New York had changed slightly since she had been gone, but not much. It was still the same glorified slum she'd always thought it to be, even if different things were going on in it. Megan had been gone a little over a year, bouncing around all over the states while she figured things out for herself. She had needed time after Gregory died... to process the feelings that refused to go away, and to figure out who she really was anymore.

When she had stumbled across the answer, she'd made her way back to the place she had claimed as home. She was Megan, plain and simple. No glorified hero, no nefarious villain. She would do what she wanted to, whatever she felt like... it was as easy as that. 

Right now, she didn't feel like much of anything. She was slowly cutting ties to some of the organizations she sold product to whom she no longer wanted to be associated with. She took it slow, casually explaining away her departure in a way she hoped wouldn't send too many people after her. Black market deals were like that; she'd come to terms with the possibility of backlash should she ever leave a long time ago. 

She couldn't claim any lofty goals that she has in mind for the future, but she knew she wanted to take things easy for a while. She wanted to live a little, like a normal person. She wanted to work on her personal demons and man up enough to give the people she owed apologies to what they rightly deserved.  

It was strange... almost unnervingly so, that she was looking out over a popular, busy street below with a steaming up of coffee in her hands like a normal person. She wasn't aching and decorated with cuts and bruises. She had a few lingering spiders around to keep an eye out for anything weird, but the chattering voices in her head were few and far between.  She was dressed in a clean, white silk blouse, with comfortable black leggings on and casual slip on shoes. Her old, battered steel toes left abandoned in the back of her closet. 

She checked the time on a slim watch at her wrist, rubbing away a little big of the sting from a fresh tattoo hidden away on her left shoulder blade. She had a guest coming any minute... a prospective client that had answered one of the adds for the fabrics she was selling. It was exciting in a very boring kind of way. It would be her first legal client since coming back. 

Taking a sip of her coffee, she turned from the window and headed back into her living room. She had set out her textiles in organized piles, sorted by color, thickness, and texture. She felt mostly prepared, if a little apprehensive. She still had a lot to work on when it came to her attitude... hopefully she wouldn't scare her buyer away.

Expanding into the superhero costume business required several updates. Javier needed new work ethics, new work schedules, and it was getting to the point where he was starting to consider a new work space as well. He was not there yet, financially, and it would need more than a few random X-men to get the cash. As things stood now, Javier needed an update to the materials he was working with. Vigilante outfits did not only need to be durable and flashy, they also had to be able to fit the unique requirements of the powers people used in them. Using his background in chemistry, Javier had been returning to old habits of designing and experimenting, and he kept an eye out for new opportunities.

Like... very high quality durable silk.

It was a strange idea, not one he was sure about. But it was worth a try. Dressed in a smart teal shirt with and a dark grey vest and pants, Javier lingered in the doorway of the building for a few minutes, too early as usual, before he allowed himself to ring the doorbell, right on time. Inside, he soon found himself on the doorstep of a very confident-looking woman, with a room full of silk.

"Ms. Rova?" he ventured with a friendly smile, like he had been practicing in his head on the way up "My name is Javier Moreno. I am here to look at the special silk fabrics you mentioned on the phone."

The bell rang, it's tinkling chime echoing through her place as she turned and set her coffee cup on the end table by the couch. Her door didn't have a peep-hole, mainly because she didn't need one. A lone spider always sat out side to guard the front door, tucked away from prying eyes. It has chattered away to let her know what her guest looked like in the simplest of terms, and that he was alone. She opened the door with a causal smile that felt, and probably looked, alien on her mouth after so many years of scowling.

"Ah, Mr. Moreno. Good to meet you." She held out a hand to shake his in greeting, scarred fingers looking a little more well-kept than usual with a fresh black manicure. "Please come in. I've pulled quite a few of my samples out for you to inspect." She stepped to the side slightly and allowed him in, waving a hand toward the couch.

"Would you like anything to drink? I've got a fresh pot of coffee on, or black or green tea if you like." She winked with a roguish smile, "Or some spirits, if you'd rather pick your poison." She didn't really drink anymore seeing as it had virtually no effect on her, but she still liked to have a few staples around just in case she chose to have company over. She'd wait to hear what kind of drink he wanted, if any, before seating herself on the other end of the couch from him. She tried to keep a comfortable distance, still focused on playing the part of a friendly professional saleswoman, instead of the usual Ogre-in-female-skin that was her usual temperament.

"I hope you found the place alright? I know i'm in a bit of an obscure location." While her little loft was on the bigger and spacier side from others located in her neighborhood, she was still technically in one of the poorer parts of town.

