, making an odd face. "…all of this."

*

"Yeah, I guess it would," Anya says, sounding a little apologetic. "Sorry, I didn't mean to run off at the mouth, talking about you like you're a machine or something." Looking at Drew's figure too when she draws attention to it, Anya grins. "I dunno, I'm sure you wear it better."

Glancing around the rooftop, even with much of it obscured by all the gear that goes on a roof - AC units, blowers, etc, Anya spies some lawn chairs left out by the Fantastic Four. Making sure Drew is steady first, Anya steps away and says, "I'll just grab us some chairs so you don't have to hop around like a- ew, /gross/!" Anya yelps, crossing to the chairs.

The pigeon coup up there had loomed in to view, and Anya just twips the chairs over to her rather than cross any closer to the cage. "God, why would anyone keep those flying rats as /pets/?" She's grossed out, but not legitimately out of sorts. "At least they're caged, I guess." She sets the snagged chairs down facing out over the roof and takes one for herself, settling in and putting her feet up on the raised edge of the roof.

*

"Nothing to apologize for, it's fine," the brunette says quickly, holding up both hands — and, to her surprise, she doesn't wobble in the slightest without the support. Huh. That's a thing, apparently.

Doesn't mean she's not going to hop-hop-hop over and drop down into one of the chairs, however. Sitting is even better. "Thanks. I don't know whose those are," she admits, waving dismissively towards the pigeon coop. "But if they're up here, maybe Dr. Richards is trying to figure out how to build a better courier pigeon or something. Ones that can break the sound barrier. I dunno."

*

After a deep breath, followed by a shudder, followed by another deep breath, Anya is able to mentally shut out the presence of all those disgusting creatures on the other side of the roof. She apparently doesn't feel ready to comment on the possibility of supersonic pigeons. "Well Spider-… I can't keep calling you Spider-Suffix. That'll get old real quick. Well, in the spirit of you definitely not being a man, I'll go with Spider-/Woman/ until you tell me otherwise."

Anya shrugs and grins. "I picked 'Spider-Girl' when I was sixteen. Kinda stuck with it now. But anyway, thanks for your help today. And for coming up here to see me. If it's ok with you, maybe we should work together for a while, at least until you get comfortable with things. I mean, there's this /awesome/ move you can use with a flagpole, double your speed in a split second…" Anya keeps talking, in a relaxed way, as if these two had known each other for ages. Spider-Girl and Spider-Woman: a force to be reckoned with.

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