xp_logs | [Paul, Amanda] “Isn’t she a nice witch?”

"I wonder if she's ever thought of having a cat..."

It was easy enough to find the suite which Paul and Hank shared - it was the one with the door half-open and the lounge area a confusion of boxes. Amanda tapped hesitantly on the door and called out: "Um, hi? Paul?"

"Amanda?" Paul's voice floated out of his room. "Come in, I'll just... Delphine! Get. Out. Of. My. Socks. I just sorted those!"

Stepping into the room, Amanda snickered as Delphine darted out of Paul's room, trailing a sock behind her. "Don't really think that's yer size," she told the cat, bending to retrieve the footwear in question. Delphine resisted for a moment, and then obviously decided tug-of-way was beneath her dignity and set to straightening rumpled fur with an air of dignity. See? I meant to do that.

"Gah. She always goes for the Armani." Paul followed a moment later. He was dressed in old jeans and a yellow shirt with a radiation symbol on the front. "Thanks, Amanda."

"Not a problem." Amanda handed the sock back to him, and nodded at the shirt. "Nice touch of irony yer've got there," she said with a grin.

Paul laughed and took the sock, turned around to show the lettering "...but I got better" on the back in courier typeface. "Clarice strikes again," he said, grinning at Amanda over his shoulder. "I think I'd have prefered a few days as a newt, but it's all okay now."

"The Pixie's good for cheerin' people up," Amanda said, chuckling at the back of the shirt. "Um, I just dropped by t' see how you were doin', an' t' say sorry for leavin' you in the lurch a bit. There was some... stuff that got in the way, an' I weren't in any shape t' do anythin'."

"Hey, no apologies," Paul said, suddenly serious. "Really, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to thank you yet. You gave me the boost I needed to heal myself, it was more than I'd hoped for. Did you just come by to apologize unnecessarily, or do you have a minute?" He pointed at one of the chairs that was free.

She blinked, not really expecting the thanks, but glad to get it. "Um, yeah, I've got a bit of time. Don't have t' go an' give Lee's arm another dose of the healin' magics until later," she said, sitting down and immediately tucking one leg beneath her.

"Tea? I just made more, I can't get enough caffiene out of it." Paul tossed the sock into the bedroom and headed for the kitchen. "Tell me what you take in it. I can't wait to get my coffee back from wherever Hank put it."

Delphine mewed and sniffed curiously at Amanda's bare foot still on the floor, her whiskers tickling. Amanda snickered and reached down to let the cat sniff her hand. "Tea'd be lovely - 'm English, we live on the stuff, remember? Milk an' one sugar, thanks."

Delphine sniffled Amanda's hand, then sneezed delicately. After a moment's thought, she rubbed her face against Amanda's ankle, marking her.

"I read that you were sick from something Manuel wrote in his journal." Paul brought tea over to Amanda. "Are you doing okay?" He sat on the coffee table near her, looking concerned.

"So 'm one of yers now, am I?" Amanda murmured to Delphine, running her fingers across the top of the sleek head and being rewarded with a nudge for more when she stopped. "Um, yeah, doin' much better," she added, taking the mug from Paul and taking a sip. Tea _good_. "I, um... I dunno how much yer've read back in the journals, but I've got a bit of a problem with the magic..." she said awkwardly, wanting to be straight with Paul but not wanting him to either pity her or look down on her. "Got too close t' a strong mystic energy source, an' developed a bit of a habit. The last few weeks... I kinda fell off the wagon. Or took a screamin' dive, t' be exact. I've been detoxin' the last few days."

"Oh, yuck," Paul said, making a face. Sometimes a colloquialism was the only way to go. "I'm sorry. I hope healing me didn't set you back too much," he added, worried. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate it."

"Nah, the witchin' ain't the problem, it's me mutant power, where I get the ability from," she replied, haivng another sip of tea to cover her slight discomfort. "So you didn't hurt none - helped, really. I needed t' do some good t' make up for the rest of it." She gave him a crooked half-smile. "Yer welcome. 'M glad I could help."

