xp_logs | Kevin & Amara | Thursday morning

Amara escapes work for a bit with Kevin in the pursuit of coffee and the two get to know one another a bit better.

It said a lot about just how part-time Kevin was at ELPIS that he hadn't realized Amara had started working there until Nathan had handed him a stack of files and asked the Southerner to bring it to her desk. This mean, of course, that he went swerving around until he spotted the blonde. He assumed the desk was hers and not just one she was hiding out at in an attempt at not being found. Pausing across the desk from her, Kevin gave her a big smile before speaking. "Mornin', ma'am. Ah've got, well, can't say it's exactly a present. The Man Himself deemed you responsible for the contents herein," he nodded down to the stack of files in his arms, "and it is my duty and honor to deliver them to you." She got another smile when he finished.

No, it was her desk, though technically at the minute she was firing off an email to someone at HeliX reminding them about a meeting later in the week. She glanced up at Kevin's arrival, flashing him a smile as she rose in her seat so she could take them from him properly. "Thank you," she replied, clearing some space before holding her hands out for them. "Lucky me, hey?" Not that Amara was honestly complaining - despite the tediousness of the nature of admin work, it didn't bother her most of the time, enjoying the place where she was working too much for that.

"Real lucky. Nathan either loves you or hates you. It can be hard to tell sometimes." He handed the stack over to her, careful not to let it topple over in case the order of the files was important. "How come Ah had no idea you'd come over to the paper cuts and dignitaries side?" He was sure he spent at least enough time in the office to notice something like a new arrival. Especially when he vaguely knew said new arrival. Kevin and Amara didn't exactly travel in the same circles - if Kevin had anything vaguely resembling a circle, that is - so he hadn't really spent any time with her in all the time they'd both lived at the mansion. Still, he was a guy and pretty girls attracted his attention all the time. And he missed one. Losin' guy points for that one.

"I think I'll choose to believe love. I'd far prefer that option." Truth be told, Amara didn't see Nathan all that often, and most of her coming to work for them had been handled by Angelo anyway. She carefully balanced the stack in the space that she'd cleared, not wanting to have to clear up and sort the inevitable mess of papers that would occur if the stack fell over. "I snuck in the back door," she said, sounding utterly serious for a moment there, before flashing him a smile. "And I seem to recall hearing something about you finally getting your freedom, which I can imagine is pretty distracting."

"Yeah, fairly distracting. The courts were busy so it took months to get a court date and," he shuddered a little. "Ah don't like legalese. It sorta makes my head hurt. But there was a lot of it. Ah finally get to go where Ah want when Ah want and only see a therapist or do powers training if Ah wanna. Nothin' makes a person want to do something less than tellin' 'em they gotta do it, y'know?" Kevin looked over Amara's slightly cluttered desk. It was only maybe newbie clutter. It could have been lack of time clutter as well. "Are you here part time or full time? Seems like you got a lot of files over here."

"It makes my head hurt as well," Amara said with a laugh. "I don't know how Angelo deals with it on a daily basis, I just glance at some of the pages and instantly get a headache. But I can imagine how relieving it must be for you now, having control of your life back." She glanced down at her desk, then smiled a little sheepishly. "Oh no, I'm just part time. I just have something of a workaholic problem." She paused, and then pointed at one of the piles. "And that's technically research for college, rather than actual work. Just don't tell Nathan."

Kevin made a motion as if locking his lips shut. "Ah heard nothin'. Ah saw nothin'. Ah know nothin'. Besides, why get you in trouble when Ah could find a reason to get John in trouble?" He gave her a grin that was clearly up to no good. Truth be told, John seemed to do his work well and be fairly diligent about it. Kevin wasn't actually sure there was anything to get him in trouble about. But he seemed like a good scapegoat. "But it's good to know you're not lettin' Angelo and Nathan boss you 'round too much yet. 'Specially if you're part time. And for the record, Ah'm gonna use that as my excuse why Ah didn't know you'd joined the dark side. Ah hope you're alright with that."

