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Donnie texts Colin about hanging out on Sunday afternoon. Saturday was hunting practice and getting beat up by Jack, but Sunday after church Donnie had no plans. Agreements made, Donnie goes to pick up Colin.

At Colin's apartment front door, slightly red in the face and puffing because of the jog from the end of Colin's street, Donnie waits patiently.

ding-dong

Colin arrives from the garage, shaking sawdust off his hoodie.

"Good morning, Don. How are you?"

Donnie smiles at his friend. "Don? That makes me sound like my dad."  He takes note of the sawdust.

"Whatcha working on?"

"Would you prefer Junior?" he says with a smirk.

"Nothing yet. I'm... doodling if you want. I'm checking if I'm up to the task of making a cradle, or if I should stick to toys."

Donnie's near invisible eyebrows disappear into his hairline. "A cradle? Is there something about your trip to Mexico with your magicked girlfriend you should tell me about?"

Donnie laughs and goes to see what Colin is working on.

"I take it your future baby sister needs one?"


ooc: I'm assuming Colin told him prior to this?

"Arizona. You're the one who took her to Mexico." he says, raising an eyebrow too.


No problem with that.


"Who knows? Better be prepared."

Colin was actually working on a tablet. He had drawn a squirrel on it, then proceed to carve it in. It's still a bit rough, but not a bad job all together.

"One of the guys at the metal work shop told me his grandfather was good at this stuff. I've been trading some english homework for some lessons."

"Sharp as a tack, you are. Nice start! I am afraid I'd end up shoving the chisel into my hand or something."  

He runs his fingertips over the half-finished squirrel. "You're a much better artist than me Colin. Drawing, photography, now carving. I'm envious."

He smiles though, and golden motes sparkle at his fingertips. "I can't complain though. I can do magic!"

He breezes out of the makeshift workshop. "Ready to go? Althea is up there, winging in circles and probably singing Britney Spears again."

"Nah. Don't be. It's way too early to call this art."


Colin smiles, conceding the point, but he finds himself saying something else, and it catches him a bit by surprise.

"I envy your... focus. You know where you want to go."


"Uh, ehm, are we going out flying? And shouldn't you give her better music?"

Donnie blows air. "Psshhh. Whatever."


Donnie shrugs. "I had no clue until the Sword showed up. I'd always been waiting, hoping there was something more out there for me. Now I realize all my dreams led me to this. Not many people can say their dreams came true. Youo've got a purpose though, Colin. You're the healer, the shaman. You root out trouble where it lies hidden in the hearts of men and women, and force them to face it. Or you face it for them if they can'rt or won't. That's honorable. Besides, you have excellent focus. Art requires that. You're like a pitbull when it comes to things. Once you latch on, you don't let go."


"Yep! Believe me, I've tried, but she loves Britney. Sylvia thinks it's cute, and has acted as a medium for it. She wears the ipod, and projects the music directly into Althea's head. Althea adores it."

Colin smiles. "That's not what I meant. I mean that you have plans. You're great at magic and you plan to study it, you'll got to college, probably at Miskatonic, and I've got a feeling you'd be a good teacher as well. I might have a purpose, as you say, but... I'm not allowed to plan this way. I don't even know if I'll be able to go to college. What if I'm needed in California on Tuesday, and in France on Friday? I know I'll have to travel a lot, I'll have no roots. I'd like to go to college. I could do anything, Journalism, Art, History, Magic, Medicine, Law, you name it. But I'm afraid I'll have to perfect my reading while Greyhound hopping skills."


"Hehe. In that case, let's not make the lady wait." he says, pulling up the hood, and tightening his backpack's straps.

Donnie walks them down the block and as they turn the corner, he reaches out and brushes Colin's arm, which fades from view, as does the rest of his body. Donnie has a good grip on Colin's jacket sleeve and murmurs more words as Colin begins to feel weightless as a balloon. A swift tug and the two invisible teenagers are zipping up through the air towards the clouds.

"I love to fly, man. I found out what is so intoxicating to Sammy." Donnie shouts as the wind whistles.

