alderwitch
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They'd agreed to meet outside of the city itself. Not only did Taylor think that opening a gateway into hell was probably a bad idea on an epic scale, the veil between Freedom City and the netherworlds was thin enough that poking a hole through it anywhere in the city was off the list. They'd been busy enough as is with clean up. So, they'd settled on an empty junkyard in the middle of no where. If everything went very poorly, no one would notice any additional damage between the towering stacks of rusted cars. Despite her still posture, arms folded tight up under her breasts under the bulk of her coak, she vibrated a coiled tension. Her hood had been impatiently knocked back and she stood on the ground rather than put the minute effort into floating. With the threat to earth dealt with, Taylor was finally free to pursue her brother. Only years of training gave her the willpower to wait for James. Willpower and the hope that he would be able to lead them directly to the captured human. Taylor hissed a curse under her breath and started to pace, although she knew full well they were a few minutes early.
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"Of course, it's the Third Prince that you need." Phantom murmured, her tone darkly amused but it was difficult to say at what. It was certainly a busy month for summoning things to Earth Prime, ironically. This one, at least, would be going back when he was done. The rules that the Magus had put in place for the djinn were rock solid, and very complete. Unlike The Pact, Phantom privately opinioned, but that was a musing better not shared. She inclined her head to the imperious youth, a smile playing around her lips faintly. "Very well, sahib," Phantom said with some amusement, "I will summon your djinn. I suggest you stand outside the circle while I do so. Azim-al-Aziz was remarkabally helpful to your grandfather but that doesn't mean it will neccesarily transfer to you so we should take appropriate caution." Phantom stacked the few chairs still in the center of the room to the side with a wave of one hand and began pulling a few objects out of her cloak.
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Phantom pinned him with eyes that glowed white under her hood, her expression flatly unimpressed, "Amazingly enough, Mark Lucas, the world is neither black nor white. A lesson that I will imagine will be a rather difficult one for you to learn." Sweeping her cloak out of the way with one hand, Phantom moved the chairs out of the way with a thought and glanced over the sigils on the ground with a judicous eye, ignoring the posturing of both of the youths, "Take my words for the warning they were meant as. Just because I am a hero - which I am - does not mean you shouldn't research what people do before you call on them for aid. You clearly cannot handle this by yourselves and the thought of you blindly summining one of the djinn sends cold shivers right down my spine." Deciding the sigils were up to whatever standards she had, she straightened to look at the teens again, her gaze flickering between the two, and she sighed, "I am not here to send your girlfriend back to her zombie world. I am well aware of the interdimensional guests that pass through the Freedom League and end up stationed on Prime. We can go more into what I do, but I assume you would rather spin me your story of what you need from me and why you need it."
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"I'd say she spends most of her days dealing with people from another dimension," Phantom's voice echoed dryly from her hood as she reached up to push it back to allow the kids to see her masked face below. "I'm guessing, other than 'magical things', you probably aren't aware what it is that I do. I'm the guardian of the boundries, so, generally I spend my time putting things back in the dimension they belong in." Phantom floated down to the ground and solidified, her cloak rippling like a living thing as she settled. Her gaze strayed briefly to Erin before settling impassively on Mark, "So, I hope your interest in this genie is as important as you said it was."
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Taylor gave Jack an appologetic glance before dutifully leaning over the speaker and providing the directions to the apartment to Dark Star. "We're on the top floor, so you can just gate in or zoom in next to the pool if that's easiest. Thank you!" She leaned back and let Bitey drop to the floor. The changeling headed straight back for the coffee table that it had apparently decided was his and collected up the broken leg to continue gnawing on. Taylor kept a wary eye as she tried to provide Jack a bit of interference from the chubby fingers determined to poke him in the eye. "I don't think we'll be able to fix that table leg. We'll just tell Derrick not to mention the address to anyone, Jack. He can keep a secret."
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Phantom teleported directly into the room, the folds of her cloak filling up the corner of the room that she materialized into. Her face was obscured by the deep hood of the purple cloak until she lifted her head as if she was listening to something that only she could hear. In actuality, she was feeling the distinctive disturbance of a non-planar native. Her fingertips moved up, parting the folds of her cloak as she automatically checked to see what that disturbance was. Tracing it to Erin, she studied the teen with a soft, almost pensive, "Hrmm..."
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"That's all I need to know. I'll be there in a few minutes." It would only take a second or two to teleport in but that way Taylor could grab a quick shower first and change out of her lounging clothes. She planned to go in costume but on the off chance civvies were needed, it would be better to not have to change back into a pair of borrowed boxers and a tank top. She made her polite good-byes and headed off to the shower. This should be an interesting day.
