alderwitch

Phantom waited for Scarab to put the creature down before she fired off a blast to turn its corpse into sulfurous smoke. That nasty task completed, she teleported back up to Stesha and Scarab. She gave Stesha a rather unappologetic shrug all things considered, "Not and be sure it isn't going to bite someone. There's poison in their fangs. It won't bother me but it could make someone sick. Possibily kill them. And they're more on the level of low-end primate intelligence. We didn't kill it with anything holy. It's essence will trickle back down to hell and be reconstituted into some equally loathsome demon."

Taylor pulled a cloth out of her bomber-jacket's pocket and used it to pull the box closer, like it was evidence in some sort of crime scene. Twisting it one way and then another, she shared her thoughts aloud, "Whether Divine was mortal-born or was left on Earth-Prime as an infant, she couldn't have had her full-fledged goddess-hood. Even as impowered as we all know she is, Moira pales in comparison to an actual Olympian god. I think that whatever was in this box also contained the divinity inherent. When she accepted this present, she accepted her nature and automatically was removed by the nature of The Pact." She glanced up at the others, "Pandora's Box. The Trojan Horse. Any number of Greek myths contain the 'be careful what you accept' parable. For good reason. Its a favorite tactic of that pantheon. We should have Ace see if his friend can summon Moira. Stesha's the closest to her, so I think she ought go along. I think between the two of them, they're most likely to be able to tell if she's been coerced. I'll have to see if I can do some research on the specifics of Moira's situation and this box."

"We tried to go on it when we were ten but, uhm, it stopped working," Alex said, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "So this will be my first time on it. It looks like fun though!" Alex nibbled on the last pieces of the fried pastry, finishing it while her friends talked.

"He's a rare individual that I don't have to worry about Phantom getting in the way of," Taylor said, letting him take her arm with that old-world style he exuded so easily. She poked the arm with her free hand, "And that's all the personal information you're getting on him. Some people do that secret identity thing, remember?"

"Well, if you hadn't had sex with him in the past, he might not misconstrue your intentions when you show up," Taylor pointed out dryly as she was dragged along in Ace's wake once more, "So, now what?"

1d20+11=19, 1d20+11=31, 1d20+11=29, 1d20+11=27 1 x bruised.

Alex headed off to change after closing the box up for Mike to return it to storage. She came bouncing back down the steps, pulling her hair up in a wet pony tail as she did so and turned her face up to Chris and Mark, "So are we taking the Pitchoo or a car? Or just doing the super-hero thing over?"

Phantom leaned forward, steepling her fingers under her chin thoughtfully as she listened to the voice in an attempt to place it. "It's familiar but no one stands out. Thank you, Scarab." She pulled herself up from the chair in a smooth motion and rested a gloved hand on the gleaming armoured shoulder of the telepath, "The creature is infernal. Even if you could redeem it, it would only be torn apart when it returned to whatever plane of hell it calls home. I'll go deal with the creature. A single blast will discorpreate it." Phantom teleported back down to the cell block to deal with the imp.

Taylor slanted him a doubtful look and pointed out, "If I ever had occasion to way a ball gown, I imagine I would have bigger things to worry about." She fingered the fabric for a moment before she returned to Ace's side. If everything had gone as planned, she would have plenty of occasions to wear any number of fancy dresses. She'd been on the fast-track to serve as a premier interpreter and translator. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility to attend ambassadorial functions in that regard. Now, she'd be lucky to finish school. "I'm sure everything will be lovely."

Phantom bit back a curse as the shield dissolved under the fire. Oh, how she'd come to hate fire. Especially when she noticed the merrily burning box of explosives. Going solid with a thought, her forcefield in place, Phantom flung her arms wide to open her cloak and suck the dangerous box of explosives in the void. That'll have to do for now. "I can't keep that thing protected under the assault of flame throwers. I'll see what I can do about the men with guns."

Spending my action to deal with box o' flaming explosives

Scarab began to push her enlightened mind towards the future, finding that it took more effort than usual to push back the veil of then-and-now. Focusing on the blonde bombshell's felonious activity, Scarab felt time compress. All of the woman's immortal life stretching out before her smashed into a chaotic jumble of image shards that made little coherent sense. Finally order emerged from the chaos, one blindingly clear moment. It was late. Late at night, and the rug below her - his - feet had that so very distinctive swirl of browns and golds iconic to the sixties. There was the solid flesh on flesh sounds of combat inter-mixed with breathy laughter and a man's gutteral curses. Raven - the first Raven - tumbled through the field of vision and crashed into a delicately spindly desk behind a velvet rope. The desk had been both french and old, with that too fragile look that so many pieces like it have. 'Oh, now look what you've done!'

