Amanda, Remy - Wednesday afternoon.
May. 11th, 2005 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAfter her class with Strange, Amanda is in the bookshop when she has an encounter with a fellow magic student.
There was a certain amount of guilty pleasure in enjoying an afternoon off quite so much. Her lesson with Strange had gone… well, not well, but better than some of her sessions with him lately, and there was still an hour or so before Remy showed up to drive her back. Plenty of time for her to browse through her favourite occult book store for new additions - most of it was the popular, mainstream shite, but sometimes they managed to surprise her with something a bit more interesting. Standing on tip-toe, Amanda stretched up to snag a likely-looking volume, lost in the place her brain went to when magic books were involved.
Oddly enough, the book didn't move when it was tugged. Amanda pulled harder, only to have the book jerk back. She gritted her teeth and pulled. There was a thump and a muffled 'ow' as the book came free, dumping her on her ass with the book on her lap. From the opposite side of the bookcase, a slight, darkhaired young man came around, rubbing his nose and looking angry.
"What the hell were you doin'?" she demanded, struggling to disentangle herself from her bag straps, which had managed to wrap themselves around her legs. Jumping straight to the offensive had always been a good way of dealing with confrontation, and she wasn't about to stop now.
"Look, that was my book that you--" The young man paused, suddenly presented with the image of an attractive young woman sitting with the afore mentioned book in her lap. It was enough to pull him up short. "Um, I mean, I was getting that book when you grabbed it." While he was obviously less unimpressed with Amanda due to her looks, he wasn't about to roll over on a pristine copy of Ignatious's Realms of Maelstrom either.
"Yer book? What the fuck were you plannin' t' do with it, wave it 'round an' use it t' pull clueless Goth birds?" Amanda managed to untangle herself and began climbing to her feet. She was possibly being a little hard on the bloke, but decent magic books were hard to find, and she was buggered if she was going to let some fanboy type get his hands on it. Even if there was something about the way that he was looking at her that was sort of flattering.
"I was planning to integrate Ignatious' thaumaturgical interface into a non-linear plane projection. This is not a prop for the wannabe poet." He bristled at Amanda's tone, his appreciation for Amanda's looks submerging beneath a personal issue about her attack on his own knowledge.
Amanda blinked. That really wasn't the response she'd been expecting. "What were you plannin' t' do with that?" she asked, tone curious now. "'Cause if you're workin' on teleportin', there's better books around."
"Teleportation is a power hog. This is about being able to selectively observe other planes without requiring physical manifestation." He stopped and rubbed the end of his nose distractedly. "Uh, can I help you up?"
"Um, yeah, thanks." Amanda held out the hand not occupied by book and bag, letting the boy pull her to her feet. "Teleportin's a right bastard for power drain, yeah. I can never…" She halted, natural caution kicking in. Even if they were standing in a magic shop, advertising the fact magic was more than theoretical was probably not a good idea. "Ah, 'm Amanda. What do you call yerself?"
"Charlie. Charlie Plunder." Charlie helped her to her feet, flexing his hand momentarily after she'd let go. "So, I haven't seen you in here before. Uh, you new or…?" Obviously Charlie wasn't used to dealing with women, especially those who could speak his language. Still, he wasn't backing away, like some of the more timid male students in the mansion that Amanda had spent time with.
"'S been a while since I've been in here. I'm normally around on Saturday afternoons, only 's been a while since I've had time," she explained with a shrug, smiling a little at Charlie's awkwardness. He was a lot like Forge, only not quite so paralysingly shy. And actually sort of cute. But the important part was that he knew magic, or at least knew it was more than that card game Doug and Jamie were always playing. "So, you been, um, interested in this stuff long?"
"Couple of years." Charlie rubbed the end of his nose again. "Only serious for a little bit." He picked up the book that had fallen between them, and passed it to her like a peace offering. "Been reading about it for a lot longer, but haven't really gotten into anything deeper until the last while. It takes a while to get through all the crap, you know?" He punctuated it with a little shrug, that communicated the bizarre nature of magic and it's subculture in one gesture.
