xp_logs | Amanda & Julian, Regarding Grasshoppers (Reply)

Julian takes Amanda to lunch in order to learn more about Billy and Topaz.

Julian's car was purring as he parked in a lot near the office Amanda had designated as their meeting space. He made a mental note to buy Gibney a gift for taking such exquisite care of his baby while he'd been away; the green paint wasn't faded and it actually felt like it handled better than the last time he'd driven it. Leaving the car running, he opened the door, stepped outside and looked around for Amanda, who he had limited experience with- aside from that bit of nastiness with Selene. The itch beneath the skin of his legs flared up and the mental image of the barbed wire snaking its way up his legs came to him, as it did in the dead of nights sometimes- he suppressed it by force of will and resumed his search.

Fortunately for Julian - but less so for his nerves, perhaps - Amanda's connection with New York meant that the city tended to respond to things like "waiting for a specific person to turn up for a lunch meeting". So it was mere moments after he alighted from his car that the pavement shimmered slightly next to him and then Amanda's head popped up, followed by the rest of her. As was usual for the office, she was considerably better dressed than her down time hours; black slacks, white shirt, hair pulled back into a French braid." Her eyebrows rose at the sight of Julian. "So, look who's back and all grown up," she said with a grin. "Hey, Julian."

Julian smiled and walked around to her side of the car, "It's good to see you again, Miss Sefton." He smiled and opened her car door for her, "You haven't changed a bit since the last time I saw you- still just as beautiful and unattainable." He gave her a wink and motioned for her to have a seat.

She snorted, a not very ladylike at all sound. "Just as cheesy as ever, I see. And please, call me Amanda." There was a certain amount of grace, however, as she took her place in the car - dating Manuel as a student had established a few things, after all, and how to get in and out of a car without falling on her face was one of them. "Your choice for lunch - I have a feeling a hotdog from the bloke on the corner isn't your thing?"

Now it was Julian's turn to snort as he seated himself and began to drive them toward their destination, "While I am certain you know the best place in the city for hot dogs, I have reservations for us at a rather popular bistro a couple miles away. It might be crowded, but all the better to discuss what we need to." He glanced over at her, "I hope that's to your liking, Amanda."

"I'm sure it will be - I might not be quite the Bottomless Pit I used to be in school, but if it's food, I'm happy." Amanda leaned back in the leather seat, admiring the quietness of the engine and the comfort of the interior. "Nice car. Didn't you have this when you were at the school?"

"I left it to Gibney," he shrugged, "I asked to borrow it and he said he didn't want it. I traded him a beat-up Jeep for it back- not his best deal, but I'm certain the insurance was a nightmare." Julian rounded a corner and pulled up in front of a valet stand, "Here we are." The wealthy ex-scion exited his car and buttoned the top button of his coat, taking his claim ticket from the attendant. "Shall we?" he offered his arm to his guest.

"Knowing Kyle, I think he'd be happier with the Jeep. Less to worry about." Amanda took the offered arm and disembarked, looking around her assessingly. It was, as she had expected from Julian, an upscale place, one usually beyond her usual comfort zone. However, she'd learned to acclimatise herself to all sorts of situations over the years and it took a lot more than a fancy restaurant to intimidate her these days. Beside, a free lunch was a free lunch.

She waited until they'd been shown to a table and seated before she broached the topic they'd agreed to meet about. "So, you're looking at going back to Xaiver's?" she asked, picking up the drinks menu.

"In a way," he did the same and spoke off-handedly while he perused the menu, "Charles and I have already spoken- I'm only back at the mansion for a couple weeks while my new place gets closes and furnishes." He ordered an espresso and glanced at the food menu for a moment while Amanda did the same, "To make a long story short, I've spoken with both Charles and Angelica Jones, both have agreed to my assisting with the New Mutants program."

Amanda ordered a glass of white wine and picked up the food menu. "Giving back, huh?" she asked with a slight rising of her eyebrow. "What's with the interest in the kids?"

"Everyone is so cynical," Julian spread his hands in a surrendering motion. "I helped with the youth program at the West Coast Annex for a while and found that I really enjoyed it. Now that I am back in the area, I wanted to help out again." He also wanted to make sure that they had options outside of the X-Men and local schools after they graduated, but left that part unsaid as he was unsure of where Amanda stood on the subject of Xavier's worst kept secret.

"Fair enough." Amanda gave him a wry grin. "After the last couple of years the kids have had, they could probably do with another pair of eyes looking out for them."

"Megan Gwynn mentioned that she'd been abducted by a demon in the boat house," Julian raised one eyebrow. "We never had breaches that bad when I was a student- kidnappings, sure; attacks by outside forces, mostly outside of the manor grounds," he paused, letting a breath pass before continuing. "I know you've warded the place or whatever you call it, but I need to know...how serious is this demon thing?"

Amanda of even a few years ago might have gotten defensive, but instead she sighed and shrugged a little. "Strange and I revamped the wards - I can't keep magic out entirely, since that would mean Megan, Billy, Topaz and Nico wouldn't be able to set foot in the place, and I can't even block demonic energies since Megan and Nico both have traces from possession, and it might even ping off Tandy as well now. But they're as strong as they can be in terms of actual demon presence. As for why there's so much demonic activity... buggered if I know. It might be the heavy concentration of magic there - we've got more magic-users than we ever have had before - but to be honest, I'm not sure why this keeps happening." She sounded frustrated.

