2014.04.03 - Birds Eat Spiders

The Elude Fashion Show has just gotten started as DJ Young Chow spins the music and the fashionistas of Metropolis have come to party, shop, and view the fashions of the local up and coming designers that Metropolis has to offer.

And as a new set of local fashionistas the Five-in-One are here, they love the music and they love the energy. They were even at the pre-show brunch that happened a few hours ago. They themselves were dressed in a short tight knit dress with leather detailing on the shoulders and the cuffs. In each ear they wore eleven small earrings barely visible through their long flowing blonde tresses. There make up was dark and smokey giving them all a bit of a goth look with a dark purple lipstick. Their shoes are pointed toed strap sandals with a small platform to them.

To say they have attracted attention would be an understatement as five identical gorgeous woman is always going to get attention. Add to it that tit was know a bit more commonly known that they were the legal wards of fashionista extraordinaire Emma Frost only made it worse. If fact they were getting sick and tired of telling people "Ms. Frost isn't here" everytime they had their picture taken or had someone stop to talk to them.

Regardless they trucked along, loving the vibe of the club and excited for the show to start.

Normally Peter Parker, one of the ace photographers at the Daily Bugle. Was asked to do the fashion show gig today. The normal photographer who handled these sorts of high class events was stuck at home with the flu, so here was Petey.

After some shopping with one of his only guy friends, and spending a little more then anticipated he looked relatively fashionable that evening with a dark red well-fitted suit with a black shirt underneath and black leather shoes. Sure it's ramen until his next check but at least he didn't feel like he was going to get flashbacks of high school.

He was taking various photos of the event all that early evening, and moved his camera towards all of the commotion. Five beautiful and completely identical blonde girls. Wow. He was thankful for the camera in his face that covered his eyes bugging out.

The girls were getting rather old hat at this whole thing. They'd been going to them for over a year now so when they saw Peter's camera they all knew what to do. They adjusted their stance slightly to face him more and all let out a beautiful smile so that he could take his picture as well as possible.

After he took his rapid fire snap shots of them one of the girls approached him and asked, "What publication do you work for, Mister?" She trailed off to let him give his name and his paper.

Oh my God they were talking to him. Act cool Peter act, /cool/.

"DAILY BUGLE AT YOUR SERVICE."

That was awkward. And he said that a little too loudly. Perhaps it was because of all the music? Surely that was it.

He let out a breath and lowered his camera and gave the girls a very lop-sided smile. Which one do you look at? "Wow you all talk all at once that's...different. You all look great, I'm sure this will make it in tomorrow's edition."

The girls looked at each other and then back at Peter and then spoke again in their melodious voice of unison, "Daily Bugle. We didn't even know they still were in publication. Interesting. What's your name or do we have to keep calling you Mister Photographer-With-The Pretty-Eyes?"

His eyes flare as suddenly he checks down to make sure everything was in order with his camera. Yep. "Still going strong, I know crazy right? But the website is still pretty popular. So there's that."

He rubbed at the side of his face and let out a soft laugh, "Oh right my name. I'm Peter Parker, photographer. Those are all of the alliterations I have. Maybe I should learn poetry."

His eyes flare as suddenly he checks down to make sure everything was in order with his camera. Yep. "Still going strong, I know crazy right? But the website is still pretty popular. So there's that."

He rubbed at the side of his face and let out a soft laugh, "Oh right my name. I'm Peter Parker, photographer. Those are all of the alliterations I have. Maybe I should learn poetry."

The girls reached into Peter's mind for a second, nothing too deep, not even surface thoughts really. Just getting a feel for the way his mind works. It was just how they did things, their version of a handshake really.

This time only one spoke, "Peter."

Then another, "Parker."

A Third, "Photographer."

Fourth then said, "Poet. No."

The last said, "But he's cute. I say we keep him."

The girls chuckled to themselves quietly. Yes they were playing with the poor boy, but that didn't make it not fun.

Peter's eyes darted back and forth as they all completed each other's sentence in sync. Ok that's a little creepy. He grimaced awkwardly and looked to the side, "Um. Thanks. But I really shouldn't keep you from all this..fashion. That's a very pretty dress you all are wearing. They are very fashionable."

Not that he really knew fashion. He knew what looked pretty or cool. And all five of these girls looked pretty. Any of the straight men in the area were glaring at Peter, thankfully there weren't /too/ many. "Do you all model too?"

The girls looked at each other briefly again and then one spoke and said, "Mr. Peter Parker you are trying complement us."

A second said, "And you succeeded."

The third then added, "We're not models, nor are we designers, love."

The Fourth said, "We are students at the Academy of Tomorrow."

The last finishing, "And protegee's of it's headmistress Emma Frost."

All of them were speaking together again, his spider sense was probably tingling a bit now, "We are the Five-in-One. Though you Peter can call us, Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celsete and Esme."