They get to a point where the air seems to be getting a little thinner and Donnie releases the invisibility. He gently pushes colin away and the young man floats serenely in the air until he is knocked spinning by a tackel from Pip. The little dragonette chirrups happily, claws clinging to Colins jacket as he rides the spinning teen.

"Pip! naughty dragon!" Donnie reaches out and steadies the floating Colin. "Sorry dude, he thinks that anything up in the air is game to be tackled." Althea wings down from a cloud bank, her high pitched voice perfectly mimicing Britney Spears. She gently reaches out and grabs both the boys in her broad paws and begins winging her way towards the mall.

In the confines of her broad (and surprisingly blunt) front claws, the air warms quickly as Donnie increases the air temperature through hylokka.
"Dragon Reach Airways, the only way to fly."

Colin smiles, but it's quite evident he feels much more at ease with ground beneath his feet.

He tries to say to Pip he's happy to see him in tentative and labored draconic.

Pip chirrups loudly and does joyous circles in the air. While unable to speak proper draconic himself, he understands it perfectly. Althea stops singing and bugles a long-winded and formal greeting to Colin, the air shaking around them in the happy strength of her voice. Donnie covers his ears and mentally tells Althea to tone it down.

"Dude, that's awesome! I need to learn it better too. Uther has been teaching me, but it's been hard to find the time. Sorry about Althea. She forgets that she can knock down buildings with the strength of her voice."

Colin winces and shakes his head a couple times after the ringing ends.

"I thought it would come natural to you. What have you been doing with your time?" he says to Donnie, while to Althea it's something like "The same blessings upon you and your progeny, favored daughter of the wind."

Althea slips through the cloud cover and Donnie shouts into the wind "School, Sylvia, Jack, magical study, college courses, flying, hunting with Alicia and Pip. History."

Donnie takes a hold of Colin and smiles with a touch of malicious glee. "Hold on!"

Althea banks up from her power dive and lets go of Donnie and Colin.

Donnie screams "WOOO-HOOOOO!" as they plummet, until Donnie enacts the spells again. Their downward uncontrolled fall becomes a slow dainty feather-fall.

Donnie aimed for and landed the two of them atop a silver Hummer, chuckling about the footprints he leftwalking down the front of the hundred-thousand dollar vehicle.

He shivered as the adrenalin slows down and the two boys walk to the overpass entrance to the mall from the top of the parking garage where they landed.

"College courses?"


"Dragon air" Colin says panting. "Half the time, twice the heart attacks."

As they make their way throught the throngs of Sunday shoppers, old people tottering along in their Sunday exercise, and gangs of bored junior high kids, Donnie reveals a secret to Colin.

"Well, you know i have a pen-pal at Miskatonic University? Back when we were trying to figure out the witches and I made that spell to cut them off from their power? I joined a couple chat rooms at Miskatonic, and after answering some tough questions in magical theory, you know, a sort of 'hazing' ritual, they let me stay. TO convince them I was worthy, I pretended to be a poor student at Chicago State in their Paranormal Research Department, specializing in ritual magic. Just in case my pals at Miskatonic U delved a little deeper on me, I actually signed up for some classes at Chicago University. To get in I cheated a little and magicked up some elctronic files to show my age as eighteen and with transcripts from Oak Park."

Donnie has the grace to look embarrased, blushing a little.

"I've completed three course already, even though I'll never really get the credit for it. It's helped me along a lot faster than I would have on my own."

He stops them in front of Cream Creations and looks to Colin. "Smoothies on me. Order what you like."

Colin blinks a couple times, as his mouth rounds around an unspoken 'w' for the questions that he's keeping in. Finally one gets out.

"You're not keeping someone else out of college because of that, right?"


"Anything with coconut, I guess."

Donnie shrugs. "I can't think how that could be. They are all online courses, and I have had no problems getting into them. Most students want to be in a classroom experimenting with this stuff, and people who try it from home are few and far between. besides, it was mostly theoretical and historical studies of magic, not actual lessons in casting spells. I have actually had to try and mess up on some stuff just so the teacher wouldn't get too suspicious about me."

