Amara & Nessa!James | Late morning

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Vanessa goes to 64 Square looking for possible updates on Adrienne while wearing one of her alts and runs into Amara.

Vanessa didn't wear James around nearly as much as she thought she ought to. Part of that may have been because she'd met the real guy. She'd talked to him, flirted with him and spent the better part of a night with him. He was a nice guy. It felt a little weird walking around in his body, even if he knew she would do it. Today, though, she just didn't want the hassle of guys cat calling or staring at her ass. Bot her own body and the fabulously peach-skinned alt she frequently used drew too much attention to themselves, and not always for altogether different reasons. Given how rarely she wore James around, however, Vanessa felt like she was still trying to find his personality. In the end, it was entirely possible James was going to end up being a close version of herself, only obviously a guy.


In the middle of avoiding going back to the office yet Vanessa found herself staring out James' eyes and up at a very familiar building. A building she used to live on the top floor of. Out of curiosity and a general awareness that things just weren't the same without Adrienne around, James pulled open the door to the build Adrienne Frost owned and headed to the elevator. Every so often Vanessa came here and checked in with Adrienne's office upstairs to see if there was any word from her other than the fact that she was still in Boston. Today likely wouldn't be any more informative than the other days had been, but it couldn't hurt to ride the elevator up and check.

Vanessa wasn't the only one to still visit the office - Amara had kept in friendly contact with some of the people she'd worked with when she was Adrienne's assistant, and had therefore retained her clothes borrowing privileges. Which she enjoyed, since there was no way she could afford this sort of clothing on her budget, and Amara had honestly come to enjoy the designer wear she'd had access to. Or at least some of it, there were things in that wardrobe she would never imagine wearing.

She reached the elevator at the same time as the unfamiliar face, offering him a friendly smile as they both waited for the doors to open. He honestly didn't seem the type to be visiting the office, but then they got all kinds of people stopping by.


Smiles came naturally to James' face. It was one of the reasons why Vanessa had liked it so much. He had that sort of warm, friendly smile that made strangers feel comfortable around him. It wasn't just that he came off as non-threatening despite his size, the man just put people at ease around him. Vanessa had replicated that pretty well. James was laid back, casual, hands in his pockets and wearing jeans and a tee shirt under his jacket. He was your basic everyman. But Vanessa recognized the blood at James' side instantly. Amara had very much been a part of Daniel's life. If asked Vanessa would say that Daniel had a thing for the young woman without it ever occurring to her that maybe she herself had a bit of a thing for the fresh-faced blonde. Amara didn't know James, however, and Vanessa wasn't even sure the girl realized it had been Vanessa under Daniel's skin anyhow.


"Hi, how ya doin'?" James' greeting both sounded and felt more like the sort of greeting issued to your favorite bartender at the pub where you got drinks every night with friends after work. It wasn't the way most people greeted a stranger.

"Well, thank you," Amara replied, a little surprised. It wasn't the sort of greeting she was used to from a perfect stranger - a familiar stranger, maybe, she was used to chatting to baristas and waiters in a similiar manner. But Amara was never one to be rude, so she let the surprised moment pass, adjusting her grip on the dry cleaning bags she held.

"I don't think I've seen you around here before," she ventured curiously. "Are you new, or just visiting?"


"I'm a new visitor and a friend of a slightly more frequent visitor," he answered. The slightly playful expression on James' face clearly stated he knew that wasn't a particularly enlightening answer. "I'm just coming to see if anyone's heard anything from the woman who owns the building and the company upstairs on behalf of her best friend. She makes a habit of coming by every few months to check in but today I'm here instead." It wasn't precisely a lie. It wasn't precisely the truth either given that the metamorph really was the best friend he was here on behalf of.

"Ah," she said with a laugh. It wasn't the most enlightening answer, but Amara wasn't entirely unused to that. "Well, I'm Amara, Adrienne's former assistant." She held out a hand for him to shake. "I haven't heard anything about her return, but I'm not in the loop in the same way as I used to be. It's merely office gossip for me these days."


James shook her hand, his grip firm enough to not be insulting to her but not nearly tight enough to squish her hand in his larger one. "Nice to meet you, Amara. That's a pretty name; it suits you. I'm James." The elevator arrived and James held the door open for Amara and her dry cleaning. "I'm pretty sure offices actually run on gossip. If there was no gossip people would stop showing up. But I'm also pretty sure it's a vain hope Vanessa clings to that there will be some sort of actual word about Adrienne one of these times, even if it isn't that she's returning any time soon," he said as he followed Amara into the elevator. Adrienne was certainly still running her company. Of that Vanessa was fairly sure. She was also fairly sure Adrienne may be keeping everyone out of the loop for the same reasons she'd told no one she was leaving in the first place.


