alderwitch

"But everyone knows that television isn't an accurate representation of reality," Alex protested slightly, "I mean, I guess you could make out and stuff but that seems like an awful lot to spend to not watch a movie. Why not just hang out on a couch? We're going to see Harry Potter."

She tilted her head back to laugh, blushing slightly at that insinuation but she neither confirmed nor denied the assumption, "That should prove less likely to invite wolf-men attacks. At least, one can always hope, so. I'm pretty sure I don't get my security deposit back in event of super-battle." Taylor pressed a quick kiss against his lips, "I'm easy-going when it comes to films so pick whatever you like."

"There were two," Alex confirmed, happy to have gotten Erin to talk about a happy memory and that she'd been able to move on once the memory had turned sad. Her roommate might hate the therapy but Alex thought that the work she was doing there was starting to show. "Let's see. We were in the parking lot, and he made some comment about doing things during the movie and I said 'what else is there to do but watch the movie' and then he kissed me the first time. The second time was a little shorter but that was right after he'd walked me to the door to say goodnight."

Alex wrinkled her nose and shook her head quickly, "No, no. It wasn't like a big make-out thing. He just pressed a quick kiss on my lips when we were in the parking lot and then again in front of the door. It was nice. You kissed someone the first time on a dare?"

"Oh. Uhm." Alex scrunched up her face trying to figure out how to put it all into words, "Warm and kinda moist. I mean, in a good way! It wasn't like all slobbery or anything like that. It was a soft kinda pressure. Emotionally I think it had a bigger impact. It was a sweet moment, and I had all these butterflies in my stomach about it all. He held me real close while he kissed me which was way different than a hug.

Taylor slipped her arms around his waist and leaned into nuzzle his jaw, brushing teasing light kisses, "A tempting proposition, Jack. One I'd like to take you up on." The words were a husky promise against his skin before Taylor pulled back to look at his face under the soft ambient moonlight. "This," she said, indicating the entire evening with a nod of her head, "This was all wonderful. I haven't been able to be just myself in so long. That it was with you means even more. If you're asking me out, the answer is yes." Taylor's cheeks dimpled, "If you're not, well, it will be very difficult to recover gracefully."

Taylor rubbed her eyes with one hand wearily, trying to find the words to explain the unexplainable, without losing her temper or it all getting mangled in the process. Her gaze swept around the room, "If I wasn't willing to help, I wouldn't be trying to explain the problem. This is my area of expertise. It will do little good to any of us if you can't trust what I'm telling you. I don't think any of you would thank me if I took you to Olympus only to have Moira yanked back again two weeks later." She flicked her gaze over to Jack finally, "Of course, we owe it to Moira to find out what's going on. Knowing this particular pantheon, I think there's a very good likelihood that at some point trickery was involved. In fact, I'm hoping for it." She shifted, beginning to pace the room with quick stiff steps, "Firstly, we need to remember that this is Moira's family, not some faceless threat. If they have tricked her like I hope they have, its most likely motivated by a parental desire not a malevolent one. If that's the case, summoning her to speak shoudn't prove an overly difficult task but it doesn't preclude an honest response." Taylor paced back to the window, one hand still twisting the necklace on its chain before she resumed her seat finally. "Let's start with what everyone knows about Moira's past, then go over the events directly preceding her ascension. I admit there is a great deal I don't know. I've been avoiding contact with Moira since I met the Knights."

Alex laughed and pushed herself up with an appology, "I forgot while we were talking." She hunched in on herself and worked on brooding rather than sulking. Alex let her hair fall down in her face and jammed her hands in her pockets as she stared at Erin with an attempt at soulfully. "I can't see anything like this," She volunteered, "I'm trying not to rule out the relationship thing with Mark turning serious cuz that seems rude. I mean, I do like him a lot. He could grow up a lot emotionally in the next few years. I don't know him well enough to dismiss it and if I thought it was totally doomed, I'd break it off."

The cloak and costume fell away, leaving her in the clothing she'd worn out this evening. Unfortunately, the patch of dirt on the knee remained. Only her costume ever seemed to get magically cleaned with this spell. "I left before he moved onto his grade school transgressions," Taylor said dryly as she approached him and tilted her head to look up at him with a little grin. "I don't think he could have been more cooperative."

Alex considered that for a few minutes, her expression thoughtful although not pensive. She reached out for the spinner with one hand when she spoke, "Well, no sense getting flustered over pure conjecture. If I decide it matters, I'll just ask him about it." She sent it spinning and smiled up at Erin, "Thanks! I do know that. I mean, I don't think Mark's the kinda boy to pressure me and if I'm wrong, then that would end it. If peer pressure can't make me wear boring brown clothes, there's no way its gonna make me do something far more serious."

Alex paused to wince as the car stopped and she had to peal off a stack of the multi colored money to hand over to the bank. "Yeah, but I think the more you talk about it, the less likely you are to have actually had any experience. I mean, I'm pretty sure Chris could lie to anyone and almost no one'd know." Alex opinioned before asking, "D'you think Mark has?"