They take their drinks over to the seating area, but Donnie snags a couple of the comfy faux-leather chairs recently vacated by a severely overweight woman and her equally rotund husband. Donnie hops into his seat even as a couple of teenagers arrowed towards it to lounge in and snog.

Colin slips into the other one and Donnie slouches low, drinking his lime-ginger-ginkoba-banana smoothie.

"So, tell me about Arizona. What is Bobby Six-Killer like? What's up with his last name? Why did Sylvia get all wierded out around Sky Six Killer? What was all that in the sweat lodge about? Most importantly, why did my girlfriend get naked in front of you?"

The last is given with a maliciously gleeful smirk.

"Then it's all right." Colin agrees, shrugging slightly.



Colin gets a professional look. By now she's used to following Laney, this barrage of questions is nothing.

"The State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale..." he says, obviously quoting some book, before breaking into a grin.

"Arizona is... large, hot, dusty and quiet, for all we saw. It makes you wonder if the sky is bigger there than it is here. Bobby is a good friend, a caring father, and a very dangerous man when the need arises. Older than he looks like too. His last name he couldn't choose, like any one of us. Sky... She's a very peculiar person, and I'm not really at ease to discuss how peculiar, but... You could say that to one like Sylvia she's constantly buzzing, and leave it at that. She told me it's not the first time she's had this problem with telepaths. The lodge... I think is a place at the border of the world. There's nothing around it, so it makes for a very good place for looking inside yourself. And the getting naked part, I'm not sure it happened in this reality. It was mostly a symbol.

Donnie slurps at his drink.

"That doesn't seem to be Sylvia's recollection. She sems to remember stripping down in front of you, after threatening to kick your ass if you said anything, before reality went gonzo and she reappeared in Hamilton's room."

He waits to see if Colin equivocates or at least bluc]sh before continuing.

"Thank you, by the way. I may be her boyfriend, but I think you are her best friend. She likes to challenge you because you constantly challenge her. Being her best friend or her boyfriend isn't easy sometimes. But she seems happier, looser mentally. More relaxed and not so wound tight as she was before the trip west. So thank you for helping her when I did not know how."  

"I guess, according to that recollection, that we spent about ten minutes in the lodge. Yet, when we came out, about nine hours had passed. Does she remember ever getting dressed again? I thought so. When I say I'm not sure what really was reality and what not, especially considering Sylvia was involved, that's exactly what I mean. I wasn't there to sneak a peek at her."



Colin smiles, but there a bitter edge to that smile he tries to hide taking a sip himself.

"I didn't do anything. She only needed to realize she could trust herself. The place helped her much more than I did, but still, she did the work. Learning something about yourself, about what you want, it can have this effect. It's... liberating."

He bites his lips, as he does when he doesn't like what he's about to say.

"Does she make you happy, Don? And I mean really happy, in your guts."

Donnie has a flippant comment on his lips, but realizing the seriousness of the question, swallows the remark. He looks steadily at Colin for a moment and thinks about his answer.

"Whenever we are together, it's awesome. We love to touch each other, whether it be holding hands or shoulder to shoulder. When I am away from her, I think of her often, but cannot shake the feeling that i should be worrying if she's seeing someone else. I can't help it. I am a jealous person. I have worked hard to get over it, and I do my best to trust her, but she still visits Logan and neve mentions it to me. I know this, and have to keep myself from spying on her thru magical or draconic means.

She's fun, gorgeous, athletic, and a good partner. She wants to be a superhero. She's spending time with Rob learning mundane ways of spycraft, from hotwiring cars to picking locks and disarming alarms. She seems to have a future slowly being defined, especially shown by her desire to visit Eagle's Nest."

Donnie slurps the last of his smoothie.

"I just don't know if that future includes me."

