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xp_logsTerry has a question... she doesn't realize she's opening a metaphorical can of alternate reality worms. (backdated)
Brow furrowed in slight confusion, Terry bypassed her own suite and headed straight for Kyle's. Jeanie was busy with work, otherwise she'd have swung by to ask her friend about what she'd overheard Maya discussing a little while ago. As a general rule, Terry avoided listening in on others' conversations, given how utterly rude it was, but this time talk of a 'previous version' of Maya had snagged her attention.
Terry hadn't been able to sort out much of anything after that, given she'd been listening in on a one-sided conversation between the girl and her father, but her interest had been piqued. Pausing outside Kyle's door, she frowned slightly and then knocked.
It was so odd, really, just how serious Maya had been about the question - not joking in the least.
"Unlocked!" Kyle knew who it was - and with anyone else he might have pretended otherwise but it wasn't super weird to know your own girlfriend by smell, right?
He was midway through slicing vegetables and dumping them into a tupperware container. "In the kitchen!" He flipped a red bell pepper underhand, caught it and sliced it in half neatly.
Walking into the suite, Terry caught sight of the pepper just as Kyle sliced it in half. “Nicely done,” she said, smiling despite her earlier thoughts. She sidled toward Kyle, making sure she was out of the way of his chopping before hopping up into the counter near him. “Care to share some of your veg, love?”
“Yep. Just doing meal prep and like, snacks.” Kyle pushed the plastic container towards Terry so she could grab freely. “I’ve got a two week teaching gig over in the DX and there’s always at least one kid who needs to eat more snacks in that school. And that’s with like, free breakfast and lunch. So ima just come armed with a bunch of fruit and veg and stuff, and hopefully I can convince them to not mess with the sub. Cause it’s the middle school and man. I remember what a shithead I was in middle school.”
Terry smiled as she reached out to steal a grape tomato and a slice of pepper. “You’re a good person, Kyle Gibney. I’m glad to know you.” Her grin turning mischievous, she took a bite of pepper and continued, “Biblically and all the other ways, as well.”
Kyle ducked his head, laughing. "I mean, I try, but like, half of it is bribery. Room fulla eleven year olds in summer school. If I give them peanut butter and apples and carrot sticks maybe they won't lie about their names, or tell me they're all telepaths." He rolled his eyes, but with a grin. "This is why I used to teach high school, then the bullshit was more sophisticated."
"Y'should turn the tables," Terry suggested, crossing her ankles as she popped the tomato into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, she pointed the slice of pepper at Kyle and said, "Or make a game of it. Mm... not sure how, as the games we play with the children at the youth centre usually involve powers so the sprogs can work on control and possible power combinations, if they're so inclined, but it could be fun." The smile on her face tilted just a bit as she remembered the conversation she'd overheard Maya having. "Is there some type of prank goin' on here? Somethin' I missed while I was gone, mayhap? T'do with pretendin' to be a... I dunno, a different version of... yourself?"
"Aw, fuck." Kyle's grin faded, and he made sure to carefully set his knife down on his cutting board before continuing. "Lemee guess, you've been hearing that from a couple people and something about a different dimension or something? Aw, dammit, I thought we covered explaining this to everyone."
"Just once or twice, but I overheard Maya wonderin' t'someone on the phone about what her other version was like... nothin' t'do with dimensions, though. Seemed strange," Terry answered, her head tilted to the side at Kyle's reaction. "I take it I did miss somethin' while I was away. Was it bad?" It seemed like it'd been bad, probably.
"It was pretty awful, but most of it was actually way before you got here the first time." Kyle explained. "And hold on. I'm not doing this without a drink." He ducked past Terry, opened his fridge and pulled out a few beers, handing one over before being asked. "Okay, so, like, five or six years ago, some shit went down, and uh." He popped the top off his beer with a claw, drained half, and then set the bottle down. "Basically the world ended, and maybe thirty whole people know about it, and this, and okay, I am not making this shit up, a dude with a star for a brain kind of jigsaw puzzled our universe with some other ones, and, yeah. A bunch of us knew versions of people from before. Only until recently, no one could talk about it, cause, the star brain dude said it'd destroy the universe again."
Terry, her lips parted in shock at the rambling answer, paused for a moment to sort of... digest that. Then she hopped down off the counter and took Kyle's beer from him while handing him the unopened one and walked toward the cabinet where she knew he kept the vodka. Upending the bottle, Terry finished off that half a beer, opened the cabinet, grabbed the hard liquor, and then went for the knife rack and the pineapple she could see on the other side of the counter from Kyle. "Would y'pop that top for me, love? I'll get this pineapple sorted an' then y'can have a real drink while we... talk more about this, if you're willin'."
