Who: Jamie & Jamie & Ja... o wait. (Prime and a couple of NPC dupes) Where: Jamie Madrox's housing unit at the institute. When: Currentish What: Narrative standalone. Intro post. Warnings: Rated R for... stuff. Language and situations. Nothing too racy.
Jamie Madrox had the day off. He was sitting on his balcony, gazing morosely at the rolling tides in the near distance. A few of the kids were swimming, others surfing, others sunbathing. They were just far enough away that Jamie could not make out their faces, giving the scene a sense of the surreal. He was wearing nothing but a pair of board shorts that hung low on his hips and a woven friendship bracelet around one ankle.
A tepid, half full bottle of Corona hung limply from his right hand, which in turn hung dejectedly off his wrist, which was draped over the armrest of his lounge chair. His skin had grown tan from the sun, making his hazel eyes stand out. They looked steely grey today as Jamie looked out past the beach at the ocean. He faintly heard his door open, but his only reaction was to tilt his head and cock his ear slightly to see if he had been right.
Moments later, one of his dupes walked out onto the balcony, wearing overalls and wiping his hands on a greasy rag. He looked like Jamie's laborious twin standing there next to the Prime's reclining form.
"Nice day. I'm all done, chief," the dupe said, tossing the rag back to drape over his shoulder. There was still dirt under his nails.
"You got all the leaks?" Jamie asked.
"Yep."
Jamie loved it when dupes weren't chatty. "And you changed the oil in Erik's car?"
"Yep. Shadow man's too," the dupe replied, using Jamie's nickname for the Legacy team leader.
"Oh?" Jamie retorted. Had he lost track of time? How could he do all that in the time he'd been gone?
"Dragon boy helped," the dupe supplied helpfully. The nicknames never ended.
"Ah, okay." Jamie's mouth quirked as he nodded in response. "Nice kid."
The dupe spoke up again. "Yeah. You mind?" He took the warm beer from Jamie's hand without protest. "Did you know he's gay?"
"Who?"
"Dragon boy. He said something funny to me after he humped me," the dupe deadpanned, as if he didn't really care one way or another. "He said, oh, sorry. You're not the fun dupe." He downed the remains of the beer and sighed. "What do you think that meant?"
Jamie rolled his eyes. He knew exactly what that meant and... ew. He didn't answer the dupe, simply took the empty bottle back and said, "Thanks for your help. Why don't you take a load off?"
"Sure," the other replied in a clipped, efficient tone. From the outside, it looked like he was sitting on Jamie's lap, but he was merely reabsorbed into Jamie Prime's body before any actual sitting down occurred.
Jamie blinked as his mind processed the day's experiences his dupe had accrued. He rubbed his eyes and stood up, taking one last look at the surf before walking back inside. He tossed the empty bottle in the recycling bin just as his Iphone rang. He frowned at the slick piece of technology but, since he was inside and all, he picked it up. After all, nobody had this number, so he figured it must be important.
"What?" he said curtly into the receiver.
"Hi, Jamie! It's Jamie!" came an obnoxiously cheerful voice on the phone.
Speak of the devil. Out of all the alternative lifestyle dupes Jamie had spawned, this particular one had earned the moniker of The Gay Dupe. Or, as Dragon boy had pointed out, the fun one. He was a thorn in Jamie's side, and one of the dupes resourceful enough not to have been hunted down and reabsorbed by force.
"You remember me! J.J., your favorite twin," the dupe insisted. Of course Jamie remembered him. He noticed J.J.'s voice had taken on an irritating edge of a nasal whine.
Jamie Prime groaned. "You're still alive," he deadpanned. Oh, joy.
"And kicking!" J.J. chirped. He pitched his voice like some big announcement to say, "LIVE from FIRE ISLAND!"
"What do you want?" Jamie shot back sharply.
"Aw, you wound me. Can't I call my favoritest twin in the world just to say hello?"
Jamie rolled his eyes again. "Your boyfriend asked about you. You know, Dragon boy," he said dangerously. He was so pissed that J.J. would get involved with one of his students. No wonder the kid enrolled in any damn class Jamie ever lectured.
"Who? Dragon... Oh! Oh! You mean that big, red stud with the huge...?"
"STOP!" Jamie interrupted, pulling the phone away from his ear even as he yelled.