Amara laughed. "I think John can get himself into enough trouble on his own." Though it was true, John spent far too much time actually - gasp - working and being good at his job to get into much trouble. "I don't tend to be very good at letting people boss me around - and as much as I like working here and the work that they do, actually graduating from college is a little bit more important." Sure, one day they'd probably end up owning Amara's soul, but that day was not today. "It's absolutely fine. I didn't make much of a fuss of it when I started as it was." She smiled over to Kevin. "But I am going to go and get myself some coffee before I start working on this, so if you'd like to make it up to me, you're welcome to join me."

"Ah can do that. Ah'm pretty much done for the day anyway." Kevin held out an arm gesturing for her to lead the way. With the implied proximity to another person Kevin pulled his hood up and over his head. It was second nature by now to simply cover himself as much as possible whenever he was going to be within three feet of another person for more than five minutes. Depending on the person, three seconds may have been his threshold for not secure-as-possible interaction.

"Great." Amara locked down the screen of her computer, leaving a post-it note saying she was grabbing coffee before fishing out her wallet. "So what are you going to do with yourself, now that you have the choice?" Amara let Kevin have his space - she'd gotten used to being extra cautious of being aware of someone's personal space living with Yvette, it had almost become second nature. On top of usually being pretty particular about maintaining her own personal space where she could.

"Ah was thinkin' of joinin' the circus," he told her with as great an air of seriousness as he could muster. Kevin only got about halfway to serious, as it turned out, and the little half smile wasn't helping. He grabbed his jacket off a hook near the door and waited for Amara to get her coat on as well before opening the door for her. "Actually, Ah thought real hard 'bout not comin' back at all. But like it or not, my life's here. So, realistically, other than sometimes disappear with no notice and not tell anyone where Ah'm goin' just 'cause Ah can, Ah probably won't do anything different with myself other than what Ah'm already doin'."

Amara laughed a little at the comment, shrugging on her jacket. "It really is something like home, isn't it?" Amara had once always assumed she'd return to Nova Roma, that she would have had to leave everything behind. Now she had the choice to do whatever she liked with her life, and she was -- well, doing the same thing. Building her life around the extended community that being a part of Xavier's had created. "Other than working here, obviously, what do you do?"

He squashed the cheeky, slightly impolite answer that sprung to mind first and instead answered her seriously. "Art. It's more or less my life. Ah took some blacksmithing and other classes at Salem Community the past two semesters but they didn't have anything on offer this semester that Ah was interested in. Ah spend a lotta time in the metal shop that's attached to the garage at the mansion cuttin' down scrap metal and making it into somethin' resemblin' art. Least other people claim it is, and y'know in art it only matters if other people think it qualifies." He held back on choosing a direction once they reached the sidewalk, instead deferring where they ended up for their caffeine jolt to Amara.

Amara directed them to the cafe John had introduced her to once upon a time - it was close, convenient, and they seemed to like the Elpis workers who dropped past there. And they knew her coffee order, which was nice. "I think it should matter if you think it's art or not, since you're the one making it." She smiled over to him. "Do you mind showing people? Because I'd like to see it, if you don't."

Kevin kept in step with Amara once she had chosen their direction and he simply followed her lead. "Ah better not mind, Ah'm gonna be in a gallery." The novelty of that had so not worn off yet and his pride was clearly visible. "But, yeah, if you wanna see stuff Ah don't mind showin' you. Ah've got paintings and tons of sketch books in my suite and sculptures of varyin' size in the metal shop. Catseye used to have me make presents for her to give people. Like, she had me make this wooden skull for Nick once. 'Cause Ah use my mutation to make wood carvings. It's basically my powers training."

"Congratulations!" Amara smiled warmly over to Kevin. "And that really would be lovely. I'll come find you when I'm at the mansion for long enough other than just to sleep, which typically ends up being Sunday." She rolled her eyes at her own ridiculousness. "What a unique form of powers training - and one that I imagine suits you very well."

"It was the only thing at the time that could convince me to use my mutation willingly. And it's about the only thing other than weeding Ah've found that it can be used for that isn't just destructive." Kevin had qualms about the inherent destructiveness in his mutation. There just wasn't anything productive about decay, but he'd managed to find a positive outcome with the carving at least. "So you've got school and ELPIS and only get to the mansion to sleep? Are you, like, rescuing kittens and volunteering at soup kitchens, too?"

