Adrienne, Amanda - Thursday early evening

[x-adrienne.livejournal.com]

An impromptu meeting of the Sisters in Tobacco Addiction club leads to Adrienne reading something that disturbs her about Amanda's future.

Most days Adrienne enjoyed teaching, but today had been particularly frustrating. She suspected her ire was not completely the fault of her students, however, but rather due to the series of phone calls she'd received between classes from the NYPD with question after question about her husband's murder. She'd taken her displeasure with the investigation out in her lessons, and her inability to compartmentalize was irritating her more than anything else.

For several years the businesswoman had been battling the tobacco addiction she'd adopted in high school, and now she was down to two measly cigarettes per day. Assuming she'd had a good day. Today, however, was turning out to be a full-pack sort of day, a fact she lamented to herself as she put her last cigarette between her lips and approached the patio. A curse nearly had her dropping the last cancer stick as she discovered that her solitary refuge was not so solitary. Someone else had beat her to the patio. "Those things'll kill you, you know," she muttered to the blonde as she approached, lighting up.

Amanda turned, and after catching sight of Adrienne's own cigarette, grinned a little. "So I hear," she replied, leaning back against the rail and examining the other woman curiously. Must be the new teacher, the one who played chess and didn't like her sister. "Still, so can most of the stuff I do, so I figure I'll take my chances." She was still in her work clothes: Doc Martens, black slacks and a blouse that matched her eyes, thanks to Marie-Ange's picking it out, the leather jacket slung over the railing. Conscious of the woman's formalities, she added: "I'm Amanda Sefton. We 'met' on the journals, I think?"

With a nod of remembrance, Adrienne leaned against the railing, removing her black suede tulle stripe jacket- the latest design by one of her most promising businesswear prospects- and placed it next to Amanda's. "Adrienne Frost. We 'met'," she added, smiling at the tone Amanda had put behind the word, "on your birthday, I believe? I hope it was a memorable event- in a pleasant way."

"It was." Amanda's smile had no shame in it. "Normally I'm not quite so... 'cheerful' at people, but it was my 21st and we'd been having a pre-drink with a friend who's in hospital and all, so yeah. You're the... math teacher, right? How're you finding the madhouse?"

"Well, twenty-one is a special event, so of course it entails one to be cheerful," Adrienne replied pleasantly, then took a long drag on her cigarette. "I'm finding it... mad," she informed Amanda, pleased with the word the blonde had used, "but not as mad now that I know this poetry-truth-speaking epidemic wasn't actually related to the school. Still, it's unlike anywhere else I've been. I'm assuming Emma suggested it just to see how long I would last here before I ran away screaming that everyone at Xavier's is insane. We've established in someone's journal that you work with my sister, correct?" Adrienne asked, tapping ash over the patio railing and watching it catch in the breeze. "What is it she has you doing?"

"If it isn't poetry epidemics, it's something else - you'll have quite the ride, that's for sure." Amanda was inwardly wondering what kind of odds she'd get on 'quits in six months' on the book they had for Xavier's new arrivals. She took a drag of her own cigarette before responding to the question. "Research assistant. I have a degree in sociology at Columbia..." And she did, she was just doing the work for it after getting the paper. "...and I've got a bit of a background in research, 'cause of my powers," she replied, blandly. Given they weren't sure if Adrienne's emnity for her sister extended into actively wanting to bring her down, Amanda wasn't about to disclose the extra-cirricular aspects of her job.

Brow furrowing in thought, Adrienne tried to figure out what kind of power Amanda had that would make her specially adept at research, wondering if Amanda's powers were in any way similar to her own- she'd always considered herself to have 'research skills' because of her ability to read the history and future of any object she touched.

After a thoughtful inhale of tobacco, she gave up wondering and just asked. "Your power isn't psychometry, is it?" she murmured curiously.

"Not so much, no. I'm an energy channeller - take in energy, convert it, store it or channel it back out." Amanda's mouth quirked a little. Now for the fun part. "What I convert it to is magic - I learned the research when I was being taught how to be a witch."

"A witch!" Adrienne coughed on smoke and surprise. Even though she'd had her own powers for two-thirds of her life, the businesswoman's exposure to anything supernatural was almost non-existent. She found it very interesting to be talking to a witch- even if most of her curiosity was on behalf of her self-preservation; wanting to stay on the witch's good side. "Converting energy into magic... is that the way all witches do it? And what sorts of spells do you do? Put hexes on whoever my sister tells you to?" she asked with a half-joking laugh.

