xp_logs | Manuel, Amanda & Valentia (Reply)

Manuel and Amanda try their hand at mini putt for the five year old and both agree that they're not very good.

"This dries up my competitive intiative though I am not sure what it does for yours," Maunel said as he balanced between his cane and his putter. Valentia was up, standing on the green and carefully placing her ball. The shot looked easy enough although Manuel quickly found that putting with his left while he had the cane in the right was not an easy way to play this indoor sport.

"It's giving me all sorts of blackmail material for future use," Amanda replied, grinning back at him. She had her hair in twin braids and was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt over a t-shirt with "I Love NY" on it and looked decidedly teenaged instead of her twenty-two years. "Besides, this is what Valentia picked and today's her day. Isn't it, love?" she added as the small girl looked up at her name.

"I believe you have all the blackmail material you need - I have seen Snow Valley's records on me - therefore, I am damned and you are grinning like a fool.. would you stop that."

"I'm having fun," Amanda protested without rancour. And she was - it was good to be able to set aside the last few weeks and just enjoy the moment. "And you're only as damned as you make yourself, Mr. White Bishop. Keep your nose clean and you've got nothing to fear."

"My nose has never been cleaner," Manuel replied drily and watched his sister miss the hole, the ball folllowing up right around the small course and back to where she was. He smiled and stepped forward, making an attempt to help her after she set it up again, but she shrugged him off. He said nothing to her but backed off, on the brink of rolling his eyes.

"She's five this year."

"Already? Now I feel old." Amanda's expression softened as she looked at the small girl. "She's doing good. Hard to imagine she was the same little thing we found under a bed in Spain."

"A chance meeting, we were lucky to find her," he agreed and his sister skipped off down the green to putt again, despite the fact that it wasn't her turn. He eyed a couple three games behind them, locking eyes with one, then the other before he turned and knelt down, setting up his ball. "I am afraid I am falling behind her in sign language, I do not practice enough."

"Too busy?" she asked airily, although there was concern there to be read.

"Only as busy as Emma makes me," Manuel countered with a brush of his sleeve and lined up. He hit the ball but then Valentia made a quick dash across the green and strayed his ball to the side. He sighed at her apologetic smile and gestured frantically, but he couldn't keep up with what she was saying. "Are you?" he asked, standing back while Valentia busied herself by balancing on a rock.

"Busy? Yeah, a bit. Nico's antics are keeping me busy," she replied with a roll of her eyes as she lined up to take her own shot. She didn't mention the whole Morgan issue, but knew he'd pick up the emotional traces and ask if he was curious. "Work itself's slowed down a bit. It's either a good thing or a bad thing."

"I assumed. That is a bad thing - work being slow, I mean." He tore his attention away from Amanda to watch his sister make another strike at her ball, missing the hole completely and decided that they weren't going to keep score. He was terrible at this game anyways.
"Well, it could mean we've scared every bastard out there trying to screw people over into behaving?" Amanda suggested, then snorted. "Yeah, right. It's bad. It's like the calm before the storm, you know?" She swung at the ball but hit it with too much force and it shot past the hole. "Bugger."

"Truthfully, many things have been quiet in the Hellfire Club. New business should be buzzing and shareholders walking in through the doors. Everyone seems to be reserving their money but what is worse, word has been silenced." He paused, waiting for his sister to smack her ball into the hole but missed again, and leaned down to show her how to push the ball with the putter properly.

"Silenced? Any word on why?" Amanda asked, curiosity piqued. "Emma got anything on the telepathic radar?"

"I have not asked her, however, I am sure she has noticed. Something is going on - a shift perhaps? They are more wary than normal yet no one is speaking."

"Oh, that so doesn't bode well," the witch complained, managing to sink the ball on her third try. "Have I mentioned how much I hate the Hellfire Club? Political shifts never mean anything good, and it usually hits some poor bastard on the sidelines."

"I am not sure," Manuel said, sinking his own ball. "Although it does seem to be the norm when things go as quiet as they have been."

"Lke I said, calm before the storm." Amanda pulled a face. "Ah well, it's what I signed up for. You too, I s'pose." Her disapproval about him being with the Hellfire Club again wasn't new, but she knew better than to argue it with him. Especially not in front of Valentia. "Hey, munchkin," she called, to catch the girl's attention. "~Would you like some ice cream now?~" she asked in Spanish. "~I've been beaten at mini-golf enough today.~"