Kitty, Amanda - Thursday afternoon
Nov. 25th, 2004 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsThanksgiving - Kitty decides to take a break from the family holiday and plays Florence Nightingale. With pie.
It hurt less today, Amanda thought with a wry wince, pushing herself upright in the bed before slumping back against the pillows, the effort tiring her out quicker than it should. The only thing about hurting less, though, was thinking more. And realising she was bored and had no clue what was going on around her - Moira had decided against giving her access to a laptop just yet, until Charles had decided what to say about Manuel to the rest of the school.
The phone call to her mother had not ended with either of them hanging up on the other, so this was a good thing. It was about the only really good thing that could be said about calling, cause something had clearly been wrong with her dad when she called him, but it was something. Deciding to distract herself from the whole thing she'd swiped a couple pieces of pie out of the kitchen and some whipped cream and headed down to the med lab. Surely at least one of the multiple invalids would be up to having some pie with her and if not there was always a doctor or two to be found. Or she could just sneak off and eat the pie on her own in the lab and work. Jamie would find her eventually and make her be social again...
It was just as well the door was still ajar, since otherwise Amanda would never have heard the faint footsteps coming down the hallway. Moira and Nathan were upstairs, having Thanksgiving with the rest, Hank was off seeing to Jono and besides his tread was far heavier and sometimes involved less in the way of footsteps. Had to be someone new. Whee, distraction - with effort, Amanda nudged open the door the rest of the way with her telekinetic spell, nerves burning with the spell. "Hello?" she called, voice still cracking a bit.
Kitty grinned to herself. Well, at least one of the assorted invalids was up. "Hey," she said, peeking through the door which had opened. "So, I was thinking, it's a terrible, terrible shame for all you invalids to be trapped down here on Thanksgiving, and then I thought about it and realized you're all not Americans so today's just another Thursday and you don't even care we don't have classes, only then I realized that even a non-American could appreciate and possibly even go so far as to really, really want some of Lorna's pumpkin pie, and so I come, pie in hand. All of which is to say, hi."
"Never say no t' food, an' Lorna's pie's not t' be sneezed at," Amanda said, smiling as best she could. The swelling was going down a little, but her face was still a mass of bruises. "Come in, Kit-kat. 'M bored out of me skull here."
"Then I'm doubly sorry I haven't come by more often," Kitty said, slipping inside and clearing a little space on the bedside table to set the plate down on before pulling forks out of her pocket. "Have a killer project due for my Advanced Mech. prof who doesn't seem to understand that final projects should be due at the end of the term."
"'S all right. Not like it's been advertised we're down here..." Amanda shifted aside in the bed slightly so Kitty could sit on the edge, if she wanted. "So, what's been happening up there? Been sort of out of it since Monday."
"Understandable," Kitty said with a nod. "Whipped cream? Make that 'how much whipped cream?', cause it would be an atrocity to not have this fresh whipped cream on your homemade pumpkin pie. As for what's been happening, um... Lockheed's learning to fly - Jay's teaching him, but you might have heard about that. Also... um... all sorts of, you know, family stuff, what with it being Thanksgiving and all. Really, it's been sort of normal. Rahne got another deer."
"Lots?" Amanda asked, grinning a little more, pain be damned. "Since I'd hate t' upset the whole balance of things an' not do it proper." Kitty nudged the plate with slightly more cream towards her, and she gingerly took the offered fork in her less-bruised right hand. "Yeah, I saw that 'bout Lockheed - how'd you managed t' get Grumpy Guthrie t' help out? Thought he was tryin' t' perfect his whole loner thing with the sulkin' in his room." She didn't miss Kitty's hesitation with the 'family' word, and figured distraction might work better here.
"Honestly? I just asked him. I kind of get the feeling the whole 'loner thing, me against the world' is getting old for him. At any rate, while he hardly jumped at the idea of helping me out but he wasn't really protesting." Kitty grinned, spooning out her own dollop of whipped cream and taking up her plate. "Personally, I figure everyone needs at least a little good company and conversation and what not."