Yeah that's right. They were the SPICE girls.

Peter did take a step back as he felt his Spider-sense go off. Obviously something was different about these girls. For now he kept his relatively cool and smiled again, "Academy of Tomorrow? I've heard all about your school. It's a bit controversial, sure. But I admire Ms. Frost's courage."

He thought about Miles, and his ravings of the school and the headmistress. But then isn't newspaper photographer supposed to not share his controversial beliefs? But Jameson rants about a lot of things, it's hard to keep them all straight. He lowers his voice, "It's nice to meet you...Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste and Esme. If you like the published photo I can send you a glossy. Or five?"

The girls all smiled in perfect unison. They had seen the complexity of Peter's mind and now they wanted to know more. A genius with ideas in his head that would change the world... a simple photographer? Seems unusual.

Two of the girls went to either side of Peter and locked their arms with his, "No, no, no. Peter," the girls said in unison, "You're coming with us. We'll get you the best seats to take your pictures from, don't worry your pretty spiky hair about it."

He would normally reach up to touch his naturally spiky hair if his arms weren't already taken by two gorgeous blonde women. Oh boy.

Said lovely ladies brought him to some of the best seats of the house. And it was, right near the front row, front and center. Just before the models strutted the runway he was able to get some really excellent close ups of celebs. He looked to the side and smiled widely at the girls, "This. Is. Amazing! Seriously you are my favorite girls ever right now. Or women. Both."

He got one particular close up of Emma Stone, "Normally I have the worst luck. Now I'm all nervous about tomorrow."

His mind loudly finishes his statement, |"I'll probably fight the Rhino. UGH. Or the Rhino AND Doctor Doom. Not awesome."|


 * "Don't worry, Peter. I doubt there will be any supervillians to deal with. Besides they are so passe."| came the girls' melodious voice inside of Peter's head... but sans their Estuary cadence. And cue Spidey-Sense going off the charts! The five girls were telepaths and were inside Peter's head.

Outloud the girls said in unison to him, "No need to worry about Parker Luck tonight, Petey. Your with us. We are always in control of the situation."

Peter's eyes very slowly turned to his side. He kept holding up the camera and kept hitting the shutter button towards nothing in particular. TELEPATHS.

His Spider-Sense was going haywire. He tried to think about anything else. Science. Books. What he kinda knows about fashion. And then suddenly he noticed that they all had really gorgeous eyes and that he super dug all of the heavy eye shadow. OH GOD. There are several moments of silence before he spoke, "That's neat."

A Parker. He shoved his face into the camera again, freaking out majorly internally. There was no way he could meet five identical blonde women who thought his eyes looked nice couldn't have some sort of kharma.


 * "Kharma is an outdated superstition that does not even work in the way you are thinking about it Peter."| the girls projected into his mind |"You are a scientific genius. Should be thinking above such things. Also Sophie thinks your charmingly befuddled, work this right and Parker luck will not factor into it."|

Then one of them put their hand on Peter's leg and said, "Just take your pictures Petey. We'll stop looking in your mind. As beautiful as it is."

Well suddenly all he can think of is Spider-man. And this gorgeous woman with her hand on his leg. Which if he talked to a therapist would suggest a lot of things but that's neither here nor there.

He let out another shaky sigh, hoping the person to his left was much more interested in all of the fashion but he lowered his voice above a whisper, "T-telepaths. Of course. That's just, yeah that's how the luck works."

There was NO way he was expressing himself via his mind. Just no. His eyes were wide as he leaned towards the girls and kept his voice low, "Um. About a block away I know a great diner that sells great breakfast food all night. And they owe me a favor. Want to go there after the show?"

Well the Cuckoos certainly find all that information interesting. They are talking to Spider-Man right now? Interesting. And a tad bit sexy. Another of the girls hands goes on his other leg. Celeste was interested now too, she had a bit of a hero fetish after all.

The girl on his left, Sophie, leaned in close and whispered, "Asking if we want to have breakfast with you. I'd call that brash if we didn't know that's not what you meant."

The girl on his right leaned in and whispered, "But we're getting bored with all of this. Do you have enough pictures? Or do we need to stick around longer? If it'd help, we can just make your boss love the work you did."

"Ah! Um! Well."

Normally Peter has an excellent vocabulary and can be quite the conversationalist. But suddenly words and Peters mouth? Suddenly they don't mix. I mean sure they normally don't but today it's like they lived on entirely different planets. Suddenly Peter found he could speak, "Sure! I can never photograph this lighting quite right. I think the picture of Meryl Streep could probably nail this."

And about 30 minutes later Peter found himself at a booth in a diner with these gorgeous women asking for the 'American Classic' breakfast which was red white and blue and a ridiculous amount of carbs with a heaping helping of deliciousness. Peter needed all the help he could get right now. He coughed a bit to clear the air and placed his camera in his bag, "SO! That was new. For me at least. Did you see any umfashions that interested you?"

