Private With the paint stripped off

Alma had known that she would have to talk to Iggy and Angelo about what had happened. Without her cell phone, she could really only email them or talk face to face. And this was too important anyway. It had to be in person.

Her mom had let her take some days off from school to recover and get used to her new schedule of sleeping and eating like a regular person. She had tried to be accommodating, but there was no helping it. Natalia and she shared the distinct discomfort with becoming something that they weren't meant to be.

She messed with her hair for the dozenth time as she waited for the guys to arrive: it still fell flat like all the air had been deflated out of it. Her skin a darker olive, her eyes a full brown. The subtle blush on her cheeks just gone. Even her clothes didn't seem to hug her body right like they used to, even though they fit exactly the same. She was, in a word, plain. And, irritatingly, that bothered her more than being framed for assault.

The idea that underneath the demon and the vampire, there wasn't anything particularly special about her. Vain and stupid and shallow; it went against everything she'd fought so hard to be all her life. And yet here she was.

Alma startled at the knock. She was expecting Angelo and Iggy, but she had been so lost in her own thoughts that she had forgotten how long she had been waiting. It took her longer than it normally did to get to the door; she found that she wasn't nearly as fluid or graceful as she normally was.

Her face brightened just a hair when she saw that it was Angelo alone. Iggy might have been busy. Maybe he'd come by later. But for now she was at least happy to see one of her boyfriends. "Hey," she said timidly. That would definitely be a thing that Angelo would notice. Alma without her aura affecting her was a goddamn bunny rabbit by comparison.

"Come on in." Alma stepped to the side to let Angelo into the house. "Sorry for not calling as soon as I got out. They kinda took my phone to mine for evidence." She wanted to make a joke about the cops finding her porn stash, but it seemed off-color and tasteless and she didn't have the confidence to rock that kind of thing at the moment.

"No, I don't..." Alma paused when she heard another knock at the door. She assumed it might be Iggy, but she didn't want to just assume and tell him to come in. That would have just been asking for trouble. "Just a sec, babe," she said, giving Angelo a quick kiss on the cheek before running to let Iggy in.

"Iggy, hey. I'm... glad you're both here." She said as she gave Iggy a side hug and led him further in towards Angelo. "I'm uh... I'm doing alright I guess. Just, you know. Adjusting to... this." She gestured to the prominent ankle bracelet above her right foot; the thing making her dull.