Amanda, Laurie - Saturday Bus Run
Dec. 22nd, 2007 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAfter dropping off the rest of the bus crew, Amanda and Laurie have a long-delayed talk.
Laurie sat in the seat just behind the driver, Amanda for today and watched the traffic ahead of them as her foot tapped absently to the music playing through the speakers. 'London Calling' was currently playing and Laurie had to admit, while she didn't like all the band's music, this song in particular was catchy.
"Anyway, so not sure what to do and Julio is looking like he's about to pass out or vomit or something. It was intense," Laurie said.
She'd been attempting to tell Amanda about the events in Tokyo that had led up to Julio stopping the earthquake, and the subsequent saving of the man by Nori and herself.
"You lot seem to make a habit of 'intense'," Amanda said wryly, glancing up at the rear vision mirror to make eye contact with Laurie. They'd dropped off the rest of the group, and Amanda was on her way to park the van in one of the garages. "Well, since Tokyo isn't a pile of rubble, I'm guessing something stepped in?"
"Yeah, Julio stopped the entire thing. It was...I'm not really sure there's a word for what it was. We did good though, even though I sort of ignored student protocol." Laurie responded, fingers tapping against her knee. "There just wasn't time."
"Sometimes there isn't," Amanda said, a briefly thoughtful expression crossing her face. "Julio's all right? I saw him bitching on the journals, so he probably is."
"Yeah, Nori and I had to do CPR, but we got his heart started again, and Dr Grey-Summers said I did a good job, even though Nori was a little freaked out about having to give him an electric shock." Laurie said, frowning as she remembered the look of terror on her suitemate's face. She hoped she never had to put someone in a situation like that again, but she'd had to do it, Julio wouldn't have survived without Nori's help.
"Using your powers on someone, 'specially when you haven't much control... it's pretty scary. Did you let the powers that be know? Nori's got plenty on her plate as it is." Amanda liked the Japanese girl, but didn't hold any illusions about her drug problems.
"Yeah, the mark she left on Julio's chest probably would've had them guessing even if we hadn't told the Professor right away. The Professor seemed pretty calm about the whole thing, but I guess he's dealt with worse." Laurie said, blinking as she watched a particularly impatient New York cabbie trying to take them over with some incredulity. Didn't these people know not to tangle with things that were bigger then them?
Amanda snorted a laugh at that. "Just a couple, yeah." She glanced at the cab, and gave the driver the finger. "Pillock," she muttered. Luckily, the parking garage was just ahead, and she pulled in. There were some slots for larger vehicles usually kept free towards the rear on the lower level. "How about you? You pulling up all right?"
"Nightmares, sometimes." Laurie admitted, looking sheepish.
She wasn't sure why she felt embarrassed about the dreams, just that she wasn't sure if any of the others had them and she didn't want to seem like she wasn't coping. They were only dreams when it came right down to it, nothing to be really worried about.
Amanda parked the van, inching into the space, tongue poking slightly out of the corner of her mouth as it did when she was concentrating. Once they were done, she switched off the ignition and twisted around in the seat so she could face Laurie and talk to her properly. "Understandable," she said, matter-of-factly. "You go through something, it gets to you, you have nightmares sometimes as your brain processes it. When Ange came back from the mission and told me what he'd gone through, I had a few doozies there. Nothing like hearing about your boyfriend being sucked into space to freak you out."
"A lot of them got hurt, in one way or another."
Laurie remembered what Forge had told her about what he'd had to do and the amount of time Kyle and Mr Summers had had to take healing their broken bones. She'd walked away particularly unscathed if you didn't count the occasional nightmare. In fact, for the most part in every encounter she'd had with the less then usual, she'd walked away unscathed, physically. It seemed somewhat unfair on her part to be having nightmares when it was others getting hurt.
Resting her chin on the back of the driver's seat, Amanda quirked an eyebrow. "See, there's a whole lot there you're not saying. No-one came out of that mansion unscathed - you know as well as I do that there's physical hurt, and then there's the rest. But the thing that's getting me is you using 'them'. You're part of the team, aren't you? Went with them on the retrieval? Hell, I remember you having a go at me for questioning your commitment to the whole leathers thing. So shouldn't that be a 'we'?"
"I wasn't the one facing down Magneto." Laurie responded, hand moving to push her hair behind one ear as she forced herself to continue to look at the older girl. She wasn't sure how to answer the last, wasn't sure if being a trainee classified her as team or wannabe. Did she have a right to use 'we' when she'd not even been up there? "It's not that I'm...I want to be an X-man, but I'm not yet, that's all."
