Space Oddity

It's summer of 1977, the year Star Wars was released to the world and brought about a new wave of space fever, first inspired by men landing on the moon eight years before. You wake up in Hollywood and don't. really remember how you got there.

Something to do with time travel and a future cult leader. The world's safe from all of that right now. But you don't remember. All you know is that you're not home, and you want to be there. Instead, you wake up on Hollywood Boulevard. There's a massive crowd of people queuing up the street for a certain blockbuster.

The question is, what do you do now? When will your memories come back? And how will you get home? It might have to do with a certain blonde with blue eyes who looks an awful lot like someone you used to know....

Kirux was confused.

Really confused.

The last thing he remembered was visiting Naminé in Radiant Garden. He wasn't good at drawing like she was, but she had let him use her paper and crayons. He was trying his very best to draw the two of them together, but he hadn't gotten to finish. Instead of being in the comfort of the garden, he found himself in a place with a lot of people.

He bit his lip.

He didn't know where he was. He didn't usually mind being around a lot of people, but he wasn't even trying to look for Riku today! He just wanted to spend time with Naminé. Tears welling up in his eyes, he desperately glanced around for someone - or something - familiar.

But he couldn't find anyone.

Just as the first tears were about to spread down his face, he felt someone push by him. He spun around and saw a boy he didn't recognize - a really intimidating looking boy. Even though his outfit didn't really look intimidating - the jeans that went out at the bottom, the shirt with the little buttons and the athletic jacket and the smooth brown shoes - the rest of him looked really scary.

The boy, who had been about to squeeze by the person in front of Kirux, paused when he saw Kirux looking at him.

The boy stared at him.

Kirux felt really small and scared.

But then the boy's look of confusion turned to a look of recognition.

"Kirux?" the boy asked, in a voice that was almost familiar but wasn't. If the boy hadn't said his name, Kirux would have been sure that he had met Riku - it was the kind of look people that knew Riku first gave him.

Kirux frantically shook the thought away with a very literal shake of the head.

"...No, you're definitely Kirux," the boy insisted. Kirux faltered; how did this boy know him so well? Biting his lip and more tears coming to his eyes, Kirux went to take a step back.

The boy grabbed onto his wrist.

He smirked and took a deep breath.

He looked like something was supposed to happen, but nothing did. He frowned, took a second deep breath, and gripped Kirux's arm a little harder. Kirux was getting a feeling of déjà vu, but he wasn't sure why.

"Let go!" he mouthed. He tried to tug his arm away; all it took was one really hard jerk for him to escape the boy's grasp.

But the boy didn't really look intimidating anymore. He just looked sad and frustrated.

"Why can't I use my powers?" he muttered, staring down at his hands. Kirux stared down at the boy's hands, too, just in case the answer for what was going on was there.

It wasn't.

He looked back up at the boy's face.

"Well," the boy said, meeting his gaze, "at least this time you're not trying to run away from me."

He shrugged.

"It might be because I'm not trying to seriously kidnap you-"

Understanding and recognition dawned on Kirux. Eyes widening in surprise, he darted back over to the boy's side and enveloped him in a hug - nearly knocking him over in the process.

"Skull!" he mouthed. "You're not a robot!"

After a moment of hesitation, Skull awkwardly returned the hug.

Queenie's vision cleared just as she was shoved by someone deserving of a fractured wrist into the chest of a very confused guy. A familiar confused guy.

"Julian?"

He blinked at her, then his face split into a grin and he pulled her into a hug, "Queens!"

She lightly hugged him back, scanning their surroundings over his shoulder. The big idiot probably had his eyes closed. "Calm down Julie," she said, laughing slightly, "You saw me last week."

He pulled away, but he hardly glanced at her before his widening-eyes became glued to the bustling streets of somewhere that looked an awful lot like Hollywood. "Where are we?" he asked, finally.

"I...don't know." It was only half of a lie. This place looked like some weird comic-con for people with terrible fashion sense.

...People like Julian, apparently.

"Um, Juels," she said, stifling a laugh, "your mom pick that out?"

He followed her gaze to the absolute horror of denim that clung in all the wrong ways to his usually-not-that-awkward-looking physique. The nightmare was only broken by the single ugliest plain brown belt Queenie had ever had the displeasure to lay eyes on.

Which was when she saw her own outfit.

Julian was spluttering something, both trying to condemn and defend his denim jumpsuit, before he gestured to her dress. "What about that! It looks like something Goodwill would donate to the junkyard."

She snickered, "That was cute, pretty boy, wanna try again?"