He tosses the empty drink cup at a nearby garbage can and misses. He gets up, retrieves t and carefully drops it into the can. When he sits down, he leans forward and says, "What is she going to do when i am gone for three months in the Dragon Reaches? Or if I go to Switzerland with my grandfather to visit the monastary where my previous Border Lord stayed for the last forty years? I have a lot of knowledge to absorb before some other person decides to fuck with the Border or break the Accords. Can I trust others with Sylvia? She may act cold sometimes to people, but once your in her heart, your in. Logan is already there. Beetlejuice is there, which scares the hell out of me. Logan was there at every game, and a number of cheerleader practices. You and I both know he wasn't there to watch whatshername that he's dating now. It's the polar opposite of me. I'm emotional, loud, and leaking my emotions everywhere. He's cool, calm, collected. I've never seen him yell, or get into a fight, or lose his temper. He's unreadable to Sylvia, and that just fascinates her."

"I don't know, Colin. I love her, but I don't know how much she really loves me. Why do you ask? Did you see something in the vision quest?"

Colin imperceptibly shakes his head, and seems a little sadder than before.


"No. And even if I did, it shouldn't worry you. I don't see the future. It's just..."

Colin bites his lips again.

"I can't answer your questions. You're wrong about Logan, about what she feels for him, but I can't convince you with my words. I know you love her, and I know you can't help being jealous, but... "

He looks away.

"Just remember to show her that you care. Not that you love her, or that you want her. That you care about her. About how she feels, about what she likes. Love exists to allow us to change. Give yourselves room to be surprised from each other, and to change each other."

Donnie leans back, intertwining his fingers over his chest as he slumps in the chair.

"Thanks Dr. Phil. I think you might be wrong about Logan, but who knows. Maybe I should just listen to the Seer, eh?"

"So, did you tattoo Sarah to keep her from wandering away to warm places without you again? I feel bad about the whole Mexico thing, but was there perhaps some other deeper possibly more selfish reason for you to give her magical tattoos that fulfill her desire to be warm all the time? Keep her from wandering maybe?"

He rubs his hands across his face.

"I'm sorry. Look, I don't know where this is coming from. Sylvia and I haven't had a fight in ages, and we've been happy recently. Why are you coming to me as if our relationship is on the rocks?"

Colin's smile this time is more amused than sad.

"There might be a very selfish reason for me to give her the tattoo, but it's not the one you're thinking of."



"Because happy times are the best times for learning. If I came to you when your relationship was already on the rocks, would that piece of advice save it? It's just a piece of advice from a friend a little older than you are, Donnie, not some mystical forewarning. Make of that what you want. Save it for another time. Your call."

Donnie slumps lower into the chair, looking depressed. "Okay. Thanks."

He purses his lips and says "I thought this would just be a fun afternoon for us. You know, play video games at Electronics Boutique until they asked us to move on or see a movie or something. Not a 'who has the better relationship' session. Besides, you're what, months older than me? Don't give me that crap."

"Sorry. I'm done with that. That's all I had to say. We can go back to having fun."

He pokes Donnie in his ribs.

"It's three months and a half, runt." he says with a grin.

Donnie smiles. "Runt? You're shorter than me, punk. But I seem to remember you being shorter at the beginning of the year. Maybe you're finally growing up."

He hops up onto the chair he had been slumped onto and mock boxes at Colin.

"Growing any pubic hair yet?"

He jumps out of the way and takes off towards Electronics Boutique, dodging old people.

They play some video games and realize there isn't enough time for a movie so the two teens browse the mall book store and find books they think their girlfriends would like and commit them to memory for later purchase. Donnie springs for an early dinner for them and afterwards they lounge in the same chairs from earlier, digesting and discussing the poor quality of mall food.

"You want a dragon ride home or call the Sarah Express?"

Colin considers it.

"I wouldn't mind a slow and gentle flight by night. You think you could arrange that?"

He thinks again at the bookstore.

"If you could be any character out of a fantasy book, who would you like to be?"

Donnie puts down the X-Men comic he was perusing. "Now that is a huge question."

He puts the comic back in it's slot and goes over to the fantasy section, fingers running lightly over the titles until he gets to a certain title, which he pulls out and tosses over to Colin.

It's a Harry Dresden book by Jim Butcher. "Totally Harry Dresden. Guy is a powerful maodern magician, suffers for his beliefs, but manages to come out on top by the skin of his teeth. Has a destiny, and fears for his friends, but always just tries to do his best. He's a bit pig-headed too."

