Alex Manes (notamanesman) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-04-23 18:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, alex manes, caleb rivers |
Who: Alex Manes & Caleb Rivers
What: Same face, different name
When: April 23rd, afternoon
Where: Cofeehouse (okay so Alex has a coffee problem, don't judge)
Rating: PG
Caleb wasn’t really used to having a real job. Having to be at a place at a certain time and leave at a certain time. Getting lunch breaks. All of it. He did like the stability of it though. Liked that he wasn’t constantly looking over his shoulder. And yet on his lunch break he found himself falling into old habits - going straight to the nearest coffee shop and pulling out his laptop.
Caleb walked into a coffee shop not far from where his office (holy shit he had an office). He went to this particular coffee shop almost every day and sat at the same corner table. Only not today. Today there was someone else sitting there… on a laptop… who looked just like him.
What the hell?!
Caleb knew there were people here that looked alike. Hanna and Vanessa were a perfect example of that. But he didn’t think there would be anyone that looked like him.
Caleb was so startled he completely forgot to order his coffee, just made his way over to the guy. “Uhhhh,” was all he said scratching the back of neck. And that was all he said, he was at a loss for words.
Alex might not have had super senses but he’d been in enough situations in his life when he knew that someone was looking at him, he could just feel it when eyes were focused on the back of his head, or the side of his face, or whatever. This was one of those times. He didn’t stop what he was doing (because that was suspicious) but when he heard footsteps approaching he turned his head, especially when he heard someone speaking.
What he was greeted with was a sight he hadn’t been expecting. His own face looking back at him with longer hair - hair that he would have loved to have had as a teenger but the attention it would have attracted wouldn’t have been worth it - looking puzzled and startled. Alex, who had years behind him of masking his own emotions, hardly looked startled or surprised though he was. He thought back to when he’d met the Kyle that was called Tyler and shifted on the seat. He was sitting in a booth, so he stretched his arm across the back of the seat as he lifted an eyebrow, holding his other hand out to shake.
“You must be Caleb.”
Now that Caleb was closer he could tell that the guy looked a little bit older than him. But still, they looked almost exactly alike. And then the guy said his name? How the fuck did this guy know his name? It didn’t help at all with Caleb’s shock or confusion.
Still, with the hand that had been scratching the back of his neck, Caleb reached out to shake the other man’s hand. Because really what else was he supposed to do in this situation? “Uh, yeah,” he replied letting his hand drop. “And you are?” It was only fair he learned his look alike’s name after all.
“Alex,” he responded, tipping his head and waving a hand at the opposite side of the booth in a silent offer for Caleb to join him if he wanted to. He closed his laptop, pushing it to the side after it clicked softly, reassuring him that it was definitely shut. Sipping at his cooling coffee, Alex looked closely at Caleb, leaning back in the booth and shifting a little to get more comfortable. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
He was calmer than he thought he might be, but honestly, he’d had more than one weird dream in the last couple of weeks and he’d met Tyler a little while back and had had a bit of time to get used to the idea that there was someone else out there that looked a lot like him. Caleb had longer hair and was younger, and Alex understood the similarity thinking about himself in photographs, because even right down to the faint scar on their forehead they were… well, almost identical. But he’d had time to rationalise it, so that wasn’t the most surprising thing. Caleb even sounded a little like him.
“I met Tyler a little while back,” he offered by way of explanation. “Who looks a lot like my best friend, Kyle.”
Caleb’s coffee that he had yet to order was completely forgotten about. He was too transfixed by the guy that looked just like him. But then, how could he not be? It wasn’t every day you met what appeared to be an older version of yourself. Only named Alex. Who also knew Tyler who apparently looked like Kyle? Whoever the hell that was.
Caleb’s head was spinning. He definitely needed that seat. He slid into the booth across from Alex, rubbing his face with his hands as he tried to process everything.
“I’m subletting his apartment,” was the first thing Caleb said. Referring to Tyler of course. But with everything that was happening right now it was the first solid thought that came to his mind. “I don’t know Kyle,” he added slowly piecing together what Alex was telling him.
“I know two girls that look alike.” Caleb didn’t mention that one was from his dreams though. He had no idea what this Alex guy would think about dreams. And he wasn’t exactly sure how to describe what Hanna was to him here. It was still new.
Alex nodded, “Yeah, I know. He thought I’d gone insane when I asked him if the offer to crash at his place was still open.” He rubbed the side of his head, fingers catching under his left ear before he dropped his hand back to the table. “Kyle- Kyle’s my best friend, he’s a surgeon. We both grew up here, then he left for college. I- I went somewhere else.”
His eyebrows lifted, reclining into the booth seat. “Yeah?” he asked, “How alike? Because you and I, and Tyler and Kyle… well, Kyle and I are older than the two of you, I’m pretty sure.”
“So you’re crashing at Kyle’s place then?” Caleb’s brain still worked. He was piecing this together. Alex must have asked if he could still crash at his friends place thinking it was his friend and not Tyler. That was quite a big coincidence though.
“Yeah,” Caleb commented. “You look older,” a brief pause. “No offense. I’m 21.” He wasn’t entirely sure how old Tyler was though. But he was pretty sure Tyler was a few years older than him.
“They are around the same age so pretty alike.” And yet Caleb could tell Hanna apart a mile away.
