xp_logs | Dinner at Romany's

An afternoon in three acts - Paige, Angelo and Jono go to Homily's house to pick up Amanda and meet the mushroom eaters. Three different conversations from that afternoon.

Thanks for Alasdaire for consulting with the Romany socking.

Act 1: Angelo and Romany: The person whose life you save...

"So, you're Angelo. Come into the parlour, won't you?" Romany's smile was gentler than her words, and she waved Angelo to have a seat. The 'parlour' was small and cozy and smelled comfortingly of lavender and thyme and other herbs he couldn't identify. "I believe I owe you a very large thank you."

Angelo followed her into the parlour and sat down, shrugging a little uncomfortably. "Wasn't anythin' anyone else wouldn't've done", he muttered. "I was just there when she needed it."

"And I'm thinking she didn't make it easy, being there? Amanda has a talent for making herself annoying." Romany sat, her blue eyes sharp, not missing anything. "I know she made it especially difficult for you."

Angelo glanced up at her sharply. "What did she tell you?"

"Nothing specific, dear boy. Just that she used something you'd told her in trust to hurt you." There was a hint of teasing in her eyes as she added: "And I am a witch, Angelo, we have strange and arcane powers. Besides, it's not difficult to see that she makes you uncomfortable."

Angelo was on the verge of denying it, then looked back at her and sighed. "Yeah, she kinda does. An' yeah, she did what she said she did."

Romany sighed. "I'm sorry, Angelo. That it came to that."

He shrugged, looking away. "I kinda get why, now - someone back home tried to explain, an' it made sense, I guess. But..." He trailed off.

"It still hurt." It wasn't a question. "I'm partly responsible for that hurt, I'm afraid. I should never have sent Amanda to your school. It's not the place for her, I see that now."

Angelo looked up at her sharply, genuinely not understanding. "Why d'you say that? I think she liked it there, 'fore all the bad stuff started..."

"She's explained? About her powers? The magic?"

Angelo nodded. "Yeah, she has. Truth be known, she might've saved my life with it, couple of months back..." He cut himself off before finishing that thought.

Romany didn't remark on Angelo's self-censorship, but filed it away, along with the knowledge that Amanda perhaps hadn't messed things up as much as the girl believed. "Her powers are fuelled by her mutation, but magic... it's not as simple as energy transfer. It requires discipline, a clear head. Amanda doesn't have that. And I'm afraid the school has made it worse."

Angelo nodded again, taking that in. "Worse how?" he asked quietly. "I mean, some of it I know, I was there, but... why the school, in particular?"

"Because the school made her doubt her abilities, doubt herself. Ordinary people don't believe in magic, and magic is the only thing Amanda feels she has that makes her useful. Sending her somewhere where that isn't appreciated... I'm afraid I made a mistake."

Angelo grinned wryly. "We're hardly 'ordinary people'", he pointed out. "An' a fair few of us do believe in it. I've seen it first-hand."

"You certainly aren't ordinary, Angelo, I can see that." Romany chuckled at Angelo's slight discomfiture at that. "And I know what Amanda did for you , with the healing. You may not realise it, but helping you helped her just as much. It stopped her from going so far we couldn't get her back."

Angelo nodded once more. "Good. I owed her", he said simply. "Wasn't sure I'd be able to pay it back."

"Oh I'd say you've paid her back and then some," said Romany, wry amusement tinging her voice. "She thinks a lot of you, even when you aren't saving her life. The fact you two aren't talking is hard on her. She must have said something rather hurtful; you don't strike me as one to be offended by petty things."

Angelo shrugged awkwardly. "She knows stuff not too many people know, personal stuff - an' it seems like she was tryin' to push me away. Doesn't mean it hurt any less, though. An' if I saved her life, 's no more than she did for me. She told you that part, right?"

"She said she helped get you out of the medlab when you were burned, yes. She doesn't seem to think you were in danger of dying, though. And you have to understand, Angelo, Amanda was taught how to hurt people by someone who is very, very good at it. I knew Rack, and he's not a nice man, to put it simply. She was just doing what she thought was best, the only way she knew how - unfortunately she seems to have done it a little too well."

