Amara and Sarah | Tuesday morning

[x-volcanic.livejournal.com]

Sarah and Amara talk powers, living at the mansion and coffee in the kitchen.

It wasn't that Amara objected to technology in general. In general, it was great. It honestly was. She loved her phone. Her computer. Even the Danger Room. But she was still suspicious of the coffee maker Hank had installed. Possibly because it didn't look like a typically coffee maker.

So she was making her coffee the old fashioned way, waiting for water to boil while she flipped through a text book, going over her readings. Her books were never too far away - she never did know when she would have a free moment to snatch.

She glanced up when someone else entered the room - one of the students, who had been away for awhile. She offered the younger girl a warm smile, flicking the book closed. "Good morning! It's Sarah, isn't it?"

Sarah was highly suspect of the new coffee machine too, so much so that she hadn't touched it since seeing it upon her return. The toaster was more than enough of a challenge for her, for some reason, so she wasn't going to even think about dealing with the coffee maker. Burnt toast was one thing; getting scalded by hot coffee was quite another.

Entering the kitchen, she saw that she wasn't alone. Amara stood there, whom she recognized from her previous stay but didn't know particularly all that well. She smiled just the same of course, and was pleasantly surprised that the other girl remembered her name. "Yup, that's me. And you're Amara, right?" She hoped she was right, or else she'd probably have to just turn around and leave again before dying of embarrassment. "How's it going?"

"I am!" Amara wouldn't have minded if Sarah hadn't remembered her - she didn't interact with the students all that much, thanks to her busy life keeping her away from the mansion a lot. "I'm trying to memorize dates for my anthropology class. I'm usually better with them than this, but I can't seem to get them to stay." She sighed. "How about you? How is being back at the mansion?"
She was slowly starting to get reacquainted with everyone and was remembering names, so Sarah was relieved that she'd gotten Amara's right. "Ahh, yeah, I'm bad with those sometimes too." She'd offer to help but she didn't know anything about Anthropology, sadly.

"It's going alright, thanks. Getting settled back in and all that, I guess." She nodded, it had been good so far. It was nice to see that more people had remembered her than she thought would, which was always a good thing. "I'm getting used to it again, I think, or as used to this as you can be."

"It is a lot to get used to, isn't it?" Amara smiled as the kettle went off, and she went about putting what she needed together to make her coffee. "I remember being so overwhelmed when I first came here. It took awhile for me to adjust to everything. Some times I'm still not sure I have, entirely."

Sarah looked over at the kettle as it went off, then watched Amara as she started making her coffee. "Yeah, for sure. It's my second time around and I'm still nowhere close to adjusted, I don't think." She frowned and thought about she'd just said; it wasn't entirely true, there were a few things she'd gotten used to, perhaps. "How long have you been here?" Hopefully that wasn't an inappropriate question to ask, like asking a woman how old she was, a thought that only occurred to Sarah after the words had left her lips.

Amara paused at the question, tilting her head as she thought about it. "Nearly five years now? I think. I was eighteen, so that must be right." She smiled a little, shaking her head. "I honestly hadn't realised how long it had been. I really have no excuse for not being adjusted yet." Other than having come from a completely different world, and having to get used to America on top of being a mutant. And then all of the strange and wacky things that happened at the mansion.

"That's not too, too long, really." Though doing the math in her head made it sound pretty long to Sarah; she was just 16 herself, almost 17, and thinking of herself at 23 seemed like almost an eternity away. "I'm sure you're not that bad, you can't be as bad as me anyway." She gave Amara an awkward little smile. What with her awkwardness over mutants with physical mutations and her general shyness, she was sure Amara got along better than her. Even the appliances gave her a hard time here - at that thought she gave the toaster a good, hard staring at before she realized that it wouldn't do any good. Still, stupid toaster.

