alderwitch
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It took some careful planning, but in the end, there was a lovely picnic in a most definitely unnaturally well-shaded corner of a luxurious park in a quiet corner of Hanover. Well, more accurately, it was supernaturally well-shaded. The trees bent a little closer together combined with some gently nudged cloud cover from Taylor mucking about with a wind pattern here or there and, voila, perfect picnic conditions. The baby was dozing softly on his tummy on a baby blanket spread over the picnic blanket. Taylor'd kicked her sandals off. It was too warm even for her usual combination of jeans and tank top so she had traded it for a light sun-dress. "This was a great idea," Taylor opinioned, "If I spend too long in the house, I get stir crazy. For some reason, working just doesn't count. Oh, well. Did I tell you we're thinking of moving?"
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"Come in," Taylor responded, turning away as Jack moved back to the corner to lurk. She preferred looking away rather than watching the vanishing act. Even for all the times she'd seen it, it was still disconcerting. Taylor stood up to greet the next applicant then blinked and tilted her chin up to make eye contact with the mountain of a teenager. Jack was tall but this young man had a good half a foot on him and the significant breadth of shoulders to go with it. Taylor repressed the urge to float up a bit just to even it out and offered her hand to the young man with a smile, "Hi, I'm Taylor Farretti. Thanks for your time for this interview. Won't you have a seat?"
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"They don't by and large," Alex said with the faint smile of someone who knew this as fact rather than supposition. "They look at us and wonder what it would be like to fly, or leap over buildings. To be able to run as fast as a train or see what space looks like, just like we wonder about what it would be like to have their wonderful days. They don't come up with the bad, and neither do we. It's the whole grass is greener thing. You'd still have worries, they'd just be smaller in the grand scheme of things. They'd still be just as huge to you." Alex paused for a moment, her rare hesitation unusual and then she offered very quietly, "But I can show you, if you want?" It was a very rare offer for a psychic as rigidly ethical as Alex was, but in those few seconds, she'd weighed the moral grey area against the good it might do a friend and made her choice.
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"I dunno. I always think we have it easier. I mean, when bad things happen, we have the kind of abilities that allow us to react. If we were normal folks and Mark's dad had, like, died of cancer instead of what all wacky hijinks happened, it would be a lot sadder. And way harder to do anything to fix that. Or if Daisy had been right and I'd been pregnant rather than Zoe coming back from a future where I die in a nuclear explosion." Alex said somberly, her brows knitting as her brain rapidly went down several different potentials and futures, "Also, we'd be such different people then, it's sort of hard to imagine, you know? My powers have shaped so much of who I am now that I have trouble extrapolating who and what I'd be without them."
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Alex listened quietly, her too-perceptive eyes fixed on his face and her head tilted to the side slightly. When he'd subsided for the moment she spoke up, "Wow, that does sound like an awful lot of work. None if it very easy or black and white. You really do need to take time out of your schedule for yourself, too. I know it seems hard to justify but if you run down into the ground, something really important might come up and you'll not be at the top of your game when you really, really need it." She reached up to push a curl of red hair back into her bun lightly and tilted her head the other way, her gaze still fixed on his face, "You seem really unhappy, James."
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Phantom The wiki page went up for her this month and I sent two pictures to Doc, and did a vignette. If I get any PP for art awards that should go to Phantom as should all my GM posts. Thanks! Bananaphone (10) T'aint Funny, McGee (7) This Woman's Work (9) Expanding the Mission (3) Anklebiters (9) Summer Job Listing (17) So, We Meet Again (9) A Meeting in the Park Three Generations Training Wheels Psyche Of Martyrs and Men (11) So the Drama (13) "...And I'm A Mutant" (6) Cold Case (4) High Noon (2) No More Good Days (10) Party Like It's 2010 (4) A Different Kind of Hero (1) Save Tonight GM Threads (20) Fine Grey Line (14) Out of the Past (7) What was Old is New
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"Someone has to be in the crosshairs and of all the Terminus children that I am aware of, I'm the only one with the sort of... psyche able to withstand that sort of strain at this point in time, unfortunately. It would be easier if one of the others was out as well but I won't ask that of anyone." Alex said firmly, her thoughts turning to the others she knew and was aware of, briefly before to her own family. Her brown eyes looked unfocused again for a moment or two as she touched in on them before returning her attention to Erik thoughtfully. "I'll tell you the truth about the why if you like but you have to swear you won't mention it, to anyone." Alex smiled slightly, turning her face towards him as she added gently, "And I'll know if you're lying."
