alderwitch

"Something about flowers delivered to a sex-party. I don't know." Taylor said her tone exasperated from the entire thing, "Like I said, it was a very surreal conversation. I got the impression that she thought you were trying to take advantage of me in someway and it was an attempt at a warning. I didn't ask a lot of questions." She ran one gloved hand over her mask, and shifted her phone to the other ear. At least up this high the reception on the phone was amazing. "Stesha said that Moira had drank too much to remember the experience afterwards which seemed to be the basis for her anger." Taylor paused then despite her best efforts really couldn't help but repeat, "'Hellacious consent'?"

"Let's say my week hasn't improved," Taylor said dryly. She hesitated and realized there was no good way to transition into things in anything like a graceful manner, "Stesha asked me out to coffee. During which there were insinuations you worked in some sort of porn industry and that the episode with Moira had been while she was too drunk to consent. I don't believe you'd do that, nor do I think Moira would let you live afterwards if you had. So why does Stesha think that you did?"

A follow up to Nighttime Networking.

Rather than returning home, Taylor had taken to the rooftops as Phantom. For once, there was no hapless mugger to take her current emotional turmoil out on. It was likely fortunate for the mugger, but it had left Phantom unsettled. After a second circuit of the rooftops, Phantom found a high ledge and pulled out her cellphone from her cloak. Dialing Jack's number from memory, she slipped the cellphone up to her ear under the hood. She wasn't sure if she'd be relieved or dissapointed if the call went to voice mail. Still not sure what she was going to say, Phantom listened to the phone ring impatiently.

Taylor tapped one finger against her lips with a thoughtful expression on her face, "Actually, very like the Olympics. I imagine that their pride would absolutely love the chance to have mortals competing for divine favor once more on Earth Prime. That's not a half-bad idea." She grinned and wrinkled her nose at him, "We'd just have be very careful in the wording of it all. Fortunately for all of us, there are very few hydra or manticores wandering about in this day and age."

Taylor laughed and finished toweling her hair off, "It's always possible. With this particular pantheon, you're pretty safe going off of old myths. That's not always the case, but with the Greeks if you can remember high school mythology, it actually can help." She tossed the towel over the rack to dry and followed him out into the living room. "I didn't want to get Stesha's hopes up too high, but they're no more allowed to snag a mortal woman off the street than they're allowed to wander around downtown Freedom. Travelling to Olympus is much the same, there are ways to do it, but Moira didn't really follow any of them. If we can make the arguement that she belongs here, we should at least be able to argue that she has the right to return. If nothing else, we can try and 'win' that right back." Taylor's smile dimpled her cheeks, "The caveat to that is even if I'm right, her family is going to cheat."

Taylor had tucked one towel around her torso and was using a second to dry her hair. She looked up at him, her eyes widened slightly at the thought of just marching up to Olympus, "Defenses? In a way, I suppose they have defenses. It's risky for mortals to go striding up to the shining gates, not so much out of a certain death problem but more..." She clicked her tongue, trying to find a way to phrase it. "In the seat of their power, they're the most dangerous and the greek gods in particular would love to get their hands on some human playthings. I actually think they'd be relatively welcoming, all things considered, but getting out of Olympus would prove much harder. They do miss contact with their worshipers."

Taylor wasn't a very touchy feely person with her friends but she did stop to put one hand on Stesha's shoulder as she said, quietly but seriously, "I really do appreciate the warning. This all couldn't have been easy for you to go over again. You're right, I do tend to take the world on by myself but I do want you to know that I appreciate you looking out for me. It means a lot." She pulled her hand back and resettled her hat on her head afterwards. "I'll see you soon."

"I'd like to see if I can get a message to Eldritch," Taylor said, her tone doubtful that she could even contact the Master Magus, "Other than taking a closer look at the box, there's only so much I can do in the meanwhile. I have no idea how Moira sidestepped The Pact to begin with and until I know, almost anyone I can contact has a vested interest in leaving her in Olympus. The last thing I want to do is make any situation worse." She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair again, smoothing it out before she smiled up at him, "Did you want to join me? I should warn you, its not a very big shower."

