It had occurred to her at some point that, if she ever wanted to figure her power out more, she was going to have to experiment. How? She wasn't sure. She had a mile long list of things to do and many of them she couldn't do under the watchful eyes of mansion staff.

One such thing that had been puzzling her for a while was how exactly she was able to pull together parts from very specific spiders in order to make little Frankensteined versions of them. What had started off as simple as accidentally creating a bright pink jumping spider when the whim had crossed her mind in the brooding phase, had spiraled into a never ending quest to see what her limit was. 

Cellar spiders... widows... wolf spiders. Jumping spiders seemed almost like a favorite with how fluidly she fell back into making them and just.... having them around. A safety net, even. Familiar. 

She'd found a book in the library that went through every known species of arachnid and in comparison she was scraping crumbs. Three or four amidst thousands? Why? 

A dive into movies that hadn't existed back when she had first been 16, she stumbled across an answer that pinged something in her head. Spider bites. So much of the rest of her power seemed to lean toward ingesting strange things, so... why not?

One trip outside, a found weaver variety, and one many-times-bitten tongue later... and she still couldn't produce the rounded abdomen and variant colors the little creature had had. It would have been easy to mull in disappointment for a while, re-think her plan, and try something new.... but no. That was not the Rova way! Instead, she focused on some thing she had learned.

There was an inexplicable urge to let natural spiders crawl on her. Settle, maybe even bite. The very idea roiled something so much on the inside that she hopped online and started researching how to get her hands on more varieties-

Oh. That was apparently super illegal. Well damn! 

.... Buuuuut.... there was apparently a very special "Arachnids of the World" display going on at the local zoo, so. Second best option!

--
An hour later saw Megan standing a ways off from the entrance to said Zoo, arms folded and in a full blown pout. She had been denied inside. Apparently at some point her older self had been to a Zoo before and had caused so much trouble that her name had been permanently banned. Apparently she'd already had this idea once, and must had failed seeing as her catalog of spiders was so pathetically low!

Okay. Back up plan. She could just... crawl over the walls, maybe? Wait till dark and sneak in? Think, Megan!

Unlike some people, Zek didn’t have any particular urges that led him eventually to the zoo.

Wait, was boredom an urge? If so, then Zek had been led by a powerful urge to visit the zoological and botanical garden.

He had a word of the day calendar so he knew those kinds of words now. Okay, he didn’t have it, just a piece of it. One page. It was all he could snag while running from that man and his beaver.

But the zoo. The zoo! A place full of overpriced foods and gifts, tons of exotic animals, and so many people to watch and mess with!

Also they had wolves. But inside a cage. They couldn’t get out. Which meant they’d have no defense or chance to escape his high-powered water gun and giant bag full of water balloons. A water gun and balloons filled with holy water, that is. All tucked inside a pocket dimension.

Oh, he also had an empty 10 gallon tank that had formerly contained holy water stored away in a dimension. And in another a nice old man with a funny looking collar and a penchant for black who’d tried to stop him from taking the holy water. The dude hadn’t been thrilled with Zek’s explanation that he was during the Lord’s work. He’d return it to the church later.

Probably.

If he remembered.

By dousing these wolves with holy water so these demon beasties would burn burn BURN AND DIE! That would be a sign to all those other tail-wagging abominations to leave the city and return to whatever hellscape they were spawned from.

He shuddered just thinking about dogs.

So maybe Zek had another urge than just boredom.

He had a crusade.

He also saw this goth girl standing outside the zoo looking all sulky teen and stuff. “Yo!” he hailed her. “You should be inside the zoo not enjoying yourself! Here, have a ball!”

And he underhanded his last gold ball at her as he passed by. Golly, he was in a good mood today!

She should be what now-

Some stranger hefted a glowing ball at her and instinctually she bent herself out of the way to avoid it (much to her bodies swift and loud protest)

"Under no circumstances would I EVER-" She turned to track where the ball has gone despite herself, glad the instinct to just catch it hadn't taken over and-

....

Had that hole in the wall always been there?

"Oh, well that is wonderfully convenient."

Paying the strange ball thrower no mind, she headed on in. Clambering through the hole before anyone could stop her, she found herself past the gate and over near the camel rides. Only, on the wrong side of them. A camel turned and looked her in the eyes, chewing away lazily on some grub.

... Did camels spit, or was that just Llamas?

Megan narrowed her eyes and pointed at it in a silent threat that if it did spit at her she would return the favor and her spit was much much worse.

She escaped the Camel area without incident, leaving behind a very confused Camel shifter mutant who felt vaguely like he had just been threatened by a strange goth teenager.