"No, but you don't have to be a heavy hitter to feel the same damage. The last job I went on, you know what I spent my time doing?" It was getting close to crossing the secrecy line, but Laurie was a trainee, had access to everyone's files, and she'd met Pete and Remy. She wasn't stupid. "Giving Wanda CPR and trying to shield people. Did that get to me? Sure as hell it did. Just because you aren't the one with the flashy powers doesn't mean you aren't entitled to needing the same help as everyone else - fuck, going to see Sofia once a week for therapy's compulsory for all of us on the Trenchcoats, no matter who we are or what we do. You keep up this whole 'oh, I'm not important enough to need help' bullshite, you'll burn out in five minutes once you're in full leathers." She held the other girl's eyes. "You want to help people? Make sure you take care of yourself first. You put in the hours, do the job... that makes you as important as anyone else."
"Maybe that's what's bothering me. I didn't feel traumatised, giving Julio CPR, it wasn't traumatic to me. It was just something I needed to do." Laurie replied, gaze worried. "The only thing I can think is that I just knew I wasn't going to let him go, not like that. I don't know if that makes me cold or a meglomaniac. I have more trouble with my powers maybe hurting others then I do with the idea of being in a dangerous situation."
There was a muffled snort. "How about 'professional'? Since hey, isn't that part of being a doctor and all, not being traumatised when you do the doctoring? And you wanting to be a doctor and all. It doesn't make you the sort to go out and buy the cape and the twirly moustache, mate, if makes you good at what you want to do." And she didn't know the half of what it could take, to do what was needed. "Hang onto the worrying about hurting people - it's a good thing."
"I guess so." Laurie replied, and then smiled wryly. "And that wasn't meant to be a brush off. This whole thing, it's all so new. I'm still learning where I fit in, and what I want to be doing. I just want to do well, whatever I do."
"You're an X-Man all right, with the pushing yourself insanely," Amanda replied wryly. "Bad as Nate and Ange, I swear." She paused for a moment, and then went on: "Look, I wanted to apologise for pushing you like I did, back during the evacuation. Not for what I said - you needed to hear it - but for the timing. We were all stressed, and I hammered you a bit more than I probably should have. 'Specially when I'm nothing to do with the leathers."
"I was being pretty obnoxious at the time." Laurie said, glancing away slightly, embarrassed. "I didn't have any right to bug you about the smoking or the drinking. You're an adult, it's your choice what you do and how you do it. I just worry sometimes, all the stories you hear about people using things to escape. I don't want to see anyone have that happen to them, but I should trust you to know where the line is."
"You probably haven't read far back enough in the journals, but..." Amanda took a breath and went on, voice steady. "I'm an addict, Laurie. I had powers issues back when I was at the school, couldn't handle things and ended up getting hooked on my own powers. When I got cut off, I started using anything else to compensate, when I couldn't get a magical power source. For a while there, I really ran off the rails. I'm what they call in recovery these days, but I still have to watch myself. And have my friends and family watch me. Smoking... it's one of the few things I can do that kills the cravings without doing too much damage. Considering what it took to get me off everything else, I'm honestly not sure I'll ever be able to quit smoking. Drinking... these days I do it because it's relaxing. I go out with my work mates and have a couple of pints, chat, wind down." She grinned. "Which works much better than some of the team bonding stuff you lot do. Try looking in the files for the Fight Night thing."
"I didn't know." Laurie replied, feeling bad. She hadn't read far back on the journals, wanting to form her own opinions of people from what they said and did now, not what they'd been in the past. She wondered if maybe she should read back, it might stop her from putting her foot in it. "You seem so with it, I never would've pegged you for a recovering anything. I'm sorry, I must have come off like a judgemental ass, mustn't I?"
Reaching over, Amanda flicked Laurie in the forehead gently. "Don't apologise. 'S not like we wear signs or anything, and I'm well past the whole 'heroin chic' look. And yeah, you were a bit judgemental, but you know what? That's part of being a teenager - you think you know best. The difference is, tho', between you and an arse, is you listened when people pointed out there was another side to things."
Laurie rubbed at the place on her forehead that Amanda had flicked and then poked her tongue out at the older girl before becomming serious again. "Does it ever get any easier, do you think? The whole making choices and having opinions thing?"
"I wish I could say it does," Amanda said, resting her chin back on the headrest. "But it hasn't yet. I'll keep you posted, tho', what with this whole older than you thing."
"Don't go and turn into Forge on me." Laurie replied, grin wide. "He's been going on about how he's older now forever. I just tell him that I can still kick his butt no matter how much older he is."
"A ten year old girl could kick his arse," Amanda replied, snickering. "Not exactly a good yardstick." She glanced at her watch. "I'm starving after all this serious talk. You up for an early lunch?"
"You're talking to a teenager, when aren't we up for food of any description?" Laurie replied, picking up her bag as she exited the bus. "Any new restaurants about the place?"
