xp_logs | Homecoming: Forge/Angelo, Forge/Laurie

Finally returning to the mansion, Forge is greeted by Angelo and discovers that many things remain startlingly familiar

The taxi ride from the airport had been a weird case of deja vu, Forge decided. It was as if he could close his eyes and be sixteen again, watching the spires of New York City disappear in the background and give way to the hills of Westchester County, and the meandering turns of Greymalkin Lane, all the way to the gates of the school.

But upon opening his eyes, nostalgia and reality mixed, and he was standing in front of the mansion, looking exactly the same as when he'd first seen it. He was the one that had changed. The people inside were going to be just the same as he last remembered them, even though years had passed for him in Attilan.

Paying the taxi driver and shouldering his duffle bag, he opened the door and walked inside.

Angelo was halfway down the stairs and looked up when he heard the door open... then stopped dead. Starting to walk again a moment later, he considered various options for a greeting and settled on an purposefully casual, "Hey."

Forge looked up and blinked. "Angelo," he said quietly before breaking into a wide smile and dropping his luggage to walk over and throw both arms around his roommate. "Holy shit, you guys are all still really here. Man, it's good to see you."

...well, that answered at least one question about where things stood between Forge and the mansion after two and a half years. Angelo grinned and hugged him back. "Yeah, all still here that were when the party happened. Good to see you too - how're you? How's it to be back?"

"I'm... tired," Forge said after some deliberation. "To tell by all the fuss my parents were making, you'd think I'd actually been missing for two and a half years instead of barely six weeks. But yeah, being back is... good." He nodded, looking around. "It's weird, I keep expecting everything to have changed, but it's like the rest of the world's been in a time capsule or something. I haven't had the chance to catch up on the news or the journals or anything - I assume there was appropriate levels of freaking out about the island vanishing?"

"Dude, we thought you were dead", Angelo told him. "Yeah, there was freakin' out. Just wait 'til you run into Kyle or Yvette or Dani. She was on the journals goin' between threatenin' to kill you when we knew you were alive an' plannin' to make frybread."

"Oh, Illyana, right." Forge nodded. "As luck had it, I come back from a fishing run and Crystal's practically buzzing about the outside world still existing and Illyana appearing and then disappearing and time inconsistencies. I... I don't think I really knew how to react. I mean, even I couldn't figure out what had happened, I had no way to ever think we'd get back or that things would reverse themselves." He sighed, then looked up and smiled. "But I didn't give up hope. And as much as Attilan's become home for the past two years... it's good to be back."

"So do you know what happened now?" Angelo asked curiously. "I mean, no one back here really had a clue. There was all this speculation about mutants an' terrorist attacks, but it was all just guesswork."

Forge shrugged. "Teleporter, from what I'm told second-hand. I don't think anyone actually knows what happened. After the first few months, I quit being concerned with the reasoning behind it all and just tried to make do." He remained silent on the subject of Crystal, Maximus, and the assassinations - that wasn't his secret to tell, after all.

"Makes sense", Angelo allowed with a half-grin. "Doesn't much help to know the why if it doesn't give you a way to do somethin' about it, I guess."

"And how weird does that sound coming from me?" Forge replied with a laugh. "But yeah, now comes the 'doing something about it' part. I've got news to catch up on, classes to get back to at the end of the month, and at some point sitting down and talking to the Professor about going back to work, talking to Scott and Ororo about getting back to training... but I'm not thinking I need to rush right into everything, you know?"

He looked around, absently cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders, as if he were releasing the weight of some unseen burden. "It feels like it should be different," he said softly.

"It always does", Angelo said, just as quiet, watching him. "It feels like it should be 'cause you are. I mean, Asgard, I was only there for a few months, but they were a hell of a few months. Got to be even more of that for you."

Forge just nodded. "Yeah, you know how it is. I just... is all my stuff still around, or packed up somewhere? You didn't move a new roommate in, did you? Oh god, I can't imagine what Paige has done with my lab since I've been gone. There's probably colored Post-Its everywhere, and everything's going to be alphabetized and I won't be able to find anything until I get it reorganized properly..."

"...right, your stuff", Angelo said, the grin reappearing. "It's all in your room still. Boxed up, 'cause your dad was here, but it's there. I kind of locked the room an' took all the copies of the keys I could find. Nobody mentioned movin' it to storage, but I wouldn't've let them anyway. Told your dad I'd look after it."

"Hah! I knew Dad would remember the protocols," Forge laughed, reaching down to heft his bag. "The one advantage of having two lawyers for parents, they help prepare for every eventuality. So, if I can get some help getting my stuff unpacked, want to head down to Harry's later?"

"Help's yours, an' Harry's sounds good. Drinks're on me - is this your first time out legal in America?"

