20161/One Particular Harbor

One Particular Harbor
Date of Scene:	01 March 2025
Location:	Genosha
Synopsis:	On Genosha's beaches, the sponge cake lives on you.
Cast of Characters:	Jamie Madrox, Noriko Ashida

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Jamie Madrox has posed:
A wise man once said that if you have to spend some time on a beautiful island paradise in the tropics, you should probably pick one where litterers are sent directly to mutant jail. That wise man was one James Madrox, Esq. and he said it roughly five minutes ago to the four-armed woman who brought him his fourth pina colada of the day. As he reclines in his beach chair with a pair of garishly colorful shades perched on his nose, he rubs another layer of tanning oil over his chest so that he doesn't dry out before he gets the right level of cooked.

Judging by the way that he looks, the mutant steroids have really been working for him. But unfortunately, the pina coladas have been rapidly catching up with him. It's a sort of arms race to determine which will cause Jamie to look the most bloated, so far the mutant steroids are winning very slightly.

With skin about as pink as an unboiled lobster, and a Bluetooth speaker that's blasting 'Boat Drinks' at an obnoxious volume, Jamie looks very much like the sort of tourists that Genosha would very much like to dissuade from visiting. But as he rolls over to allow his companion to slather oil on his back, it's clear what it is that has enabled him to get access to one of the most exclusive beaches in the world.

For the man who is rubbing tanning oil on Jamie Madrox's back... is Jamie Madrox.

No sooner has the dupe finished its job, than it is resorbed, and a somewhat heavier than normal Jamie slowly rises like a mighty, heavily inebriated walrus and begins stumbling through the sand toward a surf board that has been stuck upright in the sand just beyond the water line.

The tide is coming in.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko has built a kind of fulgurite teepee by draping a poncho over fulgurite prongs that rise toward each other from the sand like tapered ribs.  It's not perfect, but it's working.  This isn't the only structure the speedster has erected.  She has started to build a small city of squatty homes and businesses, leading up to a palace that only has its base built.

The young Japanese woman has on a pair of neon blue cotton shorts and a black tank top with a black sports bra.  She's not wearing any gauntlets and her blue hair dye is starting to grow out black at the roots.  A pair of blue midtop sneakers with orange accent stripes on the sides sit just outside the makeshift teepee.  It's about big enough for someone to sit in.

The speedster has been so into her sand city that she only now notices Jamie, but not Jamie, and his double...oiling notJamie down.  She stares, partially obscured by a spire.  "What the fuck?" she whispers to herself rather quickly in confusion and disgust.

As notJamie passes her to get to his surf board, Noriko raises her voice and hands to her mouth to say, "You look like a bloated balloon animal, all ready to giggle and pop!"  She drops her hands, laughing at the shared thought.

"Better not look too sumptuous to the sharks!"

Jamie Madrox has posed:
It's hard to look especially dignified walking across the beach with the straw to a pina colada in your mouth. But Jamie does his best, despite looking a bit unsteady on his feet. It doesn't help that the sand is a bit too hot for his liking, and he has to take quick steps to keep his toesies from getting burned. Passing Ashida City, he nods appreciatively behind oversized baseball player shades, until his brilliant deductive skills force him to realize that a bit of sport is being had at his expense.

"Please... I look too sumptuous to everyone. Been cultivating mass, just wait til I hit my cutting cycle..."

It takes some effort to get his surfboard free from the sand with only one hand free. This is easily remedied by creating a duplicate. With the simple command of "Hold my pina colada." The man who would be Jamie Prime frees himself for a display of athleticism that will undoubtedly cause the shocking speedster to swoon.

Wading out into the ocean with his surfboard above his head, Jamie attempts to intercept the first wave with his body so that he can get a little further out into the ocean. But the wave knocks him off his feet, sending him back onto the beach while simultaneously sending his surfboard out into the ocean.

Sitting there on the sand, watching his surfboard float away, the bloated master of multiplication folds his arms across his chest.