"I owe you," he said firmly. "What can I do for you?" Maybe he was superstitious, maybe it didn't matter in the long run, but in Paul's experience you didn't leave yourself owing a witch or a shaman or any magical source. Even if you paid them with a single coin, it was still payment. It wasn't so much them you had to worry about but it was just the principle of the thing. The universe didn't give without taking back so if you got the chance to choose what you gave back, you did it.

Again, Amanda blinked at him. Okay, within the magical community these sorts of 'debts' were honoured, but she'd been out of the community for most of her life so she didn't expect the same rules to follow. And Rack had been all about the taking without anything being given in return. "Um, I dunno," she said, unsure. "I didn't expect..." She remembered him saying he'd experienced magic before, and the curiosity that had sparked. "You could tell me what you know 'bout magic," she offered. "What yer comfortable with, that is."

"Well, like I said, it's not a lot... what I know, that is. What I've seen is something else. I can't tell the different kinds of magic apart, really." Paul chewed his lip, looking thoughtful. "Shamanic, divine, infernal, kabbalistic, alchemical, and so on... I mean, it all ends up looking the same in the end. My biology loves it, usually, though. Healing spells tend to work like a charm on me, no pun intended. What I've seen has mostly been divine and shamanic, as I've had the good fortune to work with Shaman and Snowbird for a decade and then some. What would be helpful for you to know?"

"Nate's the same, with the spells workin' on him," Amanda said with a brief smile, scratching Delphine between the ears as the cat wove her way around her leg. "Um, not sure. It's just good t' have someone know it exists without me tellin' 'em, or a portal to a demon dimension openin' in the rec room... Shaman an' Snowbird - they're from yer group in Canada?"

Paul nodded. "Shaman is just that, a shaman. He's something else. He keeps saying he's limited but I beg to differ, strenuously. He can't match the Gods, but he gives things on this level a run for their money, that's for sure. He comes and goes a great deal but rarely fails to show up when the chips are down. One of my favourite people, but don't tell him that, it'll go to his head. Snowbird was his foster-child but she's been gone for a few years now." He sipped at his tea to cover the dark expression that flickered over his face. "Sort of. It gets complex when people keep changing bodies."

Amanda forgot to keep petting Delphine in her fascination with what Paul was saying, and Delphine butted her hand, mewing demandingly. "Hush," she said absently, giving the cat another headscratch. "Doc Strange - he's me tutor - does a lot of the mental stuff, astral travelling an' the like. He's mentioned body switchin' before, but says it's pretty dangerous." An almost-wistful expression crossed her face. "Pity I can't meet this Shaman bloke - he sounds like someone I could learn from, even if our styles're different. He's the one with the healing magics, yeah?"

"Among other things, yes," Paul said. "He's also one of the finest surgeons in the country. He still puts time in at one of the clinics when he's staying put for a while. Actually, from what I understand, he's been hanging about more than usual the last couple years. It's been me that's been away. I can guarantee you that he and Dr Strange know each other, I don't think they could avoid it. I don't know what it is about the north, but we have more than our share of mystical rumblings up there."

"I'll have t' ask Strange if he does know him," Amanda said, leaning back in her chair and pulling her other leg up and under her so she was sitting Indian-style. "Sounds like yer've got more 'n yer fair share of mystic nodes up there," she continued. "Be a good idea for me t' avoid 'em, I think."

"It's good for everyone to avoid them, from all I can tell." Paul shook his head. "Most of them are nothing but trouble, it all ends in tears. Which isn't to say that I don't have a deep affection for magic and the people who work it, I just don't trust heaps of it in one spot."

"Considerin' it's like bloody crack t' me, I tend t' watch where I go. Mexico was bad enough." Amanda pulled a face. "An' sometimes I don't trust magic either, an' 'm designed t' bloody well use it. 'S got a habit of turnin' on you if you ain't careful."

"Exactly," Paul said, nodding vigorously. "Doesn't just come with fine print, comes with damn /invisible/ print. I've usually only had it in huge doses, in the sense of keeping my head down while forces beyond my ken try to grind each other to dust. I prefer the fuzzy stuff like healing spells and cute little familiars and faerie lights and illusions." His expression was wistful, remembering something distant.

