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xp_logsFun with dreamscapes again - after these events at the Hellfire Club, Amanda returns the memories she managed to salvage. There isn't a lot else left in Manuel's mind.
Manuel's sleep was an uneasy one. His mind burned, the foundations of his being - his emotions - torn asunder from Selene's botched transformation as well as the attack of her pet empath. Inside his mind, he rolled around on the ground, trying to find a place, some place, _any_ place, to escape the burning as his emotional associations crumbled.
There was a shimmer, a distorting of the air, and then a small hand reached out and patted his shoulder gently. "I've got something of yours," a child's voice said, and Manuel looked up to see a small blonde girl crouching next to him, regarding him with serious blue eyes. For some reason it seemed odd that she was dressed in denim coveralls and a red shirt - his mind seemed to want to put her in a shapeless white shift. In the crook of one arm, she held a glowing blue sphere, roughly the size of a basketball.
Manuel scrambled away from the little girl and her blue basketball. ~Who are you?~ he asked in Castillian, then screamed as another emotional tie in his mind burned. "What do you want with me?" he asked in slightly old-money New England-accented English. "Where am I?"
"You're hurting yourself," pointed out the child, sounding a little cross. "I'm trying to help you, but I can't if you're going to be silly about it." She straightened, looking at him sternly. "This is yours." She lifted the sphere in front of her, holding it carefully with both hands.
"I don't know you." he said suspiciously. "You're not my sister!" he shouted, cradling his head in anticipation of pain that did not come. Instead, the blue sphere pulsed with a red light for a second. "You have a name. Wait - you have two. I know them, I know I know them, but I can't REMEMBER!" he shouted at the ashen sky, which roiled ominously in response, jags of red sheet lightning illuminating the clouds of toxic grey.
"Gemile," she said, and for a second her voice was overlaid by another, older and tinged with a rougher accent. Another of those shimmers in the air, and the child was replaced with a girl, older and with dyed black hair, but the same blue eyes looking at him with love and concern. "Amanda," she said with a smile. "An' you know me very well. You will again, but you have to trust me." She held out the sphere. "This is yers."
"I DON'T REMEMBER!" he said, ignoring Amanda/Gemile for the time being. "We - we are in my mind. This is my mind." he said before giving throat to another scream as the fires intensified. Overhead, the ashen clouds grew thicker, more ominous, almost threatening some sort of a storm. The red sheet lightning intensified, almost strobing with its intensity. He dropped to his knees, coating his legs with the same sort of thick leaden dust that made up the clouds above. "These are my emotions. My ties. Dust." he said, hot tears coursing down his cheeks. "All gone." he moaned.
"Not everythin's gone, that's what I've been tryin' t' tell you." Amanda's voice was filled with a kind of fond exasperation, edged with true worry. He was in so much pain, his mindscape such a mess... "You told me once I could take drastic measures if you were bein' a pillock, so..." And she threw the sphere straight at his head.
Manuel didn't get out of the way in time - something slowed his reactions, dulled his instinct to move until it was too late. The blue sphere passed into his body, knocking him over into the dust. He didn't get up for a very long few minutes. "Amanda?" he said, still with the British-accented English. "What's happening to me?"
"I'm not sure, love. Something happened, at the party. 'S all a bit fuzzy still..." Kneeling beside him, ignoring the chill of the dust on her legs, she reached out to help him sit up. "There was... a spell. Not mine, someone else, tryin' t' hurt you. I saved what I could, but yer memories..." She glanced around them at his shattered mindscape. "I was too late for most of them."
Manuel reached down to the ground, to pick up a handful of dust. "My memories." he said, letting the dust sieve through his fingers to spill onto the ground. "No - not my memories. My emotions. All the things I felt, all the things I cared about one way or another. Dust." he said impassively. "You saved us, at least. I still have that. What of our link? I can't feel you. I can't feel anything, really. I should be able to - my memories tell me that - but I can't."
"Yer power's must be out - overload, I s'pose. 's why you can't feel me." She kept her tone matter-of-fact, despite the fear building in her. How much of him was left? "The link... I'm keepin' it together, with the magic. The stuff Strange taught me, 'bout astral projection, dreamwalkin' an' the like. 'S easier t' make a connection where there was one already, an' I've been in yer head often enough."