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"Not really," Alex admitted, resting her cheek on her knees, arms looped easily around her knees, "Either, it wouldn't be really me or I'd be spending all my time trying to pass for normal. I don't manage that well, really. I mean, I can do it if I put my mind to it but its really hard to modulate every reaction and play dumb. I don't like it, cuz it just feels so... I don't know, it feels like lying on this epic scale."
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Taylor sighed and jiggled the baby a little so that she had the one hand free to eat when food arrived. She slanted Jack a look as he started to aim sugar packets at their dubious guest and said with mild amusement, "If you start escalating, I'd like the warning to leave before we're kicked out of this place. I can always go wait in the car while the two of you finish up in here." Unlike her inscrutable husband, Taylor's mobile face flickered through equal parts amusement and annoyance. One or two more exchanges of this sort, and Taylor was just going to start getting blunt.
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"Rouge?" Taylor asked but contained herself from making anymore snarky comments. She reached up to fiddle with the dark amulet at her throat idly, a long standing nervous gesture. Running her fingertips over the heavy chain links encircling her throat, she joined in on the trying to keep the conversation polite, "That's a big step to make, especially with your particular background. It makes the secret identity thing in many ways much more tricky but I imagine it'll help having the experience of someone who's done that delicate balancing act before." Which was as close as Taylor was getting tonight to her tacit approval of the situation such as it was. She did turn entirely solid at the end of the conversation, her toes touching down silently on the marble floor.
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1d20+15=24 Yick. I'm going to use that HP to reroll it, cuz... Yeah. 1d20+15=32 Much more better.
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"I just think you should mention these things so that I know the list of people who may or may not be visiting in the middle of the night!" Taylor muttered back, scowling at him as she 'air-walked' over a few inches above the carpet. She was still too agitated to be solid enough to not put her foot through the floor if she tried to actually walk. She ghosted through the couch to peer up at him, "I mean, I know we have vampires over but it's a pretty small list with the baby in the house!" She wrinkled her nose at him after a moment, "... A costume?"
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"I try and put everything I have to good use. It's hard to balance that out without ending up martyring myself a lot of the time. That's what a lot of people think the tv interview was about. That or some misguided desire for fame." Alex said ruefully, tilting her head at him as she cataloged his response. She let the synesthesia comment go, as he seemed uncomfortable with that and stepped down off the stoop to join him. "So, can I still get that tour? Did you grow up in this part of town? I'm a Freedom City native myself, obviously."
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Alex gave her a look of wide eyed innocence that wouldn't have fooled her roommate but other people fell for a lot of the time. She smiled and it wasn't a nice smile. It even looked a little out of place on Alex's usually gentle features. "Convince NextGen that the party of the year is going to be someplace with limited school supervision and is held on turf we entirely control? Would I do something devious like that?" She would, had and did, actually. Alex explained, "If they're going to do something big, they'll do it no matter what. Tensions have been boiling up and its so like them to strike out at Mark and the rest of us when he's barely himself. This way, if they do, we'll be able to retaliate and contain it swiftly and with few actual school rules broken." Alex's mind was a frightening place somedays.
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"If you'd like," Alex said with a remarkable lack of concern, "People generally feel a lot better when they do, I find, but it really doesn't matter to me. So, apartment it is." Her fingers flew rapidly over the odd key pad after she'd sat down in one of the rolling chairs and kicked herself back over to the console, humming cheerfully, "Yeah, the power to run this thing is absurd. If we didn't have the fusion, we'd black out the whole neighborhood. Considering how many secret bases are in Freedom City alone, it's sort of a wonder we don't glow from outerspace. Of course, hopefully everyone's using proper shielding and I hear that a lot of folks are going solar these days." Alex chattered on cheerfully as she tapped on the keyboard.
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"Don't be silly, Mark. Your problems are never a burden. I mean, I've lived with Erin and Mike's been my best friend for ages. I pretty much live off of gloom. It's my super secret secondary power," Alex teased, hoping to get a smile out of Mark and happy she could actually tease Erin these days. She really was doing so much better. "Seriously, though, come and talk any time. We're happy we can help and sometimes that just means being a sympathetic ear."
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"Oh, sure! That's why I contacted all the rich kids to help put it together. And the popular ones. They'll make sure its an event that no one wants to miss and peer pressure will do the rest," Alex said cheerfully, completely at ease with the gross manipulation of the social currents of the school, "And, if they don't show up, we'll still have lots of fun so who cares. Its not like we need a lot of people there for it to be a good time!"
