>> "....it called out to me..."

Nate did nothing but blink, unsure about what the woman meant. Could she understand Parker? And even if she could, why would Parker call out to her, much less ask her to take him. He was ready to ask her to elaborate, but it became unnecessary when he watched small spiders skittering across her body, finding new places to hide on her. The thought sent a shiver down his spine; he was no longer scared of the large spider he owned, but the idea of dozens of tiny ones crawling on him was still unsettling.

>> "I can't help it, I have to collect them all... I'm sorry..."

Nate did not release the shadow or give it any slack, but it was only thanks to focus he managed to keep while laughing at the reference. "Alright, that was clever. So..." he looked at the shirt on the ground, analyzing the stuff she tossed(?) at him. "You're a mutant, then," he said with the composure of someone who had obviously experienced a rooftop encounter of this nature before.

He sighed, studying her. She was clearly on her guard, and with good reason; he chased her well past the point where it was logical. He would take a gamble, but would stay on his guard. "Alright, I guess this all makes sense. No harm done." He released her ankle and pulled his shadow back, mentally prepared to form a wall or spike if she reacted aggressively.

Ffffuuuu- He saw through it. Ah, well... at least he has a sense of humor. She let the pathetic expression drop, donning her usual emotionless mask, and continued to eye him silently as he mulled over his own conclusions.

She did nod slightly at being called out as a mutant, and was more than a little surprised when he released her. So... he had just been curious? No revenge? No yelling, no hitting? How... weird. Assuming he was one of those icky, 'forgive and forget' types, Megan got slowly to her feet and dusted herself off.

Okay... she could work with that. Easier to get off the hook. Eying him quietly for a moment, still unsure if her assumption was correct, she crossed her arms over her chest. Then, dryly, she spoke. "...Little chilly up here, ain't it?" More so for someone wandering around shirtless, then for herself. She nodded her chin at his discarded article of clothing.

"It'll come off eventually... and wash clean." She tested her ankle out by putting some weight on it, and upon finding that it was just fine, she cracked a little smirk his way. "Now, I have a question for you... what kind of person have a spider that bug as a goddamn pet?"

Because... seriously! How was he not afraid of it eating the neighbors? The land lord? In fact, how was it not skittering about eating people? Maybe it wasn't just a spider blown out of proportion after all, but really another mutant who was into some weird stuff? Knowing the parts of New York she did, she didn't find that very unlikely.

"...and better yet, where on earth did you get it?" Shifting on her feet again, she blew her bangs from her eyes, not noticing that a few of her children had crawled out to sit on her shoulders, little blue yes watching the man curiously, and intently.

>> "...Little chilly up here, ain't it?"

It was rather breezy, he had to admit, but he was a Southerner up North who survived the winter. He could stand some cool winds, and there was almost humor in the situation. "Meh, not the coldest rooftop I've spent time on."

>> "Now, I have a question for you... what kind of person have a spider that bug as a goddamn pet? ...and better yet, where on earth did you get it?"

The memory of Nate and Parker's meeting forced a grin on his face. A dark, eerie park with a never-ending supply of giant spiders and a cute redhead. Mental Note: he should check on Maxine and make sure she had not gotten herself into too much trouble since then. "It was a run-in with another mutant who had a thing for spiders." How common were mutations like that anyway?

The woman obviously had a thing for spiders, so he decided to share a memory he thought might entertain her. "You would have loved it. There was a spider the size of a Volkswagen chasing me down."

She arched one dark eyebrow at the man. "...you spend a lot of time up on roof top's then?... Eh.. nevermind." Waving that subject off, she let him continue.

"It was a run-in with another mutant who had a thing for spiders."-"You would have loved it. There was a spider the size of a Volkswagen chasing me down."

yes... it did indeed appear that there were others who shared her affinity for spiders. To some extent. She highly doubted that it was to the same extent though. Her lips curved a little, a slight smile. A spider the size of a small car? Yes... that sounded useful. Unfortunately, like the pet she had tried to kidnap, it was something she would never be able to reproduce. Unless she wasn't to be discarded like a mutant skin coat.

"Yeah... sounds pretty great. Unfortunately, it'd probably be on a people eating rampage.. so wouldn't be of much use to me."

Lifting a hand up, she examined one scuffed fingernail. "...Now, give me a Brazilian wandering spider, and I can actually do something with it. Primarily, make a small army of them and lay waste to anyone who'd crossed her. Oh, if only had the time and resources to take a trip to Brazil.