Angelo ducked his head, frowning. "Yeah, well. She's not doin' herself credit - I was still in a coma when she started the healin' - might not've woken up at all if it wasn't for her." He sighed. "She told me a bit about Rack, yeah. Showed me some of the scars. An' if he taught her that, then she learned well."

"She showed you the scars?" Romany raised her eyebrow. "Well, well. That is interesting."

Angelo sighed, knowing exactly what she was getting at. "It was durin' the healin'. She'd seen mine, an' I think it was kind of a trade..."

"It was more than that, Angelo. I don't know if you understand, but those scars are more than physical. They're a network of spells, meant to tie her to Rack, among other things. Fortunately he never got a chance to finish..." And here a small frown crossed Romany's face. "...But they go deeper than just her skin. I've never known her to willingly show them to someone she wasn't sleeping with."

Angelo took that in silently, aware of what it meant. "...I see. Didn't know that part. Well, we're certainly not sleepin' together, so... I guess... bein' friends meant more to her than I thought..."

"Well, you're thinking about it now, and that's a good thing. She wouldn't have hurt you so much if you didn't mean something to her. You don't have to forgive her if you can't, but please think about it? And I think you have need of your friends as much as she does." Before Angelo could ask about that, Romany leaned back in her chair, a slightly wicked smile crossing her face." Now, I know what my girl's like, so she would have made an attempt at least, and she is hard to turn down when she's determined. So, since you're not sleeping with Amanda, I'd hazard a guess and suggest that lovely blonde girl has your attention?"

Angelo nodded. "I'll try." Then he moved on to the rest of what she said and grinned, a little sheepishly. "Paige. Yeah."

"Forgive me if I sound nosy, but things aren't running smoothly there, are they? Paige's energy... it's conflicted." Catching Angelo's look of confusion, she added: "I see auras, sometimes. Helps me pick up on the gossip."

Angelo nodded. "Yeah. 's not as simple as it could be. There's... issues... with Jono."

"Why on earth should Jono be a problem... oh, of course. I should have seen it earlier. Explains everything." With a smile that made Angelo distinctly uncomfortable, Romany changed the subject. "Well, I think the others will have gotten Amanda organised by now, don't you think? And Homily made food and won't forgive me if you don't eat. Shall we?"

Angelo nodded slowly, still eyeing her warily. "Sure. I never turn down food." He got up when she did, preparing to follow her out.

"You'd better watch out, Homily just might want to keep you. She's obsessed with feeding people. And don't you worry about a thing, I think I might be able to be some help in your situation. After all, I still owe you for stopping my girl doing something very dramatic and very foolish." Romany slipped her arm through Angelo's and led him towards the kitchen.

Act 2: Paige and Romany: Love has no limits.

"I hope you'll forgive me from stealing you away. I wanted to have a little talk to you," Romany said to Paige as she filled the kettle and put it on the stove.

Paige looked confused. "About Amanda?" she asked. "I know I haven't been a very good roomie, but she's doing so much better here, and I'm sure things will be fine when she comes back..."

"Oh, no doubt. She's doing well, better than I'd thought she would, actually." Romany paused in taking mugs down from one of the cupboards and gave Paige a piercing look. "It wasn't Amanda I wanted to talk to you about. It was you. Well, to be specific, you and those two boys out there."

"Oh!" Paige's eyes went slightly wide and she blushed, ducking her head and trying not to stammer overly much. "Well. Um. They're Jono and Angelo and I'm Paige. And. Um. Oh gracious, what do you want to know exactly?"

"Why it is exactly you feel you have to choose between them. And don't worry, Amanda hasn't been telling secrets. I'm good at reading people, and you, my dear, are a mass of conflict. Your aura's full of it." Romany smiled. "Besides, I'm sneaky and tricked Angelo into giving me a hint."

If Paige hadn't been blushing enough before, she certainly was now. It was hard enough talking to people she knew about this, nevermind almost total strangers. "Well, that's just sort of how it's done, isn't it? I mean, generally, anyway." She was staring at her hands now, trying not to wring them too much further and smile a little at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. It's just I can see this is hurting you, and I don't like to see people in pain. Especially not people who consider my prickly witchpunk a friend." To take the pressure off, Romany turned her attention back to the tea, getting out a large, round teapot and the tea canister. "Has Amanda talked to you about me at all? About my... well, living arrangements are the best term for it, I suppose."

