Rory and Silver Shield (& Psyche):
Mattie let Rory's arm rest on her shoulder and smiled up at him. "Yeah,.. my powers are being,.. weird. But we'll deal with it. As far as you and Kayla though,.. Don't be such a doofus. You know I don't care about that! We'll be fine."
After a moment, she 'hears' Psyche's message. "Huh? What do you mean your body's not where you left it? Your other shards are AWOL? What do you mean? That sounds serious!"
Praetoria (Later on):
Having given the movie a miss, Mattie had retreated to her room and done her best not to think too hard about the issues she was having with her powers. Instead, she had stripped off her uniform, had a scaldingly hot shower and changed into a loose pair of sweat pants and singlet top and fired up her console, losing herself in the simple pleasure of Mario Cart. When the knock on the door came, she looked up from her sprawled position on her large beanbag. "Come on in Kayla." she said, sensing the other girl's presence on the other side of the door. "Hey, Kay." she greeted the other girl with a smile. What's up?"
"No one's AWOL. I was just being polite to myself so I didn't get concerned that my body's not where I left it. Thanks for thinking that so we could hear it, by the way."
"No, I'm not AWOL. I just needed to focus on a few different things, so I broke off to spend time with you. My shards are all completely fine, but making them puts them on a different wavelength. Sort of like how you can't tickle yourself."
"Sorry. Is this giving you a headache? I'll go, just needed to tell you about Shin, and have you tell me about me."
"Is this giving you a headache? Sorry. I'll stop talking, just let me know when I'm gone so we aren't talking over each other."
***
Kylie had mainly been supporting Shin with a thin web of force, but she gently took his hand. "No one hates you, Shin. We all just don't want you going down that path." I need to believe that I was right about you.
***
"Of course, Isaiah. I'll be right over."
Kayla puts her hands on her hips and says scoldingly ”How DARE you play Mario Kart and not invite me!” she says as she makes her way in. She flops down on the bean bag beside Mattie and adds ”I’ll tag in next race.”
She lays there quietly as Mattie makes her run on the game. Once her race is over, Kayla picks up a controller and joins in. ”So...how you feeling? You weren’t at the movie...”
Kayla quietly lands in an alley near the hidden entrance of the old base, making her way inside and down the lift. She was the last to arrive of the three, and when the doors open, Isaiah and Kylie see she is sporting a new look in her Regalia.
”So, what’s up, Isaiah?”
Really? She needs it to be tight to her belly-button? Well, it's her costume. I wonder though...
"How specifically do you have to design the Regalia anyways? Can it fill in the blanks if you've got the idea for a uniform? Or did you have to decide how many segments to make the armor out of?"
Kayla just raises her arms and replies ”I dunno. I just sort of think of a general idea and it does the rest I guess. I can alter specifics if I want, but I mostly just let...well...whatever it is run with it.”
Psyche nodded; it made sense. Bubbles of her amusement burst in Praetoria's head as she warned with her typical straightface "You know that one of these days, I'm going to incept you into something just *ridiculous,* right?
Legitimately confused, Kayla looked at Kylie and asked ”Huh? What do you mean?”
"Anyone can make you think of an elephant by telling you 'Don't think of an elephant.' I can be a little more subtle than that. Especially with something that's easy to change and is mostly controlled by your subconscious, I might even be able to have you change your costume without you even noticing. At least until you saw a mirror."
"Just a thought."
”I don’t think it works quite like that,” Kayla says with a “Yeah right” smirk beneath the new mask that has formed on her face, not even realizing that it’s there.
"Oh, OK,..." Mattie sends back, rubbing her head. "I guess that makes sense? It's really confusing though!"
"Well, I have to win some of the time." Mattie replies with a grin, as she moves over a little to make room and guides Yoshi around the track to a close victory. "Yeah. Feeling Ok I guess. I mean, things are getting weird with my powers again, well, weirder anyway. The Shield wants me to go to Dawkins and get some tests run.... Its kinda scary not knowing whats happening to your won body. Y'know? Not being able to trust your own powers..." she pauses in thought for a moment before pausing the game and turning to the other girl.
"Kayla,... I'm sorry about your grandma. I'm,.. i'm sorry we couldn't do anything. It was my fault. The others might have been able to do something if I hadn't started the fire and now they want to take us off active duty, and its all my fault."
