25

You wake up at an atrocious hour (7am) with your girlfriend drooling on your arm. You should get up and jog with Taylor. You know you should, and yet you really just want to go back to sleep.

Summoning forth your mighty willpower you scratch your balls and manage to get your arm away from Crystal and roll out of bed. You're part way through finding your jogging sweats when Crystal cracks a blue eye and grunts at you. Luckily you can read her mind, because you don't speak cavewoman.

"I'm going jogging."

Grngl?

"Well no, I'm not looking forward to it, but A) the stamina helps, and B) I encountered this girl who I think is being bullied at school jogging and I'd feel bad if I didn't make the occasional attempt at offering an ear."

Mrbndl?

"If you actually get up, yes."

You're treated to the glorious sight of Crystal throwing off the covers and stretching in only panties, her perky breasts highlighted by the sun peeking through the blinds. You hit the both of you with breath freshening charms and give her a kiss once she manages to get out of bed.

Wrapping her arms around you and clearly still trying to wake up she starts talking into your neck. "'m gonna need workout clothes. C'n you make em?'

It takes some searching on the web to get a look she's into as you transfigure her some workout clothes, but end up using a support charm for her chest. Apparently you can't get the right combination of 'support' and 'comfort' with the sports bra.

While you're doing that you get to explain what exactly you've been doing with the jogging and meeting Taylor. You don't phrase it as 'I'm trying to calm the Queen of Escalation down' or anything, but a run-through of how you met her while jogging and what she's mentioned to you works pretty well.

"Oh. My. God, James."

She sounds so exasperated with you. "What, dear?"

"Maybe you are from one of Amy's animes. First, the hungover Susan who you nursed back to health, then Soon-Yi and her gunshot. Do you search out broken birds to heal?"

Huh. "Not purposefully?"

Crystal leads the way outside and you start off slow so you can continue the conversation. "And honestly in a way, Amy."

Huh? "Huh?"

"You pointed out problems and how she was all weird on our first date, you've been really nice in both forms…" she trails off for a second, "actually, I think she might have a thing for Warlock. Well for both of you."

"Oh, that's… kinda weird."

She huffs. "What's weird is her being interested in you at all, I had her pegged as gay. Don't worry about it, just continue to be nice. If it gets weird I'll talk to her."

You have doubts about how that'll go, but 'hey, maybe I just need to gently mindfuck your cousin to fix her' probably wouldn't go over well.

So, a short while later you find yourself pounding the pavement alongside your girlfriend, both of you hopped up on magic.

"This feels like cheating."

"I could cancel the spells if you want," you offer.

"I didn't say it felt bad, so don't you do a damn thing."

This morning when Taylor sees you she starts to wave, sees Crystal and visibly flinches back, pulling her hand down. She also slows down and the two of you have to backtrack a bit to get her to fall in to step with you.

Crystal gives you a nod like she wants you to cast all of the spells you're using on her on Taylor, which makes the fact that you've already done it amusing.

Introductions are somewhat strained, Taylor withdraws into herself as you introduce your girlfriend, but Crystal is pretty good at teasing bits of information out of the younger girl.

You dip into Taylor's mind and there's a heavy background thread of paranoia, a feeling that you know she's a cape and brought your cape girlfriend to protect you, but that tapers off into confused longing as she gets pulled in to the banter that you and Crystal share.

After ten minutes or so, though, your girl has gotten the younger cape drawn into a conversation ahead of you and you're reduced to following behind them. Not that seeing her tight, athletic bubble butt is in any way a punishment as it bounces along in front of you. You do find it amusing to suddenly be the one on the outside, but that's not so bad; Taylor really needs a female friend, and Crystal is probably better than Lisa.

You come up on the turn where you and Taylor normally diverge and get waved up to join the girls. "You head on back, Taylor and I are going to chat a bit more."

"Ooh, can I get in on the girl talk if I put my hair in pigtails?"

Crystal gives a wide smile. "You mean handlebars?"

There's choking sounds over from Taylor's direction but you ignore that to step in to the blonde's personal space and slide her a copy of your key. "I'll be in my lair, text my work phone." You kiss her and she nips at your lip as you pull back. "Have fun at the tea party, girls!"

You actually jog the rest of the way back to your apartment rather than apparating. A nice shower and you're over at your lair.

You were going to work on an enchanted necklace with the physical and emotional shields for Panacea, but first you take the time to start unpacking the mental boxes that you put the brain dumps in. There's also information about ritual magic clogging up your brainmeats so a couple of notebooks come out and you busy yourself with taking notes about Diego and Sia, as well as writing down things you'll need and some sketches for your ritual space. You also fire up your Warlock phone (Warphone?) and have a text from last night hanging around.

P: Hey, thanks for letting me contribute tonight

P: and how long will these clothes last?

P: they're pretty great

P:

…well shit. Don't say too much about the picture, but be polite.

You are quite welcome. :W

You did great :W

Clothes are permanent. I can change them back :W

If you want. :W

By the way, I'd like to stop in and talk to NW :W

LP and B suggested I do it at some point. :W

I'll be available in the afternoon if they have time. :W

Leaving that possible bear trap alone, you head to where you left the trunk so you can start looking for a ritual dagger—or an athame if you're feeling fancy. With all of the bloodletting that's involved in rituals, something with safety charms that will keep nerve damage from being an issue and heal afterwards is an excellent idea.