Paige nodded a little, watching the older woman in the familiar dance that was tea making. "A little. I suppose that's why she was so giddy about my coming to pick her up, huh? My meeting you?" Unconsciously, Paige rubbed at her upper arms as if trying to warm them, wrinkling and unwrinkling her sweater in the process. She licked her lips quickly to convince herself to continue. "It's that obvious? This whole... situation?"

"Only if you know what to look for. And the fact I'm a witch helps. One of my talents is seeing people's energy, their aura, and like I said, yours is full of conflict. After speaking to Angelo, after seeing the three of you together, it wasn't difficult to guess why. And Amanda's worried about you - she might have been caught up in her own problems recently, but she's good at reading people, even if she doesn't always join the dots that well. You've made an impression on her, which is interesting, because normally she has your type of girl for breakfast." Romany poured the boiling water into the teapot, and replaced the lid, letting it steep. "Love takes many forms, Paige. Who are we to dictate what forms are 'acceptable'? I have four partners, and one isn't even alive."

Paige nodded thoughtfully at her words, accepting. She smiled a little and placed her hands on the table, any outward signs of nerves hidden for the moment. "Well. I’m not really the normal kind of my type of girl. You learn to… adjust." She examined her nails for a moment, pleased to find them still grit free before she went on. "You and I come from very different worlds, ma’am, if you don’t mind me saying so. I mean, you and Amanda come from the same place, I think, and we’ve already mentioned how different we are. It’s not so much that I don’t want to believe you, I already feel that love can take many forms, but there’s a little bit of a line, a difference, of love taking different forms and, well, what I’ve gotten myself into."

Romany pulled a face a little at the 'ma'am'. "Please, call me Rom. And Ican see you're a bright girl, and you've accepted intellectually that things don't have to be the way Hollywood insists - one boy, one girl,happily ever after in a house in the suburbs. But that doesn't account for the mess I'm seeing in your aura. You feel you're somehow a bad person, because you want both of them, don't you?" Romany didn't normally pry this much, but the girl was irking her just a little with her polite evasion.

Luckily, Paige was only subtle when it came to evading questions herself, and so Romany's prying hardly phased her. "Messy aura. Huh. Wonder if it looks anything like Amanda and mine's room." She tried to smile a little, collecting her thoughts. "It's just it doesn't seem fair to them. Sharing, I mean. I know that I wouldn't want to share them, unless it was with each other." Paige looked away, embarrassed at that admission, digging her short nails into her palms. "I remember when Sarah... when Sarah made it more than a little public that she wanted Jono. And I know that he loves me, but I also thought maybe he loved her too. For some reason that hurt. A lot. More than I'd like to admit, actually, and maybe part of the reason that I even let myself think about the fact that I loved Angelo too. But it still hurt, so how can I ask the same of them? How could I ever think of asking them to share, when the idea hurt me so much."

"Ah, the course of teenage love never runs smooth, mainly because no-one talks to each other," said Romany with a wry expression. "Perhaps, rather than assuming it will hurt them, you talk to them about it? Could be you'll be surprised."

Paige blushed a little, letting her hands relax. "People keep telling me that," Paige admitted. "It's just a rather difficult thing to bring up in conversation. The fact that I'm terrified of their reaction is certainly not helping, I suppose."

Romany reached over and patted Paige's hand. "Perhaps people keep telling you that for a reason, dear. And I've found getting people drunk is always a good way to broach difficult subjects." She chuckled at Paige's shocked expression, sounding oddly like Amanda.

"Well. Now we know where she gets it from." Paige was still flushed, but smiling now. "I guess... I guess that's certainly an option, now isn't it? And if they don't take it well I can just tell them that they dreamed it up?"

"Exactly." Romany fished pouring the tea. "Now, we'd better be getting back, before Homily decides to adopt Angelo. She collects strays - it's going to be difficult to get Amanda back out of her clutches." She handed Paige the sugar bowl and milk jug. "It will work out, Paige. Just remember nothing was ever gained by sitting back and waiting for it to happen."