Amanda chuckled. She wasn't questioning the whole 'magic is real' thing, unlike some others had. "'S not the way things are done normally, no. Usually magic comes from the person, or from places or objects that have magical properties. I take energy from certain cities, my mutation converts into magical energy, and I use it for a particular sort of magic - urban-edged, as it were. Shielding, locating, protection wards... that sort of thing. Hexes, not so much."

Eyebrow raised, Adrienne absorbed Amanda's explanation of her powers as she stared at the tobacco smoke from the tip of her cigarette. "Urban-edged..." She was beginning to develop an admiration for the way the younger woman spoke. "That's very intriguing. And it's a comfort to know you're more prone to shielding and protection wards than to hexes," she said with a slow but genuine smile. "When you told me earlier that most of the stuff you do being able to kill you, is that what you meant?"

Uh-oh, careful treading here. Amanda actually liked Adrienne - she always had a liking for snark - but she knew the woman's finely-tuned bullshit filter would catch her out in outright lies or even misdirection. And she wasn't about to disclose the existence of the Trenchcoats - let someone else do that. So, another course then. "Back when I was a student here, my powers were a bit different. Stronger, wider range. It made me a bit of a target to other magic users, ones that didn't stick to the rules of nice behaviour." She took another drag on her cigarette. "Even tho' my powers have shifted a few notches back down, I'm still a target." She turned slightly and lifted the edge of her shirt to show Adrienne the lines of black scarring on her back. "Last year, I got nabbed for a ritual. Sliced up my back, nearly killed me. Luckily I have some friends who were able to get me out."

"Christ." Grimacing in sympathy, Adrienne turned away from the sight of the marks on Amanda's back. She wanted to ask the blonde about being a student at Xaviers, see if Amanda knew some staff members with experience in psychometry who could help her with her own powers (since she still wasn't sure how she felt about asking Charles Xavier) but now didn't seem like the time to ask Amanda about school. "You seem fairly flippant about being kidnapped and almost killed for a ritual," she said instead. "But I suppose you'd have to be when you deal with people who 'don't stick to the rules of nice behaviour', correct?" Even though she was trying to be casual Adrienne's hands were beginning to shake, so she braced them on the railing and sucked on her cigarette. "Can't you use your shields and protection wards on yourself? Keep yourself from getting kidnapped?" she questioned.

"You've got to laugh or you go mad, yeah?" Amanda dropped her shirt and turned back around, watching Adrienne carefully even though her stance was still a casual slouch. "And it's not the first time something like this has happened, so I tend to be pretty philosophical about it these days. Yay counselling." She flashed a bright, slightly hard-edged grin at Adrienne. "Wards and shields take energy, unfortunately. I can flip up a shield when something's coming at me, but I can't hold it all the time, and wards aren't as strong - more like early warning devices instead of actual protection." Holding her cigarette between her lips, she clapped her hands together. The shielding spell sprang up around her, its shimmer echoing a heat haze off concrete on a hot summer's day. "Plus the shield's not hands free just yet. Last year, they hit hard and fast, and I didn't get a chance to get the spell up. Plus they used some of the students as hostages - made it very clear what would happen if I tried anything. These days, I work on what I can to make sure I'm safe."

"I don't know about laughing," Adrienne murmured, "but flippancy in general seems useful in dealing with those sorts of situations... or so I'd imagine." She flicked musingly at her cigarette and watched Amanda create her shield, listening to the younger woman's explanation about her kidnapping and declaration about ensuring her own safety. "I was going to suggest a more traditional approach to personal safety- like a handgun- but if you were attacked too quickly to even get that shield up, a handgun wouldn't have helped you, either." The mention of a handgun caused Adrienne to lament over the fact that her own had been confiscated by the NYPD. "So can anyone learn that spell, or is it just a witch thing?"

Amanda clapped her hands again, and the shield flickered and vanished. "Just a witch thing," she said, shrugging a little at the mention of guns. She wasn't keen, and the Trenchcoats hadn't pushed the point, even when she'd been powerless. "You need the spark, so to speak. Not every magic user's a mutant, and not every person who has got it is powerful - it's all levels." She tilted her head at Adrienne. "You mentioned psychometry before... is that what you do?"

