Jono, Amanda - Brighton clubbing log
Mar. 21st, 2004 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsSet before the second of these logs - Amanda and Jono talk about how no-one takes them seriously and the nature of magic. It doesn't end with hugs and puppies, but there is a little more understanding on both sides.
The club had a number of corners and nooks to get away from the crush of bodies on the floor, and it was one of these that Amanda chose to get a few quiet moments. The noise, the crowd, the excitement of being back on as close to home turf as she had, seeing the people she considered friends, not to mention one or two serious talks… everything was getting to her, straining over-stretched emotions. And it didn't help that somewhere in the club, someone or something was radiating mystic energy. It was a fairly low-level charge, and she wasn't worried about things getting out of hand - she had Rom's pendant, after all - but the low-level buzz was making her twitchy. Not to mention the fact the pendant was glowing slightly as she absorbed more power, and she'd had more than one person, high on E, drawn to it like bloody moths.
The corner she found was dark, and surprisingly free of bodies in any state of undress. She barked her shin on an unexpected low table, cursed, and then summoned her were-light. It was a minor spell, after all, and Rom had gotten her to do it only that week, and surely not tripping over something and breaking her leg was a beneficial use of the power? So there was no breaking of Rules, threefold or otherwise. At all. Besides, it bled off enough power to take the tin foil taste from her mouth.
"Hey George," she said to the light as she used its faint, greenish illumination to sit on the couch that lurked in the corner. It bobbed up and down at the sound of her voice, as happy to see her as she was, it seemed.
"'George'?" came a telepathic voice, a snort echoing in her head. "You gave it a name?"
"Should have known yer'd be lurking somewhere, Jono," Amanda replied, once her heart had stopped trying to leap out of her throat. "Working on that Fucking Prince of Darkness thing, are you?" She sent the werelight to the other end of the couch, squinting to make out the black shape at the other end.
"Got to keep up appearances," Jono swatted at the light ineffectively. "Not that anyone cares in the slightest. Nice trinket." He dropped one leg off the table he'd been resting them on, glancing at Amanda's glowing pendant.
The crowd seemed to not even notice the little niche they were seated in, just flowing past it. Maybe it was the dark, or the fact that the bar was on the other side of the dancefloor, but it worked perfectly well for Jono. He'd wondered, after seeing Craig's illusion gagdet at work, just what were the limits of suggestion that telepaths were able to induce on other people. After all, it was the brain that told a person what she was seeing, not the other way around, and if he could just project 'don't see me' the right way and well enough, would that mean he'd be technically invisible? He needed to ask Emma about it.
Amanda scowled down at the pendant. "Don't you start," she growled. "Bloody thing looks like it should have a fuckin' unicorn attached to it or somethin'." Digging in her back pocket for her fags, she beckoned the light back over, where it hovered over her shoulder, bouncing slightly for all the world like a small puppy. "So, yer gettin' it too?" she
remarked, lighting up. "People givin' you the whole 'you ain't scary an' fucked up, yer cute' thing?"
"Oh, so that's what was missing," Jono raised an eyebrow, looking amused. Maybe at the pendant, maybe at the light, or possibly them both. "It's got all the rainbow colours already..." He went quiet at Amanda's even fiercer scowl, and settled better into the sofa. "Yeah, I'm getting it too. What the fuck do you have to do around here to be taken seriously?"
"Buggered if I know - I teleport into a hell dimension an' people still think all I can do is rabbits out of hats." Amanda glanced over at Jono with a grin. "Tho' of course, you an' Ange holdin' hands ain't doin' yer rep the least bit of good. What was that about the other night at the pub?"
"Well, you can do a light called George too," Jono said with all seriousness. "Do the rabbits have names too?" He pulled his knee up so his foot was resting on the edge of the table. "I can't actually figure out why everyone keeps calling him 'Ange'. Must be some thing I'm not getting into, and there was no handholding. I was just touching his wrist, to get drunk." It all sounded so noble.
Amanda scowled, but had to admit, he had her on the 'George' thing. "I was five when I named it - old habit," she muttered. The rabbit part she was ignoring. "An' I call him Ange because of the great an' noble art of nicknamin'. Or I'm lazy an' can't be bothered sayin' the whole thing." She chuckled. "So, what? You use yer telepathy t' get drunk off him? Clever."
