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om_mainTwo Jamies and their estranged dupe from New York finally start communicating thanks to Becky. Or rather, they team up to cope with the interrogations of a caffeinated Becky.
His time spent on the street is touched upon but nothing explicitly mentioned.
The room was deadly silent despite the fact that there were three Jamies in the room, each pointedly ignoring the others. All of them eating in silence as they pretended the others did not exist.
Because they were mature like that. And it was the only way the three of them had known to kill the awkwardness that had been the conversation attempted.
Craving something salty, Becky tried to remember what was in the pantry as she wandered into the kitchen, only to stop dead in her tracks at the overwhelming tension. What was up with the mansion, lately? It seemed like she couldn't walk into any room without encountering an awkward situation.
She had heard about the Jamie fight and had heard that something went down on the boards, but it had been deleted before she had seen it and mostly it seemed like a lot of people had opinions without having much of an idea of what was actually going on. Reasoning that this was as good a chance as any to get a feel for the situation, she put on a big grin and approached the table. "Hi guys! I... have absolutely no idea if I've met any of you yet - sorry! But if not, I'm Becky!"
Jay, the skinnier dupe, sat as the breakfast bar with eyes her with noticeable wariness as he ate his way through a mountain of toast. Moderation wasn't a thing he'd gotten a handle on yet.
One of the Jamies at the table managed to flash a smile "Hey Beck, little bit insulted you don't recognise me, actually." He joked to try to smooth over the residual tension of the room.
His mirror image opposite asked him "Supernatural girl?" To which he got a nod. "Ah, cool, nice to meet ya."
Her grin became a bit more genuine. The Supernatural Intern!Jamie was a ton of fun, and hadn't seemed to mind her incessant questions. She gave a quick wave to the new table!Jamie and gave what she hoped was a warm smile to Counter!Jamie. He looked a little different from the rest of the pack - was he the new one?
For now, she just turned back to Intern (yeah, they had names, but they all had the same name, labels made it less confusing). "I mean, it would be so much easier if you guys had signs or something. Or distinct facial hair! That's supposed to be in, this year. I think one of you could totally pull off the villainous, curly mustache." She twirled her finger over the corner of her lip to mimic the shape before tilting her head in thought. "What even would happen if one of you, like, died their hair before you re-merged?"
"We divide and absorb so much I don't think markers would last." One table Jamie told her, scooching over so she could join if she wanted.
"Besides, sadly I don't think we get a good enough growth to tried Movember." The other one bemoaned "You're talking to a total baby face here." He glanced at Jay who, without the workouts and farm running that the other Jamie's had done, in his opinion looked even younger. Jay, not included in the conversation anyway, was just staring down at his plate as he wolfed down the food.
She smiled at the offer for a spot, but headed towards the cabinets first. "Yeah, well, that's probably a good thing. Too many guys don't realize that they really really shouldn't attempt a beard - Jensen, for one, looks ridiculous with this weird half-goatee thing, don't you think? But anyways, so hair dye or tattoos or whatever wouldn't just reappear when you split off again?" She wasn't entirely sure how his power worked, other than how awesome it was that he could literally do everything all at once.
"No fade but everything gets assimilated together so not too sure how that would go other really." One of the Jamies said thoughtfully, sipping his milky coffee.
The other Jamie at the table was chuckling as he teased "You sullying Mr Ackles's name? For shame Becky, I didn't think you had it in you."
She stuck her tongue out at the teasing Jamie before pausing next to the breakfast bar, taking a deep sniff. "Ohmigod that smells amazing! Do I want toast?" She took a good look at the other Jaime, realizing that wow, no, he really was different looking. The other Jamie's were all, 'brb, off to harvest the crops and milk the cows and tame the horses with my impressive muscles,' this guy was more lean and wiry. Too lean, really. She pursed her lips. "Do you like marzipan?" It wasn't much, but it could get a little something on his bones.
Jay blinked, startled to be suddenly addressed and in that way. He'd been keeping out of things since she seemed so chummy with the others.
"Uh..." He blinked at her as he stare a little dumbly. "What? Why?"
She gave him another smile - so he does talk! "Oh, I make it for some people around the school!" She turned around to begin rummaging around the cabinets, deciding that making toast was just too much effort. Instead, she pulled out a packet of Ritz crackers with an exclamation of triumph.
"Well, really I make it for the cast of Supernatural, and if I have extra I'll give some to friends. He" she waved her Ritz bag at who she considered Intern!Jamie before ripping it open, "doesn't get any, anymore, because despite my intro post talking extensively about my love of Supernatural, I had to track him down after hearing that he was an intern for the show - from a third party, I might add."
She grabbed a couple of crackers and leaned against the bar, absently offering the open packet to Skinny!Jamie while pouting at Intern!Jamie.
Jay, for his part, hadn't noticed her food offer because he was sneering at his fellow dupes. "So that's what was going on, huh? You lot were living it up in Hollywood while I, whilst I was-"
He was cut off by one of the table Jamies snapping with obvious irritation. "Fuck's sake, don't go jumping to conclusions again. We told you, we didn't know where you were or what to do about it. It was an intern job, it wasn't personal."
"Besides," Added the other Jamie, the much calmer of the pair. "It was just a summer intern thing, a runner's job on some sets and stuff. Only one of us went. It wasn't to, like, stick a finger at you or whatever you're thinking. Cool off yeah? You got half the school hating us coz you keep jumping to conclusions." Of course Prime's shit behaviour was even more at fault but he'd already been read the riot act.
Becky reared back, surprised by the hostility. "Hold up guys, no need for a brawl or anything. Just because he-" But it had been the other New!Jamie who described the internship? "Or, no, it was definitely you who did the internship, right?" She directed that at... maybe Intern?
One of the table Jamies shot her a confused look. "We both did? We came from the same Jamie, we have the same memories."
"Oh..." Becky furrowed her brows. She maybe remembered something about the memory sharing? "But... then when you split again, is it back into the same, uh... dupes, right?" If not, that was going to majorly mess up her classification system. Her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Wait a minute! If you all have the internship memories... I asked like five of you about it before one of you talked to me!"
Jamie shrugged a little, flashing her a grin "What can I say? Some of me are jerks. But we don't all completely join up all the time so some of them might not have those memories yet. And no we don't split the same all the time, we're not like Lu."
Jay had muttered "All of you are jerks." But mostly had just been finishing his last slice of toast.
Becky quirked an eyebrow at the skinny Jamie, but focused back on the other two. "Huh. So you rejoin after all of your adventures? And then you're like a new person every time you split?"
