Magic Box, Sunday Evening, 10/4

[life_inshadow]

It had been a long, long, long day and a half for Tara since the Maclays showed up.

A very long two day and a half.

"So, uh ..." she paused just inside the doorway to the shop. They'd demanded they see where she work before leaving Fandom. "When -- when were you going to head home?"

Subtle, she was not. And she'd also been trying to deflect their hints all weekend about how she was needed back with the family. At the end, she hoped, they'd let it go. It wasn't like she was turning 20 yet.

"How fast can you pack up your room?" her father asked, snorting at the displays. He poked a pentacle with a fingertip like it might burn him. "We're getting you away from this wickedness, child. You're already infested with evil."

Tara inspected her shoes as her nails bit into her palms. "It's -- my friends here like me."

"Your friends don't know who you are," Donny supplied. "Now, you going to come with us the easy way, or are you going to make us make a scene?"

Tara scanned the street desperately. There had to be something she could do to make this all go away.

Illyria	If she was looking for something that her family wouldn't immediately use as an example of evil wicked evilwickedness, the leather-clad girl with the blue-striped hair and creepy eyes currently stalking towards the shop would not be it. "I require--" Illyria began, without checking little things like whether the shop was even open on Sundays or the people within actually worked there. "--a....gift." Don't ask, because then she'd have to answer and admit that she had no idea why the urge to hand Wesley something that might make him smile was so strong. "Show me your collection of sacrificial daggers."
The Maclays	Tara .... well, Tara meeped, while her father stood back, looking an odd mix of bemused and disgusted. "Go ahead. Help the girl, Tara. This is what you do now."
Donny Maclay	She was still standing their sort of twitching when her brother decided he had to contribute, too. "Hey, sis, your friends know Halloween's at the end of the month, right?"
Tara	Tara looked very small and unfocused when she spoke again. "S-sorry. You -- you need a dagger? I don't know if we..."
Illyria	To the girl, she said, "I need something that would interest an expert in the occult, but isn't a book. He has the libraries of several dimensions at his fingertips already." Illyria's head jerked towards the boy like her neck was broken. "I'm not her 'friend;' we've never met before." The other part of his question earned a shrug. "Your human costume holiday has been pointed out to me; it holds little interest, but if necessary, I do have a human costume." She lowered her head; when she lifted it, she was wearing the face that was as far from a gift to Wesley as Illyria was from the girl who'd owned it.
Mr. Maclay	No, the evil-wicked-evilness rating of Fandom was not going down in Donald Maclay's eyes after that trick. "This is what you're going to turn into," he told his daughter, all but ignoring Illyria. "This kind of blue monster with the pretty eyes, or something worse. What's inside you -- it'll eat you up. If this is what you want, go ahead. Stay here." Tara, on the verge of tears, said nothing at all.
Illyria	If nothing else, what's inside you, it'll eat you up got Illyria's attention. It focused her gaze - now dark, but still inhuman, since she wasn't actually pretending to be Fred - on the girl who seemed to be trying to shrink into the wall. Was there something like herself, hiding so deep that even she hadn't seen it? For a moment, there was a odd hope, but the moment passed as quickly as a breath. "There's nothing inside this one but blood, sinew and the stink of human magicks," she said, sounding almost disappointed.
Mr. Maclay	"You have some pretty good magic tricks," Donald said, weirdly calm, like he dealt with shapeshifters all the time. Maybe it was just exactly what he had expected of this so-called school. "But you're wrong. My girl here has -- Tara, you tell her." Tara shook her head. "Tell her."
Tara	"D-d-d-d-demon," Tara finally said. after the pause was almost uncomfortable. "My mom. She -- it -- I don't talk about it."
Mr. Maclay	"The women in our family have demon in them," Donald reiterated. "She got it from her mother. It's why she can do magic. It's why we sent her here. And now -- if you don't mind -- it's why we'll take her home before she turns into something like you."
Illyria	Illyria shed the Burkle form like a snakeskin and turned a pale blue face to him. "You dare to claim I wouldn't know my own kind, no matter how pitifully thin the blood has run in this age? None of you are more than algae that walks."
Riina Kwaad	Tahiri had slipped away from the general crush of people when she'd felt Riina stirring, thinking she'd have time to get away, maybe get to some secluded spot and fight her way back to control again. She didn't make it that far when, despite her best efforts, her consciousness succumbed completely. So it was Riina Kwaad who was roaming the streets of Fandom, drawn through the Jeedai powers that had been forced on her to the potent mixture of anger, pain, and fear that emanated from the Magic Box. She'd been standing silent outside the doorway for the past minute or so, long enough to hear enough of the exchange that her eyes were cold with fury when she stepped into the shop. "Yadag dakl, ignot," she spat, stepping further inside, ready to place herself between Tara and the men. She'd sensed the lie in Donald's words, and the insult was clear even if her speech was unfamiliar.
Tara Maclay	"Tahiri, what -" Tara frowned even more. The dark presence in her aura was pulsing now, overwhelming. Like she was someone else.
Donny Maclay	"Does this one need a sacrificial dagger too?" Donny asked, grinning like the idiot at a sideshow that he was just then. "Wow, Tara, you know such nice people."