"Shit."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Yeah I don't know what that means," and Nori doesn't sound particularly eager to know.  By the time Jamie P frees his board, Noriko is sprinting back with a banana, kicking up little wake of sand from the airflow around her.  She squints at the Jamie with his board held above, then sighs, then eats her banana, then finally slows her perception and body down to watch it all in real time.

Finishing her last bite of banana, Noriko keeps the peel poised as she says, "I'd help but I'm eating a banana."  She really wouldn't, which is obvious, but she doesn't disclose the multiple reasons.

"Are you going to get it or send one of your slimmer selves after it?"

Jamie Madrox has posed:
The Other Madrox helps the Prime up to his feet, and hands him his drink. For his faithful service, he is quickly resorbed, leaving Jamie to enjoy his fruity drink all alone. Well, alone aside from Noriko, but at the moment Jamie looks like he could take or leave her. The slightly bashful expression on his face indicates that he's sensitive about his physique, though probably not enough to stop taking the mutant steroids.

He should be more bashful about the soul patch that he's been growing. But when in Genosha, do as the Genoshans do. It's surprising the number of them that have soul patches. It might be against human law, but the laws of mutants are far more lax concerning facial hair acceptability.

"Nah. Surfing is a stupid hobby anyway. I was just kind of doing it as a joke."

Back on Jamie's computer a bill for $473 dollars is still sitting in his email folder, along with a note labeled 'Genoshan Goals' that has as its first item 'Learn to Surf.'

Item number two is "Get some babes."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko watches the surfboard as it starts to leave for deeper waters.  She shifts her weight to the side, her hip popping out slightly.  Her eyes dance over Jamie's expression for an instant.  It's long enough to spot the soul patch, and while other mutants may also think that Genoshans at large are more accepting of soul patches, Noriko suspects Genoshans are forgiving them.  At least she doesn't say anything.

The speedster shoots her banana peel into a trash barrel 40 feet away, having waited for the wind to die down.  After a creeping silence broached only by the rhythmic crash of waves, Noriko asks, "So what are you doing here?  Like here in Genosha."

Jamie Madrox has posed:
The question causes yet another creeping silence, as Jamie's Bluetooth speaker begins playing the next song on the list, which is apparently 'One Particular Harbor.' It seems as if he's on some sort of kick, unless that's just what he listens to when he goes to the beach normally. Slurping up the last bit of his drink, he points at the empty glass and looks over his shoulder where the four armed woman is busy running her open air seaside bar. With a nod, she begins mixing up another frozen concoction to help him hang on.

"Same reason you're here, I'd expect. Place is fucking radical, man... I mean... it's like..."

It takes him a couple of seconds to plan out the rest of his sentence, and he looks out at the waves to help collect his thoughts.

"You know how in New York everything is dirty and gross? Well here it's like... the total... exact... like, reverse, opposite of that. Just look at ocean, man. Only ocean we've got in New York is like... full of band-aids man..."

He raises some good points, even if he gets there in a somewhat circular fashion. But then, Genoshan rum is famous for both its potency and smoothness, and these pina coladas are full of it.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Noriko's responses seem snappy, pacing wise, as if she's given little thought to them, but to assume one way or the other would be a mistake.  Halfway through the long pause needed for Jamie's thought process, Nori wonders if she accidentally slipped into her natural, faster perception frame.  Then she realizes that it isn't the case.  She sighs.  It's kindest thing she can muster in between his communication.

"Well, that makes sense for you.  You'd be stuck in New York.  I can run other places where the ocean is nicer."  Noriko looks out over the ocean, absorbing the motion of several waves at once.  "Say," she glances toward Jamie.  "Is the alcohol here special in any way?  Like, adapted for mutants with metabolic challenges?"  An eyebrow lifts.

