Amanda & Cammie

[x-scorpion.livejournal.com]

Cammie runs into Amanda on the smoker's porch. The subject of powers comes out and Cammie still can't swallow the idea of magic.

It was good to be back, no matter how much turmoil was still going on, what with the missing returned and people dealing with the changes and all the rest. After the fight with Angelo about her lack of presence, Amanda was trying to visit a bit more. Of course, the building being as non-smoking as it was and her habit having gotten as bad as it had with the stress of the last few months, such a visit was previewed by a trip to the back torch to stock up on nicotine, despite the chill in the air. She was just lighting up her second as movement caught her eye.

One thing the cold did was remind Cammie of why it was she liked Texas this time of year. Sure, it could dump a ton of snow on your head, but it'd be gone the next day and it was actually warm. She had one of her heavy sweaters on to compensate for the cold, though the thing was beat up after years of use she had yet to throw it away.

She was still getting the feel of this place and after a second she realized she had managed to lose her bearings. And she almost walked into someone, but she managed to stop at the last second. There were too many people around here. Another thing that was going to take her forever and a day to get used to.

"Um..." The queen of articulation struck again, "Sorry... I didn't see you."

"So I figured, what with the nearly walking into me." Amanda's tone was more amused than mocking, however, and she gave the other girl a brief grin. "New fish, are you? Still finding your way around?"

Cammie automatically took a couple of steps backward to what she considered to be a 'safe' distance. Which meant if she tripped on something she wouldn't land on the other person and accidentally poison them. As far flung as it sounded it had happened once.

"Yeah," she said simply, crossing her arms in the big, well worn sweater, "doesn't help matters any that this place is huge. And I haven't found a map yet," she said the last dryly. It was almost a joke. Almost.

"You might be able to get one off one of the staff types - there's usually one in the student packs, but I'm guessing you're a little too old for that." Taking note of the body language and the way the girl had stepped back, Amanda didn't worry about offering to shake hands. "'M Amanda, Amanda Sefton. I was a student here a while back and now I work in New York - there's a few of us escapees that do. I've got mates here still, so I like to drop by and make a nuisance of myself every so often."

"No shit, they actually have maps?" she half-asked, half joked. Cammie thought she was likely better off just learning her way around on her own, and getting lost a lot. Which was, she reflected, easier than folding a map.

"My name's Cammie," she said simply. No full name, no last name, just that. It was more than enough to give people. And she hadn't been her long enough to make anyone she could qualify as a friend. Which was normally how it always was. All things considered, though, she didn't know how well she'd fare if she just decided to walk off.

"They had them back when I started, as much good as they did me - I could barely read at the time, let alone knew what a parlour was." Amanda leaned back against the rail and blew a cloud of cigarette smoke into the air. "You want one?" she asked, digging the pack out of her pocket.

Cammie shook her head, "I could, but it'd be a waste of your cigs," she said. She had spent years trying to find something she could take, spoke, snort, anything. And nothing did so much as taste funny. Or tickle her nose, "You don't have to worry about the smell bothering me or anything, just the fact that those things will kill ya," she said the last with a bit of a twisted smile.

Amanda raised her eyebrows curiously at that - not a typical response, except the crack about lung cancer. She'd lost count of the times she'd gotten those. "Incurable addict," she replied breezily, taking another drag. "And something's going to kill me eventually. Tho' now you've got me wondering... You don't have a healing factor, 'cause you could still enjoy the smoking thing, so my guess is you've got some kind of weird body chemistry that means you can't taste or smell it?" She grinned a little. "Of course, you can tell me to sod off and not be so nosy, I don't mind. If you like, I can show you mine if you tell me about yours?"

She had gotten really close with a guess, which was summing up something Cammie was coming to both love and hate about this place. There shouldn't be anything wrong with being a freak in a house full of them, but it still felt weird. She was too used to being on her own and she didn't like it when someone managed to hit on things that close.

When she knew nothing about them.

"Yeah, sure, show and tell then. What's your freakish ability?" she asked.

She had plenty of charge from her travels at least. Holding her cigarette between her lips, she clapped her hands together, summoning a shield around herself. "'M a witch," she explained from inside the bubble. Given the state New York was in, its skin was dull gray and cloudy, not unlike the smoke from her cigarette. She clapped again and dropped the shield, before snapping her fingers to bring up the werelight. "My mutant power lets me absorb energy from cities and convert it into magic."