"buut... all of that still doesn't explain why you took one home with you."

>> "...you spend a lot of time up on roof top's then?... Eh.. nevermind."

It was for the best that she was skimming over that comment. It was clear that the young woman had no qualms with a theft of opportunity, but that did not mean she could be trusted with information about Nate's former transgressions. Those were Stephen's memories; by definition, this was Nate's first rooftop meeting. It was going well so far.

She continued, making it clear enough that s spider as big as he described, while enticing, would not serve her purposes. She mentioned the Brazilian Wandering Spider, and he shuddered. He recalled watching Youtube videos with people after a night of drinking, and that spider served to intensify his fear of spiders. Nothing that deadly should move that quickly.

>> "buut... all of that still doesn't explain why you took one home with you."

She raised a good point: there was no real reason for him to have taken Parker. Just because a spider was left behind did not make it his responsibility. He shrugged. "I guess it was one of those days where so much crazy sh*t has happened, I might as well?" He smirked, adding, "Like chasing a thief onto a rooftop because I was curious."

"I guess it was one of those days where so much crazy sh*t has happened, I might as well?"-"Like chasing a thief onto a rooftop because I was curious."

She snorted at him. "Curiosity like that doesn't sound very healthy. Could get you killed... for all you know I was luring you up here into a trap."

That was one reason she didn't like going with sudden urges. Roach seemed to deal with the consequences just fine. She on the other hand, didn't like attempting things without planning them out. Though, oddly enough, standing on a roof with a shirtless goofball wasn't exactly the worst possible out come.

"So... If you're not here to lecture me on the evils of stealing, then what? Am I free to go?" As much fun as it was standing around talking, she wasn't much of a fan of banter. It tended to lead into awkward personal questions, and gave the impression of friendship.

"...because, seriously. It's kind of cold up here." She found herself eyeballing the ladder behind him, wondering if she should just brush past him and not wait for an answer. But since he could have had any number of traps lurking about, she decided to play it safe and wait.

Or, maybe she'd just try and kick him off the roof, if he took too long.

>> "Curiosity like that doesn't sound very healthy. Could get you killed... for all you know I was luring you up here into a trap."

Nate shrugged, knowing full well she was right. Far too many of the dangerous situations he found himself in happened because he was too curious to listen to the voice of reason. His cons were always planned to the letter, but outside of theft, fun was far more tempting than safety. "I caught you like a rabbit with my shadow. I'll take my chance with your traps."

>> "So... If you're not here to lecture me on the evils of stealing, then what? Am I free to go? ...because, seriously. It's kind of cold up here."

She had a point; there was no longer a reason for them to be there. He was not going to say anything that mattered, and rooftops were not a good place for casual conversation. "Nah, I'm not the one to lecture for stuff like that. You can take off." He looked over at the ladder and realized he was not a fan of giving her the high ground. "But you're going first. No offense, but you haven't screamed 'trustworthy' so far." He held his hand out, inviting her to leave the rooftop first.

"I caught you like a rabbit with my shadow. I'll take my chance with your traps."

She grinned. "Touche." His shadow trick was pretty nifty, and handy to boot. Though, she wasn't all to sure how she liked being compared to a rabbit. They often ended up as food. Megan liked to think of herself (quite egotistically) as a predator, rather than the prey.

"Nah, I'm not the one to lecture for stuff like that. You can take off.""But you're going first. No offense, but you haven't screamed 'trustworthy' so far."

Her grin widened. The guy was proving to be a little less stupid, and a lot more interesting as the conversation went on. She was glad she hadn't tried to kick him off the roof. "My my, how courteous..." Stepping forward, she took the offered hand, ordering her children to return to their various hiding places. She slung a leg over wide of the building, releasing his hand as she leaned down to grab at the top bar of the ladder.

But her foot slipped on the third rung down, and she pitched forward unexpectedly. Blue eyes widened, and a soft 'oh' left her lips. She fell, one short story, and landed square on her back with a Whoomph on the pavement below. Normally it would have hurt like hell, but she would have walked away with only a few injuries. Maybe a broken bone or two. It definitely knocked the wind from her.... But as it turned out, she had been incubating a small batch of spiders on the skin of her back- just in case the spiders owner had attacked her. When she hit the ground the force squashed all of the little bubbles her spiders grew in. A white hot pain raced up her neck and down her spine, firing off a million nerve endings at once.

She gasped, saw spots for a moment, then passed out. Curled up on her side, with one arm pinned below her.

So much for being a predator.

>> "My my, how courteous..."

