xp_logs | When It All Goes Wrong Again

Amanda's just off the plane from Germany, and she gets some tourist advice from an unlikely sort.

"Passport and immigration papers."

Amanda Sefton stared at the Customs official, trying to make sense of what he was saying. Her carry-on bag tugged at her shoulder and she put it down, running through the stock-standard English phrases she knew. Unfortunately, this man was neither asking her name nor asking for directions to the station, so she had no idea what he was saying. Then he snapped his fingers at her, pointing at the shiny new EU passport clutched in her hand, and she blushed a fiery red.

"Forgive me, I not understand..." she began, handing it over. The man snatched it from her hand with impatience and she jerked back, startled. As he perused the document, she tugged at one of the long braids she'd tied her hair in for the trip, unsure of what to do next. Suddenly the prospect of coming to America to study was a lot less appealing than it had seemed back in Germany. Her mother had been right, this was a silly dream, she should have stayed with her people, with her boyfriend. Poor Kurt, he'd been so sad when she'd left...

"Purpose of visit?" the man snapped at her, and she jumped.

"Please?" she said, confused. The man rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Purpose. Of. Visit," he repeated, slowly and carefully, but with barely-controlled impatience - it was a long queue. "Why are you here?"

"Oh!" This Amanda understood. "For to study. The English," she told him, proud she'd learned this much. "And the circus."

"The what?" he asked, incredulous.

"The circus," she answered, a little more uncertainly now. Perhaps she was using the wrong word? "My family, is old circus family. The Big Top, yes?" Her heavy German accent was growing thicker as she got more flustered.

"The Big Top," he repeated, and then shook his head. "Place your left index finger here," he told her, pointing at the fingerprint reader. As she reached forward hesitantly with her right, he shook his head. "Left first."

Amanda blushed even more and placed her left finger on the reader, then the right when he prompted her.

"Go though Customs," he told her, slowly and enunciating his words. "Through there," and he pointed. "Show them this." He held up the declaration she'd filled out on the plane, with the help of the German-speaking stewardess. He placed the form in her passport, and then held it out to her. She reached for it...

...and time seemed to stop.

"Germany! Ah, I love Germany. Well, German things. Beer, bratwurst, schinitzl, German beer hostesses." The Customs agents gave a wink to Amanda. He seemed different somehow, there was a gap in his front teeth that she hadn't even noticed before. "We're delighted that you've come to our fair city." It also took several seconds for Amanda to realize she could understand everything the man said.

"~You speak German?~" she asked in that language, completely bewildered. If he spoke German, then why all the earlier hassles?

"Now, see, here you just gotta walk right through customs, and give the pretty lady there your customs sheet. This thingy here," he continued, not even answering Amanda's question. He held up her form. "And then when all's said and done, I want you to take a big deep breath and relax, we don't want you stressed out. There's enough stress as it is. Perhaps you should take a walk even, explore the sights in Manhattan? You like shopping?"

"~But... I don't... Yes?~" she managed at last, taking back her passport and customs forms as he passed them to her. "~But where should I go?~"

"Where we all should go when we first visit our fair city!" the man said. "Grand Central station! The center of everything!"

"~I... That is... Thank you. I will.~" Now why had she said that? "~Thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate it.~"

There was another of those odd moments, the sensation of things stopping, and the man blinked at her. "Go on, through there," he said, and she realised he was speaking English again. Or that she couldn't understand English, whichever it had been.

"Um. Yes. Thank you," she mumbled, and headed off in the direction he'd pointed, more confused than ever.

She'd look for 'Grand Central Station' in her guidebook later.

And two teens from Salem Center, New York find out that they have a whole lot in common

Laurie had been at the party for a little over an hour, working her way the rooms, talking to people randomly. She'd just reached the lounge room again when one of her friends called her over to meet a guy called Tommy.

"Hi." Laurie said, holding her hand out to shake his.

Tommy had been talking to some of the other seniors about a literacy rally that weekend in Salem center that they had organized and were still working out last minutes details, such as how they were going to collect the children's book they had encouraged participants to bring and donate.

He barely turned away from them when one of the younger member of his group pulled his elbow to pay attention to the friend they'd brought over. He reached for her hand, a friendly grin on his face. "Hi, I'm..."

The world went out of focus for a moment.

Laurie blinked at the weird sensation, looking at Tommy curiously. Didn't she know this guy? What the hell was going on? There seemed to be two sets of memories, one of where she was now and another of...another place. Where she had weird powers and Tommy was someone she knew and lived with.

"Um." Laurie began, removing her hand from Tommy's.

The first thing that came back was the fear and the anger at ....everything. It mentally hurt. He lifted a hand to his head at his pained expression.

When he could think semi-straight, wading through the happy content memories and the bombarding new ones, He looked at the other girl. More memories resurfaced, ones of feeling a traitor in the place that he lived and a sullen lonely existence where everything he touched turned to something else. A mansion full of people where it wasn't unusual. Tommy blinked. "Laurie?"