Kayla leans in and nudges Mattie with her shoulder. ”No. none of that. None of this is our fault. We weren’t assigned guard duty over her, so this fault falls on the adults, no matter how much they try and point the finger our way.”
She lays the controller down and rolls on her side to face Mattie. ”And I know what you mean about your powers. Just this morning I found out I can fly in space without a suit! Granted, we fought interstellar space nazis shortly after...but still...I get it. Our powers are all still maturing, just like us...”
Shin stiffened and feels innately embarrassed by Prae's sudden hug, fumbling around for a response. It was awkward to be hugged by someone so stupidly starlet like when Kylie was supporting him as well. But he was also glad that at least that her being mad at him didn't seem to ruin their relationship.
It was really like with his siblings, then.
"...I'm sorry we couldn't get Eternia back before this happened, Prae. I'll do what we need to find a way to..." Rescue? Recover? Lay her to rest? "...to stop the Archdeacon. Though it kind of feels like we're just accumulating nemeses, aren't we?"
Feeling better, he takes a seat and glances at the title screen for the movie, confusion appearing again on his face. "This is...The Mask of Zorro? Is this a continuation of the story from The Mark of Zorro? I haven't seen either film..."
Kylie...hurts to think at you. Talk instead?
"Yeah, I guess," Mattie replies, setting down her own controller and glancing at Kayla. "Flying in space sounds awesome by the way. You're discovering new amazing things you can do all the time, but its different with mine. Mine feel like,.. like I'm losing control of them. Its not just that either. Its like I can't control myself any more. Like sometimes I get really angry, or scared, or happy, or,.. whatever and it feels like i'm watching myself do things. Well, not quite like that. Its like I can't think straight. Its like I know that I've got nothing to be angry about but it doesn't matter. Or,.. I know I shouldn't do something, but I just do it anyway."
The old Blockbuster base is quiet with most everyone staying at the Tower now. Isaiah meets Psyche and Praetoria in the front lobby.
"Well, I was figuring that since I'm really mainly running off of excess energy being generated by the two of you, I probably should at least show you how I'm collecting it. Though this is all very hush-hush, alright? This technology is one that can do great harm in the wrong hands... as Prae may understand particularly well." Isaiah nodded to the Legacy. "Anyway, I've got all the stuff back in my room, so do you want to see? Or would you rather not know?"
Kayla shrugs. ”It’s kinda what the hero life is about. One new enemy after another...it gets frustrating some times. I just hope you guys never have to gain Dr. Dread as an enemy too.”
She turns and crawls into the corner seat of the couch, folding her legs up beneath her. ”I worry what they are capable of this time. This new tech she has...that...you know. I’m worried it may work on anyone and not just me. As disturbing as the idea is...I hope deep down it only works on me. Then nobody else would have to worry about it...”
__________
Kayla just lays there quietly, letting Mattie speak her mind. ”I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do to help. If you don’t trust the people at Dawkins, we could use the lab here. But I understand if you want an outside opinion.”
__________
Kayla nods. ”Yeah, I get it. If you need one of us to be the example subject, I’ll do it. Just a short burst to see what it’s like. And...at full blast. I’m curious to see if it’s anything like what Dr. Dread used...in case she really did mimic your tech. Just don’t take so much that it impacts me in combat, okay?”
She then looks to Kylie and adds ”And don’t tell anyone I’m letting him do this either. My family would freak out, but I wasn’t comfortable letting him drain the others powers when we don’t know if theirs can recover like mine seems to.”
As they head towards where Isaiah has the stuff set up, they pass a reflective surface and Kayla sees the ridiculous costume for the first time. She wheels around and yells ”HEY!” at Kylie before willing the metallic suit back.
"Its not that I don't trust them." Mattie replies "If The Shield thinks they're OK they probably are. Its more,... I guess I'm a bit scared what they might find. That, and the fact that I really hate being prodded and poked at. Y'know?"
The brief swell of a mental shrug filled Mattie's mind. "I'm pretty used to it. We don't have to talk more if you need to focus on Shield, but I want some of your time later, okay? Especially if you're going off to Dawkins. The one upside if they try to give us some R&R is that we'll definitely have the time for me to take you out."
***
"Of course, Shin. Just let me know when I should come back in."
"I've never seen any of the Zorro's. Of course, I do understand why a daring masked hero who saves the day and gets the girl would speak to us."
"Kayla, the second she hurt you, she became my enemy. We'll stop her too."