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There was a sigh, audible over the speaker of the phone. Taylor just knew this wasn't going to end well, but at least they were involving an expert early in whatever scheme the teenagers had cooked up. At least, Taylor certainly hoped they were contacting her early. She paused to jot down a note for Jack for whenever he got off of his conference call and left it on the coffee table. It still struck her as odd now and again how they were finding a rythm of living together in the same apartment. She didn't know when the coffee table had become the designated place to leave 'I went out to deal with an emergecy' notes. It just had become one over time. "Where am I meeting you, then?" Taylor asked as she jotted down quickly, 'Got a call from YF. Don't think its anything big but I'll call your cell if I need back up or if I'm going to be late. -T.
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"I'm familiar with it. I've been through once or twice dealing with objects that were stolen." Taylor said dryly as she quirked a brow and stood up to stretch. These Claremont kids were going to be the death of her yet. "I'll save my cautionary notes about the efreeti and start by asking what you need with a genie in the first place."
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Alex cried out as Mike was swatted from the sky, lashing out with the full power of her mutant mind as she did so. Rarely did Alex cut loose with the full destructive potential of her psychic prowess but as Mike was sent hurtling to earth, she reacted fiercely. Behind her, stone chunks levitated off the ground, manipulated by the petite redhead's out rage. 'STOP HURTING MY FRIENDS!' At her mental outcry, all the rubble behind her hurtled forward at the titanic demon.
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Posting my IC. Psyche is joining in the group attack and surging to act as well on her round. I'll put up my rolls with everyone else.
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Taylor blinked and carefully set down the old book, sitting up as she did so. "Consultation? What did you need to know about?" Please, please, don't let it be demons again. Taylor thought she might strangle James if there was anything more demon related, especially if he'd failed to mention it.
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"Sippy cups," Taylor responded with the promptness of a vetran aunt, shifting Bitey in her arms as he started the squirming back bend of any small child that wanted down. "Wipes, trash bags, and some dvd of something bright and colorful. And hopefully non violent." She added the last after dodging a flailing fist. "I think that's it."
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"Hello?" The voice was a little distracted on the other end but neither curt nor unkind as she picked up. Curled up on the sofa in the apartment, Taylor answered the strange number that jingled her phone on the coffee table. She was dressed for lounging, legs crossed and up over one arm of the couch as she worked on a translation of some esoteric text. She flipped off the tape recorder as she answered the phone. The last thing she needed was some sort of gobldegook in the middle of a several hour long translation.
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"Brilliant!" Taylor enthused, pausing to pick up the phone from the cradle and hand it to to Stesha. She carefully kept it out of the grabby hands of little mister bitey who chomped down on her shoulder out of vengance and screeched his outrage. "Ouch! I should just phase and drop you. That would serve you right." She didn't, of course. Babies were still babies, after all. And it wasn't like any damage he managed to do wouldn't heal in a matter of minutes. Regeneration: always handy. She glanced up after handing the phone to Stesha and chuckled at Jack. "You look like something out of one of my b-movies. 'Me and My Gargoyle'."
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Taylor winced as the thump of the coffee table's leg giving way under the determined gnawing of the biter. She scooped him up as Jack collected the winged miscreant. Taylor was starting to think of that one as 'batboy', "You guys must have one sturdy nursery at home." Taylor propped the coffee table up with one knee and slid a book under it to even it out in the meanwhile. Keeping the remote out reach, she rapidly flipped through the channels until they hit on a benign cartoon. "So, who gets to escape to run to the store? I'm pretty killer at rock-paper-scissors." Taylor asked as she shifted the little caveman to her hip. He smiled, revealing pink gums with just a hint of white peaking through before he started on her shoulder. Taylor stuck the chain for the eye into his mouth instead, figuring that anything that could survive the fall of atlantis could survive baby drool.
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"Not really," Taylor admitted as she set the female down on the floor to poke at her brothers while she fished the remote out of the couch. She glanced over their admittedly eclectic collection of movies, and flicked the tv on. "But I think we get a billion channels." The toddlers reacted in a blessed moment of stunned silence as the tv flickered to life and Taylor began flipping between channels, "What channels are the kids shows on now? Discovery's probably not a good choice. I don't think we need to encourage any more biting. Everytime my nephews watch Discovery, it always seems to end in tears." She glanced down at the humanoid looking, bare children and opinioned, "Maybe we should get them diapers. A little pizza sauce won't show but I'd rather not have to shampoo the carpets. Ick"
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Taylor scooted closer, content to be soothed. She wished, sometimes, that Jack could have less beautiful ex-girlfriends, either smaller in number or at least funny looking. But Taylor tried to keep those kinds of petty self concious wishes out of her mind. She drew back from his kiss to give him a dazzling smile, "Its not Freedom City if it isn't a crisis. If there's one, we'll handle it." Taylor scooted closer until she was practically in his lap and could wrap her arms around his neck and give him a wicked grin, "In the meanwhile, perhaps I can corrupt you a little more."