Paige spread her smile into a grin. "Luckily, I've never been much of a sitting around type of person. Let's go save my Angelo." Balancing the tea accessories, Paige pushed the door open with her hip, and held it open for the older woman, before following herself.

Act 3: Jono, Amanda and Craig the technomage: Magical Mystery Tour.

"Paige, would you mind helping me in the kitchen? We can't send you on your way without experiencing the traditional English cup of tea, and I need you to help me with the tray." Romany's voice and _expression were completely innocent that could be considered plotting, but Amanda knew that look in her eyes. As Paige nodded her agreement and followed the older woman into the kitchen, Amanda poked Jono.

"C'mon," she said.

"C'mon, where?" he asked suspiciously.

"You wanted to see magic, right? So I'll give you the tour."

"But what about...?" Angelo nodded at the way Romany and Paige had gone.

"They'll be a while. Tea making is an exact and complicated art." Homily, every inch the earth mother type Amanda had described, from her long braided grey hair to her loose cotton clothes to her sandalled feet, patted Angelo on the knee with a knowing smile. "Your lass will be fine. Now, why don't you keep me company whilst our Amanda gives her other young man the penny tour? You need feeding up, you're too skinny. Almost as bad as our girl here."

"Don't let her talk you into one of her tonics," Amanda warned Angelo. grinning at Homily as she got up from the table. "Pure evil, that stuff is."

"It's perfectly good for you, child, and you know it," Homily replied with a laugh. She reminded Angelo of Romany, only... fluffier. More of the stereotypical pagan hippy type Jono believed witches to be. "And I'm sure his aura could do with an energy boost, living in that school. It seems very stressful, that place. Maybe I should offer to visit and help your Professor with his feng shui...?"

"So, magic isn't mushroom-eating hippy types?" Jono asked as Amanda dragged him from the room whilst Homily chattered on to Angelo. "Could have fooled me."

"Homily's a traditionalist. 'Sides, takes all types. An' don't let the shite about feng shui an' auras fool you - she knows her stuff. Big on protection spells an' healing an' the like. She runs the place, as much as anyone can be said t' be runnin' it," Amanda explained, heading for the stairs. "C'mon, I'll introduce you t' Craig. He definitely ain't a hippy. Dunno 'bout the mushrooms tho'."

"Oh, this'll be a blast," Jono followed her after one last look at Homily and Angelo. "Any chance of tripping over some faeries or something? Or a Long Sword of Slaying +3?"

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Everyone knows there ain't faeries," she said. Then she added, with a grin: "Least, not in March. Too bloody cold. They don't come out til May, at least."

"Right, how could I have forgotten," Jono deadpanned. "So do you people do stuff at Stonehenge or something? How does this whole thing actually work?" He seemed genuinely curious, peering around like he expected to see magic just floating in the air.

"For me it's kind of easy - me mutation gives me a bit of a head start. Rom says that part of me problem, it's too easy an' I have too much power too soon. 'S why I'm here." Amanda shrugged, and went on, leading Jono down the hall. The house itself was unremarkable, a basic townhouse in the outer leafy suburbs of London, but there was an odd feeling to it, a sense of calm, that unsettled Jono. "But for everyone else... think of it as energy transfer. You take the energy out of yourself, out of places like Stonehenge, out of certain things, an' you use a spell t' make it do something. Specific spells channel the energy a certain way, make it do that thing. With me?"

"Yeah, so basically you're here for the same reason the rest of us are at Xavier's, to learn control. So you don't blow up things," he added, muttering, thinking about how both he and Alex had done it with less than fabulous results. "So Stonehenge is actually important then? I always thought it was just for show."

"More so I don't blow meself up, but yeah, that's it." Amanda stopped at a particular door, but paused to answer Jono's question before knocking on it. "Yeah, Stonehenge is important - it's not the be all an' end all that every twit with a deck of Tarot cards an' a collection of scented candles thinks it is, but there's power there. It's a hot point for mystic energy - a lot of things come together there, an' the energy spills over."

"What exactly are those things that come together there?" Jono asked with an expression of almost polite doubt. Since his only brush with magic had been in the form of D&D, he kept imagining people casting fireballs. "Can you show me some magic?"

