xp_logs | Manuel and Marie-Ange: The Not-Empath, the Not-Crazy-Girl, and the Lizard.

Guest-starring Frank the Lizard! Marie-Ange comes to visit an amnesiac Manuel, and brings Frank for a visit as well. They talk about old times, and they both manage to blush some. Set the way-back machine for this one (before the holidays, even!), because I'm an idiot and took far too long to compile and post this.

Marie-Ange hefted Frank in her arms, looking down at him sternly.
"There will be no going to the bathroom on Manuel either." she
scolded quietly. "No biting, no hissing and no bathroom. Understand?"

Frank blinked at her. He was away from his warm sunlamp, his normal
extra-warm sunlamp had been away for days, and he was being moved
around and noises were being made at him. Maybe he would get fed
again.

Marie-Ange shook her head and frowned at the lizard, then knocked
quietly on Manuel's door, hoping he was actually there, instead of
wandering like he seemed to be lately.

Manuel opened the door after a moment or two. He was an absolute mess
- wearing an old T-shirt and jeans, hair all spiky from sleep,
red-rimmed eyes, the works. "May I help you?" he asked Marie-Ange
warily. The lizard he was trying desperately to ignore.

Marie-Ange glanced quickly down at her watch. It was not -that-
early.. "I had wanted to see if you wanted to have an iguana visit
you..." she said softly. "Amanda thought you might remember him,
and you and Frank got along quite well before. He liked you better
than her sometimes..." She readjusted Frank in her arms, trying to
prevent him from climbing up her shirt. "I thought you could use some
company as well."

"And you are?" he asked, somewhat rudely. "And I don't remember the
iguana either." he added bitterly. "But where are my manners? Come in,
please, sit down." he said, moving out of his doorway to allow
Marie-Ange and Frank entrance. "You'll just have to excuse the mess.
I've had a rough week or so." he said with a chuckle full of black
humor.

"I am Marie-Ange. I room with Amanda. Or Angie, if you hear that name,
though you never called me that." She glanced around the room. "I
have seen this room -far- messier." she said with a smile. "And the
iguana is Frank."

Frank, hearing his name - or at least the sound that usually meant
someone was about to feed him, move him or yell at him, looked up,
blinked and then struggled in Marie-Ange's hands. He knew that smell.
That was the person who fed him lettuce from his own plate.

"So you're Marie-Ange." he said, looking far more relieved that proper
introductions have been done. "I'm Manuel, but you probably know that
already." He pushed a pile of clothes and papers off of a chair, and
offered it to her. He took a seat at his desk, steadfastly ignoring
the login prompt on his laptop. "I don't suppose that you are I were
such good friends and confidants that I would have given you the
password to my laptop?" he asked her hopefully.

"We were friends, but not so good that I would know your passwords. It
was probably in Spanish, and my Spanish is... not very good. When
Doug comes back home, he might be able to find it for you."
Marie-Ange said, once she'd sat down. "Or he could probably find a
way to get in without the password. He does that. "

Manuel sighed and nodded. "It was worth a try." He leaned back to
actually look at Marie-Ange and the lizard, and he liked what he saw.
The girl, though, not the lizard. Tallish, very nice legs, filled out
her shirt quite nicely ... a shame she couldn't color-match to save
her life. "And you said that the lizard's name is Frank?" he asked her
with as charming of a smile as he could muster.

"I will ask Doug when he gets home to look at it for you." Marie-Ange
said, and then returned the smile. "Oui. Yes. Frank is... lazy, fat
and slow, but you seemed to get along with him quite well before."
She grinned. "You shared food with him. Mostly salads."

Manuel nodded. "Makes sense." he said. "I don't think I have anything
here for him now, though. He's a pretty lizard. Who owns him?" he
asked innocently as he scratched between Frank's eyes.

"Amanda, nominally." Marie-Ange said, with a grin. "Though honestly,
there were times we wondered. He spent a great deal of time sitting on
your shoulders." She glanced around the room quickly. "If you did
have Frank's food, it would be in the mini-fridge, or gone quite bad by
now."

Manuel ahhed. "So that's what that was. I threw it out, it was foul."
he said with an apologetic shrug. "So - you apparently knew me before
my accident. Do you think there's anything you could share with me
that might help me remember?" he asked her hopefully.

Marie-Ange thought for a moment, paused to wrestle with Frank, sighing
when the lizard took up residence on her shoulder and buried its snout
in her hair. "That is a -very- vague question. What did you want to
know?" There was just no way she was touching the entire nasty sphere
that was Manuel and his life without specifics. Even the details of
his arrival at the school were too ugly to get into without a lot of
forethought.