"Um, no. Not always new." Explain their mutation was never simple. "It's kind of like Russian Roulette. Sometimes it a dupe from before. Sometimes the dupes made are carbon copies of the Jamie they came from and someimes it's more like-"
"Like aspects," The other Jamie at the table with him continued. "They show more of one particular trait. So, like, particularly happy, short tempered, selfish, cowardly, that side of us represented in a dupe. Makes you really realise what parts of you in made of." He glanced at Jay to see if he was listening before continuing "Sometimes it shows us parts of ourself we didn't know existed, sometimes parts other mes might not be comfortable with but that doesn't make that dupe or that part of us any less valid."
Becky walked to the table and sat down heavily. "That sounds really messy. Like, externalized introspection or something. Is it really weird to re-merge?"
"I think mostly it's just weird for other people to hear. We've always lived like this. And it's not like we stop existing, we 're just part of a whole, I guess." The Jamie next to her tried explaining with a shrug. “Just sometimes we're more independent than other times.”
"Some dupes see it differently though, don't want to be absorbed. Want to live a life of their own." He nodded over to to Jay at the bar, that was why he'd run away after all.
Becky nodded and turned towards Jay, mostly directing her next question at him. "So if you don't merge again, do you end up feeling more like a twin or something?"
"Personally I feel more like the cousin everyone hates." Jay replied causing the other two to sigh.
"We keep telling you, if we'd known where you were then we would've come for you." The Jamie opposite Becky told him.
Looking back and forth between them, Becky tried again. "So, where were you, then?"
"All over, New York the last few years. Other places before that." He was still helping himself to food. He'd moved onto chips. The whole 'food on tap' thing was still unreal for him so he tended to overeat a bit. He couldn't help it.
"Oh yeah?" Becky turned so she was properly facing him. "I just went into the city for the first time. I only lived a couple of hours away from it my whole life, the school is actually farther from the city than my house is? But, well, traveling is way easier when your friend is a teleporter, I guess. But anyways. You guys aren't that old, right? So you must have started living there when you were, what, fifteen? Fourteen? That's crazy! Why'd you choose New York?"
Opening a bag of chips, he shruggen. "Mighta been thirteen. Not sure. Wasn't my first stop, places blur. And it was New York because I needed to get out of dodge and that's where the ticket I found was heading." The ticket he'd stolen actually but the other two Jamie's were listening and he couldn't be bothered with fighting them if they decided to judge him for petty theft. "So that's where I went."
"So did you get all the wander-lust?" She turned back towards the other two, "And the rest of you guys got the homebody tendencies?"
"Others have left but most came back pretty quick. I mean it's not something we advertise, running away from ourselves and all that." The Jamie next to her shrugged a little gruffly, like he'd said it wasn't something they liked to talk about and with no why to contact or keep tabs on those who left, well Prime had decided it was easier to not talk about them.
"Hm..." She stuffed a couple of crackers in her mouth - and belatedly offered some to the table!Jamies - before squinting at counter!Jaime. "So, since I'm guessing these guys only know about the Jamies who came back, why'd you decide to stay away for so long?" Her voice was full of curiosity, trying to figure out what made this Dupe different enough to annoy everyone else.
Table!Jamies accepted the offered food happily whilst Jay shrugged a touch tentatively, defensively even. "Decide isn't the word I'd use."
Her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Oh?"
"Don't remember it being any of your business."
The Jamies sat with Becky looked uncomfortable but started to answerd where they could, covering for the other dupe to try to spare him a litte. "We didn't know where he was, no we didn't, he couldn't get back to Kansas and things have been a bit strained since he got found. That's the short version." One told her, the stressed 'no we didn't' had been directed at Jay in case he might have argued.
Becky had straightened out her spine at the new Jaime's tone, but relaxed when she heard what the other one said. One thing she had quickly realized upon coming to the school was that not everyone was as lucky as she had been, growing up. "Well, hopefully you guys can talk it out, or something? I mean, does it feel weird to be mad at yourself? Uh... actually, stupid question. I get mad at myself all the time."
Laughing at herself a little, she leaned her elbows on the table and tried to lighten the mood. "So are you going to start taking classes? Oh! Drama is really fun, if you need an elective! And the teacher is totally dreamy."
"I'm in remedial classes, got some time to catch up on first." All the questions made him uncomfortable, on the streets nobody wanted to talk about themselves so nobody asked questions either. Here all people seemed to do was ask questions.
"Huh." Becky hadn't realized that was a thing, though she guessed it made sense? She turned back to the other two Jamies. "How does that work - if he merged would he be instantly caught up? Oh! Do you have a bunch of slacker Jamies who just don't go to class and spend all day, like, trolling the internet and just merge for an update? Oh my god - if you do, I am so jealous!"
"There's enough of us for every class...and sometimes a few spare." The Jamie opposite her confirmed with a nod.
"And if Jay and a dupe chose to merge they were share everything, they would become one basically." The one next to her added whilst Jay started on making himself coffee. A current novelty with him.
"Oh my sweet baby Cas. How does your brain hold all of that? I can barely remember a quarter of what Dr. Corbeau talks about..." Becky giggled again. "Though it's at least partially his fault for being so very pretty, really."
"Never said we remember it all, it's just there. Somewhere." Jamie opposite her corrected
Becky hmmed as she stared at the Jamie who was making coffee. For some reason, most people acted weird when she had coffee - mostly leaving suddenly, or on one notable occasion knocking the cup from her hand. And she was pretty sure that her parents told their local coffee place not to serve her anymore...
But this Jamie wouldn't be biased, right? She got up and wandered over to the coffee maker. "Could I steal some of that? If there's enough."
Jay shrugged as he located sugar and milk "Do whatever you want, no skin off my nose."
With a slightly demented cackled, Becky poured her own mug, loading it with a ton of sugar before taking a deep sip.
Sighing a little, she turned around to look at them all. "This is perfect - I'm planning on doing a season 4 rewatch of Supernatural tonight while I work on that comp sci thingie - not the whole season, obviously. I thought about just doing season 5, but there are a couple episodes in there that I just don't like. Hey, do you all like the show? I mean, I'd assume so, unless parts of your personality just have really bad taste. Anyways, this will totally help me push through to the Anna episodes."
Having already backed off from her, Jay was looking utterly confused and had decided he did not want to know more about this show anyway. He didn't even seem to mind that backing off from Becky meant coming round to the other dupes.
"Uhhh, you know maybe."