Amanda chuckled, taking the book from him. "Yeah, all that bollocks out there tends t' make it hard. 'Specially since those bloody Harry Potter books came out." She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Everyone an' their dog thinks they're a fuckin' mage now, when most of 'em have all the mysticism of a teapot."
"Well, things are a little more complex. I mean, I've got the theory, but, you know…" Charlie made a gesture with his hands. "Teapot." He finished with a sheepish grin. "Never actually seen an active mage before, but I hear there are a couple in New York with some actual power."
She had the grace to blush a little. "Sorry, didn't mean t'… well, yeah." Glancing around to make sure they were alone, she tucked the book under her arm and held out her hand, summoning a small ball of fire in the palm. "Not so much with the teapot, meself. But 'm a bit behind on the whole theory thing. Got a tutor t' help me, tho'."
"Tutor? You must have some serious pull." Charlie said admiringly. "I haven't heard of a teaching thaumaturgical specialist in the city." His eyes were riveted on the small sphere of fire, and he cocked his head back and forth as it flared in her palm.
"It was a family thing… one of the reasons I got sent here was t' help me with the magic, an' the tutor was part of the deal." She closed her hand over the flame, snuffing it out before it could set the store's fire alarms off. "'M somethin' of a natural as far as the magic goes, but sometimes it gets out of hand. But yeah, the tutor's helpin' - he hasn't had a student before, least not a magic one, so it's been a bit of a learnin' curve for both of us." Tilting her head at him a little, she asked: "So what was the draw for you? Why magic?"
"Why not?" Charlie shrugged. "I mean, I suppose there's physics or the chess club, but why limit things? Clarke once wrote that any science that is significantly advanced becomes indistinguishable from magic. That means it's something that can be understood, even if everyone else thinks it's nonsense." Charlie grinned as he collected his stack of books, and headed for the one table. "It's nice to be the advanced one in the village of idiots, right?"
Amanda snorted as she followed him, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder a bit more securely. "Somethin' like that, yeah. I remember when I got here, most of the people at the school thought I was just some sort of energy projector who'd watched too many Buffy episodes." With a shrug she sat down, nodding at one of the other chairs for him to join her. "Um, this is probably the part where I tell you 'm a mutant, by the way, so you can run screamin' or whatever." She figured laying her cards on the table was the best strategy here - there'd been more than enough examples of the other students meeting with people and things turning ugly later. If he was going to have an issue with her mutancy, better to find out now before she actually started liking him. Well, more than she already was.
"Cool. I'd run screaming, but that's only if your head splits open and starts singing or something. It doesn't, does it?" Charlie said with a grin. While he admitted to himself that he was a geek, he actually had pretty good instincts with some types of people.
"No head splittin' open, no." Her answering smile was relieved as well as amused. "Basically I'm a walkin' magical battery. Me mutation lets me absorb mystic energy, an' then I use it for magic. 'S what I meant by bein' a natural." She shrugged a little. "Unfair advantage, I know. So, um, do you live in New York? I'm down at Xavier's in Westchester - you might've seen it on the telly."
"Right. I saw the CNN special." Charlie nodded, settling into a chair. "I never knew that a mutation could link into magical elements. That's fantastic." His blue eyes behind the thin gold framed glasses were bright with the possibilities. He leaned over the table to talk more intensely.
"'S the funny thing 'bout mutant powers - they keep comin' up with new weird combinations. 'S basically a variation on the whole energy projector thing - most of them absorb some sort of energy an' turn it into ray beams or the like. Mine's just a bit more… unusual than that." Amanda was relaxing into the conversation as she realised Charlie wasn't a bigot or about to start screaming 'mutie!' at her. "'S got its good parts an' it's not so good parts , but I'm learnin' t' handle it - that's why I'm at the school. An' there's the tutor for the magic parts."