Megan set her cup back down away from the fabrics, and picked up one of the closest folded pieces and settled it, and a few others, in her lap.

>>"Ah, Mr. Moreno. Good to meet you. Please come in. I've pulled quite a few of my samples out for you to inspect."

They shook hands, and Javier was invited into the apartment. It was all professional so far, and he was immediately distracted by the fabrics displayed all around. They looked... unusual.

>>"Would you like anything to drink? I've got a fresh pot of coffee on, or black or green tea if you like. Or some spirits, if you'd rather pick your poison."

"Black tea is great, thank you." he nodded, just to pick one of the options. He sure as hell was not going to drink liquor while on business, and coffee and green tea tended to kick his anxiety into high gear. But declining the offer altogether tended to send most people into an awkward ritual of offering things over and over again in need of being good hosts.

>>"I hope you found the place alright? I know i'm in a bit of an obscure location."

"It was no trouble" Javier hurried to assure her, taking a hesitant step closer, finding a place to sit among the displayed fabrics once he had his cup of tea. "So... I understand that your silk fabrics are especially durable?"

Running her thumbs across the fabric in her lap, she hummed in response. "If I can toot my own horn a little, i'd say they were the most durable in the city at this moment, unless you wanna get involved with straight up government issue Kevlar."

She tossed the square back into the pile on the coffee table and stool, heading over toward her front door, primarily the closet tucked away just inside. "I can prove exactly how durable they are, too. If you care for a demonstration."

Now... she may have been on her best behavior before, but dammit it was hard. Playing prim and proper had never been easy for her even if she was lying through her teeth. Megan tugged two objects from the closet and tucked them over one arm, then stopped by a little entry table and fiddled with it until a false bottom dropped down. A small pistol was tucked away underneath. She headed back over to the couch, gently setting the firearm away from herself so she could lessen how threatened her guest would inevitably feel.

"See, I can gab away all day about how great what I make is, and all the funny little details, but until you see it in person You'll think i'm lying through my teeth."

She laid one of the objects on the couch where she had been sitting, within his reach if he wanted, and set about strapping the other one on herself.

"I make all my silks myself. I'm a mutant, it comes with my power. A few years back I discovered that if I slapped enough layers of my silk together I could make my own knockoff bullet proof vests." The thing she had laid on the couch for him to see was her old version, still riddled with indents and torn silk from entirely too much use. She didn't elaborate on it.

"I'd not saying I perfected a method or anything, but in experienced hands like yours? Just think of the possibilities."

With a half grin, she slapped the last velcro strap in place and walked a few paces away.

"You wanna see if it really works before investing in this, so I present to you the ultimate test. Shoot me." She pointed dead center at her chest with her thumb, then dropped her hands and let them rest casually on her hips.

The silks looked amazing. Javier carefully ran his hands over some of the samples. It was unlike anything he'd worked with before. Silk, for sure, but... different. Mesmerizing in color, and even more so in texture. The researcher in him wanted to take a much closer look.

>>"If I can toot my own horn a little, i'd say they were the most durable in the city at this moment, unless you wanna get involved with straight up government issue Kevlar. I can prove exactly how durable they are, too. If you care for a demonstration."

"Sure" Javier nodded, curious to see how the fabric actually held up to tear and wear... but then Ms. Rova walked over to a desk, and casually pulled out a gun. The sight of the weapon made Javier tense up. Weapons always made him tense up, even if they were handed with the confidence of this strange woman.

>>"See, I can gab away all day about how great what I make is, and all the funny little details, but until you see it in person You'll think i'm lying through my teeth."

She surely was not going to shoot that gun... was she? Javier fidgeted with his cup. Was that even safe, shooting a gun inside an apartment?

>>"I make all my silks myself. I'm a mutant, it comes with my power. A few years back I discovered that if I slapped enough layers of my silk together I could make my own knockoff bullet proof vests. I'd not saying I perfected a method or anything, but in experienced hands like yours? Just think of the possibilities."

Wait... she made the silk? That information almost made Javier forget she had a gun in her hand. That was downright fascinating. Mutant produced durable silk? It was not something he'd ever worked with. Possibly not something anyone had ever worked with. The possibilities were endless. Javier stared at the vest she strapped on.

>>"You wanna see if it really works before investing in this, so I present to you the ultimate test. Shoot me."

It was bulletproof?!

"Uh... huh?" Javier blinked, tense like a violin string. "Oh. No!... I mean, thank you, but no. I don't... I don't even know how to shoot a gun." Holy hell, definitely not. He was not going to shoot at a person! What if he hit her somewhere she was not covered with the vest? His aim was not that good. Or what if he did, and the bullet ricocheted? Or the vest had a fault, and she actually died?