When he put the phone back, J.J. was giggling at the other end. "You're so easy. But anyway... he's so ancient history. He would have killed at the Black Party this year, though."
"Is there a reason you're calling?" Jamie repeated, sounding testy.
"You love me, Jamie Sourpuss the First. Embrace it," the dupe said cheekily. "I'm the one that got away! Well, yeah, and the other one."
Indeed. Out of all his dupes, he had allowed only two to roam free, albeit for very different reasons. The priest, and the unrepentant flaming party boy from hell. The irony was not lost on Jamie.
"I'm hanging up now," Jamie Prime announced.
"Wait! Wait! Carlos! Come here, babe. Take a picture of us, quick! It's for my brother!"
"Wha...? No... you... I don't need any fucking pictures of...!" Jamie Prime yelled into the phone, then he heard the ping that signaled he had a media message waiting.
"Did you get it?" J.J. chirped on the other end.
"I am not opening that. I don't need to see whatever perversions you are all up to," Jamie deadpanned gruffly.
"Aw, come on! We're not even naked! Are we, hon?" J.J. asked someone in the background.
Jamie could hear the reply, muffled and static-y. "Come back to bed J.J."
Good to know others found his dupe as annoying as he did. Apparently J.J. had moved away from the others, because his voice became more intimate, secretive. "You should come to Fire Island sometime, Jamie. You'd be a huge hit! I know I've been!"
"Oh, God," Jamie groaned disgustedly. "I'm hanging up now," he repeated.
"Aw, Jamie. Live a little! I bet you can't wait to reabsorb me, babycakes," the duped purred maliciously. "Oh, there are so many new, hard earned skills that you're gonna learn from me," he further teased.
Jamie literally made a fake gagging noise at his dupe. J.J. giggled in response.
Jamie growled into the phone, but it was all bark and no bite. "You. Stay away. From me. You hear? I don't ever need to absorb your perverted ass. Live long and prosper, asswipe."
He hung up to the sound of J.J.'s full throated laughter on the other end. He heaved a long-suffering sigh. This J.J. dupe just loved to push his buttons, especially about the gay thing. Not that Jamie had anything at all against gays. He just... didn't want to think about it. That's all.
Titties. Jamie loved titties. He couldn't get enough of titties. Well, aside from the fact that he hadn't seen one in months. Not a live, naked one anyway. Not one he could touch and feel okay about, and not like some dirty old man who had no business engaging in consensual adult acts of pleasure. He didn't feel he deserved that. Not any more.
Jamie sighed again. He looked at his phone and saw the flashing icon that signaled he still had media waiting to be downloaded. He clenched his jaw briefly until curiosity got the better of him. He opened the picture.
"Ach, GOD!" he cried out, turning his face away. They were indeed naked. "Didn't need to see that," he muttered darkly into the empty room. Making a face, he zoomed in and scrolled up so as to hide the offending parts and focus on the one thing he wanted to see.
There. J.J.'s face. He walked over to the hallway mirror while holding his phone up. His eyes went from the photo to his reflection and back. It was Jamie's face, of course, but at the same time they looked nothing alike. J.J.'s face looked younger, healthier. There were no lines of expression on him, it seemed. And he looked so damn happy it made Jamie's eyes sting. Had he ever been this happy in his life? Ever? Had he ever looked like this? He gazed at his reflection and realized he couldn't think of a time when he'd felt as happy as the guy in the picture looked.
Let him enjoy it, Jamie thought, feeling compassion for J.J. His evil gay twin, as he sometimes called him in his mind. Who knew? Maybe he had allowed this dupe to live because deep inside there was a tiny corner of his psyche that did believe some part of Jamie deserved to have his own brand of happiness, however vapid and shallow it might seem. Hell. It was a start.
Perhaps his dupe knew it too, and that was why he insisted on making contact and giving progress reports. Maybe J.J. was right, and he was the closest thing to having a brother Jamie would ever know. A twin who gave a damn about him, anyway. The priest wanted nothing to do with Jamie, and who could blame him? J.J. was the only fully realized dupe aside from the priest who had not turned villainous and had never done anything to hurt him. To annoy him no end? Yes. To harm him? Never. At least not so far. That had to be good enough for now.