The table Jamie's were watching Becky cautiously. Sure they had a reputation for hyperness and irritation but possibly even they couldn't cope with Becky on caffeine. Though that remained to be seen.
Becky tilted her head before taking another sip. The caffeine probably wasn't working yet, but just the smell and proximity was doing enough. "Maybe... you like the show? You don't know?" She narrowed her eyes. "This has been a tragic flaw in your education. Do you want to watch the first couple of episodes? I could totally be talked into starting at season one. I've watched that season..." she frowned and stared at her fingers, twitching them to keep track as she counted under her breath. Shrugging as she got to 18, she settled for, "well, I've seen it a bunch of times. Everything's all bright and charming and hopeful!"
She turned a grin on the other Jamie's. "You two could join, too!"
"We could, yeah. Not sure if Jay here's too thrilled though." One of the table Jamie's said, mentally noting to keep any other coffee away from Becky. Ever. He wasn't being mean, just trying to give the guy a way out. He'd been through enough, right?
Becky blinked, and then looked at the skinny!Jamie. "Jay? You go by Jay? Ohmigosh that makes things so much easier! See?" She turned back to the other two, "He gets it. And now he doesn't have to be the newest!Jamie! You two are still stuck as sort-of-new!Jamie and false-intern!Jamie."
Humming and drinking a little more coffee - it was almost too hot but that just meant it absorbed faster or something, right? - she furrowed her brow. "It does give me a Men In Black vibe. I don't suppose you have a grumpy old guy named K hanging around? Or that you secretly fought aliens in New York? That would be cool, though unoriginal. And totally ignore them, Supernatural is awesome and you should totally watch it with us."
"I was a bit busy trying to get by to give a shit about aliens either way." Jay shrugged, actually choosing to join his fellow dupes at the table. This girl was making them look quite inviting actually... "Sides, Jay can be short for loads of names so it worked. Doubt anyone I met used their real name. Any of us ever met anyone actually called Valentino outside of a romance novel?" He didn't bother to comment on this 'Supernatural' stuff at all, what did he have to say about a thing he'd never seen?
The other two Jamies were simply listening with interest. No one else had gotten too much information from the other dupe about the past few years since he'd arrived.
"Oooohhhh." Her eyes widened a little. "There are a couple of other kids here that were on the streets before. More than I was expecting, but I guess I've been pretty sheltered? I mean, sure most of the town either hated or avoided me, but my parents were always really really great. Not that most of that was because I was a mutant, though. Unless somehow all the other kids my age knew when I was little?"
Becky paused, head tilted to the side. "Can you picture that? A world where kids can detect mutations, or like supernatural stuff in general? You'd probably get all these hardliners using kids as sniffer dogs. Hey! Alternate uses for the weird toddler leashes!"
Blinking rapidly, she focused back on the boys. "And Valentino is a totally dated name. I would feel sorry for that guy. Though being called Val might be cool. V's kinda been taken."
"And only one person at a time can ever have a particular nickname?" One of the Jamie's asked with a small frown at that logic.
"And someone'll turn up with that power before you know it, almost always does after someone says that." The other Jamie added with a shrug. To be honest, much as Becky could be nice he was more interested in their other dupe and if he had more to say but wasn't sure how to ask. Before Becky had come in things had been tense and snippy after all. No one could piss you off quite as well as yourself after all but Becky, she was somehow coaxing him to talk.
Becky shrugged, "As long as he doesn't mind everyone asking him about vendettas all the time. Seems like a mean thing to do to a kid, though. Not that that would stop people - I read that there were sooooo many kids being named Bella and Edward after those books. Ugh, right?
"Hey, is Jamie a nickname? Are you guys originally a James? How come the rest of you don't have nicknames? Why'd you decide to stick with Jay? Did you switch in New York or did you always want to be Jay?" She tilted her head, just asking the questions as the came to her.
"James Arthur Madrox. We all go by different things really but I think I'm the only Jay, I was before anyway." Jay shrugged a little and looked to the others to see them nodding along.
"Most of us think James is a bit formal, besides the other James here calls himself Bucky so at least we're not that weird, right?"
"Hey!" Becky gave an exaggerated pout. "Bucky and I share a deep bond formed from b-c-k-y names! Though I am waiting for someone to come up with a really good nickname for me. Sirius said he'd work on it, but..." She shrugged and took another deep sip.
"That guy is equal parts awesome and perverted, there's no knowing what he'll come up with for ya." One Jamie warned as the Jamie opposite added.
"Yeah, he's forever hitting on us. Wants a gangbang I reckon."
Jay's eyes darted between them, not knowing who was being talked about but looking extremely uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation in general.
Becky's eyebrows rose halfway up her forehead. "Wait, really? Though..." Looking between the Dupes, she could see the temptation...
She giggled into her coffee, "At least he has good taste? You all aren't exactly hard on the eyes."
"How kind of you to say." A Jamie grinned, tipping an imaginary cowboy hat in a 'much obliged' way. Just because it amused himself really.
"Sirius can be charming I'm sure but he's also a dog and a teenage boy so I'm pretty sure that just doubles the urge to hump everything, am I right?" The other Jamie added, grin fading a little as he watched how subdued the conversation was making the third dupe who was currently studying his own coffee with a hard to read expression. Which was strange to Jamie, to not understand someone who was basically himself.
Becky blushed a little at the first Jamie and smiled into her coffee, before directing a "Pun intended?" at the second one. Except, he wasn't smiling back? He was watching Jay, and Jay was... not looking so happy. "Oh, shoot - you probably don't know who we're talking about! Super rude of us! Sorry! But I want to know more about you, anyway! What was your favorite part of New York?"
Jay expression to that question wasn't hard to read at all, it was a very clear 'Are you kidding me?'
"I wasn't there to sight see." He told her softly, seriously.
Becky frowned, confused. Just because things were bad doesn't mean that everything was awful all the time. At least, she hoped it wasn't. "I mean, I'm getting that it wasn't the best time or anything, but wasn't there anything about the city you liked? Like... all the songs talk about how pretty the lights are, or a cool diner or something?"
"Anytime I managed to crash somewhere with four walls and a ceiling was good." He could see the girl meant well but her lack of the ability to take a hint was starting to piss him off.
"Becky, maybe we oughta not push, yeah?" The Jamie beside Jay suggested, which surprised the exiled dupe though what surprised him even more was the supportive hand on the shoulder. No Jamies had dared touch him since arrival, in case of accidental absorption. "He doesn't like talking about New York even with us and we're him."
