Amanda/Amara - Sometime last week

[x-molten.livejournal.com]

Backdated to last Thursday afternoon. Amanda visits Amara and they share their love of Brit comedies.

"Now, if I were a student in their first week of school, where would I be...?" Amanda wondered aloud to herself as she headed up the stairs to the student level. She'd technically come over to visit Kurt (who was proving elusive), but the collection of British comedy in her bag was intended for someone else. Someone whose door she eventually found and knocked on, nodding at the students giving her curious looks.

Amara was sitting cross-legged on her bed, going through her homework assignments. All of her classes seemed fascinating, if a bit challenging, especially math and science. She was sorting the assignments by due date, humming a mindless tune, when she heard a knock at her door. After straightening up the jumble of papers and books, she answered at the door, blessing the gods again that she had a single room.

"Hello Amanda," she greeted upon seeing her visitor and opened the door wider. "What brings you to my doorstep? Not that you aren't always welcome."

"I was in the neighbourhood," Amanda replied with a grin. "Checking up on a couple of things. And I brought 'round some DVDs I thought you might be interested in." She pulled them out of her bag and held them out to the other girl. "Given the whole British comedy thing and all."

Amara took the DVDs and perused the titles. Red Dwarf, seasons 1 and 2, Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 1, and Absolutely Fabulous, seasons 1 and 2. "These are just what I need right now. After a long day of classes, a bit of fun is in order. Thank you." Amara stepped back and opened the door fully. "Would you like to watch a couple of episodes with me? I could use a break."

"Yeah, that'd be good - been pushing the study a bit myself lately, and I could do with some downtime." Amanda grinned mischievously. "And the TV room here has the big wide-screen TV. Much better than my dinky little one."

Amara nodded and stepped out into the hallway, closing her door behind her. "It would be too easy to push myself right now. But Mr. Summers told me to balance myself out, so I will try. In what studies are you pushing yourself?" Amara walked toward the rec room with the other girl, mentally deciding which DVD to watch first. "TV is still so foreign to me. I don't really understand it, but I like it nonetheless."

"Mandarin at the moment," Amanda replied, falling into step beside the taller girl. "I like languages, and they're handy in my line of work - helps to be able to talk to someone in their own language, especially if you're a skinny little Brit girl." With a chuckle, she continued. "Really messes with their heads and that sometimes can mean they drop their guard, tell you things they mightn't normally."

"How many languages are you fluent in? I am taking Russian this quarter with Nathan. Languages are one of my main interests." They entered the rec room and Amara made a beeline for the currently not-in-use entertainment unit. She hadn't been able to decide, so fell back on the tried and true method of "eenie meenie minie mo."

"Is Red Dwarf suitable?"

"Red Dwarf? Smegging brilliant." Amanda flopped bonelessly onto the couch, remembering at the last minute to not prop her booted feet on the coffee table. Guest and all - manners first. "Lessee..." she said, counting off on her fingers. "There's the Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and Latin, though that's a bit rusty. A bit of Hindi, but I haven't got a regular teacher for that at the moment. I used to be pretty fluent in a bunch of dead languages - for the magic - but with the blowing my brain up at various times, those have gotten a bit patchy. I tend to get Doug to help me with the tricky translations these days." She smiled a little sadly. "Nate's a good teacher, when he's on his feet. Almost wish I could join you with the Russian - I'm trying to self-teach that one."

"Why can't you join us? I am sure Nathan would not mind." Amara meticulously went through the process of turning on the TV and DVD player, inserting the disc, and choosing the correct modes. Once she was satisfied she did everything correctly, she joined Amanda on the couch and started up the DVD. "That's a fair bit of the world you have covered there. China, parts of Latin America, parts of the Middle East, India. Russian would give you another large chunk." The opening theme to Red Dwarf began playing and Amara hummed along.

"Not enough hours in the day," Amanda replied with a laugh. "I work full time at Snow Valley as well as my college classes, and the Russian's something I'm fitting around the edges." She grinned at Amara's humming, going so far as to actually start singing (somewhat out of tune) along: "...I'm all alone, more or less. Let me fly, far away from here. Fun, fun fun..."

Amara grinned in return and joined in. "..In the sun, sun, sun. I want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose, drinking fresh mango juice...." She alternated between singing and humming to the end of the song, nestling back into the luxury of a well-worn couch when the episode started. Rimmer with his clipboard, Lister with his trolley. Ah, life was good. "It must be hard to find time for yourself with a full-time job and college. Maybe we could help each other with the Russian. Even though we're not taking a class together, it's always nice to have someone to study with."

Amanda barked out a laugh at Rimmer being officious, and then replied. "Actually, that might not be a bad idea, since I managed to ask for help from one of the few people with a schedule busier than mine." Angelo hadn't replied to her email - too busy, she guessed. "Pronounciation's much easier when you have someone to practice with. You good with Saturdays, after I drop the mini-bus off? Since I'll be here and all..."

"Saturdays will be fine, I think. I may go with you again, if that's okay. I feel I was too...out-of-sorts to really appreciate New York last time." Amara was silent a moment as Rimmer fixed the chicken soup dispenser and snickered at his reaction. "I am very glad we do not have those two trying to fix anything in the mansion. Imagine what they would do to the kitchen!"