Manuel looked up at the sky, at the red jags of lightning that danced among the ashen clouds. He then looked down at Amanda. "Link - we used to have one. I remember that. What's it do?" he asked her curiously. "I don't remember." He shrugged and then sat down on the dusty ground, heedless of the mess he was making. "Please, sit." he said, then winced as something in his mind burned - coupled with another flash of the jagged red lightning.
She sat next to him without hesitation, itching to take his hand, but not wanting to push him. There was no indication he felt anything right now, let alone what he felt for her before. "The link's... it lets us share emotions. Thoughts, sometimes, tho' not so much since neither of us is a telepath." She took a breath and asked the question she needed to, even though the answer might not be the one she wanted to hear. "Manny, what do you remember?"
"My name is Manuel." he snapped. "Manuel ... just Manuel. I have a sister. I attend the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. There are other mutants like me at the school. Alex - he projects some sort of plasma death ray. Doug translates any language. There's another one who has a power like Alex's, but I can't think of his name right now. There's a purple cat who calls herself Catseye. I have ... something. Something I had to take a test to get. I can't remember what it's called." he said as he racked his mind. "I remember you. We met shortly after you arrived at the Mansion - I was hurt, it hurt to move, and you were high. We summoned Henry Rollins." he said with a leering grin.
It was impossible not to laugh at that. "That's right," she said, and this time she did reach out to touch his hand, just briefly. "I won't call you Manny if you don't want me to, but it's what I normally call you, so I might forget an' slip. I don't mean anythin' bad by it."
Manuel nodded. "No problem. It's just one of the only things I remember clearly. My name is Manuel. Just like yours is Amanda." he said with a smile. "We fucked a lot, didn't we? I remember a whole lot of that." he said with a wondering smile. "Don't remember fucking anyone else, so it must have been good." he added with a grin. "Wait. Your name is Amanda Sefton. I don't have two names. I only have one. My name is Manuel."
"It was always good. An' there were others, but you don't remember right now. There's a lot that's missin'." Amanda hesitated, unsure of what she should say, what he could handle... and what she could remember herself. Alphonso had been there, she was sure of it. "You did have another name, but I think right now it's best if you stick t' just 'Manuel'. There was someone who wanted you hurt... he took the rest away."
Manuel smiled. "Manuel it is, then." he said with a grin. "It's a good name. I like it. It seems to fit me." He grew a little pensive as he looked at Amanda. "Will you be there when I wake up?" he asked her with a child's concern.
"Probably in the next bed," she said with a rueful smile, even as her image wavered a moment to show the bruises, the scrapes. "But if I'm not, just think 'Gemile' really loudly, an' I'll hear you." She touched his cheek, just once, with gentle fingers. "I'll always come when you need me, love."
"From what my memories tell me, you usually came whenever I wanted you to." he said with a grin. "I don't know why that's so funny, but it is." he said with a laugh. "But I will think very loudly if I need you." He stopped to think for a second. "Do you know where my sister is? She needs me."
"Sister? But you don't..." Amanda stopped herself. There was so little he actually knew and was sure of, and maybe he did have a sister. "I don't know, Manuel. But if she needs you, I'll help you find her." Her image was starting to fade, the effort of keeping the link wide-open starting to tell, even in her sleep, the pain starting to creep through. It felt like everything hurt.
Manuel winced as he too felt the pain. "Ow!" he said with a great deal of shock. "What the hell was that?"
"Me. I'm not in the best shape right now." She gave him a humourless grin. "I'm not exactly sure what happened, either. 'S all fuzzy, but it feels like someone kicked the crap out of me."
"Yeah. My ribs hurt." he whined. "And I'm sleepy. I would like to go to sleep now. How do I go to sleep?"
Magic was as much in the mind as anything else, and she had power here... "Just close yer eyes," she said, moving stiffly to put her hand over his eyes. "An' count t' ten." As she spoke, she gathered strength for a sleep spell, ignoring the raw feel of the magic, the sense that something was out of balance.
Manuel obediently closed his eyes and started counting. In English. "One, two, three, four..." he counted. By the time he got to seven, he was out cold.
Amanda watched him fall gently backwards, his form disappearing as it hit the ground, dust puffing up and around nothing. The mindscape was still a riot of turmoil and chaos, but that was beyond her abilities. With a sigh, she closed her own eyes, and let herself fall back into her own body, and into troubled sleep.