"You are so lucky. Have you been able to do any serious transmutation? Or summoning? I had this theory that an energy conduit could create a feedback loop that could be used to power a full bore interplaner rift that could be indefinitely sustained by the systematic--" Charlie cut himself off. "Actually, that does involve slaving someone to a position of abject torture to maintain the portal."
"Torture's sort of against the rules of the school, 'least for students, so yeah, not so much with that one." She snickered a little. "Tho' I did manage t' use the energy of a demonic realm t' power a portal once. 'Least 'til me brain started tryin' t' crawl out me ears. Turns out I've got limits t' how much power I can channel. As for the rest… I've got healin' magic down pretty good, tho' I've got t' be careful with that. An' I can summon three out of four elements - Fire, Air an' Water. Earth's still bein' a bastard. Um, shieldin', a little bit of astral projection an' readin' auras an' protection spells. Glamours an' invisibility weaves too, tho' those take me a few days."
"Jesus!" Charlie let out his breath audibly. "That's just-- I've never heard of anything like that. Even from those wankers on the internet." He sat back looking impressed, and a little stunned.
There was a ring as the front door of the store opened, and Remy walked in. He hunched his shoulders as the smell of incense hit him, immediately triggering memories of a whore house in the Little Turkey section of Berlin, where he'd been knifed twice and left to die in the alley behind.
Hell of a way to remember sandalwood.
Amanda blushed in pleased embarrassment at the praise. It really hadn't seemed like much to her. Or to most of the people at the school, but then again they'd gotten pretty good at accepting the impossible. Then the store's bell caught her attention and she looked up to see Remy come in, looking out of place amongst the black-clad Goth types and hippies. "Oh, bollocks, me ride's here."
"That's your ride?" Charlie said, catching sight of Remy as he entered. "Uh, you two been together long?" Remy's razor cut looks were obvious girl killers, and Charlie admonished himself, figuring that a woman like Amanda would have one of those male model type boyfriends.
It was a good thing the store didn't allow drinking inside, or Amanda would have sprayed the table with the reaction to that. "Together?" she managed to squeak. "Fuck, no, he's just…" Of course, then she had to pause to figure out what Remy was. "He's just a mate - works at the school, gives me a lift in since me guardian had t' leave." She waved Remy over to save him from standing around looking any more out of place.
"Figured dat I'd find you behind de skull and de dribbly candles." Remy wondered over and caught sight of the other teen sitting across from her. "Guess dat you found 'nother volunteer. Did he bring de rubber apron?"
Amanda swatted at him while Charlie flushed, but he rallied greatly. "I brought my rubber apron in my knapsack."
"Good plan. Remy keeps his in the car." Gambit collapsed into the chair on the other end of the table with a grin.
"Play nice or I'll figure out how t' make the frog spell work on people who aren't shapeshifters," Amanda warned teasingly. "This is Charlie. I smacked him in the face with a shelf an' he's still talkin' to me. Charlie, this is Remy. Don't pay attention t' anythin' he says - he's way too impressed with his own cleverness by half."
"Dat's because it's twice as good as I think." Remy said smoothly, and earned a laugh from Charlie. "So, guess you run across Amanda, homme. You in trouble now."
"I had that feeling." Charlie grinned. "But, you know, guess you've known Amanda for a while."
"Hasn't hit me wit lightning more den twice. What's your story, Charlie?" Remy said lightly, but behind his eyes, his brain was working furiously. Nothing close to Charlie had every shown up on the threat files he'd run across.
Amanda pouted at both of them at the trouble cracks, but not seriously. "Charlie's into magic," she said. "Which is weird, seein' how we're in a magic shop an' all, but there you go."
"One of those coincidence things. That's not a problem, is it?" Charlie said.
"Remy not Amanda's babysitter. Except when she needs a spanking." Remy grinned, and avoided her smack. "Just acting as de ride dis days."
"Cajun, right?" Remy nodded, and Charlie grinned. "Figured. Your French accent would be pretty atrocious." There was a moment of silence before Remy started laughing.
