alderwitch

"Moving somewhere else is a good idea." Taylor agreed, "It's not likely to come back but if it was able to track me and something else shows up, I'd rather be some place that is a little less fragile." Taylor folded up her list and put it back in her pocket - just in the jacket pocket this time - and followed Stesha to the counter. Her senses were still on high-alert and she was truthfully a little uneasy. That was the first time she'd been tracked and attacked while in civilian attire. She had a feeling that there was a larger picture here to look at but that research would have to wait for the moment. For now she was curious to learn about this neo-dryad that seemed to know the Knights.

"Mike'll be fine," Alex said with a shrug and followed her into the elevator, "I thought I'd come see how you were since you seemed ticked at me." She leaned against one wall, hand still tucked in her pockets and her face tilted up at Erin expectantly, "So I thought I'd give you the chance to yell at me."

Finally, Taylor took notice of the woman's own nerves and that there was something magical about her as well. Closer determination revealed the woman's nature and she relaxed back into her alter-ego's usual stance, "I'm no more interested in having anyone find out, than you are." she assured the woman, "Yes, I'm a good guy, and I have worked with the Knights. If you're concerned, please feel free to contact any of them that you like." She glanced around to make certain that things were clear then joined in helping Stesha clear out the smell of sulfur with just a little bit of magical help. "How do you know about them?" She asked curiously.

Phantom blinked and then took a closer look at the doctor as he emerged from her cloak. There was something wrong with that man. Deeply and utterly wrong. Uneasily, she turned her attention to retrieving the rest of her erst-while collegues from the depths of her cloak but she kept one wary eye on the doctor and resolved to look more closely at the matter as soon as opportunity presented itself. It wasn't quite like the feeling she had from other dimensional entities, but it wasn't entirely like anything she could recall off the top of her head. Continued here

Taylor, only by sheer force of will, refrained from burying her face in her hands and groaning. Instead she pulled her hat from the table and settled it back on her head and quickly cast a spell to make certain that there wasn't any more little monsters waiting to pop out of the wood-work. Then she eyed the reasonabally irate florist and debated what to say. "That... was an imp. At least that's the best term for it in English. It's a minion from one of the Abyssal planes. Like a spy for a higher up monster. It was likely looking for me." Taylor paused to take a breath and squared her shoulders as she drew herself up slightly, "In addition to the whole student thing, I'm an interdimensional gaurdian. People call me the Phantom, and I would be permanently indebted if you could refrain from mentioning that to anyone." 'At this rate, I'm going to be left with tattered shreds of my secret identity. Maybe I should relocate to Sri Lanka.'

"I don't need the room to myself unless you don't want me to be there," Alex said with a shrug, "I'm not upset, or anything. If you need it to yourself, I'll find something else to do. It's not a big deal." She slipped her hands back in her pockets, blowing out a quick breath to get her bangs out of her face. "Do you want some help with your history?"

"Both, really, I'm an all purpose slave-" Taylor started, only to break off as her mystical senses went haywire. This time, Stesha definately saw a flash of eldritch light in the brooch as her client stood up and twisted at the waist just as a hideous little imp appeared with a puff of smoke in the center of the shop. It screeched once and dove at them both. Taylor fired a bolt of magic power operating on pure reflex only to have the creature explode in another burst of foul smelling smoke, that left her coughing. Sulfur. 'Note to self. Fire stun FIRST. Question monster. Then blast into tiny pieces. Blast.' Then realization set in that she was still dressed as Taylor. She was at a wedding appointment for her brother for goodness sake. And her hands were still crackling with magic. '....' No word in any language she knew was foul enough for her situation. "Ahh..."

Alex's breathing rasped until she finally caught it, when she tucked her hands into her pockets. With a shake of her head, she let the past conversation go and asked curiously, "Are you going to go talk to James about borrowing his car now?" She was still a little winded as she'd ran full out down the long hallway but she didn't look upset. Alex had her usual calm on, and she was working to settle her own emotions as she waited for the elevator to show up. She'd work through any lingering frustrations on her own, likely via meditiation and she was well aware that Erin might lash out at her again, but she'd rather provide whatever target her friend needed so that things could return to normal.