She grinned, patting the front of her vest. "Ah, trigger shy then. Alright, how about this." She almost bent down to pull a knife from her boot, until she remembered she wasn't wearing those boots and didn't have any knives on her. She stared stupidly at her bare ankle for a moment before straightening back up and visibly wilting.

Then, heaving possibly the most dramatic sigh of her life, she set about unstrapping her vest from herself. "Nevermind." She plopped herself back down in her abandoned spot, grumbling under her breath about how nobody every wanted to test her equipment properly, and set the newer vest between then so that he could at least look at that one if he wanted to.

"Like I was saying, my designs obviously aren't perfect. So somebody with actual talent at putting clothes together would have a grade a garment on their hands." She lazily pointed at the old vest, riddled with dents and tears from various scuffles through the years. "They can even be stab proof if you do it right."

The spider mutant reached for her cup and took a sip.

Thanks to everything holy, Miss Rova did not force the issue of shooting at the vest. Javier let out the breath he had been holding.

>> "Ah, trigger shy then. Alright, how about this."

Javier watched as she leaned down, then changed her mind halfway. What was she going to do? Shoot herself? He sure hoped not...

>>"Nevermind."

"I believe you" Javier said, looking at the wear and tear on the vest. It wasn't perfect, and it had been tested a lot, but Javier's practiced eyes could tell that it was very good quality. Especially for silk. He could really do something with it, if he worked on turning it into vigilante costumes.

>>"Like I was saying, my designs obviously aren't perfect. So somebody with actual talent at putting clothes together would have a grade a garment on their hands. They can even be stab proof if you do it right."

"That is... quite incredible." Javied nodded, touching the vest and admiring the fabric "So... you said you make this? Like... literally, you can make silk? Like a... um, like a spider? Or a silkworm?"

Lady, do you wrap yourself in saliva, or do you make butt ropes?...

"I literally make silk, yes." She pondered if and how to show him. She didn't have a spinneret on her at the moment so she couldn't show him how she made it in bulk. She could show him her sticky silk... but just not let him touch it. "I'm not prepared at the moment to whip out some of the stuff I make these silks out of. Takes a while to get ready for that process. But, I can show you this~"

With a pointer finger she casually reached into her mouth, touched the pad of her finger to the little node where here sticky silk came from, and pulled it back out quickly. Along with her finger came a glimmering strand of white silk, semi un-twined in the sense that individual threads could be seen apart from whole strand. "I can make silk a variety of ways, both from my own body and externally?" She played with the little strand stuck to her fingers for a moment before popping it back into her mouth, scraping it off with her fingers, and chewing on it like it was gum.

"I can also ingest and re-use the silks I personally make. A never ending supply, if you will." She reached for her mug to wash the silk down with. "Tell me, Javier... are you afraid of spiders?"

At that moment a door at the other end of the living room creaked open, and out scuttled a spider the size of a large dog. Pretty casually too. It paused just outside of the doorway, eyes locked in their direction as it's pedipalps wriggling about nervously at having been caught.

"Parker! No, no bad boy. Back in the room!" The large spider jumped, but tried to scuttle further out and edge around the walls of the room to get away. With a breathy sigh, Megan forced herself to stand with a quick apology. "Sorry, he's new to my life and being a little obstinate brat. Parker! Go lay down! Go!"

She moved to cut the big arachnid off, shooing and ushering him back into the room while the creature made some very unique noises of protest the whole time. This was a normal occurrence for Megan, so of course it didn't occur to her that it might not have been so normal to outside eyes. After securing the door shut and heading back to the couch with a mental reminder to give Parker another bow femur bone after the meeting was done, she focused her attention back on Javier.

"Pets, right? He figured out how to open doors and now it's damn near impossible to contain him with company over. Anyway... what was i saying?" 

Man, her coffee had gone cold.

Inquiring about other people's mutant abilities was always a delicate issue. Javier did not want to pry, but she'd already offered up the information, and it was clearly related to her claims of quality. She made silk. Somehow.

>>"I literally make silk, yes. I'm not prepared at the moment to whip out some of the stuff I make these silks out of. Takes a while to get ready for that process. But, I can show you this~"

Silk from the mouth. Oookay then. Javier tried to keep a polite pokerface. It was not the weirdest mutation he had ever seen, but it was... questionable hygiene. The thread looked flexible and durable, and then ooooookay it went right back in her mouth.