Amanda caught herself giggling - apparently Charlie was definitely better than Forge with the people. And it was good to see Remy actually laughing, without the usual cynical edge to it. "I'd say somethin' 'bout it bein' pretty fuckin' awful for a Cajun too, only I'm the one with the Eastenders accent an' I know better than to set meself up like that."
"I like your accent." Charlie said, and Remy grinned wolfishly.
"Guess dat you got another one, 'manda. Be warned, homme. She chew you up and spit you out." Remy avoided a second swat, seeing that this Charlie was laughing too. He looked a little tightly wound, but he was keeping up for now.
"That's not what I meant!" Charlie sputtered, turning red as Amanda and Remy laughed.
"What can I say, apparently I'm irresistible. No breakin' this one, tho' - think I want him for his brains more." Amanda couldn't resist teasing Charlie a little, partly because the spluttering was cute, but partly to see how much he could take. He'd already passed the magic and mutant bits, now to see how his sense of humour worked. Besides, it was nice to have someone complimenting her in a simple, honest fashion, with no agendas or treating her as nothing but a sex object.
"Right. Guess dat you already got your lines staked out here." Remy said, leaning back. "So you need a ride tonight or you find 'nother place to sleep?"
"Be nice." Amanda said, and it was Charlie that surprised them with a laugh.
"You really like to wind people up, don't you?" Plunder shook his head and laughed. "Well, you win. I am now embarrassed. Prizes for all."
Amanda surprised him by patting him on the shoulder. "You're all right," she told him with a grin. "Not everyone can put up with us when we're like this - far too fond of the sound of our own voices sometimes."
"At least her." Remy grinned. "And, I hate to say this, but we do have to go. Dey always expect me to have it flogged off."
"Oh, right. Oh course."
The note of disappointment was obvious in Charlie's voice, and Amanda was oddly gratified to hear it. "Here," she said, rummaging through her pockets and pulling out an old receipt from one of the music stores. She scribbled down her phone number and her email address. "Give me a bell, an' we'll get together next time I'm in town, yeah? You can tell me more 'bout what you've been studyin'." She ignored Remy's snicker and handed him the paper.
There was a certain amount of guilty pleasure in enjoying an afternoon off quite so much. Her lesson with Strange had gone… well, not well, but better than some of her sessions with him lately, and there was still an hour or so before Remy showed up to drive her back. Plenty of time for her to browse through her favourite occult book store for new additions - most of it was the popular, mainstream shite, but sometimes they managed to surprise her with something a bit more interesting. Standing on tip-toe, Amanda stretched up to snag a likely-looking volume, lost in the place her brain went to when magic books were involved.
Oddly enough, the book didn't move when it was tugged. Amanda pulled harder, only to have the book jerk back. She gritted her teeth and pulled. There was a thump and a muffled 'ow' as the book came free, dumping her on her ass with the book on her lap. From the opposite side of the bookcase, a slight, darkhaired young man came around, rubbing his nose and looking angry.
"What the hell were you doin'?" she demanded, struggling to disentangle herself from her bag straps, which had managed to wrap themselves around her legs. Jumping straight to the offensive had always been a good way of dealing with confrontation, and she wasn't about to stop now.
"Look, that was my book that you--" The young man paused, suddenly presented with the image of an attractive young woman sitting with the afore mentioned book in her lap. It was enough to pull him up short. "Um, I mean, I was getting that book when you grabbed it." While he was obviously less unimpressed with Amanda due to her looks, he wasn't about to roll over on a pristine copy of Ignatious's Realms of Maelstrom either.
"Yer book? What the fuck were you plannin' t' do with it, wave it 'round an' use it t' pull clueless Goth birds?" Amanda managed to untangle herself and began climbing to her feet. She was possibly being a little hard on the bloke, but decent magic books were hard to find, and she was buggered if she was going to let some fanboy type get his hands on it. Even if there was something about the way that he was looking at her that was sort of flattering.