Once she stepped out onto the actual path she... honesty had no clue which way to go. She had never been to this zoo before, and it was apparently a lot bigger than the Zoo's back home in Oregon. Shifting off to one side she sat, clasped her hands in her lap, and ordered 90% of the spiders hidden on her person out of hiding. About 40 small black jumping spiders with little blue eyes scrambled out of pretty much everywhere, tumbling around like puppies until they were all gathered in a pile at her side. She glanced at them and smiled.

"Find the bug exhibit, please. Other spiders like you."

A chorus of warbling affirmatives filtered into her mind and they all took off in little bursts.

...She could foresee the headache that was going to come on and wasn't too happy about it. Maybe some food would help?

As she stood, she focused on pushing to life eight little eyes that ringed her head. Four crested her forehead like jewels and another four barely peeked out from the back of her head, through her hair, to keep an eye on things behind.

There was a smell in the air like fresh meat, and she was going to find it.

That...felt weird. Since when did a teenage girl suddenly feel like a section of a wall? That fuzzy feeling in his head somewhere that told him what was in what dimension was giving him different signals than expected. No sulky girl, just….like, stone or something.

Zek paused mid-step, one foot still in the air and looked back. Oh, there was a hole in the wall. That explained it. And the girl was gone. That was not so explainable.

Oh well, when life gave you lemons, you broke them down into base chemical components and created powerful acid solutions to destroy your enemies with painfully slow and torturous methods.

He went through the main entrance like a baws and immediately looked at a map. Lions, tigers, bearcats, oh my, what were those? Wolves were...way in the back.

Of course they would be. Those demented creatures of the darkest pits, providing tribulations long before the weary crusader could ever approach them! Why, he’d--oh look the bug house!

Zek smiled and dashed that way. He loved looking at bugs and stuff!

How was one supposed to look not suspicious while strolling around carrying a bucket of raw meat meant for some of the bigger carnivores? Apparently the answer was a combination of holding yourself up with enough confidence that it felt right, and simply not caring what others thought.

It didn't take long to come across a sign pointing her in the right direction toward the bug house. She moved along languidly, chewing on a chunk of liver from whatever animal was in her bucket disegarding the looks she got, and re-directed her spiders toward the exhibit.

At some point she ended up at the entrance for the exhibit, and wasn't a fan of the steady stream of New Yorkers going through. How best to solve that?

"Operation Divide and Drive, commence."

The hoard of spiders who had been lurking jumped into action, leaping at faces and crawling into noses and ears with enough vigor to stir up a good panic. Megan stepped out of the way of a newly formed stampede of people, set her bucket of meat down after one last bite, smeared the blood around her mouth on the back of an arm, and made her way inside amidst the screams of many, many arachnophobes who had thought themselves brave.

There were a host of spiders she had her eye on, including the funnel-web, the giant orb-weaver, and the huntsman, which the brochure had bragged animatedly about having.

The sudden screaming and shouting from nearby caused Zek to immediately home in on their source. He didn’t even have to open up his oversized map of the zoo to know it was all coming from the bug house. His drama-sense were tingling and he just knew.

Obviously the bugs were putting on a spectacular show and Zek hoped he wasn’t too late to catch it!

People were streaming out of the building and screaming. “Must be a fantastic show!” he said to nobody in particular.

“I totally agree,” he responded to himself.

“What say me that I go investigate?”

“Methinks I totally should!”

The show seemed like a total scream.

And the building did not disappoint.

People were running all over their place, waving their hands in the air like they just didn’t care, juking and jiving like the sickest disco dancing you ever saw, and just generally wriggling and writhing to an action-packed atmosphere.

Zek stared in amazement. Now THIS was how all zoos should be ran!

Zek started riverdancing in order to fit in as he went to check out some of the exhibits. Along the way, he noticed an awesome performance artist apparently about to start her show. She was covered in blood and guts and bloody guts and looked about to take the stage.

“Awwww yeahhhhhh!” Zek cried in anticipation.

There was some kind of loud exclamation over all the screaming, and she did briefly search for whoever it had come from with the eyes poking out of her hair. Ultimately though it was unnecessary. She was on a time crunch and very much didn't want to get caught and have to come up with a convincing lie.

Opps, sorry, my power freaked out. My bad!

The inside of the exhibit was purposefully dark, with spotlights highlighting each glass cage and viewing area. She didn't bother trying to go tank to tank though- that would take too long. She needed access to the back of the enclosure for the quickest route.

The last of the people hurried out, whether through fear of loose spiders or from just following the crowd. It wasn't lost on her that she was left alone with non-other than the man from before who had thrown a mysterious glowing orb at her and vanished a whole chunk of wall.

She hadn't considered what exactly he had been attempting before, it seemed innocent enough if she was to take him at what she thought he had said. But, people were very rarely what they seemed to like from the outside. He was a possibly dangerous unknown and so she filed him away as such in her mind.