Laurie smiled hesitantly, still trying to integrate the new memories she was receiving with the ones she'd had all her life. What the hell was going on?

"You know me?" she asked, wanting to confirm that things were 'different' for more then just her.

It was at this point she realized they must look really weird to their friends, considering they'd been standing here for at least a minute staring at each other in confusion. This was going to get awkward, she could tell.

Did he? He hadn't met her till a few moments ago but something...something was felt more familiar then that. "I think..."

Tommy ignored the people staring, still wince from the loneliness and anger that had sprung up. He had never felt anything like it in his whole life. He had alot of friends, was good in school and worked hard campaigning for many good causes. This...was the total opposite feeling. And it was beginning to fell more real by the second.

"There's a big house...full of people..." He said softly to her, hoping by her own confused look she would understand.

"Yeah, and a girl with spiky red hair?" Laurie said softly back. "Tommy, what's going on?"

What had her name been? It seemed like it was important, something that connected her with Tommy beyond the idea of living in the same house, which she also seemed to be remembering. A mutual friend, perhaps?

The name came easily to Tommy's lips, the only positive spark of emotion among all the new ones. "Yvette."

At her question, he shook his head. "I don't know. But this..." He waves his hand to their surroundings. "Doesn't feel real anymore."

"No, it doesn't. Look, we should get out of here. People are beginning to give us some awfully weird looks." Laurie whispered, grabbing Tommy's hand and pulling him toward the door to the backyard.

Not that her suddenly making off with one of the popular guys wasn't going to cause a stir but considering the alternatives, such as continuing this rather bizarre conversation in front of everyone, she felt that it was probably the best option.

It wasn't so much pulling as Tommy had the same idea and gladly followed. Someone grabbed his arm and asked what was wrong, but Tommy just waved them off with a small smile. No one would understand, he barely did himself.

Once they were outside, Tommy pulled her over to a large tree that they could stand behind for semi privacy. "What's going?" was the obvious question.

"I've got no idea." Laurie replied, her tone somewhat frustrated. "All I know is that this, all this seems really unreal all of a sudden and I've got some really interesting memories of a mansion full of 'mutants' and we're all learning how to control our 'powers'."

There was a bird looking at them from a nearby fence, a seagull...What the hell was a seagull doing this far from the ocean? Laurie blinked at it for a second or two before turning back to Tommy.

"Is it just me, or is that seagull a bit out of place?"

Tommy nodded in agreement, though the hate was still giving him a headache especially at the word mutants. It was confusing him to no end. So mush so that he hadn't even noticed the bird. "We're too far inland for sea birds, what's it doing here?"

"I'm not sure, let me see if I can grab it." Laurie replied, moving closer to the bird. "Heeeeere, birdy. There's a nice birdy."

"Lady, do ya really think talkin' to me like a dog is gonna to get me to come to you?" the bird asked, clearly offended.

"Um...yes?" Laurie replied, blinking.

Did the bird just talk? It couldn't have, could it? Laurie turned back to where Tommy was standing, a questioning look in her eyes.

"Tommy? Did you just hear that?"

Tommy was standing there staring at the bird like it was made of gold. And that reference really wasn't now that his memories caught with his brain. "Unfortunately. This day is clearly not getting any saner."

Shaking his head, he approached the bird and glared at it. "Fine, I have a headache caused by memories that aren't mine, I feel angry about everything and I'm talking to a bird. You wanna explain this birdy, because right now I'm open to just about anything."

The bird just kind of stared back at him until it clear couldn't take the heat and looked at Laurie.

"Well well well, ain't he nice. Your boyfriend there doesn't know the meanin' of civility, obviously. You make a cute couple, ain't got two braincells to rub together between ya. Anyway, after you pick your jaws up off the floor, I felt you should know that your companions are makin' their way to the city as we speak." the bird said, pausing at the end to clean one of its wings.

"Companions?" Laurie replied, giving Tommy a 'we're talking to a bird, isn't this the nuttiest thing you've ever heard of?' look. "Tommy, you have any friends waiting for you in New York?"

He was still glaring when he turned to her but shook his head and made himself stop. This anger was really too much. Then he shrugged in answer to her look.

"Josh Foley transferred to a school in the city last year but that's about it but..." He started vaguely remembering others: a guy with a metal arm, a girl with bright red hair and a Japanese boy he shared living quarters with. "And now I'm starting to remember people I know I've never met before. What going on?!"

"Don't ask me, I'm just here to move things along." the bird said, giving them a look. "But you might wanna answer that."

Laurie looked down at her suddenly ringing cellphone and then back up at Tommy before flipping it open. "Hello?"

"Laurie?"

"Yeah...Who is this?"

"Forge."