"You an' me both," Amanda agreed. "Most magic users get the choice 'bout gettin' involved - I didn't get that. An' for a long time I had no-one t' teach me proper. Tryin' t' make up for that now." She caught the expression in his eyes, and smiled to herself. Technically George the werelight was Miles' now, but she could borrow him back on occasion, especially during daylight hours. "Like this?" she asked, snaping her fingers and generating the small greenish blob of light.

Paul blinked and laughed. "That looks about right. Does it giggle?" He reached out a finger to poke it.

"Not quite. Tingles if you touch it." Amanda chuckled as the werelight bobbed away from Paul's finger, only to dance around his head teasingly. Spell was developing a life of its own. "'S the first spell I learned, back when I was a nipper. 'Bout... five, I think. Used t' keep the monsters under the bed."

"They're good for that, I'm sure." Paul watched the little green spark, delighted. "More romantic than candles, too, if you have a sense of humour. Is that a summoning or a conjuration?"

"Conjuration - summonin' was a bit beyond me at that point." Amanda gestured, and the werelight floated down to bounce around Delphine. "I can summon a bit now - Fire's easiest. Rom says it's somethin' t' do with me temperament." She gave him a wry smile. "Think what happened with Lee is probably a good show of that. But I can get Water an' Air half the time now. Earth's harder, an' I ain't had much cause t' use it."

"Need to get the feel of it under your feet, maybe," Paul said, smiling as Delphine batted at the green light. "Maybe being a city girl has to do with it? Snowbird used to complain about the city, how it felt like a scar between her and the earth."

"Could be. 'M good with herbs an' the like, but the actual dirt part? Not so much." Amanda grinned, enjoying the company - her magic-related conversations were usually her lessons with Strange, who tended to forget the maxim about all work and no play. "Cities're... alive, somehow," she said. "T' me, at least. When we went t' LA, it had this energy... Not quite a mystic site, but a life of its own. London's completely different - it's old an' has history runnin' through the streets. I walk around an' it's like I can almost see the charge in the air..." She realised she was babbling and blushed a little.

"What?" Paul tilted his head a little, curious about the blush. "I agree with you, about the energy in the cities, if that's what you're blushing about."

"More I'm goin' on like a complete wanker. Gettin' all poetic like." Amanda tried to stop the blush, but, in the nature of blushes, it continued and deepened. "People tend t' look at me funny when I talk like that. They don't expect it from me."

"I wasn't looking at you funny, was I?" Paul asked, amused by the blush now. "You should have heard me going on at Nate the other day up on the rocks about strange fields other than the magnetic one around the earth."

He really was different to anyone else she'd met... Except perhaps Domino. The thought was a comforting one. "Old habits," she explained, with a shrug. "Yer'd think I'd be over it by now. 'S just odd, havin' people accept me without me havin' t' prove nothin'."

"Now that one I know. You're doing well. Took me a few years before I started to catch on to that one." Paul thought back to his early twenties, surprised a little as always at the self-loathing and bitterness he'd harboured then. "Of course, accepting myself helped a lot, if that's not too touchy-feely of me to say. I hate platitudes, but that one was true for me."

"I spent a lot of time not carin' 'bout what other people thought, seein' 'em as a means to an end, like I was taught by Rack, the man who own... who brought me up," Amanda explained, concentrating more on the werelight teasing Delphine than looking at Paul. It made it easier. "Then I got out, started learnin' the difference between right an' wrong, an' bein' told everythin' I'd been taught was wrong. It made it hard. Then I come here, an' it's all about acceptin' me as I am, so long as that's not gunna cause problems - I got into so much trouble my first few months here. 'S what they call me, Trouble."

"I think I like Amanda better," Paul said seriously, watching Delphine as well. She was crouched down low, tail flicking, prepared to pounce. "Names have a lot of power. I know that for certain. Maybe you should be taking on a new one before that one gets too far under your skin."

"I've had worse," Amanda said with a shrug, but inwardly considering what he'd said. "'S what Nate calls me, so I can't dislike it." Delphine pounced, landing squarely on the werelight, and the slight shock of static electricity in her whiskers made her leap back just as abruptly.

