alderwitch

Phantom watched the sand wash through her body with an impassive expression, magnified by the hood and mask that covered all but the stern line of her mouth. Her frown deepened slightly and she dropped below the pier as the crowd continued to make startled exclamations about the sand and the sudden vanishing of the dark heroine. She flew after the retreating Egyptian god, her cloak a streak of midnight against the wooden dock. "That was not a question, godling." Her voice boomed and she floated up once more through the pier to block their way, the long tattered edges of her cloak flung open wide. Behind her body, the interior of Phantom's cloak was no mere fabric but rather a window to the black and eldritch lightning expanse that was the Void. "And you are trying my patience." She paused and then added, "Which is not, I fully admit, one of my strong suits to begin with. You will not enjoy when it runs out."

"Your father doesn't wear gas-station sunglasses," Taylor said with amusement and shook her head at Huang, making it clear that she saw through his posturing. Hell, she'd lived with a vampire a good long time now. She was well aware of the predator-y instinct to posture and look like a threat. Sure, they manifested it differently. JJ still resorted to going all red-eyed and hissing when he was intimidated by new people, Huang retreated behind insults and snark, and Jack... well, Jack usually started off with a wide smile. Still, it was the same threat-defense posture and Taylor was unmoved by it. "I'll tell your father that you want sunglasses that will fully protect your sensitive eyes for school. We won't find those at Target. You can pick out your own style." Graceful in victory as despite his death throws, that was a clear acquiesce to do the school thing. Glancing down in the cart, she double checked her list, giving Huang time to recover and JJ time to slip his toy into the cart. "And I think we're just about done here." "Now, who wants some ice cream on the way home." That was, of course, directed to both boys but she and JJ exchanged dimpled smiles. The five year old was easier to win over with ice cream but she had no doubts that she'd be getting them both one on the way home.

"I didn't have to, but it seemed appropriate. Besides, now we have wine and cheesecake," Taylor pointed out with irrefutable logic. She accepted the corkscrew and opened the wine handily enough, popping the cork from the bottle and setting it aside. "In a way it was more for myself than you, really. You know I've never been all that great with saying just the right thing. My mom always baked food for apologies. When I was little, we always showed up at the neighbors with food and..." Taylor shrugged, the gesture a little uncomfortable as she poured the wine, "It gave me something to open with rather than just standing on the doorstep and blurting awkward and weird apologies." She nodded her head, her gaze going dark for a moment and said, simply, "I'm sorry it ended like that. You deserve better. You both do." Leaving the topic though, she shifted, "So my son's time shifted doppelgänger had spelled his age and apparently is somewhere in his teens. I have been the mother a teenager for six months now, who apparently was a teenager the whole time and who KNOWS what all he's gotten up to when we thought he was older. He's currently grounded from everything, forever. The wine is definitely for me."

"I should have told you I was going, even if I didn't tell you where it was," Taylor agreed readily, her shoulders dropping, "I had to make a choice for what was best - what we needed to do as parents and it was hard. It was good for us but it was hard and I did not handle it perfectly by any stretch. There was collateral damage and I am so, so sorry that it hurt you. I am sorry I didn't come back sooner to make amends. There are several things I could have done differently. Not even I can go back and time and fix mistakes." She said with a small, not entirely dry eyed smile herself, "All I can do is make amends going forward and change the behavior." Taylor paused then and added, her voice going softer, "It's okay if you're still mad at me for a while, really. I don't expect things to get better without working at them. That's a thing I understand much better now." Taylor paused for a moment and then answered Stesha's question. "No, it's not really okay now. It's worse, in some ways. It's a long story, really." Hovering for a moment, somewhat literally as Taylor tended towards insubstantial when distressed, it took a moment for her to compose her emotions enough to ease herself into her seat. "But it's a story that can wait. I know I wasn't here when you needed me. Do you want to talk about that?"

Phantom's mood had not been good when the day had started with her eldest's opening salvo of, "Are you sure you can send me off to school? You didn't even know there was an Egyptian god on twitter. He has a ton of followers. Er, she. I'm not actually sure which pronoun they prefer. Look, do you want me to show you how to turn the computer on and google it for you?" Muttering to herself about how she had earned two degrees while pregnant with the little smart aleck, Phantom had spent much of the day floating in her library and staring balefully at her cell phone. Know how to use a computer. She knew how to use a computer. She also knew how to contain a Chaos demon with whatever she had in the back seat of the van. Did her son know how to do that? No. No, he did not. By the time the phone chirped an update - with a photo and helpful location, Phantom was in a fine mood. That was probably rather than the softer, gentler sort of inter dimensional guardian, Phantom just appeared in the middle of the amusement park, floating in front of the two gods and scaring some of the innocent amusement park goes half out of their wits as she floated insubstantial in front of Set, who bore the brunt of her baleful white gaze. "So. I hear you have claimed godhead. Would you like to talk about your intentions for the citizens of Prime." That. Did not appear to be phrased in the form of a question.

