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xp_logsAmanda and Jean discuss Nico's issues, which involves an uncomfortable trip down memory lane.
Jean made her way though the mansion, past the garlands and Christmas decorations positioned throughout the main floors. The scent of gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies permeated the halls from Lorna's feverish holiday baking. Jean wore a green ribbed sweater and a pair of dark blue jeans, and would occasionally gently press her hand to her other arm as she sought out Amanda's familiar mental signature.
She found it on the back porch and slipped outside, glancing out at the snow covered landscape, her breath misting like smoke as she came out.
"It's pretty this time of year. I can see why you come out here," she said. The view, among other reasons, such as the cigarette in Amanda's hand.
Amanda gave the older woman a wry grin and took another deep drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out in the sand bucket. "Time was, Ange and I practically lived out here," she replied, referring to their days of sitting and smoking on the back porch. "Horrible habit, I know, but I can't give up all my old vices now, can I?" She brushed some snow from the railing and leaned back against it, pulling her woolly hat down further over her ears. "What brings you out here, Doc?"
Jean smiled. She wasn't going to lecture Amanda. She wasn't going to be the police monitor. It had started to backfire when she did speak up, so she was trying to work on picking and choosing her battles. Trying being the operative word.
"I wanted to ask your help with something. Do you mind if we go back to my office?"
Her fair skin looked paler than usual, almost pallid, something she tried to cover up with makeup and wasn't really noticeable until you got up close.
Amanda's eyebrows rose inquiringly, but she nodded and pushed herself back off the railing. "Sure thing, Doc," she replied - her tone was casual but as always around the medlab staff, her body language was guarded, almost nervous. She'd been forgiven, but it was another thing to forget what she'd done, especially in light of Nico's power manifestation. "Nico's all right, yeah?" she asked as she followed Jean inside, pausing to knock snow off her Docs.
Jean waited for Amanda a moment before she continued on toward the long hallway where the faculty each had their offices.
"She appears to be healthy, but she's become distant, reclusive. She seems to be keeping to her bedroom most of the time," she said. With the holiday break and no classes, there was no real reason to leave.
"I am concerned, but I figured someone closer to her age might be easier for her to talk to."
Once they arrived at Jean's office, she opened the door to let her in.
"After you."
Amanda entered the cozy room, waiting for Jean to come in before taking a seat and hoping this wouldn't be a desk conversation. She still felt like a naughty school girl when there were desks involved. "It helps she trusts me," she agreed, referring to Nico. "And, well, I kind of understand a bit more personally what she's going through right now." She said it without stuttering, although a faint blush appeared in her cheeks.
Jean's office was separated into two sections, her desk, with two chairs in front of the desk, and a small seating area off to the side, with a couch, coffee table, and two chairs, for more informal gatherings. Jean sat down on the couch. She had intended on doing so anyway. If she could avoid the large stack of papers sitting on her desk to grade as long as possible, she would.
Amanda's comment gave her a pause.
"And what did she go through, exactly?" she said.
There was the mission report, the bare bones facts, and then there was the real version. Jean knew what she had seen there, but she still didn't quite completely understand. Magic.
Amanda plopped down on one of the chairs, Jean's question making her pause. "Short version? The ritual her parents put her through jump-started her mutation. It's active now." She grimaced, brushing her hair back from her face, before going on. "There's not a lot of us out there, mutants with magic, I mean. But there are some, and the common factor seems to be that we're all energy converters. One kind of energy in, magical energy out. Nico..." Another pause, before Amanda plunged on. "She takes in life energy. Like what I did to you lot to Heal Remy."
Jean hadn't forgotten, but it was another chapter in her past now. She had gotten over any ill feelings long ago. Leaning back in her chair, Jean fell silent for a few moments as she processed what Amanda was saying.
"There was a bird, during the battle. I saw it fall to the ground. I also felt something...a cult member...was he..."
She had left too quickly with the others, there was too much going on, too much interference. But she had noticed something. The presence of the man's mind had merely...faded. She had a feeling she already knew his fate.
"This could be a big problem. How big of a scope do you think we talking here?"