"Can you use your party trick on that door?"

That wasn't about to stop her from asking him for help, though. The blood-spattered spider mutant calmly lifted her hand at pointed at the door that said "Employees Only" in important-looking red signage.

"I would appreciate it a lot." And then she stared, with all of the pupils on her head directed at him, and a polite but meaningless smile on her lips.

Zek cocked an eyebrow. Audience participation? Already? How interesting! And he was picked! He!

Then Zek realized there was no other audience. Did that mean everyone had already seen this performance before? Must be some performance if people were so overwhelmed by emotion that they just weren’t ready to see it again. Well, Zek was now thoroughly invested!

….unless of course everyone had left because they’d heard of something more exciting happening elsewhere in the zoo. And now Zek’s FOMO was starting to kick in. What if--? No, he’d give this woman all his attention. tThe least he could do. After, she had guts.

He stopped riverdancing and gave a grandiose bow with a flourish. Along the way, his hand had snagged a felt cap with a massive floofy feather on it, which he placed upon his head in a fashionably lopsided fashion. “Your wish is my command, milady!” he said ever so formally.

He tossed a ball at the indicated door and it vanished. And then he stared at her, making amazing eye contact. Which was extra amazing and easy to do because she had so many more eyes than normal. Now that was a convenient feature! Maybe she knew where he could get a few of his own….

Oh, my. What a gentleman. One with a very mysterious power as well.

"Thank you." Because he had been so kind as to bow and remove his hat, she curtsied with the lacy bits of her edgy goth skirt, and then immediately went through the newly de-doored frame. Whether he came along or not didn't rightly matter.

The back room where all of the supplies and cages were more easily accessed was a lot less dark, and thankfully not occupied. The sounds of chirping crickets were immediately evident, as was a subtle hiss from a large tote full of feeder roaches. The urge to open it and let them all free was annoyingly present, as was the urge to dig in and eat a few.

She filed those thoughts away for later.

The glass tank of the first spider she was after happened to be close. The Huntsman. Popping the swinging glass door open on the back, she found the large spider lurking on the side of the case and reached for it.

She didn't know how exactly this was going to go, but she also didn't feel the need to hesitate.

"Hello baby." SHe cooed. Such a gentle giant... unless you were a bird, bat, or small mammal. Megan, it sit on her hand for a moment while she marveled at the size of its fangs, and then a moment later reached out to gently but firmly press the top of its fuzzy little head down until it instinctually stabbed its fangs into her.

One little hiss of pain and some injected venom later, and she deposited it back onto the open lid of its cage.

Onto the next spider! Her eyes sought out the labeled door of the Northern Golden Ord Weaver.

Of course Zek followed her back into the Employees Only area! It combined some of his favorite things! Following blood-covered girls into unknown locations and being in places he’s basically expressly forbidden from entering!

With his hands in his pockets, Zek skipped along behind Eight eyes as he waited for her first trick. And you know, maybe the reason everyone left was because none of them could open the door. Well, their loss. Naturally, they could never be as awesome as Zek, because they couldn’t open doros like he could, but you’d think at least one person would’ve known how to pick a lock. It wasn’t even that hard to do! Even Zek had learned how to do it!

Zek didn’t pay much attention to the room. Let’s face it, all Employees Only areas were basically the same. The thrill was in the taboo, not the novelty. Then again, this was a zoo and a bug house and oh look she was starting!

Was she a spider-whisperer? Did she make them do tricks? Like a flea circus?

No. She got bit by them.

“Huh,” Zek said with a blank face. That was not what he was expecting. He leaned up against a cage of bullet ants. Modern art was always so weird, and sometimes in very cool ways. He wasn’t sure which one this was though. But he didn’t ask because he figured the audience wasn’t supposed to intrude but like, reflect on the meaning.

Maybe the spider was the government and she was the common citizen, being preyed upon by the very thing she reach out a hand to in good faith?

Man, this was deep!

The urge to leave all the glass doors to the enclosures open as she passed was a bit too strong to ignore, so she didn't. Her own spiders were slowly scrabbling into the room behind her excitable companion.

"Wanna help?" She flipped open the lid to a case full of kissing bugs, as he headed for her second spider. More cases left open as she moved to the third, the fourth, ect.

By the time she was satisfied she was littered with small little bite marks and should have rightly had a reaction to all of the venom in her system.

But... she wasn't. That was proof enough that her theory was correct in some capacity.

With her back to Zek, she focused on creating a new set of legs that would sprout from her back, between her shoulder blades. It was a slow process, so she filled the remaining time with releasing more bugs and adding more, smaller attributed to her own body. Thin hairs sprouted in wide patches with a variety of colors, courtesy of the Maratus spider.

