alderwitch
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Talya leaned her shoulder back against his chest as he stepped in, lifting the yarn slightly in her hands before she set it back down. She'd been looking at the skeins of hand dyed yarn rather than any finished products. She turned her head slightly, a smile curving her lips, "Oddly enough, it has too little fat. American butter is made more quickly and there's less fat in it. It's easier to make pastries if the butter doesn't fight you the whole way. I've learned to make do, living here, as they do eye you oddly when you try and sneak dairy products in your carry on." She grinned then, turning towards him as she abandoned her pursuits of the yarn booth. Talya had been debating starting in on a baby blanket for Mia - one could never have too many baby blankets, after all - but had yet to settle on a color scheme. Nothing worse than starting a project and then deciding that you hated it halfway through. "I always prefer an outdoor market, myself. Inside that many people can feel far more stifling. Somehow the outdoors makes it more festive, less oppressive," Talya commented with a small grin, "I think its the hot cider. Either that or the fact that my escape routes are far easier."
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"Riley?" Robin asked, a smile coming to her features and easing some of the tension. She shifted on the bed, her shoulders dropping a little from the usual almost tight way Robin carried herself to something more natural. "Most people say boyfriend or girlfriend these days," she offered, clearly not offended by the anarchistic term but offering the advice more if Winifred cared to correct her speech patterns, "Things are good, yeah, between us at least. The teachers still have him a little locked down while he, ah, adjusts more to this world than the one he's used to." There was a slight note in Robin's tone of not quite apology, but concern. Robin knew the adjustment wasn't an easy one to make and wasn't, certainly, without its struggles. "I'm just not used to talking to people so much. The last few years I've been more or less on my own and, I guess, carrying on a normal conversation is a skill that gets rusty if you stop using it. But Riley and I are good - sometimes we sit up on the roof top and he points out the stars he used to navigate by - when we can see 'em at least. It's nice...." Robin trailed off, the pause awkward before she offered, "What about you? How's adjusting to all of this going for you?"
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Talya, too, had dressed for the weather. Her particular brand of immortality didn't come with any natural immunity to winter chill - more was the pity. In a tailored black wool jacket fastened tightly against the chill and heeled boots, she didn't look out of place among the eclectic West End crowd, if perhaps on the more well off spectrum. It was hard to say if it was what her natural style was - if Talya still had a natural style - or if she'd just adjusted her dress to fit in with the same aplomb she used to stand out in public appearances. With her hands tucked in her pockets and her shoulder brushing companionably against Erik's, her response was prompt, "Butter. Something from a real farm. American butter is strange and unnatural. Milk, perhaps. Eggs. It makes all the difference in baked goods." She paused at the table with knit wear with apparent interest that seemed more than passingly polite. Reaching out, she ran her fingertips over the yarn and then turned her head to the side to take in Erik's native pride. Talya grinned at him, "Closes down over the full winter, I imagine? Snow makes it a bit tougher a go for these sorts of things."
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"If you don't have any radio waves, it means before the twentieth century, yes, most likely," Bombshell provided from where she was standing by Willow to watch the camera. Her batons were in hand as she absently tossed one from hand to hand as she waited for something that she could do to be of assistance. She was more than happy to provide anecdotal information if it could be at all helpful, "My family had a radio by the time I was old enough to remember which would be, oh, 1922? Somewhere in that ball park but they were commercial by then so invention would have been happening before that. So, before my time most likely, pre- turn of the century as if it were post-radio future, I imagine you'd be picking up other noise." At least Bombshell certainly hoped so but science wasn't her bailiwick. She flipped the baton up in her hand as she looked to the scientists for their next plan, "Any thoughts on pushing through the barrier other than those that have been ruled out? My personal preference is human volunteer then explosions for the order in which we try the already acknowledged bad ideas."
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"The Heliopians and their reincarnation thing gets funny when they incarnate, inevitably," Talya said with some experience in such matters. Her brows arched in amusement, "It takes less than a millenia to forget things for mortals or vampires. Just ask Dimitri, he never remembers who won the last game of darts the last time we were at the pub - it's always me, by the way." Talya's voice was light, teasing as she straightened, glass in hand to push the water bottle towards Set as he reached for it, "The line of reasoning that you are a two year old godling is not as like to reassure anyone, much less the vampire lord in question. More in point, the concerned father in question. Now neither Dimitri nor I can comment as to a paternal bent - alas, we've never been so blessed with offspring of our own - but from observation, fathers if they are worth their salt are generally of a protective bent and while you likely care very little for the man's opinions on much of anything at this point in time; he is the sire of the one who's so caught your interest. In short, I would find a better story to spin when it inevitably comes up again."