Jono wasn't about to tell her what he'd named his guitar, even though that had been under the debatable influence of Alison. "Well, yeah, it's a long name, all of three syllables. I'm surprised people just don't faint with exhaustion when they have to say all of them." He played with the zippers on the sleeves of his shiny black shirt. "Drinking, smoking.. I think I've found one of the perks of telepathy."
She pulled a face at him. "Yer just miffed 'cause you don't get one," she said, wryly. Then she tilted her head. "Smokin', eh?" She considered the cigarette in her hand, then asked: "How does it work? 'Cause I'd be willin' t' share, if you want."
"Watch me cry," he announced, then looked up at her, a bit surprised at her offer. There were a few people he'd expect to offer, or not mind if he asked to share, but Amanda hadn't been one of them until now. He found himself being relieved he hadn't made new enemies. "It's easy, you don't have to do anything." He shifted on the sofa, leaning towards her until he could touch his fingertips to her shoulder.
There was the faintest sensation, a light tingle, as he set up the link. "So you need t' touch people t' make a link?" she asked, curious. Physical mutations she was well acquainted with, the rest less so. Although there were certain shamans who could see people's thoughts... She reflected that perhaps magic and mutant powers weren't so different after all, that the magic was just another way of doing what mutants could naturally.
He had relaxed against the back of the sofa, knowing it would be so much easier to achieve the sharing if he was actually receptive. It still required him to drop quite a few of his own mental walls, but he couldn't find it in himself to care about that. "Yeah. Mostly because I'm not a very good telepath."
Amanda shrugged. "'S why yer at the school, ain't it? T' learn how t' be a better one?" She took another long drag of the cigarette in her hand, the nicotine taking the edginess remaining after her werelight spell away. The glow of the pendant had muted to barely a glimmer. "How was it? Taggin' along with Craig?" she asked, changing the subject before blowing things up could be mentioned again.
"That and a better person," Jono remarked laconically. "Or so they seem to hope. Some of the teachers might want to sort themselves out before trying to tell us what to do." He closed his eyes at Amanda's question, trying to remember the stillness inside the computer. "Disorienting. At first. But I could've stayed."
"Yer've pretty much summed up magic with that," she said wryly. "Disorientatin' and then you want t' stay. There's somethin' 'bout it that makes it hard t' give up. 'S hard t' explain." She blew smoke into the already-hazy air. "I wish I could've joined you, but I'm not up for astral projection yet. The way Craig talks about it... He loves it, you can tell. They had t' put the panic button in t' make sure they had a way of callin' him back. They nearly lost him a few times. He says it's somethin' about the freedom he has there. Power." She glanced across at Jono, an amused look on her face. "Stupid, ain't it? Mutants have power whether they want it or not, an' more often than not it fucks 'em over in the process, an' then you get people like Craig doin' anything t' get it."
"People like him?" Jono raised his eyebrows. "He was decent enough for a bloke who wants power." He dropped his hand away from Amanda, as if he'd had enough of the cigarette. "Mutants aren't the only ones who get fucked up in the head when they get power. It's actually terribly ironic. Mutants trying to be more humane than humans."
"I like Craig, don't get me wrong. Bad choice of words." Amanda finished the cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray provided, took out the pack again as if to light another. Instead she turned it over in her hands, thinking. "People choose t' get into magic, usually. They go in with their eyes open, get all the warnin's and rules and the guidebooks. If they go wrong, it's because they want to. I didn't get that, because me fuckin' mutation makes me a target for any prick that wants an infinite power source. Rack got in first." Her voice was quiet - if it hadn't been for his telepathy aiding him, Jono wouldn't have heard her. "Stayin' with Rom an' the rest of them, it's been good. Like seein' how things could've been, if I'd had the same choice." She shrugged. "I'm jealous, I s'pose. Wantin' what he has. What could've been mine, had things been different." Roughly she shoved the cigarette pack back into her pocket and stood. "I'm for a drink. If I'm gunna get all sappy an' such, might as well have an excuse, eh?"
"Jealous," Jono mused. "I get that. Familiar place." He gathered himself back into his corner, looking up at Amanda. "Don't think there's much to say about it what you didn't say already." He nodded at her, thinking that maybe he understood a little better now, although that never guaranteed niceness. He snorted, or as close as he could get to it. "Drink for me too."
