Timeline Note: After Instance - Vet is In, before The More Things Change
-
<@Mayday> "And all of you can see....the dark inside of me; please someone help me stop this Animal I have Become...", Mayday sang to herself, perched upside down on the ceiling in the containment room, spinning herself a web hammock to kill time, "Help me believe; it's not the real me...somebody help me stop this a-nimal..."
<Cecilia> Cecilia studied Mayday inside the web through the plexiglass and was reminded, terribly, of the spiders she'd seen in the zoo once when she was very very little. "I have becoommmeee..." said Cecilia in her own piping voice "...Hi May."
<@Mayday> Blinking, all Mayday's eyes trained on Cecilia. She instinctively covered her face with four hands, "D-don't stare!", she begged, crouching into a ball that took up the entire top corner of the room.
<Cecilia> "I've already seen you before May and I'm not running," remarked Cecilia. "I'm not afraid to look at you. But if you don't want me to see I won't look directly at you." She averted her eyes slightly, looking a little past May's many shoulders. "Are you feeling any better now? Besides the obvious, I mean," she said, cringing slightly. Fuck why did she always say the wrong thing?!
<@Mayday> "....o-ok.", Mayday slowly lowered her hands, crawling down from the ceiling, but staying in the darkness, "I f-...feel better than I did. I'm so sorry, Cee-Cee...I was s-so mean..."
<Cecilia> "Good, I'm glad..." said Cecilia, shifting the box she had behind her back a little so May didn't see it just yet. "...Well, yeah you were, but so was I. You did no worse to me than I did to you before. So just...don't blame yourself, alright? You weren't yourself..."
<Cecilia> Cecilia took in a shaky breath. "I should be apologizing to you too. I should've known something was wrong but I got...angry and I didn't press you when I should've and I really really regret it right now. Because if I had this might've never happened I..." She swiped her eyes. "I am so sorry. I wasn't there for you. But I am now and I'm not leaving, I just...hope I can make up for it now..."
<@Mayday> Mayday shook her head, "No! No, Cee; you were fine! Y-you didn't do anything, it just...", she looked around, "C-Cee, I had no idea what I was doing; everything I said and did felt so natural, I c-couldn't even see what I was doing wrong!", she felt a few tears stream out of odd eyes, "I-I was so cruel, a-and I'm so sorry!"
<Cecilia> "Don't...don't cry," she said, but shit she was crying herself! Who the hell was she to tell her not to cry? "It's not like you were yourself. You can't be blamed. Everything I've ever done, I did of my own free will..." She sighed, wiping her eyes. "You have nothing to apologize to me for. I'm just glad you're alive I thought for a moment there you might...die..."
<Cecilia> "It's a feral mutation," said Cecilia, going into scientific mode. "Instinct takes over, a lot feral mutants have the same problem. It's not something you can control."
<@Mayday> Wiping her face, Mayday nodded, "Y-yeah...I w-was really scared too. Then I was....I-I don't know what I was doing. Then I was here, figured I was....sectioned off for safety.", she looked up at Cecilia again, "D-don't cry either, ok? Please?"
<Cecilia> Cecilia nodded. "Well...I guess it's best you don't remember. Fabian shot you with a tranq dart and I nearly killed you with force field spikes after he boosted my powers, soooo...not very funny..."
<Cecilia> She sighed. "Anyways, I got you something. You don't have to open it now since it's for Christmas but..." Cecilia held up the box that was wrapped in bright cheery wrapping paper. "No time like now, yeah?"
<@Mayday> "Y-you bought me a gift?", Mayday blinked again, edging into the light timidly, still trying to hide most of her face, "...t-thank...thank you.", she gasped, her fanged maw smiling, though looking somewhat terrifying, "I g-...I had something for you, it's under my bed in me and Su-...", she stopped, "....Sue.", she muttered.
<Cecilia> Cecilia laughed a little. "Well, don't think I'm too nice or anything... I didn't get you anything at first because I was pissed and I'm an asshole...But I did see something when I was out and thought of you so..." She shrugged and dropped it in the box.