Adrienne leaned against the railing. "It's what I do, yes," she muttered, and before she could check herself had added "whether I want to or not." To cover her confession she launched quickly into another statement, tossing the butt of her cigarette onto the lawn as she spoke. "Reading objects reminds me of performing research, which is why I thought your abilities might be similar to psychometry. Not as useful a gift as a diamond shell or magic might be, but it comes in handy." When it's working correctly. "Someone mentioned to me that the Professor has trained someone with psychometry before... anyone you know, since you were a student here?"

The witch shook her head. "Before my time, I think. You might want to try asking Ororo - Ms. Munroe - or Jean Grey. They've been here forever, and they're pretty approachable." Her mouth quirked. "At least, Jean is when she's not spouting sonnets."

"You don't know how relieved I was to hear that the poetry epidemic had ended," Adrienne said with a chuckle and a shake of her head, "though it did start the wheels turning for a possible spread for Vogue sometime in the future. If there's one thing this place seems good for," she informed Amanda, thinking also of the statues some young man had offered to let her view, "it's creativity. Comes with the strangeness of the inhabitants, I suppose. I hear you just bought a car?"

"I thought it was a great laugh. Best fun in ages." Amanda leaned back against the railing, all the better to get more sun. It had been a long winter. "Yeah, finally got around to getting my own - I was using the company car for a while, but Ms. Frost - the other one - decided I needed to prove official use, and I couldn't really. Forge and Ange - he's my boyfriend - came to help me out, since I know about driving them, but not so much with the buying." Hell, even a few years ago, she would never have dreamed of buying a car, even a second hand one. "All my own finances, too." It was said almost proudly.

Adrienne made a sympathetic face over the fact that her sister hadn't let Amanda drive the company car, but the comment she had on the tip of her tongue about Emma died when the younger woman mentioned the company she'd taken to help her buy her new vehicle. "Ange...? Angelo, right?" she asked, remembering vaguely from the journals. "'Works at Elpis?" The face she made was involuntary but couldn't be taken back. Despite her displeased look, however, Adrienne had kept herself from saying anything derogatory out loud, and that small victory made her proud. She realized she couldn't just go around demonizing Amanda for her preference in boyfriends. After all, lots of smart and engaging young women like Amanda had rotten taste in men- she herself was an example: she'd married the King of Rotten Men, after all. "I met him last week," was all she said, forcing a half-smile and hoping Amanda hadn't noticed the face she'd made.

"That's him." Unfortunately for Adrienne, Amanda was a spy-in-training, and spent a lot of time with someone who could read body language, and she'd caught the flicker. "He's been working with Nate for a couple of years now. They do a lot of good over there."

"They do a lot of good, yes. That's why I've been sending them money since they went into operation," the brunette said, a touch defensively. Perhaps a change in subject, then. "So what kind of car did you buy?"

Ah, the time-honoured 'change the subject to avoid the awkward bits' tactic. Amanda was well familiar with it. She debated making Adrienne squirm a little more - Amanda was very protective of her boyfriend - but she had to admit, she was enjoying talking to the woman. "Oh, just a generic shitbox, as Forge calls it. But it's reliable, gets good mileage and doesn't stick out, which was pretty much what I was after. 'S not always about first impressions, after all." Okay, maybe a little poke.

Though she smirked at the meaning behind Amanda's 'first impressions' comment, Adrienne shook her head, almost ruefully, in answer to it. "I'm afraid in my line of work, it's all about first impressions. Reliability, mileage, and a generic appearance don't really count for much. I'm not saying they shouldn't count," she added, half to herself, "I'm just saying that not everyone can look beyond what they get as a first impression of a... car." It had been Adrienne's practice for most of her life to resent and be jealous of people who could look at someone and see beyond what was on the surface, but even if she resented Amanda for seeing in Angelo what the businesswoman could not, Adrienne still found herself respecting the younger woman for it. Not that she'd ever admit it.

"I would've thought, with your power, you'd have a bit more perspective on surface impressions," Amanda replied, finishing her cigarette and stubbing it out. "Still, if there's anywhere that's going to give you a lot of angles on... cars, it'll be here."