He opened his mouth to try his hand at another burn that would doubtlessly apply tenfold to his own outfit when Queenie spotted yet another familiar face. "Shush."

As she tried to shove her way toward the others Julian's grip on her hand tightened, probably as an attempt to keep from losing her in the crowd as he stumbled after her saying something that was either made entirely of partial-words or what was drowned out by the crowds.

Finally, Queenie came to a stop in front of the very tall, memorably immature late-teenager with the white hair.

She pulled her hand away from Julian's and sharply signed, The hell are you doing here, K-I-R-U-X?

Kirux was so busy hugging Skull that he didn't even notice two other people had come over to them. It wasn't until he pulled away that he realized it was Queenie - not Megara, because Megara would have said something to Skull, too.

But Kirux only caught the end of what she was signing. His face broke into a grin. She recognized him! Maybe she didn't expect to see him there, but she knew it was him. Without giving her a chance to sign anything else, he darted over to her side and almost toppled her to the ground with a hug.

The hug didn't last long, though. He found himself being pulled back by Skull, who was giving Queenie the look Winnie gave anyone she really didn't like.

"Why don't you like her?" he signed and mouthed. Skull just gave him a blank expression. Kirux's lips started to quiver as realization dawned on him - Skull had only been able to understand him last time when he was a robot! Now that he was a person again, he couldn't understand what he was signing. And Skull couldn't read lips, either.

Skull suddenly pulled him close, wrapping one arm around Kirux's shoulder.

"Hi," he said, his tone cold and not all that friendly.

Carter was definitely not in Nye, and this wasn't a dream.

He was surrounded by people crowded together in a line beside a large building. The air felt thick and hot, and the clothes he was wearing weren't helping. He was wearing denim, head to toe, and it was suffocating. Bright, colorful signs on the sides of the building shouted "Star Wars," among other things that held no significance to him. Everything he read only added on to the confusion.

Carter looked around. Maybe this was a dream. He couldn't imagine thinking of something like this in even his wildest dreams, but how else was he supposed to explain it? He'd never been in such a place before. Even the air felt different like it was polluted with some kind of sickly chemical.

No. Dreams always meant his senses were diluted, at least a little. This had to be real - or at least, some version of reality somewhere.

It was just a matter or figuring out what brought him here and what his purpose was. With no known allies or familiar faces, he was on his own. He decided to keep to himself for the time being, observing those around him and listening to ongoing conversations to gather information.

It was then that his gaze landed on a tearful, mute young man and the others around him.

It was strange. He didn't know them, but there was something about the boy beside him, and the girl in the ugly dress. The girl didn't interest him as much, but the boy stirred up an annoyance he reserved for very few people.

Odd. Until he could figure out the source of it, he decided to keep watching idly from his spot in line.

Queenie could tell Julian was confused as he stepped up behind her, standing over her protectively. "Do you know these people, Queens?"

She didn't answer him, "Let me guess," she said to the boy with the chilly demeanor, "you can't read lips, and you can't sign. Allow me to translate. Kirux here is asking why you dislike someone you just met so much."

"Since when can you sign? Or read lips, for that matter?" Julian blurted out.

Queenie rolled her eyes and looked up at him, "Miranda."

"Mir...Oh. OH, Miranda."

"Yup."

"I get it now."

She chuckled and leaned slightly back into him, turning her attention back to Kirux and his...friend.

Bo blinked. It happened again. He was somewhere else, in different clothes, and it definitely didn’t seem like Kartiel’s doing. Well, it couldn’t have been. Kartiel was good now. That was all behind them.

Maybe it was that angel again? Or was he a demon? Bo couldn’t remember. He tried not to.

In any event, he would have to go with the flow.

He looked down at himself first. He was wearing a pretty authentic looking biker’s leather jacket with patches on it. Underneath was just a simple fitted white tee. Then there were jeans, and boots that both looked like they came out of a time capsule in terms of fit and style. The pants were tighter than he usually wore, which was a little annoying in this heat.

The only thing he was wearing that seemed to make sense with the sun beating down on him was sunglasses. He grinned up at the sun. Take that, sun rays. His one eyeball was protected.

But he became less concerned about his outfit when he realized where he was. No - when he was. The theatre, the big line spilling out of it, everyone’s outfits, and the Star Wars premiere sign all gave it away.

This was the 70’s. It had to be.

Had he really traveled back in time? Wild. Terrifying. He was going to ignore all of that, though. Better to think about how crazy it all was after the fact so he wouldn’t panic.