"I was planning to integrate Ignatious' thaumaturgical interface into a non-linear plane projection. This is not a prop for the wannabe poet." He bristled at Amanda's tone, his appreciation for Amanda's looks submerging beneath a personal issue about her attack on his own knowledge.
Amanda blinked. That really wasn't the response she'd been expecting. "What were you plannin' t' do with that?" she asked, tone curious now. "'Cause if you're workin' on teleportin', there's better books around."
"Teleportation is a power hog. This is about being able to selectively observe other planes without requiring physical manifestation." He stopped and rubbed the end of his nose distractedly. "Uh, can I help you up?"
"Um, yeah, thanks." Amanda held out the hand not occupied by book and bag, letting the boy pull her to her feet. "Teleportin's a right bastard for power drain, yeah. I can never…" She halted, natural caution kicking in. Even if they were standing in a magic shop, advertising the fact magic was more than theoretical was probably not a good idea. "Ah, 'm Amanda. What do you call yerself?"
"Charlie. Charlie Plunder." Charlie helped her to her feet, flexing his hand momentarily after she'd let go. "So, I haven't seen you in here before. Uh, you new or…?" Obviously Charlie wasn't used to dealing with women, especially those who could speak his language. Still, he wasn't backing away, like some of the more timid male students in the mansion that Amanda had spent time with.
"'S been a while since I've been in here. I'm normally around on Saturday afternoons, only 's been a while since I've had time," she explained with a shrug, smiling a little at Charlie's awkwardness. He was a lot like Forge, only not quite so paralysingly shy. And actually sort of cute. But the important part was that he knew magic, or at least knew it was more than that card game Doug and Jamie were always playing. "So, you been, um, interested in this stuff long?"
"Couple of years." Charlie rubbed the end of his nose again. "Only serious for a little bit." He picked up the book that had fallen between them, and passed it to her like a peace offering. "Been reading about it for a lot longer, but haven't really gotten into anything deeper until the last while. It takes a while to get through all the crap, you know?" He punctuated it with a little shrug, that communicated the bizarre nature of magic and it's subculture in one gesture.
Amanda chuckled, taking the book from him. "Yeah, all that bollocks out there tends t' make it hard. 'Specially since those bloody Harry Potter books came out." She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Everyone an' their dog thinks they're a fuckin' mage now, when most of 'em have all the mysticism of a teapot."
"Well, things are a little more complex. I mean, I've got the theory, but, you know…" Charlie made a gesture with his hands. "Teapot." He finished with a sheepish grin. "Never actually seen an active mage before, but I hear there are a couple in New York with some actual power."
She had the grace to blush a little. "Sorry, didn't mean t'… well, yeah." Glancing around to make sure they were alone, she tucked the book under her arm and held out her hand, summoning a small ball of fire in the palm. "Not so much with the teapot, meself. But 'm a bit behind on the whole theory thing. Got a tutor t' help me, tho'."
"Tutor? You must have some serious pull." Charlie said admiringly. "I haven't heard of a teaching thaumaturgical specialist in the city." His eyes were riveted on the small sphere of fire, and he cocked his head back and forth as it flared in her palm.
"It was a family thing… one of the reasons I got sent here was t' help me with the magic, an' the tutor was part of the deal." She closed her hand over the flame, snuffing it out before it could set the store's fire alarms off. "'M somethin' of a natural as far as the magic goes, but sometimes it gets out of hand. But yeah, the tutor's helpin' - he hasn't had a student before, least not a magic one, so it's been a bit of a learnin' curve for both of us." Tilting her head at him a little, she asked: "So what was the draw for you? Why magic?"
"Why not?" Charlie shrugged. "I mean, I suppose there's physics or the chess club, but why limit things? Clarke once wrote that any science that is significantly advanced becomes indistinguishable from magic. That means it's something that can be understood, even if everyone else thinks it's nonsense." Charlie grinned as he collected his stack of books, and headed for the one table. "It's nice to be the advanced one in the village of idiots, right?"
