They had a mother of pearl Cadillac waiting on them by the curb, He recognized the driver. Their family through various abilities and sharp eye for business had ventured into all sorts of ventures, most were successful, due to a brain trust of mutants, that all just so happened to be relatives. His family did well enough that he didn’t actually worry about money, ever. It was part of why he blew his own money like it was for the purpose of throwing away. From greeting cards, cat toys, lumber and small franchises spread out threw the city, they did well. And then there was his brother who invested the profits in shares of stock that he could nearly guarantee would turn out a profit.

Thanksgiving was the time of year the Teague family pulled out all the stops, Christmas was big too, but for them this holiday held fewer distractions there wasn’t a pile of boxes to be unwrapped; there was food to be cooked and devoured, family to be reminisced with, and Board games to be played. Technology was pretty much banned, you had to be sneaky with your phone, and the TV’s were unplugged, it was rare that everyone was together and they were going to enjoy it, or else. Computers were offline.
Aedus looked to Noel feeling somewhat silly in his Maroon turtle neck and Jeans, Clothes felt different while he had rock skin. He hadn’t warned her about thanksgiving.

“Um Noel? How much have you picked up about thanksgiving? I would try to explain but honestly I think that you’d be better prepared if you remember for yourself.”

He waited to see if she felt like learning or just diving in and seeing it firsthand herself. Including the kids there would 5 generations and would be eighty six Teague’s plus in-laws. He looked forward to it, but to subject someone else to it, he felt like he should give her one more out. They had a pavilion surrounding the outside Kitchen for goodness sake. The upside was that they would be able to blend in with Ease.

He told her to dress up. "Not too much, but just enough." …Whatever that meant. Noel's clothing supply was seriously limited, but the lady at the store seemed to know what she needed when she'd told her what Aedus had said.

Most everything about the outfit was workable. The dress shirt was a deep fall green. The gray pants were tailored and high waisted with wide and loose legs so she could still move in it if she needed to. A thin brown belt marked where her waist was, but sagged on one side because of the weight of her sword. Never leave home without it.

She had one pearl in each ear piercing, starting with a large pearl for the lowest on her lobe and getting smaller as they progressed higher on the ear. She had bargained her way out of heels and into some flats, brown leather with a bow at the toe, but been talked into a headband, also brown leather and equally bowed. The whole thing was a little asian inspired looking and made her eyes lean toward the green side of the hazel spectrum.

It was the most dressed up she'd been since… well, since she could remember. Her wardrobe at home certainly didn't have anything like this in it.

"It can't be that bad. There will be turkey and lots of people I don't know just like every other Thanksgiving ever for anybody else." Noel helped Aedus turn down the neck of his shirt in the back and barely resisted the urge to knock against his rock hard back to see if he was hollow inside.

"Some things are better learned through experience. People's names and faces included. If I need a little refresher, I'll come to you. Promise." Sure they were mutants, all used to the quirks that came with being and knowing other mutants. But somehow it seemed rude to take away every introduction and first impression.

“That makes sense, but I tried. You look really pretty by the way. I like it.” He wondered if saying that there would probably be more than 100 people there 86 Teague’s plus guests, girlfriends, boyfriends, best friends. It was at his great grandfather’s, there would be five generations. He shrugged; He wondered how long it might take her to take him up on that refresher course. It was nice to have her there to help with stuff like his collar. “Alright let’s go tell Axel we are ready. I never could tell if that was his real name or if he was just a guns and roses fan. After so long I just accepted it. I’ve known him since I was pretty young, if he says something offensive, he is just teasing.” He smiled and held open the door for her.

Axel waited curbside and opened the door for the not a couple, couple. “Morning, Mr. Teague, did you do something different with your hair since we last saw each other. Miss, my pleasure I’m sure. Though might I say, you can do better than this one.” He winked and gave a smile disarming the insult and leaving the compliment.

Aedus dropped his head and repressed a smile. Axel was such an ass. He waited for Noel to enter the car first.

After the passengers and Driver were settled, the trip to the world the other half lived in would be relaxed, Axel wasn’t in a hurry he committed to driving safely and chivalrously. The trip to the Southside of Yonkers was fairly smooth and Axel kept the easy drive interesting. He eventually settled down and asked if they cared to listen to the Radio. He was like a good warm up for the family he had the family's sense of humor down well enough.