Instead he scanned the crowd again. If he’d learned anything about being kidnapped by powerful godlike people and being brought to strange places it was that he was never kidnapped alone. Someone else in the crowd had to be in the same boat as him. The tricky thing was, he had no real way of knowing who they were.

That was when he spotted a familiar face a little further up in line.

Alex. She looked a little younger maybe, and a little brighter. Happier, for sure. She was with a dark haired woman and a little girl, probably 7 or 8 or something.

Had this Alex met him yet? Was he in her timeline? Had she been brought here, or was this just part of her history? He had no answers, but suddenly all of the sci-fi movies he’d seen with time travel started playing in the back of his mind. If he talked to her, would he be messing with the timeline? Was he supposed to keep to himself? He didn’t know what to do. And if this Alex did remember him, he had no idea if she’d even want to associate with him.

He stopped his overthinking before it could get too out of hand. Alex was his best lead, and talking to her a little bit couldn’t hurt.

He’d just have to figure out what the heck he’d say.

Hello? Were people in the 70’s more open to talking to strangers? Maybe, but strangers who looked like him?

He wasn’t entirely dull. He knew he looked intimidating. He stood at least a foot above most of the people in line, and his outfit sure didn’t help.

He sighed. Oh well. Here goes nothing.

He stepped out of line and started towards her.

Alex wondered if they were going to get into the theater. It was hot, and she knew it would be air conditioned. Carolyn and Juliet had already seen the movie, but they were excited to see it again.

It was hard to believe Juliet was almost seven now, and as she was getting older she was less rambunctious.

"Are you sure you don't want to move here?" Alex told Carolyn. Her friend had always been so beautiful, and she could be in movies. But Carolyn had decided she loved New York and loved being in theater. She'd just been nominated for a Tony for her role as Stella DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. And what had Alex done? She managed the little bookshop on Fountain Avenue and came home to an empty house. How exciting.

"I love it there too much," Carolyn said.

"Enjoy the snow," Alex shot back. "I don't miss it." She could feel the sweat on her forehead. They still had fifteen minutes to go before they'd let them in. Carolyn turned to her daughter. "You have our tickets?" She asked.

"Yes," Juliet said, showing them safely stored away in her purse.

"Keep them safe," Carolyn replied.

It was then that Alex noticed a very tall man with sunglasses walking in their direction. He was scary, and she hoped he wasn't walking towards her. She again turned to Carolyn and gave her a look, unsure of what to say or do.

I was about to come up with answer for Kirux's question - not that I had a good one, seeing that I just liked the blond girl who vaguely reminded me of Megara on principle - but the moment I opened my mouth, Kirux was gone.

I frantically scanned the crowd. Going off the last time we had ended up in a situation like this, it wasn't a good idea to leave him on his own. Especially not when his outfit was so much like the ones I usually wore, not...whatever I was wearing.

I caught him heading towards a tall guy in sunglasses and biker clothes. Great. Not even offering a goodbye to the girl and her friend, I rushed after Kirux-

Only to see him hugging the man.

The hug was just enough to push one of his sunglasses askew. All it took was look at his scarred eye for me to realize it was none other than Bo.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I had been holding.

A second after I reached their side, however, Kirux caught a glimpse of someone else. He darted over to two women standing with a kid. I didn't know how someone like him could run so fast, but it was a clear I didn't stand a chance catching up before he inevitably-

Before I could finish that train of thought, Kirux enveloped one of the woman - the one who was already looking incredibly uncomfortable and worried - in a hug that nearly knocked her off her feet.

"Hi, Bo," I said, giving a casual wave. "Be right back - just need to go grab Kirux, who I'll assume you've met before."

I headed towards Kirux and the women.

Julian watched them go as his arm wrapped protectively around Queenie's shoulders. "How do you know that guy?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Kirux?"

He nodded.

She shrugged. "I ran into him a couple of times. Not enough people knew how to sign any of the times so I had to play translator."

"Oh." He was quiet for a minute. "I know sign language."

She laughed, "You know one sentence, which I taught you."

She could hear his pout even as her eyes kept track of the others. They were harassing a couple of girls and their kid. Nothing too interesting. "I've learned more than that!"

"Right."

"I have!"

"Prove it."

And with that, he gave up on trying to convince her. "Let's go see if they know what's going on." Behind his casual tone, he was blushing like a fool.

"Sure," she said, hiding her grin as she ducked out from under his arm and caught his hand, dragging him gently along after her toward the group.

