Drew steps out the door and into the shell of what used to be a Starbucks. Apparently when the apocalypse hit the employees stole the sign and booked it. He sits at a table, claps his hands, and a china tea set appears on the table. He prepares two cups and waits.
There's a flash of green distortion as Spider appears, now wearing her jacket and a pair of black gloves. She flops down into the nearest chair.
"Fancy, so what's up?"
"First off, I'm sorry for reacting the way I did the other day. I'll explain why in a minute but I owe you an apology first and foremost. Also I hope you like tea, if not I can get rid of it." Drew said all of this rather quickly, as if he'd memorized a script.
Spider smiles slightly as she picks up the cup and takes a sip, "Tea is fine and apology accepted, I didn't exactly behave in the most becoming manner either"
"So I had a reason, not a very good one but I do." He tenses as if he's going to take a hit and blurts "I'm becoming a Dromen and apparently I have been for months which means I was becoming a Corrupted before the alter and I'm losing my humanity and that was one thing I could hold on to and it almost cost me my friends.". He takes a long sip of his tea after that word bomb and let's the dust settle.
"..Okay, you do know that's a very good reason, right?"
"Probably but it's not an excuse."
Spider takes another sip, "So freaking out asides, how do you feel about this?"
"I mean, it makes sense? It explains how I can mess with electronics without the eye implant and the aura and why I've felt more energetic than ever since I got back from the void." Drew says, "But on the other hand I'm scared as hell because I've seen what happens when that kind of power goes to your head."
"That's understandable, and, as for 'losing your humanity'? I get that, it feels like that at the time but you're not, not in the monstrous sense anyways," she sighs, "It just takes time to adjust"
"Yeah, you're telling me." He sips more of the tea. "One of the benefits is I no longer need to sleep, so that's cool I guess." He takes another sip, draining the cup. "You can shapeshift, right?"
Spider smiles more as she takes another sip, "Lucky bastard, and yes I can"
"How does it work?"
"For me I just sorta think about it and it happens?" She chuckles, "It's hard to explain"
"I guess that makes sense in a way, it's like magic, it depends on your intentions."
"I mean I could show you if it helps," Spider shrugs and takes a final sip of her cup, draining it.
"Yeah, that would be awesome, Sparrow couldn't really explain how it worked when we talked and I'm more of a visual learner anyway."
Spider puts her cup down and stands up, "So the first thing I did was find a trigger, and then to actually shift I focused on clearing my mind. Then, thinking of and focusing on that trigger, sorta tapping into the feelings it caused, and then.." she shifts, the large black wolf wuffing at Drew before shifting back, "Took a while, but eventually you get the hang of it and it becomes as natural as breathing. That's where the 'think of it and it happens' part comes in. Though for you, you'll probably have to find the emotion you feed off first."
"Yeah, it's not anger, we know that. I do seem to get something when we're pranking each other or something unpredictable happens and throws everything into disarray, do you think there's something there?"
"Makes sense that you're a being of chaos," she laughs.
"Kind of ironic considering we've been joking about that for as long as we've known each other. Ok so focus on that feeling and it should just.... Happen? Ok, let's go." He closes his eyes and concentrates hard.
"Anything?" she sits back down and watches him.
He opens one eye and looks. "Nothing." He sighs and pours a other cup of tea. "Maybe I just need to find more of this chaotic emotion to feed off of."
"You said pranks work?"
"I assume so, I get a fuzzy feeling when I do them but only during the payoff. I just assumed that was satisfaction, and nobody's gotten sick from it that I've noticed."
"Hm," she leans back in her chair as she thinks, "I imagine it depends what kind of sickness you produce, I've noticed it varies."
"Maybe it just takes practice then, at least we tried. And thanks. Are you good by the way? With the whole... Goo blood thing."
"I'm...well I'm not fine but it's not important right now," she sighs, fiddling with her sleeve, "So do you wanna try inducing the sickness?"
"Nice dodge, and yeah, I'm game. Let me know if it goes too far." He closes his eyes again and concentrates. An aura surrounds him, and Spider's eyes start leaking Mocha flavored Coke with Coffee.
"The fuck?" Spider blinks a few times before bringing her hands to her eyes and wiping them.
Drew opens his eyes and looks at Spider. "I'd say that's unexpected, but.... Oh yeah." He squints his eyes and the aura dissipates. He snaps and a wet rag appears in his hands, and he hands it over. "That was cool! I mean, weird, and I'm sorry, but I didn't know it would manifest like that."
Spider chuckles taking the rag and using it to wipe her face, "Nah it is cool, and very you"
"Well, now I know how to feed I guess, I'll keep working on the shapeshifting, and I can do teleporting and apportation, that covers the main bases. Wonder if I got any niche abilities."
"The technopathy might count," Spider shrugs.
"Oh right, I forgot that one for a second. Did the alter affect you at all?" Totally not changing topics. Nope not at all.