"You heard of ley lines, right? 'S a bit like the earth's nervous system - lines of energy running through the ground. Some places are like nerve clusters, where a bunch of lines cross. Stonehenge is one of them. An' if you know how, you can use that power." Amanda turned and knocked on the door. "Rom'd skin me if I went around doing parlour tricks just yet - I'm still on probation after that potion, remember? But there's plenty here who can show you magic." There was a muffled 'come in' from whoever was in the room, and she pushed the door open. "Craig? Got that mate of mine I was telling you about, from the school. You up for a bit of show an' tell?"

"Of course." Craig was young - in his twenties - and apart from the pentacle hanging on the chain around his neck, he looked like a stereotypical geek, with mussed brown hair and thick glasses. "You'd be Jono?"

Jono entered the room uneasily, shoulders defensively hunched as if he expected an attack, or old ladies with crystal balls. "Yeah. You're not going to start speaking in Sindarin or something?" Because that's exactly what Craig looked like to him, someone who spent too much time with either computers or fantasy books. Not that Jono hadn't plodded through all of Tolkien's work himself. "Or klingon? Or whatever the hell your types do."

"My Klingon's a bit rusty, so I'll spare you." Craig spun back around in his chair to the computer in front of him. "No arcane languages or funny smells. Not even crystal balls. I'm a technomage - I combine magic with techonology. Sometimes to make gadgets, like this multi-use glamour..." He picked up a small chunk of jet strung round with silver wires, and flipped a small switch. Instantly the geeky young man was replaced by a sultry brunette in a small red dress. "Good for getting past bouncers in nightclubs," the woman said, smiling and crossing her legs. "And easier than casting the spell every time." The switch was pressed again, and the geek returned. "But mostly I interface with electronics."

"Technomage, of course," Jono hazarded a few steps closer, eyes flying from the charm to Craig, and back, trying to figure if it had been actual magic or just a trick of a telepath, making people believe they saw something that didn't really exist. "I didn't know technology went well with magic."

Amanda pulled a face. "It don't..." she began, but Craig shushed her.

"Your type of magic, no. But you should know by now, there's more than one way to channel energy." He looked back at Jono. "The way I do things, it's different to most magic users. Most of them wouldn't even have me in their covens - sometimes Homily and I disagree, but we've reached a compromise. She puts up with my tinkering, as she puts it, and I avoid her potions. But rather than explain it, maybe it's better I show you. Only I get the feeling you're thinking this is come kind of trick? Smoke and mirrors?

"Hey," Jono shrugged, not knowing what to do with his hands and ended up crossing his arms across his chest first, before dropping them and putting his hands in his pockets. "I wasn't raised on this stuff, what do you expect? All the magic I've seen was in movies, then demons started jumping around and some ruddy love potions were made."

"It wasn't a criticism, Jono, just an observation. And this stuff tends to play with your head at first." Craig grinned. "And all the D&D in the world doesn't help prepare you for the real thing. You're a telepath, right? How would you like to join me for a joyride?"

Jono gave Amanda a glance, wondering what she'd gotten him into, then nodded at Craig, figuring there was nothing to lose. "Yeah, how'd you guess?" he the words twisted out of his mind. "Was it the telepathic speech?"

"Something like that, yeah," said Craig. "I was going to do a bit of online surfing, and I figured it would be easier to show you what I'm doing than tell. Nothing risky, just cruising through some networks. And Amanda can tell you, you're safe here. Any harm comes to you hits me three times as bad. Threefold rule applies even to a heretic like me."

For a moment Jono was about to ask what the bloody hell was the threefold rule, but since it was pretty obvious, he just settled himself next to Craig and lifted a hand to his shoulder. "Hope you don't mind, it's easier this way."

"Not at all. We mushroom eating hippies are generally touchy-feely," chuckled Craig. He turned his attention to the computer - for the first time Jono realised there was no keyboard or mouse attached - and closed his eyes. Amanda, in the meantime, had settled herself on the tatty sofa nearby, shoving aside a stack of computer magazines to do so, watching the pair with interest. "This takes a bit of concentration at first, so pardon me if I don't say anything for a minute." A faint glow appeared in his hands, and then, as Jono watched, he pushed them into the computer.