Forge nodded, and pulled his Attilan passport out from his pocket. "Yep. King Blackagar arranged it for all of us that were naturalized. Legally, by the new Attilan reckoning, I turned twenty-one this week. Happy birthday, here's the rest of the world back, or something like that."

"Then drinks are definitely on me", Angelo said, laughing. "Except any you want t'buy for missin' my birthday."

Once he's settled in, Forge gets another visitor, and discovers that changes make some things less familiar.

Laurie stared at Forge for a second, unable to get her brain around the changes.

"You're old." she finally murmured, and then blushed deeply at how completely inappropriate such a comment was when first greeting a friend after so long thinking them dead.

"You noticed," Forge said with a smile, setting the newspaper down on the coffee table. He'd been sitting in the parlor for over an hour, reading through the events of the past month. Standing up, he walked around the table and looked at Laurie. "I keep expecting everyone to be older. This is kind of screwing with my head a little. According to my passport, I just turned twenty-one, legally."

"I was going to throw you in the lake, you know." Laurie responded, getting her brain back on track and taking a good look at him. She almost reached up to poke him, just to make sure it wasn't a dream, and that he was really here.

"I've had time to become a somewhat passable swimmer," Forge explained, smiling at Laurie's distracted behavior. "And yes, I am physically here. I haven't somehow phased out of physical coherence yet. Although... damn, this feels like I've stepped into a time machine."

"I guess it could be worse, you could have been gone as long as Illyana was and come back all old and crusty." Laurie responded, giving into the urge and reaching out to poke him softly in the shoulder. He was definitely here, and considering the feeling of the shoulder, still definitely Forge.

She smiled suddenly, feeling a large weight shift and she had to blink a few times, brushing her hair back off her face and giving him a measuring look. "You really really scared me, you know. I even yelled at Kyle, and kinda threatened to do nasty things to him."

"You were scared?" Forge raised his eyebrows. "Try imagining what it was like for me. Plane blows up in the sky, nation in panic, half their government wiped out within a week, not to mention the only people who knew who I was wouldn't even see me for six months. And then the waiting." He chuckled softly and looked around, taking in the details of the mansion. "I never really lost hope, you know. But life went on. Nevertheless, I'm glad to be back."

Six months? She really had to stop feeling like she'd entered the twilight zone whenever anyone mentioned the time difference that had occured. She still found it hard to fathom that Forge had lived for years, when it'd only been a few months here. "Have you got any plans? I mean, other then just getting used to stuff back here. You still going to train with the X-men?"

Forge nodded. "Trying to get back into the swing of things. A two and a half year break, and I still make it back in time for the next college semester, how weird is that? I'm going to need a few days to reacclimate to things here, but I don't see why I wouldn't take back up where I left off. Of course, six weeks and Paige has likely completely misorganized my lab..."

"Misorganized? I thought Paige was all about the labels and the alphabeticalness." Laurie replied, pulling a chair out and settling into it. "How can one mislabel a lab, anyhow? It's all components and chemicals and machines that go ping, isn't it?"

Forge snorted. "I had a very comfortable system going, you know. But yeah, things are going to take some readjustment." He sat back down facing Laurie, taking a moment to look at her. "Wow. I mean, I still keep expecting everyone to be older, but you're still... I mean, everyone, not just you. It's... going to take some getting used to."

"Well, least I get to say I made out with an older man in those truth and dare games now." Laurie replied with a wink. "I feel all windswept and interesting now."

It was like he'd never been away in some parts, falling back into teasing him was second nature, and in others he was so different she found herself blinking and wondering who this stranger was. He seemed calmer somehow, less awkward in a way.

"Hey now, I was always the older man, technically. Just... more older now." Forge threw a small pillow at Laurie. "And you still need your mom to get you into scary movies."

"Ancient, and I just download them off the internet. Because I, am a rebel, sir. Or a pirate...a pirate rebel?" Laurie informed him with a grin, throwing the pillow back before giving him a speculative look. "Have you played foosball at any time in the past few years?"

Forge let out a noise halfway between a regretful moan and the sound of a starving man suddenly confronted with the offer of food. "Would you believe the average Attilani has never even heard of it?"

"Whoa." Laurie said, channeling Kyle in her amazement. "You mean...wow, you must seriously be out of practice. I say this is the perfect time to challenge you to a game then. Loser has to help the winner with chores."

Oh, dear Laurie," Forge chuckled, hauling himself out of the chair, "so young to have to deal with such a horrible impending defeat. It's almost a shame to crush your dreams so early, but if I must then I must. Come on, let's introduce you to... your doom!"

"Oh ho ho, Mr 'he of the great ego'. Just you wait, I'm so going to kick your shiny metal ass." Laurie replied, standing herself and pausing for a second to drink it in. He was back, as was Crystal and everything was okay again. She just hoped it lasted this time, enough for them to catch their breath just a little.