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"Oh, well. No more than usual, I guess." Robin paused and then slowly eased back down onto her bed, the springs creaking slightly as she settled her weight on the edge. "My--" Robin cut off the word 'home', quickly amending, "--Where I'm from isn't really like this. I mean, it's not like your adjustment or Riley's, but it's sometimes hard to sleep because I expect things to be louder. There's a lot more noise and I'm used to sleeping - napping, really - during the day time. It's nothing, really. It's not like I'm having to learn a bunch of completely new stuff, or anything. I guess I'm just not someone who adjusts as easily to change as I thought." Robin laced her fingers together, holding them between her knees as she idly ran her fingertips over the back of one faint scar. She added, the words a little rueful, "I'm sort of awful at talking about most things, actually. What do you want to talk about?"
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"I'm sorry," Robin said with a sigh, pausing in pulling on her leather jacket to wince. She wasn't used to sharing space with another person but generally tried to not put people out with her behavior. The fact that she couldn't seem to shake a few years of nocturnal life style in a matter of weeks wasn't something that Robin felt her roommate should have to put up with. Finishing the aborted movement, she finished sliding her jacket onto her shoulders, "There's nothing to worry about. I just... I couldn't sleep. Again. I'm sorry. I was trying not to wake you but I'm not used to putting my shoes on in the dark." Mentally resolving to go back to wearing shoes to bed, Robin finished pulling her curly hair out from under the neck of the jacket and reaching up to tighten the bandanna that held back her hair, "Everything's alright. If you want to just go back to bed, I can go walk it off until I think I can sleep some more. I'm not going to let anything in to get you, I promise. We're all safe. You can sleep." To most people, it probably sounded like an odd thing to say but safety was not something Robin took for granted when she slept and she hadn't yet really been able to shift over to the mindset of people who did.
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Robin wasn't exactly a difficult roommate to have been paired with. Her side of the room was largely devoid of any sign of her presence when she wasn't there. It was only recently that she'd started to keep her extra pair of jeans and a few worn-thin t-shirts folded up in her dresser. Everything else tended to remain inside the faded black backpack that was her constant companion. Her bed had the spare sheets and blanket that Claremont provided without any additional touches from home like most of the other student's rooms held. For her part, Robin tried to keep her midnight wanderings too a minimum but even the rise and fall of a roommate's breathing did little to cut the silence that the dorm room in Bayview seemed filled with to one who was used to dozing on rooftops in the middle of the Fens. This time, when bad dreams started Robin awake, she woke with a soft intake of sudden breath, rolling out of bed to land in a wary crouch on the floor. It always took her a moment to re-orient. A few weeks had not been yet enough time to grow used to waking up some place safe. Robin rose to her feet in the dark. She was largely dressed - Robin generally went to bed in her clothes. She'd only recently started taking off her sneakers and she fumbled for them in the dark to slip them over her socks before reaching for her jacket. The belt clanked softly as she pulled it from the bedpost it hung off of. Clearly she wasn't getting any more sleep tonight and Robin didn't want to wake up her roommate.
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For those who pass the Notice check, you'll hear a faint hum in the distance that is almost washed out by the ambient noises of nature. Survival check will net you that there are some creatures that passed through this area on two feet, moving lightly but there are the definite depressions in the moist soil of a few sets of tracks.
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One blond brow arched up at Raina's commentary about her PE Teacher. Oh, it could certainly be the usual teenage complaints about gym class but the word choice certainly rang alarm bells in Talya's head. She was, however, a generally suspicious sort of person. It was a side effect of certain life style choices, unfortunately, so she slanted a questioning look to Erik about whether someone ought to look into that. Of the two of them, he was generally burdened with an overactive sense of responsibility in general. "D'you think I know the sociopath? It sounds like my circle," the words were glib and light, meaning layered under the surface. Talya stepped forward then, "You did well today, you know," she offered before adding, "It isn't easy to learn new things. If you end up having questions before your next class, you know where we'll be." Teenage pride was a tetchy thing sometimes and Talya offered the easy excuse for a reason to call if it was needed. Only when Raina turned to go did she let the slight frown disturb her expression.