Amanda snorted as she followed him, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder a bit more securely. "Somethin' like that, yeah. I remember when I got here, most of the people at the school thought I was just some sort of energy projector who'd watched too many Buffy episodes." With a shrug she sat down, nodding at one of the other chairs for him to join her. "Um, this is probably the part where I tell you 'm a mutant, by the way, so you can run screamin' or whatever." She figured laying her cards on the table was the best strategy here - there'd been more than enough examples of the other students meeting with people and things turning ugly later. If he was going to have an issue with her mutancy, better to find out now before she actually started liking him. Well, more than she already was.
"Cool. I'd run screaming, but that's only if your head splits open and starts singing or something. It doesn't, does it?" Charlie said with a grin. While he admitted to himself that he was a geek, he actually had pretty good instincts with some types of people.
"No head splittin' open, no." Her answering smile was relieved as well as amused. "Basically I'm a walkin' magical battery. Me mutation lets me absorb mystic energy, an' then I use it for magic. 'S what I meant by bein' a natural." She shrugged a little. "Unfair advantage, I know. So, um, do you live in New York? I'm down at Xavier's in Westchester - you might've seen it on the telly."
"Right. I saw the CNN special." Charlie nodded, settling into a chair. "I never knew that a mutation could link into magical elements. That's fantastic." His blue eyes behind the thin gold framed glasses were bright with the possibilities. He leaned over the table to talk more intensely.
"'S the funny thing 'bout mutant powers - they keep comin' up with new weird combinations. 'S basically a variation on the whole energy projector thing - most of them absorb some sort of energy an' turn it into ray beams or the like. Mine's just a bit more… unusual than that." Amanda was relaxing into the conversation as she realised Charlie wasn't a bigot or about to start screaming 'mutie!' at her. "'S got its good parts an' it's not so good parts , but I'm learnin' t' handle it - that's why I'm at the school. An' there's the tutor for the magic parts."
"You are so lucky. Have you been able to do any serious transmutation? Or summoning? I had this theory that an energy conduit could create a feedback loop that could be used to power a full bore interplaner rift that could be indefinitely sustained by the systematic--" Charlie cut himself off. "Actually, that does involve slaving someone to a position of abject torture to maintain the portal."
"Torture's sort of against the rules of the school, 'least for students, so yeah, not so much with that one." She snickered a little. "Tho' I did manage t' use the energy of a demonic realm t' power a portal once. 'Least 'til me brain started tryin' t' crawl out me ears. Turns out I've got limits t' how much power I can channel. As for the rest… I've got healin' magic down pretty good, tho' I've got t' be careful with that. An' I can summon three out of four elements - Fire, Air an' Water. Earth's still bein' a bastard. Um, shieldin', a little bit of astral projection an' readin' auras an' protection spells. Glamours an' invisibility weaves too, tho' those take me a few days."
"Jesus!" Charlie let out his breath audibly. "That's just-- I've never heard of anything like that. Even from those wankers on the internet." He sat back looking impressed, and a little stunned.
There was a ring as the front door of the store opened, and Remy walked in. He hunched his shoulders as the smell of incense hit him, immediately triggering memories of a whore house in the Little Turkey section of Berlin, where he'd been knifed twice and left to die in the alley behind.
Hell of a way to remember sandalwood.
Amanda blushed in pleased embarrassment at the praise. It really hadn't seemed like much to her. Or to most of the people at the school, but then again they'd gotten pretty good at accepting the impossible. Then the store's bell caught her attention and she looked up to see Remy come in, looking out of place amongst the black-clad Goth types and hippies. "Oh, bollocks, me ride's here."
"That's your ride?" Charlie said, catching sight of Remy as he entered. "Uh, you two been together long?" Remy's razor cut looks were obvious girl killers, and Charlie admonished himself, figuring that a woman like Amanda would have one of those male model type boyfriends.
It was a good thing the store didn't allow drinking inside, or Amanda would have sprayed the table with the reaction to that. "Together?" she managed to squeak. "Fuck, no, he's just…" Of course, then she had to pause to figure out what Remy was. "He's just a mate - works at the school, gives me a lift in since me guardian had t' leave." She waved Remy over to save him from standing around looking any more out of place.