"Yer good at that," Amanda said, scooping up a small bite clumsily with the edge of her fork. Mmm, that was good. Much better than the glop she'd been getting down here. "An' yer probably right, 'bout him wantin' company. 'S the thing 'bout this place - people give you space. Problem is, sometimes 's too much space."
Kitty nodded. "Yeah, we haven't really got the middle ground down yet, have we? Either we're there all the time, pushing in your face to be social and well adjusted and to love the world or we... we back off and leave you to find your own feet in the middle of a ragging river. Or, um... something." Sighing, she dug her own fork in, distracting herself with the pie.
"Good way of puttin' it," Amanda agreed. She tried another small bite of pie. "Nate said somethin' the other day, 'bout middle ground. Seems t' be the thing t' think about." Chewing hurt, but it was worth it for pie. "So, how's Lockheed doin' with the flyin'? Gettin' the hang of it?"
Kitty noticed the slight wince on Amanda's face, but knew well enough that Amanda could make her own choices about what she wanted and what she'd put up for it. "Well, he's more working his way up to the actual flying. Seems his wings and wing muscles aren't in good enough shape for proper flying so we're exercising them, trying to get them stronger before actually, you know, pushing him off the building."
The witch laughed at that. "Yeah, best t' make sure he can lift himself, tho' now I have this image of him on a little weights machine, like in the gym..." A wistful look flickered across her face. "Tho' funny you should talk 'bout pushin' him off the buildin' - that's pretty much what my flyin' spell involves. Say the words, concentrate really hard an' then step off the roof. Lucky for me I had Marie spottin' me the last time I had the power t' try it."
Kitty's eyes widened slightly at the image of Amanda essentially closing her eyes and stepping off a building. Yes, she believed in magic now, but there were still limits. Covering the reaction she took another bite of the pie. "Well, I guess it brings new meaning to 'fight or flight'," she said.
"Yeah, well, the fosters didn' t appreciate it when I tried it as a kid..." Amanda said wryly, carefully spooning up another piece of pie. "More like 'fright or flight' - the first time was scary as, but like I said, I had Marie there t' catch me. Still don't have the power for it now, specially after..." She shrugged a little. "Well, after Monday. 'S gunna knock me back a bit, I think."
Kitty nodded slightly. "That's... that's really harsh. At least with the rest of us our powers are, well, our powers. Either we can do it or we can't. It's much less a 'sometimes we can' sort of thing. Well, sort of." She sucked the cream off the end of her fork thoughtfully.
"You don't have the whole magical ethics issues neither - I've got t' watch what I do and why, otherwise it bites me in the arse later." Amanda grimaced, not liking where that thought was going. "So, explain this whole Thanksgivin' thing to me."
"Sure," Kitty said, taking another bite. She knew a change of topic when she heard one at least as well as the next person. "At the basis of it, it's about being thankful for the things you've got - the real things, like food and clothes and shelter and people who love you. The pilgrims had come to America but weren't doing so hot - they'd gotten through one winter just barely and so the natives helped teach them how to survive on this continent. You know, what to plant, what not to eat, how to make better homes. So things come around to fall and the harvest and they've got enough and they'll be able to survive this next winter, so what better thing than to celebrate? They invite over their native friends and have a party and basically say 'Thanks. You did a good thing and it's going to be ok for us and thanks for that'."
"That's... actually pretty nifty. Nice thought." She grinned again, the expression coming easier. "An' not as in yer face Christian as some of the other holidays."
Kitty snorted at that. "Yeah, well," she said with a shrug. "They were puritans and all that, so there was probably all sorts of thanking God and saying grace and all, but you can hardly complain about that. The silly hats, on the other hand, I feel fully justified in complaining about. And the shoes. They wore terrible shoes, and now pretty much every school child in America has to do at least one Thanksgiving pageant in their life and silly hats and shoes are involved."
"What is it with those pagents? I remember one school tryin' t' make me do one of those Nativity plays. Wanted me t' be an angel." Amanda chuckled a little. "Can you imagine? I switched schools before the actual show, tho'."
"Heh. Little hellion of an angel, I bet you'd've been. And the only time they tried to make me be in a nativity play I said I'd only do it if they could explain how they were not violating my first amendment rights, it being a public school and all. I think they were a little put off at hearing that from a seven year old."