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Phantom floated through the portal, letting it snap shut behind her with another soft pop of displaced air as reality reasserted itself against the unnatural portal. "No, there's nothing sentient enough to be hostile on this hemisphere. The point of divergence between this realm and the one that we've just come from happened before the ice age - which, for those of you who are familiar with our coastline can probably tell. We're closer to the ocean than we would be in our world, yet we've not moved in distance - only through the coil. All of the creatures on this particular continent are rudimentary in intellect with developing sapience in the oceans instead. On land, we're quite safe." Their erstwhile teacher continued on, pointing out the minutiae of differences and elaborating about what diversion points meant, exactly, and how to find the landmarks in a vastly changed landscape and the potential problems inherent in trying to do so, for those who were interested in such things. The clearing was of good size, the alternate world's Bayview comprised of scrubby tundra leading down to sandy dunes. There were small lizard like creatures that scampered, creating the soft rustling noises one would expect of a largely feral world and although the bird's calls were equally unfamiliar as their appearance, they weren't' especially menacing. The students could easily range out a little further from their teacher to assuage any curiosity - or escape a lecture, while remaining within easy view.
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Okay, a few checks here if people want to make them. DC25: Notice Check to notice something might be amiss. DC20: Survival Check to notice something odd with the marks on the ground.
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"Ehhh... Henry's alright. He's got some problems but he's not a bad guy. Everyone likes Rufus, though," Robin volunteered as she hustled down the sidewalk, skirting around the bus stop to head down another unfriendly street. As they rounded the corner, Robin nodded towards a bar with the lights still flickering to show they were open, either still or had opened at some point in the morning. It smelled like stale cigarette smoke and urine faintly, even from outside the unpleasant hole in the wall bar. In front of it was a clearly homeless man, sitting with his back to a lamppost and a cardboard sign in hand - dozing or perhaps unconscious. At his feet sat an equally disreputable looking dog, one eyed and looking worse for wear. Robin stepped forward, nudging the man's foot not so gently with her own. "Hey, you better wake up, old man, or they're going to call and have you checked out by county again," Was Robin's less than gentle statement on the matter as she woke the man up before dropping to her haunches to pet Rufus. "Eh... wassat.... Heeeeyyyy, that you, Hawky? Whatcha got for ol' Henry today?" The man's voice had a smoker's gravelly pitch to it as he cracked open watery eyes to blink up first at Robin and then with surprise at the two out-of-place girls behind her, "You got some lost lambs, Hawky?"
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"Sure, they're just legs. You can show however much you want to of them," Robin pointed out, as she passed Cathy - her hands still in the pockets of her beaten up jacket. She stayed close to the other girls, somewhat concerned she was going to get asked to leave if she ended up on her own. Robin certainly didn't look like she could afford much that was in here. She also wanted to see exactly how the others went about picking out their clothes to try on. The bizarre coding of sizes was a mystery to Robin as all of her clothes for the last few years had been hand-me-downs or scrounged. Shopping for something fitted was a mystery she was tackling today. "How do you tell what's going to fit you?" Robin muttered before she gave up and picked out a few things of random sizes with little regard for what they were as she followed the others back to change.
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"Well, plenty of time yet to learn if you want to garner the skill. I played a lot of bridge in jail - still have a club that gets together now and again although life does get in the way," Talya smiled slightly, the card playing apparently a fond memory, "Personally, my skills lie in the opposite direction - far easier for me to read faces than it is to keep all the cards in my head. I might not be able to accompany you on heroing for a bit, but perhaps sometime you can come join us for a friendly game of cards. Also not a bad way to get to know people, come to think of it. Casual social engagements are sometimes - sometimes - less fraught than super-heroics. As to chess, never been my cup of tea. It's a little harder to cheat in chess than at cards as well. People notice extra queens far more often."