As James pushed the button for the second to top floor where the main offices were he told Amara, "Without hope you have nothing, though."


"Thank you. Nice to meet you, James," Amara said with a smile, accepting the comment without much fuss and stepping into the lift before James.


That he was a friend of Vanessa's didn't surprise her too much - if nothing else, she knew how close they'd been before Adrienne disappeared. It hadn't really occurred to her that Vanessa would be worried about her friend, and her forehead crinkled for a moment. She'd been so caught up in her own life and what was going on, she hadn't stopped to think about it.


"There isn't anything wrong with having hope," Amara agreed, her forehead smoothing out again. "I'm sure Adrienne had her reasons for leaving, and that when she's able, she'll let people know what they were."


"Yeah, she probably will." James hit the button for the office's floor and leaned against a back corner of the elevator, head tilted to the side and his attention clearly on Amara. "Even with hope that doesn't help the waiting for some people, though. Have you met Vanessa?" Obviously James had insider knowledge that Amara hadn't precisely met her so much as come into contact with her only once when Vanessa ended up at Adrienne's office pissed about something and needing to vent. Vanessa hadn't been at her most polite when dealing with the girl outside Adrienne's office. James, however, took the stance most people would take and continued as if Amara had of course met her often. Vanessa and Adrienne were close, after all, and hung out frequently. So he continued without barely missing a beat. "So then you know she's the restless sort. I swear she twitches when she gets put on hold and starts doing other stuff."


"I know of her, more than have met her." The community that had sprung up around Xavier's wasn't so scattered that Amara didn't occasionally hear things about her, or read comments from her on the journals. "But that doesn't entirely surprise me."


Changing the topic entirely, James veered off and asked, "So you used to be the owner's assistant, right? What does a former assistant do? Find more feeble people assist? It's something like being a professional good Samaritan, isn't it?" James, at least, seemed somewhat amused by himself. Sure, Vanessa knew why Adrienne had needed an assistant, but she still had trouble believing that many people were that busy or that important to warrant all the personal assistants in the world. Then again, her own job qualifications involved an array of weaponry and blow jobs.


Amara just laughed. "I've actually just started working for Elpis. It's an NGO devoted to helping mutants around the world, particularly in developing countries." Amara might be able to pass when it came to being a mutant, but she usually chose not to. It wasn't something she was afraid to admit to, nor was her commitment to working to help mutants.


ELPIS. That was highly convenient. Vanessa had an in with Amara's new boss as well. The smile Vanessa felt inwardly nearly made it to James' face but she managed to paint an interested expression across it instead. "So you are a professional good Samaritan. What sorts of things does ELPIS do specifically? Some organizations are more hands on than others."


"Guilty as charged, it seems." Amara hadn't entirely thought about it like that, but it wasn't a concept she disliked. "Elpis is very hands-on - they do a lot of fieldwork, investigating reports of abuses of child mutants in developing countries, and do what they can to help them - relocate them, arrange for assistance with their powers, whatever is needed."


James looked appropriately impressed. He bowed his head to Amara. "Well, I feel honored to be riding the elevator with such an upright citizen. It's hard to measure up to all that. You're gonna start making me look bad, you realize." The smile on James' face suggested he didn't mind all that much.

"Not my intention, I assue you," she said with a laugh. "I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of people help me out at various points, and I simply want to do the same for other people." She glanced over to him. "What do you do with yourself, James? When you're not checking up on things for Vanessa."

"Construction. A lot of things need rebuilding in the city since that crazy guy who decided to take over Manhattan and claim it as his personal paradise or whatever that was." There was obvious disapproval in James' voice. "Someone should have told him that you're supposed to invade through the backdoor so people aren't prepared to put you down? And I think it was mutants that took him down in the end, right? Anyway, they destroyed a ton of stuff and there's only so many people that can rebuild it all and only so many willing to work in the city. Apparently they think we have more conquering mad men running around than we do."

"I remember," Amara replied, not sounding too impressed herself. "And it was. But..." She shrugged. "They're called mad men for a reason, I suppose. They don't quite think things through to a logical end. I wouldn't have thought New York was a particularly good target for take over, but then that's probably why I'm a college student working for an NGO, and not trying to conquer the world." She smiled a little. "At least it should keep you in work for quite awhile to come."