"Yes, you would think my power would make me more inclined not to weigh my opinions so heavily on first impressions, wouldn't you?" Adrienne murmured, caught between self-pity for her own shortcomings and snark, her self-defense mechanism; "sadly that's not the case. I actually try to avoid my power at all cost, and go around blithely judging everything around me by first impression. And so far I've done just fine for myself, thank-you-very-much. And I'm not looking to change the way I think about 'cars' by being here." She searched her handbag and pockets desperately for another cigarette, but came up with an empty package. "Shit, shit, shit..."

Amanda raised her eyebrow. People who were doing fine generally didn't wind up at the school, especially against their will, as Adrienne hadn't been backwards in mentioning. But she also wouldn't be the first to be in denial about something - the whole place might as well relocate to Egypt, she thought sometimes, so many people were knee-deep in that particular river - so she wasn't going to point out the blatant untruth. Instead, she leaned over and fished her cigarettes out of her jacket pocket. "Here," she said, offering the pack to Adrienne.

Gratefully, the brunette plucked a cigarette out of the pack Amanda offered and lit it eagerly, not speaking until she'd exhaled the calming smoke in a lengthy sigh. "Thanks," she said with a nod, more grateful for the fact that Amanda hadn't tried to contradict her than for the cigarette. "So did you meet your boyfriend here at the school, or did he come here because of you?" she asked quietly, hoping to prove that she could get past their whole 'car' and 'first impressions' segue.

"Ange was here when I came, back when I was sixteen. We were both juvenile delinquents, lots of damage... we got to be friends right away. The boyfriend/girlfriend part didn't start until a year ago - one of those classic 'don't realise you're in love with your best friend until he gets blown up' sort of situations." The tone was wry, but there was a hint of a smile, a softening of Amanda's expression, and she reached up to touch the St Jude medallion she wore before going on. "Since we're getting all personal... not here exactly by choice, are you?"

"I think that's very sweet," Adrienne replied with a smile, though in all honesty she didn't know what she thought it was, since she'd never been a juvenile delinquent, never had a best friend, and never known someone who had been blown up.

She inhaled on her cigarette as she pondered Amanda's question. "I am here by choice, actually. What I didn't choose was to be in the situation where I had to make the choice to come here, but once I was in said situation, I chose Xavier's," she answered, finding it not as painful to tell Amanda as she'd thought it would be. "What's with the medallion?" she asked to change the subject, gesturing with her cigarette.

"Semantics," Amanda replied, but with a grin. "Still, there's a lot worse situations to be in, but I'm guessing you already know that, since you're here. Hopefully the kids won't be too much for you, tho' this batch isn't half as much trouble as when it was me and Ange and Sarah and Manuel causing all sorts of shite." She blushed a little at the last question. "Christmas present from Ange, just before we got together. Considering the amount of trouble we both get into, St Jude seemed to make sense to him."

"It's not semantics," Adrienne retorted with a snort, "I was in the situation where I had to go somewhere in New York, so I chose Xavier's. And the kids won't be too much for me. If I get overwhelmed, I'll just start 'reading' all their belongings so I have an idea of what they're going to do in my class." She smiled at Amanda and raised an eyebrow in her best impression of a temptress. "I could tell you your future with that medallion, if you want," she teased.

"Well, I did show you mine..." A certain degree of caution made her ask, however: "How's it work? Do you get just the future of the thing, or where it's been as well?"

Shrugging, Adrienne blew out a lopsided smoke ring. She hadn't really been serious when she'd offered, but she wasn't about to refuse now. "Past, present, future. I see what I want to see." Which might have been true a decade ago, but for the past few years her powers had become rather unpredictable, most times giving her not an ordered, sequential history of an object but a quick, bright mishmash of random images. Today was probably not a good day to be reading things, either- her stress level was at a high and only when she was relaxed was she able to exert some control over what she saw and direct herself to a specific place on the timeline of an object's life. "It's like flipping through a book, for the most part, or... choosing chapters on a dvd, I suppose," she attempted to explain, hoping that vocalizing the way her power was supposed to work would make it so.

"Well, like I said, my past's a bit messy, so you probably don't want to go poking in there." Nice cover for the whole 'spy in training' part too. The sensible thing would be to say no altogether, but Amanda was curious about the other woman's powers. Undoing the chain, she took off the medallion, holding it out to Adrienne. "I'm game if you are?"

