xp_logs | Log: Charlie/Remy (Reply)

Remy makes a trip into the city to drop off some books for Amanda, and takes time for a coffee and a chat.

Southcrest Academy was one of the more prestigious private schools in the New York area, the school of choice for the upwardly mobile middle class and the upper class that felt their children needed a 'normal' educational experience. Further proving that the richer you got, the less sense you had.

Charlie walked out the front doors, fortunately ignored by the other students that boiled past him for the end of the day. It wasn't that he was regularly bullied, but when the odd upperclassman got it in to his head that he needed a target, Charlie tended to fit the profile. Better to be ignored at the end of the day.

As he hit the wide concrete landing towards the buses, he noticed a figure standing off near the front steps, chatting animatedly with a couple of senior girls, who blushed and giggled every so often. It was that Remy guy who had showed up to pick up Amanda, with a package tucked under his arm and an obviously effective way with the ladies.

Charlie rolled his eyes slightly and approached with a certain hesitation. The girls barely noticed his presence, focussing so much on Remy, and that wasn't entirely a bad thing. The girls didn't beat him up, but they tended to be fairly scathing in their opinions of him, and not at all reticent about sharing. "Um, hi," he said, curious as to what brought Remy here.

The girls shot him disgruntled looks at the interruption, and continued to focus on Remy. "So, you're really a Cajun?" one asked, flicking blonde hair expertly over her shoulder. "I don't think I've ever met one before."

"Grew up in de Big Easy, chere. Know why dey call it dat?" Remy grinned, and caught sight of Charlie. "Ah, Charlie. Waiting for you to turn up, homme. Alors, mes amiees, Remy afraid dat he got some business wit' my good friend here. But you call me later, neh?" He
finished with a killing smile, and the girls twittered as they wandered off.

"That's Jennifer and Mercades. Two of the less generous representatives of the upper class."

"Figured. Dey got all de signs of femmes of privilege. Piece of advice, Charlie; women chase that which retreats from them. 'specially ones dat used to getting what dey want." Remy pulled the package out from under his arm and passed it over. "De books dat you were asking 'bout. 'manda asked me if I could drop dem off while I was in de city."

"Oh, great, I was hoping she'd be able to get these to me soon, though I was hoping more she'd be able to, um, you know…" Charlie stopped, and then continued with a fairly self-conscious little smile. "Bring them herself?" He finished, giving Remy an amused helpless expression.

"She busy with dat little one of hers," Remy replied with a shrug. Small children weren't exactly something he was well acquainted with, especially the specifics of bringing them up. "Needed somet'ing or other. So, dis sure is a fancy school - how you like it?"

"It's alright, I guess." Charlie shrugged, dropping into the exact tone he used when relatives asked him about his school. To be honest, he didn't mind the school itself, which boasted a top flight teaching staff, but the attitudes were still very egalitarian, which gave them one more reason to look down on him.

"Dat's 'bout what I figured." Remy said, turning away from the school face. The tone of the young man's voice told him pretty much what he expected to hear. "Got an hour or so before my next appointment. Buy you a coffee? You can tell Remy what's in dem books dat's so important."

"Um, sure, if you've got time," Charlie began, surprised that Remy was hanging around. It wasn't like they'd really chatted before, not without Amanda being there . "You, ah, interested in this stuff?"

"Learned a bit here and there, mostly from Tante. Figured dat wit' dis world, de more you know, de safer you going to be, neh?" Remy started off at an easy lope, forcing Charlie to trot to keep up with him. "'sides, something 'bout you both working on got 'manda all excited, and dat always worries Remy."

Charlie caught the man's easy grin, and realised that he was mostly kidding. He still hadn't quite worked out the relationship between the two of them yet. Amanda had said they were just friends, but the vibe between didn't match. Charlie knew he wasn't the best at reading people, but he could tell that there was something deeper that connected the two.

"Well, Amanda's the talent, but her education's pretty patchy - I don't know who taught her, but they didn't much of a job of it. Half the things she does shouldn't work with the other half, the spells clash all over the place." Charlie managed to settle his pace into something that didn't make him look like a little kid trying to keep up, hoisting his bookbag up more securely on his shoulder. "We're trying to work some sense out of all of it, at least so she doesn't get those headaches all the time when she does anything major. I've got a couple of ideas that might help." He glanced over at Remy, expression curious. "Just how long have you known each other, by the way? She says you work at the school, but excuse me for saying so, you don't look old enough to be a teacher."