Nate smirked. "That's me: ever the gentleman." He did not trust the woman, but he was intrigued by her. The spider thief. With those little pets of hers, he had to be wary of her, keeping an eye on her arm when he helped her up, and the ground near him, making sure any miniature assassins crawled up to him.

He kept a dutiful eye on her as she descended the ladder, making sure there were no tricks up her sleeve. This gave him a great view of the woman falling down to the ground, landing on her back.

Nate dropped down the ladder, his feet barely catching the rungs; his hands sliding down the metal sides. He was about ten feet away from the ground when he let go, dropping to the ground. He tumbled on his shoulder, absorbing some of the impact so there were not two injured people in an alley.

Her eyes were closed, which was not a good sign. He held his hand against her chest; there was the rising and falling of breath and he could feel her heart beating. He moved her carefully off of her side and examined her. He considered calling an ambulance, but he got the distinct impression she would not thank him for that. For better or worse, he would have to handle the situation.

He lifted her carefully, worried about possible damage to her spine. Parker skittered over, warbling with concern, but there was not much he could do. Nate brought her through the alley back to the meat shop, where the butcher was still thankfully unconscious. It was not Nate's desire to add insult to injury, but he took the butcher's shirt, feeling people would call the cops on a shirtless man carrying an unconscious woman.

As it stood, the trip back was still pretty suspicious. Nate avoided making eye contact, instead focusing on the woman cradled in his arms. "I told you that guy was trouble. Just be okay..." He muttered random comments like this to hopefully give off the impression that some other guy left her like this, so he was not reported for abduction. Thankfully New York was full of people who did not concern themselves with other people's business.

Nate eventually got the young woman to his apartment, where he gently rested her body on his bed. He examined her more closely now that they were safely inside. Her back was bloodied, which was as far as he could diagnose her. He was not a doctor, after all. If the problem got worse, he would call the doctor from the Mansion.

In the meantime, Nate scoured his bathroom closet for cloth bandages. He deadbolted his front door in case Quin came home from work early, (which was doubtful, but it was best to be prepared.) Cautiously, he removed the woman's shirt. Doing his best to keep his eyes respectfully on task, he wrapped her waist, upper back and shoulder. He pulled the sheets over her and was left with not much to do but wait. She was unconscious, but she did not seem to be in critical condition, so hopefully, she would come to soon.

Somewhere around the time when a butcher almost pummeled him, Nate had discarded his sandwich. Still hungry, and with not much else to do, he heated up leftover steak from the night before. He pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a glass; it had been an odd day.

The first thing she noticed upon waking up was the throbbing pain that had spread over most of her back. She recognized it instantly, being unfortunately quite familiar with it. The second thing she noticed, after cracking an eye open, was the unfamiliar ceiling above her... and then the bed she was in. Glancing around the room, she sat up, pushing the covers off. She easily remembered talking with the spider man, and then falling like an idiot from the roof. Assuming he hadn't just left her in the alley, and she had been taken off somewhere by a passerby, she had to be wherever he lived. She'd never seen a hospital with a bed, or room, like this one, anyway.

The last thing she noticed, and honestly the most surprising, was that she lacked a shirt. She was shirtless... in a strangers bed.... after having been knocked unconscious for god only knew how long. If it hadn't have been for the bandages wrapped around her, she'd have been pretty pissed about waking up to such a situation.

Instead, she groaned, arching her back to test how bad the damage was. From the feel of it, she was going to be suffering for at least a week, and would probably have to hold off on incubating any more children until that week was up. "Perfect..." She grumbled, swinging her legs out of the bed. Megan found her shirt and coat quickly.. but didn't really want to put either back on until all of the blood and spider guts had been washed off. She turned to fashioning herself a handy silk tube top from her own web, and called it good. She wasn't shy about showing waist and shoulder, and honestly, it wasn't even the most skin she had ever shown.

She still had her pants on, after all.

With the clothing debacle taken care of temporarily, she gathered her clothes and set about figuring out where she was. It didn't take her long to wander out to where her spider loving host had seated himself, and after spying his bottle of whiskey, she went ahead and invited herself over. "...Well... that thoroughly sucked. Nice place you've got here." Plopping herself down the nearest available seat, she took care not to put pressure on her back, and crossed her legs, resting herself on one arm casually. She knew what she had to say next... since the guy had been nice enough to take her home and bandage her up... but that didn't stop the words from tasting bitter in her mouth. "...Eh... Thanks, for... helping me. I'm Chelsey."

