alderwitch

Even watching the transformation, Taylor blinked once at the stark difference once he spoke. So that's what that felt like. It gave her a bit better understanding at the looks Stesha gave her when she shifted between identites. She shook off the reflection, and the added distraction of watching Jack dress, and reached up slender fingertips to the Eye. Between one second and the next, shadows wreathed her body and the cloak billowed out from her shoulders. Automatically she floated up so that the cloak didn't drag on the ground. "I have no idea if he's come to in there or not," she warned, her voice echoing oddly as it usually did when she went insubstantial. The cloak rippled before ejecting the prisoner from it onto the ground in an ignominous heap.

Alex laughed breaking out of her expression and pushed her little purple car past the chapel to pick up a little pink peg bride for 'Mike'. "No, I should lose a turn everytime I pass someone as I stop to try and encourage them to pass me. I'm much more about the pep talks than the sabatoge." She flipped over onto her stomach, her legs crossed at the ankles, "And I'd have to sit around at the chapel until the 'Mike' car passed me and picked up a different little pink peg bride. Of course, I hope I'm moving past that hang around and wait thing."

Taylor teleported into the closest alley she knew of near Moira's house and walked the rest of the way, slightly stiffly. Oh, it wasn't anything a hot bath wouldn't cure but she'd misgauged the number of opponents and had ended up pitched through a wall while solid. Thank Heshem for force fields but Taylor's back molars still felt rattled. All in a day's work as a super hero. She wasn't looking forward to whatever this was, however. Silently, Taylor prayed with every step that Moira wasn't involved in this. She still wasn't sure what to do about Divine's, ah divine parentage. Taylor walked up to the door after a quick glance to make sure no one was close by, walked through it. Stesha had said urgent after all, "I'm here. What's wrong?"

Alex laughed and let the subject drop easily. She had no desire to pry, after all, and she'd much rather Erin enjoy their boardgame. "Hmm... What about Eddie? We know he'd refuse career after career until something involving music came up." She flicked the spinner again and sighed as she missed a turn. Alex settled in and tried to fold up her arms and look sullen. The sneer was pretty good but in the effort to squinch her eyes she ended up looking more like some myopic and angry pixie than really managing sullen.

"I don't have a strong desire one way or the other. I'm just telling you not to protect my sensabilities," Taylor slipped out of her seat and twisted, one hand going to her throat to resettle the Eye of Heshem thoughtfully. "If it bothers you, I can walk away. I just don't feel a special need to do so. I would like to know if he's going to be problematic as I blasted him while dressed like this." She gestured down to the jeans and top. The jeans would definately need to be washed after the scramble from the car and run through the brush. Taylor frowned and swiped at the patch of dirt on one knee and considered that she should have hit him harder with that force blast. "I'm just glad he didn't manage to get me with the crowbar. Unshielded that would have hurt."

Alex glanced up at her friend curiously, both brows lifting in silent question but she didn't push the matter as clearly there was some secret that Erin didn't just want to blurt out, "I suppose that's true. I mean, hopefully his folks wouldn't pull him out of life all together right?" She gave her roommate a little grin and reached down to spin the spinner once more with an enthusiastic twist.

"Hey, this is me, remember?" Taylor reached out to touch his arm to get his attention. She left her hand in place as she spoke, her tone strong, "I don't have your methods but I've got my own tasks that other people find questionable, or distasteful. I'm not going to look at you differently afterwards, you know." She squeezed his arm once, "I know what that's like, you know. To have someone flinch away after you've done something you felt you had to. In the end, you're the only one who can count the cost of your actions, Jack."

Alex giggled, "I'm pretty sure once Mike's out of this phase, he's gonna totally regret writing all that stuff down. A lot. I hope to be able to use it to tease him for years and years." Zipping her car along, Alex headed for college, hoping to get the 'law' career as she spun the spinner. "I think superheroes either make billions and billions ore end up scraping by unless they retire. We'll all just have to sponge off James through college. Too bad we didn't have a third person to play him. I think you're right about Mark's posing though." Alex giggled again, "Did you see that speedo at my birthday!?"

Taylor did her part for the people by keeping her mouth shut and leaning into Jack's shoulder with her face slightly turned away. Better than anyone she knew that she wasn't so great at the 'look how delicate I am' routine' so she simply best to let him tell them what he would. The face that she tipped up to receive his kiss was sparkling with amusement of the ball of yarn he'd spun. "Thank you. You're pretty amazing yourself," she murmured bemusedly. Taylor had never considered herself a great beauty, nor did she fancy that she was even in the top ten of women Jack had probably dated. It was flattering to hear, however, and she returned his kiss with one of her own before asking, "Did you want to question the thug or should I just drop him off by some police station later on?"

Alex gave her a lopsided grin, "Do you want sullen or do you want bad poetry? I have years of bad poem memories that my super-brain won't let me forget." She blushed but didn't deny her best friend's good looks. Although she did point out, "Well, either of them could take a 'pose for the paparazzi' move for quick cash but you have to lose a turn from the shame of it all."

Taylor gave a slight shrug and raised one hand as if to absorb him into the pocket dimension before she paused. "Well, he didn't seem to think anything amiss with me. He also was very intent on getting into your trunk. He had to have noticed the car was occupied. Speaking of which, we might want to get back. I set the alarm off when I ran." She dropped the mystical bonds and finished the gesture to draw the thug into the void through one palm. He'd be safe enough there until they figured whether or not Jack wanted to question them.