Cammie's first response to the 'witch' crack was a loud snort. She had met a few, girls mostly, all lacking in braincells who believed they were witches, or other things. In her own mind, it was all a load of bullshit. She honestly tried not to start laughing when Amanda tried to explain how it was 'magic.' After all, some people seriously believed in that stuff. Four years of hell had managed to slap any idea of moonbeams and rainbows that might have been lurking in the back of her mind out of existence.

"So," she asked, still laughing, "You use the light show to pull a rabbit out of someone's ass?"

Amanda grinned wickedly and flicked her fingers, sending the werelight zooming around Cammie's head. She wasn't upset by the reaction - after all, the magical world worked hard to cultivate it to avoid issues - and the girl looked like she needed a laugh. "No rabbits, but I used to pull pennies out of kids' ears to earn a few bob when I was on the streets. If the magic part's a bit hard to swallow, look at it as basically energy conversion - one type of energy in, another type of energy out."

Cammie watched the lights idly. It was a lot more to look at than what she did. Unless someone had a thing for green skin and dead bodies. "Anyone and their brother can pull coins out of someone's ear, that's all how fast you are with your hands." Her 'magic trick' on the streets had been making wallets disappear, bikes, if she was feeling lucky.

"That's pretty flashy," she said with a shrug, only a bit distrubed by how close it was. This was supposed to be a safe house, so she was running under the assumption that if Amanda felt so inclined as to 'magic' her, she let out a short snort at that thought, into a pile of ash, it would've been done by now.

"Yeah, all flash, that's what I am. 'S not that useful, but there's more to life than powers." Amanda called the light back and snuffed it out in her hand. "How're you settling in? The mansion's a bit much sometimes, 'specially if you've been on your own a bit." She'd talked to the girl enough to get a feel for her, and her instincts were telling her here was someone whose life hadn't been easy in any sense.

"Too many people, not enough space," Cammie said simply watching the light retreat. And that about summed it up. She was used to hiding out in abandoned buildings and places people normally skipped over. On the other hand, it was nice to actually have a bed every night. It almost reminded her of home, only home never had this many people packed into it.

The witch nodded. "It does get crowded, yeah, specially in winter with the weather. There is... well, was, before the Apocalypse business, a regular bus run into New York on Saturdays to give people a bit of breathing space if the walls started closing in. I'm looking to get that started up again in a bit... if you ever need a bit more room, you're welcome to get a lift."

"We'll see," Cammie said. She would've liked to have gone on her own. She had been to New York once, on her way up through Canada right after everything had happened. She didn't really remember much of it, except running from a bunch of guys and then managing to scrape enough together to get on another north bound bus.

"Too many people on a bus after all, is still too many people," she pointed out. "Is there anything near by for people who don't like crowds of kids?"

"There's a few things. And if it gets too much, there's always me and the Broomstick." Amanda grinned. "No, not an actual broomstick, 's just what I call my car. She got a bit banged up during the Apocalypse thing, but she survived. I remember what it's like to get stuck at the mansion, so I'd be happy to give you an escape route." She shrugged. "I know we've just met, but call me a good Samaritan."

Cammie raised an eyebrow at the broomstick remark and shook her head a bit. It was a car. Okay, she named her car. People named things all the time, it didn't mean it had to make sense. "I'll just call you by name," she said with a twist of her lips. 'Good Samaritans' were few and far between, but this place seemed packed with people who at least went through the motions.

"So, you've been here awhile?"

Amanda took another drag of her cigarette and nodded. "Came here from England when I was sixteen, 'bout five years ago now, stayed for a couple of years at the school, then got myself into a bit of shite and left for a bit. Technically I'm a grad these days and there's the job in New York, like I said. I've got family here as well as a boyfriend, so I tend to turn up every so often."

Five years was a long time. A lot could change in five years. She knew that from experience. "So, what do you think of this, then?" This being this place, and everything else here. Or just the idea of a bunch of whatever socially acceptable term people like her liked to use to make themselves feel a bit more human.

"Honestly? It's what you make it." Amanda leaned back on the railing again. "If you want to turn things around, look at having a life beyond where you're going to sleep next, then you've got the chance to do that. There's people here who will help, whatever you need help with. If you figure it's all a bunch of do-gooder hype, then that's okay too. No-one will force you into anything." There was a hint of regret in Amanda's expression as she spoke. "In the end, the responsibility's down to you. If you want the chance, you've got it."

That was fair. So far everyone was very good at avoiding the 'too good to be true' tags that would tip this off as being one big scam. "Alright, you guys all win. This place apparently is _not_ a scam," she said, making it sound like it was a huge concession on her part. "Good thing too, because I'd want to take the blankets with me and I don't think they'd fit in my bag."