Taylor smiled at her quick defense of Ace. Stesha's loyalty to her friends was endearing. Although she was quite fond of Ace, Taylor doubted his motives were all that altruistic but she didn't argue, "You can call me anytime, Stesha. I don't get much time off but that doesn't mean I can't make time for friends. I'll keep in touch, I promise, and not just about Moira's situation." She finished her cup of coffee as well and went to stand up from the table, "Let's hope everyone's cards are on the table. It's already been one heck of a week and its only Monday."

"It's not that I don't trust your judgement, Stesha," Taylor sighed, twisting the amulet on its chain around her throat, "I would doubt something equally damning if it had been Jack's stories about you. I'd have little personal integretiy if I discounted all of my own personal experiences with any individual based one someone else's words." She summoned up a ghost of a smile, "I'll do my best to take care of myself, I promise. There's nothing you need to appologize for. It wasn't a comfortable scene for any of us but I think we all share the blame equally. Well, except for Ace. He has a little more of it than most."

Taylor made a slightly dismissive noise at his own disparaging comments although she was a little too distracted by the affectionate attentions to counter with any real arguements. "I think you're quite capable at dealing with whatever threats present themselves," she finally said, giving him one last kiss before she started to ease herself off of his lap with reluctance, "I should, however, get that shower if we're going to get any real work done today." While she would certainly prefer to spend the afternoon hours engaged in their current activities, she had promised to look into all these matters as directly as possible.

Taylor shook her head at him amusedly, "We'll see. I think this is all far more then I'll ever manage to use." After stopping once more to pick up the tailored items, Taylor extended one hand to Ace. A mischievious smile played around her lips as she reached out for the contact needed to teleport them again. "I'm not sure how I'll thank you, Ace." I have an idea, however. When they blipped into existance, they were in a small and very cluttered ante-room. Most of the light in the area came from a door that was slightly ajar. Past the thresh-hold, there was more clutter and a small and somewhat frail figure leaning over several pottery fragments. Although much more aged than the last time Ace had seen Taylor's uncle, the intellegent sparkle in his dark eyes was undimmed by the many years. "Give me a call and I'll come pick you up again. Just remember, I haven't told any of them about my antics." Taylor murmered before she winked out of existance, not wanting to get caught in her uncle's study.

"I will be careful," Taylor promised honestly, "I know I'm not invulnerable to everything. If you're right about Jack's true nature, it'll come out and I'll put him through a wall. Or three. It's not that I'm not listening, Stesha. These people aren't strangers to me, and your description of their behavior just doesn't make sense with what I know. I am going to talk to Jack about things, not just sweep it under the rug." Taylor flipped one palm up on the table to gesture to Stesha as she continued, "I believe you think this is true. You're not the person who makes up stories, no matter how angry you might be. I appreciate both the warning and the concern."

Taylor said her farewells and, once they were out on the street, placed the shoes in her dimensional pocket as well. As they'd brought no car, the void was proving rather handy all things considered. Taylor just would have to make sure that all bags were removed lest she accidentally end up pulling out a forgotten lacey pair of underwear while trying to deal with some thug. Now that would be embarrasing. "Alright, I have underthings, shoes and dresses. Is that everything?" Taylor asked her current guide.

"Only if you promise not to clobber all of my occult thugs." Taylor said with a slow smile as she twined her arms around his shoulders, "I'll get rusty if I don't get my Halloween target practice in." Taylor slipped into his lap deftly, and lifted her chin to brush a light kiss against his lips, "But I have no complaints with your daytime plans t'all."

Taylor stared at Stesha for a long moment. Too completely stunned by that story to even begin to formulate coherent speech. Once she got past the shock, emotionally she rejected that sequence of events. By her own admission, Stesha hadn't been in her right mind at the time. Having seen Divine in a fight, if things had happened that way, Taylor rather doubted that Jack would still be among the living. Moira would have beaten his corpse into a fine red mist. She finally managed, "I'm sorry?" Deciding she really didn't need the story repeated, Taylor pur her hands up quickly to prevent a repeat of that, "That's not anything like what I heard. Clearly, I'll have to talk to Jack. I can tell you this, Stesha, for all of his flaws, I don't think that Jack would ever do that. I appreciate the warning and I'm not blowing you off but I don't believe that's the way it happened. It doesn't sound like either of them at all."