"First amendment...? Oh right, freedom of religion. Learnt that the other week in history. We don't have all that actually written down in England, but we still manage all right," Amanda said, smiling a little at the image of a seven year old Kitty standing up for her Constitutional rights. "You must've been a right headache t' yer teachers as a kid. Always askin' the hard questions?"
"Only if you consider 'why do we keep calling it centrifugal force when it's not a force' a hard question," Kitty said with a grin. "As for England and freedom of religion, if I were to listen to my early cultural conditioning I'd have to point out that the pilgrims came her running away from Religious Persecution in England."
"Only 'cause yer Pilgrims had this thing for settin' people on fire 'cause they thought they were witches," Amanda replied without heat, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "Religious nutters by all account."
"I'm all for calling them nutters and dumping them in with the Christian Right, personally," Kitty said, finishing off her pie. "They were the sort of people who may not have been expecting the Spanish Inquisition but they probably thought it was a good idea when it came around."
"No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Amanda quoted, before realising she still had pie to go. Right-handed she was not. "Please tell me you know Monty Python," she said, clumsily attacking the pie again.
"What on earth did you think I was referencing?" Kitty asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in her chair. "The pilgrims were totally 'comfy chair' torture type people."
"Thought I'd check - yer'd be surprised how many people look at me funny when I mention silly walks an' the Knights Who Say Ni!" Amanda said as she navigated the pie to her mouth. "Think they'dhave gone as far as the nice hot cup of tea?"
"Probably they would have before they immigrated. After, well..." She shook her head. "After that they had coffee."
"If it was anythin' like Moira's, that's a torture all on its own," said Amanda, lowering her voice a little in case Moira had happened to come back down.
Kitty nodded. "Well, that's a point, although I protest on the behalf of coffee as a whole breed. If you've never had Storm's coffee you have never known joy." She grinned. "Not only is it sublime, but it'll keep you up through half a dozen term papers without leaving a bad taste in your mouth."
"I've tried Lorna's an' it weren't too bad, an' there was this stuff in Istanbul that would've taken yer head off..." Pie finally finished, Amanda laid the fork down with no small sense of relief. "Shite, papers. I've still got homework t' get done, only I can't hold a pen proper..." She gestured feebly with her left hand, the fingers bruised and swollen. "Think someone stepped on it."
"Manuel does go on about Turkish coffee every now and then, yeah," Kitty said, nodding. "Never have tried it." Looking serious, she considered Amanda's hand, not quite wanting to ask if someone had stepped on it. "Want me to get my laptop?" she said instead. "I take dictation and the spell check has all of my random quirks programed into it's auto correct."
"That'd be good, yeah, if you don't mind..." Pausing, Amanda asked, a little unsure. "Um, you couldn't bring down another bit of pie, for Mann- for Manuel? He probably won't remember havin' it before..." She cut herself off, realising she'd probably said a little too much, then took the plunge. "What happened on Monday... it's taken away a lot of his memories. So he might not remember you, if you went an' saw him."
Kitty bit her own lip. That was... that was bad. "What... what did happen? If you don't mind, that is. I mean, obviously if you don't want to talk about it that's fine and sure, I'll get the pie no problem and be back in a flash..."
"'S not that I don't want t' talk 'bout it, I just don't remember a lot of it. Bartlet says I was doped..." Amanda leaned back against the pillows again, suddenly looking a lot tireder. "We went t' the Hellfire Club - Manuel was gunna quit his position as White Knight. His dad an' Selene had other ideas. She did somethin', usin' another empath an' a spell..." She closed her eyes. "I teleported us out before they could finish, but they did enough damage before I could."
"God..." Kitty whispered. "I'm glad you got out. I'm really glad you got out."
"So 'm I." Opening her eyes again, Amanda gave Kitty a weak smile. "I'll heal up - I always do. Manuel... they don't know yet."
"Then we'll just have to do our best," Kitty said. "One of these days the Law of Big Numbers says we get to win one." Sighing she pushed herself up out of the chair. "What say I go get the pie and the laptop?"
"Sounds good t' me," Amanda said, reaching out with her right hand to pat Kitty's briefly. "Ta, mate."