Becky blinked, still not really getting it. But she was the type of person who always tried to find one good thing to keep her sane. Like, sure, the only time people her age talked to her was to call her names, but that meant that she went online and found super awesome people there.
Not everyone was like that, though, so she just shrugged. "Yeah, sure, no problem. Sorry, I have like zero filter, so you know feel free to ignore me or whatever. I probably won't be offended or anything. Unless you're rude. Then I might be rude back. Unless I deserve it? But sometimes it's hard to tell. I mean, I mostly don't try to be rude, but it happens. I've been informed that I miss a lot of social cues." And, deciding it was probably time to shut up, she shoved a bunch of crackers into her mouth.
"No harm done." Jay managed with a weak but sincere smile, his irritation with the girl somewhat faded from her rambling speech and the touch from his dupe. Nice to know no everyone though of him as a leper.
Smiling broadly before realizing she had bits of cracker stuck in her teeth, Becky swallowed down some more coffee. "Well, I hope you make some awesome memories here! Oh, have you seen the rec rooms yet? The TV set up is wicked cool here. Or, if you're one of those outside people, I really like the lake. It's getting a little cold, though. But maybe it will freeze enough to skate on! Or there's the stables - did you guys have horses back in Kansas? The only thing TV has told me about Kansas is that you should avoid Lawrence if you are named Mary."
"You do remember the whole divide between fact and fiction, right?" The Jamie next to her teased as the one across the table nodded
"We had a few animals, main point of the farm was to let the Jamies roam without other people seeing but there were a few animals to keep us occupied and stuff. We ran the farm, mom and dad are scientists."
She flashed the first Jamie a smile. "Only occasionally, and never by choice. But I guess you saying that means that your parents weren't mad scientists with dastardly plots?"
"If they were, so are Moira and Charles."
"You say that like it discounts the theory," Becky smirked before pointing at her forehead. "It's his eyebrows. They could totally be evil eyebrows."
"Insulting my godparents." One Jamie sniffed in mock insult.
"Our parents are atheists, how exactly are they our godparents?"
"Just nice to feel family-like."
"Good way to weird them out too."
"And now I'm remembering why I ran away." There was a pause of silence and stares before both Jamie dupes realised the other was actually joking and started laughing accordingly.
Becky looked back and forth between the three of them, her smile steadily growing. Joining in with the laughter, she added, "Wow. One headmaster has his kids here. The other has his godchildren. Talk about a family affair!"
"Technically we haven't really called him 'Uncle Charlie' for years but it's good fun to see the look on students faces when we just throw it into conversation." The Jamie beside her agreed.
"So, for him to be your godfather-" she snorted at the image that that brought up, "he must have known your parents forever. Are your parents mutants or was it a surprise when you manifested?"
"We were born this way." The Jamie opposite her explained with a shrug.
"So when they needed people to turn to for advice, mom and dad went to Charles and Moira. So they've been in and out our lives ever since." Jamie next to her added. “They'd do tests and stuf so I guess calling the Uncle and Auntie made the science bit less scary as kids?”
"And we'd come stay here as kids sometimes, to give mom and dad a break. Sometimes they'd run more tests or teach us stuff coz we were home schooled." Jay spoke softly, almost hesitantly. As though he wasn't sure if he should join in with the reminiscing or not.
Becky directed a softer smile at Jay, glad he felt comfortable enough to join in. "It must have been nice, growing up knowing other mutants existed."
"One other mutant, if they knew about others beyond Charles back then they weren't telling us. We were just kids." Jamie next to her explained.
"They just helped us, and our parents, work on ways to have at least a decent-ish life." The opposite Jamie added but carefully. Talking about the farm a few days back had lead to talking about how Jay had turned against the farm and brought up all that hurt on both sides. There had been yelling. This time though, Jay didn't seem to be gearing up for an argument.
She chuckled. "Oh man, I hadn't even considered - how many Jamie's can you split into? That must have been sooo many diapers! Babysitters must have been super appreciated."
"Mom has the patience of a saint." Three voices said in unison. They'd been told it so often, particularly by Mom but also Dad, that it was an automatic response.
"Like Jay said sometimes when we were a bit older we'd come stay her for a bit, give mom and dad a break. But, yeah, must've been crazy when we were babies."
Becky started laughing so hard she almost spilled her coffee. "Oh sweet Sammy, that's both creepy and amazing!" They were trained so well! "Yeah, you better get her like, the best mother's day presents. Like, write her sonnets or something."
"We spoil her, don't you worry about that! Dad too but mostly Mom." Jamie nodded seriously.
"Do you still have other Jamie's living on the farm? You did all the chores, right?" Becky reached for another cracker only to realize that she had reached the end of the stack. When had that happened?
"We're all-" The Jamie replying cut off with a glance at Jay, now people knew about him there was no sense folowing Prime's official party line, right? "Most of us are here."
"Huh..." She responded, distracted, "I guess that's good, less chance of people realizing you're in too many places at once... Unless you're public? I can never keep track..." Should she get more snacks? She was still kind of hungry, and crackers were mostly air so they totally didn't count. Nodding, she stood up. "Anyone want something while I'm up? Ooo, anyone want popcorn?"
At this point Jay looked at the other two questioningly and one supplied, answering Becky's question but looking at Jay. "Semi. We allowed Moira and Charles to use our name in that genetics paper but we aren't fully public, we didn't think it a fair decision to make when not all of us where here to have a say in it. We were worried it might put other Jamies in danger. And popcorn would be amazeballs."
"Well, maybe with all the new mutant forums, you'll be able to keep everyone in touch better." Becky pushed past a couple of bags of some sort of gross 'healthy pop' options, before finding a heavily buttered option. "Aha! Found some!"
"We'll see." One Jamie answered noncommittally as the three of them looked at each over, a sort of 'what do we do next?' look being shared.
Catching the end of the look as she turned back around in victory, two bags of kernels in hand, Becky paused. "Oh, right! I was thinking about starting Jay on Supernatural, but I guess we never actually established that he wanted to watch it with us?" She shot him a hopeful smile.
Though Jay sent a clear 'save me' look to his identical, the other two clearly decided that either there was safety in numbers or that misery loved company because they immediately agreed for him.
"Sure he does, why wouldn't he?"
"We'd love to. All of us."
Besides, if they needed to escape they did outnumber her after all.
"Excellent!" With a happy cackle, Becky bounced over to the microwave. "Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago. Gods, it still gives me shivers! Just you wait, Jay, it's going to blow your socks off!"
"I'm gonna kill you two." Jay muttered, only loud enough for the other dupes to hear who just snickered.