"I don't know," was Amanda's honest answer. The young witch looked tired and worried as she leaned forward, propping her elbows on her thighs, hands clasped in front of her. "Back in Wyoming, I could feel her absorbing energy, that's why I told you to get everyone out - I didn't think she'd be able to hold it back, what with her just manifesting then. She managed to reel herself in, too, but she's going to need to learn to control it and fast, before she accidentally hurts anyone. I can help her with that; with Selene, when she taught me to use life energy as a source, she taught me to control it too, so no-one would find out."
Jean nodded. "I think it's a good idea for her to learn control, but the trouble is practicing that control. It would require using guinea pigs, wouldn't it?" she said. And she had a feeling Amanda might offer herself up for that challenge.
"How did Selene teach you before?"
"The important thing first is to make sure she lets herself recharge - poor kid's terrified of hurting someone so she'll be hiding away letting herself run down. I can take her somewhere where she can relax and let go, at least for a bit. It'll give me an idea of her range, too." Dealing with the practicalities seemed to help Amanda - she sat up again, expression becoming more hopeful. "We can work on control once she's gotten used to the whole energy transfer thing and her magic training will help her learn that - Selene taught me it's about mind over matter, in a way. Concentration, meditation, all that jazz."
She paused, and then suddenly laughed. "You know what's totally fucking weird? Sitting here talking about that bitch like she was just a tutor or something, not some bloody psychic vampire talking in my head."
"But you're certain this energy will only be to fuel her powers, right? It won't threaten her life?" Jean said, rubbing the back of her neck. She closed her eyes a moment, then opened them. They were bleary, but she still smiled softly.
"At least some good came out of it."
Jean shook her head. "I'm still leery about the danger that may be caused to the person she drains in her practicing," she said, giving her a knowing look.
"If her range can kill a man..."
She said it. It had to be said. They couldn't just pretend like it didn't happen.
"I know." Amanda huffed out a sigh. "But that's why I'll take her in hand at first. For whatever reason, she can only drain so much out of me - I noticed back at the caves that something was blocking her. Maybe it's the magic, maybe it's the whole fellow energy converter, I don't know, but I'll use it. And I can always power back up when I get back to New York." The fact it was perhaps a kind of appropriate karma considering her own actions hung in the air between them. "But until she's got control, we'll need to make sure she's powering up regularly, where it's safe."
Jean fell silent for a few moments, resting her chin on her tips of her fingers. She had her reservations, but Amanda's proposal seemed to be the safest route at the moment.
Finally she nodded. "Okay. But I recommend that you and Nico to keep connected with someone at all times by comm system whenever you're practicing. You can pick who, but I'd like it to be someone with medical expertise. I would also feel better for you to be hooked up to a heart monitor as well and to keep some medical equipment on site," Jean said.
"She might not have been able to drain you completely before, but we can't count on that to be true every time, especially with this much risk. The idea is for you two to be far away from other people and, like you said, you need to go to a city to recharge. If she goes too far and you can't make it there, that would be dangerous," she said.
Though they would be far away from other people, if they stayed connected and she did wind up draining Amanda too much, at least perhaps Jean, Hank, Amelia, or Crystal could teach Nico some methods of reviving her should things take a turn for the worst. And if it came down to it, they could talk her through it over the comm system or come out to help.
Amanda grimaced at Jean's suggestions, but eventually nodded. "The heart monitor will have to wait, at least past the first time," she said. "Nico's been hiding in her room and she's going to need to feed, badly. So I'll have to take her somewhere where I can be sure she won't hurt anyone." She paused, then an idea struck her. "Could you keep a mental eye on me?" she asked. "No links -" and that came out more firmly than she perhaps meant. "-just tracking my surface thoughts? If anything goes wrong, you'd notice straight away, wouldn't you?"
Jean usually approached things from a medical standpoint. What was the safest way of doing something, or, alternatively, the worst way possible? Her mind often went through various scenarios,evaluating the risks versus the reward. Amanda might not have liked it but if it kept someone from visiting her in the medlab....
Slipping her hands away from her chin, Jean rested them in her lap, flinching a moment as she did before finding another place to put them.
She glanced up to Amanda, then nodded. "I'd have to be somewhat close, not too close obviously, but its possible."
Amanda's eyebrow raised at the flinch. "We'll sort it out," she agreed. "But I think there's something else needs fixing first." She nodded at Jean's arm. "What'd you do?"