Kitty pulled out a real smile from somewhere and said, "Hey, what else are friends for," before slipping out the door on a mission.
It hurt less today, Amanda thought with a wry wince, pushing herself upright in the bed before slumping back against the pillows, the effort tiring her out quicker than it should. The only thing about hurting less, though, was thinking more. And realising she was bored and had no clue what was going on around her - Moira had decided against giving her access to a laptop just yet, until Charles had decided what to say about Manuel to the rest of the school.
The phone call to her mother had not ended with either of them hanging up on the other, so this was a good thing. It was about the only really good thing that could be said about calling, cause something had clearly been wrong with her dad when she called him, but it was something. Deciding to distract herself from the whole thing she'd swiped a couple pieces of pie out of the kitchen and some whipped cream and headed down to the med lab. Surely at least one of the multiple invalids would be up to having some pie with her and if not there was always a doctor or two to be found. Or she could just sneak off and eat the pie on her own in the lab and work. Jamie would find her eventually and make her be social again...
It was just as well the door was still ajar, since otherwise Amanda would never have heard the faint footsteps coming down the hallway. Moira and Nathan were upstairs, having Thanksgiving with the rest, Hank was off seeing to Jono and besides his tread was far heavier and sometimes involved less in the way of footsteps. Had to be someone new. Whee, distraction - with effort, Amanda nudged open the door the rest of the way with her telekinetic spell, nerves burning with the spell. "Hello?" she called, voice still cracking a bit.
Kitty grinned to herself. Well, at least one of the assorted invalids was up. "Hey," she said, peeking through the door which had opened. "So, I was thinking, it's a terrible, terrible shame for all you invalids to be trapped down here on Thanksgiving, and then I thought about it and realized you're all not Americans so today's just another Thursday and you don't even care we don't have classes, only then I realized that even a non-American could appreciate and possibly even go so far as to really, really want some of Lorna's pumpkin pie, and so I come, pie in hand. All of which is to say, hi."
"Never say no t' food, an' Lorna's pie's not t' be sneezed at," Amanda said, smiling as best she could. The swelling was going down a little, but her face was still a mass of bruises. "Come in, Kit-kat. 'M bored out of me skull here."
"Then I'm doubly sorry I haven't come by more often," Kitty said, slipping inside and clearing a little space on the bedside table to set the plate down on before pulling forks out of her pocket. "Have a killer project due for my Advanced Mech. prof who doesn't seem to understand that final projects should be due at the end of the term."
"'S all right. Not like it's been advertised we're down here..." Amanda shifted aside in the bed slightly so Kitty could sit on the edge, if she wanted. "So, what's been happening up there? Been sort of out of it since Monday."
"Understandable," Kitty said with a nod. "Whipped cream? Make that 'how much whipped cream?', cause it would be an atrocity to not have this fresh whipped cream on your homemade pumpkin pie. As for what's been happening, um... Lockheed's learning to fly - Jay's teaching him, but you might have heard about that. Also... um... all sorts of, you know, family stuff, what with it being Thanksgiving and all. Really, it's been sort of normal. Rahne got another deer."
"Lots?" Amanda asked, grinning a little more, pain be damned. "Since I'd hate t' upset the whole balance of things an' not do it proper." Kitty nudged the plate with slightly more cream towards her, and she gingerly took the offered fork in her less-bruised right hand. "Yeah, I saw that 'bout Lockheed - how'd you managed t' get Grumpy Guthrie t' help out? Thought he was tryin' t' perfect his whole loner thing with the sulkin' in his room." She didn't miss Kitty's hesitation with the 'family' word, and figured distraction might work better here.
"Honestly? I just asked him. I kind of get the feeling the whole 'loner thing, me against the world' is getting old for him. At any rate, while he hardly jumped at the idea of helping me out but he wasn't really protesting." Kitty grinned, spooning out her own dollop of whipped cream and taking up her plate. "Personally, I figure everyone needs at least a little good company and conversation and what not."
"Yer good at that," Amanda said, scooping up a small bite clumsily with the edge of her fork. Mmm, that was good. Much better than the glop she'd been getting down here. "An' yer probably right, 'bout him wantin' company. 'S the thing 'bout this place - people give you space. Problem is, sometimes 's too much space."