"This is New York. There's a new restaurant somewhere every five minutes."
Laurie sat in the seat just behind the driver, Amanda for today and watched the traffic ahead of them as her foot tapped absently to the music playing through the speakers. 'London Calling' was currently playing and Laurie had to admit, while she didn't like all the band's music, this song in particular was catchy.
"Anyway, so not sure what to do and Julio is looking like he's about to pass out or vomit or something. It was intense," Laurie said.
She'd been attempting to tell Amanda about the events in Tokyo that had led up to Julio stopping the earthquake, and the subsequent saving of the man by Nori and herself.
"You lot seem to make a habit of 'intense'," Amanda said wryly, glancing up at the rear vision mirror to make eye contact with Laurie. They'd dropped off the rest of the group, and Amanda was on her way to park the van in one of the garages. "Well, since Tokyo isn't a pile of rubble, I'm guessing something stepped in?"
"Yeah, Julio stopped the entire thing. It was...I'm not really sure there's a word for what it was. We did good though, even though I sort of ignored student protocol." Laurie responded, fingers tapping against her knee. "There just wasn't time."
"Sometimes there isn't," Amanda said, a briefly thoughtful expression crossing her face. "Julio's all right? I saw him bitching on the journals, so he probably is."
"Yeah, Nori and I had to do CPR, but we got his heart started again, and Dr Grey-Summers said I did a good job, even though Nori was a little freaked out about having to give him an electric shock." Laurie said, frowning as she remembered the look of terror on her suitemate's face. She hoped she never had to put someone in a situation like that again, but she'd had to do it, Julio wouldn't have survived without Nori's help.
"Using your powers on someone, 'specially when you haven't much control... it's pretty scary. Did you let the powers that be know? Nori's got plenty on her plate as it is." Amanda liked the Japanese girl, but didn't hold any illusions about her drug problems.
"Yeah, the mark she left on Julio's chest probably would've had them guessing even if we hadn't told the Professor right away. The Professor seemed pretty calm about the whole thing, but I guess he's dealt with worse." Laurie said, blinking as she watched a particularly impatient New York cabbie trying to take them over with some incredulity. Didn't these people know not to tangle with things that were bigger then them?
Amanda snorted a laugh at that. "Just a couple, yeah." She glanced at the cab, and gave the driver the finger. "Pillock," she muttered. Luckily, the parking garage was just ahead, and she pulled in. There were some slots for larger vehicles usually kept free towards the rear on the lower level. "How about you? You pulling up all right?"
"Nightmares, sometimes." Laurie admitted, looking sheepish.
She wasn't sure why she felt embarrassed about the dreams, just that she wasn't sure if any of the others had them and she didn't want to seem like she wasn't coping. They were only dreams when it came right down to it, nothing to be really worried about.
Amanda parked the van, inching into the space, tongue poking slightly out of the corner of her mouth as it did when she was concentrating. Once they were done, she switched off the ignition and twisted around in the seat so she could face Laurie and talk to her properly. "Understandable," she said, matter-of-factly. "You go through something, it gets to you, you have nightmares sometimes as your brain processes it. When Ange came back from the mission and told me what he'd gone through, I had a few doozies there. Nothing like hearing about your boyfriend being sucked into space to freak you out."
"A lot of them got hurt, in one way or another."
Laurie remembered what Forge had told her about what he'd had to do and the amount of time Kyle and Mr Summers had had to take healing their broken bones. She'd walked away particularly unscathed if you didn't count the occasional nightmare. In fact, for the most part in every encounter she'd had with the less then usual, she'd walked away unscathed, physically. It seemed somewhat unfair on her part to be having nightmares when it was others getting hurt.
Resting her chin on the back of the driver's seat, Amanda quirked an eyebrow. "See, there's a whole lot there you're not saying. No-one came out of that mansion unscathed - you know as well as I do that there's physical hurt, and then there's the rest. But the thing that's getting me is you using 'them'. You're part of the team, aren't you? Went with them on the retrieval? Hell, I remember you having a go at me for questioning your commitment to the whole leathers thing. So shouldn't that be a 'we'?"
"I wasn't the one facing down Magneto." Laurie responded, hand moving to push her hair behind one ear as she forced herself to continue to look at the older girl. She wasn't sure how to answer the last, wasn't sure if being a trainee classified her as team or wannabe. Did she have a right to use 'we' when she'd not even been up there? "It's not that I'm...I want to be an X-man, but I'm not yet, that's all."