Alex paused to hug him and tell him comfortingly, "Everything worth doing takes time. I'll go check on her." Then she handed him her books, knowing he'd drop them off and she sprinted down the hallway after her roommate. She caught up at the elevator, and stopped next to Erin without saying anything. Alex not only knew the value of letting other people speak first, she was too busy trying to catch her breath from running. She even had a stitch in her side. She really was going to have to start hitting the gym with all this activity.

"It's nuts, isn't it?" Taylor said, laughing with her. "But you're never lonely as a kid, that's for sure." Taylor fiddled with the necklace as she gave the pictures an almost intense level of concentration. Just because she wasn't good at this sort of thing, didn't mean that she wasn't going to give it her all for her brother and his new wife. She asked a few careful questions then went with Stesha's original suggestion for the hand-tied boquets. Fortunately, Taylor did know the church that it was going to be held at. All of her siblings had been married at the church and almost everyone still attended services there. Taylor, herself, didn't feel comfortable in churches anymore. Nor did she have the time, but she knew the layout quite well from her childhood. "Is there anything else we need to decide on?"

She blinked at him, her gaze wide before she nodded quickly and looked away, "Okay! See you then!" Alex decided that she'd better pack up her things and figure out what on earth she was going to wear. Not to mention talking to Erin. What did one wear to a museum trip? Something red apparently.

Alex blushed at that and glanced down, as she accepted the compliment with a quiet, "Thanks." She ran a self concious hand over her tanktop, smoothing it out. The dandelion she tucked in with her books carefully and she tilted her head up to meet his eyes again, "That's a good thing, cuz if it was up to me we'd have to take the bus. Or do the super-hero thing over."

Alex laughed and accepted it, her eyes twinkling at him. She twirled it between her fingertips, "Who wants a rose when dandelions can grant wishes? I wasn't planning on doing anything tonight but some classwork but it can wait. I'll be ready at eight. At my dorm, right?"

Alex couldn't help the amused expression. The suggestion was so utterly, and completely Mark. Another girl might be vaguely put off at the idea of going to a musuem for a first date but musuems ranked somewhere below libraries for Alex. "I've been once or twice but it was a while ago. Okay. It's a date." She nibbled her lip, unsure of the social conventions following agreeing to this first date thing. It didn't change the usual tenents of the relationship, as far as she was aware, merely opened the option to advancement of things. It did, however, make Alex hyper-aware of what she was saying, "Uhm... So, we'll just meet up and head out there, then, I guess?"

"We're a close bunch. Five kids within ten years, we'd have to be close or have killed each other by now," Taylor chuckled. "After this, the unmarried ones will just be me and Jackson. He's the next youngest." She glanced down obediently, trying to look at the flowers with as critical an eye as she could muster. After a moment, she agreed, "That does look pretty." Taylor glanced up at the green hair and flowers as they seemed to perk up. This woman clearly loved her job. Now, Taylor was a fan of nature, but Stesha's enthusiasm for all things plat life was down right contagious. "What are the other options?"

Alex sighed softly, tucking her hands deeper into her pockets. She could point out that Erin had brought her down here in the first place to step in the middle of a fight but Alex doubted it would do any good, so she gave Erin a shrug, "I never said it was about me." She glanced back at Mike and bit back a second sigh as she pointed out to him, "She is right, on needing to know what you can do so that you don't hesitate at a crucial moment."

Alex blinked once or twice, looking thoughtful before she smiled a little shyly, "Okay. Sure, why not? What did you have in mind?" She tilted her head to look up at him as she pulled her legs up to her chest and looped her arms around them. Mark certainly was cute and Alex had no doubt they would have fun together but she was still a little nervous about the entire thing. It was safer to not get involved, certainly, but Alex wasn't the type to hold back emotionally. But intellectually deciding she would go out with Mark if he asked and actually doing so were very different things. "Do you wanna sit down?"