"And you're going to hell right there with us, brother."
His time spent on the street is touched upon but nothing explicitly mentioned.
The room was deadly silent despite the fact that there were three Jamies in the room, each pointedly ignoring the others. All of them eating in silence as they pretended the others did not exist.
Because they were mature like that. And it was the only way the three of them had known to kill the awkwardness that had been the conversation attempted.
Craving something salty, Becky tried to remember what was in the pantry as she wandered into the kitchen, only to stop dead in her tracks at the overwhelming tension. What was up with the mansion, lately? It seemed like she couldn't walk into any room without encountering an awkward situation.
She had heard about the Jamie fight and had heard that something went down on the boards, but it had been deleted before she had seen it and mostly it seemed like a lot of people had opinions without having much of an idea of what was actually going on. Reasoning that this was as good a chance as any to get a feel for the situation, she put on a big grin and approached the table. "Hi guys! I... have absolutely no idea if I've met any of you yet - sorry! But if not, I'm Becky!"
Jay, the skinnier dupe, sat as the breakfast bar with eyes her with noticeable wariness as he ate his way through a mountain of toast. Moderation wasn't a thing he'd gotten a handle on yet.
One of the Jamies at the table managed to flash a smile "Hey Beck, little bit insulted you don't recognise me, actually." He joked to try to smooth over the residual tension of the room.
His mirror image opposite asked him "Supernatural girl?" To which he got a nod. "Ah, cool, nice to meet ya."
Her grin became a bit more genuine. The Supernatural Intern!Jamie was a ton of fun, and hadn't seemed to mind her incessant questions. She gave a quick wave to the new table!Jamie and gave what she hoped was a warm smile to Counter!Jamie. He looked a little different from the rest of the pack - was he the new one?
For now, she just turned back to Intern (yeah, they had names, but they all had the same name, labels made it less confusing). "I mean, it would be so much easier if you guys had signs or something. Or distinct facial hair! That's supposed to be in, this year. I think one of you could totally pull off the villainous, curly mustache." She twirled her finger over the corner of her lip to mimic the shape before tilting her head in thought. "What even would happen if one of you, like, died their hair before you re-merged?"
"We divide and absorb so much I don't think markers would last." One table Jamie told her, scooching over so she could join if she wanted.
"Besides, sadly I don't think we get a good enough growth to tried Movember." The other one bemoaned "You're talking to a total baby face here." He glanced at Jay who, without the workouts and farm running that the other Jamie's had done, in his opinion looked even younger. Jay, not included in the conversation anyway, was just staring down at his plate as he wolfed down the food.
She smiled at the offer for a spot, but headed towards the cabinets first. "Yeah, well, that's probably a good thing. Too many guys don't realize that they really really shouldn't attempt a beard - Jensen, for one, looks ridiculous with this weird half-goatee thing, don't you think? But anyways, so hair dye or tattoos or whatever wouldn't just reappear when you split off again?" She wasn't entirely sure how his power worked, other than how awesome it was that he could literally do everything all at once.
"No fade but everything gets assimilated together so not too sure how that would go other really." One of the Jamies said thoughtfully, sipping his milky coffee.
The other Jamie at the table was chuckling as he teased "You sullying Mr Ackles's name? For shame Becky, I didn't think you had it in you."
She stuck her tongue out at the teasing Jamie before pausing next to the breakfast bar, taking a deep sniff. "Ohmigod that smells amazing! Do I want toast?" She took a good look at the other Jaime, realizing that wow, no, he really was different looking. The other Jamie's were all, 'brb, off to harvest the crops and milk the cows and tame the horses with my impressive muscles,' this guy was more lean and wiry. Too lean, really. She pursed her lips. "Do you like marzipan?" It wasn't much, but it could get a little something on his bones.
Jay blinked, startled to be suddenly addressed and in that way. He'd been keeping out of things since she seemed so chummy with the others.
"Uh..." He blinked at her as he stare a little dumbly. "What? Why?"
She gave him another smile - so he does talk! "Oh, I make it for some people around the school!" She turned around to begin rummaging around the cabinets, deciding that making toast was just too much effort. Instead, she pulled out a packet of Ritz crackers with an exclamation of triumph.
"Well, really I make it for the cast of Supernatural, and if I have extra I'll give some to friends. He" she waved her Ritz bag at who she considered Intern!Jamie before ripping it open, "doesn't get any, anymore, because despite my intro post talking extensively about my love of Supernatural, I had to track him down after hearing that he was an intern for the show - from a third party, I might add."
She grabbed a couple of crackers and leaned against the bar, absently offering the open packet to Skinny!Jamie while pouting at Intern!Jamie.
Jay, for his part, hadn't noticed her food offer because he was sneering at his fellow dupes. "So that's what was going on, huh? You lot were living it up in Hollywood while I, whilst I was-"
He was cut off by one of the table Jamies snapping with obvious irritation. "Fuck's sake, don't go jumping to conclusions again. We told you, we didn't know where you were or what to do about it. It was an intern job, it wasn't personal."
"Besides," Added the other Jamie, the much calmer of the pair. "It was just a summer intern thing, a runner's job on some sets and stuff. Only one of us went. It wasn't to, like, stick a finger at you or whatever you're thinking. Cool off yeah? You got half the school hating us coz you keep jumping to conclusions." Of course Prime's shit behaviour was even more at fault but he'd already been read the riot act.
Becky reared back, surprised by the hostility. "Hold up guys, no need for a brawl or anything. Just because he-" But it had been the other New!Jamie who described the internship? "Or, no, it was definitely you who did the internship, right?" She directed that at... maybe Intern?
One of the table Jamies shot her a confused look. "We both did? We came from the same Jamie, we have the same memories."
"Oh..." Becky furrowed her brows. She maybe remembered something about the memory sharing? "But... then when you split again, is it back into the same, uh... dupes, right?" If not, that was going to majorly mess up her classification system. Her eyes widened in sudden realization. "Wait a minute! If you all have the internship memories... I asked like five of you about it before one of you talked to me!"
Jamie shrugged a little, flashing her a grin "What can I say? Some of me are jerks. But we don't all completely join up all the time so some of them might not have those memories yet. And no we don't split the same all the time, we're not like Lu."
Jay had muttered "All of you are jerks." But mostly had just been finishing his last slice of toast.
Becky quirked an eyebrow at the skinny Jamie, but focused back on the other two. "Huh. So you rejoin after all of your adventures? And then you're like a new person every time you split?"