"Yeah, there's a lot but... I should explain at least the parts I understand? Also, yo, I love how everyone just knows the only way to get me tipsy is to give me half a pineapple first." Kyle said, humor in his voice. "Also hold on, that's the backup vodka." He slipped around Terry, and opened the freezer, pulling out a frosted bottle. "There's science for why the pineapple thing works better cold but honestly, Reed explained it and I kinda tuned him out."
"Well, if the conversation's goin' t'be heavy," Terry said, shrugging. "Also, I dunno about everybody else, but it seems like somethin' I ought to know, at the very least, if I ever decide t'take advantage o' you." She was grinning as she spoke, though, not even a little bit serious about that last part. Instead of commenting on the science behind cold versus not cold liquor, Terry started taking the pineapple apart after finding her favourite butcher's knife, one firm slice at a time.
"Yeah, it's .. " Kyle stole a ring of pineapple from the stack, and pulled it into a few pieces with his claws. "It's pretty heavy. You know how we used to have a school here, like, for real?" He chewed on one piece of pineapple and then hopped up onto the counter to keep from pacing. "Shit, actually I gotta go back before that, even. Okay, so. Okay, you know how there's... "
He huffed out in frustration and then tossed the entire rest of the pineapple ring in his mouth, chewing angrily. "It's quantum shit, I really don't get the science, but there were a bunch of universes, different versions of everyone. One of them, Doc Grey was like. Evil. Like, power hungry completely batshit insane, evil, and she was like, trying to take over other universes. And we stopped her, but like, a lot of people died. Doc Grey died, the one we have now is like. Younger." He leaned his head back, clunking it against a cabinet door. "So the Doc Grey I knew died, a bunch of the kids I taught died, and then when everything was over, there were new versions of a bunch of people, and it was kinda fucked up."
"Jeanie was evil?" Terry asked, shock making her drop the butcher knife to the counter for a moment before she remembered herself. "Christ Almighty," she half-whispered as the magnitude of what Kyle was telling her really sank in - not just that her friend had been power-hungry (and powerful) enough to destroy whole universes, but that it'd caused him to go through having to watch new versions of people he'd known before to turn up. Did they know him when they did? Were they entirely different people? How painful must that have been? Reaching toward Kyle, Terry settled her hand on his knee, gave it a squeeze, and said, "I'm so incredibly sorry you had to experience that."
"It's why I've got a shit ton of therapy and, you know, was a bum for a while." Kyle grinned, without any energy to it. "Like, honestly the worst part was that star brain dude like, like I guess the mushed together universes were really fragile, so for like, years none of us could talk about it." He rubbed his face, and let out a frustrated noise that was at least half low growl. "Man, there is like, so much that changed, and a lot of shit that didn't, which blows more. Super powerful star brain, fucker couldn't give me my mom back."
"Your - " Terry broke off, foregoing the rest of the pineapple. She stepped over so she could rest some of her weight against Kyle's knee. "Christ, love. We don't have t'talk about this anymore, if you'd rather not. I'm... I'm sorry I brought it up."
"I mean." Kyle shrugged. "Like. I mean." He sagged against the cabinet. "I've done therapy about this, kinda, I mean it's hard to explain to a therapist the details. Jesus can I say I mean any more times." He looked up at the ceiling, clunking his head against the wooden cabinet door. "It's a lot. Scott and Jean used to be married." He laughed, dark and bitter. "Hell, Ter. I knew a you from before, you were married. To Bobby Drake."
"Who?"
"Oh shit. Um. Dude who can make ice, here he's like nineteen or something, he was... " Kyle shrugged. "It's really weird to think about. It's really weird to talk about. I, uh." He shut his eyes, and rubbed them with his fists. "I spent a lot of time like, just thinking about how everyone who is a new version isn't the same person at all. I mean, Ter, you don't even look the same. Jean kinda does. Bobby totes doesn't. It's a lot easier to just go with "okay they're totally different people."
"Well, as I've no inclination t'run of and marry a nineteen year old," Terry said, a rueful half-smile on her face. "I'll not have y'thinkin' o' me as that other person, anyway." She took a slow breath, frowning just a little, and handed Kyle another ring of pineapple and asked, "Want your cold vodka? Or would y'like t'stop talkin', sit on the couch, and snuggle?"
Kyle looked up towards the ceiling. "Yeah, lets go with that last option, and the pineapple, and the vodka, because, I mean, I abso-fucking-lutely do not think of you like the other Terry, and I'd like to keep it that way." He bit half off the pineapple ring, and chewed. "It's wild though, like, some stuff totally changed, some didn't. Once in a while like, some actor will do a movie and I'll be like "Wait, yo, that guy was white before."
"Well," Terry said, unsure how to address the strangeness of that statement. "Let's just shift over, shall we?" She felt sorry for bringing the whole thing up, to be honest, but it was information she was glad she had, all the same.
