The Witches' Road: The New Orleans Factor
Oct. 27th, 2025 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsJust because they're on lockdown doesn't mean traditions are ignored. It's family dinner in Marie-Ange's office.
It had become the habit of a certain pre-cog and a certain witch to invite the "orphan" members of their circle to regular meals in their suite. With the incursion of the Salem Seven things had changed, but Amanda was determined it was merely a relocation, not an interruption. So it was that she arrived in Marie-Ange's office with several bags of food from a certain Indian restaurant, with Topaz in tow.
"Food's on," she announced, setting the bags on the small table Angie used for meetings. "We might be stuck here, but we still need to eat."
Topaz had been in the middle of a book when Amanda had grabbed her, and she was sure her displeasure showed. But everyone knew to ignore that by now. Besides, Amanda had Indian. She wasn't going to pass that up.
She set the cutlery and plates down on the table and began separating them into three separate piles for each person.
Marie-Ange was crouched at the little wine fridge in her office, poking at bottles. "I have a lovely dry Reisling that will go with the curry, and a Syrah for the biryani..." She'd already gotten glasses out - nothing fancy, she wasn't going to subject Topaz or Amanda to 'the right glass for the right wine' infodump - Amanda had to live with it and Topaz had already been subject to some Doug Ramsey infodumps lately, nobody needed More Infodumping after that.
Amanda chuckled. Back in the day, she wouldn't have even considered wine with Indian, let alone which wine. And which glasses. But just as Marie-Ange didn't give the infodump about the glasses, Amanda didn't make a smart remark about fancy wine drinkers. "Perfect, love. And I made sure to get that garlic naan you like."
Topaz looked up from the food, giving them both a dead-eyed look. "If my presence is required here, could you make it feel a little less like I'm third-wheeling on a date?"
"No, but I can give you alcohol." Marie-Ange pulled out both bottles. "Amanda and I are completely dysfunctional and utterly inseparable and I can continue with sarcasm, or I can eat garlic naan until I have a small carb coma." She very carefully waggled a bottle at Topaz. "Or I can give you alcohol and you can continue to pretend to be a strangely cast Wednesday Addams. Have you seen season two of Wednesday? I am not at all sure how I feel about some of the decisions made in it. Red or white wine?"
"White, and no, I haven't had time." Topaz paused, considering the current situation. "Of course now I have nothing but time considering we're basically trapped here twenty-four-seven. I could have finished it twice by now. I'll start after lunch and get back to you."
Amanda snorted. "Considering Ems has been climbing the rafters, maybe the two of you can watch it together," she suggested as she took her seat and pulled one of the food bags towards her to unload. "It's your turn for a break, any way - Clea and I can manage the wards for a day or two."
"Which one is Ems? Is that the Australian one?" Marie-Ange asked, pouring wine with a generous hand. "What if we scattered the younger ones to other nexuses? Send that one to London, send one of them down to New Orleans, if the - animal ninjas." She was not dignifying those ridiculous people with a title. "want all of you, then make it harder for them. Tante would eat one with a spoon."
Amanda stopped in the middle of scooping rice onto her plate. “No,” she said firmly. “I… we can keep them safer if they stay here. And Tante wouldn’t thank us for leading them to her doorstep, paste or not.”
"There's merit in the idea of splitting up," Topaz said, taking a bite of food and thinking it over while she chewed. "Not to New Orleans, though. I do agree with that. No point in putting Adam Destine on anyone's radar when we still don't know if we can trust him or not. On the other hand, splitting up is how most horror movies start. Keeping everyone in one place means we can watch them."
She shot Amanda a look as she said that last bit. A reminder that it wasn't up to Amanda alone to fix everything.
"I am keeping it in reserve. Things get bad, I take the lot of you to New Orleans and Tante can - " Marie-Ange set her bottle of wine down, put both hands on the table firmly. "Tante can take it out of my hide if she is angry about it. If it gets bad, if things look dire, I am going to take emergency measures. Adam skews my readings, but only because I refuse to pay any price to see his fate. If it comes down to it, I will not count the cost."
Between the look Topaz gave her and Marie-Ange's reply, there wasn't much to argue about. "Last resort," Amanda agreed. "With Adam's whole... situation, he won't be on the radar of anyone on the Way. I'd like to keep that way for as long as possible," she continued. "For our own sake, as much as his."