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"I promise to include all the ethics of proper burglary and how one locates acceptable targets. Nazis, then the government, then rude rich people. It's a firm hierarchy that goes hand in hand with the craft," Talya replied, returning Erik's affectionate grin with one of her own. She turned her attention back to Raina, including her in the conversation as she added, "And she seems like the sort of girl who already knows how to cross the street and eat her vegetables. No sense in teaching things people already know." Relaxing her posture, hip canted to the side and arms folded, Talya added, "But I am rather fond of my hair so perhaps we'll skip that. I know, vanity is such a vice, but it's my burden to carry," Her voice remained light as she deflected the subject of magic. Honestly, most active magic interacted poorly with whatever magic had infused in her body so it would very likely be far worse than a little hair loss. Talya, however, preferred facts like those not end up common knowledge. As to the question of additional students, she left that for the actual proprietor of the Espadas School to answer.
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"I like that you have 'nearly' in there. Nearly painless and painless there is a kinda wide difference between," Robin pointed with amusement but she wasn't protesting so that was like progress, "People wear pants in clubs. I can wear pants, right? I don't mind if they're not baggy jeans but I'd like to know that if we do get into trouble, I'm not going to end up flashing half the club if I have to get us out of there. But its on your dime so whatever you want to do, really." Robin turned towards the other girls as they grouped up following Raina's enthusiastic pace with her steady stroll, taking in the mall with mild curiosity, "This whole place smells funny. How do you tell the difference between 'weird' and 'normal' canned smells? Though, the pretzel place smells good, I have to admit."
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Robin sat back as Riley pulled away, catching her weight on her palms behind her. She offered a small grin at her boyfriend, "Tell Archer off for me," she suggested as she'd not really forgotten nor forgiven her own failed test. Her smile widened, "I'm kidding. Don't do that. You don't need more time in detention - especially not if we're ever getting off of campus again." She rolled to her feet as he rose up, with an easy grace as she scooped up her treasured jacket in hand, "I'm going to hit the showers anyway and make sure no one swipes my clothes. I just left 'em in the changing room." She leaned forward, pressing a kiss against his smooth cheek before heading for the roof ledge, a promise in her grey eyes, "Later it is then."
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"It's a rather new arrangement," Bombshell replied, seemingly taking the hurling of forces at the invisible field in stride behind her. She reached up to absently flick her hair back over one shoulder from where it had been disturbed and paused for the newest arrival's angry shout to die down to something that could be spoken over. "So what is it that you need most from our allotted skill sets to help facilitate fixing the current debacle?" Having asked the question, she pivoted slightly to include Jill in her commentary, "I know that we all want to deal with things as quickly and as smoothly as possible but lets let the lovely ladies see what they can Science! before we resort to the tried and true method of percussive maintenance," Bombshell suggested, hoping to gentle the simmering tension, "What ever we do, it'll go smoothest if we're all working together. We all have the same goal and the same urgency to get it done." Turning back towards Miss A and Liz, Bombshell added, "Do you want to just loop a rope around me? The worst thing that happens with temporal fluctuations is I have to take the slow way back." That was hardly the worst thing but with everyone on edge, Bombshell went for glib.
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"Everyone has their roles to play," Talya agreed with a slight smile, her brows arching up with interest, "I don't suppose you play Bridge at all, do you, Eric? We are getting woefully low for our Bridge parties these days. Always preferred that to poker myself. Having a co-conspirator always makes the games more interesting to me." She tipped her head to the side, her smile growing, "Manipulation is just as much about pattern recognition and tactical thinking as anything else. It's just the patterns are people and the tactics is in understanding what they will do, and what they won't do and how to game the odds. In the end, everything can be reduced down to move and counter move. Read your opponent and you can know where he's going to be and why. It does help, I admit, when you have time to watch the trends. People, alas, move slower than a good game of cards."