"Okay!" Alex agreed readily, accepting her piles of starting goods. She thought carefully before pronouncing, "Okay. You're Mark. You can ignore bad stuff that happens to you but only if you make an inspiring speech about it. That, and you can't go to college as you've got to go straight into super heroing. Does that sound fair?" Alex stuck her little blue peg into the purple car as there wasn't a black car in the box and set it by the start.

After a long moment of intense scrutiny from her all white eyes, Taylor finally pulled back from the fox-thing. Finally she said dismissivly, "It's not a supernatural anything. Not really. He's either some mutate or a science experiment. He's not one of the Cursed or any of the hereditary lycans and the behavior is all wrong even for the most perverse of kitsune." She slanted a glance at him, finally taking her eyes from the creature. She wasn't overly worried about it breaking free if it did wake up at this point. "Which in some ways is more worrisome. The supernaturals tend to police their own. This or whatever created it, will not."

Alex let out a peal of laughter and agreed readily to the game. "Let's play life but I don't wanna be me for it! I already spend too much time planning out my future. Lets each pick one of our friends to try and play as. Like, I'll pick one for you and you pick one for me and then we'll try and see who can do the best. Like, James starts with way more money. Stuff like that!" Alex started to set up the board as she chattered at her friend happily.

Nifty! I'm gonna use it on my Knowledge Arcane check as my first roll was an 18 2nd roll: 34. Much Better What can I figure about the critter?

"You're very quick, fortunately for us both. I did warn you about the whole blast then ask questions problem I have." Taylor said as she gestured to lift and hold the unconcious creature with bands of black energy. "And, yes, hitting him was quite cathartic. Especially after the embarassing parking lot chase." She flashed him a quick grin before turned her head to study the creature. Taylor's expression was thoughtful as she studied the creatures face and bone structure before she made the universal mystic noise: "Hmmmm...."

"Oh, no. I agree he has to lose sometimes. I just think its going to be hard on him when it happens. I also think any crisis of faith may mess with his powers, too. But he'll come out stronger for it. After all, you can't truely believe in yourself until you've proven you can pick yourself up and dust yourself off after an utter failure." After that bit of volunteered wisdom, Alex disolved into another cheery smile, "Sure! I love games."

"I dunno if its so much that he doesn't believe bad things can't happen, so much as he has to believe good things can happen. He's going to take it the hardest of us all, you know, when someone can't be saved," Alex mused aloud, her hazel eyes darkening with concern as she followed the trail of thought aloud, "Sometimes I get the feeling that his powers work because he believes so whole heartedly. I'm not sure how reliable his luck would be if he doubted his ability to alter it." Alex shook off the too somber bent of her thoughts with another little laugh, "Its cuz I'm projecting my mood a bit. It was an awesome and wonderful first date. Everything went just right."

Alex let out another chuckle as she finished fluffing her hair out from the curls she'd put into it. "I'm going to let the ten year plan work itself out, I think. Honestly, I think Mark needs someone more like you when he grows up than me. Mark'll need someone to ground him. He won't look at the bad side of things unless someone makes him. I'm far more likely to just, you know, do that for someone than try and push them to do things themselves." Alex gave a little shrug of her shoulders and smiled easily, "But, like I said, people change. Things change. I'm just happy to let things be for once. Oh, and to answer your question, I don't think its a secret. That'd be weird. "

Dressed in comfy pjs and a light top, Alex sank down to her usual spot on the floor to chat up at her roommate, her expression thoughtful, "I thought about that, but I think I'm okay with that. I like him, he's funny and sweet. He's cute. I respect him as a person." She reached up to un clip her hair and run fingers through it, "I'm happy to let it run its course and I think I'm okay with seeing what happens. I'm not any more certain that we'd be compatible in the long term but I'm trying not to analyze every angle."

"Coming our way, actually." Alex pointed towards the part of the crowd that their friends broke through minutes later with unerring precision. She gave a little wave, funnel cake in her other hand.

"Where? How urgent?" Crackled across the phone after Taylor had picked up. It was curt even for her but the reason for her short questions was clear as the distinctive zorch-pow of eldritch combat boomed on her end. Phantom listened for the response, and provided, "Be there in ten minutes. Maybe fifteen." Before her end of the line went dead.

"And he brought me roses," Alex added, gesturing to the blooms on her desk corner with another blushing smile, "The dress was great. I felt all grown up." She stood with a laugh and moved to the closet to change while she talked at Erin over her shoulder, "But I'm glad to have more casual stuff for the movie. Nylons are itchy."

Alex blushed, her nose and cheeks turning pink. She tried to give the matter serious thought but her attempts kept dissolving into giggles, "I think so! It was my first kiss, so, I have no basis of comparison but it made me feel all bubbly." She spread her hands out, palms up, "He was a total gentleman for the evening."

"I had the best evening," Alex enthused as she kicked off her shoes and sank down on her desk chair. She was trying to buckle her emotions back down but every so often there would be this giddy burst of contentment into the room as her sheilding slipped. "We went and strolled around the museum, had dinner. And he kissed me on the way back to the car. It was lovely!" She wriggled her toes in the nylons, her smile impish, "He even walked me back to the door. It was sweet. We're going to the movies this weekend."