"I figured that the little pegs were left by the peg stork?" Alex teased with a playful grin. "D'you really think some of the other guys have done that already?" She asked the question curiously, "The marriage line seems arbitrary but, I dunno, I think it should be with someone really special. Someone you really love"

"Of course," Her smile was a cool sliver of white under the hood's shadow. "I dangle him upside down off a roof top until he appologizes or passes out." The cloak rippled as he approached and without giving the man a warning, Phantom absorbed him into the depths before she winked out of the clearing herself. She was quite familiar with the closest police department and took their captive there directly. It took her several long minutes of explaining a summary of events to the officers before she blinked back into the field once more and solidified.

Alex gave Erin a completely wide eyed and startled look at the 'for sex' comment before she laughed a little nervously, "I'd be the first to say Mike's cute but I don't think he'll ever go for the casual sex thing. I can't even picture him having premarital sex. He's actually really straight edge."

She put on a crown and was whisked away via portal. She went willingly at first but got frightened at the last second.

Through the speeches and disagreements, Taylor stood quietly poised. It was no less than she'd expected. Only finally at Stesha's heartfelt proclimation about this being the opposite of everything a hero stood for, did Taylor visibally flinch. "The pact," She provided in a tone void of emotion, "Is the only thing that holds gods and demons from walking among us. As a goddess, Moira is subject to that ancient pact. No matter how much any of us wish it otherwise, as long as she possess godhead, I have no power to change that. No one does." Taylor refused to let her shoulders slump as she kept her gaze on her friends, "Its an aspect of the multiverse, as inevitable and, yes, as cruel as death. Fighting to retrieve her will not work, not because you can't win but because short of obliterating an entire pantheon of gods they will always have the power to call her home."

"We don't need to worry about travel prices. If the Pitchoo can't take us, Mike can. He's faster than any jet." Alex pointed out as she popped another kid peg into the little purple car. "And flying's the one power he actually likes."

Phantom watched the interrogation concealed within the folds of her cloak. Jack was so convincing that even she halfway believed him despite herself. As he babbled out his reasons, she shifted slightly, her cloak rippled with agitation. She hadn't been terrified but Taylor was anything but helpless. Another woman wouldn't have been so lucky. "I can drop him off at the station. It's a bit of a walk. I'd hate to see him get cold feet.."

"You never know in the Game of Life," Alex teased as she pushed her little car along and collected the first of Mike off-spring, "You could take a side-tour and end up in a whirlwind romance in Cancun with some stupidly wealthy playboy billionare. Then we'd all have to sponge off you for your college years." She kicked her feet and rested her chin on her folded hands as she eyed her next move, "When we were in the facility, Mike and I used to play anywhere but here on our psychic link. Everything we'd see and go and do once we weren't on lockdown after hours. Neither of us ever did pick Cancun."

Taylor settled down on the loveseat, her posture growing more tense as she listened to some of her earlier fears made manifest. She fiddled with the amulet at her throat while Stesha spoke, a sure tell to her emotions. Unlike almost everyone else in the room, her concerns were more with the plans to head to Olympus to get Moira back than her actual absence. As Stesha finished talking, Taylor pushed off the seat unable to sit still and walked accross the room to the window with quick, almost angry strides. She knew no one would want to hear what she had to say but it was her piece to say. It was always her piece to say, "We can't just go get her back." Taylor turned to the room. She owed it to them to say this to their faces but her shoulders were braced, her feet set apart, "Moira's not half human. She's a goddess. An honest-to-Aphrodite goddess. It goes against the tenents of the pact to even have her in the mortal realm in the first place." Taylor didn't try to point out that she'd tried to look the other way. It wouldn't matter. "Even if we were successful in retrieving her from the Mountain of the Gods - and that's a huge if - they would have every right to demand she be return by authorties that no one can stand against."

"He's telling the truth," Phantom confirmed, floating forward at that, her face expressionless behind the mask. She didn't care over much for this particular style of questioning but if she was going to be entirely honest, the only real difference is she usually pummeled the fight out of people before starting in on the questions rather than during. Her voice cracked out sharply, "So what were you looking for at the movie theater?"

1d20+10=16 Sense motive. Any idea if he's fibbing?

"Ace, focus, please?" Taylor said with a long suffering sigh as she glanced around Jack at the newest arrival. She'd tensed slightly at Stesha's outright hostility. She'd honestly never seen anything like it from the young woman. Nor did she want to examine too closely the whole 'good friend' thing with Moira. Taylor just wanted to find out what was going on, fix it, then not move for about a day and a half. She did thread her fingers through Jack's in a show of silent support, giving his hand a little squeeze. "Stesha was about to tell us what was going on with Moira."

Her friend straight up laughed at the mangled historically inspired speech, "No, that was totally brilliant. You should write that down on a notecard and whip it out at key moments. It could be your thing, you know. Like ka-pow! And then you quote historical speeches. I bet you could get a cartoon." Alex dissolved into giggles before she added, "I don't wanna collect all the boys unless I can make them bring in incomes. Oh! I could make a killing off the pimp yourself to paparazzi thing. Who cares if they lose turns then. They're just getting towed."

Taylor was shaking her head to reject Dark Star's offer when Jack came in behind her. Despite her concern and admitted weariness, a smile lit up her face and she shook her head again as she touched Jack's arm casually, "I've got no more idea than you what's going on. I actually just got here myself. I'm fine, although I appreciate the concern. Just a long day. Usual things." She turned to give Stesha a worried look tempted to offer her a hug. She looked absolutely distraught, "Are you going to be okay?"