alderwitch

"I'm going to be fine, Jack. The Doctor is very, very good and I am obnoxiously hearty. We'll get through this." She promised quietly gave Jack as reassuring a squeeze as she could manage before leaving his embrace to go stand in the doctor's designated area. She eyed the mirrored surfaces before letting her hands drop to her sides. It took an act of will to not shield her torso with her hands. She lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders up. Her gaze met Jack's over the doctor's shoulder. Her voice was steady and measured as she answered his questions, "You've been there, actually. Its what we went through when we went to one of the Other-Earths. It has no real up or down, just endless night and the flash-fire of eldritch energy. Its home to nothing and no one. Well, except for me. It's not very large compared to other dimensions. I use it for transport. Storage sometimes."

Alex let herself in as she had since she was old enough to be allowed to walk over to the Harris's house. She blinked at the sudden noise inside and gave Mike the bright smile that she seemed to reserve just for him. Raising her voice enough to be heard over the din, she asked as she went into his arms for a hug, "Canning day again?"

"We are, your majesty." Psyche said politely but swiftly, "I'm Psyche and we're Young Freedom. We're classmates of Edet. Excuse me for a moment." She slanted a glance to Phalanx, touching his gloved hands with her own, her brown eyes worried. She didn't even need to use their bond to communicate her need for him to take over talking while she looked for Edge. Smiling her thanks to him, Psyche left her hand on his and closed her eyes. Beneath the lids, movement flickered as if she was deep in REM sleep. Instead she was casting about for their lost team-mate. 'Mark? Mark! It's Alex. Can you hear me? Where are you?' She sent the thoughts out before casting her senses out to start searching, moving from their current location and toward the volcano that had been in the serpentman's thoughts.

It wasn't so much that Taylor was distant after their trip to the doctor's, but she turned introspective. It was a state Jack had seen her in before. In the week leading up to the invasion. In the wake of Zealot's attack. When Taylor was processing things emotionally, she simply went quiet. She spent more hours with her nose buried in a book but conversely, spent more of those reading hours near him if possible. Holing up a chair in his office instead of the couch while he managed phone calls. Considering her lack of reaction, it was just as obvious she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying but she took some comfort in his ambient presence even as she withdrew into herself. It was a productive coping method at least, as she caught up in her backlog of transciption work, but it made the apartment very quiet. It was a little less than a week afterwards that she appeared in the doorway to his office. Her hands were empty of any books for once, and she stopped and leaned against the doorframe rather than picking her way over to a comfortable chair. Taylor had just climbed out of the shower and her hair was twisted up in a still damp knot. Although tenative, her smile dimpled her cheeks as she said his name in a questioning tone. Her dark eyes focused on him, rather than through him, as she asked, "Do you have a minute to talk or are you busy?"

"Do you have a chirashi dish?" Taylor confirmed before ordering one of those. On the bright side, the sushi place did seem top notch. She added an order of the nigiri too that with a polite smile. Taylor settled back into the booth and glanced around the room while the other women ordered, taking in the place now that she had adjusted too the level of noise and crowd inside.

Without hesitating, Phantom swung her hands and sent the robot hurtling into the worm hole at Dark Star's words. No sooner had the chains released the robat then Phantom turned and leveled a searing blast of eldritch energy at the original ninja-robot that Stesha had snared.

Taylor went white and silent for a moment. She was unable to repress a shudder that ripped through her at the doctor's casual references of those that were beyond. Just the mention of it made the pins in the brain sensation of being around the doctor worse and she tucked her cheek against the cool but solid shoulder Jack presented while he talked. Once she was certain that the pressure of the doctor's alien nature wouldn't cause her to be sick all over his pristine floor, she swallowed and answered his questions but the lines of tension remained around her eyes and she avoided looking at Archevielle. "Out of synch with every dimension." Taylor confirmed. "I exist partially in whatever dimension I'm currently in but I remain also partly in the Void. I bi-locate, you could say. I am always partly in the Void which is not unlike the Terminus in how it winds through the Cosmic Coil. The Terminus is but one of a classification of spaces that wrap around the other dimensions but its not the only one. There are others. The Zero Zone, for example." Closing her eyes, Taylor continued on with a rote explanation that showed an extrodinary depth of knoweldge of dimensional physics even if the names were probably a little off to the doctor. Normally, mystics were notoriously closed mouth but as Taylor assumed the Doctor was asking this for her personal problem, it seemed appropriate to be more forthcoming, "As for the Nameless Ones, while certainly one of their Sleeping Gods could manage it, I think Heshem would step in." I hope. "I haven't been out there. There's not been a need in my lifetime."