Sunday afternoon stretched on into a distant point close enough to infinity to give Sarah the sighs.  She glanced at her Mickey Mouse clock and his hands were out at his sides like the Sound of Music when from her agonizing waiting she knew it must be closer to Hammer Time.

Sarah looks at her homework and sighs.  She looks at her computer and sighs.  She picks up her cellphone, staring at it as if waiting for it's opinion in the matter.  Taking it's silence for agreement Sarah dials.

Colin's cell starts ringing. 

Colin smiles at Donnie's answers, but before he can go on, his phone rings.

"Hello, wondergirl."

"Colin!" says a desperate sounding Sarah, "I need you!  Where are you?"

"At the bookstore with Donnie." he says, suddenly serious. "What's up?"

An exasperated Sarah says, "There's like a million of those!" 
As soon as she's able to extract an actual location and before Colin can decide if she just hung up or the connection flaked out for a few seconds Sarah arrives. 

She finds them in the comics and almost pauses to start browsing before realizing they'll kick her out if they spot her.  Sarah is dressed in a cut up t-shirt exposing her midriff and half of her tattoo and a pair of denim shorts.  She apparently forgot shoes before leaving. 

"Hi Donnie!  Need a lift?  No?Okaycyalaterbye..." Taking Colin's hand she vanishes *boomf* leaving Donnie by himself in the bookstore. 

It's only a minute before Donnie is joined in the comic section.  "Oh my gosh.  Donnie?"  the voice is familiar.  Jessica Sherman.  Her hair is tucked up under a baseball cap and her sweat shirt covers her pretty well.  She smiles, "I needed to come by and pick up a copy of the Essential Midnight Phantom, and I thought I'd come see if there was anything else I wanted.  And here you are."

"Hi Sarah! Uh."

*bamf*

Donnie stands there, blinking and a little befuddled for a few heartbeats.

"Oookay. That was the coolest damn booty call I have ever seen. And that tattoo is frikkin hawt. I'll have to compliment Colin on it.." Donnie turns back to return the Dresden Files book and almost runs into Jessica coming up the aisle the other direction.

"Jessica! Hi! Uh, just putting back a book.."

"Hey, if you're alone maybe I can buy you a milkshake?  I wanted to talk to you about some stuff for a game I'm running, and I thought your expertise in the rules could help."

"So what's the m-" *boomf* "-atter?"

He cautiously takes a look around.

"Game? Don't tell me you do RPGs too?" Donnie follows her out of the store, the RPG-nut side of him utterly intrigued and the rational side happy she's not asking about magic this time.

"Yeah.  Some of the girls I know wanted to play, so I got elected GM."  As they walk she describes her game idea, and eagerly takes his input on making the campaign work.

Meanwhile Sarah and Colin do other things......

OOC: Closing this one, probably tomorrow.

Sarah's room is neat and somewhat organized.  At least everything is shoved to the corners in like groups.  The floor is clean and the bed is made though rumpled from being rolled back and forth on in boredom.  The latest version of the US logo Sarah tried is bouncing across the computer screen.

She grabs Colin by the shirt front and kisses him hungrily melting against him.  A few minutes later she answers.  "Nothing is the matter now.  But my parents are gone until around nine or ten tonight and my brother is having a Halo fest at a friends house until my parents call 'to let us know they're on the way home' so that we can clean up the mess we've made or hide the bodies or whatever."

"Whoa..." Colin says as he feels his head spin a little, either for the lack of oxygen or blood to the brain.

"So basically I'm being abducted and help isn't coming for at least a couple hours?"

Sarah looks apologetic.  "Oh. I'm sorry.  Did you need help?  I could go back and get Donnie if you want?"  She cracks a grin. "Was I taking you away from man time?  You guys were standing in front of a bunch of comics.  I didn't really think about it.  I wasn't exactly thinking."

Colin kisses her.

"What kind of man do you think I am? You think I'd give my friend away to be abducted too? Never."

Behind her ear.

"I'm enough of an hostage for you."

And on her neck.

"Though I should warn you I might be developing Stockholm syndrome."

"Kinky.  Call me Inga.  I'll go find a blond wig somewhere."