Brow furrowed in slight confusion, Terry bypassed her own suite and headed straight for Kyle's. Jeanie was busy with work, otherwise she'd have swung by to ask her friend about what she'd overheard Maya discussing a little while ago. As a general rule, Terry avoided listening in on others' conversations, given how utterly rude it was, but this time talk of a 'previous version' of Maya had snagged her attention.
Terry hadn't been able to sort out much of anything after that, given she'd been listening in on a one-sided conversation between the girl and her father, but her interest had been piqued. Pausing outside Kyle's door, she frowned slightly and then knocked.
It was so odd, really, just how serious Maya had been about the question - not joking in the least.
"Unlocked!" Kyle knew who it was - and with anyone else he might have pretended otherwise but it wasn't super weird to know your own girlfriend by smell, right?
He was midway through slicing vegetables and dumping them into a tupperware container. "In the kitchen!" He flipped a red bell pepper underhand, caught it and sliced it in half neatly.
Walking into the suite, Terry caught sight of the pepper just as Kyle sliced it in half. “Nicely done,” she said, smiling despite her earlier thoughts. She sidled toward Kyle, making sure she was out of the way of his chopping before hopping up into the counter near him. “Care to share some of your veg, love?”
“Yep. Just doing meal prep and like, snacks.” Kyle pushed the plastic container towards Terry so she could grab freely. “I’ve got a two week teaching gig over in the DX and there’s always at least one kid who needs to eat more snacks in that school. And that’s with like, free breakfast and lunch. So ima just come armed with a bunch of fruit and veg and stuff, and hopefully I can convince them to not mess with the sub. Cause it’s the middle school and man. I remember what a shithead I was in middle school.”
Terry smiled as she reached out to steal a grape tomato and a slice of pepper. “You’re a good person, Kyle Gibney. I’m glad to know you.” Her grin turning mischievous, she took a bite of pepper and continued, “Biblically and all the other ways, as well.”
Kyle ducked his head, laughing. "I mean, I try, but like, half of it is bribery. Room fulla eleven year olds in summer school. If I give them peanut butter and apples and carrot sticks maybe they won't lie about their names, or tell me they're all telepaths." He rolled his eyes, but with a grin. "This is why I used to teach high school, then the bullshit was more sophisticated."
"Y'should turn the tables," Terry suggested, crossing her ankles as she popped the tomato into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, she pointed the slice of pepper at Kyle and said, "Or make a game of it. Mm... not sure how, as the games we play with the children at the youth centre usually involve powers so the sprogs can work on control and possible power combinations, if they're so inclined, but it could be fun." The smile on her face tilted just a bit as she remembered the conversation she'd overheard Maya having. "Is there some type of prank goin' on here? Somethin' I missed while I was gone, mayhap? T'do with pretendin' to be a... I dunno, a different version of... yourself?"
"Aw, fuck." Kyle's grin faded, and he made sure to carefully set his knife down on his cutting board before continuing. "Lemee guess, you've been hearing that from a couple people and something about a different dimension or something? Aw, dammit, I thought we covered explaining this to everyone."
"Just once or twice, but I overheard Maya wonderin' t'someone on the phone about what her other version was like... nothin' t'do with dimensions, though. Seemed strange," Terry answered, her head tilted to the side at Kyle's reaction. "I take it I did miss somethin' while I was away. Was it bad?" It seemed like it'd been bad, probably.
"It was pretty awful, but most of it was actually way before you got here the first time." Kyle explained. "And hold on. I'm not doing this without a drink." He ducked past Terry, opened his fridge and pulled out a few beers, handing one over before being asked. "Okay, so, like, five or six years ago, some shit went down, and uh." He popped the top off his beer with a claw, drained half, and then set the bottle down. "Basically the world ended, and maybe thirty whole people know about it, and this, and okay, I am not making this shit up, a dude with a star for a brain kind of jigsaw puzzled our universe with some other ones, and, yeah. A bunch of us knew versions of people from before. Only until recently, no one could talk about it, cause, the star brain dude said it'd destroy the universe again."
Terry, her lips parted in shock at the rambling answer, paused for a moment to sort of... digest that. Then she hopped down off the counter and took Kyle's beer from him while handing him the unopened one and walked toward the cabinet where she knew he kept the vodka. Upending the bottle, Terry finished off that half a beer, opened the cabinet, grabbed the hard liquor, and then went for the knife rack and the pineapple she could see on the other side of the counter from Kyle. "Would y'pop that top for me, love? I'll get this pineapple sorted an' then y'can have a real drink while we... talk more about this, if you're willin'."