It had become the habit of a certain pre-cog and a certain witch to invite the "orphan" members of their circle to regular meals in their suite. With the incursion of the Salem Seven things had changed, but Amanda was determined it was merely a relocation, not an interruption. So it was that she arrived in Marie-Ange's office with several bags of food from a certain Indian restaurant, with Topaz in tow.
"Food's on," she announced, setting the bags on the small table Angie used for meetings. "We might be stuck here, but we still need to eat."
Topaz had been in the middle of a book when Amanda had grabbed her, and she was sure her displeasure showed. But everyone knew to ignore that by now. Besides, Amanda had Indian. She wasn't going to pass that up.
She set the cutlery and plates down on the table and began separating them into three separate piles for each person.
Marie-Ange was crouched at the little wine fridge in her office, poking at bottles. "I have a lovely dry Reisling that will go with the curry, and a Syrah for the biryani..." She'd already gotten glasses out - nothing fancy, she wasn't going to subject Topaz or Amanda to 'the right glass for the right wine' infodump - Amanda had to live with it and Topaz had already been subject to some Doug Ramsey infodumps lately, nobody needed More Infodumping after that.
Amanda chuckled. Back in the day, she wouldn't have even considered wine with Indian, let alone which wine. And which glasses. But just as Marie-Ange didn't give the infodump about the glasses, Amanda didn't make a smart remark about fancy wine drinkers. "Perfect, love. And I made sure to get that garlic naan you like."
Topaz looked up from the food, giving them both a dead-eyed look. "If my presence is required here, could you make it feel a little less like I'm third-wheeling on a date?"
"No, but I can give you alcohol." Marie-Ange pulled out both bottles. "Amanda and I are completely dysfunctional and utterly inseparable and I can continue with sarcasm, or I can eat garlic naan until I have a small carb coma." She very carefully waggled a bottle at Topaz. "Or I can give you alcohol and you can continue to pretend to be a strangely cast Wednesday Addams. Have you seen season two of Wednesday? I am not at all sure how I feel about some of the decisions made in it. Red or white wine?"
"White, and no, I haven't had time." Topaz paused, considering the current situation. "Of course now I have nothing but time considering we're basically trapped here twenty-four-seven. I could have finished it twice by now. I'll start after lunch and get back to you."
Amanda snorted. "Considering Ems has been climbing the rafters, maybe the two of you can watch it together," she suggested as she took her seat and pulled one of the food bags towards her to unload. "It's your turn for a break, any way - Clea and I can manage the wards for a day or two."
"Which one is Ems? Is that the Australian one?" Marie-Ange asked, pouring wine with a generous hand. "What if we scattered the younger ones to other nexuses? Send that one to London, send one of them down to New Orleans, if the - animal ninjas." She was not dignifying those ridiculous people with a title. "want all of you, then make it harder for them. Tante would eat one with a spoon."
Amanda stopped in the middle of scooping rice onto her plate. “No,” she said firmly. “I… we can keep them safer if they stay here. And Tante wouldn’t thank us for leading them to her doorstep, paste or not.”
"There's merit in the idea of splitting up," Topaz said, taking a bite of food and thinking it over while she chewed. "Not to New Orleans, though. I do agree with that. No point in putting Adam Destine on anyone's radar when we still don't know if we can trust him or not. On the other hand, splitting up is how most horror movies start. Keeping everyone in one place means we can watch them."
She shot Amanda a look as she said that last bit. A reminder that it wasn't up to Amanda alone to fix everything.
"I am keeping it in reserve. Things get bad, I take the lot of you to New Orleans and Tante can - " Marie-Ange set her bottle of wine down, put both hands on the table firmly. "Tante can take it out of my hide if she is angry about it. If it gets bad, if things look dire, I am going to take emergency measures. Adam skews my readings, but only because I refuse to pay any price to see his fate. If it comes down to it, I will not count the cost."
Between the look Topaz gave her and Marie-Ange's reply, there wasn't much to argue about. "Last resort," Amanda agreed. "With Adam's whole... situation, he won't be on the radar of anyone on the Way. I'd like to keep that way for as long as possible," she continued. "For our own sake, as much as his."
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