Taylor shook her head quickly and said with a lightness to her tone that fooled neither of them, "No. I've called out sick on dinner for the month so I'm hoping to keep my contact with them minimal until I can shake out whatever bottomfeeder is behind all of this. It's made more complicated with the fast approaching wedding but I'll figure out something. Worst case scenario, I'll look even more shapeless than usual in my bridesmaid dress. It's scarlet red, by the way." She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, "Its just these little irritations, you know. They're not really dangerous to me but it makes it hard to fully relax ever. I'm just hoping I can find out whats going on before October. October is always insane with occult dabblers getting in over their heads." Releasing her hair with a little flick of her wrist, she relaxed into the solid arm around her shoulders. "I know you're here and it helps. I hope you know the same goes for you with your problems. If I could just find this guy, oh, I would call you in a heartbeat." It was clear that whoever was responsible for the imps was going to be fetched such a beating if the look on her face was any indication.

Taylor wrinkled her nose at the skeevy description of the party. Velvet couch? Black roses? That just all seemed too weird to be total fabrication. Stesha didn't seem the type to make things up no matter how peeved she was. Hopefully she'd misconstrued it. Jack didn't like talking about his day-job... Was he in the porn industry or something? Shaking her head to try and get her mind back on track, Taylor eyed Stesha, "Okay, he sounds like a jerk. Maybe a jerk with a weird job, but that doesn't seem like it's the end of what you want to tell me." Please, please let that be the end of the story.

She leaned into his side, tracking back onto the conversation about the fight with a little sigh and her voice was slightly frustrated although not with Jack, "I don't mind telling you about it, I was just trying to find the best way to phrase it." Taylor fiddled with his shirt with her free hand, trying to find the best way to jump into the verbal double dutch of her imp problem, "Remember, I mentioned an imp had almost blown my cover? Well, I've been practically tripping over the little things at odd intervals. Stesha actually caught one and we took it to Scarab. It was - they were - looking for me and that's really all I know. So I ran into a slightly larger nest of them on something that should have been routine. All I know is there's something vaguely demonic out there and it probably thinks I'm going to be in the way of some bad plan. I didn't bring it up because I really have nothing to go one for tracking it down."

"Its easy too look a little silly. I'm short and stocky but I think they're lovely." She did turn to give Ace a quiziccal look, "What would I ever wear gold shoes with?" It was likely a very, very good thing that Ace had taken Taylor under his wing. She was clearly trying to picture if she owned anything gold to wear them with. Very matchy-matchy.

"Thrown through a wall, while solid. My fault entirely. Should have counted," Taylor replied promptly, "Its not a big deal. I heal quickly and I was behind a shield. Its more that things have kept me so busy I'm over-worked and under-slept. I don't have to tell you that mistakes in our line of work are on the costly end." Deciding her perch was less comfortable than the couch looked, she scooted down next to him. "I have no idea. I've only worked with Dark Star in uniform. I think he and Stesha are dating though. He did seem a little out of it socially but I'm not sure how much he was deliberately ignoring."

Taylor folded her legs up under herself on the seat and quietly braced herself. This week was certainly turning into a doozy. Maybe it was that time to go take that beach vacation she'd been promising herself.... "Take your time, I'm listening," Taylor pulled her hat off and set it down next to her on the bench. She considered Stesha a good enough friend not to hide her face for all of this but, man, it was tempting.

Taylor lifted her shoulders in a shrug although her fingertips never stopped moving, almost as if the motion was calming. In some ways, it was. Taylor was one of those people who needed to fiddle with things when she was agitated, "Its not so much my principles as a responsibility. One I am dangerously skirting the tenants on by helping. It's never easy to stand up and be judged but it is what it is." She accepted it with another small lift of her shoulders, still sad but resigned. It wasn't the last time this particular conflict would come into play in her life. "I could have handled things better. I'm sure I came off snippy as my temper frayed." Taylor smiled reluctantly and shook off the last traces of melancholy with determination, '"But we all survived it unbruised. Or at least only as bruised we showed up in the first place. I thought someone was going to end up knocked through a wall for a little bit. My money was on Ace."

"S'Okay, it sounds like it was a relationship that ended messily. Jack told me he was a jerk about things, so, the tension's understandable." Taylor eyed the other woman over her coffee cup and refrained from sighing as she nodded and lifted her chin, "If you feel there are things you need to get off your chest, I'm happy to listen." She stirred the coffee in the large ceramic cup a few times before she added, gently, "You do know that I'm going to assume your opinions are strongly biased, though?"