***
"It would have to be something pretty grim for me to prefer ignorance, Isaiah. Please, do lead on. And Kayla, of course I'll keep whatever secrets you ask. The same for you as well, Isaiah."
As Kayla finally spots her new costume, Kylie's normally impassive face cracks into a broad grin. "That was 90% you. I just wanted to see what you'd come up with for an embarrassing outfit. Of course the real question is which trigger word made you change into it..."
”Yeah. I get it...” Kayla says as the sickening feeling in her stomach comes creeping in at the way she felt when Dr. Dread mentioned taking her prisoner and doing testing on her. And how helpless she felt in that moment.
She rolled over and picked the controller up and selected Diddy Kong. After a couple of races, she says ”So hey. What do ya think about the two of us heading out for a girls night. Maybe Kylie too. But, well, her and Shin have been trying to be closer...and I know you and her...no...no this would be too awkward, I’d be a third wheel no matter what...never mind...”
___________
”No way! You totally slipped this in there, because of it had been what I was EXPECTING you to do, it would have been a lot different...” Kayla replies with a blush.
She follows along with the pair and asks Isaiah ”So...what should I expect, Isaiah? If we are going to do this...now is the time since it seems we are being benched for a little while. Gives me time to recover discreetly...”
Isaiah led the way back to his room... and along the way the others noted that the base felt subtly different than it had before. Better maintained, a bit shinier.
At the edge of your hearing, you can make out some quiet hums and whirrs, that would probably be inaudible to normal ears, suggesting that there's more inside the walls than before. The rhythm of it is reminiscent of breathing.
You notice that your mental probes are a bit muted, particularly ahead. Isaiah's room in particular is nearly completely opaque.
Isaiah's room itself looks hardly at all like any kind of residence. The walls are metallic, and covered with a fractal pattern of some sort in fine etchings that pulse faintly. Racks of large canisters are semi-embedded in the walls, to either side of what had once been a closet, but now contained a large, strange collection of machinery connected to numerous cables that branch out and vanish into the ceiling and walls. The largest portion of this device contains a track that holds a trio of the canisters beneath a particularly thick nest of cables and tubes, which in turn feed through humming connectors covered in strange runes, before going down to gleaming crystals inserted into the tops of the canisters; thin trickles of glowing liquid flow from these into the canisters; one flow is gold, one violet, and one an electric blue. As the pair enter, the flow seems to increase, and they can see lines of colored light flowing from near them over into the machine through veinlike networks of nearly invisible wires in the floor and walls.
"Well, one secret I'll let you in on is that this thing has been on practically nonstop since I settled in here. But since you asked, I can crank up the pull rate for a minute here."
As he said that, the flow increased fourfold for a short time as the machine hummed louder and pulled harder, brilliant patterns of light flowing through the cables.
You feel... fatigue. It doesn't really seem aggressive, more like you'd just pushed yourself to the limit, like in the crab battle. As things wind down afterward, so does the sensation, before dropping down to a level where it was practically imperceptible again.
For that brief minute, you sense nothing. The minds of the city outside are silent, and gentle probing gives no response. You could probably power through if you wanted to, but it would be difficult, like spraying a hose through a large sponge.
Kayla feels the pull increase, and her heart begins racing. After a few moments, she leans over onto her knees, catching her breath though she hasn’t done anything. Beads of sweat appear on her face, which also grows a bit flushed. Once he slows the pull down, she pants and looks at him, ”That...didn’t feel like when she did it...how much...how much was that?”
Mattie turns to Kayla and grins. "No, you wouldn't be third wheel! Kylie was talking about maybe heading out somewhere. You know we're not exclusive or anything, yeah? Well you know she's not anyway. She's been talking about heading out somewhere since Italy. Maybe that's just what we need?" she grins excitedly. "I would totally be up for a night out, and it wouldn't be the same if you weren't there. Let's do it!.. When and where is the question. Let's get Kylie in here and make plans."
Without waiting for an answer she concentrates. "Hey, Kylie.... Kayla's suggested a night out on the town. You up for it? We're in my room."
Between the conversation with Silver Shield and Mattie, and the blow up between Kayla and Shane, all Rory got out of Psyche's message was that Shin was conscious.
Rory just shakes his head slightly at the "apology" but figured the less he said the better at the moment. Eventually Isaiah and the three girls left leaving Shin and Rory in a room... alone... by themselves... with no supervision...