He almost jerked his hand away at that, but managed to quell the urge into only a small twitch. "Fucking hell," he said, then he realized it wasn't really that much different from what he'd seen Kitty or Shinobi do. "Wasn't expecting that. Here." Although why not, he thought, demons made out of electricity would probably appear soon and tapdance.

"Mutants ain't the only freaks out there, Jono," Amanda said quietly, not wanting to distract Craig. "An' the kicker? Craig's an ordinary human - not a single twisty gene in him."

"Hush, you two," came Craig's voice, coming not from the young man sitting slightly slumped in the desk chair, but from the speakers of the computer. "Jono, you ready?"

Jono's fingers dug deeper into Craig's shoulder as he cast a suspicious look at the speakers. "Don't think I'll ever be more ready than this." He didn't even know if his words were received, because he couldn't tell if the technomage's awareness had actually shifted from his body into the computer or not. He closed his eyes.

"Glad you could make it," came Craig's voice from 'beside' him. Jono opened his 'eyes', in actuality opening the link between them, and looked around. The first thing he realised was that Amanda had been telling the truth - Craig was merely human, his psychic signature confirming it. The fact he had one at all was confusing though - and it was different to anything else he'd seen. The colours, the energy, it was all turned around.

"How d'you do that?" he asked, tone more curious than anything else.

"It's a form of astral projection," Craig explained. He gestured, and the blank white space around them shifted, filling with ribbons of multi-coloured light. "I send my awareness into electronics, talk to them, convince them to do what I want. At the moment, we're waiting. All I need to do is choose a destination..." He reached out and twanged one of the lightthreads, and the scene blurred around them again: "...and we're there."

Jono looked around. There was no floor, no walls, no ceiling, just expanses of empty space shot through with more of those streams of light. Beside Craig, a row of what looked suspiciously like those little folder icons from most computer programs hung in mid-air. Each was neatly labelled - "Resources", "Chat", "Email", "Book of Shadows". "This is a website a lot of the magic community who don't believe computers are the tools of the industrial capitalistic patriarchy, use to keep in touch, exchange ideas, spells and what not," Craig explained. "There's a couple of other people who do what I do - sometimes we get together and commiserate about some of our more 'traditional' colleagues." He laid his hand against the folder marked "Chat", and the scene blurred around them again, this time reforming as another of those white spaces, only with a set of couches and easy chairs arranged in the middle. A small Asian woman was sitting on one, and she stood as the pair 'arrived'.

"Craig! About time someone showed up, I was bored to death."

"Hello, Mai Ling. Can't stay long, I'm afraid, I'm playing tour guide," Craig replied. The woman frowned, then stared hard at Jono.

"Oh, I see him now - he's not one of us, there's no power signature. How...?"

"He's a telepath, one of Amanda's friends. Remember I told you about Romany adopting a stray? Well, she wanted me to show him what we do. Jono, this is Mai Ling. She's another technomage, lives in Vietnam."

There was a pause as Jono debated what exactly was expected of him in the middle of cyberspace, and then settled for a neutral "Hey." He couldn't really figure how it all worked, saying hello to someone's virtual avatar through a telepathic link, but it was probably better not to think about it. The whole experience was bordering on absurdly surreal as it was.

"Jono." Mai Ling inclined her head. "I always wondered about whether mutation and magic could intermingle. When Craig told me about this Amanda girl, I was intrigued, but this is fascinating." Her tone wasn't exactly friendly, more of someone with a new toy or the latest computer upgrade, which made Jono very uncomfortable. "It's amazing, you're hardly here at all ... The only way I can see you at all is because you're travelling on Craig's astral self..." She came forward, walking around Jono, muttering incomprehensibly about auras and energies and interfaces. Jono frowned, and decided that if she poked him she was going to find out first hand about the other part of his power. Fortunately, Craig seemed to pick up on his tension and came to the rescue.

"Um, we'd better go. Schedule and all that. I'll drop by later, Mai Ling, and we can talk shop as much as you like." He took Jono's arm, and before the Vietnamese woman could say anything, the scene changed again, back to the 'website'. "Sorry about that, Mai Ling can get a bit intense. She's not exactly a people person, you could say," Craig apologised. "Um, I'm not sure what else to show you - somehow I don't think Romany would appreciate me dragging you along on a hacking expedition to the government's database, as fun as it would be, and I don't know you well enough to show you the porn collection..." His grin at the last showed he was joking, mostly. "Hey, I know! What sort of music do you like? I know a couple of sites with rare recordings, I'm sure we could find something you'd like. And it's well worth it, believe me."