"That it will. Let's all give thanks to the mad men for helping keep people employed in this time of economic downturn." James gave her a smile. "You and me, we'd make horrible conquerers, obviously. Or really great ones and that's why it's a good thing we don't have any ambition to have our own nation and people. But I might not say no to a throne or jester of my very own."

"There's a silver lining in every cloud, is there not?" Or at least there is if you're willing to look for it. "Oh, I think I would make a terrible one. As much as the idea of a benevolent dictatorship appeals in certain ways, I think I value free will far too much to do a very good job of it." She smiled a little sheepishly. "Though having a jester does sound entertaining. It would certain liven up my college classes."


"I'm not sure a jester would be conducive to the learning process," James hedged. "They're prone to sarcastic quips and biting commentary to go along with the tomfoolery and juggling or whatever else it is they do. If you're actually trying to learn it could be counter productive. But he'd be great for parties."


"Not at all. But there are some classes where I don't seem to learn anything at all, so it would be an improvement on those." She shrugged. "Most of the parties I attend, people seem to do a good enough job of entertaining with their drunken antics. It's quite amusing." At least for those not cleaning up the mess.


"Right, well, that's college parties for you." The elevator made a ding and the doors started to slide open on their floor. "Actually, I that's a lot of adults in bars or clubs as well. Maybe it's a holdover from college that they never grow out of." Or they were hopeless and pathetic. Vanessa didn't say that. James wasn't cynical enough for the comment.

Amara laughed as she stepped out of the elevator, glancing back at James. "I think there are just some people who don't like the idea of growing up." She shrugged. "As long as they're not hurting anyone, I guess that's their choice."

"Does annoying people count as hurting them," James inquired with the sincerest of expressions. "Sometimes those people really hurt my brain and there's just no band-aid or soothing massage to help with that sort of thing."

"I'm not sure," Amara replied with a bit of a laugh. "But I think if your brain is being hurt, it possibly does count."

"See, then they are hurting someone. And my brain was just an innocent bystander in all of this. It didn't do anything to them." James had the beginnings of what could only be described as a pout on his face while he trailed along beside Amara. Vanessa wasn't sure the blonde girl was even going in the same direction she needed to go, but James wouldn't know that anyway.

"Your poor brain," Amara replied teasingly, heading for the Closet. She smiled and nodded to some of the people she passed, noticing the looks James was getting. She hadn't really noticed before this, but he was actually a pretty good looking guy. One whom she was starting to think wasn't entirely sure where he was going. "Perhaps you should just drink yourself, to numb the pain of their idiocy."

"I'm not sure that would work," James replied, following along with Amara. It wasn't entirely clear if he was following her because he wanted to or if he was following because he thought she might lead him where he needed to go. Vanessa noted that Amara hadn't directed her newfound friend in the proper direction yet. "I get drunk, I wake up with a hangover, then my brain tries to bludgeon itself against my skull and just hurts itself more. You see how this is a terrible cycle? I think I need a better distraction." A smile began to form on James' lips. "There have to be ways to distract myself that don't involve hurting my head more, right?"

"I'm sure there are," Amara said, a slight smirk on her face. "I find studying an excellent way of avoiding other people being annoying. I've heard meditation is also a good way." She stopped at the door to the room she needed. "This is me," she continued with a broad grin on her face. "I believe the person who replaced me has her desk back that way." She pointed in the direction from which she'd just come. "And Adrienne's office is also back there."

The look she got from James was sly, as if he had caught onto her masterful plan. "And you wait until now to tell me this? I see what you are up to, madam, and I assure you...your plan succeeds brilliantly." She got a smile that was part smirk but mostly charm. "You can make your escape when my back is turned, but I'll remember you," he playfully threatened.

Amara just laughed. "Good luck with your search, sir," she replied, still smiling. "I do hope Adrienne shows up sooner rather than later. She has been gone for too long." Turning the door handle, she paused before walking through it. "It was a pleasure meeting you, James."

"You, too. Maybe I'll run into you again when I'm not being an errand boy so easily thrown off your trail." James grinned and turned to head in the direction in which Amara had pointed. Vanessa kept up the slightly unsure and possibly lost act until she knew Amara was out of sight, then James' steps grew far more confident and sure. After all, the metamorph knew exactly where she was going.