"Anything would be good." he said with a grin. "I only remember little
bits and pieces. No coherent wholes, unfortunately. So anything you
could give me would help out a lot. And, I hate to be rude and all,
but are you aware that that top doesn't match those pants? At all?"

"Not again..." Marie-Ange said quietly. "Though, that might be
something..." She smiled. "To me, my top and pants match perfectly.
We had a few arguments about it before it was cleared up. Alison -
Ms. Blaire, our music teacher agrees with you though. You see - you
both see colours differently than most people, because of your
powers."

"I don't have any powers." he said stubbornly. "And I was in the music
class? OK, good. But I wasn't in the band. Do you know why not?" he
asked her with a bit of a frown. "I mean, music was supposedly this
big part of my life. I even have turntables in my room."

It was definitely -not- a good idea to discuss Manuel's powers, or
former powers, Marie-Ange decided. That could not possibly end well.
"You are here, so you have some abilities. At the least.." she said,
plucking at the material of her shirt. "You can see colours
differently. I see this as green and black that matches. As for the
band, I am not sure. You never expressed an interest to join, and the
music you liked before is a bit hard for a band to play. Much of it is
done on machines, not instruments.."

Manuel grinned. "I know. But I like both kinds, really. I have a lot
of CDs of classical stuff as well as the machine-generated stuff. And
some of it blends both kinds together! Did I happen to mention _any_
of this to the band, or was I some sort of sad sack?" he asked.

Tact, Marie-Ange decided, was an art form. "I think it was more that
you were busy with other things and never brought it up. You had a lot
of schoolwork, and I think you were preparing for university, and had
a great deal taking up your time... " She paused. "You were asking
for copies of everyone's music before. You mentioned a project, I
think?" And oh, if he could continue that, if it was what Marie-Ange
had Seen, it might help Manuel a lot. But she was guessing, and
grasping at straws.

Manuel blinked. "I was?" he asked incredulously. "Sounds cool, but I
can't even log into my laptop to check it out for myself. I asked
Scott to get it unlocked for me, and he's checking with Hank. Music's
about the only thing that makes me feel good these days. Between the
headaches and the getting lost and the pretty girls and Amanda and all of it..."

"If you do not get it unlocked before everyone returns, let me know.
If music helps you feel better, then you should have it back as fast
as possible." She knew from stress, especially lately. "In the
meantime, maybe you could borrow one of the spare ones? There is a lot
of music already on the computer network, and even if Doug is away in
Las Vegas, Kitty could ... " She paused. "Wait. Kitty could probably
unlock your laptop. She cannot literally speak computers, but she is
very good with them..."

Manuel grinned. "I've met Kitty. She's a very good dancer." he said
with the beginnings of a blush creeping across his face. "If she could
unlock it, that would be fantastic! Do you think she's free now?" he
asked her excitedly, just about ready to grab his laptop and run out
the door.

Manuel blushing? Marie-Ange shook her head in surprise for a moment.
"I am not sure. She is probably at classes though. Jamie would know
her schedule better than I would. I am sure she would unlock it if you
asked... " She pointed to the desk phone. "You could call her room
and leave a message?"

"I could!" he said. "That's a really good idea, thanks." He picked up
the phone and absently punched in the number to Kitty's room's phone.
No one answered, and he left her a message to come and see him about
cracking his laptop's password restriction. "There. All done." he said.

Marie-Ange smiled. "Manuel? How do you know Kitty's phone number?"
She didn't think it would make him upset. "You remembered something,
I think. Even if it is small, it is a good start, yes?"

Manuel blinked. "I have no idea. I wasn't even thinking about it. That
usually seems to be the way to go. If I don't think about it, I can do
stuff pretty easily. It's only when I think about it that I get all
headache-y."

"But it means some of them are still there, so they might come back."
Marie-Ange smiled softly. "The strength of our future often lies in
our past, but what past that is, remembered or not, is not mine to
say." She blinked and shut her eyes for a moment, and then frowned,
reaching up to grip Frank firmly around the middle.

Frank, in a typical lizardly way, had decided that Marie-Ange's shoulder was
not nearly comfortable enough, and was seemingly trying
to make his way, snout-first down the back of her shirt.

"Please re-acquaint yourself with the iguana before it eats my hair?"
For all Marie-Ange knew, lizards might think that citrus-scented
shampoo was something like lunch. She pried Frank from her shoulder
and handed him out to Manuel. "Please?"