He quickly added but immediately regretted saying, "I hate it, guessing what's going to be in fashion about six months ahead of time? Unless you have access to time travel who knows what it's going to be like! It seems like guesswork. Plus it seems wrong about half of the time."]

"Predicting fashion trends is easy," Sophie said... Peter would know this was Sophie because the girls themselves would tell him constantly as they were walking to this restaurant, "It's all can be done through complex mathematical equations."

Another spoke, Peter was probably unsure which one she was, "Have you ever read the Foundation series and it's psycho-history? A similar set of equations can be applied to multiple situations."

Now a third... perhaps this one is Celsete, "History, economics, technological singularity and yes. Even fashion."

Another talked and said, "We can walk you through the equations if you like. But it does take a lot of time."

The Fourth said, "But you are Peter Parker... we know you can understand."

The last said, "We don't think Mr. Stark would understand but we can tell that you would."

That lop sided grin appeared on Peter's face, "I love that series, I read it just about every year. More, depending on my free time. But I'd love to see the equations sometime, might fit my own."

He looked between the lot of them and focused heavily on making sure his camera was secure in his bag, "Are you kidding me? Mr. Stark knows everything about everything (and might remind you of that constantly but that's neither here nor there)."

He reached for his coffee and asked for the waitress to bring over some real milk, "SO. I find myself without interesting questions, but I ask. What keeps you coming to these events? You all keep that general 'bored but too awesome to notice' aura about you all and oh god I shouldn't have said that."

C- Parker.

No. A Parker.

You asked about them without starting with "Wow you all look the same." That's something no one does.

"Being telepathic is an interesting lifestyle, Petey," Sophie said resting her head on her interlocked hands, "We find joy in being around minds some times. Listening to their surface thoughts as they go about it all is fascinating."

Now the one called Celeste spoke up, "We were born as telepaths. It was our first language, so to speak. Even as we talk to you we are having a thousand conversations among each others. Because we don't think in language."

A third girl looked at the others and then suddenly in perfect unison the girls said, "You could not comprehend the link we share. We are one and we are many. Even the strongest of telepaths cannot peer into our shared existance."

Then Sophie smiled and added, "Like the Borg, or the Geth."

Peter held up a finger, "Star Trek and Mass Effect, I know those refrences!"

He poured like all of the milk into his coffee. So much now it's overflowing. The waitress shot him a look before tending to other tables, "That's fascinating? Yeah. My single greatest nightmare but I'm glad it's going well for you. Do you prefer girls or women?"

Coffee sip. Still slightly too warm but a welcome sensation, "But that sounds nice. At least outside stimuli creates a good reaction, so could be worse. And please call me Peter or Pete (I guess) Petey just is no."

All the girls seem happy but one, one that Peter doesn't remember the name of actually giggles at, "We thought you'd like those references. No telepathy, we just judged you by who you are." the girls said in their melodic tones, "Phoebe suggested you'd like them."

When Peter spilled is coffee everywhere three of the girls chuckled.

Then Sophie spoke separately, "Girls is more natural. We are only eighteen after all,"

Another of the Cuckoos dropped her elbows on the table and looked him straight in the eye, "So tell us, Peter Parker Photographer Poet. No. Have you ever done a nude shoot?"

Good thing his cup of coffee was out of coffee because he would have spilled it all over again, "What? No. I'm mostly...editorial for now?"

His brain thought of several uber suave responses but his mouth wins, "But the human, and near human body is beautiful."

He blushed as Peter grabbed onto the cup with both hands, "That is anatomy is still fascinating. Actually your all's anatomy is. Or I've just spoken nonsense."

The one who asked the question stood up and the rest followed suit, their breakfast was finished and they needed to get back to their dorm.

A different one put what looked like a business card down on the table and smiled at Peter.

With that the Five-in-One left the diner... except for one. The other four left and yet this last one was here. Peter could tell at this point, she was Sophie.

Sophie blushed for a moment and said, "Peter. Trust us when I say, we won't reveal to anyone what we learned tonight. Not even Miles."

She then leaned over and kissed Peter on the mouth, gently, not a full kiss. When she pulled back she just said, "Thank you, for tonight. The meal was on me."

She said on Me not on us, "And I'll probably see you in a few hours at the Bugle."

Sophie seemed to blush a bit and then added, "Keeping being Spectacular for me."

"Call Me, Petey!" Sophie said pointing to the table as she headed out the door.

Wow that just happened, he kissed super awkwardly and softly as Sophie kissed him. "Right so yeah!"

Wait what just happened? Peter glanced at the business card, which looked entirely handwritten with just a phone number and slid it into his pocket. He looked to the side as his breakfast was served along with the girls'. Peter took a bite of a small strawberry. Once the waitress left he spoke to himself, "You're welcome and it's my pleasure as a photographer and dang. Still, she/they were so cool."