This was the hard part. Taylor took a steadying breath, discordant slightly as Stesha well knew she didn't need the air, and spread her hands slightly, "After the last run at JJ, we shifted the Manor free of Earth Prime. It wasn't..." Taylor's hands widened, trying to find the words to explain, "I had to keep them safe and I didn't know how to do that and be here anymore. I didn't see any way to make it all work so we moved someplace we knew that no one would be able to get him. I didn't set out to be gone so long - I really didn't - but there were problems in other worlds, other places and time just... kept on moving." "I'm not making excuses," Taylor said, letting her hands fall to her side. With a gesture she pulled the wine and the card out of the Void, setting them on Stesha's table as well. "You deserved much more than sudden silence and I'm sorry. It wasn't well handled of me." Letting her fingertips linger on the wine bottle for a moment before she pulled them back and tucked them in her pockets. "You're my friend and I have been a terrible friend. It wasn't intentional but I'm not sure if that doesn't make it worse. I thought you deserved an apology and an explanation. Well, and cheesecake." Taylor's smile was brief, a little shadowed, but for all that her features looked the same, there was a maturity there behind the young lines of her face. "And I really am sorry, I don't expect that makes it better right away. I mean, I would be mad at me for a while, I think." Taylor cocked her head to her side, trying to wrap her head around the reverse. "And I can go if you want me to, of course."

Taylor just laughed at the response she'd gotten. She was still laughing when Stesha returned to open the door although she sobered quickly enough, her amusement turning to a sheepish sort of smile, "Hi..." She said, the words low and softer than usual. Even though Stesha had her hands full, Taylor lifted her box up, "I brought cheesecake, a bottle of wine and an 'I'm sorry I'm a crappy friend' card. I thought it might be a good enough bribe to get me through the door to apologize at greater length." She turned a small smile on Amaryllis. "Hey there. You look wet. You've gotten huge but I suppose that's to be expected." Her gaze turned back towards Stesha, her brown eyes penitent as she wiggled the box, "I got it from the very best bakery in Paris. Or so they assured me."

Fortunately, Taylor was practiced now at ignoring the yicked out face that her teenager made at the thought of any sort of 'activity' that he was aware might be happening between his parents. She studiously ignored it. "Your father can only sneak attack you so many ways," Taylor said, perhaps a touch too loud and drawing a startled glance from another suburban mom as she reached out to accept the toy that JJ was currently trying his best to coax into the basket. She glanced down at the toy in question but her attention was more on Huang than JJ's need for another plastic figure to clutter the floor of his room. "At Claremont, you'll be able to grow your skills and talents in ways that we just wouldn't push you. And that's a good thing." Without regard for his current intentional styling of the unruly spikes of black hair, Taylor reached up to ruffle Huang's hair in the same way she'd done with JJ's earlier. "Just because you're grounded for more or less forever for lying for the last couple of years, doesn't mean we're not proud of what you can do. Jack's proud of you. I'm proud of you. If you were going to be a fireman when you grew up, I'd make sure you had the best sort of training for it you could get. You're right. Some people can chose normal and its not something you get to do. It's one of the few things that I couldn't give you, Huang." "So, we're going to make sure you're prepared for the life you are going to have and the very best place for that is Claremont. It's not a punishment. When JJ's old enough, he'll be going to Claremont too." "Yeah! With Huang! I'm'a be a hero with Huang! We're gonna fight monsterth!" JJ's understanding of who the monsters were was a little skewed to say the least.