"Yeah, there's a lot but... I should explain at least the parts I understand? Also, yo, I love how everyone just knows the only way to get me tipsy is to give me half a pineapple first." Kyle said, humor in his voice. "Also hold on, that's the backup vodka." He slipped around Terry, and opened the freezer, pulling out a frosted bottle. "There's science for why the pineapple thing works better cold but honestly, Reed explained it and I kinda tuned him out."
"Well, if the conversation's goin' t'be heavy," Terry said, shrugging. "Also, I dunno about everybody else, but it seems like somethin' I ought to know, at the very least, if I ever decide t'take advantage o' you." She was grinning as she spoke, though, not even a little bit serious about that last part. Instead of commenting on the science behind cold versus not cold liquor, Terry started taking the pineapple apart after finding her favourite butcher's knife, one firm slice at a time.
"Yeah, it's .. " Kyle stole a ring of pineapple from the stack, and pulled it into a few pieces with his claws. "It's pretty heavy. You know how we used to have a school here, like, for real?" He chewed on one piece of pineapple and then hopped up onto the counter to keep from pacing. "Shit, actually I gotta go back before that, even. Okay, so. Okay, you know how there's... "
He huffed out in frustration and then tossed the entire rest of the pineapple ring in his mouth, chewing angrily. "It's quantum shit, I really don't get the science, but there were a bunch of universes, different versions of everyone. One of them, Doc Grey was like. Evil. Like, power hungry completely batshit insane, evil, and she was like, trying to take over other universes. And we stopped her, but like, a lot of people died. Doc Grey died, the one we have now is like. Younger." He leaned his head back, clunking it against a cabinet door. "So the Doc Grey I knew died, a bunch of the kids I taught died, and then when everything was over, there were new versions of a bunch of people, and it was kinda fucked up."
"Jeanie was evil?" Terry asked, shock making her drop the butcher knife to the counter for a moment before she remembered herself. "Christ Almighty," she half-whispered as the magnitude of what Kyle was telling her really sank in - not just that her friend had been power-hungry (and powerful) enough to destroy whole universes, but that it'd caused him to go through having to watch new versions of people he'd known before to turn up. Did they know him when they did? Were they entirely different people? How painful must that have been? Reaching toward Kyle, Terry settled her hand on his knee, gave it a squeeze, and said, "I'm so incredibly sorry you had to experience that."
"It's why I've got a shit ton of therapy and, you know, was a bum for a while." Kyle grinned, without any energy to it. "Like, honestly the worst part was that star brain dude like, like I guess the mushed together universes were really fragile, so for like, years none of us could talk about it." He rubbed his face, and let out a frustrated noise that was at least half low growl. "Man, there is like, so much that changed, and a lot of shit that didn't, which blows more. Super powerful star brain, fucker couldn't give me my mom back."
"Your - " Terry broke off, foregoing the rest of the pineapple. She stepped over so she could rest some of her weight against Kyle's knee. "Christ, love. We don't have t'talk about this anymore, if you'd rather not. I'm... I'm sorry I brought it up."
"I mean." Kyle shrugged. "Like. I mean." He sagged against the cabinet. "I've done therapy about this, kinda, I mean it's hard to explain to a therapist the details. Jesus can I say I mean any more times." He looked up at the ceiling, clunking his head against the wooden cabinet door. "It's a lot. Scott and Jean used to be married." He laughed, dark and bitter. "Hell, Ter. I knew a you from before, you were married. To Bobby Drake."
"Who?"
"Oh shit. Um. Dude who can make ice, here he's like nineteen or something, he was... " Kyle shrugged. "It's really weird to think about. It's really weird to talk about. I, uh." He shut his eyes, and rubbed them with his fists. "I spent a lot of time like, just thinking about how everyone who is a new version isn't the same person at all. I mean, Ter, you don't even look the same. Jean kinda does. Bobby totes doesn't. It's a lot easier to just go with "okay they're totally different people."
"Well, as I've no inclination t'run of and marry a nineteen year old," Terry said, a rueful half-smile on her face. "I'll not have y'thinkin' o' me as that other person, anyway." She took a slow breath, frowning just a little, and handed Kyle another ring of pineapple and asked, "Want your cold vodka? Or would y'like t'stop talkin', sit on the couch, and snuggle?"
Kyle looked up towards the ceiling. "Yeah, lets go with that last option, and the pineapple, and the vodka, because, I mean, I abso-fucking-lutely do not think of you like the other Terry, and I'd like to keep it that way." He bit half off the pineapple ring, and chewed. "It's wild though, like, some stuff totally changed, some didn't. Once in a while like, some actor will do a movie and I'll be like "Wait, yo, that guy was white before."
"Well," Terry said, unsure how to address the strangeness of that statement. "Let's just shift over, shall we?" She felt sorry for bringing the whole thing up, to be honest, but it was information she was glad she had, all the same.