Manuel's sleep was an uneasy one. His mind burned, the foundations of his being - his emotions - torn asunder from Selene's botched transformation as well as the attack of her pet empath. Inside his mind, he rolled around on the ground, trying to find a place, some place, _any_ place, to escape the burning as his emotional associations crumbled.
There was a shimmer, a distorting of the air, and then a small hand reached out and patted his shoulder gently. "I've got something of yours," a child's voice said, and Manuel looked up to see a small blonde girl crouching next to him, regarding him with serious blue eyes. For some reason it seemed odd that she was dressed in denim coveralls and a red shirt - his mind seemed to want to put her in a shapeless white shift. In the crook of one arm, she held a glowing blue sphere, roughly the size of a basketball.
Manuel scrambled away from the little girl and her blue basketball. ~Who are you?~ he asked in Castillian, then screamed as another emotional tie in his mind burned. "What do you want with me?" he asked in slightly old-money New England-accented English. "Where am I?"
"You're hurting yourself," pointed out the child, sounding a little cross. "I'm trying to help you, but I can't if you're going to be silly about it." She straightened, looking at him sternly. "This is yours." She lifted the sphere in front of her, holding it carefully with both hands.
"I don't know you." he said suspiciously. "You're not my sister!" he shouted, cradling his head in anticipation of pain that did not come. Instead, the blue sphere pulsed with a red light for a second. "You have a name. Wait - you have two. I know them, I know I know them, but I can't REMEMBER!" he shouted at the ashen sky, which roiled ominously in response, jags of red sheet lightning illuminating the clouds of toxic grey.
"Gemile," she said, and for a second her voice was overlaid by another, older and tinged with a rougher accent. Another of those shimmers in the air, and the child was replaced with a girl, older and with dyed black hair, but the same blue eyes looking at him with love and concern. "Amanda," she said with a smile. "An' you know me very well. You will again, but you have to trust me." She held out the sphere. "This is yers."
"I DON'T REMEMBER!" he said, ignoring Amanda/Gemile for the time being. "We - we are in my mind. This is my mind." he said before giving throat to another scream as the fires intensified. Overhead, the ashen clouds grew thicker, more ominous, almost threatening some sort of a storm. The red sheet lightning intensified, almost strobing with its intensity. He dropped to his knees, coating his legs with the same sort of thick leaden dust that made up the clouds above. "These are my emotions. My ties. Dust." he said, hot tears coursing down his cheeks. "All gone." he moaned.
"Not everythin's gone, that's what I've been tryin' t' tell you." Amanda's voice was filled with a kind of fond exasperation, edged with true worry. He was in so much pain, his mindscape such a mess... "You told me once I could take drastic measures if you were bein' a pillock, so..." And she threw the sphere straight at his head.
Manuel didn't get out of the way in time - something slowed his reactions, dulled his instinct to move until it was too late. The blue sphere passed into his body, knocking him over into the dust. He didn't get up for a very long few minutes. "Amanda?" he said, still with the British-accented English. "What's happening to me?"
"I'm not sure, love. Something happened, at the party. 'S all a bit fuzzy still..." Kneeling beside him, ignoring the chill of the dust on her legs, she reached out to help him sit up. "There was... a spell. Not mine, someone else, tryin' t' hurt you. I saved what I could, but yer memories..." She glanced around them at his shattered mindscape. "I was too late for most of them."
Manuel reached down to the ground, to pick up a handful of dust. "My memories." he said, letting the dust sieve through his fingers to spill onto the ground. "No - not my memories. My emotions. All the things I felt, all the things I cared about one way or another. Dust." he said impassively. "You saved us, at least. I still have that. What of our link? I can't feel you. I can't feel anything, really. I should be able to - my memories tell me that - but I can't."
"Yer power's must be out - overload, I s'pose. 's why you can't feel me." She kept her tone matter-of-fact, despite the fear building in her. How much of him was left? "The link... I'm keepin' it together, with the magic. The stuff Strange taught me, 'bout astral projection, dreamwalkin' an' the like. 'S easier t' make a connection where there was one already, an' I've been in yer head often enough."