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"I don't know. I don't recognize the species," Taylor admitted, lifting her brown eyes to his with a faint frown. Stesha might not be aware of how unusual that admission was but Jack had helped Taylor put away her books when she moved in. "They were left in the park so maybe one of the Faeworlds. They're not a breed I recognize so it could be a shatter realm. There's no collapse that I know of but that doesn't mean its not a minor realm." Taylor visibally shook herself out of what could have been a rather long stream of mage babble, to turn back to the mundane, "But they probably need food and, hmm, other things? I think omnivore is a safe bet. One of them is teething." That was said with a dark look at the coffee table. The little brute had not endeared itself to Taylor.
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Taylor couldn't help flashing him an impudent grin as he skirted around things carefully with his chosen words. Her dimple flashed in her cheek as she teased, "So I should have informed her that I corrupt you regularly with my wicked wiles? And twice on Sundays?" She tucked one leg under herself and twisted to face him, making arcane gestures with her fingertips that Jack knew full well were nonsense. As grim as she could sometimes present herself, that didn't mean that Taylor didn't have a sense of humor. Considering the reaction to their relationship by both communities, Taylor could either laugh or cry, really.
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"Come back here, you little-" Taylor shifted out of her costume as the cloak was only in the way and hurled herself at the winged baby with a catch that would have done her football loving brother proud. She flipped end over and sailed through the wall next to Jack with both critters in tow before floating back through to deposit the winged one in its coffee table cage with its sibling. She glanced up at Jack, dressed in the running clothes she'd headed out in earlier "Sorry, hon." Taylor glanced around the room and tried not to wince. The black surfaces really showed the thick dusting of fur and the glass coffee table was covered with thick leafy vines that were already being chewed on. Prying the little one off her neck, she looked down at it and frowned with a little hmming noise. She, as without her fur covering, was very much a naked she. She was also starting to look much more human than not. Taylor blinked, an expression that was mirrored back at her, "I found them in the park. They don't belong on Prime." She paused and glanced down at the two gnawing on the (very nice) coffee table and added dryly, "Obviously."
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"She was less than forthcoming about any details, just, let's see," Taylor sat down next to him, her gaze turning in ward as she tried to recall the nuances of the conversation. "Something about when the 'Dragon' heard his blood had taken over Freedom City and was comingling with the living, that his wrath would be legendary. Which is really more than a little hypocrtical considering that his fascination with human brides is a well documented occult fact." The last was almost an aside to herself as she curled her leg up under her. She reached up and began unwinding the thick bun. It wasn't that Taylor was taking the threat lightly by any means, but panic never did her any good. Especially when it could be an empty threat. Or at least unsubstantiated. "As she opened with 'you have something of mine' and 'sharing Jack's bed is disgusting and the Chosen of Heshem should know better', I do think she was pushing a certain agenda if that helps?" Taylor looked up at him at that.
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"Thank goodness you had the forethought to bring food. Give me an angry demon over a needy infant any day." Taylor replied as she set a hand on Stesha's shoulder and teleported them to the inside of the apartment she shared with Jack. As soon as they reappeared, the trio shrieked in mingled dismay and outrage at the abrupt and no doubt confusing change of climate. Puffs of multicolor fur exploded into the air as they shed the thick wintery coats that had protected them from outside. Taylor sneezed several times as she made a grabs for the most recent winged addition to the group, in a fruitless attempt to catch him before he managed to knock anything off the walls. As for Stesha, her greedy companion used this as an excuse to yank the cookies from her hand and scuttle under the coffee table.
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Blinking, the little fuzz ball launched itself from the tree at the offered cookie. Taylor sucked in her breath, expecting a repeat of her earlier mad dive to be neccessary but leathery wings fanned out from its shoulders and corrected its plummetting descent into something a little more manageble. The difference between this one and the two they'd found earlier was striking. The newcomer was much more squat and animalistic when compared to the upright one clinging to Stesha's hand. There was a bit of a squable between the siblings, with the larger one hissing its displeasure at sharing. "Wonderful," Taylor said, her turn to be amused. "Shall we get them back to my place before we get noticed?"
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"Less than an hour," Taylor opinioned, handing the cookie to the creature half buried in her cloak. It clutched it with a little burbled noise and buried its face against the side of her throat. She led the way down the path towards the tree in question, "They don't appear to adapt fast enough to be true changelings although they do look more human than when I first, uhm, stumbled accross them." More accurately, she'd nearly thrown her back out trying to catch one before it hurtled out of a tree. It hadn't let go of her since, even when its older sibling launched itself at her in defense. Fortunately her scrapes had healed and although her pride had been injured, no one had seen her lose to a pair of fuzzy toddlers. "Eeeze? Eeze? Eeze?" It was a rather cheery chant from the miniature cookie monster attached to Stesha's hand but as long as she handed out cookies, it was more than content to dance alongside her although it broke off when they reached the tree to utter a series of curious chirps. The branches rustled and another furry face peeked out from between the leaves. "I should have guessed. This is where I found them the first time around.