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It was Taylor's turn to reach out with her free hand to rest it on top of Jack's, giving it a little squeeze. She blinked at Erik's rather desperate need for a topic change - pancakes it was - and said in a conversational tone to Jack gently, "I think that mean's that there's not going to be anyone showing up at house after the game, honey. I'm pretty sure Erik agrees that there's nothing to worry about." As the waiter came, Taylor placed an order for herself as well although her appetite was slowly dying after the baby was born. Still she could eat and that might seem less weird than just Erik having a giant stack of pancakes. Once he'd vanished back again Taylor asked, "So, you were saying about your team and their current state of mind?"
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"I don't think they'd try and hurt the baby, or they wouldn't be in my circle any longer," Taylor said, her brow still furrowed in distress. She knew Jack felt differently on the matter but she left that for him to bring up, "But I think he's very easy to forget or overestimate because he happens to have a few... quirks. He's still just a baby. Our baby. Our home has all that security so that we know there's someplace that will always be safe for him no matter what happens outside."
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Taylor sighed and turned to face him, leaning her hip against the counter. Her brow creased in concern, "Well, that's never a good lead in. Might as well have it out then. What - exactly - am I not going to like?" She looked straight at him, and the layers of 'friend' and 'wife' and 'mother' fell away until it was just the furrowed focus of the Chosen of Heshem. It was easy to think that the cloak and costume was what gave Phantom her presence but really it was the other way around. Taylor could look exactly like who and what she was without a stitch of help. Its just that when she was in costume, she focused that intensity all the time rather than turning it on and off as needed.
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Alex patted her back gently, in her suit and heels miles more like Zoe's mother than she'd felt since she'd come to this crazy place. Even the faint perfume was the same. It was probably as eerie as it was comforting, 'I love you, too. Alex did know that it wasn't the best time to go flying around the city, but she also knew that flying, walking or driving a car, she was bound to deal with the fallout of everything. She linked her arm with Mike's and teased him playfully, "You sure you can carry both of us without winding yourself? What will you do if a reporter flings herself out the window while we're on the way over? You'll have no hands left!"
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Taylor smiled over at the flowers and rubbed her wrists lightly to get the last tingly sensation off her skin. As useful as they had been, she really didn't enjoy the idea of restraints that could hold her down. She accepted the small stack of clothing with a beaming grin, "Oh, aren't those just adorable. Thank you! I've been trying to resist buying things as with all his cousins he's going to get like a billion hand-me-downs... Oh no! I still have to call my folks!" She looked almost comically alarmed for a moment, "I didn't call them at all! Oops..."
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"He picks me up a lot," Alex said with a lilting little laugh, her smile softening as she thought of her rather oversized boyfriend, "That parts a lot easier when we're flying, but he's only got about fourteen inches on me all told, so I wear some really high heels and try not to fall down. It's a bit of a trick. The lifts and stuff are all super easy but he has to not turn me too fast or I end up zipping around and spiking my heel and he has to catch me before I careen into a wall. It's a little high contact. We're not good, but we have fun and that's what matters, right?"
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"She makes some off hand threats but it's just the way she is. I don't think she ever means most of it, or we wouldn't still be friends." Taylor spoke up when she'd had her composure firm once more, reaching up to cover Jack's hand and give his cool fingertips a squeeze of thanks. Although, it was true that Taylor'd been less close to the faeling since she'd been quite so yicked over the whole vampire issue. "Although when the cards are down, all of our associates have been on our side for the big battles, the fact of what Jack is has been a struggle for a lot of heroes. The little jokes aside, now that the awareness is out there of exactly what his nature is, Jack has concerns about where the line is for what would be done, not just to him, but to his family." Taylor's expression grew troubled. Compared to Jack's urbane calm, her face was an open book. There were more reasons than one that Taylor favored a deep cowl when super heroing. "As you said, there's the perspective out there that Jack's family can protect themselves but our apartment isn't a super-base. Its just our home. We don't do trainings and secret meetings. We have a baby nursery and movie nights."
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"I'm sorry to say that the threat level simply ratchets up as one's power does. And Jack Jr. is entirely helpless. We do understand just how important it is to have the ones you love out of this. You're not the only one with a sibling." Taylor's eyes went bleak for a moment as she remembered just what her life had led Jackson into and she bent her head to hide her face. She was never comfortable with showing that much emotion in public and it was a topic that even a year later she found distressing. So she let Jack handle the conversation for a few moments while she took a sip of water and bent her head down to fuss over the baby for a minute or two.