Jean followed Amanda's gaze, remembering why she'd called her into her office in the first place, and then slowly slipped back her sweater sleeve to reveal a bandage over her arm, one that had red bleeding through it. It was the same place where she'd been slashed by the fog monster during the fight in the cave, over two weeks ago.
"It won't heal. Not even a scab," she said.
Amanda was on her feet immediately, crossing the space between them to sit on the couch beside Jean and examine the wound. "Magical injury, yeah?" she asked, although she already knew. "One of those lackies the Minorus had?"
Jean slowly peeled off part of the bandage, showing five jagged cuts that she had switched up but had not even begun to heal and had an angry red outline around the edges where the stitches had been sewn. A trickle of blood seeped from the wounds. After giving Amanda a good look, Jean replaced the bandage and nodded.
"Some...fog monster. It was transparent, and I couldn't attack it but it could attack me. It was controlled by a man with a staff. It disappeared after Kurt broke the staff," Jean said, then shook her head.
"I've tried everything I can think of medically. I've been taking antibiotics for infection, anti-inflammatory medications, hoping it'd start to heal but...nothing's working. So I came to you," she said.
If it was magical...she was beginning to like magic less and less.
Amanda grimaced. "I'm glad you did. This needs magical healing." She paused. "I can fix it for you, but my Healing still needs a power source. There's plenty of energy here in the mansion--" Meaning inhabitants. "--but if you'd prefer, we can do this in New York where I can spread how much energy I take from people to the point it's hardly noticeable and I don't have to worry so much about asking permission."
"New York," Jean said immediately. She didn't want to put the mansion residents through that unnecessarily just for her.
"So it works like it did with Remy?" Taking life energy from others to fuel the healing process.
She wasn't too happy about it. Unfortunately it was the nature of the power, she recognized. It was a balance. If it was only a little, it would make her feel somewhat better.
"There's gotta be a price," Amanda replied steadily. "Before, the Healing came from me, drained me. After Selene, it comes from other people." She gave another of those brief wry grins. "I guess it was something of an object lesson in why we don't muck about with dark magic."
Jean glanced away, focusing on the grounds outside for a few moments before she nodded.
"What do I need to do?" she said, looking back to her.
Amanda's grin this time was broad and slightly devilish. "Well, first of all, you get to take a ride in my Broomstick."
Jean made her way though the mansion, past the garlands and Christmas decorations positioned throughout the main floors. The scent of gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies permeated the halls from Lorna's feverish holiday baking. Jean wore a green ribbed sweater and a pair of dark blue jeans, and would occasionally gently press her hand to her other arm as she sought out Amanda's familiar mental signature.
She found it on the back porch and slipped outside, glancing out at the snow covered landscape, her breath misting like smoke as she came out.
"It's pretty this time of year. I can see why you come out here," she said. The view, among other reasons, such as the cigarette in Amanda's hand.
Amanda gave the older woman a wry grin and took another deep drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out in the sand bucket. "Time was, Ange and I practically lived out here," she replied, referring to their days of sitting and smoking on the back porch. "Horrible habit, I know, but I can't give up all my old vices now, can I?" She brushed some snow from the railing and leaned back against it, pulling her woolly hat down further over her ears. "What brings you out here, Doc?"
Jean smiled. She wasn't going to lecture Amanda. She wasn't going to be the police monitor. It had started to backfire when she did speak up, so she was trying to work on picking and choosing her battles. Trying being the operative word.
"I wanted to ask your help with something. Do you mind if we go back to my office?"
Her fair skin looked paler than usual, almost pallid, something she tried to cover up with makeup and wasn't really noticeable until you got up close.
Amanda's eyebrows rose inquiringly, but she nodded and pushed herself back off the railing. "Sure thing, Doc," she replied - her tone was casual but as always around the medlab staff, her body language was guarded, almost nervous. She'd been forgiven, but it was another thing to forget what she'd done, especially in light of Nico's power manifestation. "Nico's all right, yeah?" she asked as she followed Jean inside, pausing to knock snow off her Docs.
Jean waited for Amanda a moment before she continued on toward the long hallway where the faculty each had their offices.
"She appears to be healthy, but she's become distant, reclusive. She seems to be keeping to her bedroom most of the time," she said. With the holiday break and no classes, there was no real reason to leave.
"I am concerned, but I figured someone closer to her age might be easier for her to talk to."
Once they arrived at Jean's office, she opened the door to let her in.