"So... another movie?" Rory asks Shin as he tipped the half empty popcorn bowl back toward him to examine the contents.
Isaiah made a bit of a head-scratching gesture.
"Hmm.. that can be hard to quantify. You want it in milliliters of Mana? Thaums? The easiest way to say it is that that was one minute of your full strength. Don't worry, you should recover pretty fast. It'll be almost exactly like if you lifted as much as you could for one minute."
Meanwhile, one of the canisters in the Refinery was now filled. A mechanical arm grasped it and swung it over to one of the wall racks, which was apparently stocked with full canisters, while a second arm loaded an empty canister from the rack on the other side.
Kayla walked over to the canister, and gingerly put her hand on the surface, looking at the strange golden substance that was held within. ”So...this...this is what my powers look like?” she asked, tracing a finger along its surface as she stared into the container.
”It’s strange...something so much a part of me...something that so many people would kill for. And it’s right here. How long will this one minute container last you?”
Kayla curled up close to Rory during the movie, resting her head on his shoulder and draping a leg over his. She sipped on her smoothie and watched the movie quietly, clearly as into it as Shin was.
Once the credits began to roll, she looked at Rory and asked ”What kind of movies do you like? I don’t even know.”
"I like movies about heroes. Robin Hood and Tarzan are favorites. I like westerns too, like The Lone Ranger. I think they show the ideal of what it means to be heroic," Shin tells Kayla as the film continues.
Shin was glad to have some time to just rest. Watching the movie was fine, though he had to close his eyes every few minutes. Technology was wonderful, but human eyes had not been designed to stare at a light producing screen for so long. He was glad for the company for a while, until Kylie and Prae left. Leaving him alone with Rory. Especially with Kylie not in his head.
"...you know, I got into fights a lot. A lot of older kids...older white kids, mind you, didn't like me or my siblings or the other kids of immigrants coming into their neighborhood." Shin parts his black hair and shows a shiny scar on the scalp underneath. "That's from a piece of rear one of them had. My head hurt like hell from that. But I always fought back, and won, because I was the one trying to protect something, and they were trying to destroy it. I...forgot that today. Thank you for reminding me. Even if you hit me so hard I forgot my last birthday," He joked.
Though now he thought about it, what did happened on his last birthday?
"Seriously...you were right to hit me. I'm sorry I lost my head like that. Can we let this go and move on?" Shin asked, holding out a hand to him for a friendly shake.
Rory looks at Kayla, thinks for second and bursts into an uncontrolled fit of laughter causing him to nearly hyperventilate. Rory is laughing so hard his face turns red in a way most would think unbelievable due to his powers and normal complexion... and everyone who heard the question knew exactly where his teenage boy mind went. The laughter turned to coughing as Rory tried valiantly to regain composure, he finally clears his throat and wipes tears away from his face.
"Wooo *cough* ugh *cough* sorry *mmmmm* about that, oh God my abs are going to feel that tomorrow... so sorry, to uh answer the question action movies and comedies mostly."
Kayla can’t help but start laughing confusedly along with Rory. When he answers, she asks through her own laughter ”What the hell was that?”
The birthday line cause Rory to laugh, "Yeah man, we both made mistakes today, I didn't think and just reacted. As Silver Shield puts it I am 'making poor command decisions' sometimes I feel like I am the son she never wanted." Rory paused and chuckled before continuing, "But she has always done right by me and Mattie, but sometimes she just wants me in the leader role so bad it drives me nuts, you know? Speaking of, how are you Whippoorwill getting along?"
When asked about the laughter, Rory leans in real close and whispers, "Porn."
Of course her mind went that direction.
She peeked. Very quickly.
Well! I suppose I should have expected that.
Quickly shoving aside any embarrassment she felt, she focused on what Isaiah was telling her. The damper wasn't terrible, but she instinctively struggled against the void. Her mind throbbed with the effort, but she could hear them. Once she had, she relaxed back into the silence. This room wasn't a cage; it just had a heavy door. Still, she wondered... "How volatile is our power in this state?"
"Mmmm? Oh. Of course. I suppose I should have been more specific that this was a date.
A short while later Kylie floated into Mattie's room, noting with interest which decorations Mattie had decided to put up first.
"I'd be delighted to have you join us, Kayla. Have you two talked about what we might do?"
Kayla blushes and snickers a bit before prodding Rory in the ribs. ”I meant ACTUAL movies, you doofus! What are some of your favorites?”
