It was a weird feeling to be walking along the main street of Atlantis, which was nothing like the legendary place discussed in his History of Magic lessons. Or maybe it was, and the history books had just gotten it all wrong. James hadn’t completely wrapped his mind around the fact that he was the fictional one, but he hadn’t let that stop him from going out to explore. There would be plenty of time to deal with that particular detail later, and even a class for it, or so he was told. Supposedly, his son was also around somewhere, although he’d been warned by a little magic information sprite—wait, what did it call itself?—eh, whatever it was, it said Harry wasn’t a baby anymore.
Considering that his last memory of his boy was stripping him from his pumpkin costume before passing him off to Lily for a bath, it was hard not to be thrown knowing that the family had not all arrived in Atlantis from the same time-period. But James wasn’t going to dwell. He made his way down the street, planning to make the most of whatever this new experience would afford him.
Turning the corner, James saw a young man not too far ahead of him who seemed to be idly browsing items in a shop window. There was something familiar about the full head of hair and the angles of his face that made him wonder if he’d already succeeded in finding his son on the island. With an exuberant lift to his step, James called out as he made his way toward the other man.
“Hey, Harry!” As he closed the distance, James inclined his head curiously. “Are you Harry?” he repeated in a hopeful voice.
Enjoying his day off, Steve had decided to walk around town aimlessly for a little while before he ever decided on what to do. Sometimes he liked doing that, specially when there was nowhere else to go in the island. Wandering around seemed like a good idea when he didn’t know what else to do.
He had stopped at Coffee Me Better for his usual drink and found himself mindlessly looking at the shops, stopping every now and then when something caught his attention in a shop window.
He was looking at some sneakers when he heard someone talking to him. “Sorry, you got the wrong--” But he had to stop mid sentence when he looked at the young man who was mistaking him for Harry. It was like looking in a mirror, only there was no mirror and he was actually looking at a real person who was just like him. “--person,” he managed to finished the sentence and tilted his head to the side, his eyes wide in surprise. “You look just like me,” he stated a little shocked.
It was one thing to see the other man from an angle and assume he was his son, but quite another entirely when the other man turned to face him. With wide eyes, James straightened, standing up a little taller as an American accent responded to him. “You look just like me!” he threw back, almost accusingly. He lifted his hand slowly, his eyes now narrowing suspiciously as he reached over to poke Steve’s arm, and then jumped back slightly when he made contact with solid flesh.
“I thought you might be-”, James began, but then cut himself off to ask. “Who are you?”
Steve arched an eyebrow at the guy, who definitely sounded British. Did he just actually poke him? Well, he had to admit he was about to do it himself just to make sure there wasn’t anything funny in his drink and he wasn’t hallucinating.
“Yeah, I’m real,” he said with maybe a little bit of attitude, but he couldn’t help himself sometimes. Specially when that ‘sometimes’ included a guy was copy of him only with a British accent. “Steve Harrington... And you are?”
The name did nothing to help with James’ confusion. He also had the resist the urge to mimic Steve’s eyebrow gesture back at him. “James Potter,” he answered, feeling the need to puff up his chest a little. He moved slowly around Steve, sizing him up, or perhaps trying to find evidence of some sort of costume. It was eerie how much the bloke in front of him looked like him. They even seemed to have similar taste in clothing.
He halted in his circling behavior once they were face to face once more, and his chin rose in slight suspicion. “Be you animal, vegetable, or mineral?” he asked, referring to Steve’s comment about being real.
Steve moved with him as he circle around him. And if James puffed his chest, Steve did it too. Only more obvious. King Steve was still very much alive now as he looked at the carbon copy of himself.
Then it hit him. James Potter... Potter... Where had he heard that last name before? He thought about it for a moment and then his eyes widened. Harry! “You’re related to Harry?” he asked curiously.
“I’m a real human being, James Potter. What else could I freaking be? A bee in disguise?” he said sarcastically.
James immediately smirked at that response. “It’s definitely in the realm of possibility.” He appreciated the wit, even if it further added to the thought that the man in front of him was some kind of doppelgänger.
He raked a hand through his hair, taking a beat to process this interaction coupled with what little information he had learned about Atlantis so far. But then his brain digested the question. “Wait, you said ‘Harry’. You know my son?”
Steve arched even more his eyebrow in ’Are you freaking kidding me?’ silent question he never got to ask. He just rolled his eyes at the other man’s question. It was seriously weird that this guy in front of him looked like him and almost acted like him, only with a different accent.