She nodded. "I'd offer t' share, but..." She left it hanging. "Maybe next time, eh? Don't spend all night workin' on that brooding loner thing." And with that she headed into the crowd, aiming for the bar.
The club had a number of corners and nooks to get away from the crush of bodies on the floor, and it was one of these that Amanda chose to get a few quiet moments. The noise, the crowd, the excitement of being back on as close to home turf as she had, seeing the people she considered friends, not to mention one or two serious talks… everything was getting to her, straining over-stretched emotions. And it didn't help that somewhere in the club, someone or something was radiating mystic energy. It was a fairly low-level charge, and she wasn't worried about things getting out of hand - she had Rom's pendant, after all - but the low-level buzz was making her twitchy. Not to mention the fact the pendant was glowing slightly as she absorbed more power, and she'd had more than one person, high on E, drawn to it like bloody moths.
The corner she found was dark, and surprisingly free of bodies in any state of undress. She barked her shin on an unexpected low table, cursed, and then summoned her were-light. It was a minor spell, after all, and Rom had gotten her to do it only that week, and surely not tripping over something and breaking her leg was a beneficial use of the power? So there was no breaking of Rules, threefold or otherwise. At all. Besides, it bled off enough power to take the tin foil taste from her mouth.
"Hey George," she said to the light as she used its faint, greenish illumination to sit on the couch that lurked in the corner. It bobbed up and down at the sound of her voice, as happy to see her as she was, it seemed.
"'George'?" came a telepathic voice, a snort echoing in her head. "You gave it a name?"
"Should have known yer'd be lurking somewhere, Jono," Amanda replied, once her heart had stopped trying to leap out of her throat. "Working on that Fucking Prince of Darkness thing, are you?" She sent the werelight to the other end of the couch, squinting to make out the black shape at the other end.
"Got to keep up appearances," Jono swatted at the light ineffectively. "Not that anyone cares in the slightest. Nice trinket." He dropped one leg off the table he'd been resting them on, glancing at Amanda's glowing pendant.
The crowd seemed to not even notice the little niche they were seated in, just flowing past it. Maybe it was the dark, or the fact that the bar was on the other side of the dancefloor, but it worked perfectly well for Jono. He'd wondered, after seeing Craig's illusion gagdet at work, just what were the limits of suggestion that telepaths were able to induce on other people. After all, it was the brain that told a person what she was seeing, not the other way around, and if he could just project 'don't see me' the right way and well enough, would that mean he'd be technically invisible? He needed to ask Emma about it.
Amanda scowled down at the pendant. "Don't you start," she growled. "Bloody thing looks like it should have a fuckin' unicorn attached to it or somethin'." Digging in her back pocket for her fags, she beckoned the light back over, where it hovered over her shoulder, bouncing slightly for all the world like a small puppy. "So, yer gettin' it too?" she
remarked, lighting up. "People givin' you the whole 'you ain't scary an' fucked up, yer cute' thing?"
"Oh, so that's what was missing," Jono raised an eyebrow, looking amused. Maybe at the pendant, maybe at the light, or possibly them both. "It's got all the rainbow colours already..." He went quiet at Amanda's even fiercer scowl, and settled better into the sofa. "Yeah, I'm getting it too. What the fuck do you have to do around here to be taken seriously?"
"Buggered if I know - I teleport into a hell dimension an' people still think all I can do is rabbits out of hats." Amanda glanced over at Jono with a grin. "Tho' of course, you an' Ange holdin' hands ain't doin' yer rep the least bit of good. What was that about the other night at the pub?"
"Well, you can do a light called George too," Jono said with all seriousness. "Do the rabbits have names too?" He pulled his knee up so his foot was resting on the edge of the table. "I can't actually figure out why everyone keeps calling him 'Ange'. Must be some thing I'm not getting into, and there was no handholding. I was just touching his wrist, to get drunk." It all sounded so noble.
Amanda scowled, but had to admit, he had her on the 'George' thing. "I was five when I named it - old habit," she muttered. The rabbit part she was ignoring. "An' I call him Ange because of the great an' noble art of nicknamin'. Or I'm lazy an' can't be bothered sayin' the whole thing." She chuckled. "So, what? You use yer telepathy t' get drunk off him? Clever."