Riina Kwaad	Riina barely spared Donny a glance, only directing her attention to him long enough to toss off a scornful "Kane a bar" -- again, clearly derogatory -- before switching to Basic. "You call yourselves her family?" she asked, every word dripping with indignation. "And yet you would try to force her to bind herself to you with a lie?"
Mr. Maclay	"We love her. We're the only people on this earth who do," Donald answered, with a scornful glance to Illyria. Walking algae, huh?
Tara Maclay	Somewhere in Tara's brain, though, something was cracking. Breaking. Changing. Some light was coming through. "... I'm not a demon?"
Illyria	Illyria hadn't quite mastered the art of eyerolling yet; it didn't mix well with the fixed stare that was her specialty. She settled for a displeased, impatient huff. "That--" She pointed at the tiny towheaded girl with the scars on her forehead whose dark rage was three times as tall as her body. "--is more demon than you." ...Perhaps not the best example. She pointed to a box of candles. "As is that. Enough of this." She turned for the door. "I've spent the last two days swimming in human anguish and betrayal; I don't care to partake of more."
Riina Kwaad	The odd staring girl was an anomaly that Riina was too furious to contemplate at the moment, and she didn't try to stop her; her rage was focused on the Maclays. Riina Kwaad had been kidnapped by the Jeedai of the galaxy they'd come to conquer, made to believe she was one of them. She'd had their infidel powers forced on her and been told her true self was evil. Beyond anger, what she felt for the timid girl was sympathy. "You have lied to her for years," she said; besides the strange, low timbre of her voice, her speech pattern was completely different from Tahiri's. "Tried to keep her under your control by telling her she was something to be ashamed of, and claimed family bonds to do it.
Donald Maclay	"Right," Mr. Maclay said, in the kind of tone that means you aren't listening at all. "Tara. We've heard enough of this junk. We're going."
Tara Maclay	Tara was still rooted where she was. "But -- what if -- what if you m-m-m-made a mistake?"
Riina Kwaad	"It is not a mistake," Riina cut in, taking a step toward Mr. Maclay. "There is no honor in him, or in the other one. They are desperate to keep you subject to their will; I can feel it." She took another step forward, moving with almost predatory intensity. "Family is sacred," she spat as she brought one hand up in front of her. "Not a coufee to be held to someone's throat."
Donald Maclay	"Donny, we're going. Now. Tara, come or you lose us for good and I tell your mother what a brat you are," Mr Maclay said. His nerves were very close to the surface as he tried to move past Tahiri to the shop exit.
Riina Kwaad	Riina stepped aside, her eyes following them as if to make sure they did leave -- or maybe watching to make sure they wouldn't make a move to take Tara with them.
Tara Maclay	They left, seemingly not even looking back. It was Tara's loss, as far as they were concerned. ... and they were afraid. When they were gone, Tara still looked shell-shocked. "Thank you," she managed. "I -- I don't even know what that was, but -- thank you."
Tahiri Veila	Riina had watched for a long time, waiting to make sure they weren't coming back, and somewhere along the line Tahiri managed to fight her way back into control. She was incredibly disoriented when she turned to look at Tara, but the warmth had come back into her eyes and her general demeanor was less severe. "Tara? How did I get here? What just happened?"
Tara Maclay	"You and that blue girl just kicked my family off the island," Tara said bluntly. She'd used the time Tahiri had spent watching to pull herself together. "Are you okay?"
Tahiri Veila	"But I don't remember any of that --" Sithspit. Riina? "I'm fine," Tahiri told her, shoving her own confusion to the side; Tara didn't look like she was in good shape. "Are you going to be okay?"
Tara Maclay	"Yeah." There was a funny thing that came close to a smile on Tara's face. "I ... maybe for the first time. Yeah." She had to talk to her mother. She wanted to punch things. She wanted to cry for joy. She wasn't a demon. That was what mattered.
Tahiri Veila	"Then that's the important part," Tahiri replied with a smile that was only slightly hesitant, a look that would have been completely out of place on her face just a few minutes ago.
Tara Maclay	"It is," Tara said hesitantly, before smiling herself. "Someday you have to tell me what you did."
Tahiri Veila	Tahiri laughed, a little sheepish. "I would if I knew. Were they really that bad?"
Tara Maclay	"You really don't remember?" Tara knew it was true, it just had to be repeated. "They ... my whole life, they told me I was part demon and th-that I was going to turn evil when I was 20. They were trying to get me to come home now. Without you guys to prove it wasn't true, I'd be in a camper headed back for C-California right now."
Tahiri Veila	The surprise that registered on Tahiri's face might have backed up her claim of not remembering what had just happened, and she let out a small growl of Tusken indignation. "Force, that's an awful thing to do to anyone," she blurted out. "Whatever it is . . . I did, I'm just glad I could help."
Tara Maclay	"I -- I don't know either," Tara said honestly. "I'm just glad you did it. I owe you whatever I can do."
Tahiri Veila	"You don't owe me anything," Tahiri insisted, the slightest touch of emphasis on 'me.' "Come on -- ice cream? My treat?"
Tara Maclay	"I h-have to be grateful to someone," Tara said, with the tiniest smile. She knew it wasn't exactly Tahiri who had helped her, but she figured the other girl could tell her the rest of that story some other time. Sometime when Tara wasn't exhausted and exhilarated and too spun up for serious thought. "Ice cream," she agreed. "Universal cure, right?"
Tahiri Veila	"You bet." Tahiri grinned at her. "And good for celebrating just about anything too."
Tara Maclay	"Definitely good for celebrating," Tara had to agree. And she had lots to celebrate.

[OOC: Preplayed with the splendid bitchy_smurf and the incomparable weetuskenraider. NFI, OOC is love.]