xp_logs | Marie-Ange and Amanda, Clubbing

After the scene with Jennie, Marie-Ange goes to find Amanda to get ready to leave. Amanda sees something that just cannot possibly exist.

Several hours after that scene with Jennie in the bathroom and Amanda was feeling no pain. But not from drinking - she'd changed to water afterwards, recognising the need for chemical oblivion from her addiction counselling and choosing to avoid it. Instead she was focussing on the music, the dancing, the energy of the crowd. There was something almost primal about it and something familar too. That first clubbing night, the one Remy had arranged - the vibe was the same, a curious mix of anger and exhilaration and the world could go be hanged.

So when a figure caught her eye, it seemed almost normal that he'd be there. Long auburn hair, tied back into a ponytail, stubble scurfing his jawline, body long and lanky and moving with almost preternatural grace. And when he turned, those demonic red-on-black eyes, catching hers the way they had all that time ago when they'd first met, the teenaged boy he'd thought he was...

Amanda stopped dead, ignoring the people colliding with her now she was no longer riding the crowd's movement. Impossible, there was no way this could be real. Remy LeBeau was crippled, one eye a dead grey, his face lined with pain and care. What she was seeing was a memory, an illusion, perhaps even wishful thinking. It wasn't real.

Marie-Ange had not quite tired herself out, but she was getting close. But at the same time, she felt more relaxed than she had in weeks, if not months. And so, she wormed through the crowd, looking for Amanda to tell her that whenever she was ready to go, they could, but that it was really up to her.

She almost had looked for the jet-black hair, for a moment, before remembering that Amanda was back to her natural blonde, and then caught her standing still, stiff and uneasy in the crowd, and made a direct line towards her, ignoring the few irritated grunts as she pushed her way past a few groups who just did not want to move. "Amanda?! ' she said, loudly, over the music and people.. "Is something wrong?"

At the sound of Marie-Ange's voice, Amanda glanced back over her shoulder. "Have a look at this and tell me I'm not--" she began, turning back to where she'd seen Remy. Only he was gone, as if he'd never existed in the first place. "Balmy," Amanda finished lamely. She sighed. Apparently she was. "It's nothing, just thought I saw..." She couldn't even begin to explain it - maybe it was just her overblown sense of guilt talking, after that scene with Jennie. "It's nothing," she repeated.

Marie-Ange frowned, looking through the crowd. "Are you certain?" She asked. Seeing "nothing'.. people had been seeing things all week, she wondered if someone was haunting Amanda in specific, after Angelo seeing Meggan. "I.. I can call the mansion if it was something serious..." ~Please don't be something serious... ~ She hoped.

"No, it's fine, I just thought I saw..." So much for a nice normal night. "I thought I saw Remy, is all. Without the cane and the rest." She shrugged a little. "After that Meggan thing, I'm probably looking for chances to heap up the guilt. 'S nothing." Looking Marie-Ange up and down, she continued: "Would you mind if we went now? I'm gettin' tired."

"I was just about to tell you that I was happy go to whenever you wanted.. " Marie-Ange agreed. "I think I wore myself out..." Admittedly, she hadn't done this in a long time. "Did... you want to tell Dr. MacTaggart? She has been asking for people to tell her about odd things all week.."

"Yeah, I'll ping her in the morning." Amanda shook her head a little as if to clear it and then gave her former roomie a brief smile as they headed off the dance floor to the cloak room. "I must be gettin' old, tossing in the towel this early. Did you have a good time?"

"If you are getting old, I am getting old too." Marie-Ange said, waiting to collect her purse from the attendant. "Maybe we just have to ease back into this. Like a cold pool, no jumping straight in, because then you get toe cramps." And now that she thought of it, her feet -did- hurt.

That made Amanda laugh out loud. "Start off with coffee shops and maybe one of those live music lounges, work our way up? Maybe we could get water wings for social lives?" The mental image was just too much and she started giggling helplessly. Reaction to the extremes of the night, she supposed.

"As long as it is not beatnik poetry readings.." Marie-Ange said, giggling as well. "Those would undo all the progress we have made.." As they left the club, she stretched a little, and looked up at the sky, and the city lights. "I needed this. And I need to do this more often."

"Me too." Despite the incident with Jennie and then the... whatever with Remy, Amanda was being truthful. New York was a subliminal murmur inside her, and she looped her arm through Marie-Ange's with a happy sigh. "So, since you're crashing at my place tonight any way... tea and ice cream and girly gossip before we crash?"

"Of course.." Marie-Ange agreed. "Although, I think all the gossip lately is about me.. At least the gossip from the mansion." She smirked, and shook her head. "I should tell you more about going out to a bar with Sam and Cain and Wanda, at least. Before Wanda gets a chance to, and ruin all my fun." Even if telling embarassing stories about Wanda would probably result in the older woman spreading some embarassing stories herself.

"Wanda's notorious for that. And you never saw anything as revoltingly cute as her and Strange once we sorted things out in Nepal. I swear, I thought I was going to have to turn a hose on them..." And in that vein, they continued down the street.