Alex blushed and laughed as she tilted her cheek up to Mark, in equal parts from the show of affection as the insinuation that she was dangerous on rides. She protested, "That was, like, six years ago and it was from having an inner-ear thing." She switched the funnel cake remains to her other hand and licked the sugar from her fingertips, "I vote for the free-fall. Has anyone been on that yet?"

"I have heels," Taylor said doubtfully as she looked at the elegant creations. "A pair of wedge sandals and a pair of black heels. That's pretty much it." She sorted through the dresses, holding them up to her neck in front of the mirror. Sadly, real life didn't work like a fairy tell, she was still going to look just like Taylor. Maybe no-one would notice her and just look at the dress...

"I don't want them to have to be prepared. I don't want them to spend nights worrying when I'm unreachable that this is the time I've gotten smashed into paste by a demon. I do this work so that the people I love are safe in their beds at night." Taylor retorted firmly, "What good is all this power if I'm unable to protect the people I love most on this earth." She turned her face away from Ace's too intense stare, "Maybe I think the illusion is a better daughter for them than the reality."

"Next weekend is fine, barring unforseen interdimensional activity," Taylor confirmed, as she unfastened her seatbelt once the car stopped in front of her house. With an impish grin, she scooted over the center console and into his lap to twine her arms around his neck and give him a lingering kiss. "I'll call you to confirm on Friday." She wiggled to get out of his lap, probably wiggling a little more than was entirely neccesary if the playful smile on her lips was any indication, and scooted back over to her side to get out of the car. "I'll see you then."

I'll be using an HP to stunt Concealement 10 in my group as well.

Alex nodded and left the concealment to Eddie as she continued to coax her new big friend towards the compound. She felt badly, as she remembered the heavy weaponry installments for creatures like this. Sorry, big guy. I wish I had another way of doing this.

Alex gave her a sleepy smile, having finished with putting her half of the game away and settled into that loosely cross-legged sitting position that she assumed for her nightly meditations. "You guys will do awesome, I'm sure. With his luck and your skill, I bet it'll be a piece of cake. Have a good time at the gym, Erin. Thanks for playing the game with me."

"Sure! There's no point to playing things that aren't fun. I've got no burning desire to roll around in my piles of fake money." Alex grinned and then stiffled a little yawn. "'Sides, there's way too much room in a mansion for just one family anyway. It's better to be comfily cluttered than lonely in a big house my mom always says."

Taylor watched Jack while he spoke and although her expression was troubled, she nodded and slipped one hand in his to give it a little squeeze. It was all a little daunting but explanation given, she really didn't want to get into any further details in the middle of all of this. Nor did she want to confront the whole 'had sex with a goddess' thing. It might end up giving her a complex. Taylor left her hand in his, as she turned her attention back to the group. "I can cast a spell that will detect any magic in the area but casting to find trace elements will be harder. I don't think it's entirely neccessary as I think Stesha's memories will prove more useful." She turned her face to the other woman, "Was there anything she accepted? A present of some kind, maybe?"

"That's hard for me. The not overthinking part. I don't really ever get my brain to stop going." Alex admitted as she pushed the car around to follow Erin's. She had full load of peg-children in the purple car but she'd spent a lot of money on school for them. "Of course I'll come back and tell you how it all worked out if you wanna know. As long as you wanna know. I mean, I don't want you to feel like you gotta listen to me babble about my first boyfriend."

Taylor, after a truely appalled look at Ace for mentioning the shopping trip, turned to frown up at Jack, her chin starting to lift slightly, "Three of you? What do you mean 'three of you shared'?" Personally, she'd rather have this settled before trying to perform some sort of Hellenistic summoning song and dance. She was tired and frustrated enough before adding this into the mix.

"Hmmm..." Alex said thoughtfully, processing that as she did everything else, "Well I did kinda guess that was going to happen. We'll see what happens. I'm sure Mark will be a good guy and not push my whole comfort level thing and if the kiss was anything to go by, I'm sure more kissing will be fun."

Taylor raised silent eyebrows at the venom Stesha kept spitting at Jack. Her ego really didn't need to know what relationship, if any, that Jack had with their goddess teammate. There's an act to follow... "Before we go summoning Moira, Ace, we need to know if she was mortal-born. If she was born of a mortal woman, we'll have a better chance. It gets much more complicated if she was left on earth as a baby with her goddess-hood stripped from her. If we can make the arguement that she belongs here on Earth-Prime, we'll have something at least. In that, I would be required to retrieve her." Taylor pointed out, trying to keep on task. "I'll deal with my oath and any reprecussions that come from my actions. Let's put that off the table." Just by chosing to help, the die was cast and there was no point in worrying about that now. Taylor reached up to rub the back of her neck. "Ace might be able to dig up some dirt on that end. Now, what happened - in detail - right before she Ascended?"