Manuel gingerly took the lizard and put it on his own shoulder.
"Okay." he said, comically trying to keep an eye on the lizard as best
he could. "You said that he's Amanda's pet, right?" he asked, looking
for a little clarification. "Did I get him for her?"

"I think that Ms. Braddock got Frank, but you took care of him a lot
for Amanda.." Marie-Ange said, much, much happier about the lizard
when he wasn't climbing around on -her-. "I am not sure if it is just
Frank that you like, or iguanas in general."

Frank hissed amiably and settled in on Manuel's shoulder like he
belonged there. "OK, this is weird." Manuel said, pointing to the
lizard. "Is he normally like this? I can't shake the feeling that he's
quite content just sitting there." he said. "It's weird. It's like I
just _know_."

Marie-Ange nodded. "I told you, Frank likes you. A great deal." She
snickered quietly at the lizard trying to shove its snout in Manuel's
hair, in part to avoid the subject of -how- Manuel knew Frank was
happy. "He seems fairly content to ride around on your shoulders most
of the time, when he isn't trying to use Alison as a sunlamp or trying
to sleep in my sock drawer..."

"He sleeps in your sock drawer? That's bizarre." he said with
amusement. For some reason, having the lizard on his shoulder was
reassuring. "He eats lettuce and stuff, right?" he said, querying his
very unreliable memory. "I seem to remember that. And not just the
iceberg stuff, but the good lettuces."

"Greens, yes, and sometimes fruit, and he only sleeps in my sock
drawer just after I have done my laundry. He likes the warmth."
Marie-Ange answered. "Which is why he likes visiting Alison as well.
She turns sound into light, so Frank thinks she is a big sunlamp."

Manuel ahh'ed. "Right. Alison. Gotcha." he said, as if trying to
engrave that into his memory. There was something else about Alison,
something important, but it wouldn't come easily and he was beginning
to feel the first stirrings of nausea.

Catching the all too familiar reflexive swallowing and paleness of
someone about to sick up, Marie-Ange decided that a change of subject
was definitely in order. Manuel throwing up the contents of his stomach
onto her shoes was not her idea of a fun day. "She has a son, Miles.
Adopted.. " she said, trying to redirect the topic, and perhaps get
Manuel's attention on something else. "He's green." Lame, but
attention-getting, she thought. Hopefully it would work.

"I remember Miles." he said, taking deep breaths to keep his stomach
from spilling out onto the floor. "He's a good kid. And can you tell
me why I remember throwing up on you ... twice?"

"You were fairly ill when you arrived here, and I was helping in the
infirmary, the first time." It wasn't -untrue-, Marie-Ange thought.
Just not entirely the truth. "and the second, you had an accident,
and I was helping you from your room to be seen by the doctors.."
Which was also the truth. Just not -all- of it.

"Am I normally this accident-prone?" he grumbled. "I'm fairly sure
you're heartily sick of being covered by my various fluids." he said
with a reassuring smile. "So I'll endeavor to not do it to you again."

It would not do to cough in a mildly embarrassed fashion. Unfortunately, it
happened anyway, and Marie-Ange only barely managed not to blush.
Which hadn't happened in a while, and she was mildly vexed by it.
"Neither was really your fault, so I promise not to hold it against
you." It was, besides, by -far-, not the worst thing she'd gotten
covered in. But Skippy was probably another topic Manuel didn't need
to hear about right now.

Manuel may have been an amnesiac, and he may not have access to his
power, but he wasn't dumb. "OK, there's something you're not telling
me." he said accusingly. "Probably several somethings."

"You are entirely too perceptive." When had he gotten that
perceptive? Marie-Ange grumbled a bit and stared down at her feet.
"We had a -very- brief ... ah.. relationship. Before.. before I was
dating Doug."

"We did?" Manuel asked with a scarlet, flaming blush. "Oh." he said,
staring at his own toes. "Sorry?" he ventured after a few moments. "So
you were who Kitty was referring to." he said, mostly to himself.

"It was not -bad-, Manuel." Marie-Ange was -still- blushing. "It
ended badly, but not so badly that we did not talk after." Mostly
because she knew that rejecting Manuel completely would do something
horrible to him, and as a result, everyone else, but that was neither
here nor there, and as of late, was not even remotely a possibility.
"And why was Kitty referring to me?" she asked, a touch confused.

Manuel grinned. "Kitty tells me I was a great wooer of women. I didn't
really believe her, but now I guess I have proof." he said with a
laugh. "I still have a hard time believing it. I mean, I know I keep
in good shape and that I'm pretty damned good-looking, but still..."
he said with a small laugh.