"Sometimes I don't have a choice what I see," Adrienne admitted, face stoic. Despite her discomfort in admitting her lack of control, however, she felt it only fair to warn Amanda, give Amanda an out. Adrienne perfectly understood the desire to keep the past secret, and she was growing to enjoy Amanda's company just enough that she didn't want to sabotage their first meeting by being underhanded. "It wouldn't be much of your past, anyway," she informed the younger woman without taking the medallion, "if you've only had it a little more than a year. I only read objects, so I'll only be able to see your past as it relates to the medallion; what you've done while you've worn it." Of course, sentimental pieces of jewelry tended to be worn every day, which was why they were Adrienne's favourite objects to read.

With a slight pause - Amanda was remembering some of what she'd done when wearing the necklace, but it was encompassed pretty easily by what she'd already said about occult research and evil cults - the witch reiterated the gesture of handing it over. "Of you go, then, if you're sure it's okay for you."

With a smile and a nod, Adrienne pulled off one of her gloves and took the medallion in one hand, still holding her cigarette in the other. Smoking had calmed her to a degree where she was able to start her 'reading' at the medallion's conception - she watched the medallion being crafted, brought to a jewelry shop, bought by the handsome, eager Angelo...

Slightly bored, she focused her mind to jump forward along the medallion's timeline, to view Amanda driving the school van into Manhattan, the vehicle being hijacked and Amanda being taken to a farm, then to a second location where she was tortured...

Sickened, Adrienne bullied her mind into taking her forward again; she saw herself holding the medallion and knew she was at the present. Pushing forward once more had images flashing rapidly across her field of vision- the future, or a version of it, since the present could always have an affect on what was to come. She felt her control beginning to slip, disjointed pictures pushing their way to the forefront of her mind almost painfully as she saw Amanda, looking exactly as old as she was now (and Adrienne had always prided herself on her ability to recognize the aging process in people) though disheveled, giving the piece of jewelry away. Intrigued, Adrienne concentrated on the picture she was seeing form around Amanda and the medallion- a large city with garbage on the streets; a flyer on the ground from a shop whose name she didn't recognize, advertising a sale that ended May 30th 2008- giving her assurance that she hadn't been wrong about Amanda's age in the vision... she couldn't see the recipient of the medallion clearly, nor exactly where this was taking place, even if Amanda was outside or if she was viewing the city from a window in a building...

With another nudge into the future Adrienne became sure Amanda had given the medallion away, but the assault this picture brought to her mind had her crying out and dropping the medallion to take herself out of the trance she'd fallen into. She took a long drag of her cigarette to stop her hands from shaking and didn't attempt to retrieve the medallion. "How attached to that thing are you?" she asked tentatively when she'd recovered enough of her composure to speak.

Amanda stooped to pick it up, hand closing over it protectively at Adrienne's words. "It was a present from Angelo," she said simply. "I never take it off, except when I'm doing something where it might get busted."

Adrienne wasn't in the habit of telling people what she'd read in their objects, but she wrestled with her conscience over warning Amanda about giving the medallion away. "Maybe you could leave it at home until the first of June?"she suggested instead.

"Why?" Amanda asked, then held up her hand, shaking her head. "No, don't answer that. I shared a room with a precog for a couple of years, I know the drill." She bit her lip, wrestling with the doubt Adrienne had planted. "I'll keep that in mind."

With an understanding nod, Adrienne sucked at her cigarette. "I find if I tell people what I've seen it's more likely to happen than if I don't say anything." Feeling the odd need to reassure Amanda, she carried on. "There's a sort of meter with future readings- the more likely it is to happen, the more clearly and... orderly I see it. The more murky and disjointed it is, that usually means the outcome can be altered. This was... barely even on the meter. Probably nothing at all." She finished the cigarette and tossed it away.

"Thanks." Amanda knew reassurance when she saw it, but she appreciated the attempt. Especially from the prickly Adrienne. "And thanks for the reading," she continued, putting the chain back around her neck. "Seriously."

"I only did it to show off," Adrienne grinned. After a minute or two spent leaning against the railing she picked up her jacket. "I decided to be 'Mistress of Pain' this morning and give pop quizzes- I should probably go and mark them. Thanks for the cigarette, and the shield demonstration. Now I know who to hide behind the next time something odd happens here."