xp_logs | Nate, Amanda - Thursday afternoon (Reply)

Nate drops by with Amanda's history paper before flying out to Muir.

Nathan glanced at his watch as he headed towards Amanda's door. Still loads of time to finish up the last few things he needed to do, which meant he could go through the corrections on the paper with Amanda at some length, at least. Which was good, because just scrawling on her work and then letting her have at it wasn't nearly as effective.

Her door was half open, so he stepped in, only to have what looked like a textbook come flying at his head. He froze it in mid-air, then glanced at the startled young witch sitting on her bed. "Well, hello to you too, Trouble," he said, amused. "I see I should I have knocked."

She looked guilty as he floated the book back to her. "Accordin' t' Samson I have 'low frustration tolerance'," she said with an apologetic shrug. "An' I just reached me limit with that fuckin' maths book. Bloody thing's laughing at me, I swear." Waving him inside and shifting the pile of books on her bed around so she could stretch out, she added. "Sorry 'bout that, didn't realise you were there. That me history paper?"

"Yes indeed. With a minimum of comments - mostly technical, although I think you need to expand on one argument a little." Nathan came over, handing the paper to her, and then went over and sat down in her desk chair, facing her. "The idea's solid, but a little more of your own thought is only going to make it better. As for technical stuff, you actually have a few places where your sentences are too complex. You don't need to overcompensate, you know," he said with a wink. "Simple is often elegant."

"'M not sure if that's me tryin' t' be clever or just forgettin' t' finish the sentence," Amanda said, rolling her eyes, but she looked pleased as she looked through the paper and Nathan's corrections. "An' regardless of what I say on me journal, I think the grammar stuff is startin' t' sink in. As it should, with so many people helpin' me." She hmmed, noting the point where he'd made a note for her to expand on her argument. "I see what you mean, I just didn't know how t' say 'they were all a bunch of pillocks' in proper language, so I just left it. Mind you, that sums up World History in one sentence. A bunch of dead white males doin' stupid things."

"Ah," Nathan said sagely. "You're going through That Stage. Eventually, as you study history, the cynicism fades a little and you start seeing the brilliant and heroic things as well as the stupid. I promise." He grinned at her mischievously. "Sure I can't talk you into that international relations course in the fall?"

"Only if some of that readin' is books on tape or they're in Latin or somethin' like that. It takes enough time for me t' get through the stuff for history an' geography, let alone somethin' like yer plannin'." Amanda picked up a well-used dictionary and waved it at him. "Still need this at least once a page. Why do the people who write these things have t' use such big words any way? Most of the time the small ones'd work just as well. Wankers."

"Because the bigger words tend to have a lot more nuance to them," Nathan said easily. "They can convey a more complex meaning, which is important when you're discussing complex issues in depth." He leaned back in the chair, spreading his hands wide. "But I didn't stop by to deliver a lecture. You've got that one argument to flesh out a little, some of those sentences to chop up into smaller segments, and a few minor structural problems which I also noted. Maybe a couple of hours' work, at tops."

"I'll finish it tonight," she promised, tucking the paper inside her dictionary for safe keeping and laying it aside. "It's me last paper before exams start, thank Christ." She stretched, and gave him a look. "When're you an' Moira headin' off, any way?"

"A few hours. Pete's driving us to the airport." He smiled. "I think Moira's counting the hours until she can get out of this heat." Tilting his head, he regarded her thoughtfully. "You need to see Muir sometime," he said. "Maybe this summer? It's very beautiful. Very peaceful."

"Maybe - I'll probably be visitin' Rom an' the rest of the mushroom eaters, as Jono calls 'em at some point, an' it ain't much of a stretch from there. An' I'd like to, I think." She grinned. "Peaceful, eh? Just what you need, tho' yer'll probably find a way of getting yerself into trouble any way. 'M serious, anythin' happens t' you, I'm getting Dom to help me with this plastic bubble idea."

Nathan snorted. "Could we knock it off with the plastic bubble business?" he asked her tolerantly. "Okay, so I've been a bit catastrophe-prone the last little while, but that doesn't mean my luck has gone permanently bad."

Amanda raised her eyebrow at the 'a bit catastrophe-prone' part, but didn't push the point, even though the troublemaker in her desperately wanted
to. "Fine, no more bubble jokes. 'Sides, I'd be the least of yer worries if anythin' did happen - Moira'd skin you."

"Yeah, I'm seriously trying her patience these days," Nathan said, deliberately making a joke out of it. The idea that anything was going to happen on Muir was... well, he was the pessimist, so he knew it was possible, but all this dire talk before the fact didn't do anyone any good. "Kitty could always start a pool on how long before it'll be before my next trip to the medlab."

"Sucker bet," Amanda chuckled. "She wouldn't take it." Not enjoying the path the conversation was taking, she changed the subject. "How's yer head these days? Yer new tenants givin' you some space t' yerself?"

"Being very mannerly, actually," Nathan said, wondering if Manuel had said anything to her about those last few emails of their 'conversation'. "I think we're going to be able to live with each other just fine."

"Manny mentioned somethin' 'bout you bein' possessed," she explained, catching his questioning look. "There was a whole bunch of stuff comin' down the link, so I went an' asked him what he was up to. 'Sides, I've
seen yer aura, an' did some readin' - took me a bit t' put it all together, but it makes sense. Those ain't just memories you got in there, it's them."

"Possessed," Nathan said dryly. "Cute." But Amanda merely gazed at him, clearly not about to be brushed off, and he nodded slowly. "It's beginning to seem like it's them," he confessed quietly. "Whether it's actually them, or whether the psychic echoes have just taken on a life of their own... I'm not sure. It's not as if Charles or I have any standard for comparison."

"I might..." Getting off the bed, Amanda moved past him to rummage through the catastrophe that was her desk; papers, books, CDs piled haphazardly, and a growing colony of used tea mugs. Eventually she pulled out a slim paperback book, and leaned against her desk as she flipped through it. "'S one of Homily's suggestions," she explained as she looked for the part she wanted. "A lot of it's tripe, but there's some... ah, here 'tis. It talks 'bout somethin' called psychic resonance, an' how some people - mediums, really - can channel the spirits of the dead. Usually they're from the past, but I don't see why yer pre-cog couldn't be actin' the same way, only with the future."

Nathan took the book as she offered it to him. "Reading for the plane," he said with a grin. "Thanks. At this point, I'm open to any and all advice."

"Well, since that's the case, I can tell you t' be careful then," she said with a grin that was only half-joking.

"Always," he replied, in the same tone.