"Figured dat I'd find you behind de skull and de dribbly candles." Remy wondered over and caught sight of the other teen sitting across from her. "Guess dat you found 'nother volunteer. Did he bring de rubber apron?"
Amanda swatted at him while Charlie flushed, but he rallied greatly. "I brought my rubber apron in my knapsack."
"Good plan. Remy keeps his in the car." Gambit collapsed into the chair on the other end of the table with a grin.
"Play nice or I'll figure out how t' make the frog spell work on people who aren't shapeshifters," Amanda warned teasingly. "This is Charlie. I smacked him in the face with a shelf an' he's still talkin' to me. Charlie, this is Remy. Don't pay attention t' anythin' he says - he's way too impressed with his own cleverness by half."
"Dat's because it's twice as good as I think." Remy said smoothly, and earned a laugh from Charlie. "So, guess you run across Amanda, homme. You in trouble now."
"I had that feeling." Charlie grinned. "But, you know, guess you've known Amanda for a while."
"Hasn't hit me wit lightning more den twice. What's your story, Charlie?" Remy said lightly, but behind his eyes, his brain was working furiously. Nothing close to Charlie had every shown up on the threat files he'd run across.
Amanda pouted at both of them at the trouble cracks, but not seriously. "Charlie's into magic," she said. "Which is weird, seein' how we're in a magic shop an' all, but there you go."
"One of those coincidence things. That's not a problem, is it?" Charlie said.
"Remy not Amanda's babysitter. Except when she needs a spanking." Remy grinned, and avoided her smack. "Just acting as de ride dis days."
"Cajun, right?" Remy nodded, and Charlie grinned. "Figured. Your French accent would be pretty atrocious." There was a moment of silence before Remy started laughing.
Amanda caught herself giggling - apparently Charlie was definitely better than Forge with the people. And it was good to see Remy actually laughing, without the usual cynical edge to it. "I'd say somethin' 'bout it bein' pretty fuckin' awful for a Cajun too, only I'm the one with the Eastenders accent an' I know better than to set meself up like that."
"I like your accent." Charlie said, and Remy grinned wolfishly.
"Guess dat you got another one, 'manda. Be warned, homme. She chew you up and spit you out." Remy avoided a second swat, seeing that this Charlie was laughing too. He looked a little tightly wound, but he was keeping up for now.
"That's not what I meant!" Charlie sputtered, turning red as Amanda and Remy laughed.
"What can I say, apparently I'm irresistible. No breakin' this one, tho' - think I want him for his brains more." Amanda couldn't resist teasing Charlie a little, partly because the spluttering was cute, but partly to see how much he could take. He'd already passed the magic and mutant bits, now to see how his sense of humour worked. Besides, it was nice to have someone complimenting her in a simple, honest fashion, with no agendas or treating her as nothing but a sex object.
"Right. Guess dat you already got your lines staked out here." Remy said, leaning back. "So you need a ride tonight or you find 'nother place to sleep?"
"Be nice." Amanda said, and it was Charlie that surprised them with a laugh.
"You really like to wind people up, don't you?" Plunder shook his head and laughed. "Well, you win. I am now embarrassed. Prizes for all."
Amanda surprised him by patting him on the shoulder. "You're all right," she told him with a grin. "Not everyone can put up with us when we're like this - far too fond of the sound of our own voices sometimes."
"At least her." Remy grinned. "And, I hate to say this, but we do have to go. Dey always expect me to have it flogged off."
"Oh, right. Oh course."
The note of disappointment was obvious in Charlie's voice, and Amanda was oddly gratified to hear it. "Here," she said, rummaging through her pockets and pulling out an old receipt from one of the music stores. She scribbled down her phone number and her email address. "Give me a bell, an' we'll get together next time I'm in town, yeah? You can tell me more 'bout what you've been studyin'." She ignored Remy's snicker and handed him the paper.