"Nope, now why are you changing the-" she's cut off as she suddenly starts coughing, turning her head away from Drew and bringing a hand to her mouth. Eventually she recovers, pouring herself another cup of tea and downing it, "Sorry about that, anyways why are you changing the subject?"
"It's starting to make my chest feel tight thinking about this and I need to talk about literally anything else." Drew checks his phone, and says, "Looks like Cole's chickens have come home to roost."
"About time something blows up in his face," Spider mutters.
"I'm just sorry the kid was caught in the crossfire though."
"That's Cole for ya," she sighs, "Doesn't matter who gets hurt as long as his ego gets stroked. You know he told me he was god yesterday?"
"Yeah he's been doing that more and more often lately. It was funny at first in the same way it was funny when I called myself the 'Dark God of Chaos'. Now it's just kinda sad."
"It was never funny drew, it was that kinda talk and mindset that got.." she trails off, clenching a fist.
"Yeah. He needs to be put in his place decisively about that sooner rather than later."
Spider chuckles sadly, "Did you know we broke up?.. and I know it's stupid but part of me can't help but blame Cole, in the sense that if Sparrow hadn't died we would of had more time together, y'know?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know that. For what it's worth, you were really good for each other."
"Obviously not if he wanted to break up," she mutters, "Forced me to do it in front of everyone as well"
"Oh. That's really not anyone's business but yours, and it's really not fair to be forced into that in front of the group."
"I mean technically it was Cole that started it, but Sparrow could've asked to talk in private or something," Spider sighs, bringing a hand up to massage her forehead for a couple of minutes before dropping it, "And he asked if I was upset about it a few days ago, how the fuck was I supposed to answer that?"
"Honestly? There's no right answer to that question. There is a wrong answer though, don't go pulling another version of him from a different world here, ok?" Drew smiles to show he was joking.
She chuckles, "Considering he's alive I feel like that would cause more problems than it would solve"
"Yeah probably. Plus then there'd be an angry version of you in another world and that's not a good idea. I know it's not easy to talk about, but if you ever need to talk..."
She smiles slightly, "Thank you, I appreciate that and the same goes for you," She takes a deep breath, "I'm upset about it, but it's not like that changes anything I could bawl my eyes out and he still wouldn't want to get back together..so I've just gotta move on"
"That's all you really can do. Well that and break shit but that's generally frowned on."
"We're in an apocalypse, I don't think anyone cares about mass destruction and it's better than the alternatives"
"I did say generally. Thank you for all of your help, by the way, and the conversation."
"It's what friends are for right?" Spider chuckles, "But I'm glad I could help"
"Well I guess it's time to see the fallout of Cole playing God."
"Do we have to?" Spider laughs, "Though we should definitely do this again, it was fun"
"Yeah, I'm not really in the mood for rubbing the fact I was right in Cole's face for once, it would feel gross because an innocent person got hurt." He shakes his head. "And yeah, we don't hang out much anymore and that sucks."
"That's the thing with cole, people always get hurt and he never learns," she sighs, "So asides from the dromen stuff, how have you been lately?"
"Oh, you know, running a top secret multiversal organization in a town with two Foundation sites nearby, weekly meetings with the World Security Council, what's left of it anyway, constantly monitoring for any sign of you know who, and writing a book actually, I thought something should come from all of my life experience right?"
"You've certainly been busy, and yeah it should."
"I think it's important to keep active, yeah I've already survived more than most people experience in ten lifetimes, but that doesn't mean I should just retire to a nice beach somewhere and waste my talents."
"I get that and I don't, I'm glad that my life hasn't been boring but at the same time I'm just so..tired of everything you know?"
"Yeah, I wish I didn't have the ability to help in the way that I do sometimes, it would make them I wouldn't feel obligated to help and like I said, could just retire. Did I ever tell you I almost didn't come back from the void?"
"No I don't believe you did, though for what it's worth I'm glad you came back," she sits up in her chair fiddling with her sleeve again.
"I am too, but it feels like I've been more busy scouting other worlds and dealing with the hallowed problem here. I've missed so much because I've been trying to fix other people's problems and ignoring you all."
"At least what you're doing is useful," she shrugs slightly, "Is it possible to lessen your workload? Or you could clear one day in the week to come hang out at Harm's."
"I mean as soon as I get this first group trained they'll get the next one and on and on after that, I won't have to do much after that. They have about another week of training though, so hopefully next week I can dedicate more time to you all."
"That'll be fun, it's weird to think about isn't it? That we're really the only ones left, well, still in contact I guess," Spider sighs and starts scratching at her jacket sleeve, taking care to make sure that it doesn't ride up.
"Yeah, I really miss Tiernan and Keene but they're at least happy now doing ghost shit or rat priests or whatever it is they're mixed up in." Drew tilts his head for a second, thinking. "I guess that makes you my oldest friend now."