Bo had not been expecting a hug, nor Kirux. He steadied himself as the Kirux to him for a moment before running straight towards Alex. Bo stood stunned for a moment, sliding his sunglasses atop his head as he looked down at Skull, who was there too. Apparently, everyone had been given period-appropriate clothing, and apparently he'd at least found two people in the same boat as him - they didn't belong here.

Skull's quick greeting barely registered as Bo watched Kirux rush towards Alex, and that was when Bo realized this Alex was not the one he knew. At least, she didn't know him yet.

He stayed back, leaving Skull to pull Kirux away, knowing if he approached it might only be scarier, and at worst, cause more of a scene.



Well, things were getting messy. The tearful mute was now running around giving random people hugs, much to the irksome teen's dismay. He watched at the couple followed after and the very tall man looked on with something between concern and confusion.

Carter had a hunch most of these people - or at the very least, the mute - were in the same situation as him. They were just being far less subtle about it.

Alex was distracted by the group that had approached them, and the mute boy that hugged the tall scary man and then her, which put her off guard. She was about to say something until Carolyn did.

"It's very rude to cut in line," she said, gripping onto her daughter's hand. Then, she gestured to the countless people that were in line behind them. Alex didn't know if they had tickets or not, but she didn't really care. She was more concerned with this weird ragtag group of. people invading their personal space. That was par for the course in Hollywood.

Just then, two dressed in Stormtrooper costumes came out of the theater, prompting cheers, and began to let people in. "Good luck," Carolyn said to the group, again gesturing to the long line of people behind them.

Spoiler

Mary Webb is nineteen years old. While she has a sweet face, she also tries too hard to seem edgy. Long black nails, black nail polish. Lots of bracelets and rings. A tattoo of a dragon on her upper bag, which she always wears low cut tops to show off. If her jet black hair wasn't already obviously dyed, her auburn roots would be a dead giveaway. Still, in spite of that is a desire to belong.

As Mary watched the crowd, she thought about how ridiculous all this seemed. The high from the acid she'd dropped earlier made Hollywood Boulevard seem like an impressionist painting. Even if she had the money for the movie, she wasn't sure it seemed like her idea of fun. She kind of wanted to see it. Wanted to know what everyone was talking about.

The crowd was going in now. Everyone except for a mismatched group of people. She caught the attention of a short man in double denim.

"Hey!" She shouted. "You want a fix?"

I had almost been at Kirux's side, but then the line we were apparently in started moving - I had to sneak my way through some very irritated people waiting in it to get over to him.

When I finally did reach him, Kirux seemed oblivious to how badly we were annoying people. His lips were quivering again, and his eyes were beginning to water. I just knew he was on the verge of tearing up again.

I looked the two women and the kid over, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"What did you do to make him cry-" I started to ask, only to be cut off by a hug and a frantic shake of the head - both courtesy of Kirux.

I faltered.

"You were crying because of them, weren't you?" I asked. Kirux hesitantly nodded. "Then why are you shaking your head?"

He started to mouth a response, only to stop when he seemed to remember I couldn't read lips. He thought for a moment, then gestured at me, Bo, and where that girl he knew was.

Then he pointed back at the woman he had hugged.

It took me a second to figure it out.

"You know her?"

Kirux gave an eager nod.

When the crowd started moving, Carter realized others in the line were holding slips of paper. Be it money or tickets, he knew he didn't have it, and wouldn't be admitted inside whatever event was going on.

He drifted out of line, uncomfortably close to the group of oddballs he didn't want to associate with yet. He didn't look at them or make eye contact. Instead, he turned his attention to the woman shouting at him.

Did he know what a fix was? No. Was he going to pretend like he did? Yes.

"Of course!"

He smiled warmly and waved. The girl looked like she'd dyed her hair black and decided black was the only color she could wear. She was covered in it. Judging from the average outfit of the people around them, she looked just as eccentric to this universe as she was to his.

He walked up to her and casually rested his hands in his denim jacket's pockets.



Bo was going to leave it to Skull, but then the line started moving, and they were getting caught up in it. He didn't know how aware either of them were of the social etiquette of not cutting in lines (especially ones for big events like this) but he didn't want them getting lost in the moving crowd.

He stepped in and grabbed both of their arms and pulled them out of the flow of people.

"Sorry about that," he said. "It'll be okay, Kirux. I don't think this Alex knows us. I think we're in a time before she knew us," he explained quickly and softly, letting go of the two. He turned to Skull.

"We met Alex before. Different situation. There was a boat involved. Bit of a long story. But anyway, are you guys okay?" He put a hand on Kirux's shoulder for comfort.