"After you."
Amanda entered the cozy room, waiting for Jean to come in before taking a seat and hoping this wouldn't be a desk conversation. She still felt like a naughty school girl when there were desks involved. "It helps she trusts me," she agreed, referring to Nico. "And, well, I kind of understand a bit more personally what she's going through right now." She said it without stuttering, although a faint blush appeared in her cheeks.
Jean's office was separated into two sections, her desk, with two chairs in front of the desk, and a small seating area off to the side, with a couch, coffee table, and two chairs, for more informal gatherings. Jean sat down on the couch. She had intended on doing so anyway. If she could avoid the large stack of papers sitting on her desk to grade as long as possible, she would.
Amanda's comment gave her a pause.
"And what did she go through, exactly?" she said.
There was the mission report, the bare bones facts, and then there was the real version. Jean knew what she had seen there, but she still didn't quite completely understand. Magic.
Amanda plopped down on one of the chairs, Jean's question making her pause. "Short version? The ritual her parents put her through jump-started her mutation. It's active now." She grimaced, brushing her hair back from her face, before going on. "There's not a lot of us out there, mutants with magic, I mean. But there are some, and the common factor seems to be that we're all energy converters. One kind of energy in, magical energy out. Nico..." Another pause, before Amanda plunged on. "She takes in life energy. Like what I did to you lot to Heal Remy."
Jean hadn't forgotten, but it was another chapter in her past now. She had gotten over any ill feelings long ago. Leaning back in her chair, Jean fell silent for a few moments as she processed what Amanda was saying.
"There was a bird, during the battle. I saw it fall to the ground. I also felt something...a cult member...was he..."
She had left too quickly with the others, there was too much going on, too much interference. But she had noticed something. The presence of the man's mind had merely...faded. She had a feeling she already knew his fate.
"This could be a big problem. How big of a scope do you think we talking here?"
"I don't know," was Amanda's honest answer. The young witch looked tired and worried as she leaned forward, propping her elbows on her thighs, hands clasped in front of her. "Back in Wyoming, I could feel her absorbing energy, that's why I told you to get everyone out - I didn't think she'd be able to hold it back, what with her just manifesting then. She managed to reel herself in, too, but she's going to need to learn to control it and fast, before she accidentally hurts anyone. I can help her with that; with Selene, when she taught me to use life energy as a source, she taught me to control it too, so no-one would find out."
Jean nodded. "I think it's a good idea for her to learn control, but the trouble is practicing that control. It would require using guinea pigs, wouldn't it?" she said. And she had a feeling Amanda might offer herself up for that challenge.
"How did Selene teach you before?"
"The important thing first is to make sure she lets herself recharge - poor kid's terrified of hurting someone so she'll be hiding away letting herself run down. I can take her somewhere where she can relax and let go, at least for a bit. It'll give me an idea of her range, too." Dealing with the practicalities seemed to help Amanda - she sat up again, expression becoming more hopeful. "We can work on control once she's gotten used to the whole energy transfer thing and her magic training will help her learn that - Selene taught me it's about mind over matter, in a way. Concentration, meditation, all that jazz."
She paused, and then suddenly laughed. "You know what's totally fucking weird? Sitting here talking about that bitch like she was just a tutor or something, not some bloody psychic vampire talking in my head."
"But you're certain this energy will only be to fuel her powers, right? It won't threaten her life?" Jean said, rubbing the back of her neck. She closed her eyes a moment, then opened them. They were bleary, but she still smiled softly.
"At least some good came out of it."
Jean shook her head. "I'm still leery about the danger that may be caused to the person she drains in her practicing," she said, giving her a knowing look.
"If her range can kill a man..."
She said it. It had to be said. They couldn't just pretend like it didn't happen.
"I know." Amanda huffed out a sigh. "But that's why I'll take her in hand at first. For whatever reason, she can only drain so much out of me - I noticed back at the caves that something was blocking her. Maybe it's the magic, maybe it's the whole fellow energy converter, I don't know, but I'll use it. And I can always power back up when I get back to New York." The fact it was perhaps a kind of appropriate karma considering her own actions hung in the air between them. "But until she's got control, we'll need to make sure she's powering up regularly, where it's safe."
Jean fell silent for a few moments, resting her chin on her tips of her fingers. She had her reservations, but Amanda's proposal seemed to be the safest route at the moment.
