The school year technically began without too many problems; a lot of people looked at Sam as he entered his classes, but none of them approached. 'I could have done it without the gym teacher scolding me about holding back,' which made no reason for the teenage-looking male. Why on earth in mana would you go full out on the people you're training with?

"full out was when you want to kill or maim someone," Sam said in response to the scolding. This made the gym teacher pause before pinching their noise with competence about the school guidance counselor.

Said worker Sam had to see at the end of the day, which he didn't get. What did he say, 'Well, it will be nice to see how their vacation went.' Sam thought as he left the gym; this wouldn't be the first time he spoke to the consular. At first, it was because Sam sometimes didn't wear shoes and said the most out-of-pocket shit to people.

Then, he never stopped doing either of these because he never saw a problem with what he was doing or saying.

He focused on his other classes until then and tried to ignore the biggest problem at the moment. There was a haze of lust within the school. It was thick like cotton; if he looked with the right eyes, he couldn't see through it. 'how much of this is just lust that is hanging around?"

'either way, I have to deal with this?' not only was it annoying, but worse, it was a threat. The beast would not be allowed to make a trap, 'though I wonder what kind of trap they would set?" his battle lust and curiosity pulsed at the ideas. But he pushed them down; while he was reasonably sure he could serve, the same couldn't be said for his schoolmates.

He picked a few rocks off the ground during a break between classes so he could start removing some of the lust from the air. Not that it made a dent; the next school day, he came with a bag pulled of rocks that he filled.

"Yeah, that didn't do much," Sam groaned, feeling his lust power thrumming under his skin from overuse. 'I'll have to do something about this soon.' he groaned as he kept himself from jumping someone. Either to punch them or kiss them. Maybe both.

after school he raced on to deal with it, getting in a street fight which took the edge off. the rest of it was dealt with a night at a hotel. the partners he hired were very, very nice, and he left them a good-sized tip before he left, stretching as he walked out of the hotel. "All alright that takes care of that for now. but I'm going to have the same problem as I continue to work on the lust in the air.

He would very much like a more efficient method for this, " the best answer might be some straight-up magic." he could modify some spells to an extent, but he didn't know what consequences or attention or, worst of all, the paperwork he would have to do. "at long as no one dies I guess it could be worth it," when he got home he started a small test in spell modification.

"Well, nothing has blown up so far," he said, expecting at least some smoke from this. But it was going better than he thought. nothing he could use for his current problems." But maybe I will find a use for these reactions in the future." Kicking his feet, Sam tried something else.

a few lines and he got an interesting line that he knew he couldn't use for his purposes. nor did it mesh with his style of doing things, so the paper was ash after a moment, and Sam continued to play around. Doing so for hours before stopping.

The next day, he filled more stones before the school day was over; this time, he brought not only larger stones but also different minerals to see if that made a difference. There was a small one.

'I'll have to investigate that later,' he tossed and caught a stone, waiting for Daniel to finish up his conversation with one of the teachers. Sam didn't know if this was about class or career. But it didn't take more than a half hour, and Sam followed his friend out of the school.

They grabbed a snack before anything else," You know I've never had more attention as your friend than I have this week at school. Everyone wants to introduce me to the guy who won serval fights on worldwide television. several of them asked if I knew you had this power."

"What did you tell them?"

"knew you had power, but not that much. Causes seriously, dude, you're doing some wacky shit. Like catching throwing knives with your teeth?!" he knew Sam enough to know that he was just showing off. The smirk on the raven's face plainly confirmed that as he walked down the street. "she was doing her best to put on a show; why shouldn't I match that energy?"

"I think by not caching metal weapons with your teeth, seriously, you could have caught them another way." Sam shrugged. He didn't have a real reason. It just came to him as the blade flew at him.

Daniel sighed, "Worse is people asking for your autograph, and I don't know if you'll sign those. Even then, I don't want to bother you with it." Sam smiled, leaning on his best friend," Thanks; I'm not really sure how I feel about autographs. I spent way too much time actively avoiding attention and leaving as little trace as I could."

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Daniel pushed Sam back, who only leaned more of his weight and not. "plus, fans can be really fucking annoying; I could tell you about the time I spent with this celebrity... I can't remember his name or his face; I think we were close." Sam stopped walking, standing straight as he looked towards the sky.

Despite having no clear memory of this celebrity, he felt a lot of emotions. The strongest was grief, but it was under the love of family. Sam couldn't help but wonder what this person was to him that he whipped his own memory so deeply.

Daniel quickly tried to distract his friend with words, and it only partly worked. the moment the chance appeared, Sam's thoughts returned to the celebrity. that was really the only solid thing he could remember about them, not there pronouns. not there hair, skin voice. it was all gone, his heart ached to remember.

"let's watch some old movies!"

"what?" sam looked up from his thoughts. "lets watch some movies, maybe you can find this celbrety of yours!" sam blinked before smiling," That sounds like a good weekend plan, but your not picking them."sam flate out stated. danile had weird movie taste.

"then you can't pick them out either, your taste are just as weird. don't make any comments during the action scenes." sam smiled guilty, he knew he had a bad habit that wasn't exactly bragging but he did comment that he could and has done a few stunts. not to mention grading the acting, "Is that because of them?"

before the weekend came around the two gathered supplies. mostly snacks and drinks, but also gathering movies and series that were made over the last 400 hundred years. "so what an average of three hundred movies a year."