Marie-Ange couldn’t help but laugh. Manuel de la Rocha, the ego that
walked like a man, in disbelief of his prowess with women. It was
funny. "Kitty would not lie about it. I never knew you to be without
a girl, or girls who wanted your attention." She thought for a moment.
"Even female -horses- like you. And I think every other woman in
Asgard... " She waved a hand in frustration. "I should probably
explain -that- too, if no one else has."

"Amanda mentioned it briefly. It's a little hard to believe, even when
I've seen the rune stones I brought back." he said. "A whole 'nother
dimension - sort of boggles the mind, doesn't it?" he said with a
laugh. "And you're making fun of me!" he complained.

"I am not making fun of you." Marie-Ange protested, just a little
guilty at the idea that she had been, just a bit. "It is just ... you
used to know exactly how attractive you were. How charming you could
be, and how skilled you were... " Now she -did- blush, very pink.
"Very, very skilled, for the record."

Manuel grinned. "Wish I could remember any of it." he said ruefully.
"Ah well, if I should happen to get the opportunity to practice, I'll
see if the old skills come back to me." He then looked at Marie-Ange
speculatively.

Some things never change, Marie-Ange noted. "You are not practicing on
me, Manuel." she teased. "I have a boyfriend, and he is quite
skillful in his own right." And if she was lucky, Doug would never,
ever hear about this conversation, because it would be so very
embarrassing to explain.

Manuel grinned again. "That's OK, I was teasing." Mostly. OK,
partially. All right, fine, he was serious. "So who's the lucky guy?"
he asked her with a teasing grin. "He'd better be much better than I
am - was." he said with only a slight stammer.

Well. He hadn't remembered her, so he wasn't going to be very likely
to remember Doug, now was he? Marie-Ange scolded herself lightly for
being surprised. "Doug. He was actually your English tutor for a
time, and you shared a few classes." she paused. Doug hadn't been
home very long, so Manuel might not have seen him in the halls, but it
was worth a try. "He is blond, as tall as you, you have similar
builds as well. I seem to prefer slender men..." She paused and
smiled. "And he is.. a very, very quick learner." Oh, this would be
-very- embarrassing if Doug ever found out.

Manuel ahhed with an evil grin. "Gotcha. If I remember, I'll have to
tell him about who taught you all the things he's learned." he said
with a laugh. "Damn, that's just funny." he said with a laugh. "I
needed the laugh, thank you. But seriously - did we actually do any of
this?" he asked her.

"Did we... do any of .. " Marie-Ange repeated slowly. Oh, she was
going to have to spell it out, wasn't she. Merde. She shut her eyes
for a moment and pushed away as much of the embarrassment as she could.
"Did we -sleep- together? Yes. Why would I lie about that?" she
finally answered.

Manuel choked, and turned bright flamingly red again. "I thought you
were joking. I was kinda hoping you were joking. Dammit, I never get to keep
the fun memories! I can remember chilled red wine on the Orient Express,
but going to bed with the redhead escapes me? THERE IS
NO JUSTICE!" he said melodramatically. "Ah well. That was my old life.
I have to make a new one now."

"You never used to blush." Marie-Ange said lightly. "It is.. kind
of cute. It makes you look much younger." Well, that completed the
Manuel de la Rocha expression checklist, she thought. She had managed
to see all of them now, even the one she thought she never, ever
would.

Manuel pulled out an oldie-but-goodie - he looked confused at her. "I'm
sorry?" he said to her. "I'm only twenty. How old are you?" he asked
her with fine disregard for the protocols about asking ladies about
their age.

"Seventeen." Marie-Ange answered, without annoyance. It was a -very-
silly protocol anyway. "I suppose I always think of you as a bit
older. You always acted much older than your age before." She idly
wondered if Manuel had -ever- acted less than fully adult. Imagining
him as a child was impossible. She just could not picture it.

"Oh. Okay." he said with an amusedly tolerant smile. "Apparently I am
quite different now from how I was?" he asked, drawing a conclusion
based on what she was telling him. "So hey, instead of just sitting
here and talking, do you think we could take Frank here and go get
something to eat?" he asked her hopefully.

"For you or for Frank?" Marie-Ange asked, not sure it mattered either
way. "Though, I suppose even if it is for you, it will not matter
much. Frank used to steal from your salads." She smiled and stood.
"Talking in the kitchen would be just as fine as talking here." And
if Manuel was entirely different, she might manage to successfully
addict him to those cookies that Doug had foisted off on her, the ones
with the peanut butter from the Girl Scouts. It was only fair to pass
it along.