"All right," Jono agreed without really knowing what he was agreeing to, and kept looking behind himself, waiting for the woman to pop out from somewhere and proceed to dissect him. "Can you find Mindspawn? It'd be perfect for fucking up my mind more. Think I'll need that." He stared around the emptiness. "Don't you ever get the urge to just stay here? Away from everyone else."

Craig, rather than looking at him like he was a freak, nodded soberly. "More than I like, actually. When I first started doing this, I needed someone to act as a spotter, pull me back to my body. Sometimes I'd go days in here." He tugged at a few threads, and their surrounding blurred again. "But you can't live outside the world - it's a part of you, as much as you're a part of it."

"Fancy that." After the few first minutes of feeling displaced, the place was definitely starting to grow on Jono. "I like this. It's quiet, no one's babbling. I mean," he touched his temple. "I can't hear anyone here."

"I hadn't thought of it like that, but then again, I don't know many telepaths. Most of the time mutants and magic don't mix." Craig paused before reaching up for another thread. "It must be hard, having other people's thoughts in your head."

"They don't actually exclude each other, do they?" Jono had stopped trying to focus on whatever went past them and just let his eyes wander aimlessly. "Don't go all pity party on me, mate, I get to listen in on other people's thoughts, and it's useful sometimes. But sometimes I just wish they'd shut up, or that I was better at it."

Craig grinned. "Point taken. Blame the mushrooms." He pulled another light thread and whiteness blurred around them again. "And no, magic and mutation aren't mutally exclusive - Amanda's a perfect example of that. But the magic community is old, a lot older than mutation, and doesn't accept change usually. And we don't exactly advertise ourselves. A lot of what we do is dangerous and we don't want just anyone messing with it. Still, maybe it's time we started changing the way things are." He gestured, and the sensation of movement stopped. "Right, I've found you a bootleg of a Mindspawn concert a few months ago. I think you'll like it." Laying his hand flat against another of those rows of folders, the world shifted, blurred, and suddenly they were surrounded by music, not just hearing it but feeling it inside their heads.

"A lot of what mutants do is dangerous, but we just don't get a chance," was all Jono managed to say before the music started. Although 'music' was not a very accurate description of Mindspawn, they tended to sound more like a horror movie effects track, with moaning and a hardly sensible beat. It wasn't like anything Jono had experienced before. The moans made him vibrate inside and out like a guitar string, and he liked it. Liked being separated from his body, and other people.

Craig stepped back, leaving Jono to enjoy the experience. It wasn't his sort of music (or any kind of music at all, he privately thought), but it was really the first time he'd had a chance to share his particular world with someone and he was finding it more fun than he'd thought he would. And Jono struck him as a person who really needed more fun, and if this was it, then it wasn't that much of a task. Then a lightflash went off behind his eyes, and he heard Amanda's 'voice': "As fascinatin' as watching you two zombies is, Craig, we got a train t' catch." He blinked, clearing his head - that bloody panic button needed tweaking again. Reluctantly he tapped Jono on the shoulder. "Sorry mate, but time's been called."

It took a while for Jono to remember that there was such a thing as time, or that he wasn't supposed to stay here. "Oh," he said, disappointed. "Too bad I'm not even going to stay in the country."

"Yeah." Craig thought a moment. "Tell you what, Jono - I'll work on it, see what I can come up with. Could be I'll be able to jury-rig something that will let you piggy-back onto me from a distance. Further magic-mutant relations, eh?" Taking Jono's arm, he made another of those strange hand movements, and the concert was gone, the sudden silence almost deafening. There wasn't time to really feel it, though, because it seemed to Jono that he had just blinked, and he was back in Craig's small room in the house. If he needed to breathe, he'd be panting, the same way Craig was - the sensation was a major head rush.

Amanda was still sitting on the couch, and when she saw the pair were 'back', she opened her mouth to say something suitably smug to Jono, but Craig waved her into silence. "We'd best be goin'," she said, instead.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles.