Amanda, Jubilee - backdated to May.
May. 30th, 2004 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsBefore the end of term pool party, Amanda runs across Jubilee practicing her powers and they actually have a civil conversation. Must be the sun.
There was sun. Lots of sun. Far more sun than an English girl was used to - Amanda was finding herself spending as much time as possible lately outside, absorbing as much light and warmth as she could, although it didn't seem to do much to change her pale complexion: she had a tendency to go red, then pink, and then back to white again. She was wandering back from the lake where she'd been alternately reading a Terry Pratchett book someone had lent her and dozing in the sunshine, vague thoughts of food, possibly a beer if she could find Pete's stash, when she noticed the small, dark-haired girl on the lawns, sending up streams of coloured fireworks into the air from her hands.
Jubilee sent another stream of fireworks into the air, her face bathed in the light from both the sun and the multiple colours from her power.
She could feel the sweat start trickling down her back from the exertion of keeping her powers going but she wasn't going to give in. A few months ago she could have held this up for hours and she'd be damned if she was going to quit just because of a little tiredness.
It was a matter of pride in a way, she needed to be good at this again, if only to prove to herself that she wasn't a failure.
Amanda watched from the sidelines curiously. She'd never seen Jubilee using her powers before, beyond some random sparks before she'd been collared, and she had to admit she was impressed by the sight. And the other girl's dedication - it was obvious she was tired, but she kept going regardless. Not unlike herself when she was caught up with the magic, Amanda realised, making a face. Strange had been most specific about her over-extending herself. She shifted, and the movement caught Jubilee's eye.
Jubilee started as she noticed Amanda watching her, her sparks crawling up and down her arms like multi-coloured electricity as she tried to bring them under enough control to switch off. She'd let them get away from her a bit in her desire for endurance rather then finesse. She swiped at her forehead with the bottom of her shirt, using the movement to disguise the fact that she was panting slightly.
When she was sure she could talk with out gasping, she let the bottom of her shirt drop and raised an eyebrow at Amanda.
"Like, seriously get a cat bell, Dude. Keep sneakin' up on people like that and you'll get a face fulla powers."
Amanda gestured, and a blue-tinged haze shimmered around her for a moment. "Wouldn't matter," she said, cancelling the spell almost immediately - the effort made her head throb a little. "Got that shieldin' spell workin', finally. But I didn't mean t' give you a start. Was just on me way back t' the house an' there you were. So they've let you have yer powers back, then?" There was, surprisingly, no malice in Amanda's tone; today was obviously a truce day. At least until things changed.
Jubilee nodded, flopping down in the grass as her legs wobbled slightly. If Amanda was in the mood for a truce day, far be it from her to spoil it. Besides, she was tired and you needed to be on the ball to get a really good fight going. "Yeah, had em' back for a few weeks now after my last session with Samson. Big Blue was happy to get his collar back. Managed to blind a few Skippies when we were all rescuing the kids even. Just, didn't feel like makin' a big deal out of it, I guess. S'pecially not when Shiro and such started goin' on about how much they enjoyed that fight. Had a serious wiggins' moment on that, can tell ya."
"Shiro's just a stupid kid, makin' everythin' into a game. Fucker's got no idea what he's muckin' 'round with, actin' like that." Amanda sat down a little way away, feeling foolish looking down at Jubilee's prone form as she talked. "Yeah, those things didn't give us much of a choice but t' kill, but it still means somethin'. T' Jamers, at least." She scowled down at the paperback in her hands, restraining her fidgeting hands from bending it this way and that. "I ain't losin' sleep 'bout it, but I ain't askin' for another go, neither."
Jubilee eyed the paperback Amanda was fidgetting with.
'Terry Pratchett? Never heard of the guy before...' she thought.
"I'm glad I didn't kill anyone this time. Not just cause Skippy looked like Jamie. I mean, twins look alike, right? But they're completely different people even so. Just, don't know, guess I just started makin' progress with Samson, I think he'd make that 'disappointed face' at me if I backslid now. What'cha readin'?"
Jubilee felt weird, she was actually talking to Amanda, no insults and screaming involved at all. It didn't seem natural, like she'd suddenly stepped into bizarro world or something. Still, what Samson had said about them being alike bothered her and the only way she was going to find out why it bothered her was by talking to Amanda. That way, she could reassure herself that they weren't alike at all and the world would make sense again.
"Somethin' Doug said I might like - the writer's a Brit, an' he's got a good sense of humour." Amanda held up the book to show Jubilee the cover: Equal Rites it read. "'S not bad." She considered what Jubilee had said about Skippy, and shrugged. "As for those clone things - they might have looked like Jamers on the outside, but the ones at the warehouse weren't people, least not any more. Their auras were all twisted." A humourless smile briefly crossed her face. "At least it let me off the hook with the magic thing. I ain't s'posed t' kill with it, not without some pretty fuckin' heavy consequences."
Jubilee nodded, her eyes distant as she remembered a conversation with Jamie. "He told me once, what it was like when he first found out he was a mutant. When he referred to the others, he called them 'brothers'. So, I don't know about the 'Skippy clones', maybe when you get out far enough from the original they stop being human and start bein' somethin' else but I do know that Skippy was real, least if what Jamie told me about his dupes was accurate. Can you imagine what that must have been like for Jamie? Havin' to kill your own brother would have been like, seriously screwed up. So, when I see Shiro and Sarah goin' all gung ho about this stuff, makes me wanna shake 'em till their teeth rattle and tell 'em what complete and utter trogs they're bein'."
"'S like when you photocopy somethin', and then copy the copy, an' then keep goin' like that. Eventually it gets so far away from the original it's all distorted, hardly like the original at all." Amanda's tone got a little distant, as if she wasn't really aware of what she was saying. Then she shook her head a little, and looked at Jubilee suspiciously. "An' this is gettin' creepy. We ain't s'posed t' be sittin' here agreein' with each other. We might bring the end of the world about or somethin'."
Jubilee laughed suddenly, surprised to hear her own thoughts being echoed by Amanda. "Maybe if someone asks we can tell them that it was too damn hot to argue. So, we were like, not really agreeing as such but merely keeping our cool in the face of a really frickin' hot summer day. God, I am so lookin' forward to this pool party. I'll even get ta swim too, gettin' lessons even."
"I saw. In yer journal." Amanda paused a moment, and then said, reluctantly: "That was sort of brave of you, tellin' everyone like that you couldn't swim. Not everyone would've." She looked down at where she was twisting the book again, laid it aside and started pulling at tufts of grass instead. "Don't let it get t' yer head or nothin'. I still think yer a pain in the arse."
Jubilee studied Amanda for a second, wondering if one of those people who wouldn't, would be her. "Yeah, yeah. Whateva'. But thanks, for the brave thing, ya know? You'd be surprised the amount of people that keep tellin' me I'm a coward these days."
Squirming a little - since she'd used that expression more than once to Lee, and she was realising she might have been not exactly fair - Amanda continued her assault on the grass. "Sometimes people say stuff without knowin' all the details," she muttered, wondering if Jubilee realised that went both ways - her words about Amanda not being a reasonable human being came to mind, and still stung a little.
Jubilee raised an eyebrow, surprised. It wasn't that she didn't know that Amanda could be nice, just that she hadn't expected it to be directed at her. Could she perhaps have been unfair to the other girl? She'd said a lot of things she'd wanted to kick herself for afterwards, times when she should have been the adult but had acted like a child. The shock from everyone when she'd revealed that she was eighteen had been galling in a small way. Sure, seeming younger had been a good defence when she was homeless but she could act like an adult, when she was given a chance to. It was just easier to be the kid, something that had never really bothered her till now.
"And sometimes people say things that they wish they could take back afterwards. Only, ya can't take back things that're said, not in any real way. It's still out there, even after all the sorries. Better to be honest about it, better to say you meant it when you were really, really brassed off but didn't so much when ya calmed down and thought about it. Cause, ya know, no ones perfect, least of all the owner of the face you're lookin' at in the mirror."
It was the best she could do, not an apology exactly, that would mean losing face in front of an enemy. But, a cease fire, perhaps? At least for now, while the sun shone.
There was sun. Lots of sun. Far more sun than an English girl was used to - Amanda was finding herself spending as much time as possible lately outside, absorbing as much light and warmth as she could, although it didn't seem to do much to change her pale complexion: she had a tendency to go red, then pink, and then back to white again. She was wandering back from the lake where she'd been alternately reading a Terry Pratchett book someone had lent her and dozing in the sunshine, vague thoughts of food, possibly a beer if she could find Pete's stash, when she noticed the small, dark-haired girl on the lawns, sending up streams of coloured fireworks into the air from her hands.
Jubilee sent another stream of fireworks into the air, her face bathed in the light from both the sun and the multiple colours from her power.
She could feel the sweat start trickling down her back from the exertion of keeping her powers going but she wasn't going to give in. A few months ago she could have held this up for hours and she'd be damned if she was going to quit just because of a little tiredness.
It was a matter of pride in a way, she needed to be good at this again, if only to prove to herself that she wasn't a failure.
Amanda watched from the sidelines curiously. She'd never seen Jubilee using her powers before, beyond some random sparks before she'd been collared, and she had to admit she was impressed by the sight. And the other girl's dedication - it was obvious she was tired, but she kept going regardless. Not unlike herself when she was caught up with the magic, Amanda realised, making a face. Strange had been most specific about her over-extending herself. She shifted, and the movement caught Jubilee's eye.
Jubilee started as she noticed Amanda watching her, her sparks crawling up and down her arms like multi-coloured electricity as she tried to bring them under enough control to switch off. She'd let them get away from her a bit in her desire for endurance rather then finesse. She swiped at her forehead with the bottom of her shirt, using the movement to disguise the fact that she was panting slightly.
When she was sure she could talk with out gasping, she let the bottom of her shirt drop and raised an eyebrow at Amanda.
"Like, seriously get a cat bell, Dude. Keep sneakin' up on people like that and you'll get a face fulla powers."
Amanda gestured, and a blue-tinged haze shimmered around her for a moment. "Wouldn't matter," she said, cancelling the spell almost immediately - the effort made her head throb a little. "Got that shieldin' spell workin', finally. But I didn't mean t' give you a start. Was just on me way back t' the house an' there you were. So they've let you have yer powers back, then?" There was, surprisingly, no malice in Amanda's tone; today was obviously a truce day. At least until things changed.
Jubilee nodded, flopping down in the grass as her legs wobbled slightly. If Amanda was in the mood for a truce day, far be it from her to spoil it. Besides, she was tired and you needed to be on the ball to get a really good fight going. "Yeah, had em' back for a few weeks now after my last session with Samson. Big Blue was happy to get his collar back. Managed to blind a few Skippies when we were all rescuing the kids even. Just, didn't feel like makin' a big deal out of it, I guess. S'pecially not when Shiro and such started goin' on about how much they enjoyed that fight. Had a serious wiggins' moment on that, can tell ya."
"Shiro's just a stupid kid, makin' everythin' into a game. Fucker's got no idea what he's muckin' 'round with, actin' like that." Amanda sat down a little way away, feeling foolish looking down at Jubilee's prone form as she talked. "Yeah, those things didn't give us much of a choice but t' kill, but it still means somethin'. T' Jamers, at least." She scowled down at the paperback in her hands, restraining her fidgeting hands from bending it this way and that. "I ain't losin' sleep 'bout it, but I ain't askin' for another go, neither."
Jubilee eyed the paperback Amanda was fidgetting with.
'Terry Pratchett? Never heard of the guy before...' she thought.
"I'm glad I didn't kill anyone this time. Not just cause Skippy looked like Jamie. I mean, twins look alike, right? But they're completely different people even so. Just, don't know, guess I just started makin' progress with Samson, I think he'd make that 'disappointed face' at me if I backslid now. What'cha readin'?"
Jubilee felt weird, she was actually talking to Amanda, no insults and screaming involved at all. It didn't seem natural, like she'd suddenly stepped into bizarro world or something. Still, what Samson had said about them being alike bothered her and the only way she was going to find out why it bothered her was by talking to Amanda. That way, she could reassure herself that they weren't alike at all and the world would make sense again.
"Somethin' Doug said I might like - the writer's a Brit, an' he's got a good sense of humour." Amanda held up the book to show Jubilee the cover: Equal Rites it read. "'S not bad." She considered what Jubilee had said about Skippy, and shrugged. "As for those clone things - they might have looked like Jamers on the outside, but the ones at the warehouse weren't people, least not any more. Their auras were all twisted." A humourless smile briefly crossed her face. "At least it let me off the hook with the magic thing. I ain't s'posed t' kill with it, not without some pretty fuckin' heavy consequences."
Jubilee nodded, her eyes distant as she remembered a conversation with Jamie. "He told me once, what it was like when he first found out he was a mutant. When he referred to the others, he called them 'brothers'. So, I don't know about the 'Skippy clones', maybe when you get out far enough from the original they stop being human and start bein' somethin' else but I do know that Skippy was real, least if what Jamie told me about his dupes was accurate. Can you imagine what that must have been like for Jamie? Havin' to kill your own brother would have been like, seriously screwed up. So, when I see Shiro and Sarah goin' all gung ho about this stuff, makes me wanna shake 'em till their teeth rattle and tell 'em what complete and utter trogs they're bein'."
"'S like when you photocopy somethin', and then copy the copy, an' then keep goin' like that. Eventually it gets so far away from the original it's all distorted, hardly like the original at all." Amanda's tone got a little distant, as if she wasn't really aware of what she was saying. Then she shook her head a little, and looked at Jubilee suspiciously. "An' this is gettin' creepy. We ain't s'posed t' be sittin' here agreein' with each other. We might bring the end of the world about or somethin'."
Jubilee laughed suddenly, surprised to hear her own thoughts being echoed by Amanda. "Maybe if someone asks we can tell them that it was too damn hot to argue. So, we were like, not really agreeing as such but merely keeping our cool in the face of a really frickin' hot summer day. God, I am so lookin' forward to this pool party. I'll even get ta swim too, gettin' lessons even."
"I saw. In yer journal." Amanda paused a moment, and then said, reluctantly: "That was sort of brave of you, tellin' everyone like that you couldn't swim. Not everyone would've." She looked down at where she was twisting the book again, laid it aside and started pulling at tufts of grass instead. "Don't let it get t' yer head or nothin'. I still think yer a pain in the arse."
Jubilee studied Amanda for a second, wondering if one of those people who wouldn't, would be her. "Yeah, yeah. Whateva'. But thanks, for the brave thing, ya know? You'd be surprised the amount of people that keep tellin' me I'm a coward these days."
Squirming a little - since she'd used that expression more than once to Lee, and she was realising she might have been not exactly fair - Amanda continued her assault on the grass. "Sometimes people say stuff without knowin' all the details," she muttered, wondering if Jubilee realised that went both ways - her words about Amanda not being a reasonable human being came to mind, and still stung a little.
Jubilee raised an eyebrow, surprised. It wasn't that she didn't know that Amanda could be nice, just that she hadn't expected it to be directed at her. Could she perhaps have been unfair to the other girl? She'd said a lot of things she'd wanted to kick herself for afterwards, times when she should have been the adult but had acted like a child. The shock from everyone when she'd revealed that she was eighteen had been galling in a small way. Sure, seeming younger had been a good defence when she was homeless but she could act like an adult, when she was given a chance to. It was just easier to be the kid, something that had never really bothered her till now.
"And sometimes people say things that they wish they could take back afterwards. Only, ya can't take back things that're said, not in any real way. It's still out there, even after all the sorries. Better to be honest about it, better to say you meant it when you were really, really brassed off but didn't so much when ya calmed down and thought about it. Cause, ya know, no ones perfect, least of all the owner of the face you're lookin' at in the mirror."
It was the best she could do, not an apology exactly, that would mean losing face in front of an enemy. But, a cease fire, perhaps? At least for now, while the sun shone.
