Amanda Reid

Amanda Reid is a side character in the Elsaverse. She is part of the "Triple A" team of heroes, along with her friends Alexis and Anastasia Bertradino, the three women with powers that are the main protagonists of the novella AAA (2018). Alexis is, indeed, Amanda's hero and platonic love, and they end up making love for the first time in Elsaverse: Transitions, although the scene is presented as a one-time thing. In AAA, she started a casual relationship with Serena, but they broke up amicably when Serena found a man to love. Amanda is a published writer of sci-fi novels and she has the power to telepathically put stories or ideas into other people's minds.

Personal
Amanda has been friends with Anastasia for as long as they remember. Both of them were good students and a bit shy around others, and they were always together as kids. While Anastasia preferred to read comic books, Amanda was always writing stories and, although she was too shy to show them to anyone besides Anastasia, she used to dream of becoming a pro sci-fi writer. Sadly, they soon became the school's official 'freaks'. When Alexis met them in sixth grade at Riverside Junior Highschool, they were regularly bullied by their former friend, Tina, and her court of followers, starting with Tina's boyfriend, Bobby. Meanwhile, Alexis was a newcomer with the potential to become the most popular girl in the school. She could have just gone with the flow to be accepted; however, Alexis was always kind to Amanda and Anastasia and even stood up for them when they were attacked. For this reason, she quickly became their hero. One day, Amanda wrote a story about that feeling: Bobby stole it for Tina, and Tina handed it over to Alexis, who at first thought it was some kind of sarcastic joke from Amanda. However, when she confronted Amanda, Alexis could see that all that she had written on that piece of paper was genuine and decided to give them a chance. From that moment on, the three of them became inseparable.

Sometime later, when her friend Sarah was cruelly accused at school of being a lesbian, Amanda started to realize that she didn't feel attracted to guys. And, even though she actually had a brief romantic relationship with Sarah some years later, Amanda's heart only belongs to Alexis: all that fascination she felt since they were kids for her beautiful, kind, brave, and empathic friend slowly evolved into deeper feelings that, sadly for Amanda, Alexis just can't reciprocate in full, as she is straight. However, this unrequited love has never affected their friendship. They live together since college and, eventually, Alexis even decided once to try lesbic sex with Amanda, who tried her best to make this one-time thing as unforgettable for Alexis as it will definitely be for herself.

Despite being a talented writer who has already published several space operas, Amanda has some insecurities, mostly related to her curvy body, as she thinks she's fat and unattractive. When she meets Serena, she feels immediately infatuated with her but is too nervous to make a move on her; fortunately, her friends Alexis and Anastasia manage to let her know that Serena is willing to have a lesbian relationship and is a fan of her writing, which facilitates the flirting process. On their first date, Serena confesses that she's not looking for a serious relationship because she's actually in love with her co-worker, Paul, a man who can not reciprocate her feelings, but Amanda can perfectly relate to that and they agree to have a casual sex fling. That relationship lasts for several months until Serena meets Joel Dresden and feels she could be in love again; Amanda understands it and tells her to go for him, keeping their friendship intact.

Powers
Amanda Reid spent most of her childhood writing fantasy and sci-fi stories that her friends loved. At some point that is not explicitly mentioned in the saga, she realized that she could actually put those stories in other people's minds directly from her own, without saying a word or writing them on paper. With these stories, she can alter people's mood and even try to convince them that they are physically feeling a particular sensation, like tiredness, although it seems that she still has some training to do to master this skill. Her power, however, has some important limitations: she can only use it with one person at a time, and she doesn't actually know how her story is being displayed in her subject's mind.

Throughout AAA 10 chapters, Amanda uses her power quite often. In the riot at Mayhem's concert, she keeps putting happy stories in angry people's minds to calm them down. Much later on, she also calms Jessica Springfield after the bombing at the Mayoral rally, making her remember the compelling story of her life, which pushes Jessica to sing another song that moves people to help the victims; later that day, she tries to make Detective Nathanial Blake think in Charles Reyes while he's interviewing Jessica. Finally, Amanda also uses the first story she wrote for Alexis to help her friend keep her confidence and focus when dodging the knives that Brandon Henderson was throwing at her. In less dramatic moments, Amanda eases Serena's neighbor by putting a sexy story in his mind when he realizes the two girls were making out in the elevator; she also uses a sexy story to show Joey Bertradino how her power works, which eventually leads to her dream coming true when Alexis suggests having sex with her.

It's also worth noting a certain situation in which Amanda does not use her power despite being tempted to: when her friend Anastasia finally feels ready to confess her power to her husband but seems to be about to chicken out, Amanda considers using her power to calm her down, but a look from Alexis makes her realize that's a situation that Anastasia has to solve without any external and unnatural help, which she eventually does.

Miscellaneous

 * At high school, Amanda was known as 'Mandy' as a result of their former friend Tina's mean antics: she sarcastically started to call Anastasia 'Princess', but Anastasia managed to convince their classmates to call her 'Stacy' instead and then Tina focused on messing with Anastasia's best friend by shortening her name.


 * In AAA second chapter, Amanda notices a guy entering Jessica's building with a bag of a publishing company. Although is not explicitly mentioned, true fans of the Elsaverse know perfectly well that this man is Jason.


 * Like Amanda, Tora Productions' writer, Tlaero, is a published sci-fi writer in real life. In AAA last chapter, Amanda is said to be working on a novel whose plot has some significant resemblance to the short story Demon Guard that was released some months later.