"Dat's right." Remy's grin went wolfish as they headed down the street, taking a long drag from his cigarette and blowing out a smoke ring. "It's a long story, homme, but in a nutshell, Remy keep disaster magnets like 'manda out of trouble in de school."

"Yeah, she mentioned something about things tending to happen to her," Charlie said, a hint of concern entering his voice. Concern for her, not for himself. He followed Remy to a corner booth and they slid in, Remy taking the seat facing the door without even thinking about it. "Is it really that bad? Or was she just exaggerating about the demon invasions and stuff?"

"It has been." Remy shrugged. He was too used to the regular chaos in the school to think about it too much as being odd. "But 'manda can take care of herself. She's got a nasty streak in her, and dat's enough to keep her alive a long time." The wolfish grin flashed back across Remy's face. "So if you going to hit on her, don't act like she's a wilting flower, homme."

Charlie blinked. "But I wasn't… I mean, I wouldn't mind, but she hasn't... She flirts with me, I think..." Amanda's alleged nasty streak was not exactly dismissed - Remy didn't seem the sort to say bad things about people without cause, and Amanda and he were somethings, at least - but he didn't want to think about it too much. She'd seemed perfectly nice to him. "I wouldn't like to screw up being her friend by trying if she didn't want me to, and she mentioned a guy…"

"Don't know if you could screw it up, but…" Remy broke off as the waitress came by, and ordering a couple of cups of coffee, leaving Charlie on tenderhooks as he did. Only after the young woman (who at blushed at LeBeau's smirk and wink) had left did he continue. "She got a boyfriend she says she loves, and dat one is de type to take dose sorts of things pretty serious. Bet she'd be flattered, but not sure dat it likely to go anywhere."

"I figured it would be something like that."

Remy nodded. "Dat's why you should get her drunk first."

Choking on thin air, Charlie coughed and spluttered. "What?" he managed after a moment.

"Jus' offering suggestions."Remy replied, still with that smirk.

"Do you wind everyone up?"

"Mostly." Remy said. "'sides, more likely dat 'manda'd take advantage of you, homme. She'd not much of de 'waiting to dance' type."

"Uhuh." Charlie said flatly, as the waitress showed back up with their coffee. He accepted his with a smile, and rolled his eyes as she fussed over Remy's. "So, you're obviously James Bond or something."

"Wit' a better accent." Remy took a sip and leaned back. "Seriously though, if you interested in her, I'd be straight forward. She not much for subtlety, and dere more den a few boys back at de school who go for de 'please just notice me' pathetic look for her to be interested in dat."

"Guess the unshaven trenchcoat look is out too?" Charlie said with a touch of nastiness in his voice, and was rewarded with a choked noise from Remy while he drank. His smirk had that sardonic edge, but obvious amusement twinkled in his eyes.

"Oui, something like dat."

Charlie grinned, a little pleased he'd finally cracked the smart alec veneer. If it was a veneer. Remy was unlike anyone he'd ever met, but then again, so was Amanda. And he didn't think that had anything to do with the mutant thing. "I'd like to think we're friends - I get the impression she doesn't have a lot of people she can talk to about the magic, not and have them really understand. So that's something, right?"

"Oui. Her type of magic not exactly de voudoun dat Remy learned 'bout, and outside of dat Strange, don't think dat dere anyone dat really has any kind of handle on it." Remy nodded. "She been talking a lot 'bout it, 'specially wit' her other friend, Forge. Got some wild ideas, I guess. Out of my knowledge, any how."

"She mentioned him - he's the one stripping down the spells to make them more efficient, right?" At Remy's nod, Charlie wrinkled his nose a little. "The idea's sound in principle, but the problem is knowing what to dump and what to keep. Some phrases might seem like they're useless, but they're what binds the spell together, and you get rid of them, it makes the thing unstable. Amanda's got the raw power to make things happen anyway, but that's putting a hell of a lot of pressure on her - part of what we've been doing is
trying to find alternatives to certain spells that take too much out of her." He smiled a little sheepishly. "And you've probably guessed I don't get to talk about this very often myself."

"I had figured dat out earlier." Remy took a long drink of his coffee. "Seems dat de three of you got a new club started."

"I wasn't thinking of it in quite that way, but yeah. There's the possibility for some real exciting advancement here." Charlie was animated, talking with a passion that belayed his normal somewhat reserved tones. "Magic is such a messy science, because there's so much crap in between the actual art itself. Most of what studying it involves culling the good from the garbage."

"Sounds like my job." Charlie gave him a puzzled look. "Intelligence. De problem isn't always not enough information, but too much information to find the parts you need."