To distract herself from her nemesis, she tried to think of something else to ask Amara. "So, I should probably know this, but what is it you do? I mean, with your powers and all." Sarah idly wondered if there were anyone else around there with powers somewhat similar to hers, other than Forge who sadly wasn't around anymore.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. I'd never been to America before I came here. Or ever really known what it was like. So it was pretty difficult for awhile, leaving everything I knew." She smiled reassuringly. "But everyone here was really supportive, and I got used to it eventually. And I got used to my powers - they're a bit confusing, but it basically comes down to being able to control fire and earth, and combine them as well. Specially to create volcanos and magma."

"Oh, really? Are you from Canada?" That was the only other alternative that popped into Sarah's mind, at least without stopping to think about just how many other options there were out there in the whole wide world. It must've been very difficult to leave everything you knew and to start out somewhere new; Sarah could somewhat relate to that in the sense that the school and the mansion were all new to her, but on the scale of an entirely new country and culture, like Amara had to do? That was almost incomprehensible to her, to have to undertake a task of that magnitude.

Her eyes got large and her jaw may have dropped a little at the revelation of her powers. "What? You can make volcanoes?" Sarah was starting to feel a little cheated with her powers, because holy crap that sounded crazy impressive.

"Not Canada," Amara said with a laugh. "The place I grew up in is in the middle of a Brazilian jungle. It's very isolated." Her origins weren't a secret around the mansion - or, to be honest, to most people Amara knew well. She had a tendency to be very open about certain parts of her life, and that was one of them.

"I can," Amara said with a bit of a laugh at Sarah's expression. "I don't, usually, I try and restrict myself to my fireform and blasts of either fire or magma. And I'm always connected to the earth, and can sense the changes in it."

"Oh wow, really?" That did sound very isolated and very exotic indeed, much more exotic than Canada to be sure. And likely a hell of a lot warmer! "That's amazing, totally." She just came from D.C., which was certainly a lot different than here, but not nearly to the same extent as the Brazilian jungle.

"Fireform?" Oh wow, that's just crazy, in an awesome way. "That is awesome." She caught herself gushing about Amara's abilities and blushed a bit, embarrassed at how fangirlish she probably sounded to the other girl. "I'm sorry, but that really is great." She wondered what she meant by fireform, it sounded kind of amazing. "I can talk to computers." She added, just so they both knew what the other could do. That was glazing over it a little but it was hard to feel enthusiastic about her own powers at the moment.

"It's a very beautiful place. Even now, I still get homesick a lot." Even if her home wasn't at all what it used to be. She did like New York, but she did sometimes long for the peace of Nova Roma.

"Thank you," Amara said with a broad smile. "It took a lot of getting used to, and even longer to be able to control properly. But I'm mostly fine now." She chuckled a little. "See, your powers sound amazing to me. It took me a long time to get used to the technology everyone takes for granted here - I'd never seen a microwave, or a television before I moved here. I'm still pretty terrible with computers, outside what I need to use them for for college and work."

"I'd love to visit there someday, I've never really traveled... anywhere, really." She'd love to see where her grandparents came from and Europe in general and all kinds of places. Somewhere warm like Brazil would rock too, totally. "Do you get to go back often?" Being homesick sucked, she could relate, but she was nowhere near as far from home as Amara.

"That's great! I'm hoping to get more control too, if I can." No fireform for her though, sadly. She wondered if Amara's clothes burned away or something, with the way that sounded. Yikes! "Oh, really? I guess they can be useful sometimes, yeah." Sarah smiled, they did come in handy at times, it was true. "If I can ever give you a hand with anything, just let me know, I like to help."

"Over the summer, when I can. I don't fly very well, because of my powers, so I try to limit it when I can." She smiled. "I haven't really seen much of anything else either - there was a trip to Puerto Rico for Christmas one year, and I went to London briefly last year, but otherwise, I've just seen New York." Travel for missions didn't really count, as far as she was concerned.