__________
Psyche can tell Kayla is more than a little nervous and uncomfortable. ”Hey, Kylie. Look, I know you two...and Shin...and after us in the beach...I don’t wanna be the world’s most uncomfortable third wheel...”
She sits up and folds her legs “Indian Style” and drops her hands in her lap. ”I just, you guys are my only girl friends, especially now that Holly has went back to her show. And...I...” she hangs her head, ”I miss having friends beyond a computer screen.”
"Whippoorwill is someone that I know I can learn a lot from," Shin replied. "I think the difference between my relationship with her and your relationship with Shield is one of time and circumstance. You didn't really have a choice but to train under her, right? But, seeing as she has looked out for you both for so long, I don't think it's just a teacher and student relationship you have. It's parent and child. So how much of how she treats you is as a hero mentoring a hero, and how much is genuine motherly concern, might be something you should think about."
Shin rubs his temples slowly. "I'd say it's somewhere in the middle. She wants you to be the best version of yourself. In her eyes, that means seeing you step up to lead. But if you're uncomfortable with that...like I am about leading myself...acting as a second and helping to plan and strategize is a good step in the right direction. Like, she must have brought you on patrols, asked you to analyze things before getting into a fight, stuff to prepare you to act on your own."
The birthday line cause Rory to laugh, "Yeah man, we both made mistakes today, I didn't think and just reacted. As Silver Shield puts it I am 'making poor command decisions' sometimes I feel like I am the son she never wanted." Rory paused and chuckled before continuing, "But she has always done right by me and Mattie, but sometimes she just wants me in the leader role so bad it drives me nuts, you know? Speaking of, how are you Whippoorwill getting along?"
"Well, there's more in there than just that minute. Canister was a good two-thirds full before we started. One of those big canisters is enough to keep me and Inquiry going for about a day of normal operation; high-powered combat and the like can burn through it a lot faster. Or I can drag it out by keeping low-energy, not flying around or shape-shifting or other expensive things. It's also not exactly the same stuff as when you're using it; related, but refined. Kind of like the relation between crude oil and gasoline, no offense to yourselves intended."
Isaiah contemplated the canisters a bit, before addressing Psyche.
"Well, liquid Mana is rather unstable; those canisters will keep it settled indefinitely, but breach the containment and it will all evaporate in a matter of seconds. On the upside, it's actually relatively safe; venting a bunch into the atmosphere can have some weird, unpredictable effects, but long-term environmental damage is minimal unless you dump it regularly (or a LOT), there's no radioactivity problems, and it doesn't outright explode unless you intentionally make it do so. Or if it's mainly fire-aligned, but that's not a problem right here."
Isaiah turned back to his guests, with a bit of a serious expression.
"And Just to let you know, this place is set up with a ton of anti-theft features. I'd sooner melt the whole thing to slag than let some villain get their hands on it. Setting up a multi-layered defense throughout the halls, too, to prevent it from getting that far."
Kayla didn’t look away from the canister as Isaiah talked, just kept looking at it curiously. ”After you’ve...extracted it? Have you noticed it go down without your using it?”
There's plenty of time to spend with Mattie. You can share and be shared. It would be simpler if one of them was content with my presence, even if my body wasn't there.
"Of course you've got us, Kayla. I won't say there won't be moments where I'll want to spend time with just Mattie, but that doesn't make you unwelcome or a third wheel any of the other times. You're important to me too."
"So, tonight, are we planning, or just doing?"
”We were going to go to Blockbuster later...” Kayla thinks, Assuming Psyche was still listening to her thoughts. Incidentally, her assurances that Kayla wasn’t intruding seemed to be falling on deaf ears, and she was still feeling very uncomfortable with flashbacks to the island replaying forefront in her thoughts.
”How about tomorrow evening and night? Give us time to plan it out properly!” Kayla says excitedly. ”Anyone got any recommendations?”
"Perfect" Mattie says, a broad grin covering her face. "I don't know anywhere good. Somewhere fun though! Somewhere with music we can dance to?"
"Well. We weren't going to stay at Blockbuster forever. Truthfully, after a day like today, I'm not sure I want to put off til tomorrow what I'd enjoy tonight. It will be late, but I'm sure I could get us into some interesting clubs, veiled of course."
”Well, we can do tonight if you all want...do we wanna give the boys a secret heads up before we slip out, or keep it between us?” she says as she grins conspiratorially.