"Just a suggestion," Paul said mildly. "Delphine... if you actually did eat that, you'd have the oddest tummyache, chere."

The girl giggled. "That's for sure. C'mre, George." The werelight floated back up to her obediantly, and she snuffed it out with her hand. "'S on loan, any way - I gave it t' Miles t' look after when we were in Asgard, an' I think he needs it more than I do. Comes out at night, stays with him til mornin'. As long as he wants it to."

"Got a life of its own there, did it?" Delphine snuffled around Amanda's hand, looking for George.

"A bit. Like you said, names are important - giving it one gave it a personality, I think." Amanda tickled under Delphine's chin. "Like I said, I was just a nipper when I first cast the spell, so I tended t' give things names. George has been around for a long time."

Paul nodded. "I suppose making the same one over and over would do that," he said, thinking about this and about Michael's eaglet that he called up out of the air. "That's interesting, I expect others have similar experiences." Delphine mewed pitifully at Amanda and pawed her hand.

"Spells tend t' leave... grooves in yer head, I s'pose you could call it. The more you use a certain one, the easier it gets, until sometimes you end up doin' it without even tryin'. Me levitation's gettin' that way." Amanda smiled at Delphine and tickled her under the chin again. "Demandin' little thing, ain't you?" she said, affectionately. "Almost as bad as Bella."

"I think they encourage each other," Paul said dryly. "Levitation, eh? Should we be looking at adding you to the flight class list some time?"

"'S more like low-level TK - floatin' pencils an' the like. I can't handle the power for flight. Yet." She added the last almost as an afterthought, but there was a look of determination on her face as she did. "The addiction gets in the way of me magic trainin'," she explained. "Once I beat that, get some control over me mutation, then Strange an' Rom will bump up the power I get from this thing - there's no mystic sites here at all, so I need a power source." She pulled the amulet on its chain from under her shirt, glowing faintly blue.

"Let me know when you get there." Paul could see the stubborn expression on her thin little face and it was oddly sweet. "I've never taught a witch to fly. I think it'd be an interesting challenge. There seem to be as many ways to get airborne as there are flyers."

"The day I do, you'll know about it." She smiled, wistfully. "I love flyin', 's always been somethin' I wanted t' do. Sometimes I talk some of the flyers into takin' me up - Warren, Haroun once - I can shield against his power. Even Nate, tho' that's more floatin' than flyin'."

"You ever want to go fast, let me know," Paul said. He knew that look in her eyes. "I'm a little limited right now, but on a good day, I can make the coastline in no time. I don't mind sharing." He didn't mind; more than anything he missed sharing it with his sister.

"I will." She beamed at him, but didn't miss the flicker of sadness in his aura - she was leaking magic again. "Soon as yer fit." Then she noticed the time from the clock on the microwave, and winced. "Shite, I have t' go. I was s'posed t' be in the medlab five minutes ago t' heal Lee, an' she'll make herself a pain if I ain't there on time."

"Good luck with that. I'll keep an eye out for anything that might interest you magically that comes my way. I usually skip over that kind of thing when Michael gets rambly, but I'll try and pay a little more attention." He scooped Delphine out of her lap and kissed the cat on the nose.

"Thanks. And ta for the tea - not bad, for this side of the pond." She grinned at the pair of them as she unfolded herself from the chair. "It was good, talkin' t' you. Specially without the bein' sick an' all."

"Well, I think you may have saved my hair from falling out, and that's what really matters." Paul walked her to the door. "I may have to send you flowers or something."

She laughed. "Only if they're somethin' I can use. Not big on flowers I can't turn into potions." She gave Delphine another pat, and nodded to Paul. "Better yet, I'll take you up on that flyin' offer. When yer able."

"Fair enough." Paul leaned in the doorway and gave Amanda a wave as she departed. "Isn't she a nice witch?" he asked Delphine. "I wonder if she's ever thought of having a cat..."

Amanda drops by to see Paul and to apologize for not coming back sooner. They talk about magic, will’o’wisps, fine print, names, and flying.