While Amara didn't have the same issues Kevin did with the constant presence and activation of his powers, she certainly could empathize when it came to the inherent destructiveness of powers. There was little productiveness to be found in being able to open up the ground at their feet, or create miniature volcanoes, though she would never argue that her fire-based powers couldn't be of use in some rescue situations. But unless she wanted to be an X-Man - which honestly, she didn't, despite her remaining an auxiliary to the team - there wasn't much call for her powers to be of use. So she nodded and smiled in response to his comments about his powers, understanding where he was coming from. "Not exactly. I'm pretty active in the HeliX chapter at ESU as well, and that takes up a lot of my time. As well as keeping up with friends from both college and the mansion. Plus I changed what I wanted to major in last year, so I've had to scramble a little to make sure I had the right subjects for it. And I may be something of an overachiever when it comes to my grades." And as soon as she found herself with free time, she just... found something else to do with said time, rather than taking the time to relax.

"So you're a workaholic who wants to conquer the world?" Kevin grinned. He knew his summary wasn't near accurate, but he liked it anyway. "Ah like that in a person. For that, you don't get to pay for your coffee." Actually, girls never got to pay for anything of a food or beverage variety when they were with him, but Amara didn't know that yet. "Ah don't think Ah know anythin' 'bout HeliX, though. What all do they do? Ah know Ah went to that Christmas fundraiser they did and gave them money. Probably shoulda figured out what that money was goin' for, huh?"

"Change the world, maybe. I'm not sure how I'd go as a dictator." Even if politics and leadership were in her blood. Both of her fathers were politicians, and she'd been putting herself forward more often when it came to things with Helix. "And thank you, that is very sweet of you." Call Amara old-fashioned, but she would honestly never insist on paying if the guy she was with insisted on doing it himself. Not something she took advantage of, but she appreciated old-fashioned gallantry more than most of her more modern-minded friends at college did. "As a general organisation, it's purpose is to educate the public about mutants, and to campaign for public rights. At ESU, we've mostly been focusing on the former, particularly working some of the victims from Day Zero to try and reach something of an understanding, and to help them come to terms with what happened without it turning into a hatred for mutants. It's - well, it's been something of a mixed result, but I have become friends with a couple of them."

"So it's sorta the flipside of what ELPIS does? ELPIS goes in and tries to help the mutants where it's needed and set up stuff for them while HeliX tries to reach out to the non-mutant public on behalf of mutants?" Kevin thought about that. What ELPIS did was great, but everything they worked on was so far away. Third world countries were hard to relate to or really make real in his own head because he'd never been to most of these places. Except that one time, which involved a jaguar man. That had sorta sucked. "Ah think Ah like the HeliX side more. Well, it seems like it would be more hands on and less filing and paperwork. We don't exactly get out there and gets hands on most of the time at ELPIS. We work in an office. HeliX is out talkin' to people at least. It might be hard and not always go that well but at least it's actively doin' somethin' in a way that's tangible, right?"

"You could say that, yes," Amara agreed. "It's true, most of what HeliX does is more hands-on, in a way, but I think that's the difference between the nature of the work Elpis does and what HeliX does. There's more need for paperwork with what Elpis does because it involves crossing borders and... well, rescuing people, I suppose, whereas HeliX is all about talking people, and changing opinions. Not that there isn't paperwork involved, but it's far less than what Elpis has." Amara smiled over to Kevin. "If you'd like to come along to more of what we do, you'd be perfectly welcome. It is a student group, but I don't think anyone would mind if you did come along."

"I'm a sorta student somewhere else some of the time," he offered as a weak justification. "But it sounds cool if people wouldn't mind me tagging along. 'Cause, really, do Ah seem like the paperwork sort?" There were certain stereotypes about artists. Kevin wasn't crazy. He wasn't going to cut off his own ear or end up committed. But he fell into that stereotype about being hard to pin down with minutia. Or at least what he deemed minutia. He had his own way of organizing things, which meant his suite was tidy but most other people couldn't find anything in it unless they had spent significant time there. He sucked at paperwork and thought it involved too many hoops, dots and t's than it needed to have. Now, if someone wanted an empowering mural, that he could do.

