Log: Amanda and Jubilee: The Game.

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Backdated to 23rd November 2009, mid-morning

Jubilee meets Amanda outside the hospital after Wanda is admitted. They talk, and then head back to the office while playing a little 'game'.





Wanda was sleeping, which was exactly what she needed to do, so Amanda took it as her cue to go. Work called, as it always did. Besides she was gagging for a smoke - hospitals sucked for the nicotine-addicted. Her boots squeaked slightly on the linoleum floors as she walked out and she nodded to the receptionist as she left; it was always good to cultivate the nice, normal identity, the cheerful twenty-something research assistant. Nice and normal, she found, opened more doors than intimidation and threats.

Outside the air was brisk and she paused a moment to zip her leather jacket up before reaching into the pocket for her cigarettes. Out of courtesy to the people going in and out of the hospital, she waited until she had walked a little way down the street before lighting up and inhaling. Besides, being an arse tended to get you noticed and that was not what they did.

"How's she doing?" Jubilee asked, seemingly melting from the shadows by a corner of the building.

It wasn't so much that she was trying for stealthy, just that over the past few months it had become such second nature to her through training that any opportunity to practice had turned into any time at all.

"Sleeping," Amanda replied, glancing over and giving the other woman a nod. They all had their ways and Jubilee was following Remy's pretty closely. Which meant the same appearing and disappearing tricks. "She'll be out in a bit and then we get to sit on her to make sure she lets herself recover."

"If she lets us," Jubilee noted, fishing out her own pack of smokes as she saw Amanda was about to light up. "You'd think they were the juniors, the trouble the bosses have with admitting they're not invulnerable."

"Wanda knows better than to cross me when I'm making the serious face," Amanda said with a laugh, offering Jubilee her lighter. "Besides, I've got the higher ground now - she should have listened to me last week when I told her to take a break."

"See, if I tried that with Remy he'd totally give me that 'Are you shitting me?' look of his and probably send me to Africa for my troubles. That man does not like being fussed over, at least not by me, anyhow." Jubilee noted, accepting the lighter and putting it to the tip of her cigarette.

She took in a deep puff, allowing it to linger for a moment before blowing it out in a perfect smoke ring. That had taken days of practice, usually at night when she didn't yet feel capable of any kind of sleep.

The witch snorted a little at the display. In a lot of ways Jubilee had changed - in others, she was still the same girl Amanda had known back at the school, using front to cover insecurity.

"Remy tends to know what he can handle and what he can't," she replied. "He's like Pete that way - they work themselves into the ground but they know that they only thing can can rely on in the field is themselves. They go fucking up their health... well, it's fucking up the machine, isn't it?" She took a deep drag of her cigarette and blew out a plume of combined smoke and breath steam. "It's a balance, pretty much. Wanda's still working that one out."

"Sure, doesn't stop me worrying when he comes in all beat to shit though, even if I know he's fine lookin' after himself." Jubilee said, leaning back against the building and glancing aside at her friend. "Forget it, not my business to worry about people anyhow."

"Worrying makes you human, Lee. The day we stop worrying about each other is the day they'll have to put us in the ground for being the monsters." Amanda nudged the other girl. "Come on, I've got to get back to the office. Visiting hours are over - it wouldn't stop you getting in, but best let Wanda have her rest."

"Sure, I suppose I should put in an appearance, especially since Doug will kill me if I don't take my stint on the front desk. He was swearing at someone in Kuwait yesterday."

Jubilee fell into step beside her friend, their mostly similar heights making it fairly easy to keep up. As they walked she let her mind wander slightly, examining the workers and people rushing about around them.

"Late back to work after seeing his mistress for a quickie at lunch," Jubilee noted, watching a guy rush past them, adjusting his tie as he went.

Amanda chuckled. She liked this 'game'. She nodded at the reflection in the store window they were passing. "And there's his wife's private detective, on his trail," she added, smirking, at the man obviously following him without being obvious about it. "Someone's in the shite."

"Yell at him the middle of a restaurant, or simply file quietly for divorce type, do you think?" Jubilee asked, glancing at the reflection as Amanda pointed it out. "From the look of him, I'm thinking he's that guy who always thought the world owed him something. Dude is gonna get a nasty surprise 'bout that sort of thinking."

"I'm thinking more 'change the locks and take him for as much as she can get', personally. Prat like him marries like - bet you anything she's a self-entitled bitch." Amanda took another drag on her cigarette and then grinned. "All right, how about that bird over there? The one with the giant bag? I'm thinking professional shoplifter."

Jubilee observed her for a moment out of the corner of her eye, not quite moving her head as they walked along. She took another drag of her cigarette before answering. "My guess is overly enthusiastic library patron, you can see the shape of the books at the bottom of the bag. Either that or she's just knocked off a convenience store and is carrying about cartons of cigarettes. What do you think, guy behind her looks pretty angry though."

"No-one gets that shirty about books. I'd say store detective." Amanda said. "And you'd be surprised what people nick these days. Maybe she did over a Barnes and Noble?"

"Bulky items are just askin' for trouble," Jubilee observed, watching the store detective, and it would appear that he was indeed one, apprehend the erstwhile shoplifter. Her face took on the indignant look of an innocent but there were subtle differences in her posture and countenance that told it's own story. "You can carry around a lot more small stuff, make more money off 'em too. Don't have to tell you that though. What do you think? Rich guy, or guy who's pretending to be rich so he'll get that job where they're all snooty nosed jerks?"

She nodded toward the suit sitting on a taxi stand bench, his briefcase clutched tightly on his lap.

"The last one," Amanda replied, a brief expression of sympathy crossed her face. "Look at him, he's terrified."

Jubilee's own expression was less sympathetic, but that had more to do with Remy's friends and their training then her real feelings on the matter.

"You ever wonder what we'd have been doing if we weren't doing this?" she asked, thumbs hooking into the side pockets of her respectable work pants - front desk duty meant looking the picture of corporate wage slave. She was anonymous amongst the horde of other office workers moving around them, and that was just the way she liked it.

"Sometimes." Amanda shrugged. "I'd be still in New Orleans, with no magic and a nice normal job." She paused, then grinned. "And bored out of my skull. You?"

"Blowing some tourist for a hot shower and a night off the street, no doubt," Jubilee said after a moments thought. "I figured I'd be getting by, just not terribly happy with how I was doin' it."

"Strange, that," was Amanda's sarcastic reply. "Isn't whoring supposed to be sexy?"

"Terribly sexy, totally. Like, with a side of 'dear God how can I contain myself, I'm so excited.'" Jubilee noted, deadpan in a way she usually wasn't, she was as aware of Amanda's history as Amanda was of hers, although her most recent history possibly not so much. Jubilee had never felt a need to talk about it before. "I was a huge bitch back then, wasn't I? Like, more then judgmental even."

"You thought you had something to prove," the witch replied mildly. "So did I. So yeah, we were both pretty cuntish back then. Yay maturity and all that?"

"For certain values of maturity, anyway," Jubilee noted with a sudden sideways grin, expression mischievous. "Bet I could beat you back to the office from here, like, will buy you lunch if I lose style bet, shall we say?"

An answering grin crossed Amanda's face. Jubilee could outpace her, easily, but Amanda had the city on her side. "You're on."