"I doubt Lorna would let them anywhere near her domain. Tho' I'd love to torment her with a Talkie Toaster, if I could get one she couldn't mangle with her powers." Amanda wrinkled her nose slightly at the thought of the other woman, but kept it to that. "And you're welcome to come out any Saturday you like - I figured it'd be good to give you lot a way off-campus and I'm enjoying it too much to stop now. But don't tell anyone I said that - I have a snarky bitch reputation to maintain," she added, winking at Amara.

With a twinkle in her eye, Amara said as solemnly as she could manage without laughing, "Oh, no. Imagine the horror if anyone found out that you are a very sweet, friendly, kind person. People would have heart attacks or seizures. For the sake of the populace, I promise to never tell anyone that you have a...oh, what was that...soft, marshmallow center." She had caught the slight nose wrinkle, but chose not to comment. It was not in her manner to be nosy.

"Oh, yeah, I'm a regular fluffy bunny. With sharp pointy teeth!" Amanda gestured, making fangs with her fingers a la a certain Monty Python movie. Then Lister stepped out of stasis and she snickered. "Looks like Kyle on a bad hair day. Or McCoy... no, wait, you never met him. Speaking of fluffy - he was one of the doctors and was all blue and furry, like a walking teddy bear."

"'Would it help to confuse him if we ran away more?' We really should have a movie night and screen that film." Amara snorted as Lister started tasting the dusty remains of his fellow crew members. "He sounds like a very soothing doctor, far less scary than Dr. Voght. She poked and prodded me like a piece of meat. I was glad to get out of there, and hope to never go back."

"Call it Brit Appreciation Night or something, make it a cultural exchange," Amanda suggested, giggling a little at the DVD. "'Everybody is dead, Dave,'" she sing-songed along. "And McCoy was all right, tho' a bit of a mother hen - tended to want to be everyone's friend. We had four doctors on here at one point; Voght might be a stone cold bitch, but she's bloody efficient, to replace all four of them without a murmur. Still, I'm glad I'm not volunteering in the medlab any more - there's limits to what I'll put up with for the sake of helping out, and Voght isn't one of them."

"You really used to have four doctors here?" Amara's attention moved from the episode to Amanda. "We had two doctors for our whole town. How often did someone get hurt that this place required four doctors on staff? I know that the X-Men go out and save lives and protect cities and run the risk of being injured, but four doctors?"

"They taught as well. And did their own research. Moira was the resident powers expert - still is, really. She pops in and out every so often to check up on people and see Nate and all - she's Rachel's mum, if you didn't know. If you've got questions about your powers, she's the one to ask." Amanda's tone showed the witch thought a great deal of the Scottish doctor. "And while the leather brigade tries to be careful, sometimes shite happens. Voght doesn't need to eat or sleep, by all accounts, or have a live outside of her work, so she can be on-call 24-7, where the other four sometimes had too much on their plates." She grinned wryly. "Last year was kind of spectacularly bad for a lot of people."

Amara's face was slightly puzzled. "I see, I think. And by the way you speak of her, Moira sounds like a wonderful woman and I hope to meet her someday. I promise not to ask her too many questions about my powers, although I am growing curious. No one has discussed powers training with me yet." Amara was equal parts eager and afraid to use her powers, but the training was necessary. "Did you have a bad year as well?"

"Moira's closer to me than my own mum," Amanda said simply. Then her expression clouded a little. This was territory she didn't want to cover with Amara, not yet. "Yeah, it pretty much sucked. But I had a lot of people to help me get through it and here I am, productive member of society and all. As for powers training... don't wait for them to come to you - pester the staff about it. It's not like they'll forget, but they do have a lot on their plates and sometimes things get overlooked." Like addictions. And going evil. "What about the rest of your classes? What're you taking?" she asked, in a pretty transparent attempt to veer away from herself.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you got through it in one piece. I wouldn't have a fellow British comedy lover, elsewise. And I think I will talk to Mr. Summers about training soon." After stopping to laugh at Cat's antics on the screen, Amara went with the change in conversation easily. "English Literature, Trigonometry, Chemistry, and Shop class with Mr. Summers. I'm already feeling a little overwhelmed by the course load, but I hear that's normal at the beginning of Fall."

"'Better make myself look big...'" Amanda quoted along with the Cat, giggling a little. "Lister's my favourite, but the Cat's a close second. Even if the dress sense reminds me of my ex sometimes." Turning back to Amara's last statement, Amanda nodded. "It can be, especially with the whole brand new school issue. Or possibly first school issue?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did they have school back in Nova Roma?"

"Of a sort. It was usually a parent with some free time and some expertise or knowledge in a certain field taking aside the children who wanted to learn. Although they tried to keep a regular schedule. I've had several teachers, including my father, and so my schooling was very odd and slightly spotty. My father was a good teacher." Her voice carried a touch of sorrow. "I think I like the Cat best. I am glad I am not as obsessive as he is about creases, though."

"You're close to your dad, aren't you?" Amanda said, gently, hearing that sorrow. "Must be hard, being so far away. Are you able to keep in touch at all?"

Amara replied, "Very close. Especially after my mother died. We were all each other had. I send him letters, but we don't have telephone service down there. It's very hard to not hear his voice." Amara took a moment and forwarded the DVD to the next episode. "I am grateful for the chance to be here. If I never came to Xavier's, I may have missed the Cat."

Amanda chuckled. "And that would have been a tragedy," she said. "Because life is incomplete without the fishie song."