"Um, no. Not always new." Explain their mutation was never simple. "It's kind of like Russian Roulette. Sometimes it a dupe from before. Sometimes the dupes made are carbon copies of the Jamie they came from and someimes it's more like-"
"Like aspects," The other Jamie at the table with him continued. "They show more of one particular trait. So, like, particularly happy, short tempered, selfish, cowardly, that side of us represented in a dupe. Makes you really realise what parts of you in made of." He glanced at Jay to see if he was listening before continuing "Sometimes it shows us parts of ourself we didn't know existed, sometimes parts other mes might not be comfortable with but that doesn't make that dupe or that part of us any less valid."
Becky walked to the table and sat down heavily. "That sounds really messy. Like, externalized introspection or something. Is it really weird to re-merge?"
"I think mostly it's just weird for other people to hear. We've always lived like this. And it's not like we stop existing, we 're just part of a whole, I guess." The Jamie next to her tried explaining with a shrug. “Just sometimes we're more independent than other times.”
"Some dupes see it differently though, don't want to be absorbed. Want to live a life of their own." He nodded over to to Jay at the bar, that was why he'd run away after all.
Becky nodded and turned towards Jay, mostly directing her next question at him. "So if you don't merge again, do you end up feeling more like a twin or something?"
"Personally I feel more like the cousin everyone hates." Jay replied causing the other two to sigh.
"We keep telling you, if we'd known where you were then we would've come for you." The Jamie opposite Becky told him.
Looking back and forth between them, Becky tried again. "So, where were you, then?"
"All over, New York the last few years. Other places before that." He was still helping himself to food. He'd moved onto chips. The whole 'food on tap' thing was still unreal for him so he tended to overeat a bit. He couldn't help it.
"Oh yeah?" Becky turned so she was properly facing him. "I just went into the city for the first time. I only lived a couple of hours away from it my whole life, the school is actually farther from the city than my house is? But, well, traveling is way easier when your friend is a teleporter, I guess. But anyways. You guys aren't that old, right? So you must have started living there when you were, what, fifteen? Fourteen? That's crazy! Why'd you choose New York?"
Opening a bag of chips, he shruggen. "Mighta been thirteen. Not sure. Wasn't my first stop, places blur. And it was New York because I needed to get out of dodge and that's where the ticket I found was heading." The ticket he'd stolen actually but the other two Jamie's were listening and he couldn't be bothered with fighting them if they decided to judge him for petty theft. "So that's where I went."
"So did you get all the wander-lust?" She turned back towards the other two, "And the rest of you guys got the homebody tendencies?"
"Others have left but most came back pretty quick. I mean it's not something we advertise, running away from ourselves and all that." The Jamie next to her shrugged a little gruffly, like he'd said it wasn't something they liked to talk about and with no why to contact or keep tabs on those who left, well Prime had decided it was easier to not talk about them.
"Hm..." She stuffed a couple of crackers in her mouth - and belatedly offered some to the table!Jamies - before squinting at counter!Jaime. "So, since I'm guessing these guys only know about the Jamies who came back, why'd you decide to stay away for so long?" Her voice was full of curiosity, trying to figure out what made this Dupe different enough to annoy everyone else.
Table!Jamies accepted the offered food happily whilst Jay shrugged a touch tentatively, defensively even. "Decide isn't the word I'd use."
Her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "Oh?"
"Don't remember it being any of your business."
The Jamies sat with Becky looked uncomfortable but started to answerd where they could, covering for the other dupe to try to spare him a litte. "We didn't know where he was, no we didn't, he couldn't get back to Kansas and things have been a bit strained since he got found. That's the short version." One told her, the stressed 'no we didn't' had been directed at Jay in case he might have argued.
Becky had straightened out her spine at the new Jaime's tone, but relaxed when she heard what the other one said. One thing she had quickly realized upon coming to the school was that not everyone was as lucky as she had been, growing up. "Well, hopefully you guys can talk it out, or something? I mean, does it feel weird to be mad at yourself? Uh... actually, stupid question. I get mad at myself all the time."
Laughing at herself a little, she leaned her elbows on the table and tried to lighten the mood. "So are you going to start taking classes? Oh! Drama is really fun, if you need an elective! And the teacher is totally dreamy."
"I'm in remedial classes, got some time to catch up on first." All the questions made him uncomfortable, on the streets nobody wanted to talk about themselves so nobody asked questions either. Here all people seemed to do was ask questions.
"Huh." Becky hadn't realized that was a thing, though she guessed it made sense? She turned back to the other two Jamies. "How does that work - if he merged would he be instantly caught up? Oh! Do you have a bunch of slacker Jamies who just don't go to class and spend all day, like, trolling the internet and just merge for an update? Oh my god - if you do, I am so jealous!"
"There's enough of us for every class...and sometimes a few spare." The Jamie opposite her confirmed with a nod.
"And if Jay and a dupe chose to merge they were share everything, they would become one basically." The one next to her added whilst Jay started on making himself coffee. A current novelty with him.
"Oh my sweet baby Cas. How does your brain hold all of that? I can barely remember a quarter of what Dr. Corbeau talks about..." Becky giggled again. "Though it's at least partially his fault for being so very pretty, really."
"Never said we remember it all, it's just there. Somewhere." Jamie opposite her corrected
Becky hmmed as she stared at the Jamie who was making coffee. For some reason, most people acted weird when she had coffee - mostly leaving suddenly, or on one notable occasion knocking the cup from her hand. And she was pretty sure that her parents told their local coffee place not to serve her anymore...
But this Jamie wouldn't be biased, right? She got up and wandered over to the coffee maker. "Could I steal some of that? If there's enough."
Jay shrugged as he located sugar and milk "Do whatever you want, no skin off my nose."
With a slightly demented cackled, Becky poured her own mug, loading it with a ton of sugar before taking a deep sip.
Sighing a little, she turned around to look at them all. "This is perfect - I'm planning on doing a season 4 rewatch of Supernatural tonight while I work on that comp sci thingie - not the whole season, obviously. I thought about just doing season 5, but there are a couple episodes in there that I just don't like. Hey, do you all like the show? I mean, I'd assume so, unless parts of your personality just have really bad taste. Anyways, this will totally help me push through to the Anna episodes."
Having already backed off from her, Jay was looking utterly confused and had decided he did not want to know more about this show anyway. He didn't even seem to mind that backing off from Becky meant coming round to the other dupes.
"Uhhh, you know maybe."
The table Jamie's were watching Becky cautiously. Sure they had a reputation for hyperness and irritation but possibly even they couldn't cope with Becky on caffeine. Though that remained to be seen.