Sword first, lady after. Once in the car, Aedus followed and they were on their way.

It was a longer drive than she expected. Even longer was the ride down the driveway. Axel, who Noel had found interesting and mildly annoying, was driving them down a long, straight path lined with red and yellow leaved trees.

It was gorgeous except, at the end of the drive Noel could make out what looked to be a large number of people. "Is there a faire going on or something?" There were people milling around everywhere, a gazebo, maybe even an organized sporting event?

Noel looked from the window back to Aedus and from Aedus back to the window when the drive took a turn and the lane of trees ended to reveal a house.

Nay, not a house. A full fledged estate. The bottom level seemed brick while the upper one was bright white painted siding. Gabled roof, jutting window nooks, shutters, pillars... it looked old and beautiful. It was a freaking fairy tale decorated with hay bales, pumpkins and piles of fall leaves that the kids were diving into. There were even a few tire swings.

Jaw. Open.

“You know when you said, it can’t be that bad and I only smiled. Yeah. Now there is an upside and a downside to this..Event. if we are inclined we can start moving and find somewhere else to settle, so no getting stuck at least for too long any way. But hey, there will be turkey and lots of people. Also, I will let you pick the menu for a month if it gets too crazy.” Aedus looked decidedly guilty. He hadn’t been thinking about how overwhelming it might be to someone who wasn’t properly warned.

Gingers, gingers everywhere. Once, Conan O’Brian said that the Irish came in two flavors, the dark haired mysterious Colin Farrell Irish and the giant red haired goofball. The majority of the crowd matched this look, they were either Extremely dark headed or a shade of bright red. Here and there a blonde or brunette would be about. There were of course elders with their heads of grey and silver and powdery white.

Axel pulled up to the front and hoped out to open the door for them once more, He opened the door On Noel’s side and Aedus appeared around the other side.

“Uncie Aedus!” a fiery red headed young man charged the driveway. ” Killian!” “Everybody knows you finally got your x-gene and the word is that your Da is a looking for you, you’re gonna get a talking to!”He seemed to relish the pronouncement of doom the young man folded a bow to Noel. He looked conspiratorially at Aedus. “She’s Pretty.” And high tailed it away like he just got away with something.

Aedus laughed. “My whole family will know that you are pretty and probably the color of your shirt when that boy hits the pavilion.”

Go somewhere else? "No, this is great. Just. Way more than I had imagined." It was like an entire village worth of people. Aedus was being really nice about it too. Why would she worry with someone like him at her back?

And he seemed to be having fun already. The little red head swung around like a propeller. Someone at work had lamented recently that redheads were a dying breed. Looking around, Noel counted at least five playing football. The receptionist had to have been mistaken. By then she'd gotten her drive by compliment.

> “My whole family will know that you are pretty and probably the color of your shirt when that boy hits the pavilion.”[/color]

Embarrassing, but surely there were other non-Teages here. "It's okay. I think you could take most of 'em by now." The car pulled away from behind them. There was no going back now.

"Sooo... to the house?" She was glad she had insisted on flats. The grass and leaves crunched under her feet.

Aedus smirked at her. ”Well I’m glad to hear it,” he laughed heartily at her next remark. “ that makes two of us Noel.”

“Sure, I’d like to introduce you to my Great Grandfather, Shamus. And he is likely to be indoors either trying to sneak into the kitchen or getting thrown out of the kitchen.” Aedus chuckled at the thought, He remain vigilant that Thanks giving or not he was the lord of the land. If he wanted in the kitchen he would be in the kitchen, the woman of the family disagreed repetitively. Aedus was one of the few males that could get in, but he would be put to work, so he opted to be manly and free of the kitchen when he could.

“you know what, we should also find you some diet coke…my family embellishes quite a bit.”

"Maybe they wouldn't if they knew what I could do?" As they walked, Noel spied a grown man leap at least twice his height in order to intercept the ball. He pumped his legs as he slowly drifted back to earth, but the aerial head start didn't save him from a thorough tackling once they got hold of his feet and dragged him down to the ground.