Alex snorted, “Not taking any offence at that since it’s true,” he said waving a hand. “I’m on the wrong side of twenty-five. At least that - and our styling choices - are easy enough to tell us apart.” He meant no offence by that either, even when he’d been Caleb’s age - or younger - their aesthetic was clearly very different. Sometimes he caught himself reaching to twist a thumb ring that hadn’t been on his fingers for over a decade or moving to pick at nail polish that hadn’t been part of his aesthetic for a very long time.
He hummed a little, “Like… separated at birth twins identical?” He wondered if there was a common theme amongst those that looked alike, if there was a doppelganger for everyone (like if he had to be prepared to see another Liz or Michael walking around because everyone had one) or if there were specifics. He supposed it was one of those Things that he still needed to work out about OC.
“How long’ve you lived here?”
That was true. Other than the older thing, Alex had much shorter hair. And he was a little too… clean cut for Caleb’s taste. But the whole being on a laptop in a coffee shop? That was pretty close for comfort. “So not too much older,” Caleb finally replied. But still older. He couldn’t help but wonder if his face would look like that when he was over twenty-five. He wouldn’t complain if it did.
“Yeah,” Caleb replied. “Kind of like that.” It was pretty strange. Especially given that he was close with both of them. Or at least trying to be close with Hanna. And he had spent five days tethered to Vanessa. That definitely made you close to a person.
Lived here. Weird. Caleb had been on the run for so long he forgot what it was like to live in one place. Although even when he was back East he still moved around a lot. But now he had a real job and an apartment. He supposed he was living here. “Uh, a few months,” Caleb replied. It hadn’t been that long yet really. “You?”
Alex nodded, sipping his coffee again before holding the cup between both hands, resting it on the table as he looked at Caleb. He had a tension about him that Alex recognised; a look of someone who was used to feeling out of place. Permanently unsettled. Though Alex had a house and a life here before he’d left it had never been home.
“I- uh, I just got back,” he answered, looking down into his coffee. It unhelpfully didn’t even look back at him. “But I grew up here. Been away for a few years.”
He seemed a bit uncomfortable about coming back to Orange County. At least that was the vibe Caleb was getting with the way he suddenly dropped his head staring at his coffee. Although that could also be because it was weird talking to and looking at someone who looked a hell of a lot like yourself. But Caleb had a feeling it was more than just that.
“Yeah?” he asked with a brow raise. “Where’d you go?”
Alex’s eyebrow lifted a little, expression mimicking the one on Caleb’s face unintentionally. “I was in the Air Force,” he offered. “So I went a lot of places.” Mostly in the Middle East with a stint in Europe and a few classified operations stateside.
“Shit,” Caleb commented. That wasn’t the answer he was expecting at all. Though he didn’t know what kind of answer he was expecting really. But Air Force probably meant war. And that was intense. He didn’t press anymore about it though. He didn’t know the guy.
“Well, welcome back,” Caleb offered. “Even if it will be,” he paused searching for the right word before realizing there really wasn’t one. “Strange,” that seemed the most fitting, “to have someone that looks like me around.”
Alex chuckled as Caleb swore softly, wondering if he’d meant to say that out loud. Either way, it was hardly an uncommon reaction. And it was much better than thank you for your service which made Alex’s skin crawl awkwardly whenever someone, no matter how sincere, came up to him to shake his hand and thank him. It was one of the (many) reasons he didn’t wear his uniform out and about. He hadn’t gone to serve for the attention.
He nodded his head, “Strange is one word for it,” he agreed, “you’d think that it’d be something people talked more about on the network,” he continued, tone thoughtful, “but I guess it’s one of those things people don’t want to talk about just in case people think they’re crazy.”
“You’re on that network too?” Caleb really needed to check that more. For someone whose life revolved around technology and the internet he really should be more on top of things. But really he usually only remembered to go on when he needed to vent about his own strange dreams. Since that was what everyone seemed to do on there. And really where else was he supposed to go?
“I haven’t really posted on it much,” Alex admitted. “But I keep an eye on it, better to know what’s going on than be sidelined by something.” He’d had quite enough of that, and if he could monitor the media then at least he could prepare for what might be heading his way. And he thought it was likely a good way of reconnecting with people that he’d lost touch with as well as getting to know new people. Or at least, it might be if most of the stuff he saw on there wasn’t quite so vapid and personal. He had thought the days of Livejournal were in the past along with bands making music that didn’t want to make him headbutt the nearest wall but apparently, he was wrong.
“Yeah, there seems to be a lot of crazy shit that goes on.” Caleb had gotten the day off work due to a dragon being on top of Stark Tower. No way was he about to mess with that. He liked his life thank you very much. “I’m not even sure meeting someone who looks just like me makes the top ten.”
Alex grinned, “I’ll choose not to be insulted by that,” he teased his younger doppelgänger and lifted a shoulder. “And looks forward to a time when knowing there’s a younger,” longer haired, baggier clothed, “lookalike our there is not the weirdest thing for the week.”
“I’m sure you’ll get there sooner than you think.” After all Caleb had woken up tethered to a girl that could make her arm go invisible. Well her whole self really but he had only shown him the arm. “But uh I should be getting back to work,” Caleb added slowly standing back up, coffee still forgotten. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”