Spider smiles, though it quickly fades, "Yeah, speaking of them lot, I'm worried about Photo. I think he's just waltzed into a trap."
"Oh definitely, but if you believe Yhoto it's for his own good. And Photo has been acting kind of off lately."
"And if Yhoto kills him? Or assimilates him or whatever it is he's got planned?"
"We just have to hope that doesn't happen. Plus that Godrot stuff on his channel doesn't sound very good."
"True..do you mind if I just go off topic and vent about something?" she chuckles grimly.
"No go ahead we've been talking mostly about me for the whole time so far."
"It's a weird topic but it's about this jacket, harm gave it to me and it's special to me but everytime I wear it sparrow has a hissy fit even though he wears that damn cloak and I don't complain," they sigh, "I mean I know why he kicks off but it's still fucking rich of him"
"Why does he have a problem with it? I assume you wear it as a comfort thing."
"I struggled with....well," she traces a finger across her arm, "Still do sometimes..and he started doing it, so we made a deal which included not wearing anything with long sleeves, but he expects me to uphold this deal when he doesn't? It's a fucking joke at this point." She's looking at anywhere but Drew as she speaks.
"I used to struggle with that too. Still do every day. I wish I could say it gets easier, but it doesn't, it just gets to be routine. And it's awfully brave to talk about it openly like that. As for Sparrow, do you want me to try and talk with him?"
"Yeah, I'd appreciate that..thank you."
"Though I have another reason for hiding my arms nowadays," she chuckles humourlessly.
"Next time at the house I'll try and pull him aside, he's pretty reasonable. Do you want some more tea?" He offers up the teapot.
"Yeah, ta," Spider smiles, "You know the new girl, Melody?"
"All I know is they rescued her from Hell and Cole chipped her." Drew pours out some more tea for the both of them.
"She has the ability to heal impurity, long story," she picks up the cup and sips it, "She tried to heal me and we both got attacked by a dromen which then tried to eat her so I fought it and...well." She sets the cup down and pulls her gloves and jacket off, her skin is now discoloured, black veins running up her arms.
"Damn dude, I'm assuming the attack did that?"
"Yep," Spider pulls the jacket and gloves back on, taking another sip of her tea, "All because my dumb arse thought strangling an impure dromen was a good idea."
"I can't fault your logic but can't you manifest tentacles?"
"Not to my knowledge? I'm not a dromen."
"I honestly have no idea what you guys can do, aside from the teleporting stuff."
"I would list it but we'd be here all day..or whatever time it is."
"I have no clue anymore. I haven't been outside much aside from training."
"I feel very sorry for you, I think I'd go nuts if that was me."
"Well as long as you enjoy what you do, right?"
"I guess," she smiles slightly and downs the rest of her tea, "You know how you said you don't need to sleep anymore? How exactly does that work?"
"I have no idea. I still do sleep sometimes but only if I want to? I don't quite understand how it works."
"But you don't feel tired at all?"
"Not really. It's weird, I used to feel really tired, especially after using the Power Ranger suit."
"How do I get that power? Maybe it'd finally get Ari off my case," she jokes, "But yeah as weird as it is, it certainly sounds useful."
"It is and it isn't, usually when I'm free to do stuff everyone's sleeping, so I just design harder and harder parkour courses in the training grounds." Drew shakes his head. "I'm up to advanced level ten already."
"Keep going and maybe one day you'll catch up to me," she jokes, "Jokes aside I still need to check out the courses"
"You're always welcome, we're just up the road from here actually."
"I'll check it out tomorrow," she chuckles, "Though..and I hate to ask but..does Geist or Wildcard or wherever it is you're moonlighting have anything that can help with nightmares?"
"Yeah I'm sure the science guys could whip something up for you, I'll ask them later."
"Ta, so anything you want to talk about?"
"I think we pretty well covered everything big, unless you have anything more to talk about."
"Not right now no," they stand up stretching, "Though again this was fun, it was nice catching up with you."
"Yeah, we should definitely not wait until the next time we almost rip each other's throats out to hang out."
"Now where's the fun in that?" Spider laughs.
"As much as I do it, I really do hate fighting with people all of the time, it's really draining."
"Depends who is it and the context really for me, some people are fun to fight, just the rush you get from playing someone at their own game and winning"
"You aren't wrong, Apollyon was fun to beat at his own game that one time I did it." Drew says. "The only one to ever do it by the way."
"Alright, show off," she grins jokingly.
"It's the one badass thing I've done, I'm proud of myself there." He grins back. "Besides, it's not like we'll ever see him again."
"And thank god for that"
"Wish we could see Locke and Hayden again though. They deserved better than they got."
"Agreed, especially Hayden, we were so close to saving him then it all just went to shit."
"That's why it felt so good to get one over on Apollyon the way I did."
"I can imagine, anyways I've got some things to go do, so I guess I'll see you when you're next at Harm's." Spider smiles.
"Yeah I'll see you again in a couple of days or so." Drew says.