And holy cow. Great grandfather! "How old is... Shamus?" She tried to use the names he spit out at her as soon as she could afterward so that the association would stick in her mind of who was who. "I mean, if he's trying to sneak into the kitchen, he's got to be pretty spry."

"I heard she was pretty." A plumpish red headed adolescent stood on the porch with her arms folded barring their entrance to the house. "But I'd say the shirt is more of an emerald green rather than forest green."

"You're quite the expert." She couldn't help but glance back at Aedus. Not for help, but just to be sure he was still there. He had better not bail.

"I am. I can change it for you if you want."

"Colleen!" There was another red head that had been hiding behind the bigger girl. At least, Noel hadn't seen where she came from. For all she knew, the girl popped out of an extra-dimensional pocket. The smaller red head all but shoved Colleen off the deck. "It's worse! Turn them back! Turn them back!"

Noel folded her lips together to keep from laughing. It was pretty obvious what the girl was talking about. The freckles on her face and arms clashed horribly with her skin color. They were a brilliant neon green.

He grinned. “Let it slip to one of the kids and it will get around, it would be interesting to here a wholly honest conversation around here.” Aedus followed along and watched let Noel lead the way.

Spry was an understatement. “Oh, he is spry, and at seventy six, you’d wonder if it is part of his mutation, it isn’t. he’s just always been energetic, he doesn’t know how to sit still and relax, But I won’t tell you what his power is, he’d be disappointed if he didn’t get to.”


Aedus hurried the last couple of steps to Noel’s side and looked meaningfully into Colleen’s eyes and then the sword at Noel’s waist. Colleen seemed to take the hint to not mess with his diner date.

“You know Abbey will get you back as soon as we start eating Col, I suggest you make your peace while you can. Besides, Killian is walking around without anyone so much as bothering him.”

Abbey’s freckles turned to a peach color that nearly matched her skin; it was a peace offering if he ever saw one. The girls tore off in the direction of the pavilion.

Aedus opened the front door into a vast hall, where even with the amount of people in the room seemed to be spacey and open. “Abbey can animate mashed potatoes. It would have lead to trouble later, she can’t manage a lot at once, but she is good at attacking rapidly.”

The hall was immaculately arranged and decorated, it wasn’t over done, it was tasteful and spoke well of his great grandparents tastes.

Animated mashed potatoes on any other day of the year would not be threatening power. On today, however... "She's got some serious ammo laying around today. Even if it's not all at once, I wouldn't want to be around a rubber manipulator in a tire factory either." Especially if they expected to feed all the people she had seen so far.

"Holy St. Teresa there are more of them." Forget the fabulous decor, there were more people inside. Why was she surprised? "I think I might need that Diet Coke after all." Where there were people, there were lies. Families could be worse or better depending on how healthy the unit was as a whole.

And here was the part where Noel scooted in closer to Aedus and waved and smiled only when she had to. Intimidated? Okay, yeah. It wasn't like she could take a sword to the teens chasing each other through the halls just for spooking her. She had to remember this was a family event.

“Probably why Coleen needed a reminder of why she shouldn’t be messing with her. She mostly sculpts it normally.”Aedus walked along at Noel’s side and they made a slow but steady pace hampered by greeting after greeting. Thus far they got moving before anyone could blather on about some nonsense they needed to embellish. Aedus was trying to keep them moving until she had at least a diet coke to help off set the b s.

They made their way toward the kitchen and he briefly wondered if they would try to pull them both into the cooking arena. He would have to take drastic measures if they did, he wouldn’t want to subject Noel to that kind of cooking lesson, any one of them would make a fine teacher, but as soon as one lady told her how to do something another would tell her how to do it better.

He spotted his Great Gran Da Shammus at the kitchen door, counting down, to what, Aedus wasn’t sure. He was however happy to interrupt the latest attempt of kitchen intrusion.
“Gran Da Shamus, are you giving the cooks a hard time again?” He said it just loud enough to get the ladies’s attention behind the door.

A muffled threat of some sort about throwing someone in a pot and whacking them with a spoon carried back. Aedus wasn’t sure if it was aimed at him for calling them cooks or at Shamus for plotting again.