"No, I will admit, paperwork doesn't really seem to be your strong point." Amara directed them both into the cafe she'd been heading for, pushing open the door and smiling at the barista at the counter. "Somehow I think you're far more of a people person. I'll email you our calendar, feel free to come along to anything you like." She paused. "Well, actually, I'd suggest skipping the exec meetings, since that tends to be the time when the paperwork gets broken out. But anything else..." She grinned, turning to nod her confirmation that she'd like her usual order.

Amara wasn't holding the door long before Kevin's arm slid along it to hold it open for her. Really, it was practically a tick he had. "Ah'm not really sure Ah qualify as a people person either, actually." Once Kevin would have shrank from the very idea of being surrounded by or intentionally seeking out people. He had come a long way in the past few years, which he put down more to growing up than anything else even though therapy was likely a big contributer. He liked people alright, he just didn't trust them near him. "Well, maybe Ah'm not that bad that Ah'm not a people person. Ah'm just sorta...in the middle? Can you be half of a people person?"

At the counter Kevin ordered his own coffee and paid for both of them.

"I think you can," Amara replied, doing her best to keep up with the flow of Kevin's conversation. "Not everyone enjoys being around people all of the time, they prefer having their people time in small doses. I enjoy being around people a lot because that's what I'm used to, but at the same time, I do enjoy occasionally taking time to be by myself and do something without other people around." It made sense to her that people had varying levels of how much interaction they had with other people. Everyone was different, and as far as Amara was concerned, that was the beauty of them. She didn't always necessarily agree with people, or even like them, but she did her best to respect them.

"Ah'm totally that guy at the mansion most people never see. Used to just be because Ah had like an emo cloud followin' 'round over my head and Ah was really, really paranoid 'bout accidentally hurting someone with my mutation." Kevin had graduated over time to just paranoid without the modifiers. "Now it's just 'cause Ah'm not super extroverted." He had gotten extroverted enough that he could willingly talk to people he didn't know and didn't purposely avoid small groups anymore. Kevin wasn't shy, so it wasn't like he'd ever anxiety about being around or interacting with people that wasn't related to his mutation. "So how many people usually show up to HeliX stuff? Death touch guy and big groups is usually a bad idea, even if they are mutant aware." There was that paranoia.

"Nothing wrong with that," Amara replied with a smile. For a long time she didn't interact with many people at the mansion, instead spending most of her time studying and perfecting her English. Though she did much prefer the way her life was now, rather than it had been. "It depends on the event, to be honest. We do occasionally have the big social events, like the Christmas party you came to, but we do have a fair amount of small group events, and occasionally guest speakers and the like. And most people attend things as their schedule and personal preference allow - I try to go to everything, but I'm mostly in a minority."

The guy behind the counter set both of their drinks on the counter for them. Kevin grabbed them both and handed Amara's over to her. "That's 'cause you're Super Girl, obviously. Ah'm fully convinced you've got the tights hidden under there for a quick change and everythin'." He gave her a half-smile and nodded in the vague direction of the door. "You headin' back right away or feel like stealin' a table?"

"Thanks," she said to both the barista and Kevin. "Let's grab a seat, the files can wait a little bit longer." She weaved through the tables, picking up the thread of the conversation once they were seated. "I wish that were true, unfortunately all I can claim is a terrible coffee habit and the ability to function on fairly little sleep. I try to make up for it on the weekends, Sunday is my sleep in, laze around day. If I don't have study or work to catch up on." Which she frequently did, but she did at least try to sleep in as long as she could.

"See? This is why Ah didn't go to college," he told her, surveying where they were in relation to everyone else. Amara had gotten them fairly out of the way of others and there wouldn't be any walk by traffic near their table, which was nice. Once he was sure of that Kevin visibly relaxed. "Well, that and the fact that art is all Ah really wanna do. If Ah went to school for real for a degree Ah'd probably just be wastin' money. Plus, this way Ah get to sleep and not be crazy in the bad way."

"Don't tell anyone, but I actually like studying," Amara said with a bit of a grin. "I'm sure it's terribly uncool of me, but I think I'd stay at university forever if I could. Or well, I would, if there weren't other things I'd like to do as well." She took a deep sip of her coffee before asking her next question. "Is there much point in going to college for art? I understand there are different techniques that you can learn, but the fine arts students I know seem to just be driven crazy by having to constantly churn out art for their classes."

"Maybe they're not very good at it," he suggested with a humorous note in his voice. "There can be a point, but it really depends where you go for it. A lot of liberal arts schools have fine art majors but you don't really spend a lot of time with studio classes and those schools aren't really set up for the sorta length of class you really need for a studio class. You can only get so much done after the teacher goes over whatever they need to at the beginning of class if the class is forty-five mintues or eighty minutes long, y'know? Plus, teachers don't always know what they're doing. Ah think some people can learn themselves or don't really need the sort of education you get in a college setting. Workshops are more useful for me, but Ah took classes at the CC because they were mostly blacksmithing based and the teacher was good. Plus Ah couldn't find those kinda classes anywhere else.

"Ah learned soldering and welding back in high school. Forge taught me to use the machines in the metal shop when Ah came back from Muir. Ah taught myself to draw. Ah learned to paint in high school and taught myself and then Piotr helped make me better when Ah was out in California. But that's how it works for me, see? You learn a bunch of individual things around separately and then you put them together. Ah make big, abstract sculptures. Really big ones when Ah've got the space. But Ah can take what Ah know from that and drawin' and stuff and make smaller stuff, too. Ah made someone a pendant once even though Ah'd never made anything that small before. Art's sort of a compilin' kind of education, Ah think." And now Kevin was thinking about that guitar necklace he'd made Jay once. It had been lost in the accident in New York when Jay had disappeared. He wondered what had happened to it. Maybe someone found it on the street and had kept it.

Amara barely touched her coffee as Kevin spoke, too absorbed in listening what he had to say to remember the drink in her hands. Thankfully it was in no danger of getting cold, thanks to the warmth of her hands, because otherwise she'd be in trouble.

"See, that makes sense to me," she said once he'd finished speaking. "At least when it comes to art, since it's a creative thing. Learning what you want and following where things take you, rather than sitting down and following a curriculum that's built just to satisfy a general criteria and number of credits." Though part of her wished she could apply it to her own education. There were so many classes she wanted to take, so many different things she wanted to learn about, there just weren't enough hours in the day. Or credits in her degree.

Sipping at his coffee, Kevin nodded. He had to be careful to not bump his nose into the plastic lid when he did that. Coffee with a side of ash wasn't half as appetizing. "Ah think that's how a lotta people used to learn. People go to school to learn everythin' now, but they used to apprentice under professionals or get trained or whatever for a bunch of that stuff. Ah sorta wonder if you let someone out on their own with a mentor what kind of stuff they would learn. Not everyone's interested in the same sorta stuff, so why should they all learn the exact same thing just 'cause they happen to all be interested in the same topic? Ah dunno, maybe that would blow up in everyone's face doin' it that way. But what if it didn't?"

"I think it really depends on why you're going to school. If you're going to learn how to do something in specific, something more hands-on, then I would have thought an apprenticeship or mentoring would be more useful than a general degree. Or a combination of both, depending on what it is." Finally remembering her coffee, she took a sip of it thoughtfully. "But then I'm at college just because I like learning new things - I've changed majors so many times I think my advisor is sick of me, though I think I'm going to stick with where I am right now. And I wouldn't have the opportunity to learn like this outside of a university setting."

"Actually, Ah think they make books for that." A lot of the teasing from his comment was blunted by how soft spoken Kevin was and the smile that followed. "What're you studyin' anyway? Ah guess some people just don't learn well unless they're in a class so that's probably somethin' to consider, too. Plus, like, chemistry isn't something Ah really want someone to try to teach themselves and then end up blowing their head off. That's messy and unpleasant and there's no point in dyin' in the name of science like that."