But then he remember this was Atlantis and weird things like that could definitely happen. And he thought demogorgons were strange...
James’ question stopped his line of thought and made him focus on him again. “Yeah, I do,” he said with a nod. “He’s gonna freak out when he sees you and me in the same room.”
There it was, verbal confirmation from an actual person that his son was here in this place, and at least old enough for conversations and potential freak-outs. James nodded, looking down as he processed this information, but didn’t allow himself to dwell on it too much. No need to freak out himself until he saw his boy, er… son, whatever age he may be.
He smiled slowly, with a glint in his eyes that would have been familiar to his friends as he met the other man’s gaze once more. “Y’know, we could probably have some fun with that once I settle into this place a bit more. Don’t suppose you’re a wizard, are you, Steve?”
Steve relaxed a little once he knew James was related to Harry. He guessed he must have been taken from a point in time where Harry was just a baby, because it wouldn’t make sense he’d look that young otherwise. Either way, he was pretty sure the wizard boy was going to freak out.
He leaned his weight on one leg and looked at him. They went from who-the-hell-are-you to we-could-have-some-fun in no time. “Sorry to disappoint, James. Normal and boring bee in disguise here,” he said with a small smirk, making a joke with his previous comment.
James chuckled lightly. He had a feeling that he was going to get along well with this face-twin of his, and he tended to be right about his first impressions of people-- at least by his personal experience. Perhaps he was also biased because looking at Steve was like looking in a mirror.
He waved away the description Steve offered, adding, “With a face like yours in a place like this, I fairly doubt there’s much boring or normal about you. Whatever normal is.”
He laughed a little, running a hand though his perfect hair. “Probably,” he chuckled. Although he had to admit his stay at Atlantis had been pretty uneventful so far, but maybe now things would change. It wasn’t every day you found out you have a wizard face-twin.
“You just got here?” he asked. It was the day people usually arrived or left, so it’d make sense.
“Best I can tell,” James answered with a nod, resisting the urge to fix his own hair. “‘Less I was asleep for longer than I think…” He shrugged before continuing, “Some little ghost in my room gave me a spiel, but to be honest I stopped listening about halfway through it… Thing had a voice that reminds me of one of my old professors and ‘bout put me back to sleep with its droning. BUT, it did say my kid was here, so I figured I should go look for him. It’d be nice if my wife were here too, but I’ll take what I can get.” The last bit was said a bit lower, more of a grumble to himself than a direct comment to the other man.
Steve reached out and patted the other man on the shoulder. “Maybe she’ll get here. You never know the people this place will pull from their universes, so..” he offered a smile to cheer him up a little bit.
“I’ve been here for a while, so if you have questions about this place I’ll try my best to answer them. This place can be a little confusing at first.” He still remembered his first day there, and finding out he came from a different universe/reality and he was part of a tv show in Peter’s world.
He was actually comforted to know that Lily may show up, and smiled in appreciation of the suggestion. “Since you’re my first human conversation, I’m likely going to take you up on that offer.” Shifting on his feet, James glanced down the street in both directions before looking back at Steve. “I’m gonna go see if I can find that boy of mine, but you wanna grab a pint-- or hell, a decent whisky if they’ve got ‘em, later? And you can tell all about me about that boring, normal world you come from.”
Steve smiled and nodded. “Sounds good, man,” he said. “Try checking on the tablet and see if there’s any information about Harry there,” he suggested James. That thing had so many information.
“Oh, there’s definitely nothing boring and normal about the world I come from, trust me,” he chuckled. Demogorgons, the Upside Down,... Yeah, never a dull moment in Hawkins.
James had a feeling that he would probably enjoy his later conversation about Steve’s world, but couldn’t help being confused by the first comment, and his brow furrowed as he asked, “Tablet?”
“The thing on your nightstand,” he said. “When the hologram finished talking to you you should’ve seen a rectangular thin thing on the table. You can find all the info about this place, maps, locations, people... It’s pretty handy,” Steve explained.
Snapping his fingers in recognition, James repeated the word. “Hologram, that’s what that ghost thing was called! Right! OK! I’ll go try to figure that tablet thingie out. Thanks, Steve!” He turned and started to walk back in the direction from whence he came, halting to look back over at the other man with a friendly point. “I’m still holding you to those drinks later!”
Steve chuckled and nodded. “No worries, man.” He was happy to help him. Despite their weird introduction, he had a feeling James was a cool guy to hang around -- and it had nothing to do with the fact that he had his handsome face and similar personality. “You better!” he smiled, waving goodbye to the other man.