"That's what this place is good for - there are plenty of people here who will help, even if they don't have the same powers as you." She grinned. "And I'd be careful about offering me help like that, I'll start showing up on your doorstep at ridiculous hours, begging for help when my laptop stops talking to the network or something."

"Oh, me too! I hate flying, it's kind of terrifying." Maybe one day if she had her powers sufficiently under control she would, but until then she didn't want to risk crashing any planes or whatnot. "Those sound nice too, I'd love to see more of the world. And New York too, haven't really seen a lot of that either." She'd hopefully get out and about in the near future if there were any field trips or things of that sort.

That's exactly why Sarah was there, after all, to get help with her powers, and it was comforting to hear just as much from Amara. "That's great, I need that a lot. And please, please do! I don't mind at all." It's what she does, and the more practice she had with things the more it'd help, right?

"I'd love to travel more as well, if only not for the flying thing. And sailing just takes far too long." Amara grinned a little. "New York is amazing, once you get used to how busy it is - all of the different food places, the shopping, everything. I know Jean-Phillipe is available to drive people in on Saturday mornings, you should definitely go along sometime." After an initial hesitation, Amara had fallen in love with New York City, and it showed on her face.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Amara warned Sarah with a grin. She glanced at the coffee plunger, deeming it ready to drink. "Do you drink coffee? I've got enough for two here, if you'd like some."

"Someone else mentioned that to me, I think I'll have to take him up on that sometime soon, maybe see if anyone else wants to go too." Sarah made a note to check on the journals to see if anyone else was interested in going with her, that'd be great.

Sarah chuckled. "Nah, it'd be fine by me. And I don't drink it very often, but sure, why not?" What's the worst a little bit of extra caffeine could do anyway?

"It's far more pleasant than riding the public bus," Amara said with a bit of a grin. "Which is almost enough to make me want to learn to drive, sometimes. If I didn't use the commute to study, that is." It was a long trip into New York City, she had to make use of the time somehow.

"Probably best to keep it that way," Amara continued as she found a second cup. "I am something of a caffeine addict, sad to say. I can't get through the day without it." She started pouring, glancing over to Sarah. "Cream or sugar?"

"I bet, hehe. It'd be nice to be able to drive." She'd love to learn someday, but it was a distant priority now since her return to the school. Maybe one day, though!

"I've heard that about coffee, that it can be addictive." One mug of it wouldn't hurt, though, and she was being social. She was a social coffee drinker, that was it. "Um, yes please!" Was that the right response or did she have to pick one or the other? Hopefully both was an acceptable reply.

"Some day I'm sure I'll learn. Not quite yet though." Amara had enough on her plate, she didn't need to add driving lessons to it as well.

"Cream and sugar, coming up. Just one sugar?" Amara tended to drink her coffee black, at least in the mornings, so her cup sat on the bench as she went searching for the sugar and cream.

"I wonder if I can learn while I'm here. Hmm." Sarah wondered about that for awhile. She didn't own a car at any rate so even if she could somehow get her license it wouldn't do her much good, but it would obviously be a very handy skill to have. She'd have to look into that sometime, maybe ask Yvette or someone about it.

Sarah held up two fingers in answer to the question. "Two, please!" She liked a little sugar with her coffee, what could she say? Sarah didn't like the taste of coffee all that much, if at all, and only used to drink it with friends as a way of hanging out and socializing, much like she was doing now with Amara.

"I think someone recently got their license, so I'd assume you could. The Professor has a lot of cars, and there are a lot of people around who could teach you." Amara added the two sugars and cream to Sarah's coffee, before handing it over to her.

"I usually have my coffee on the verandah, would you like to join me?" Amara frequently forgot that not everyone didn't feel the cold like she did.

Sarah made a note to keep that in mind, it would definitely be a nice thing to complete. She took her coffee from Amara, smiling at the other girl. "Thank you. Sure, sounds alright to me." The coffee would help keep her warm, and she wanted to keep chatting with Amara at any rate.