xp_logs | Amanda and Jane, Backdated to Tuesday around 6pm

Amanda goes to meet her new roommate Tuesday evening and they drift down the halls to room 201, chatting.

Amanda had barely hung up the phone after her conversation with Bethany (which had left her in a rather good mood) when the phone rang again, making her jump.

"Hello? Oh, 's you doc. Yer lettin' the new roomie out, are you? Yeah, I can show her where she's stayin', be there in a tic." With that the Brit hung up the phone, kicked her pile of dirty clothes under her bed, and headed out the door, bound for medlab.

Jane had been bored through all of the tests that Dr. McCoy put her through, but fortunately they were over. And talking to Rahne had been fun. She hoped her roommates were that nice. One of them was coming to meet her and show her where she would be living right now. Jane was definitely nervous.

After what seemed a age of getting instructions and cautions and other long, overly-complicated (in Amanda's opinion) words from Doc McCoy, Amanda finally tapped on the door to the room the new girl was in. At the muffled response to come in, she opened it revealing the typical medlab room (and hadn't she seen a lot of those lately?) and the blonde girl she presumed was Jane. "Hey," she said, by way of greeting. "'M Amanda. You must be Jane, right?"

"Um, yeah. Are you one of my new roommates?" Jane eyed the other girl. She looked interesting. She wondered what her power was.

"Yeah. I've come t' take you away from all this," Amanda said with a grin, leaning against the doorframe.

"I'm up for that!" Jane jumped off of the examination table she had been sitting on, gathered up her new clothes, and faced the new girl. "What's your name again?"

'Accent', Amanda reminded herself. Most of the mansion was used to it by now, but she'd forgotten new people had trouble. "Amanda," she said, a bit more slowly and clearly this time. "Um, not that I mind either way, but you might want t' put some clothes on. Doug sees you like that, he'll have a bloody heart attack."

"Hi, Amanda! You're the second person I've met with a different accent. Are you from Scotland like Rahne? And yeah, clothes, right." She started pulled her pants on and adjusted her t-shirt. "Do I have to wear the shoes, though?" She made a face at the shoes. They hurt!

"Um, no, not Scotland," Amanda managed to reply once she'd swallowed her initial reaction of 'Fuck, no!' American, she told herself. They never understood the accent thing. "England. Last place I lived in was called Brighton, on the coast." She shrugged. "Shoes ain't compulsory, tho' yer feet might get cold. 'Less yer one of those lucky bastards that has a power that don't let you feel cold?"

"England, gotcha. I guess I am lucky, because I don't feel the cold, really. I never thought about it before, but I guess it must be part of my powers. Huh." She didn't like wearing clothes, but she never got cold when she didn't. How interesting. This place was already making her think!

"So what is it you do?" Amanda asked, curious.

"Watch!" Jane closed her eyes and started to turn into her cloud form. First, bits of her flesh seemed to drift off of her and turn into wisps of mist. Then she just disolved completely into a cloud and her clothes fell to the floor. *There! See? I can turn into a cloud!* She floated around Amanda, allowing little tendrils of cloud-stuff to stroke Amanda's arms and face.

"Wicked!" Amanda was honestly impressed - everyone else in the mansion, with the exception of Rahne, had powers that let them stay mostly person-shaped. The tendrils stroking her skin were cool, but not wet. "That's really impressive."

*Thanks! I could follow you like this, if you want, or I could change back into my human form.* Jane was hoping that Amanda would say to stay this way. If she changed back, she'd just have to but her clothes on again, plus this way she could observe people out and about in the mansion without them knowing who or what she was.

"Whatever you like," Amanda said with a chuckle, scooping up Jane's clothes. "An' it ain't like I don't usually have weird things followin' me around, so I don't think we'll spook anyone too much. So when did you figure out you could do that?" she asked, leading the way out of the medlab, the cloud following.

*Um, well, I guess I figured it out when a loud noise startled me so much that suddenly I was just a cloud!* Jane drifted after Amanda, observing her surroundings curiously.

"Makes for a nice change from all the horror stories people have 'bout manifestin'," laughed Amanda. "Me included."

*Um, yeah.* Should she tell Amanda that she had been wandering naked down an empty highway without her memories, and that the police had been scared of her and locked her up in a mental institution? Well, maybe later. *What happened when you manifested?*

"Didn't, exactly." If it was possible for a cloud to look confused, Jane did, so Amanda elaborated. "The bloke who raised me brough me powers on early, so he could use 'em. I ain't never had 'em."

*Um? I don't understand...*

"Me power's... complicated. 'M a bit like a battery - I absorb a certain kind of energy, an' use it t' do things." Amanda avoided mentioning the 'magic' word, since it usually complicated things. "The man who brought me up - Rack, his name was - took the energy I absorbed an' used it himself. Since I was little, until Social Services took me away from him when I was eleven."

*Oooh, okay. That must have been tough. How long have you been here? And how did you find out about this place if you're from England? Because England is very far from here, right?* Jane had a fuzzy grasp of geography, at best.

"Been here..." Amanda paused to think. "Since January, so not that long. Pete, he's a guidance counsellor here..." Again a pause, but this time to snort with amusement. "His sister found me livin' rough, sent me here so they could teach me 'bout me mutation. An' yeah, 's a fucking long way. 'Bout nine hours on the plane."

*Nine hours! Whoa. I've been on an airplane once, from West Virginia to here, and it took less than an hour. It was fun, but I don't think that nine hours would be very fun.* She wondered if she would have to talk to this Pete person, and if he was like a doctor. *You were living rough? Like, no home? That sucks.* And she probably would have been, too, if the police hadn't picked her up and sent her to the state asylum.

"Would've been better if they'd let me smoke on the plane, but yeah, not much fun." Amanda turned the corner and headed up the stairs to the dorms, the cloud bobbing behind her. "An' yeah, I lived on the streets for a bit. Wasn't great, but it could've been a lot worse. Could've been in this fuckin' country - they don't exactly like mutants here, do they?"

*No. Do they like mutants in England?*

"Well, maybe not everywhere in England, but where I was livin', in Brighton, people are pretty acceptin' of pretty much everythin'. Doubt even you would get more 'n a second glance." The Brit looked across at the cloud following her. "Well, maybe a second or third glance, but you wouldn't have some prick tryin' t' beat you up just 'cause yer a mutant."

*Wow. I wish everywhere were like that! But I guess, until then, we have here, right? Doc Samson told me that almost everyone here is a mutant, so we're okay, nobody will hate us because of that.*

"Yeah. 'S a good place, most of the time. An' you won't get anyone hatin' you for bein' a mutant, except maybe Marko, the groundskeeper. But he hates everyone, on principle. Best t' steer clear of him."

If she'd had a head at the moment, Jane would have nodded. *Steer clear of Marko, right. Thank's for the heads up.*

"No problem. But you should be fine - everyone here'll fall over backwards t' make sure yer settlin' in. An' you can always ask Paige 'n me for help, if you need it. If you can catch us - thing's're pretty busy for both of us. But we'll keep an eye out for you."

Jane felt happy inside. Now she wished she were in human form so that she could hug Amanda. *Thank you so much. That means a lot to me.*

"'S a roomie thing. Paige did the same for me when I got here. An' I wouldn't be too grateful - you ain't had t' live with us yet. Between Paige's exercise obsession an' me mess, you might want t' change rooms," Amanda said, joking. "An' speaking of room's, here we are. 201, yer new home."

Jane concentrated and re-formed herself into her human form before the door. She ran her hand over the door. This was her new home. It felt good to have a home, and it felt good to have people who would look after her.