Application for John Amsterdam: New Amsterdam

[400_years_young]

The dog entered the Sorting Room first, followed by a leash, followed by a tall man in a black coat being dragged behind. "Six, knock it off!" the man said, with an accent somewhere between Noo Yawk and European. He let the leash slide from his hand and the dog took off to sniff out the corners off the room

Comments

[ijk_mno]

And here's L, the one B is supposed to be, standing by. He is much more quiet than the other two, and a little younger looking.

His eyes are dark, and watchful. They miss nothing.

"Welcome to Hogwarts."

[400_years_young]

"Thank you. Is that where I am?"

Finally, some information. Now if this kid could answer how he got there, it would be a start.

[ijk_mno]

"It is. You were probably brought here with no explanation or warning."

The tiniest seed of irritation in his (flat, monotonous) tone suggests he is familiar with the experience, and recently.

[400_years_young]

If he'd had more warning, he wouldn't have brought his dog. Thirty-six was off sniffing something. "Et tu?" he asked, catching the tone.

[wh0_kill3d_m3]

Laura read through the application.

"Okay, I'll bite," she said, tone teasing. "Moonlight swims?"

[400_years_young]

He pulled his keys out of his pocket and held up an old one. "The Y's supposed to be closed at night," he said. "Unless you have a key."

[wh0_kill3d_m3]

"Ahaaa," she said appreciatively. "Are you this much of a lawless rebel about everything, or just moonlight swims?"

[400_years_young]

"Hey," he said defensively. "I'm a cop. Small rebellions."

[mello_n_choco]

I take a bite out of my chocolate bar. "How many names does one person need?" I ask. It hardly matters which one is real. It's not like I use my birth name anyways. I glance at the man and at the number of days he listed as being sober. "And, are you sure you didn't add an extra zero?"

[400_years_young]

"Only as many as it takes to get by," John explained. "I've even got spares: Sullivan, J. G. Benwaar, some really good ones in there." He preferred variations on John. He shook his head at the last question. "Trust me, I know how many days. When you go it one day at a time, you get really good at counting them."

[mello_n_choco]

I cock my head at him. I've seen some odd things in my day. "You don't look over 50, which is putting your rehabilitation starting at 10." I knew some kids. "So, how does it work?" I ask. I don't expect an answer, but I've found it good to start with the most direct questions. Put them on the defensive and then I can get information out of them by 'easing back.'

[400_years_young]

He deliberately misinterpreted the question. After all, they had been talking about the 12 steps. "Like I said, you do it one day at a time. You follow the Twelve Steps." Number 8 had been quite involved. "I get to the meetings when I can. It had only been around for a few years when I started."

[charlesmacaulay]

(( Meta perpetrated by permission. ))

One look at Hogwarts' newest inmate gave Charles an eerie sense of deja vu. It also gave him the weirdest craving for peanut butter cookies.

Where had he met this guy? There'd been so many bars and dives and general holes-in-the-wall between Hampden and El Paso, Charles couldn't keep track of it all, and he hadn't exactly been in the most coherent state through all that time. He was pretty sure he'd never met anyone named John Amsterdam, but it wasn't like he asked for names, ranks, and serial numbers from everyone with whom he drank a beer or shot some pool, either.

He cleared his throat. "Ah ... hello." He smiled his charming polite Macaulay smile. Maybe this guy would help out with some clue as to where they might have met.

[400_years_young]

So this was what people experienced when they felt that they'd seen him before.

He'd already seen lots of things, but this sort of deja vu was new to him. It was like he'd seen the guy somewhere before in the past, but that only happened to the people around him.

John wasn't liking this.

"Have we met?" he asked. "New York, maybe? Sometime in the last few decades?"

[charlesmacaulay]

New York ... New York ... had Charles met this man in New York? One of Francis's friends? There was this bar just downstairs from Olivia Abernathy's apartment. Not one of those places - Charles would never have agreed to accompany Francis to one of those places, even had Francis frequented them, and Charles was sure he didn't - just a genteel lounge.

"Upper East Side?" he ventured. He named a fashionable address (Olivia's building).

[400_years_young]

You spend 350 years in a place, and you're bound to be in that neighborhood every now and then. "I've been there," he said. "Got a specific date?"

[unluckiest_star]

Starman had just been Sorted into Gryffindor when a phrase spoken during someone else's interview caught his attention. So he wandered over to look at the application.

"You know, you're right? People really do forget records ever existed? Especially once the paperless society really gets going. Throw a Crisis or a Great Disaster or two into the historical mix, and well, things get mighty muddled!"

[400_years_young]

He hadn't heard of the Crisis or the Great Disaster before, but with this guy's clothes, he was pretty damn sure that he wasn't from anywhere John was familiar with. "Most people are lucky to keep track of a piece of paper for a year." He shrugged. "Maybe it's something important like your taxes, so you keep it for ten years. A birth certificate, maybe one hundred. But after that, it's so easy to lose things."

[unluckiest_star]

Starman nodded. "Networked digital data storage with redundant backups all over the place, that's the way to go. You guys are getting there, and faster than you might think. My Dream Girl's a scientific type, she could explain it better than I could." He frowned. "Oh, but she wouldn't! Paradoxes, you know. I forget. Nobody listens to me much anyway."

[400_years_young]

"Paradoxes." He was familiar with those. "Don't worry, nobody listens to me, either," he said with a smile.