"You said something before about working for the government… is that what you mean?" Charlie asked, tilting his head slightly. "Since working at a school doesn't seem to call for much in the way of intelligence." He realised what he'd said, and the flushed slightly with embarassment. Making fun of Amanda's friend was not what he meant. "Um, I didn't mean it exactly like that. You know what I mean?" he added hopefully.

"Pretty apt description." Remy said wryly. "De school isn't strictly a school, and dere a few people dat would be happy to see a collection of mutants as part of some government agent group or working for some military squad. 'course, few of de students don't really want to go in dat direction. Means dat we have to keep watch on stuff, and dats one of Remy's skills."

"This is all… It's not something you usually consider, really." Charlie's tone took on a bemused edge. Military squads, government agents, spies… it was all like something out of a movie. "When you think of a school, even a school for mutants. I mean, there's the FOH and the political stuff, and there's no-one at my school who's even met a mutant that's willing to admit it. But mutant kids as military operatives? I can see where it makes sense, but it just seems so… so Cold War."

"Well, makes a certain amount of sense. For example, take 'manda. Wit' de power she has, she could walk into any bank in de world and walk out wit' whatever she wants. Kill someone from de other side of de city. Use her magic to control de President. Dat much power is something dat people going to want." Remy took another sip of his coffee. "Or fear."

"Just like magic of old, I guess. Power that can be hidden, not easily explained." Charlie nodded. The magical community had a paranoid streak a mile wide and six thousand years deep. Anyone studying the craft learned about it as an integral part of the knowledge. "Not like I can even do anything, but I know what can be done."

"Some would say dat's enough, homme," Remy said.

"Knowledge is power, you mean?" Charlie asked, shrugging a little. "I don't know, I'm pretty low down on the scale of things as far as that goes." He thought of the beatings the upperclassmen handed out to him on an irregular basis. "But I guess if there's somewhere where people like Amanda can go to be safe, and people like you to keep them that way, that's got to be good, right? She hasn't told me much about herself, but I get the impression Amanda's life before the school was pretty bad."

"In a way dat few people have had. But dat's her story to tell." Remy said, leaning back in the booth. "How 'bout you? Other den picking up magic girls in book shops, you got anything else on you activity list?"

"Not really. My mother works most of the time, so I do a lot of reading. It might come as a shock to you, but I'm really not good with girls." Charlie shrugged. "Not like most of them are that interesting. I mean, there's more than a few that in fantasyland I wouldn't say no to if
they offered, but the only ones that share my interests are usually these bizarre goth airheads on bad drugs. I'd rather not date someone who annoys me, you know?"

Remy snickered a little. "Well, even de annoying ones have their compensations, but Remy understands what you mean. And being good with girls is not as hard as you might think. Dey people, same as everyone - everyone got something dey want, and they're willing to give time to the homme dey think can give them that. You need to think of youself as dat homme, and you do fine. Amanda got no complaints so far."

"Uh-huh." Charlie rolled his eyes a little. "Well, unless that boyfriend of hers suddenly disappears from out of the picture, Amanda's pretty much out of the running. And I haven't exactly met many like her before - she's pretty unique." He couldn't help the
brief grin at that. Unique was definitely a word that suited Amanda.

"Dat's one way to put it." Remy grinned. "But dere other girls up at de school. You should get an invite from 'manda. Sure dat she'd help set you up."

"I'm sure I read somewhere that you're not supposed to ask the girl that you could be interested in to help set you up with other girls while she's inconveniently involved."

"Vrai, but you also don't go mooning 'round waiting for something to change first either." Remy took a look at his watch. "Merde. Remy late. You need a lift?"

"No, the bus isn't that far from here." Charlie said, starting to collect his things. "Can I ask you something?" He said as he stood up. Remy just nodded, fishing in his pockets for a few bills to cover the coffee. "Did you come down here just to talk, or check me out?"

Remy almost laughed, shaking his head. "Alright, you found me out, homme. Oui, I pulled some information. Know your address, your piano teacher checks out, and dat you likely not a threat to either 'manda or de school. But I also came to talk."

Charlie returned the grin as he shouldered his bag. "Should have known. What about the two girls out front? Checking out their stories to make sure that they aren't secret agents or something?"

"Dat not even close to what Remy was checking out on dem." Remy held the door out to the street. "But dats my business. Sure dat I'll see you soon, Charlie."

"As long as you don't mention the piano lessons to anyone, I'd agree." Charlie said, earning another brief laugh before they set off in different directions home.