Mattie's gives an excited clap. "Tonight sounds even better! We probably should tell the boys. On the other hand, we probably shouldn't sneak out at all." she grins. "What kind've club do you think'd be fun? Where should we go? Hang on,.." she says, pulling out her phone and tapping at it,.. "let's see, umm,.. 'party', 'dance' 'Halcyon'. Whats the date? Ok,..." she scrolls past a few things. "OK, there's a couple of things... A few places in town and some kind've festival just out've town. Weird name though,.. "Cosmic Serpant". Check out the lights and stuff on the webpage." she says, handing her phone to Kayla.
Kayla takes the phone and starts flipping through what Mattie is showing her. ”Oh, the only way I’ll be able to get out is if we sneak. After today I’m sure I’m basically on house arrest again...” she comments as she looks through the options. ”I have no idea what that is, but I’m game. What do you think Kylie?”
It reminded her of a snake she'd seen while dreaming, and once while she was waking. She'd never seen all of it at once. No matter where it was, it always seemed to be partially rising above the surface of the world, seeming that if she'd just been standing somewhere else she would have seen the other half of its segmented coils.
She didn't trust its laugh.
But her dreams always sounded like she was crazy, and crazy people who could knock over buildings didn't get to walk around.
That's why she had to stay in the box in Kylie's head. That's why even though she'd heard the Archdeacon's voice before, Kylie didn't recognize it.
***
"Should be even easier to keep up the Veil there - everyone will already be quite distracted and suggestible. The lights are nice too. I don't really have a lot of outfits designed for that environment, but I'm sure I'll be able to find something appropriately festive. I suppose my webs would work, but they're hardly discrete."
Isaiah shook his head. "No, I keep close tabs on this stuff. I've leaked a little out in the field, where battle damage can breach containment or tubing, but nothing is getting leached from here. Canisters would hardly be doing their jobs if it was easy for the Mana to escape without the right connector."
"Well I sure don't have anything like the girls are wearing." Mattie says, inspecting the images. "Half of them aren't wearing much more than their underwear! They sure look like they're having fun though...." she swipes through a few more images. Hey, check it out. This one's dressed like Captain Stalwart,.. kinda. I don't think he ever wore hot-pants though." she grins. "Says here there's stalls selling clothes and food and drinks and stuff. Maybe we could get something fun while we're there?" she smiles at the others with a twinkle in her eye. "I'll even let you pick something out for me if you want?"
"Really?! You don't even have any underwear?! I suppose the set I saw in Rome might not be wearable anymore, but I never dreamed that was all you owned..."
Straightfaced, Kylie continued on as she awaited Mattie's blush, "That does sound fun. And I'm certain that once you remember that no one there will recognize you, you'll even wear what we pick out."
She tried and failed to keep a slightly melancholy note out of her sending as she added, "And if you meet a cute *age appropriate* girl while we're there, I can make sure we give you some space. After all, there's no reason you have to settle for the only other available queer girl on the team."
Kayla made it clear she was headed to bed, all the while intently thinking on a visual of her sleeping in case Augustus was peeking.
After a shower, she slipped into bed for just enough time to make sure no one was curious or clued into her real plan before getting up and fixing her hair and make up. She dressed up in a red button up shirt which she tied up high above her navel and a pair of tight denim shorts. She carried a pair of nice sandals in her hand as she quietly slipped out and made her way back to Mattie’s Room, which had become the impromptu staging area for Girls Night.
So far...so good...
”Okay, we almost ready?” she asked as she came inside and began working the many unnecessary straps on her footwear to secure them into place.
Kylie's outfits ranged quite widely in terms of how revealing they were, and aside from the considerations of the event, it wasn't a factor that really made her feel more or less comfortable.
But her taste in clothing still didn't run casual, at least not to go out. So though she thought through a few ideas of interesting asymmetry, or particularly... creative ensembles, none of them really felt right for her. And you're not trying to seduce anyone anyways. This is a girls' night out, not a date Eventually she'd found a short lacy top, a cute short skirt, and a long pair of boots that matched up well. Not exactly daring, and not exactly evening wear, but it should work well enough.
She was far less concerned about being spotted as she went back to meet up with Kayla and Mattie, after all, the Taylors hadn't told her not to go anywhere, and even if they had, they weren't her mother. She wasn't doing anything wrong.