The long legs were stretched out, still thin and spindly, but almost long enough to reach the floor. She marveled at the rainbow hues glinting off of her shoulders and arms, unable to see where else she had placed it, and-

"Oh my god, what are you doing?!"

Some poor worker came in to investigate and she panicked, turning and spitting a glob of very sticky silk right into the woman's face.

"Time to go!" And go she did. She attempted to skirt around the male, out through the door, and into the zoo beyond.

“No no, I’d hate to get in the way,” Zek said as he stared with rapt interest at the performance. Was the plea for help representative of the masses crying out for change but being ineffectual against giant corporate entities that indirectly controlled all of the political machinations of the country? Was Zek’s own refusal symbolic of the bystander effect in which nobody who had power to change things wanted to get involved because things might get messy for them and they just wanted to sit and observe?

Woah. Man. Woah. Duuuuuuude.

This was freakin’ amazing!

Bite after bite after bite and then the show really began.

Leg started growing out of her. Nice, long legs. Kinda-needed-to-shave legs but Zek would applaud her strength of not needing to conform to standards principles of patriarchal-enforced perceptions of feminine beauty. Although it probably wouldn’t hurt if she shaved her back. Like, just for hygiene purposes, you know? It was growing so fast and already multicolored. Zek did not envy how long it was going to take her to clean all that blood out of her new hair.

And then surprise! An employee! Who was blinded! And with six out of six dimensions at capacity, Zek’s balls were too full to do anything to help the situation! “Right behind you!” he said as he dashed out behind Queen Bite-Me.

She was glad she had chosen not to wear heels today in favor of flats. Sprinting away from a minor crime scene was much easier without an added two inches trying to dig into the ground.

"Go right!" There were still a few spiders lingering throughout the park, high up in trees where they could scuttle around for a birds-eye view of things. She blipped in and out of their eyes seconds at a time, planning a route on the fly. The mostly empty path led them down toward the Congo Gorilla forest, and away from most of the panicking people who had flooded the ticket booth with demands to speak to a manager.

Past the Mouse House, past the Giraffe's, one turn shy of the African wild dogs exhibit.

She hopped the wooden barrier meant to keep people on the path and hurried off into the thick forest of tall trees and bushes meant to break up the terrain between exhibits. The exhibit was a large one, meant to house many primates and a small assortment of other animals as well.

"..That should throw them off for a bit." She sent a call out to have all of her own spider's scram from the bughouse, leaving only the escaped native insects. "Becky won't be talking for a while, so no one should know exactly what I...we, look like."

She turned back to the man who had been following her, curiosity in full bloom, and pointed one of her large yellow and black spider legs at him.

"That does raise the question of why exactly you hopped in when you did. Were you bored? Looking for trouble?"

She waited, lingering off to the side of the secure edge of the enclosure. The Gorillas inside it were distant and noisy, and a few large beaked birds sang over head.

Zek followed closely on Tarant-Ella’s heels flats as they made their escape. They were sprinting, sure, but Zek had been increasing his runs lately and so this little jaunt wasn’t very difficult for him. Also, his trench coat flapped behind him amazingly as he ran!

And they zigged and zagged and took a bunch of different roads and paths until they finally neglected the path and broke into the mini woods designed to separate some animal enclosures from the hordes of noisy humans.

By this point Zek was pretty lost. He’d have to dig his map out to find his way anywhere. Also, by this point, Zek was starting to suspect the woman was not good at performance art. Which might actually be the real reason all those people had run screaming.

Well crack his shell and call him an egg, Zek was starting to feel a little foolish.

And now she was shaking one of her back-legs at him. “Yes. Also no. You know, you’re really bad at your job. Like, I was into it until you threw the webbing, and then it’s like, how does this tie into the greater nationalist web of intrigue spread between massive companies and extranational interests when Becky clearly represents the social ennui of the lower masses?” Zek shook his head dismissively. “That’s when it all really fell apart. Although kudos for staying committed to it all anyways. The extra legs are a nice touch. Are they Goochie?”

...

She supposed she had asked.

The Spider mutant laughed, unable to decide if that had been an overly complicated joke or if he was serious but decided to roll with it.

"Oh, well that's easy to explain... I never graduated from my drama course. I am, effectively, an acting amateur." She bowed at the waist slightly, sweeping her long pointed legs out. "The criticism is welcome though. Otherwise however will I grow as an actress?"

A fuzzy, blue eyes spider dropped down on Zek's head from above, scurrying cautiously forward to try and look at him while it's little palps shifted nervously.

"With such an in depth critique such as that, might I ask a question?" The animals in the enclosure picked up a bit of a ruckus, followed by the distant laughter of humans.

"How might I best entertain you?"

She used a small claw that had grown out from one fingertip to pick at her teeth, dislodging a string of muscle tissue that had gotten lodged there.