Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

As promised, the ride from what remained of Burg port back to Lawrence Manor took about fifteen minutes... or less. Currently, Selena and the strange new girl were sitting in the kitchen while Jenning's fixed the new arrival some food.

"Here you go, miss. Some toast and a glass of orange juice. Will you be needing anything else, miss Browning?"

"No, not right now. Thanks again, Jennings." Selena said with a smile.

"Very well then, I shall go alert master Lawrence to the presence of another guest." With that, Jennings exited the kitchen leaving Selena alone with the strange girl once again.

--------------------------

"Sir, we have another guest upstairs. A young woman this time, miss Browning stumbled upon her at the docks."

"Thank you, Jennings. I'll be up in just a minute... to meet her." Lawrence said distractedly as he intently watched one of the monitors in The Cave.

"Very well, sir." Jennings replied before turning back to the lift and returning to the main floor.

Burg: Day 5

Xandria focused hungrily on the bread and juice, and it took her only a few minutes to put it away, and then she finally looked up at Selena and tried not to pick at the crumbs on her plate.

"So, I'm sorry, but I don't think I know what your name is," Xandria said, shifting and pulling her shirt down.

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

Selena quietly sipped her cup of coffee as the stranger hungrily devoured the toast and juice she had been given. Even though she ate quicker than anyone else the redhead had seen, the new girl still ate with a certain sense of civility. Well, at least she has some manners. Guess that's a plus.

"Hmm? Oh, my name is Selena. Selena Browning. And your name is...?"

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

Xandria froze for a second, realizing that, by asking for Selena's name, she had prompted the ordinary exchange of civilities that most people operated under at all times.

"Xandria," she finally said, deciding it would just complicate matters to come up with another name on the spot. "My name is Xandria."

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

"Xandria... that's a pretty cool name." Selena said as she set her mug down on the table. "Kind of exotic and mysterious. Better than just "Selena" "

"I don't know, both names have an air of mystery about them befitting their respective holder." Malcom added as he entered the kitchen while finishing buttoning his shirt.

"I'm not sure whether to say thanks or to be mad at your obvious flirting, Mr. Lawrence." Selena teased looking past Xandria.

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

Xandria twisted in her chair to look at the new arrival, then looked down and blushed. She pulled at her shirt again, then looked up at Selena.

"I, um, you wouldn't happen to have a pair of pants I could borrow until I get settled, would you?" she asked quietly.

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

Selena looked back at Xandria with a slightly quizzical look before suddenly realizing what her new acquaintance was asking. "Malcom, umm, could you go check on my bike for me? It was making a strange noise when we came back."

"Sure, but can't it wai..." One quick, stern go do it now look from Selena told Lawrence all he needed to know. ""... Sure. I'll be right back. Pardon me, miss." With a slight bow to the new arrival, Malcom left the kitchen and headed down to the garage.

-------------

"I'm sooo sorry about that. I should have offered you some new clothes when we first arrived." Selena apologized yet again as she laid out two pairs of pants and one pair of jeans. "It's not much, but you're welcome to whichever one you like."

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

Xandria fingered the jeans, then examined the other pairs.

"It's ok, I just--well, I wasn't--you'd think that after years of having spent days in pools and at gyms, I'd get used to wandering around without clothes on, but I still feel awkward when a guy comes by and I'm only half dressed," she shot a smile at Xandria, then picked up the yoga pants and tried them on. "I guess some things never change. Do you mind if I take these? I'll pay you back as soon as I can get...situated."

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

"There are some things you never get fully used to. Nothing to be ashamed of, though, trust me." Once Xandria was over her initial scared and distrusting phase, Selena was actually finding she liked this new girl. "Oh, don't worry about paying me back. You can just have them. Think of it as an early birthday present... or Christmas gift... or whatever."

Poor girl, I guess she doesn't realize how completely messed up everything is out there. So, I wonder where she's from?

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

Xandria smiled.

"Well, thanks anyway," she said, then followed Selena out of her room and through the halls.

"You must have gotten to be pretty good friends with...Lawrence, you said? to be settled in here. He has some really nice stuff--and I bet that bike wasn't cheap."

Day 4
Burg

Irene finished one last brush stroke, before taking a step back from the freshly-decorated wall. It was a pretty nice picture of a sunset, all things considered; not exactly Monet-worthy, but what she mainly liked was the soothing array of colors. From her building, she couldn't really see sunsets or rises, not with all the other buildings in the way, so this would have to do. Even if the horizon was way too curved; it looked more like she was trying to paint a sunset on the moon or something....