Taylor had apologized first to her family for the sudden vanishing act. The worst part was they had been more resigned and disappointed than all that surprised. She couldn't blame them. Oh, the Farrettis had continued to do the monthly dinners at her parents place but as JJ had gotten older - as there had been more and more threats to his young life, Taylor had seen the logic of vanishing from the public eye. Over time, they'd become ghosts, with Jack's vampiric politics ever further buffered from his young family and Taylor's pretense at having a 'normal life' vanishing until one day, they just... vanished entirely. Taylor understood the necessity - but she regretted the damage it had caused. Now that they'd returned, though, Taylor hoped to if not repair it, at least apologize for it. It was with that in mind that she appeared as suddenly as she'd vanished, standing on Stesha's front porch - still incorporeal because who knew if the defenses of Sanctuary would recognize her at this point. She blinked, taking in the changes and growth... significant growth that had taken over in her absence. It was lovely, that she'd expected, but far more cultivated. And the bees! Taylor eyed them in the distance before turning her attention to the door. Except for her hair, Taylor looked the same as she ever had, wearing a simple sundress and sandals. Her hair was longer but other than that, the immortal guardian was unchanged. The eye of Heshem still glittered darkly in the hollow of her throat. In her hands, she held a white box that looked to have come from a bakery.

Phantom watched Indira kick her foot up to her nose with the same sort of interest that she eyed Jessie and her makeshift weapon, "I would really prefer you not beat me with a fish in the frozen foods isle," Phantom said, her tone as polite and conversational as that hollow, echoing voice really could sound. Her hands remained firmly in her coat pockets and she resigned herself to the possibility that she might be spending a few minutes having conversation incorporeal as something was waved through her torso. It wouldn't be her worst day ever but probably not her best either. "Please." Look at those manners. No one appreciated how much she'd softened on her 'so I hear you might cause a dimensional catastrophe' approach these days. Her attention shifted back to Indira, the amulet in the hollow of her throat glinting once. "I'm not even dressed for a fight." Phantom pointed out like that should mean something to anyone. She sighed, the sound an odd echo. "I am reasonably certain that any version of 'Jessie' will not be soothed by going some place alone with an unknown, potential threat'." "What if I buy the girl who needs a foot bath, the lobster?" Phantom suggested. Social skills might not be strong but she had a wallet. "Will that make people feel more calm?"

Because very dark red and very dark green were SO different from black. Taylor looked at the time-slipped version of her son and for a moment - just a moment - considered pushing him into the Void. She did not, of course, because she was the parent but it was a good thing that Huang was not a telepath as his mother briefly pictured stuffing him in her cape and finishing the shopping in peace. The breath that Taylor didn't need to draw slid out slowly, measured. "Everything your father dresses in, is generally for specific point and purpose. Just because he's not in costume, does not mean he's not in costume," Taylor said with an only slightly forced even calm, "Jack doesn't care if you can catch a baseball, Huang. He wants to know that you'll survive an assassination attempt or a kidnapping." JJ looked up at his mother with wide eyes, distracted from laughing at Huang's jokes - more because he could tell Huang was making them than really understanding what he meant. Taylor bit her tongue before pointing out that most of Jack's athleticism came from the fact that he was a full vampire and his son was distinctly not. That was sure not to take the conversation any place good. Now would be a perfect time to have some sort of villain attack. Where's a super villain when you need one. Alas, no miscreant appeared and Taylor resumed shopping, putting the matching fitted sheets and various sundries in the cart for the rest of the bedding. Honestly, how they missed that he wasn't a teen before was remarkable. Thankfully he'd been living in the manor the whole time so she'd never come to visit him living with only top sheets and eating ramen out of the microwave. His ruse would probably have ended sooner if she'd had. "They have more than just the traditional sports. You know you'll get stronger as you get older. It just takes time. And training. I think you'll find this kind of training more engaging the homeschooled version."

"Do I have boardgames?" Alex said, laughing as she stood up and crossed over to one of the sideboards in the living room, pushing back one of the shiny wood panels. "I have all the boardgames. Making money has some serious perks, I have to say. Is there any particular one that's caught your attention?" As she asked, Alex reached in. There were clearly several games still sealed in their packaging but her hand skipped over them all to pull out a battered stack of the games that had lived in the corner of their dorm room, tucked in to a place of honor among all the newer games. Without waiting for a response, she stood gracefully, carting them back to the coffee table between the two chairs. "Here, you pick. I'll order pizza." And cancel the rest of her meetings for today. Because when your best friend showed up out of the blue with news of her engagement, of course you blew off work to reminisce, play battered board games and eat pizza like you were sixteen again. "And you can tell me about what I've missed!" Which was just what they did.

Despite the look she was given, Taylor sensed weakness and pressed her advantage. She smiled and pointed out, "You say that now and someday you'll find yourself in a world where it's still the Enlightenment and knowing the contemporary expectations of your actions will be advantageous. Besides, it'll be easy. If you can translate early Aramaic, reading Charlotte Bronte will be a snap." She watched the exchange of crayons with bemusement and ruffled JJ's hair as he offered his opinion on bedding, "Huang, look, you could get any color you wanna for sheets. Ooh, or one with thuperherosh! Look, they've got oneth with Momma on'em." "They do?" Taylor was briefly distracted as she blinked at flannel sheets with a cartoon version of her costume and the distinctive white and black lightning of the Void. She took them gently from JJ, who was extraordinarily pleased that his mom rated a set of discount sheets. Taylor frowned down at them and went to put them back, "I... don't think that Huang is going to want superhero-sheets. Maybe a solid color? What about black?" She turned back towards her 'eldest' and picked up the thread of their earlier conversation, "And they've got the best training grounds for learning more... martial skills. They even have sports teams that you could take part in without having to hide who you are." Taylor paused, "What you are." You know, a vampire. Sort of.

Date: 8/21/2015 Taylor paused in front of the bookstore, tipping her head to look up at the sign for a moment. She'd heard about the grand opening but avoided the crowd. It would be just her luck that there'd be some cross dimensional entity looking for a magic trinket and needing a smiting. After all the history here, Taylor would rather not get things off on the wrong foot by throwing some demon through the storefront window. Sure, she could fix it but that wasn't the point. She took a deep breath as she stepped through the door, pausing to admire the entrance. Taylor had always enjoyed a good book store, especially those of the more esoteric variety. It was nice that she could dovetail catching up with an old friend and browsing for new additions to the library at the same time. Taylor looked like she hadn't aged a day, which was the literal truth. But for the fact that her hair had grown, Taylor looked exactly like the last time Lynn had seen her; fresh faced and dimpled and dressed in worn jeans and a tank top with the incongruous amulet glittering in the hollow of her throat. "Hello?"

Taylor, too, stepped towards JJ at his tears and was torn between parental pride at the odd sibling relationship and disgruntlement at the look the teenager shot her. She stepped in as well to put her hand on JJ's back, the other resting lightly on Huang, "It's only going to be four nights a week. We'll pick Huang up after classes on Friday before dinner at your grandparents. And then he'll stay with us all weekend and go back Monday morning." She sighed and yielded, "And while he's gone, you can sleep up top. I'm sure we can get wall clings while we're here too." "Yay! Thenturion wall clingth!" "Sure." Crisis averted for the moment she shooed them along towards the household wares section to get the various sheets and bedding that would be needed at Claremont, "You know, they also have cosmology and arcane arts," Taylor pointed out to Huang with relentless determination, "Even if all you wanted to do was work on those particular studies, you can get a different point of view. Maybe even learn a few tricks I don't know." That was unlikely when it came to magic - there just weren't that many mystics at Phantom's weight class and almost none of them taught classes. She left unspoken that she'd taught the occasional seminar before at Claremont. She was reasonably certain that no teenager would be enthused about their mom turning up as a substitute.

"Subtelty isn't much my strong suit. But occasionally, I make an effort," Came the response, oddly hollow and echoing and too deep as Phantom's head came up. The face didn't match the voice as even with the heavy jacket up high and the hat down low, what could be seen of Phantom's features were surprisingly young, college student or there about and with dimples that flashed in her cheeks when she talked. Her tone was conversational, deliberately casual. See, she didn't always just bust into people's lives all angry and cloak and wrath of the cosmic. At least, not anymore. Her gaze travelled towards the girls at the case of frozen goods, her hands still in the pockets of her oversized jacket. She watched them for a moment before turning her attention back to Indira, her expression thoughtful but apparently not concerned with having been found out. "It's not a good effort, but it's the thought that counts, right?"

"We'll just get you a messenger bag, then." Taylor muttered, picking up a black one and sticking it in the cart next to the bright blue and gold of Centurion. As Huang muttered about the future divorce, she fished her phone out of her purse and sent a quick text. Your son. I swear. I was never this difficult for my parents. That was entirely not true if one asked Taylor's mother but she tried to avoid the worst of the 'I told you so's'. Turning the screen off, she gave Huang a look and pointed out with flagging patience, "Lies are more believable if you don't mess up the tenses. See, think how much you'll learn in English classes. You need a bag. If you toss everything into the void, you'll never find anything in there. It's a mess." Without inviting further opinion, she picked out a satchel for lunches and plain notebooks and pens for the teenager. "Some kids would be excited to be spending the night away. You'll have a roommate and a dorm room to decorate. We could pick you up some posters..." This, however, caught JJ's attention and his chin trembled, "But I'm Huang's roommate. I'm gonna MITH him. I don't wanna be aloooooone." And now tears. Perfect.

Taylor sighed, pausing in arguing with her teenager to smile and bend over as JJ came up with his colorfully chosen Centurion backpack. Despite the teen angst of his elder counterpart, JJ was going through a phase that was all about heroes of the four-color variety. Perhaps because the particular heroes in his life were all shades of grey. "Look, Mama, it's Thenturian!" Taylor's dimples flashed at JJ's lisping. Those fangs were hard to talk around for a tongue still learning phonetics. Unlike a proper vampire, there was no retraction, just permanent baby-fangs. "Thee!" "I see, baby. Shall we find a lunchbox that goes with it? Huang, do you want a Centurian lunch box too?" She asked, half teasing the grumpy teen before she relented and reached out to hug the lanky teenager, whether or not he wanted it. "Honey, yes, you're unique. Among all the cosmos, there's no one and nothing that is exactly identical to what you are but that doesn't mean you have to - or should - go through life alone. I have friends. I have your father. And I have the two of you. Now pick out a lunch-box for school."

"You have one Chinese grandparent, Huang," Taylor gave his shoulder a little nudge, pushing the teen forward, her tone dry and unimpressed with the angst coming her direction. Hell, she was almost cheerful. Having a teenager was hard enough. Having a time displaced teenager that never aged and had his own pocket dimension to sulk in was a special sort of punishment that no one really deserved. "I don't think anyone will accuse you of being a walking stereotype if you pass your math classes." "Servitor entities do not count as socialization," Taylor added as she nudged JJ towards the bright selection of backpacks and lunch boxes while she turned to get the more boring things like pencils, paper, erasers and hand wipes. "You need friends. Real friends and its not like its a normal school. There will be kids there like you." Taylor paused, one hand on a box of kleenex as she tipped her head to the side, and amended, "Well, not just like you. But close! Other kids with unique home lives and experiences. Kids with gifts."

"Caldwell took a real hit during the last major disasters to rock Freedom City, or I'd suggest the old HQ." Alex said as she shifted and scrunched her nose at Erin for bringing up one of her more awkward teenage experiences, which was really saying something. "Mark has always done best when he's got someone to stabilize him but still let him, you know, be Mark. I'm glad he's found a good fit for that role in his current partner." Alex might have sounded just a touch dubious but she was genuinely happy for Mark, it was just a little hard to picture. "But your place is probably just the easiest. You're all welcome here but the ballroom's a little much for just the six of us and I don't imagine a tour of the facilities would be super engaging. Also, it just begs something getting out of hand and blowing a hole through the side of the building..." Alex had not forgotten dinners with Mark, no she had not.

"You have not learned everything you need at home. An education is very important, Jack Huang Farretti," Taylor said even as she turned towards the five year old to frown at him and investigate whatever had gone missing. It was a good thing that dhampyr, as it turned out, were remarkably hardy to go along with the constant needing to gnaw on things, "JJ, don't put things in your mouth that aren't food." "It was food! It was a candy! I found it!" Came the piping protest. Taylor's nose scrunched up, "We also don't eat 'found' candy. You don't know where that's been!" Parental wisdom given, Taylor turned her direct gaze back on her eldest, "I can teach you how to... run the family business." She dropped her voice as the nearest person came a little close, amending her words to something a little more subtle before she continued, "And your father can teach you how to fight, sure, but there's more to growing up than that. There's more to life than that. You need friends, Huang, you need to go to high school, take some classes. You might not want to do all of this when you do grow up. Maybe you'll be a math teacher." Taylor pushed the cart, turning it down the aisle as she added, "And it might also push you into learning to do your own laundry."

Date: Monday, two weeks before the start of school in September, 2015 Pushing one of the bright red carts through the open glass doors of one of those corporate big box stores, Taylor had the briefest moments of existential horror of questioning how her life had come to this. "I thought we were getting a start on this early! This place is packed," She muttered to the two boys as she reached into her purse to fish out the small stack of lists and her wallet. As JJ made an early break for the clutter of cheap impulse buy toys at the entrance, Taylor reached out to catch him by the back of the shirt, "We're not here to look at toys. Your Father's sleeping so we're all sticking together today." She looked at the slouching teenager and added, "All of us." With a pointed look at the disgruntled youth. Taylor gave the cart a little shove forward and muttered something rude under her breath as she tried to maneuver it through the crowds without knocking into anyone. From her side, JJ gasped and said, "I heard that! You said a bad word!"