Amara laughed softly at that. "It's true, everyone does have their own style of learning. Some people thrive in a formal education system, and some in a more informal one." Not bad, just different. "My current major is anthropology. But I went through Latin American studies, literature and classics first. I'm still taking Spanish, but only as a minor."

"Anthropology, that's the study of cultures?" He sounded incredibly unsure when he asked that. Kevin wasn't really a school, book smarts sort of guy. Sure, he wasn't stupid and he picked up random bits of knowledge here and there, but he wasn't exactly college educated. He could give you the history and examples of chiaroscuro but figuring out what economics was, for example, was pretty much beyond him.

"It is," Amara confirmed with a nod. "It actually came from starting to study classics - at first I was curious about the reality that Nova Roma was based on, since it has some similarities to the structure of the ancient Roman republic. And then I just started getting curious about other cultures in general, since we didn't learn a lot about the outside world growing up. And here I am." She grinned a little. "I'm actually hoping to do my honors thesis on mutant culture, I just have to convince the department. But I'm going to spend my summer working on the proposal, so I have it all ready."

"Sounds cool. You hopin' to be one of those people travelin' all over the world studying Africans tribes and stuff like that?" Kevin thought that would be really interesting, to study and learn about other people no one really pays much attention to. But were there any groups of people like that left anymore? Remembering his coffee, Kevin considered his questions while he drank. "Is there such a thing as mutant culture?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. I have no idea of what I want to do after college. But this is what has my interest now, so..." She just shrugged. "That's kind of what I want to look at. Most minority groups are based around race, or religion, or sexual preference, and subcultures around different interests, but with mutants, it's about your DNA, and so you do get this wide variety of people from all walks of life with this one thing in common, even if powers do vary from person to person. People often talk about mutants as one large single entity, but that is so far from the truth."

"Sorta like the gay community? Y'know, it's somethin' you're born with that you can't change, it's random, all walks of life and socioeconomic whatever and stuff." That's right, ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Ford was articulate. Terribly, terribly articulate. "Ah've got a feeling you ain't gonna find a culture among us. Ah don't think we band together enough for that, really. Sure, sometimes mutants clump like in District X or Xavier's or whatever, but they're all sorta scattered. Ah don't think there are mutant support groups or whatever out there."

"A little like that, yes." Amara nodded. "And I think you're right, I don't think there is one single mutant culture, but I think it would be interesting to research. Who knows what I will find." She drained the last of her coffee. "Maybe there are other groups around that we just don't hear about."

"Maybe you can look at how mutant groups in a subculture differ from the actual subculture? Like, Ah dunno, how mutant bikers are different from normal motorcycle clubs." He only called them motorcycle clubs because he watched Sons of Anarchy a lot and it had become habit after three seasons of the show.

"That's not a bad idea," she replied, a broad smile on her face. "Maybe I should recruit you to be my sounding board once I start my research. It'd be good to have a different perspective."

Kevin inclined his head and made a gesture as if tipping a hat to her. "Ah live to serve, ma'am. Happy to oblige."

"Thank you. Hopefully you won't end up regretting the offer." She glanced down at her cup, sighing. "I probably can't avoid those files forever, can I?"

"Nope. Ah hear they actually come find you if you avoid 'em for long enough. That or Juliette stares you down once Nathan's all complainin' 'bout not havin' somethin' he needs that's in one. And she can be sorta scary when she gets all squinty eyed." Kevin still had more than a half cup of coffee left, but coffee could travel. He took another sip. "Can't avoid the inevitable, y'know."

"I know. And here I was so enjoying my break." She smiled a little ruefully. "Thank you for joining me, it's always much nicer having coffee with someone else rather than by yourself."

"Any time." He gave her another tip of his head, this time without the hat tipping gesture.

"Be careful, I might just hold you to that." There was a bit of a twinkle in her eye when she said that, pushing her chair out and standing up. "Shall we?"

"Yes, ma'am." Kevin stood and offered her his arm with a smile. If he was suddenly going to be really, really Southern then he ought to do it right, after all.

Amara grinned, taking his arm and letting him lead her from the shop. Never let it be said that she didn't appreciate a gentleman when she came across one.