The Perk, Saturday Morning

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie's plans with her parents visiting Brazil had gotten delayed, so last night she'd taken advantage of a portal deal back to fandom, in the hopes of meeting some friends and maybe flagging Jim down for a visit too

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[necroslacker]

Sam's trip to the island had been one of pleasure. He'd taught there a semester ago and had realized what he'd loved about being there so he was trying to visit more.

Of course, waking up this morning, he had no memory of that. In fact, he had no memory of anything. All he knew was that he was seeing a lot of different colors when he happened across people.

Pushing into the Perk was no different. The girl in there was comprised of nice, soothing warm tones so he felt comfortable, at least. Still didn't feel great but he wasn't scared.

He was also maybe staring a bit.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie wasn't so entrenched in frowning at the ID she'd dug out from her wallet as to not notice she was being stared at.

She looked up, raising her eyebrows. "Can I help you with something?"

(The answer was probably no, since she couldn't even help herself.)

[necroslacker]

Sam shook himself out of his reverie and looked embarrassed.

"Sorry sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't mean to stare. Your colors just caught my attention."

He thought that made perfect sense since he thought maybe everyone was able to see what he was seeing. It probably made no sense at all.

[whenshewasnice]

Not so much. But, Natalie also wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be seeing some kind of colours too. (She even quickly looked him up and down to see if there was something significantly colourful anywhere, but no.) So there was that.

Even if she still looked confused. "What?"

[necroslacker]

"You don't -- " Sam paused. "When I look at you, I can see all these warm tones. Aside from your clothing and all."

That sounded creepy, didn't it?

"I don't know what I mean," he said apologetically. "I don't know much of anything right now. You don't know me, by any chance, do you?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shook her head, just barely. "No."

But she didn't know anyone or anything else, either. Which was making her anxious, even if it didn't show on her face.

"Sorry."

[necroslacker]

"Worth a try," Sam said, rubbing his forehead. "I don't know who you are either. I don't even remember where I am. Isn't that symptom of a concussion? I wonder if I should be lying down or something."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie watched him quietly for a second, her face a perfectly neutral mask.

"Do you know anything else at all?" she asked then, carefully. Trying to figure out whether she wasn't alone in being completely clueless. "Do you remember... well, anything?"

[necroslacker]

"I remember...that I woke up in a comfortable bed this morning," he said, wincing. To hear out loud that that was the extent of his memory was kind of scary. "Nothing else. I figured out my name my looking at my driver's license."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie held up the ID card she'd been looking over when he came in. The one that said her name was Natalie V. Adams, with 'Chief of Staff' underneath it, and something about the Office of the Hegemon (whatever that was).

"Yeah. Same here."

[necroslacker]

Sam stepped closer and peered at her name. The rest of the words made little sense to him.

"Hey Natalie," he said, offering up a hand to her. "Sam LaCroix. And now you know as much about me as I know about me. Hopefully there's a little more to me or else I'm really boring."

[whenshewasnice]

She took his hand, and gave it a little shake. "Personally, I'm more interested in what the hell took our memories," she said. "Hi, Sam."

[necroslacker]

"Can something take something that's intangible like that?" he wondered. "Wouldn't that mean magic or something?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I don't think magic exists." Well, she couldn't remember if it did or not, and she had a gut feeling that it didn't. "But amnesia does."

[necroslacker]

"Yeah, but doesn't that typically involve some kind of traumatic injury?" he asked, frowning. "Like a car accident?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie raised an eyebrow at him. "Apart from the lack of visible injuries, can you say for sure you haven't been in a car accident?"