Kitty nodded. "Yeah, we haven't really got the middle ground down yet, have we? Either we're there all the time, pushing in your face to be social and well adjusted and to love the world or we... we back off and leave you to find your own feet in the middle of a ragging river. Or, um... something." Sighing, she dug her own fork in, distracting herself with the pie.
"Good way of puttin' it," Amanda agreed. She tried another small bite of pie. "Nate said somethin' the other day, 'bout middle ground. Seems t' be the thing t' think about." Chewing hurt, but it was worth it for pie. "So, how's Lockheed doin' with the flyin'? Gettin' the hang of it?"
Kitty noticed the slight wince on Amanda's face, but knew well enough that Amanda could make her own choices about what she wanted and what she'd put up for it. "Well, he's more working his way up to the actual flying. Seems his wings and wing muscles aren't in good enough shape for proper flying so we're exercising them, trying to get them stronger before actually, you know, pushing him off the building."
The witch laughed at that. "Yeah, best t' make sure he can lift himself, tho' now I have this image of him on a little weights machine, like in the gym..." A wistful look flickered across her face. "Tho' funny you should talk 'bout pushin' him off the buildin' - that's pretty much what my flyin' spell involves. Say the words, concentrate really hard an' then step off the roof. Lucky for me I had Marie spottin' me the last time I had the power t' try it."
Kitty's eyes widened slightly at the image of Amanda essentially closing her eyes and stepping off a building. Yes, she believed in magic now, but there were still limits. Covering the reaction she took another bite of the pie. "Well, I guess it brings new meaning to 'fight or flight'," she said.
"Yeah, well, the fosters didn' t appreciate it when I tried it as a kid..." Amanda said wryly, carefully spooning up another piece of pie. "More like 'fright or flight' - the first time was scary as, but like I said, I had Marie there t' catch me. Still don't have the power for it now, specially after..." She shrugged a little. "Well, after Monday. 'S gunna knock me back a bit, I think."
Kitty nodded slightly. "That's... that's really harsh. At least with the rest of us our powers are, well, our powers. Either we can do it or we can't. It's much less a 'sometimes we can' sort of thing. Well, sort of." She sucked the cream off the end of her fork thoughtfully.
"You don't have the whole magical ethics issues neither - I've got t' watch what I do and why, otherwise it bites me in the arse later." Amanda grimaced, not liking where that thought was going. "So, explain this whole Thanksgivin' thing to me."
"Sure," Kitty said, taking another bite. She knew a change of topic when she heard one at least as well as the next person. "At the basis of it, it's about being thankful for the things you've got - the real things, like food and clothes and shelter and people who love you. The pilgrims had come to America but weren't doing so hot - they'd gotten through one winter just barely and so the natives helped teach them how to survive on this continent. You know, what to plant, what not to eat, how to make better homes. So things come around to fall and the harvest and they've got enough and they'll be able to survive this next winter, so what better thing than to celebrate? They invite over their native friends and have a party and basically say 'Thanks. You did a good thing and it's going to be ok for us and thanks for that'."
"That's... actually pretty nifty. Nice thought." She grinned again, the expression coming easier. "An' not as in yer face Christian as some of the other holidays."
Kitty snorted at that. "Yeah, well," she said with a shrug. "They were puritans and all that, so there was probably all sorts of thanking God and saying grace and all, but you can hardly complain about that. The silly hats, on the other hand, I feel fully justified in complaining about. And the shoes. They wore terrible shoes, and now pretty much every school child in America has to do at least one Thanksgiving pageant in their life and silly hats and shoes are involved."
"What is it with those pagents? I remember one school tryin' t' make me do one of those Nativity plays. Wanted me t' be an angel." Amanda chuckled a little. "Can you imagine? I switched schools before the actual show, tho'."
"Heh. Little hellion of an angel, I bet you'd've been. And the only time they tried to make me be in a nativity play I said I'd only do it if they could explain how they were not violating my first amendment rights, it being a public school and all. I think they were a little put off at hearing that from a seven year old."