Shammus turned and winked at the young man, If Aedus aged another fifty four years he might have been standing before them. the old man smiled at the young lass next to his great grandson, ignoring his blood all together upon the sight of the young woman.

“Well now, I always said my boy Aedus had a sharp eye and good taste, and you are proving me right, I like that, being proven right. Killian mentioned you were pretty but I think stunning beauty comes to mind instead. Pretty is a bit whimsical where you capture so much more. But I am getting ahead of myself. Shamus Teague, a pleasure to meet you. And who might you be?” The old man reached for Noel’s hand, Presumably to shake hands upon greeting her.

Mashed potato sculptures. Who knew? Noel bobbed her head, smiled, shook hands and tried to behave admirably even when something registered a bit sour on her tongue. Aedus was the knight blazing their path to the diet coke and by all accounts, he was deflecting better than the defensive line outside.

The colorful threats had Noel's eyes widening. "They don't mean... that." She trailed off when she saw that both Aedus and his ancient doppleganger were grinning. They already knew that, of course.

"You are quite the flatter-er, sir." She'd found that pointing out what people were doing often got them to stop especially if she was nice about it. It also ket her from having to directly assent or acknowledge any of what they'd been saying. "Noel Gage, sir. Aedus and I work together." She gave her hand freely. If it was bad, Aedus would stop her, right?

Aedus didn't stop her he smiled encouragingly, The old man shook her hand softly. "Oh, I suppose I've been known to flatter but then, I only flatter those worth flattering I think." His other hand reached back toward a painting which Aedus was already walking toward, it was a landscape, all green hills and wispy trees. Aedus pulled the bottom of the painting toward the old man's other hand and the moment the elderly fellows hand touched the painting the picture became much more vivid it looked as if the painting was a photograph, Standing on one of the hills was now a brunette, with a slim figure in a deep green and grey Victorian dress.

Her chocolate locks were put up a cascade of curls in a matching petite bonnet, above her head was a parasol of the same combination. He shook his head at the painting and the figure tossed the small umbrella into the wind and put her hand to her waist to where a sword rested.

The old man released her hand he gave mischievous smile and placed his hand on Aedus forearm. In the painting an obsidian man stood by her side in a top hat and a suit with long tails, he was now holding the matching parasol. above to shade her from the sun.

He nodded to himself and the looked to Noel to see her reaction.

There was some serious tomfoolery happening here and Aedus was only helping things along. Ancient Aedus held her hand tighter and longer than was polite. The painting he touched?

Noel took a step closer to look at the little figure. She was delicate looking like a doll or something. One shake of his head and she tossed away the umbrella in favor of a sword. That was definitely supposed to be her.

"Ha! That explains all the art." A little Aedus, dark and appearing even darker in a suit, caught and held that tiny little umbrella over her head. Like she would defend him from lions or physical threat and he would defend her from the sun. Quite the unusual set up for something in this era.

"Do you do this sort of thing to all your guests? How long do they move around?" And how come little painting Noel was prettier than the real deal? She wasn't about to ask that in front of the old flatterer. Nothing he had to say about aesthetics was to be trusted.

Aedus smiled as he set the painting back on the wall, His great grand Da had a way of saying things in paintings and he was pretty sure he got the message that Noel might not have detected. Aedus nodded to the first statement; if she saw the attic she would wonder at how the building supported the weight in canvas alone.

Shamus shook his head energetically. “ I should say not. I’d have to set up a booth and listen to requests, no, I only paint what I want to, and can only control it until it is true to life. A True representation anyhow. I for instance couldn’t paint Aedus in a way that he might seem modest. After the painting decides it is what is, well the piece is finished. ” If lies could be disgusting, then was truth flavorful? If so Noel might want to stay close to the old man, for while he was a flatterer he believed every word of it. “Now than how would you two like to work a distraction for me while I lift a Sheppard’s pie? All it would take is an introduction down the hall at the other entrance I should think.”

Aedus looked to Noel, he was game if she was. His look certainly said so, but he started to turn down the offer in case Noel didn't want to, it was always easy to say yes after someone said no, but not so much the other way around. " I don't think we should put Noel through all that, I could send the boys around to put up more of a ruccus than we would anyhow."