Becky tilted her head before taking another sip. The caffeine probably wasn't working yet, but just the smell and proximity was doing enough. "Maybe... you like the show? You don't know?" She narrowed her eyes. "This has been a tragic flaw in your education. Do you want to watch the first couple of episodes? I could totally be talked into starting at season one. I've watched that season..." she frowned and stared at her fingers, twitching them to keep track as she counted under her breath. Shrugging as she got to 18, she settled for, "well, I've seen it a bunch of times. Everything's all bright and charming and hopeful!"
She turned a grin on the other Jamie's. "You two could join, too!"
"We could, yeah. Not sure if Jay here's too thrilled though." One of the table Jamie's said, mentally noting to keep any other coffee away from Becky. Ever. He wasn't being mean, just trying to give the guy a way out. He'd been through enough, right?
Becky blinked, and then looked at the skinny!Jamie. "Jay? You go by Jay? Ohmigosh that makes things so much easier! See?" She turned back to the other two, "He gets it. And now he doesn't have to be the newest!Jamie! You two are still stuck as sort-of-new!Jamie and false-intern!Jamie."
Humming and drinking a little more coffee - it was almost too hot but that just meant it absorbed faster or something, right? - she furrowed her brow. "It does give me a Men In Black vibe. I don't suppose you have a grumpy old guy named K hanging around? Or that you secretly fought aliens in New York? That would be cool, though unoriginal. And totally ignore them, Supernatural is awesome and you should totally watch it with us."
"I was a bit busy trying to get by to give a shit about aliens either way." Jay shrugged, actually choosing to join his fellow dupes at the table. This girl was making them look quite inviting actually... "Sides, Jay can be short for loads of names so it worked. Doubt anyone I met used their real name. Any of us ever met anyone actually called Valentino outside of a romance novel?" He didn't bother to comment on this 'Supernatural' stuff at all, what did he have to say about a thing he'd never seen?
The other two Jamies were simply listening with interest. No one else had gotten too much information from the other dupe about the past few years since he'd arrived.
"Oooohhhh." Her eyes widened a little. "There are a couple of other kids here that were on the streets before. More than I was expecting, but I guess I've been pretty sheltered? I mean, sure most of the town either hated or avoided me, but my parents were always really really great. Not that most of that was because I was a mutant, though. Unless somehow all the other kids my age knew when I was little?"
Becky paused, head tilted to the side. "Can you picture that? A world where kids can detect mutations, or like supernatural stuff in general? You'd probably get all these hardliners using kids as sniffer dogs. Hey! Alternate uses for the weird toddler leashes!"
Blinking rapidly, she focused back on the boys. "And Valentino is a totally dated name. I would feel sorry for that guy. Though being called Val might be cool. V's kinda been taken."
"And only one person at a time can ever have a particular nickname?" One of the Jamie's asked with a small frown at that logic.
"And someone'll turn up with that power before you know it, almost always does after someone says that." The other Jamie added with a shrug. To be honest, much as Becky could be nice he was more interested in their other dupe and if he had more to say but wasn't sure how to ask. Before Becky had come in things had been tense and snippy after all. No one could piss you off quite as well as yourself after all but Becky, she was somehow coaxing him to talk.
Becky shrugged, "As long as he doesn't mind everyone asking him about vendettas all the time. Seems like a mean thing to do to a kid, though. Not that that would stop people - I read that there were sooooo many kids being named Bella and Edward after those books. Ugh, right?
"Hey, is Jamie a nickname? Are you guys originally a James? How come the rest of you don't have nicknames? Why'd you decide to stick with Jay? Did you switch in New York or did you always want to be Jay?" She tilted her head, just asking the questions as the came to her.
"James Arthur Madrox. We all go by different things really but I think I'm the only Jay, I was before anyway." Jay shrugged a little and looked to the others to see them nodding along.
"Most of us think James is a bit formal, besides the other James here calls himself Bucky so at least we're not that weird, right?"
"Hey!" Becky gave an exaggerated pout. "Bucky and I share a deep bond formed from b-c-k-y names! Though I am waiting for someone to come up with a really good nickname for me. Sirius said he'd work on it, but..." She shrugged and took another deep sip.
"That guy is equal parts awesome and perverted, there's no knowing what he'll come up with for ya." One Jamie warned as the Jamie opposite added.
"Yeah, he's forever hitting on us. Wants a gangbang I reckon."
Jay's eyes darted between them, not knowing who was being talked about but looking extremely uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation in general.
Becky's eyebrows rose halfway up her forehead. "Wait, really? Though..." Looking between the Dupes, she could see the temptation...
She giggled into her coffee, "At least he has good taste? You all aren't exactly hard on the eyes."
"How kind of you to say." A Jamie grinned, tipping an imaginary cowboy hat in a 'much obliged' way. Just because it amused himself really.
"Sirius can be charming I'm sure but he's also a dog and a teenage boy so I'm pretty sure that just doubles the urge to hump everything, am I right?" The other Jamie added, grin fading a little as he watched how subdued the conversation was making the third dupe who was currently studying his own coffee with a hard to read expression. Which was strange to Jamie, to not understand someone who was basically himself.
Becky blushed a little at the first Jamie and smiled into her coffee, before directing a "Pun intended?" at the second one. Except, he wasn't smiling back? He was watching Jay, and Jay was... not looking so happy. "Oh, shoot - you probably don't know who we're talking about! Super rude of us! Sorry! But I want to know more about you, anyway! What was your favorite part of New York?"
Jay expression to that question wasn't hard to read at all, it was a very clear 'Are you kidding me?'
"I wasn't there to sight see." He told her softly, seriously.
Becky frowned, confused. Just because things were bad doesn't mean that everything was awful all the time. At least, she hoped it wasn't. "I mean, I'm getting that it wasn't the best time or anything, but wasn't there anything about the city you liked? Like... all the songs talk about how pretty the lights are, or a cool diner or something?"
"Anytime I managed to crash somewhere with four walls and a ceiling was good." He could see the girl meant well but her lack of the ability to take a hint was starting to piss him off.
"Becky, maybe we oughta not push, yeah?" The Jamie beside Jay suggested, which surprised the exiled dupe though what surprised him even more was the supportive hand on the shoulder. No Jamies had dared touch him since arrival, in case of accidental absorption. "He doesn't like talking about New York even with us and we're him."
Becky blinked, still not really getting it. But she was the type of person who always tried to find one good thing to keep her sane. Like, sure, the only time people her age talked to her was to call her names, but that meant that she went online and found super awesome people there.