>>"I can make silk a variety of ways, both from my own body and externally?... I can also ingest and re-use the silks I personally make. A never ending supply, if you will."

"Fascinating." Javier was indeed fascinated. He was also more than a little grossed out. Was that even legal? Selling body products like that to people?... Was there even a precedent?

>>"Tell me, Javier... are you afraid of spiders?"

"What?... I mean, not..." was this a prejudice thing? She was a shocking person, but he was not going to tell her he was afraid or anything. Mutations were all unique, and sure, hers would have triggered more than a few phobias, but...

SPIDER ACTUAL SPIDER

>>"Parker! No, no bad boy. Back in the room!... Sorry, he's new to my life and being a little obstinate brat. Parker! Go lay down! Go!"

Booker would have been so much better at this.
Then again if Booker mad been nearby the spider might not have even existed.

Javier, in general, did not have a flight or fight response. He had a deer-in-the-headlights response. He stared as the HOLY SH*T THAT'S LARGE spider scurried around, and then was chased back out the door. His jaw was starting to hurt from trying to keep a straight face.

She was really leaning into the spider theme.

>>"Pets, right? He figured out how to open doors and now it's damn near impossible to contain him with company over. Anyway... what was i saying?"

"Did you... uh... was that..." how did one politely inquire whether one's prospective business partner hatched giant mutant arachnids in her free time? "Is Parker... a part of your mutation?"

Megan relaxed back into her cushion. "Parker? Oh, lord no. I grow them from my skin, but one that size would literally kill me. I can make them up to the size of your average tarantula at best unless I wanna be bedridden for a few weeks." She took a sip of her coffee.

"Parker was a pet of a friend. Some other mutant made him a few years ago I think. He came to live with me when my friend left town since I have better than average knowledge of how to keep them healthy." Ah, Nate. That bastard. She wondered what he was up to these days.

"Anyway... I only brought it up since my mutation allows me to make the parts that I need in order to make the silk. I can crank out a hundred yards of this stuff over a weekend, whereas most of my competitors take weeks to gather up all the silk needed for a few sheets. Some people are just a bit weirded out by the spider bits, though so I like to give warnings."

>>"Parker? Oh, lord no. I grow them from my skin, but one that size would literally kill me. I can make them up to the size of your average tarantula at best unless I wanna be bedridden for a few weeks."

The more Javier found out about Miss Rova's mutation, the more he understood why she was... strange. Having abilities to thoroughly creep people out, even cause outright panic, was probably not easy to deal with. But also kinda cool. Depending who you asked. Javier, once upon a time having been a scientist in training, was fascinated by the technicalities of it all.

>>"Parker was a pet of a friend. Some other mutant made him a few years ago I think. He came to live with me when my friend left town since I have better than average knowledge of how to keep them healthy."

So it was a... mutant spider made by someone else.
Okay.

>>"Anyway... I only brought it up since my mutation allows me to make the parts that I need in order to make the silk. I can crank out a hundred yards of this stuff over a weekend, whereas most of my competitors take weeks to gather up all the silk needed for a few sheets. Some people are just a bit weirded out by the spider bits, though so I like to give warnings."

"Yes I can... see how that would be an issue." How did this all fit into the ethics of animal products? Did it even count as an animal product? Was it vegan?... "Thank you for the disclosure. For what it's worth, I think... I think all this is fascinating. And definitely an amazing resource to work with..." he tilted his head curiously "Are there many people taking you up on your supply?"

She was pleased with his acceptance. "I had a handful of buyers for a while, but wanted to get out of the big business aspect of it all and focus a little more on smaller businesses. Too stressful, ya know?"

Never mind the fact that those 'Big Businesses' had expressed their unhappiness with her ending her contracts with them by putting out hits on her name. Who would wanna walk away from that??

"I've reached a point in my life where flying out to be a part of multiple meetings every week is just.. exhausting. I'm looking for a more relaxed environment to peddle my wares in."

Javier nodded in understanding. Running a large company had to be exhausting even for people who did not actually make all their wares from their own physical body. The small business aspect probably worked a lot better, and as a buyer, he appreciated the personal contact, and the privacy that came with it. The kind of people he tailored for needed that. It was a matter of life and death.

"Well... Ms. Rova, I'm thoroughly impressed." he said finally offering a hand "I would like to be one of your buyers."

Megan smiled, reaching out to shake his hand firmly. "It'll be great working with you, Mr. Moreno." She'd send along her paperwork and such, though minimal, at a different point. Instead she was going to focus on wrapping up this meeting as pleasantly as possible, with hopefully no further interruptions from a giant spider in another room...

[End]