alderwitch

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Taylor set down the book and accepted the cup of tea. She gave it the dubious look of someone who was used to some rather nasty medicinal teas but when all she smelled was peppermint, settled in to sip it gingerly. About halfway through the cup of tea, however, she had relaxed back against the couch and Jack's side so it was obviously doing whatever it was supposed to and her expression obviously eased as she finished the drink. "I'm pretty sure that I could sleep for a week without any aid at this point." She stared down into the cup of tea, frowning, "You will take care, won't you, Stesha? I suppose he was just lucky to find me, but he showed up in my bedroom while I was sleeping. He's dangerous and completely certifiable." She hesitated and looked up, her expression troubled, "I just don't want him to get his hands on you."

Taylor wordlessly accepted the coldpack and pressed against the bruise on the side of her face. As far as bruises go, that certainly hurt worse than the rest. At least it was no longer shaped like a fist. Little things, really. She scooted over next to Jack and tucked her head against his shoulder. It's true, Taylor was struggling. Not just with the pain, but this was the first time that after a fight she'd been taken care of. Usually she teleported home, slapped a thing of frozen peas against the bruises and passed out on the couch. Any emotions were stuffed in some neat little box labled 'later' in the back of her head. Being taken care of wasn't something she was used to and if she wasn't very careful, she might just burst into tears again. "You should check out the bathroom. It's huge. I might just move in there while I look for someplace else to live." She joked, albeit halfheartedly, "I'm sure my ficus would love it." Holding the pack against her face with one hand, she poked through the romance novels with the other. "This smells way better than the steak my mom had me hold against my face the last time I had a black eye."

"Mostly Jack beat the crap out of him. I was a little tied up at the time." Taylor said with dry humor that mostly covered the shadows in her eyes. "You know how it goes. Another day, another psycho. For some reason, I get more than my share of nut-cases. And it's not even halloween yet." She watched Stesha pull out enough entertainment for a lengthy hospital stay and her smile softened the almost tight quality to her face, "Oh, thanks. You really didn't have to go to all of that trouble but I appreciate it. I'll be good as new in another day or so. One of the advantages of my unique nature. I'm a lot of pretty colors from breastbone to hip but nothing that won't mend all on its own. Honest." Even less than the mess of her bedroom, Taylor would really rather not show Stesha the fading marks of what happened when a madman managed to get you. She was, in many ways, too sweet a person to have to be part of that world. Taylor went out night after night to keep people just like Stesha protected from things like that.

Alex pushed herself slowly to her feet, her expression one that Zoe had seen a thousand times before on a more mature version of that face. Brows slightly drawn together, lips faintly pursed as she studied Zoe. An expression that hovered between concern and far too aware of her only child's mental state. The clothing was different, but even her mother who managed to look both elegant and poised had a flair for clashing colors. The teenager that stood in her place took that love of bold colors to an unforseen extreme. Despite the fact that the same red-gold hair was pulled back into a clip that had some sort of sparkly rainbow butterfly instead of a tasteful twist, the face below was just as inquisitive and just as discerning. Even the delicately quirked eyebrow about Zoe's dress was her mother to a perfect 't'. "You know our names." She pointed out, the voice slightly higher than the one Zoe was used to. "So I think we should probably move someplace else. Mark, we can place an anonymous tip about these two. I'm sure they're violating parole." Her advice was pragmatic and automatic, but to Mark not Zoe's father. Alex had always had the wits to lead but never the drive. That matter settled to her mind, she took a step close to Zoe and used the hem of her sleeve to wipe away the small smear of blood from her earlier faceplant on the concrete gently, "Hey... You okay?"

Taylor opened her eyes as the door opened and lifted her head up, giving Stesha a cheery enough smile as she uncurled from her corner of the couch slightly. The bruises had faded to that several days old green and yellow along her temple and cheek while the gash on the opposite side had sealed to a faint red line. "Hey, Stesha. How's it going?" Lord, that sounded inane.

That was startling but after an evening of shocks, Taylor only managed to blink as her boyfriend - her vampire boyfriend - turned into a cloud of vapor and streamed away. Only I could manage to screw up my attempt at normalcy this badly. Taylor folded herself up on one corner of the couch, tugging one of the smaller cushions over to her chest that she wrapped her arms around and rested one cheek against. It was all really too much to even try to start processing, so she let her eyes slip closed while she waited for Jack to return with Stesha in tow.

"Psychic feedback. Gimme... second..." Alex managed and she turned her face into Mark's shoulder. Psychically, she reached out and wrestled control of the active communication links and then shut them both down to kill the static before cautiously re-opening them one at a time. "Never felt anything like that. It's not malicious, I don't think?" Once she could lift her head again, she looked over at the girl to try and get a read off of her emotional state. She did look very familiar.

It took some digging around in her pocket to find spare clothing. She wasn't really in the habit of keeping anything in there other than what she'd just changed out of and her costume as Phantom, but as she'd been naked when she changed this time, there had been no clothing to go into the pocket in the first place. Eventually she managed to pull out a pair of jeans that had frayed through at the knees and an oversized university sweatshirt with the tags still attached. She scrambled into the clothing before she caught up with Jack. Everything but the marks on her face were effectively covered and that she could really do nothing about except put a bag over her head. "I think everything in my kitchen are just whatever's left over from the last time I needed food, sans perishables. I keep a few sodas in the fridge and that's about it. I usually have rotating leftovers from family dinners." Taylor eyed the teapot but said nothing, as she leaned one hip carefully against the door frame. Her voice was quiet, "Honestly, I'm kind of achey and still a little shell-shocked, but I'll recover. All in a day, you know?"