Finally she nodded. "Okay. But I recommend that you and Nico to keep connected with someone at all times by comm system whenever you're practicing. You can pick who, but I'd like it to be someone with medical expertise. I would also feel better for you to be hooked up to a heart monitor as well and to keep some medical equipment on site," Jean said.
"She might not have been able to drain you completely before, but we can't count on that to be true every time, especially with this much risk. The idea is for you two to be far away from other people and, like you said, you need to go to a city to recharge. If she goes too far and you can't make it there, that would be dangerous," she said.
Though they would be far away from other people, if they stayed connected and she did wind up draining Amanda too much, at least perhaps Jean, Hank, Amelia, or Crystal could teach Nico some methods of reviving her should things take a turn for the worst. And if it came down to it, they could talk her through it over the comm system or come out to help.
Amanda grimaced at Jean's suggestions, but eventually nodded. "The heart monitor will have to wait, at least past the first time," she said. "Nico's been hiding in her room and she's going to need to feed, badly. So I'll have to take her somewhere where I can be sure she won't hurt anyone." She paused, then an idea struck her. "Could you keep a mental eye on me?" she asked. "No links -" and that came out more firmly than she perhaps meant. "-just tracking my surface thoughts? If anything goes wrong, you'd notice straight away, wouldn't you?"
Jean usually approached things from a medical standpoint. What was the safest way of doing something, or, alternatively, the worst way possible? Her mind often went through various scenarios,evaluating the risks versus the reward. Amanda might not have liked it but if it kept someone from visiting her in the medlab....
Slipping her hands away from her chin, Jean rested them in her lap, flinching a moment as she did before finding another place to put them.
She glanced up to Amanda, then nodded. "I'd have to be somewhat close, not too close obviously, but its possible."
Amanda's eyebrow raised at the flinch. "We'll sort it out," she agreed. "But I think there's something else needs fixing first." She nodded at Jean's arm. "What'd you do?"
Jean followed Amanda's gaze, remembering why she'd called her into her office in the first place, and then slowly slipped back her sweater sleeve to reveal a bandage over her arm, one that had red bleeding through it. It was the same place where she'd been slashed by the fog monster during the fight in the cave, over two weeks ago.
"It won't heal. Not even a scab," she said.
Amanda was on her feet immediately, crossing the space between them to sit on the couch beside Jean and examine the wound. "Magical injury, yeah?" she asked, although she already knew. "One of those lackies the Minorus had?"
Jean slowly peeled off part of the bandage, showing five jagged cuts that she had switched up but had not even begun to heal and had an angry red outline around the edges where the stitches had been sewn. A trickle of blood seeped from the wounds. After giving Amanda a good look, Jean replaced the bandage and nodded.
"Some...fog monster. It was transparent, and I couldn't attack it but it could attack me. It was controlled by a man with a staff. It disappeared after Kurt broke the staff," Jean said, then shook her head.
"I've tried everything I can think of medically. I've been taking antibiotics for infection, anti-inflammatory medications, hoping it'd start to heal but...nothing's working. So I came to you," she said.
If it was magical...she was beginning to like magic less and less.
Amanda grimaced. "I'm glad you did. This needs magical healing." She paused. "I can fix it for you, but my Healing still needs a power source. There's plenty of energy here in the mansion--" Meaning inhabitants. "--but if you'd prefer, we can do this in New York where I can spread how much energy I take from people to the point it's hardly noticeable and I don't have to worry so much about asking permission."
"New York," Jean said immediately. She didn't want to put the mansion residents through that unnecessarily just for her.
"So it works like it did with Remy?" Taking life energy from others to fuel the healing process.
She wasn't too happy about it. Unfortunately it was the nature of the power, she recognized. It was a balance. If it was only a little, it would make her feel somewhat better.
"There's gotta be a price," Amanda replied steadily. "Before, the Healing came from me, drained me. After Selene, it comes from other people." She gave another of those brief wry grins. "I guess it was something of an object lesson in why we don't muck about with dark magic."
Jean glanced away, focusing on the grounds outside for a few moments before she nodded.
"What do I need to do?" she said, looking back to her.
Amanda's grin this time was broad and slightly devilish. "Well, first of all, you get to take a ride in my Broomstick."