Manuel looked up at the sky, at the red jags of lightning that danced among the ashen clouds. He then looked down at Amanda. "Link - we used to have one. I remember that. What's it do?" he asked her curiously. "I don't remember." He shrugged and then sat down on the dusty ground, heedless of the mess he was making. "Please, sit." he said, then winced as something in his mind burned - coupled with another flash of the jagged red lightning.
She sat next to him without hesitation, itching to take his hand, but not wanting to push him. There was no indication he felt anything right now, let alone what he felt for her before. "The link's... it lets us share emotions. Thoughts, sometimes, tho' not so much since neither of us is a telepath." She took a breath and asked the question she needed to, even though the answer might not be the one she wanted to hear. "Manny, what do you remember?"
"My name is Manuel." he snapped. "Manuel ... just Manuel. I have a sister. I attend the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. There are other mutants like me at the school. Alex - he projects some sort of plasma death ray. Doug translates any language. There's another one who has a power like Alex's, but I can't think of his name right now. There's a purple cat who calls herself Catseye. I have ... something. Something I had to take a test to get. I can't remember what it's called." he said as he racked his mind. "I remember you. We met shortly after you arrived at the Mansion - I was hurt, it hurt to move, and you were high. We summoned Henry Rollins." he said with a leering grin.
It was impossible not to laugh at that. "That's right," she said, and this time she did reach out to touch his hand, just briefly. "I won't call you Manny if you don't want me to, but it's what I normally call you, so I might forget an' slip. I don't mean anythin' bad by it."
Manuel nodded. "No problem. It's just one of the only things I remember clearly. My name is Manuel. Just like yours is Amanda." he said with a smile. "We fucked a lot, didn't we? I remember a whole lot of that." he said with a wondering smile. "Don't remember fucking anyone else, so it must have been good." he added with a grin. "Wait. Your name is Amanda Sefton. I don't have two names. I only have one. My name is Manuel."
"It was always good. An' there were others, but you don't remember right now. There's a lot that's missin'." Amanda hesitated, unsure of what she should say, what he could handle... and what she could remember herself. Alphonso had been there, she was sure of it. "You did have another name, but I think right now it's best if you stick t' just 'Manuel'. There was someone who wanted you hurt... he took the rest away."
Manuel smiled. "Manuel it is, then." he said with a grin. "It's a good name. I like it. It seems to fit me." He grew a little pensive as he looked at Amanda. "Will you be there when I wake up?" he asked her with a child's concern.
"Probably in the next bed," she said with a rueful smile, even as her image wavered a moment to show the bruises, the scrapes. "But if I'm not, just think 'Gemile' really loudly, an' I'll hear you." She touched his cheek, just once, with gentle fingers. "I'll always come when you need me, love."
"From what my memories tell me, you usually came whenever I wanted you to." he said with a grin. "I don't know why that's so funny, but it is." he said with a laugh. "But I will think very loudly if I need you." He stopped to think for a second. "Do you know where my sister is? She needs me."
"Sister? But you don't..." Amanda stopped herself. There was so little he actually knew and was sure of, and maybe he did have a sister. "I don't know, Manuel. But if she needs you, I'll help you find her." Her image was starting to fade, the effort of keeping the link wide-open starting to tell, even in her sleep, the pain starting to creep through. It felt like everything hurt.
Manuel winced as he too felt the pain. "Ow!" he said with a great deal of shock. "What the hell was that?"
"Me. I'm not in the best shape right now." She gave him a humourless grin. "I'm not exactly sure what happened, either. 'S all fuzzy, but it feels like someone kicked the crap out of me."
"Yeah. My ribs hurt." he whined. "And I'm sleepy. I would like to go to sleep now. How do I go to sleep?"
Magic was as much in the mind as anything else, and she had power here... "Just close yer eyes," she said, moving stiffly to put her hand over his eyes. "An' count t' ten." As she spoke, she gathered strength for a sleep spell, ignoring the raw feel of the magic, the sense that something was out of balance.
Manuel obediently closed his eyes and started counting. In English. "One, two, three, four..." he counted. By the time he got to seven, he was out cold.
Amanda watched him fall gently backwards, his form disappearing as it hit the ground, dust puffing up and around nothing. The mindscape was still a riot of turmoil and chaos, but that was beyond her abilities. With a sigh, she closed her own eyes, and let herself fall back into her own body, and into troubled sleep.