Blegh. She hated thanking people almost as much as she hated apologizing. Both felt like admitting defeat, and both meant that you cared (even a little) about someone's feelings.

>> "...Well... that thoroughly sucked. Nice place you've got here."

Nate glanced up from the amber liquid in his glass to see the thief standing in a new top, (most likely of her own crafting.) She seemed about as good as he could hope, so he was probably right in guessing that she was spared spinal damage. "Yeah, falling usually sucks. Nice to see you're on your feet."

>> "...Eh... Thanks, for... helping me. I'm Chelsey."

So the mystery woman finally had a name. He took another sip, feeling the company of cask-aged warmth. "I'm Nate." He spotted a fuzzy friend coming down the hall, realizing there was company, (disregarding the fact that the company tried to kidnap him.) "My friend there is Parker."

Before he could say much else, the tone of the oven alarm went off. Nate placed his glass and bottle down on a side-table and moved to the connected kitchen, pulling the steak back out from the heat. He looked at the somewhat thin thief and chivalry commanded him to offer, "You hungry?" If she was, he could make more food for himself. Ideally, she would want to leave, but he would have to play it by ear.

Grinning, Megan shifted in her seat. No spinal damage earned... just a screwed up expanse of back. "Nothing a little rest won't fix, and maybe a few herb baths." God... that sounded glorious. She bumped that one right up to the top of her new to-do list, for when she got home.

Watching the newly named Nate through lazily half lidded eyes, she folded her shirt and coat neatly in her lap, and tucked it under an arm. Parker joined them in the room, and her eyes traveled back to the giant spider. A stupid grin flew to her face instantly. Carefully climbing out of the chair, she padded over to him, and knelt. Spiders had a lot of places to scratch, and given that this one was bigger than her fingers, she didn't need to fear squishing it. "Hello there Parker... cutie."

Still petting the arachnid, she turned and watched what Nate was doing. The invitation to steak was... tempting. But with her back smarting as it was, she didn't feel like accepting the polite invitation. On top of how friggen odd the day had turned out, she was attempting to deal with his freakishly unique nice-ness. It was both unsettling, and... refreshing?

"...Naw, that's okay. You enjoy it. I should really get going... gotta clean up my battle wounds, ya know?"

>> "Nothing a little rest won't fix, and maybe a few herb baths."

That knowledge was the product of experience. Her back must have taken hits like this before, probably due to her mutation. "Probably a good idea. I'd also advise staying away from ladders. And rooftops."

>> "...Naw, that's okay. You enjoy it. I should really get going... gotta clean up my battle wounds, ya know?"

Nate watched Chelsea pet Parker, who seemed to be a fan of her; she had a knack for treating spiders well, after all. She knew where he lived now, which was unfortunate. Maybe her and Julia would meet up one day and bond over stealing everything he owned. "Alright then. Good luck. And if you're gonna know where I live anyway, feel free to come by and visit Parker." He took a bite out of his steak before getting to his feet.

He offered her a hand to shake. "If you do visit, try not to steal pets. It was interesting meeting you." It was not good, but interesting was appropriate.

>>"Probably a good idea. I'd also advise staying away from ladders. And rooftops."

Full out grinning, from ear to ear even, she got slowly to her feet. "Yea yea.. wise a$%. I learned my lesson. Mainly, run faster and avoid back alleys at all cost. They only ever seemed to come to dead ends when in a pinch.

>>"Alright then. Good luck. And if you're gonna know where I live anyway, feel free to come by and visit Parker.""If you do visit, try not to steal pets. It was interesting meeting you."

With the bundle of clothes tucked under one arm, she stared at him. One eyebrow cocked curiously, her grin temporarily replaced with a slight frown. He had... invited her to come back? How odd. Blinking, she shrugged one shoulder, and replaced the grin on her lips. "...Sure... I guess. Not much of a people person... but big dangerous bugs are right up my alley."

She turned, scoped out the door, and headed for it, before pausing once her hand was on the knob. "Next time... I'll just wait till no ones home and teach Parker there all sorts of horrible spider tricks. Like tackling his owner when the phone rings..." Her tongue peeked out playfully, and she opened the door.

She probably wouldn't come back, she knew that as much as he probably did. But he had invited her... so there would always be another open door to pop in on lurking around in the back of her mind. "Or, I could just jack your TV. Not a pet, I know, but it would sure be a lot easier to carry without all that wiggling. See ya~!"

Slipping out, she shut the door swiftly behind her and started on her way home.