OOC Thread: August 3rd, 2009

Taylor glanced down at the picture and smiled faintly. "It's lovely. I know they'll like the roses. Those are a pretty standard symbol for romance and they're not the most creative. Which is fine, of course, there's something to be said for traditions, right?" She ran surprisingly delicate fingertips over the picture thoughtfully. Although her nails were short and she wore no jewelry on her hands, Taylor hand fingers that were suited to fine work. "Well, I can tell you that all of us in the wedding party are going to be in red, the bride's in cream and the men are all in black tuxes. So, I think we'd want to go with red roses for the bride and maybe a cluster of whites for the bridesmaids?" She suggested, her tone self doubting. A linguistics degree made her the 'artsy' one in the family. Lucky her. Thankfully, the florist seemed very competent.

Alex glanced up at his arrival from where she was sitting with her back against the tree. She shaded her eyes with one hand as she looked up and smiled a welcome. "Hi, Mark. Were you looking for me?" She automatically scooted over to allow him space on the blanket. Clearly she'd set up for an afternoon of reading as there was a small bag of packed snacks and a few books out on the blanket. As usual, Alex was dressed in bright colors that probably shouldn't have all been put together with a red and purple print tanktop and a pair of jean shorts. She moved her things to make space for him, and tucked her legs out of the way, "It's going okay. Just catching up on some books I've been meaning to get to. How are you?"

Taylor touched the necklace briefly, almost as if startled by the question, but she covered quickly with a smile, "Sort of. My Great-Uncle is an archeologist and he's the one who found it. It's old, but not a family heirloom per say." She was relieved that it didn't appear that she had to do more than look at pictures and talk about flowers. Taylor could even get into that, a bit. "Thanks for all the help. This is my first wedding. Well, as a wedding minion. My mom's something else when it comes to planning these things but I think she's the most into it. It's a pretty big affair. We've got a huge family, and she's Irish-Catholic, so there's a number on their side too."

Alex lifted her chin as Erin included her in the verbal lash out and focused on not losing her calm. Clearly she was the level head here and it wouldn't do any good to lose her temper along with everyone else. "You don't have to explain anything. You're hurting my feelings with the words you're currently using but I'll still be your friend at the end of the day. Because that's the way it works. Part of that friendship is trying to explain things and find out where the other person is coming from." Alex floated back down to the ground as Mike turned around, tucking her hands in her pockets as she waited for them to work this out or start hitting each other. Emotionally, Alex felt drained but she was able to hold onto her exterior calm. After this, she'd spend some time away from people for a bit to refocus. "You can walk away, if you want, but I think in the end you'll both regret not at least trying to see each other's side of things. Isn't it better if you have this arguement here rather than when there's a fight going on?"

Alex had scooted off the file cabinet and she stood in front of the door with her hands on her hips. "Cut it out! Both of you!" She said firmly, "This is an exercise. You're friends!" Rather than tilt her chin up, she floated up so that she didn't have to crick her neck to make her point. "You're both talking about things that are hurting each other and it's not cool. Erin, you do need to learn how to control yourself when you lose your temper. Someone could mess with your emotions and then you'd end up hurting the very friends you're trying to protect. You already know this. As for you, Mike, walking away isn't going to help things. You can't just give up when things are hard or scary. That's not the person that you wanna be. It's not the person you are." She folded her arms on her chest and frowned at him, "Now turn around. Clearly you both have things to say to each other, but don't just accuse. Explain why your side is imporatant."

8/1 - Sketches added: Cap, Angel, Jack

Taylor eased herself into the seat and removed her hat, fluffing her hair with one hand as she did so. The jewel at her throat winked in the sunlight, an odd black gem in an old metal setting. "My brother's a physicist. I don't think he'll notice the flowers one way or another," Taylor said with an affectionate smile, "She's an engineer. They're both very right-brained people, which is why flowers got delegated in the first place." She glanced down at the cover of the book, and folded her arms together on the table. That was an awfully large stack of books, "I know that the wedding colors are red and cream, if that helps?"