Backtimed: Just after the pop pod

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Having jet-black skin is useful for being stealthy... at night. With the current 'day' cycle, though, there's nothing to keep Meluly from being particularly noticeably as she ambles from building to building, checking the interiors for anything useful.

She's wearing a belt low on her hips with a pistol-in-holster and a few pouches on it... and nothing else, actually. She isn't that discomforted by the nudity, but for having to be a bit more careful with her feet and body than otherwise.

Comments

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

You're right, it is. Perhaps that's why this is the second naked chick Peter has bumped into since he got here?

He dangles from the porch of one, and claps a hand over his eyes when he realizes her current state of attire, or lack thereof, "Now this is getting ridiculous."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"What?" Meluly says, glancing over... and a moment's look at Peter and she's already wrestling out that pistol to point at him, staggering backwards. It's a big, squared-off, ugly-looking thing with a weirdly bulged snout—not an easily-recognizable model.

Oh, and those tattoos really do go everywhere. Depending on how long Peter looked.

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"Whoa, whoa! Put the gun down, lady, I'm not looking!" Then either that was a very good guess or his spider-sense is on the ball.

He holds out his free hand in a diplomatic gesture, "Honest."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly lowers the gun just a hint, but she's not putting it away. Her stance and body language are all very military, in a by-the-book but sharply efficient way.

"Who are you?"

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"I'm your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man. Got that? Friendly Neighbourhood."

Careful not to peek, he drops from the ceiling in a bid to look just a mite less threatening, "Guess you skipped out on the requisite onesie too, huh? Not that I don't approve, but you can't be that warm."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Slowly, the pistol lowers all the way, though the woman's hands stay firmly on its grip.

"I'm fine," she says, still sounding rather suspicious. It is fairly warm, and she honestly doesn't seem uncomfortable at all...

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"Can't I at least get you a towel or something? Having this hand over my face really impairs my ability to perform menial tasks and avoid certain peril."

Yeah, like he's performed any menial tasks since he got here. Take a look at his track record and it mostly involves knocking himself unconcious and chatting up the nude.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"I've been looking for something I can wear," Luly says by way of explanation. "Where'd you get that?" she asks, pointing at Spidey's chest.

"...and you can open your eyes, I'm not going to shoot you for it."

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"It comes standard with every Spider-Man action figure. Guess Stacy decided I was too disgusting to go commando." He shrugs and eventually take his hand away. It looks as if his neck is in danger of snapping.

"I just didn't want to get a reputation. I... could always knock something together out of my webbing. Doesn't last too long, but maybe long enough for you to find something more appropriate."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Webbing?" She's dubious. Doesn't that come out of spider butts?

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"It's more than just an aesthetic," to iterate, he spins around and decorates the nearest wall with several short spurts from the webshooters on the back of his hands. It had been tricky adjusting to them over those usually fitted on his palms, but the remarkably accurate tribute to Banksy's Molotov Flower Bomber (http://www.airbornedivision.com/banksy/banksy1024_3.jpg) only takes a minute or two.

What? Patrols can be boring sometimes.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"...that's kind of creepy," Luly says. She's impressed by the actual art, though.

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, most people think so," he rubs the back of his neck, "So, uh, we know who I am now, what about you?"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"First lieutenant Meluly, NEG army, special operations deployment." Smoothly, she reholsters the pistol, though the little security strap to keep it in place is left open. "I'm a pilot."

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"I knew it! I could just tell-- from the flamboyant tattoos, the propensity for nudity, the hoisting a gun at me. Soldier written all over it."

Yeah, maybe he's being just a little facetious.

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"You forgot the great singing voice," Luly says cheerily. "So, are you a mutant, or is there something else at work here?" Her tone gliides straight through it, but there's an undercurrent that suggests this is a deadly-serious question for her.

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"No," he says warily, his eyes narrowing, "But some of my pals are. Do you have a problem with that?"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"Maybe," she says quite honestly. "For most of the ones I've met, it leads right into insanity if there's not a cure pretty quick." She sounds pretty sincere about that.

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"And most of the ones that I've met have saved the world at least once." He balls a fist; not as a threat, merely out of frustration, "I'm going to take a wild guess and say we're from divergent realities, but even so, you can't just damn someone for evolving."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly's face twists like she just tasted something unpleasant. "Gross physical divergence—" —her light accent, it seems vaguely Indian, shifts just enough to suggest she's quoting that verbatim from somewhere— "—has never been a sign of anything good."

"—In my experience," she adds after a moment. "And I'm not going to damn someone for it, but I'm not going to let my guard down either."

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

Cue facepalm, "So life as a whole is inherently wrong to you? Good to know."

Peter folds his arms stoically, "Look, can we just drop this? Half the crew are at each other's throats as it is, I think our odds of getting out of this caper alive are significantly increased if we try to do otherwise."

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

"That's not what I meant," Luly says sharply, seeming rather disgruntled.

She mumbles something that might be a curse or a mnemonic, though it's in an utterly foreign language. "...all right."

[foursleeves.livejournal.com]

"Good," Peter replies flippantly, "Now about that singing voice--"

[aworldnevermade.livejournal.com]

Luly lets out an abbreviated laugh at that.