Not everyone was like that, though, so she just shrugged. "Yeah, sure, no problem. Sorry, I have like zero filter, so you know feel free to ignore me or whatever. I probably won't be offended or anything. Unless you're rude. Then I might be rude back. Unless I deserve it? But sometimes it's hard to tell. I mean, I mostly don't try to be rude, but it happens. I've been informed that I miss a lot of social cues." And, deciding it was probably time to shut up, she shoved a bunch of crackers into her mouth.
"No harm done." Jay managed with a weak but sincere smile, his irritation with the girl somewhat faded from her rambling speech and the touch from his dupe. Nice to know no everyone though of him as a leper.
Smiling broadly before realizing she had bits of cracker stuck in her teeth, Becky swallowed down some more coffee. "Well, I hope you make some awesome memories here! Oh, have you seen the rec rooms yet? The TV set up is wicked cool here. Or, if you're one of those outside people, I really like the lake. It's getting a little cold, though. But maybe it will freeze enough to skate on! Or there's the stables - did you guys have horses back in Kansas? The only thing TV has told me about Kansas is that you should avoid Lawrence if you are named Mary."
"You do remember the whole divide between fact and fiction, right?" The Jamie next to her teased as the one across the table nodded
"We had a few animals, main point of the farm was to let the Jamies roam without other people seeing but there were a few animals to keep us occupied and stuff. We ran the farm, mom and dad are scientists."
She flashed the first Jamie a smile. "Only occasionally, and never by choice. But I guess you saying that means that your parents weren't mad scientists with dastardly plots?"
"If they were, so are Moira and Charles."
"You say that like it discounts the theory," Becky smirked before pointing at her forehead. "It's his eyebrows. They could totally be evil eyebrows."
"Insulting my godparents." One Jamie sniffed in mock insult.
"Our parents are atheists, how exactly are they our godparents?"
"Just nice to feel family-like."
"Good way to weird them out too."
"And now I'm remembering why I ran away." There was a pause of silence and stares before both Jamie dupes realised the other was actually joking and started laughing accordingly.
Becky looked back and forth between the three of them, her smile steadily growing. Joining in with the laughter, she added, "Wow. One headmaster has his kids here. The other has his godchildren. Talk about a family affair!"
"Technically we haven't really called him 'Uncle Charlie' for years but it's good fun to see the look on students faces when we just throw it into conversation." The Jamie beside her agreed.
"So, for him to be your godfather-" she snorted at the image that that brought up, "he must have known your parents forever. Are your parents mutants or was it a surprise when you manifested?"
"We were born this way." The Jamie opposite her explained with a shrug.
"So when they needed people to turn to for advice, mom and dad went to Charles and Moira. So they've been in and out our lives ever since." Jamie next to her added. “They'd do tests and stuf so I guess calling the Uncle and Auntie made the science bit less scary as kids?”
"And we'd come stay here as kids sometimes, to give mom and dad a break. Sometimes they'd run more tests or teach us stuff coz we were home schooled." Jay spoke softly, almost hesitantly. As though he wasn't sure if he should join in with the reminiscing or not.
Becky directed a softer smile at Jay, glad he felt comfortable enough to join in. "It must have been nice, growing up knowing other mutants existed."
"One other mutant, if they knew about others beyond Charles back then they weren't telling us. We were just kids." Jamie next to her explained.
"They just helped us, and our parents, work on ways to have at least a decent-ish life." The opposite Jamie added but carefully. Talking about the farm a few days back had lead to talking about how Jay had turned against the farm and brought up all that hurt on both sides. There had been yelling. This time though, Jay didn't seem to be gearing up for an argument.
She chuckled. "Oh man, I hadn't even considered - how many Jamie's can you split into? That must have been sooo many diapers! Babysitters must have been super appreciated."
"Mom has the patience of a saint." Three voices said in unison. They'd been told it so often, particularly by Mom but also Dad, that it was an automatic response.
"Like Jay said sometimes when we were a bit older we'd come stay her for a bit, give mom and dad a break. But, yeah, must've been crazy when we were babies."
Becky started laughing so hard she almost spilled her coffee. "Oh sweet Sammy, that's both creepy and amazing!" They were trained so well! "Yeah, you better get her like, the best mother's day presents. Like, write her sonnets or something."
"We spoil her, don't you worry about that! Dad too but mostly Mom." Jamie nodded seriously.
"Do you still have other Jamie's living on the farm? You did all the chores, right?" Becky reached for another cracker only to realize that she had reached the end of the stack. When had that happened?
"We're all-" The Jamie replying cut off with a glance at Jay, now people knew about him there was no sense folowing Prime's official party line, right? "Most of us are here."
"Huh..." She responded, distracted, "I guess that's good, less chance of people realizing you're in too many places at once... Unless you're public? I can never keep track..." Should she get more snacks? She was still kind of hungry, and crackers were mostly air so they totally didn't count. Nodding, she stood up. "Anyone want something while I'm up? Ooo, anyone want popcorn?"
At this point Jay looked at the other two questioningly and one supplied, answering Becky's question but looking at Jay. "Semi. We allowed Moira and Charles to use our name in that genetics paper but we aren't fully public, we didn't think it a fair decision to make when not all of us where here to have a say in it. We were worried it might put other Jamies in danger. And popcorn would be amazeballs."
"Well, maybe with all the new mutant forums, you'll be able to keep everyone in touch better." Becky pushed past a couple of bags of some sort of gross 'healthy pop' options, before finding a heavily buttered option. "Aha! Found some!"
"We'll see." One Jamie answered noncommittally as the three of them looked at each over, a sort of 'what do we do next?' look being shared.
Catching the end of the look as she turned back around in victory, two bags of kernels in hand, Becky paused. "Oh, right! I was thinking about starting Jay on Supernatural, but I guess we never actually established that he wanted to watch it with us?" She shot him a hopeful smile.
Though Jay sent a clear 'save me' look to his identical, the other two clearly decided that either there was safety in numbers or that misery loved company because they immediately agreed for him.
"Sure he does, why wouldn't he?"
"We'd love to. All of us."
Besides, if they needed to escape they did outnumber her after all.
"Excellent!" With a happy cackle, Becky bounced over to the microwave. "Lawrence, Kansas, 22 years ago. Gods, it still gives me shivers! Just you wait, Jay, it's going to blow your socks off!"
"I'm gonna kill you two." Jay muttered, only loud enough for the other dupes to hear who just snickered.
"And you're going to hell right there with us, brother."