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Rough post counts done in Pacific time Bombshell Can't Change Their Stripes Granny Says Two Things Hell On High Heels Life Less Sedentary, Less Evolutionary Old Fiends Second Chances (Or Third?) So Great a Cause (2015) Stacked Like Cordwood Strangers You Know Supermarket Unholy Trio Nighthawk Get Low Lets Get It Started Monster Mash No Place Like Home Restless Nights and Hollow Days The Silent, The Fallen Unstill Life Which Long Time Had Gone Astray Worse Places Than This Your Own Worst Enemy Phantom Autumn in the Woods Carrier Messaging Rates May Apply Hazard Pay Seven Is the Number Psyche Best of Me Where They Have to Take You In Alder Does Art: Here Other Rough PP Awards
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"Min, you know I love it here. My apartment is a beautifully constructed set piece, kept for a particular point and purpose; this is a home," Talya's smile for Min was soft, clearly touched at the matter of fact declaration and she turned that expression to Erik at her other side as he stepped in. Finding herself bracketed between the couple, she met Ellie's direct gaze, "I'm sorry for earlier," Talya apologized to Ellie first before addressing the less pressing matter of how many clothes she was going to bring over, "I fear keeping secrets is an ingrained habit. You're right though, it would certainly be more convenient to take Min up on her offer." There was a pause, as not even Talya felt glib enough to address Steve's question but the large man had been nothing but kind so she turned towards him and started, the words clearly very carefully selected, "Well, in terms of the legal sense, no. Most countries - this included - only recognize a marriage between two people," she gestured towards Erik and Min with quick movements of her hands. She paused, offering a brief, bemused smile, "And it is still a very new sort of thing. We're still at the navigating the minefield of taking over of lingerie drawers and how many shelves I ought to occupy with pairs of shoes." She paused then, glancing up to see if she'd properly deflected the topic onto safe ground without having to weave too closely to topics like her own personal feelings or risk trampling on anyone else's emotions in the process. The truth was ever so much more difficult than an easy lie sometimes, "And while I am always for fancy parties and the exchange of jewelry, all things in their own time?"
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"Well, no one was suggesting we actually summon anything. At least I wasn't. Never cared for all of that chanting and calling on fell powers. Too many nasty experiences. I think, more, it's only a matter of time before it occurs again. Did I mention I ran across some straggling cultists that were of a decidedly unpleasantly similar to Thule cultist bent for my personal comfort?" Talya added as an aside to Dimitri. She waved one fingertip in a small circular motion, "Remind me, when I am sober, to go into it later. Something we might want to look into." She transferred her full attention back to Set then, some sympathy flickering across her features, "It might. There are surprisingly entrenched puritanical roots in American culture but if his father's a vampire, he's bound to be at least a little more flexible on somethings. Vampiric culture is generally a more sensual sort of thing," she looked over to Dimitri then and added, "Present company excluded, of course."
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"You know, exercise isn't so very terrible once you get used to it," Talya said, her tone amused but she turned away to jot a quick note down on a piece of paper for Raina, explaining that she'd done an hour's worth of work at the school and to excuse her from the commensurate time in mandated physical education. The handwriting was the sort of immaculate cursive of one who'd grown up well before type-face became common for casual correspondence. The signature at the bottom had a distinctive flourish but did include Talya's full name as well as her cell phone number. "Once a week. Twice if the school will allow it. We'll use the second time period to work on other things, stealth, escape artistry. Maybe theft," Talya replied, the last casual, after mentally juggling her schedule as she offered Raina the paper. She offered a sly grin as she added, "Although, if I did have access to fireballs, I would entirely take advantage of it. The trouble I could cause with that."
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Talya smiled at Min, the gesture without artifice for once. It was utterly ingrained in Talya to deflect and dissemble, to play human interactions like a game of cards but Min wasn't human and that sort of byplay would only have been confusing and potentially hurtful to the immortal. So, as Erik started to try and find a good way into the double-dutch of 'its not an affair, and its not just sex', Talya turned slightly to touch the back of Min's hands with one of her own, offering her a small smile. "You didn't have to do that, but thank you. I don't mind shuffling things back and forth. I am surprisingly accustomed to life in a small valise. I do have an awful lot of shoes, though. It's not quite an addiction. Not quite. There is a certain fringe benefit to you having less clothing, though, I think." She tipped her head to the side, her curls falling down over one shoulder as she watched the usually glib swordsman fumble and debated trying to rescue him. After her work with Ellie earlier, though, Talya had the distinct feeling that she'd just make things more complicated. Still, she should probably try. Discussing emotions and vulnerabilities was still a struggle in front of only Min and Erik which was why she started with, "Would you like some help? Would it be easier to do it in the form of charades?" Sass might not be actually helpful in this instance but when all one had was a hammer...