Taylor accepted Jack's hand up to the platform so that she could toss the carefully tied bundle of roses over her shoulder. The goal not to have Taylor's legs visable was only marginally successful as the qi-pao was slit on both sides and parted as she stepped up enough to flash a good bit of leg before she was up next to Jack. She turned her back to the guests, roses in hand. With the jostling on the dance floor, only Jack was in a good position to see her eyes glow white as she 'peeked' to make sure she knew exactly where Stesha was. With superb aim and a surprising amount of strength to the toss, Taylor whipped the roses up in the air and over her head in a perfect - if forceful - line directly at Stesha.

1d20+8=10 Crap. HP! 1d20+8=28 Nat 20! Woo hoo!

With everything else that had been going on, Phantom was late in coming to see the 'angel of Lantern Hill' and annoyed with herself for the lapse in her duties. Her expression reflected her grim mood as she teleported into the church yard. She'd made certain to try and come at a time that she'd be less likely to run into the faithful. This was not a conversation she wanted to have in front of the bulk of the flock and more than that, she'd rather not have. Rather than bother with turning solid, she ghosted through the doors and into the church, only to see the angel raise his flaming sword over Deadhead. "If you hit him with that, I'm going to have to hit you, and then it's all going to go downhill from there." Phantom's voice was a low, raspy growl that would have done Avenger proud. Like an angry cat, her cloak seemed to give her more bulk than usual as its shadows blotted out some of the light from the windows and doorways. It spread over the back pews and up the wall behind her, the tendrils at its frayed edges writhing with its wearer's agitation. Unseen beneath her cloak, her fingers curled into fists at her sides. Gone was the eloquent, aramaic speech that she would have normally used to greet the angel but she knew her duties and the nature of these beings well enough to not forget her manners entirely. She switched to the liquid beauty of Aramaic to off a terse but appropriate enough greeting after her threat. "Heyzel of the Angeloi, I would have words with you."

Huang nodded sagely, deep creases bracketing his wide smile at that pronouncement. Unlike the rest of his rather straight-laced family, there was a reason Huang had fallen in with the Jungle Patrol's exploits. When he could convince his crew to let him, he still joined the archeological digs at his advanced age. Of course, these days it was much less Indiana Jones than it was in his youth but every so often he hit a lucky site that was still filled with danger and traps. "Ah, yes. My newest grand-nephew." Huang swung his appraising glance over to the newly wedded couple on the dance floor. His gaze was thoughtful, as if he was trying to work out an especially tricky puzzle in his mind, "I take it you don't approve."

Phantom teleported back to the central location only to find it abandoned save for the fallen foes. The cultists vanished into the folds of her cloak before she turned to examine the passageway. By that point, her senses had cleared enough to have some tingle of forboding as she examined the darkening passages. Muttering words her mother would have been apalled at, Phantom's thrust one hand out to the passage ways that her companions had disapeared down, focusing her senses on divining the exact nature of whatever this mystical threat was. "Hmph. Space bending and shadowplay. Interesting." Phantom frowned at the different passage ways, debating whether or not to follow their obviously false twists or whether to take the intangible short cut. Course decided, she phased and disapeared into the wall swimming blind. Whatever hunted in the dark had probably never hunted prey quite like these. With a dangerous smile, Phantom hoped she caught up before the fight started.

As they moved to the side of the dance floor, Taylor looked up at him curiously before resting her hand on his arm to balance as she tried to see over everyone to answer his question. Although most of her family remained in the five six, to five eight range, even in heels, she had to crane to see over the heads that Jack could easily peer over. Eventually she had to raise up on her toes even in her heels to catch sight of her short uncle. Not for the first time, Taylor wished her flight wasn't quite so obvious. "That's great-uncle Huang. You've probably heard of him as Hong-Kong Harry. He's the one who gave me the Eye of Heshem to protect," Taylor said with obvious affection and a deep respect. "He's the one who got me into languages and anthropology. I'll introduce you after this." She dropped back to her heels with an audible click on the dance floor before beaming at Stesha's date. "Derrick, you made it." Meanwhile Huang gave both ladies a small bow before he let Ace drag him off to a corner. His face creased in an expression of near pain as he responded in the fluid language. "Good choice. You are clearly rusty. Haven't I always said, 'Ace, if you don't use the skill, you'll get rusty'. Now, why don't you tell me about all of these colorful characters at my delightful grand niece's reception."

While Ace smoothly made pretend introductions between the two women, an elderly gentleman took advantage of his stationary location to make his was over to the immortal adventurer. Although his shoulders were rounded with the weight of his advanced years, and he clearly needed the very thick glasses that he peered out of, he leaned very little on the wooden and worn smooth cane he used. "Ace Danger. Of course you'd be surrounded by lovely young women," unlike his cartoon adaption, Huang's voice was surprisingly deep and cultured with a slightly British sounding accent. He smiled vaguely at the women in a way that didn't entirely hide his faintly troubled expression.