"No, but you don't have to be a heavy hitter to feel the same damage. The last job I went on, you know what I spent my time doing?" It was getting close to crossing the secrecy line, but Laurie was a trainee, had access to everyone's files, and she'd met Pete and Remy. She wasn't stupid. "Giving Wanda CPR and trying to shield people. Did that get to me? Sure as hell it did. Just because you aren't the one with the flashy powers doesn't mean you aren't entitled to needing the same help as everyone else - fuck, going to see Sofia once a week for therapy's compulsory for all of us on the Trenchcoats, no matter who we are or what we do. You keep up this whole 'oh, I'm not important enough to need help' bullshite, you'll burn out in five minutes once you're in full leathers." She held the other girl's eyes. "You want to help people? Make sure you take care of yourself first. You put in the hours, do the job... that makes you as important as anyone else."
"Maybe that's what's bothering me. I didn't feel traumatised, giving Julio CPR, it wasn't traumatic to me. It was just something I needed to do." Laurie replied, gaze worried. "The only thing I can think is that I just knew I wasn't going to let him go, not like that. I don't know if that makes me cold or a meglomaniac. I have more trouble with my powers maybe hurting others then I do with the idea of being in a dangerous situation."
There was a muffled snort. "How about 'professional'? Since hey, isn't that part of being a doctor and all, not being traumatised when you do the doctoring? And you wanting to be a doctor and all. It doesn't make you the sort to go out and buy the cape and the twirly moustache, mate, if makes you good at what you want to do." And she didn't know the half of what it could take, to do what was needed. "Hang onto the worrying about hurting people - it's a good thing."
"I guess so." Laurie replied, and then smiled wryly. "And that wasn't meant to be a brush off. This whole thing, it's all so new. I'm still learning where I fit in, and what I want to be doing. I just want to do well, whatever I do."
"You're an X-Man all right, with the pushing yourself insanely," Amanda replied wryly. "Bad as Nate and Ange, I swear." She paused for a moment, and then went on: "Look, I wanted to apologise for pushing you like I did, back during the evacuation. Not for what I said - you needed to hear it - but for the timing. We were all stressed, and I hammered you a bit more than I probably should have. 'Specially when I'm nothing to do with the leathers."
"I was being pretty obnoxious at the time." Laurie said, glancing away slightly, embarrassed. "I didn't have any right to bug you about the smoking or the drinking. You're an adult, it's your choice what you do and how you do it. I just worry sometimes, all the stories you hear about people using things to escape. I don't want to see anyone have that happen to them, but I should trust you to know where the line is."
"You probably haven't read far back enough in the journals, but..." Amanda took a breath and went on, voice steady. "I'm an addict, Laurie. I had powers issues back when I was at the school, couldn't handle things and ended up getting hooked on my own powers. When I got cut off, I started using anything else to compensate, when I couldn't get a magical power source. For a while there, I really ran off the rails. I'm what they call in recovery these days, but I still have to watch myself. And have my friends and family watch me. Smoking... it's one of the few things I can do that kills the cravings without doing too much damage. Considering what it took to get me off everything else, I'm honestly not sure I'll ever be able to quit smoking. Drinking... these days I do it because it's relaxing. I go out with my work mates and have a couple of pints, chat, wind down." She grinned. "Which works much better than some of the team bonding stuff you lot do. Try looking in the files for the Fight Night thing."
"I didn't know." Laurie replied, feeling bad. She hadn't read far back on the journals, wanting to form her own opinions of people from what they said and did now, not what they'd been in the past. She wondered if maybe she should read back, it might stop her from putting her foot in it. "You seem so with it, I never would've pegged you for a recovering anything. I'm sorry, I must have come off like a judgemental ass, mustn't I?"
Reaching over, Amanda flicked Laurie in the forehead gently. "Don't apologise. 'S not like we wear signs or anything, and I'm well past the whole 'heroin chic' look. And yeah, you were a bit judgemental, but you know what? That's part of being a teenager - you think you know best. The difference is, tho', between you and an arse, is you listened when people pointed out there was another side to things."
Laurie rubbed at the place on her forehead that Amanda had flicked and then poked her tongue out at the older girl before becomming serious again. "Does it ever get any easier, do you think? The whole making choices and having opinions thing?"
"I wish I could say it does," Amanda said, resting her chin back on the headrest. "But it hasn't yet. I'll keep you posted, tho', what with this whole older than you thing."
"Don't go and turn into Forge on me." Laurie replied, grin wide. "He's been going on about how he's older now forever. I just tell him that I can still kick his butt no matter how much older he is."
"A ten year old girl could kick his arse," Amanda replied, snickering. "Not exactly a good yardstick." She glanced at her watch. "I'm starving after all this serious talk. You up for an early lunch?"
"You're talking to a teenager, when aren't we up for food of any description?" Laurie replied, picking up her bag as she exited the bus. "Any new restaurants about the place?"
"This is New York. There's a new restaurant somewhere every five minutes."