"First amendment...? Oh right, freedom of religion. Learnt that the other week in history. We don't have all that actually written down in England, but we still manage all right," Amanda said, smiling a little at the image of a seven year old Kitty standing up for her Constitutional rights. "You must've been a right headache t' yer teachers as a kid. Always askin' the hard questions?"
"Only if you consider 'why do we keep calling it centrifugal force when it's not a force' a hard question," Kitty said with a grin. "As for England and freedom of religion, if I were to listen to my early cultural conditioning I'd have to point out that the pilgrims came her running away from Religious Persecution in England."
"Only 'cause yer Pilgrims had this thing for settin' people on fire 'cause they thought they were witches," Amanda replied without heat, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "Religious nutters by all account."
"I'm all for calling them nutters and dumping them in with the Christian Right, personally," Kitty said, finishing off her pie. "They were the sort of people who may not have been expecting the Spanish Inquisition but they probably thought it was a good idea when it came around."
"No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Amanda quoted, before realising she still had pie to go. Right-handed she was not. "Please tell me you know Monty Python," she said, clumsily attacking the pie again.
"What on earth did you think I was referencing?" Kitty asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in her chair. "The pilgrims were totally 'comfy chair' torture type people."
"Thought I'd check - yer'd be surprised how many people look at me funny when I mention silly walks an' the Knights Who Say Ni!" Amanda said as she navigated the pie to her mouth. "Think they'dhave gone as far as the nice hot cup of tea?"
"Probably they would have before they immigrated. After, well..." She shook her head. "After that they had coffee."
"If it was anythin' like Moira's, that's a torture all on its own," said Amanda, lowering her voice a little in case Moira had happened to come back down.
Kitty nodded. "Well, that's a point, although I protest on the behalf of coffee as a whole breed. If you've never had Storm's coffee you have never known joy." She grinned. "Not only is it sublime, but it'll keep you up through half a dozen term papers without leaving a bad taste in your mouth."
"I've tried Lorna's an' it weren't too bad, an' there was this stuff in Istanbul that would've taken yer head off..." Pie finally finished, Amanda laid the fork down with no small sense of relief. "Shite, papers. I've still got homework t' get done, only I can't hold a pen proper..." She gestured feebly with her left hand, the fingers bruised and swollen. "Think someone stepped on it."
"Manuel does go on about Turkish coffee every now and then, yeah," Kitty said, nodding. "Never have tried it." Looking serious, she considered Amanda's hand, not quite wanting to ask if someone had stepped on it. "Want me to get my laptop?" she said instead. "I take dictation and the spell check has all of my random quirks programed into it's auto correct."
"That'd be good, yeah, if you don't mind..." Pausing, Amanda asked, a little unsure. "Um, you couldn't bring down another bit of pie, for Mann- for Manuel? He probably won't remember havin' it before..." She cut herself off, realising she'd probably said a little too much, then took the plunge. "What happened on Monday... it's taken away a lot of his memories. So he might not remember you, if you went an' saw him."
Kitty bit her own lip. That was... that was bad. "What... what did happen? If you don't mind, that is. I mean, obviously if you don't want to talk about it that's fine and sure, I'll get the pie no problem and be back in a flash..."
"'S not that I don't want t' talk 'bout it, I just don't remember a lot of it. Bartlet says I was doped..." Amanda leaned back against the pillows again, suddenly looking a lot tireder. "We went t' the Hellfire Club - Manuel was gunna quit his position as White Knight. His dad an' Selene had other ideas. She did somethin', usin' another empath an' a spell..." She closed her eyes. "I teleported us out before they could finish, but they did enough damage before I could."
"God..." Kitty whispered. "I'm glad you got out. I'm really glad you got out."
"So 'm I." Opening her eyes again, Amanda gave Kitty a weak smile. "I'll heal up - I always do. Manuel... they don't know yet."
"Then we'll just have to do our best," Kitty said. "One of these days the Law of Big Numbers says we get to win one." Sighing she pushed herself up out of the chair. "What say I go get the pie and the laptop?"
"Sounds good t' me," Amanda said, reaching out with her right hand to pat Kitty's briefly. "Ta, mate."
Kitty pulled out a real smile from somewhere and said, "Hey, what else are friends for," before slipping out the door on a mission.