"Yes, well, Stesha will probably notice if we're eating and you're not." Taylor pointed out, somewhat muffled from the depths of the towel. She flipped her hair back up and twisted to look at him, raising one brow. "Especially if she's going to be digging around in your kitchen." She shrugged one pale shoulder at him before slipping the Eye off from around her neck to set it on the counter top while she finished toweling off.

His fortitude is a 10

"I don't really need to eat," Taylor pointed out to Jack. She could, she supposed, but that would just be weird. Especially since Jack couldn't... Taylor narrowed her eyes at him as she remembered the garlic incident with her parents. With the towel firmly wrapped around her torso, she simply phased through the glass of the shower and began to work on getting her hair dry enough that it wouldn't immedeately soak any shirt she put on. The bathroom was large enough that she could scoot to the side so she wasn't bumping Jack while he was on the phone. "But if she has a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, I will happily borrow them."

Taylor gave him an alarmed look and then glanced down at her nude body. She healed fast, but not that fast and she had no desire to let Stesha see what the people they fought were really capable of. She gave Jack a shrug and went to turn off the water. If Stesha was coming over, she'd just have to make sure everything was covered up and that gave her very little time if Jack owned any sort of plant life. Taylor snaked one arm out of the shower for a towel and said, "Five to ten minutes?"

Taylor laughed in the background as wiped water out of her eyes. She brushed away the newly reformed fog on the glass and mouthed, "Beat him together?" with a grin. It was sweet but such a load of bull. She did add, "Make sure she doesn't go to my apartment."

Taylor ran her fingers through her hair under the water, combing out the tangles. She rarely wore it down, and it was getting longer than she usually kept it. Weighed down with water, it was past her shoulder blades and very thick. It took a while to rinse all the soap out. "She was my first concern, yes. She's the most magically oriented of the individuals I know, well, except for myself I suppose, and if that man could take me down in under ten seconds, Stesha wouldn't have a prayer. I'd like to hope that if I'd been something other than naked and asleep, I'd have done better. I've never seen anything slice clean through my forcefield like that." Taylor whistled softly and finished rinsing her hair out and went quiet as Jack made the call.

"I promise. I have no room to laugh, anyways. When I was at the drive in, I got chased around the car by a were-fox. Stupid secret identities. Thank goodness I was wearing flat shoes." Taylor grimaced. She still hadn't gotten the mud stains out of that pair of jeans. Stupid, stupid thug. "I even got rescued by my date. It wasn't my worst moment since I started super-heroing, and before you ask, I'm never telling anyone my most embarrasing stories. It's hard enough getting people to take me seriously as is." Taylor grinned and let her chair drop with a thump, "I'm sure he'll be more than happy to teach us at least a bit and direct us in the right direction."

Taylor was rinsing her hair for the second time when she heard the door open again. The rest of the battle had been easy to wash off of her skin, but trying to get several dunkings in that filthy barrel out of her hair took a bit more doing. Once she had the soap bubbles out of her face, she raised one hand to swipe a hand through the fog to look at Jack. "If he doesn't call Stesha, Dark Star will, I'm sure. I imagine Ace will call her, though. He's really quite fond of her, and he knows we're friends." She turned to slip back under the spray to get rid of the rest of the shampoo as she added, "Thank you, for that. I wouldn't have worried but all he wanted out of me was information on who else I knew."

9/6 - Malice Final added

9/6 - Belphagor added

Alex blushed at that but nodded her agreement, as she warmed to the topic. "Not to mention customs and ettiquete. There's a school of thought that the political scene of the future will be more galactic than simply planet based. It could even happen in our lifetime!" She bounced a little with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

Taylor blinked at that but it was a good story. Remarkabally good, actually. Considering how flighty her family thought she was lately, Jackson would probably just be relieved. She tilted her head to the side and gave him a tiny smile, "I wouldn't be so quick to agree, if I were you. I know you don't get along with Ace or Stesha, but they should know too. They're the only ones likely to stop by my apartment. While I think the zealot will be spending tonight licking his wounds, I really don't want to risk it. You only have to call one of them. You could probably even have Dark Star reach Stesha. Thanks." Taylor stretched up to kiss his cheek on her way to the shower. As far as she was concerned, the hotter the better when it came to showers. Especially on a night like tonight.

"Oh, hell. Yeah." Taylor sighed and rubbed her eyes while she thought. It took a few seconds to extrapolate how many hours she'd been off of the radar. Roughly a full day, give or take, which meant that she'd probably missed a class or two. A truly excellent way to start the school year. "If you could call my brother, Jackson? He won't ask a lot of questions and he's used to running interference for me. He's the first one that mom calls anyways when I vanish for any length of time. That'll keep anyone from showing up at my apartment before I can clean up the mess." She ran a hand through her hair. It was definately a sign of how very rattled she was after everything that she hadn't even thought of that angle until he mentioned it. "Could you do me one more favor?"

Psyche's updates are going to be pretty easy this month. 1 PP to add a second communication link: 1 PP for one rank of Wealth and 5PP of Equipment for the following: Done by Sandman XI

As I will give you the inspire and there's no way he can make a DC 30

O-kay! He is stunned :D