Irene groaned and dispelled the illusion entirely. Even when she wasn't using real paint and brushes, she couldn't get her drawings to look right. It really shouldn't be that hard, she thought. After all, she'd seen sunsets before; it couldn't be that hard to visualize it. She had seen them... right? She knew what they were, had an idea of what they looked like... but if she thought about it, she couldn't remember the last time she saw one.

Well, no reason to think about it. If Irene wanted to liven up the place by "painting" on the walls, maybe she should just pick an image clearer in her mind. Like maybe a little house with a white-picket fence, not unlike where she used to live... maybe. For all she knew, she'd always lived in apartments. She couldn't remember any houses, anyways, but she couldn't remember apartments, either.

Irene muttered aloud, "Is someone trying to make a point?" Somehow or another, it seemed like anytime she tried to think of an image, all she could think about were the gaps in her memory... pretty obvious ones, too. She knew what all of those things were, and she had an idea of interacting with them before. But, somehow, she couldn't really call those ideas "memories". Nothing, really, felt like a memory, except for the events of the past couple of days, all post-Supernova. Oh yeah, she knew about that, too--not like she remembered it actually happening, though. And that seemed like something someone would remember. She just remembered waking up the next day, already knowing about all the changes, and acting on them. It hadn't even occurred to her that anything was odd for hours after that.

Irene shook her head and sighed. She was slowly mastering her ability to make illusions, and somehow, a few scrambled memories were the thing she found weird about her new life. 'Priorities much?' Really, Irene should've been content. Unlike a lot of other people, she still had a place to hide, and she hadn't run into any of those government-types looking for victims of "radiation poisoning". Well, apparently she had this poisoning; maybe memory loss was associated with that. Maybe it didn't even matter, because she was safe and out of the way of anyone who wanted to change that.

Still... it couldn't hurt to try to find out more. After all, if this was such a big concern, surely someone had information about this radiation poisoning; she should probably find out if it was fatal, at least. And... well, it was a long shot, with all of the computerized records out of order, but maybe Irene could find some clue about where she actually lived. Or her last name. Or... well, much of anything about her. Was her name even Irene?

"Yeah, and then the first government goon who gets suspicious will probably drag me to a lab somewhere or force me to join the army or whatever." She pointed out. "Not really worth the risk, now is it?" Not really. Granted, she had no real reason to assume that the government had any dastardly plans; maybe they were floundering just as much as everyone else, and just wanted to keep tabs on people with powers like hers. But there was also no reason to trust them; as long as she didn't need to, she would avoid it as long as possible.

Irene noticed that the light was beginning to fade; it got pretty dark in this place after the sun set. She probably could find a way to make a light, but... what was the point? It's not like she had anything to do right now. Maybe it was about time to go to bed. Irene made her way to the back room where she'd set up her make-shift "room". As she laid down, her subconscious couldn't help but argue one last point:

"Even if I got caught, could they really catch me? With my powers, I could have them literally jumping at shadows."

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

"You must have gotten to be pretty good friends with...Lawrence, you said? to be settled in here. He has some really nice stuff--and I bet that bike wasn't cheap."

"Malcom Lawrence, but sometimes I just call him Lawrence. We do that for some reason, go back and forth between using each others first or last names." Selena shrugged slightly as she realized how odd that was. "Believe it or not, we only just met after the supernova event. But, we hit it off really well and he allowed me to stay here for as long as I needed. I think he likes having someone else in the house besides himself and Jennings, though I doubt he'd ever publicly admit to it."

----

As the girls descended the main staircase, Malcom returned from checking the bikes. "Well, I couldn't find anything wrong with your bike, Selena. Must have been the road you were taking or just all in your head..." Lawrence continued wiping his hands clean with a rag as Selena and Xandria approached.

"Sooo, you're inferring I was making up a problem for you? How rude!"

"Wouldn't be the first time." Lawrence looked down as Selena with a cheeky grin. "And how is our new arrival doing? I'm afraid I never got to introduce myself earlier..." Malcom turned his attention to the other girl wearing the yoga pants.

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

"Oh," Xandria smiled. "I'm Xandria. Xandria Martinez."

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

"Pleased to meet you, miss Martinez. I'm Malcom Lawrence. If you need a place to stay for a bit or anything at all, I'll be glad to help. Since Selena brought you back here, you must be alright." Lawrence gave a friendly smile as he stuffed the rag he had been holding in his pants pocket

Burg: Day 5
Lawrence Manor

"Thanks," Xandria said, glancing up and around. "You do have a really nice place here. Are you like turning into the safe house for infected people? I mean...wow, that really does sound bad."

She shook her head.

"The media always does have to put a spin on things," she muttered. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded. But are you...what are you trying to do, exactly?"