"It's a calculated risk," Alex agreed as she focused to carefully lift the fallen lizardmen. It wasn't that they were heavy, so much as she didn't want to squash them under each other. "The 'Gate of Light' as they think of it hasn't opened in a 'long time' and I don't want to push Edge's luck by having him trapped on the other side. Better to risk an ambush. I am relatively certain Hellion can get home for help if he absolutely had to in the worst case scenario." She floated up after the unconcious lizardmen, "These lizardmen were sent by 'men of metal' from the Volcano after the 'man from the sky'. I don't think the lizardfolk are the threat so much as frightened minions. Once we get through, we'll be more careful in our approach but we must get through that gate before it closes."

1d20+15=19

"Hold on," Psyche said, her voice calm as she pulled herself out of her trance. Of course, she was alarmed by Edge's sudden dissapearance but with him gone, it was important to keep the team focused and together. "Phalanx, we'll be taking these lizardmen with us back through the gate. If you could gather them all to a central location so I can telekinetically lift them, I would appreciate it. They belong on the other side of the gate and I wouldn't want to leave them stranded. This one doesn't know much but it's their leader who sent them out searching." She raised a hand to her temple, concetrating hard for a moment and her eyes took on that vaguely unfocused look, "I can't reach Edge, which I imagine means he's on the other side of the gate. I don't see him between here and there either. The path is clear and I don't see any ambushes but my vision is limited to this side of the gate." When the lizardmen had been roughly piled, Psyche extended that glittering field to them as well as she fired off marching orders in a quietly athoratative tone that she only ever seemed to trot out when Edge was taken out of the fight, "Which means Wander, Phalanx, you have point. Geckoman, make sure I haven't missed anything. Hellion, I'll need you with me. Its going to take my focus to transport these guys and if it comes to a fight, I don't want to drop them. I could hurt them."

"You can take the credit for finding us. I don't mind," Alex announced affabally. She beamed at him, "And don't be silly. I just think of things quicker. Being smart is the last thing all of you need me for. If anything, I hinder everyone in that department by providing answers more often than I probably really should. No, you need me for my stunning fashion sense." Her gamine grin showed that she knew full well her friends had early wondered if she was simply color blind. With a little skip, Alex kicked off the ground into floating, ankles crossed. She hovered at about eye-height with him and rested her hands on his shoulders. "I'm glad you're smiling more now than when I first found you. I should get some sleep, but don't hesitate to come find one of us if you get glum again. Friends are great and you need to take more advantage of us."

Taylor blinked at the awfully friendly waiter but assumed that was part of the magic that just surrounded Moira. She slow blinked at Grim's flirtation with him before quietly ordering some juice - sans alchohol. Since booze did nothing for her, she'd never really developed a taste for it. "Also, can we get some edamame and gyoza for appetizers?" Since everyone else had shrugged off their coats, Taylor followed suit and tossed in over the edge of the booth with the rest of the winter wear before flipping her menu face down. She laced her fingertips together on top of it, fiddling with her rings a touch impatiently, and waited for Stesha to add her order to the list.

1d20+13=17 I will use one of those HP to reroll: 1d20+13=27 Much better Using ESP to check out the path to the gates and the gates.

"... Wait a second," Phantom frowned and flicked her hands out, tossing her cloak back in the process. Chains of eldritch energy snaked out of her hands to wrap around a pony-tailed bystander. "Something's not right with you. Why don't you come join the party?" She jerked the chains, dragging him up on stage next to the snared robot. While Phantom expected the robot to explode, this other fellow was pulsing with a distrubing amount of dimensional energy. In her experience at least, interdimensional threats were always worse than explosive ones. Even if fire was a bit of a problem for her specifically.

Nifty, for my move action, I will drag him up on stage with us. The better to stuff them all into pockets. <.

Mind Reading Check: 1d20+11=26

"It *is* a dimensional gateway then. Has the gateway been closed?" Psyche asked curiously as she floated down to one of the downed lizardmen. Before she could get a response from the agents, she knelt down after checking to make sure the lizardman was truely unconcious and corrected herself, "Actually, let me see what I can find out from this fine fellow here." Kneeling down in the jungle foilage, Psyche touched its scaly brow and closed her eyes. Her expression was serene and unconcerned for her vulnerable position. She trusted her friends to take care of any possible threats while she did her job.

Taylor shook her head slowly, her expression pensive, "No, my intangibility comes from being slightly out of synch with every dimension. There's no poison or illness or parasite that's ever been able to take hold of my system and I have been to some rather toxic places. Unlike most of the supernatural community, I'm not weak to magic any more than anything else either. I've been possessed before but I've always shaken it off. And never any physical sort of possession." She raised her hands, spreading her fingers wide and palm up, "I've been places where such things aren't unheard of, but never directly affected. I just shake anything off when I slip out of the world. I'm intangible more often that not, especially when I'm working. Anything is possible I suppose, though. I know I haven't run into everything, not by a longshot."