Their beverages arrived, but the waiter didn't stay longer than it took to drop the drinks off. "I'm ninety-nine percent certain that you're not to blame," Julian lifted the espresso to his lips and blew on it. "Give yourself a break, it sounds like you've done all you can to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen. Too bad you can't make magic rings of protection plus one or something." He shrugged, "I wanted to talk about your students anyway...or at least the ones I'll be working with."

Amanda snorted. "It's really sad that I actually understand that joke." She sipped at her wine. "Looking for pointers on how to manage them?" she continued. "Or would you rather the in-depth analysis?"

Julian took a sip and set the cup down on its saucer, "Both, actually." His tablet floated out of his bag and into his hands, "I hear Billy made random potatoes appear around the mansion for a few weeks. I'd like to avoid any similar incidents, with or without tubers." He opened their files, "I'd also like any help you can offer me in keeping them safe. Perhaps a spell of some sort that can alert me if they're causing magic trouble."

"Ugh. If there was such a spell, I'd have used it ages ago," Amanda admitted. "But in terms of avoiding random magical accidents... you might have a bit better luck with getting Billy to listen to you than me. He and I... we're both totally different people, and I have trouble connecting with him sometimes. You've got a lot more normal upbringing than I had, he might be able to relate to you better." She had some more wine and set the glass down. "He's a good kid - they all are - he just doesn't understand that magic's not for fucking around with. He wants to play with it, and doesn't always think about the consequences and that's when we get... well, potatoes."

A moment of silence passed at the table, "Why don't you-" his thought was disrupted by the arrival of their harried waiter. Julian ordered a salad and sandwich combo, the earlier flying had left him hungry, but he didn't want to be rude.

Amanda ordered chicken pasta. "You were saying?" she asked as the waiter left.

After finishing another sip of espresso, "Ah, yes, I was saying, why don't you let him play around with it? There has to be some sort of safe space for it." He bobbled his head slightly, "Though, I'm sure you've already thought of that of course. You're the expert."

"Magic has consequences," she explained. "And even with the best intentions, using magic willy-nilly tends to bounce back on the user - or those around them. Which is part of the reason why Billy's pranks wind up going as wrong as they do." She sighed. "It's not even that, really. I'm worried about his personal ethics. He doesn't seem to get that magic isn't there to get us what we want."

"Hmm, that does make sense," Julian felt there was some sort of analogy between her words and having a ridiculous amount of money, but filed the thought away for later contemplation. "I'll see what I can do for him- have there been any other consequences for his actions aside from the potatoes, which I would probably file under random nuisance."

"Well, he accidentally made his mate Clint bald with a prank gone wrong," the witch replied. "And there was the time he got "Let It Snow" stuck in his head and we got several feet of the stuff in the greenhouse. From what I can tell, his magic's fueled by chaos, so things tend to be a bit hit-and-miss sometimes."

"Okay, so the first one is a chaos magician with tastes running toward tuberous vegetables and Disney films," Julian made a couple notes. "I will see what I can do, but how about the other- Topaz."

Amanda grinned. "Topaz is a good kid, but messed up. She reminds me of me when I was that age, tho' she manages to get into less trouble - but only just. She's an empath, so no bullshit around her - she can tell when you're faking it. And she's quiet - too much, sometimes. It's hard to get her to open up, but she's been doing better lately."

Julian finished jotting down a couple notes before looking up, "And anything to watch out with her when it comes to magic? She's not going to turn me into a toad if I feel the wrong thing, right?"

"Not unless you're a shapeshifter with identity issues." Amanda snorted at her own joke, but waved away Julian's confusion. "Long story. Topaz has a good grounding in the basics, but she was brought up by an fuckweasel of a father, so she's a bit paranoid about turning out like him. And her empathy powers her magic, so if she has to bust loose, she'll drain the emotions of everyone around her. That's a weird feeling - or not-feeling, if you get me."

"Sadly, I am sure I eventually will," Julian made a few final notes in his tablet before shutting it down and floating it back into the satchel beside him. "Thank you for the insight with Billy and Topaz- I'm going to try and touch base with them over the next few days. Any final advice before our food gets here?" Their waiter was no where to be seen, but he'd be back shortly...hopefully.

"They're all good kids - not just my lot, but the rest of them at Xavier's. Somewhere along the line they learned to stick together and watch each other's backs, which is a relief considering the number of abductions and invasions and fuck knows what else they've had to go through." Amanda reached for her wine glass again. "Basically? Treat them like adults, don't sugar-coat things, don't keep secrets from them because you think you're protecting them - they've earned respect and honesty twice over, and they'll appreciate it if you treat them as equals."

"Fair enough," Julian hadn't planned to do otherwise, but it never hurt to hear good advice. "I'll be sure to give them the respect they've earned," with a glance over her shoulder, he spotted their waiter with a tray making his way toward them, "ah, perfect timing."