You find yourself standing in the room, which really should be more startling than it is. Maybe you can't startle yourself?

"So… we don't explode if we see each other."

"Nope."

Seeing the smirk you so often feel on your own face being smirked at you is quite a sight. "So are we going to say it?"

"We are."

You point at each other and exclaim in stereo, "My own clone! Now neither of us will be virgins!"

"Nice," you chorus. You get a high-five (and don't explode, so that's nice) as you exit and turn back to loot the trunk.

What you find is a leather roll that has an obviously magically-formed dagger of obsidian with silver wire wrapping around the hilt, and laying next to it is a time-turner. A beat-to-all-hell time turner, but one nevertheless.

Ah, fuck it.

You give one spin and you're still in the room, but you can hear yourself over in your main study just as you were a few moments ago. You'd guess one turn is roughly fifteen minutes?

"So… we don't explode if we see each other."

"Nope."

Seeing the smirk you so often feel on your own face being smirked at you is quite a sight. "So are we going to say it?"

"We are."

You point at each other and exclaim in stereo, "My own clone! Now neither of us will be virgins!"

"Nice." You high-five and walk out of the room to place the athame in the ritual space and to allow yourself time to find the time turner in the first place. That… could get weird. Probably for the best that one time you're you and one time you're Warlock or something.

You feel something click back into place right as you probably spun the dial back in the other room, like there was a part of you that was missing and is back. Blinking a bit you head back in to your main room and check over the sketches of the ritual circle you're planning on using. It's super important that you get it right, so you're making a couple of sketches and going over them first before you carve them out. At least you can use magic to do it.

It's been about about an hour and a half since you got back when you get a text from Crystal telling you that she's 'in location'. You pop back to find her fresh out of the shower and lounging on your bed, sans bra. You could get dangerously used to that. "Everything okay?"

"As okay as could be, I think there's some long-running issues. I'm gonna keep in touch with her and see how it goes." She sighs. "Might need Warlock to make an appearance, my being an out cape seemed to confuse her."

You flop down on the bed and snuggle. "I want to enchant something protective for Amy. I can do the aura resistance thing and put it on something that isn't clothes—since y'know, two hoodies mysteriously showed back up in my dirty clothes pile and a couple of my unshielded flannel shirts disappeared around the same time."

"Oh yeah…"

"I haven't noticed any underwear disappearing, let's keep it that way, okay?"

You get a scrunched up nose and a gagging noise. "Gross, dude." She transitions into a side-eye, "So this enchanted stuff, could I like…" She sees you staring at her and trails off. "I'm ruining a surprise, aren't I."

"Mmm."

"Wanna give it to me now instead?" her voice lifts hopefully.

"I might give it to you next week instead at this rate."

"Rude," she huffs, and rolls to her feet. "Can you make some generic things like that shield necklace of yours and we'll test them later? I can ask Amy what she'd be willing to wear. She doesn't do much in the way of jewelry, like maybe earrings."

"Sure, let's head over to the lair."

"He has a frickin' lair," she mutters to herself as she shimmies into a T-shirt. One of yours, of course.

Back at Wizard Central you check your phone and have gotten a response from Amy. She says you're good for 3-ish, just to text beforehand and teleport into the back yard. You take the time to slide the phone over to Crystal and tell her to read the previous parts of the conversation. She does as you go off to find some silverware to transfigure and you hear a sing-songed 'thir~sty' from the other room.

When you walk back in the blonde cape gives you a wry smile. "I don't know if you should be allowed to be alone with Amy for your own health. I'm not sure if she knows what she wants, she's likely to knock you out and molest your sleeping body."

"You're making her sound like she's crazy, yanno."

"I think she's just feeling secure about you and is willing to try flirting. It's still okay for now, but keep me informed and no kissing."

Sitting down across from her at the worktable you throw her a shrug. "Okay, one, I'm dating you and Warlock isn't dating anyone, and B, how would I kiss her with a full face mask?"

"Dork. Speaking of dating, crazy women and stuff like that, did you get anything for the S Klub?"

"I made cookies, but I was gonna check with you first."

Crystal floats part way across the table to kiss you firmly and look you right in the eyes. "James, it's okay to be friends with them. You can hang out with them. Just don't dick them. I trust you."

"Thank you dear."

She beams at you and floats back down. "So, necklaces?"

You nod. "Yeah, I guess. I'll do a shield and an aura shield?"

"Make one with a charm like your mask and the other as one of those birds you did."

A short transfiguration later and you have two silver necklaces with charms. Crystal pockets them for later and after grabbing some lunch she takes you through the process of registering for PHO as 'Totally_Not_A_Wizard' and getting verified. You have to throw on your costume and pose with a dated sign, but that's easily done on a rooftop with the Rig in the background and today's paper. With a bit of Tin_Mother brown nosing, you even get a (Verified Warlock) tag to go along with your (Verified Cape).

There are close to twenty threads going about various parts related to the Downtown brawl and last night's Merchant mop-up. You also have your own thread with your impromptu press conference and links to all of the other places you've shown up recently. Still, you resist the temptation to post and make jokes. Now that you have an account you have all the time in the world to post. Besides, it's almost time to meet the parents (again) (in costume).

Crystal heads off to show up early, she'd been warned of what's going on via a text from her mother not long after your arrival in your lair. You take the time to find and use a charm to polish the floor in the ritual room and transfer the sketched circle to markings on the floor. Assuming nothing goes tits up this evening you'll come back and carve it out and it'll be ready to run a test ritual tomorrow—well, Tuesday, most likely. You hope you'll be busy with other things tomorrow.

A little after three you text Amy and get an 'OK' back. Popping over to the Pelhams' backyard you're let in and find Old Wave sitting in the dining room. Kid Wave is nowhere to be seen, although you feel three presences upstairs.

Manpower gives you a head nod as you move to stand across the table from them, as do Lady Photon and Brandish. Flashbang is… present, at least.

"Ladies, gentlemen, would you like to begin the interrogation?" you ask with a smile in your voice.

Peeking in heads, Mark is a write-off, completely in his own fogged world, Neil wants to see what you can do power-wise and generally doesn't care much about the legal portions. Even Sarah is thinking more about what's going on upstairs than the talk that her sister is about to give.

The look Brandish gives you is as dry as the Sahara. "Just sit." Once you're seated she looks at the other adults and sighs. "I'm not going to go into a long speech, because it seems no one cares. As I said yesterday I cannot be your lawyer—it's nothing against you, but I already handle New Wave's legal issues, and if you and New Wave ever had a dispute then my handling of your legal work would cause problems.

"With that said, I've spoken to Quinn Calle, who is a gigantic pain in the ass, but knows his cape law. I will remain the contact for the PRT until after you meet with him and tell me that you have decided to retain him as a lawyer. You will need to pay him, he will discuss hourly with you." She passes over a print-out of an email with your appointment on Wednesday at 1.

You happen to have your programming class at the time, but maybe with your time-turner you can blow some minds. Taking the document you give Brandish a nod. "Thank you for what you have done so far, and I completely understand not being able to represent me." Leaning back a bit you also spread your hands. "So go ahead and ask, but I expect smooth jazz and some wine before I start taking my clothes off."

Carol is actually the one who snorts at that, while Neil starts imitating Barry White. Sarah waves them all down and starts ticking things off with her fingers. "You can heal, control birds, teleport, raise the earth, freeze people…"

You can hear feet clatter down the steps, and right as they're about to come into view you bob your head. "Yeah. I'm a wizard."

There's a thump where you're pretty sure that Crystal ran into Amy, and a bunch of incredulous stares from everyone, even Mark. The girls shuffle in and Amy gives you the side-eye while Crystal just looks like she wants to facepalm.

"Um…."

You chuckle and take your hat off. "I do wizard themed things. What else do you call a person who does all of the things you pointed out? It's a weird conglomeration of abilities otherwise."

Neil's mouth opens and closes while Carol just sits back with her arms crossed and is obviously mentally picking that little nugget of logic over. Once again Sarah takes control. "Alright fine, let's go mess up the nice grass in the back yard instead."

You end up throwing spells at Manpower for a bit to get a handle on comparative strengths. A single stunner does jack-all to his electromagnetic shield, although knocking him around by banishing him, dumping him in the ground with an orbis and similar indirect spells work fine. You're unwilling to whip out explosive curses, even if you would be able to reattach anything that fell off.

On the defensive end you show that you can indeed shield yourself, and that said shield actually stands up to a moderately-powerful hit from your girlfriend. You can even continue to channel power into the spell and resist a continuous blast for a while. Once some baselines are established so everyone knows you're not going to get completely smeared by a stray shot you play cat-and-mouse with New Wave, mainly tagging people with paint spells.

The most important find of the day is that if you have a moment to establish a legilimency connection you can pull off a Snape and know what they're going to do before they know they're going to do it. It lead to a wonderful standoff between you and Crystal as she tried to tag you and you managed to deflect her low-powered shots with expellarmuses. You have a sneaking suspicion she's gonna get you back somehow for hitting her with a flipendo and almost making her sick.

At the end of the training session you manage to smooth over the churned up dirt and get most of the grass clumps planted again, which makes both Sarah and Neil happy.

The last half-hour or so before you leave for the evening has you sending your videos over to Amy, who jumped at the chance to comb through them and make gifs and video clips for you to post later. You had the time to verify that nothing of your contact with either of the Merchants was caught on video, and Amy's more likely to ask you about anything she sees than go running to Sarah or Carol, so you're not too worried.

After leaving the Pelhams' you manage to get the ritual space carved with a traditional circle motif. It's large enough that you could easily fit ten people inside with arms spread, so you shouldn't have any issues with space.

Crystal doesn't spend the night with you although you text back and forth; New Wave continued to hang out after you were gone and Vicky came back from her patrol with the Wards. You do get a few goodnight kiss pictures sent to you though, and you're looking forward to Valentine's Day tomorrow.