xp_logs | (no subject)

Angelo and Amanda have some friend time, and Amanda suggests a new pursuit in Angelo's life.

Angelo was kicked back on the couch, to all appearances perfectly relaxed, and raised his beer bottle in Amanda's general direction.

"How goes with the new flock?"

Sitting on the arm chair with her legs tucked under her, Amanda raised her beer in return. "So far, so good," she said with a grin. "They're still settling in, so they haven't had a chance to show how much trouble they can get in. Yet."

"You sure about that?" he drawled easily. "I've been keeping my ear to the ground. Something about unexpected animals?"

"If you mean the fish, they had nothing to do with it," Amanda replied, poking her tongue out at him. "That was Clint and His Royal Pratness." Then she paused in the middle of swigging her beer. "Unless something happened while I was off getting Topaz back?"

"No, this was before. I'm sure I heard the Druid kid yelling something about raccoons." He paused. "And then suddenly he had pet mice."

"Oh, right. That." Amanda sighed and looked at Angelo piteously. "I'm doomed, aren't I?"

"Yup", he said cheerfully. "But someday you'll get to watch them go through the exact same thing."

"Hopefully with less world ending," Amanda grumped, and took another swig. "How about you? You've been pretty quiet lately."

"You got Topaz without the world ending", he pointed out, then shrugged. "Hasn't seemed like there was much to say. Even if it was tempting to lay into Quire, it would've done no good."

"Quire's a lost cause," she agreed, making a face. "But some of the rest seem all right. Just... lost."

"Aren't we all", he said, almost under his breath. "When I went to get Jean-Paul... it helps that he's younger. Amara, too."

"Yeah. I'm not blaming anyone - we all have our own losses to deal with and our own ways of dealing with them," Amanda thought of Adrienne's hostility to the students. "But in the middle of our own grieving, we have a bunch of kids wondering why the fuck they're at a boarding school that apparently doesn't want them there. Jubes was ham-fisted about it, but she was right - there's definitely a problem with the whole adults and kids thing."

"I don't know what we can do to fix it", he admitted. "I mean, we've got the new adults that don't know anything about it, maybe they could..."

He'd been ignoring the existence of Nina Thurman as best he could, because that was just too much.

"Hell of a load to dump on people we don't even know that well," Amanda pointed out. She gave Angelo a meditative look. "I'm doing what I can with the magic types, but with the Trenchcoats and all, I can't really do much else. But you on the other hand... with X-Corps in mothballs for now, you must be finding yourself at a bit of a loose end?"

Angelo nodded to that. "I've been trying to work on rebuilding the network I used to have, finding out who's still around and not too scared to be involved, and who might be willing to join it now. But I'm not as busy as I was."

She grinned, perhaps a bit wickedly - Angelo would recognise the expression as the "Amanda has an Idea" look. "So how about you see what you can do with the kids? Nothing official, mind - just talk to them, maybe offer to teach them some of what you know about stuff, that sort of thing? You used to do all right with self-defence."

"When I did self-defence", he returned wryly, "you might remember I sent Doreen Green into a feral fit. But I guess I could try."

She snorted. "Well, maybe try and avoid that sort of thing. But honestly? I don't think it would hurt at this stage." Another wicked grin. "And maybe you could draft John to join you."