xp_logs | Burn The Witch || Calling In Reinforcements

Topaz calls Amanda for her weekly check-in and tells her about something maybe strange.

It was a little after three-thirty when Topaz finally managed to get back to the hostel. The guy behind the desk gave her a look, clearly expecting her to be drunk. God did she wish she was.

She went to the dark rec room to make her call in peace. She was late - the argument "It's still Monday in America" never seemed to hold up when she was late calling in. She hit the speed dial for Amanda's number, flopping back on the old couch and listening to the tinny ring make its way down the line.

There was a click and then Amanda's familiar voice, sounding a little distorted. "And here she is, just under the wire. How's it going, kiddo?" the older witch said, sounding glad to hear from her. "Bored of curry yet?"

"Hey I have to keep things interestin' for you somehow. Will I call on time or will you have to send out a search party?" Not that Topaz would ever really miss a check in. Even if she pushed the wire sometimes, she'd never go over it. "It's good, though. Surprisingly not sick of curry, there's actually a place down the street, open twenty-four hours, really good. How're you?"

"Busy." That was putting it mildly - her new students were running her ragged. "If I whimper at you enough, d'you think you might come back soon? I want you to meet the new generation of trouble makers."

A small, sad smile pulled at Topaz's lips. She hadn't quite found a way to tell Amanda yet that she had no intentions of going back. "They can't be any worse than me or the Potato King," she pointed out instead.

"You'd think so, but wait until I tell you about what happened today." Amanda told Topaz of the latest shenanigans, ending with: "Of course, Stephen was behind the whole thing - he loves pranking people. So not like my teacher." Sometimes Amanda wondered if Xorn had plotted this on purpose, making this world's Stephen Strange a teenage boy with a liking for practical jokes.

"That's just karma," Topaz pointed out with a barely concealed laugh. "You made his life hell and now another version of him is returning the favor. It's a vicious cycle." Time and space away from the mansion had given Topaz a bit of perspective on the whole doubles thing. It was still weird and it would always be weird, but she could at least talk about it without it driving her into a frenzied panic.

"Don't sound so pleased about it," Amanda said sourly, but amused all the same. She had to keep her sense of humour about things, or she'd go balmy. "What about you? Anything interesting happening?"

"I'm just glad you have this teachin' thing under control already." She shuddered to think what karma would give her if she was in charge of students. Not that anyone would be stupid enough to give her students in the first place. "Actually...yeah." She'd done everything she was capable of doing without help. Now was as good a time as any to bring it up. "I uh...I found somethin' you might be interested in."

"Oh?" Amanda sounded relaxed, but there was a subtle sharpening to her tone, and a soft sound which could her been her sitting up straighter. "Whatcha got?"

Topaz recognized the change right off -- she'd spent enough time with Amanda to know the difference between actually relaxed and "now I'm just pretending." "I mean...it might be nothin', I might just be drawin' lines where there's nothin' to be drawn. It's just...a few months ago girls in the area started disappearin'. One here, one there, nothin' to make it immediately suspicious. But they just...disappeared. No bodies found or anythin'. And there's this...this church I found. I guess I'm sorta involved in it a bit. But the priest, he's all about 'doin' God's work' and 'purifyin' the world' and how it's their job to cleanse the world of all evils." The disgust was clear in Topaz's tone. "There's just somethin'...not right about the whole place. It doesn't feel right."

"Trust your instincts. If something doesn't feel right, there's probably something up," Amanda reassured her. "And disappearing girls is never a good sign. You want the Trenchcoats to take a look?"

"I think....that might be a good idea." Topaz twirled a lock of dark hair around her finger. "It might be a waste of time, but it might be worth a look. I dunno."

"We could do with the stirring up," Amanda replied with a grin that Topaz could hear in her voice. "But I want you to stay clear until we get there, 'kay? You're our eyes and ears and we won't know what's going on if you go and get yourself caught."

"You're either bored or desperate to get away from your new students." Topaz said with a small smirk that fell just a bit at Amanda's next instructions. "Yeah, 'course I will. No problem."

"Yeah, you caught me. That's completely the reason," Amanda deadpanned. "Send me the details you have so fair in an email so I can start the prep work, yeah? And I'll let you know when we'll be there - sooner rather than later, if we can get a loan of Emma's jet."

"Yeah, I will." Topaz stood, rolling her shoulders back. "I'll see you soon, then."

"Sure thing, kiddo. Stay out of trouble."

"Don't I always?" She hung up before Amanda could call her on that one.