<Cecilia> Cecilia frowned. "I broke the news to Sue...she tried to come see you, I think...are...are you guys still together or...?"
<@Mayday> Mayday seemed to frown, "I-I hope so....", she admitted, approaching the box and taking the package out, "S-should I open it now?"
<Cecilia> "You probably are, I doubt she'd be as worried as she was if you weren't. She called you her girlfriend," reassured Cecilia. Also she yelled at me, way to shoot the messenger . But that was neither here nor there. "If you want to. Or you can wait till Christmas. I don't mind."
<@Mayday> "Is it a serum to make me back into me again?", Mayday smiled a little awkwardly, clutching the present gently, "...I-I think...I think I'll wait. It's just....good to know we're still friends.", she looked up at Cecilia again, "Thank you so much. I-I bet it's really great."
<Cecilia> "Yeahhh, sorry, I'm not a geneticist or a doctor yet so I can't really help there," she said sadly. "You're, uh, are you worried about that? That this isn't reversible, I mean." She laughed. "And of course we're friends. I...don't just abandon my friends. Even when things get hard."
<Cecilia> "And you're very welcome. You'll have to give me my present when you get out, then you can see me open it."
<@Mayday> Mayday nodded, "C-Clarice says there might be a way to....t-to fix me.", she held the present carefully, kneeling and looking at it, "...I bet its really great.", she beamed at it, trying to hide how hideously scary her smile might have been.
<Cecilia> Cecilia smiled, a little unnerved at the smile and how Venom-like it was, but didn't say anything about it. "Ah, Clarice. You two have made up then?" She raised an eyebrow. "What's the diagnosis then?"
<@Mayday> "It's my powers. T-they're....not actually supposed to be like this.", Mayday turned away, "My power is actually like Rogue's...o-or Hope's - I absorb characteristics from others.", she stood, creeping back into the darkness behind the cobwebs, "B-but mine's....not as good. My DNA bonds with other kinds of DNA......",
<@Mayday> Mayday looked at herself, "...m-maybe my power causes me to adapt in order to best suit whatever DNA I absorb?"
<Cecilia> Cecilia snapped her fingers. "Actual DNA replication, not just power replication," confirmed Cecilia. "It could be that spider transferred some sort of DNA sample - like saliva - when it bit you. And your power just sort of absorbed it and began mixing it into your DNA..." Fascinating when it wasn't happening to someone she cared for.
<@Mayday> "E-exactly....b-but what if my power....I-I don't know, what if it somehow started mutating me? I became more and more like the spider...",
<Cecilia> Cecilia frowned. "If you mutated this way it's a fair assumption that you could do it again, either into something else or back to the way you are...I imagine we could either purge this somehow or re-introduce another set of DNA to counteract it." Cecilia frowned at May hiding in the dark. "You are really worried about this. Don't lie to me, I know you are."
<@Mayday> Mayday looked back at Cecilia, her eyes seeming to glow in the dark, "Terrified. I d-don't want to be trapped like this but....", she sighed, "I-I have faith...i-in everyone. Clarice seemed so sure that something could be done and...y-you seem to have a sound theory so..."
<@Mayday> She choked up a sob, "I-I mean, hope's all I have, right?", she wiped a few tears away, "S-science hasn't let me down before...", she gave way to the tears.
<Cecilia> Cecilia looked at the air holes near the top of the plexiglass and stuck her fingers into the holes, tapping the glass a little to get May's attention.
<Cecilia> "I get that you don't want to be stuck this way," said Cecilia, thinking of Fabian's and her flight from the medlab. "But don't...lose hope just yet. We have some of the best scientists at our disposal here. They're gonna do everything they can to fix this, May. And even if they can't...I'll keep trying."
<Cecilia> "No matter what I have to do, I will do everything I can, I promise." She smiled a little. "Until then though I'll still sit with you in math class and give anyone who gives you shit a punch to the face."
<@Mayday> The other 'girl' approached slowly, timidly reaching up with one of her arms and touching Cecilia's finger with an extended digit, "T-thank you.", she giggled a little, 'sniffing' at the tears, "I-it's...nice to know I have people there."