"Yeah, pretty much," Sam replied, scrolling through the movies they found. "You know when, with your weirdness, you can't read that many movies." Sam laughed cause Daniel was right," unless we fuck with time." but they both deiced that this wasn't important enough for some time dilation.

Following that train of thought, Sam continued looking through the options while turning on random play, getting the two some kind of romantic comedy to watch. It was short for a movie. Sam kept his comments about the acting to himself. Cause the actor were playing into their roles too much, which played into the comedy very well.

The writing could use some work, though; the same joke four times in under an hour. Seven movies and a lot of snacks and drinks later, Sam jumped as he saw a side character come onto the screen of a 178-year-old movie.

Focusing on them, he realized he recognized something about them, 'they look male, so why am I referring to them as them.' thinking, he quickly searched for the actor and followed from there. After finding four other movies they had been in, Sam realized," They're a shapeshifter!"

"What?" Daniel looked away from the movie." the celebrity I knew they were a shapeshifter, and gender non-binary or fluid...I'll remember the right term. but I remember they didn't care too much about it." Sam smiled. He didn't even remember much, but this little bit of retrieved information lit some hope in his heart.

He hadn't lost the information forever; he could remember them and what they meant to him. With an actor to follow, they changed the movies they watched," What a range?" Daniel said that after watching the actors play all kinds of roles in all kinds of genres,

"wait?" he called 13 movies with the actor in; he quickly paused the screen before focusing on something." is that you?"

"What?" Sam looked up. He had no memory of being in any fucking movies!" looking closer, he realized it was him: his face was a bit different. his hair was vastly different. but his eyes were the same, the same emerald Daniel had known for years. "your blonde?!"

"Oh, no." Sam blinked, running a hand through his hair. "that's when I got it bleached it. Honestly, I hadn't even cared about my hair before they took me to a dresser. The way that man swore as he combed and washed out: blood, dirty, sticks, bones, a nest of bugs."

"gross, just gross."

"yeah, I admit it was. But before then, I didn't like my hair; it had stronger bad memories than good ones." closing his eyes, he could see glips of the good memories his hair had at that point. The people who did something, the strangers who gave him haircuts or braided or wrapped it. "a woman gave me dreads once, showing her children how to do it."

"so, did you not bath?"

"no, I cared for hygiene, I was clean enough that I wouldn't get sick or anything that would hinder my adventures. It was just I hadn't come down from an adventure in the forest, and I was a mess. I didn't care to clean up at that point."

"which was really dumb," Sam shuddered remembering the feeling of the bugs nesting in his hair. Not to mention the pair of getting them out. To be frank, the hairdresser should have shaved him bald. 'though I did like the cut he gave me, not so much the cleaning of his hair afterward.'

"Afterward, I got taken in by a celebrity; I can't remember the reason they gave me or what they fed me the night. The memory is warm, I don't remember how much i relaxed before that point. I was by them for so long, relaxed, and comfortable."

Sam was silent for a long moment, and Daniel almost thought he was done talking." The only time I've been so relaxed since is when the Vegals pick me up."

Daniel didn't say anything; what could he say? The horror at the sack that Sam spent several hundred years in a life he couldn't relax, mostly on the move around the world. As much fun as Sam said he had, Daniel wondered how much of that fun was to hide away from the danger around him.

"that's nice," Daniel magned after several minutes of the movie playing. "so what do you think we should watch next?"

"none of the movies I was in," Sam replied," you were in more?" danile asked only to get smacked with a pillow to silence him," you will not watch anymore while I'm here!"

"What? Don't want to see your past works."

"no, I haven't acted in years. Besides, I wasn't very good at it." Daniel rolled his eyes but abided, and they watched a few more movies of the celebrity; Daniel already knew their name from the credits. But he refused to look; he wanted to remember it.

It was hard as he didn't pay too much attention to the movies, each one bringing up bits of memory that he found himself getting lost in. shopping, dinner, going to movies and parks, sharing a bed with them, cause Sam didn't want to be alone nor did they.

Each memory brought up the warmth in his heart that he forgot was there; Sam was quickly realizing he didn't just spend a short time with them. He might have lived with them longer than he lived with the vegals. 'I want them to meet,' he realized as the sun rose up the island. They were family to him, and he wanted them to meet, as did his other family.

"how many people do I call family?" the question sparked a realization that he had no idea. With the massive holes in his memory, he had no idea how many people he'd met nor how many he could call friends." cause unless I've changed a lot, I was probably cautious of people and tended to stay away unless he felt he could trust them.

If they could, he had years of combat experience. Sam continued watching until Daniel woke up. Did you stay up all night," the younger male groaned and turned over. Dude," he groaned, pressing his face into the pillow away from the light of the TV and the sun.

"Sorry," he turned off the TV and closed the blinds." how was your night?" Daniel groaned," Not long enough." Sam snickered and sat up, leaving his friend to walk as he went out to stretch, getting his blood flowing.

Stretching, he thought about the patchwork of memories, small things, big things. Things he was more than happy to remember and a few things that he would glade to not remember if nothing more than being embarrassed.

"I'm glad to remember you, Tatum!" smiling, he looked at the rising sun, the many faces of Tatum racing through his mind, "so glad, Tatum! I will miss you." a single tear was released at the person he could call an older sibling.