Jono wasn't about to tell her what he'd named his guitar, even though that had been under the debatable influence of Alison. "Well, yeah, it's a long name, all of three syllables. I'm surprised people just don't faint with exhaustion when they have to say all of them." He played with the zippers on the sleeves of his shiny black shirt. "Drinking, smoking.. I think I've found one of the perks of telepathy."
She pulled a face at him. "Yer just miffed 'cause you don't get one," she said, wryly. Then she tilted her head. "Smokin', eh?" She considered the cigarette in her hand, then asked: "How does it work? 'Cause I'd be willin' t' share, if you want."
"Watch me cry," he announced, then looked up at her, a bit surprised at her offer. There were a few people he'd expect to offer, or not mind if he asked to share, but Amanda hadn't been one of them until now. He found himself being relieved he hadn't made new enemies. "It's easy, you don't have to do anything." He shifted on the sofa, leaning towards her until he could touch his fingertips to her shoulder.
There was the faintest sensation, a light tingle, as he set up the link. "So you need t' touch people t' make a link?" she asked, curious. Physical mutations she was well acquainted with, the rest less so. Although there were certain shamans who could see people's thoughts... She reflected that perhaps magic and mutant powers weren't so different after all, that the magic was just another way of doing what mutants could naturally.
He had relaxed against the back of the sofa, knowing it would be so much easier to achieve the sharing if he was actually receptive. It still required him to drop quite a few of his own mental walls, but he couldn't find it in himself to care about that. "Yeah. Mostly because I'm not a very good telepath."
Amanda shrugged. "'S why yer at the school, ain't it? T' learn how t' be a better one?" She took another long drag of the cigarette in her hand, the nicotine taking the edginess remaining after her werelight spell away. The glow of the pendant had muted to barely a glimmer. "How was it? Taggin' along with Craig?" she asked, changing the subject before blowing things up could be mentioned again.
"That and a better person," Jono remarked laconically. "Or so they seem to hope. Some of the teachers might want to sort themselves out before trying to tell us what to do." He closed his eyes at Amanda's question, trying to remember the stillness inside the computer. "Disorienting. At first. But I could've stayed."
"Yer've pretty much summed up magic with that," she said wryly. "Disorientatin' and then you want t' stay. There's somethin' 'bout it that makes it hard t' give up. 'S hard t' explain." She blew smoke into the already-hazy air. "I wish I could've joined you, but I'm not up for astral projection yet. The way Craig talks about it... He loves it, you can tell. They had t' put the panic button in t' make sure they had a way of callin' him back. They nearly lost him a few times. He says it's somethin' about the freedom he has there. Power." She glanced across at Jono, an amused look on her face. "Stupid, ain't it? Mutants have power whether they want it or not, an' more often than not it fucks 'em over in the process, an' then you get people like Craig doin' anything t' get it."
"People like him?" Jono raised his eyebrows. "He was decent enough for a bloke who wants power." He dropped his hand away from Amanda, as if he'd had enough of the cigarette. "Mutants aren't the only ones who get fucked up in the head when they get power. It's actually terribly ironic. Mutants trying to be more humane than humans."
"I like Craig, don't get me wrong. Bad choice of words." Amanda finished the cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray provided, took out the pack again as if to light another. Instead she turned it over in her hands, thinking. "People choose t' get into magic, usually. They go in with their eyes open, get all the warnin's and rules and the guidebooks. If they go wrong, it's because they want to. I didn't get that, because me fuckin' mutation makes me a target for any prick that wants an infinite power source. Rack got in first." Her voice was quiet - if it hadn't been for his telepathy aiding him, Jono wouldn't have heard her. "Stayin' with Rom an' the rest of them, it's been good. Like seein' how things could've been, if I'd had the same choice." She shrugged. "I'm jealous, I s'pose. Wantin' what he has. What could've been mine, had things been different." Roughly she shoved the cigarette pack back into her pocket and stood. "I'm for a drink. If I'm gunna get all sappy an' such, might as well have an excuse, eh?"
"Jealous," Jono mused. "I get that. Familiar place." He gathered himself back into his corner, looking up at Amanda. "Don't think there's much to say about it what you didn't say already." He nodded at her, thinking that maybe he understood a little better now, although that never guaranteed niceness. He snorted, or as close as he could get to it. "Drink for me too."
She nodded. "I'd offer t' share, but..." She left it hanging. "Maybe next time, eh? Don't spend all night workin' on that brooding loner thing." And with that she headed into the crowd, aiming for the bar.