As for her reason for being there, Noriko doesn't shed any light.  It wasn't a direct question.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Looking down at his empty glass for a moment, Jamie ponders the question. It wouldn't be fair to say that he's drunk, but he's certainly getting there, and he should probably get out of the Sun before his tan bubbles up and peels off. There's probably a healer on Genosha who can reverse skin cancer though, so maybe living it up is the sensible thing to do. When in Genosha...

"It's just plain booze, far as I know. If you want something that'll get you right, like for mutants or whatever... probably better off getting an inhaler of Kick."

The four-armed woman arrives with a replacement drink, but doesn't seem to be charging Genosha Jamie anything. Having a tab isn't anything especially futuristic, but it's interesting that Jamie doesn't seem to really have any sort of gainful employment, but is still able to hang out on the beach all day and drink booze.

"If you want, you can grab a drink on my tab. Mix-A-Lot Marge really knows her way around a blender."

Noriko Ashida has posed:
"Disappointing.  What the fuck is Kick?" and how has Noriko not heard of it, she thinks to herself.  "And how are you paying for all this shit?" she asked with an amused grin.

"You probably couldn't buy me enough alcohol to get me drunk.  Don't worry about it," Nori says as if to say a drink is like a thimble to her liver for a moment.

"Wait do you do sex work?" Noriko sounds as if she feels as if she's stumbled across something likely.  Her little interludes she seems to be having with Jamie have taken her mind away from dark places.  A good distraction, if transitory.  Her grin melts way to something more melancholic before shifting rapidly back to the grin again, betraying her drifting thoughts.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
The master of multiplication clams right up about Kick, letting the question simply go unanswered as he stirs his drink with the fun straw and the little umbrella. There's a surprising variety of fruit available on an island of this size, and it looks like half of them have been arranged around the rim of his drink.

He nearly chokes on his drink at the follow up question, however, but manages to keep from coughing up rum and pineapple juice onto his soul patch. It's a heroic save, and less observant types might not have even noticed how close he came to disaster.

"Why? You got any money? Can't say that I blame you... been getting a lot more stares from the ladies now that my biceps are getting so juicy. Benching over 180 now, you know."

He sounds very proud of the number. He clearly means pounds, not kilograms.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
Oh Noriko has noticed the variety of fruits on the rim of Jamie's drink, and her brain told her stomach to rumble.  She seems unfazed by his reaction to her latest line of inquiry, but internally grateful that his soul patch is saved from looking like a wet rat butt.  This seems to distract her from the fact that Jamie has completely dodged the question about Kick.

"Uh, I'm not interested.  In guys," Nori tacks on in clarification.  "Besides, as far as I know, I still have a girlfriend and a kid with her."  It wasn't necessary to say, but it comes tumbling out just the same.  It at least addresses whether she has a need to pay for such services while avoiding whether she has money or not.

"I wonder how much I could bench..." the speedster casually ponders aloud.  It couldn't be clearer that she's not lying about her preferences.  "But yeah, good for you man, though I did notice you never said how you can pay for all of this."  She just can't let the mystery go.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
The offices of X-Factor Investigations are busier than usual. Despite having no actual employees to help run the agency, one James Madrox, Esquire has managed to staff the entire place with himself, which cuts down on all sorts of labor costs. It hasn't done much to elevate the conversation around the place, but then Jamie is pretty used to talking to himself at this point. For a man with multiplication powers, it's perhaps a bit ironic that he never seems to be able to agree with any of his duplicates for very long, aside from a universal preference for Kenny Rogers' Roasters.

With his half chicken, macaroni and cheese, and cornmeal muffin before him, Jamie takes a sip from his large Dr. Pepper, and seems a bit ashamed to be eating any of this. But since the only people around to watch him are his own duplicates, the shame is somewhat mitigated. A couple of them look kind of hungry though, and Jamie briefly considers the morality of making himself work through lunch breaks while he himself enjoys an extra long lunch break. It's a brief moment of philosophical musing.

But when the alert comes in on his phone, Jamie looks confused. For it appears that someone has been charging his credit card yet again. This in itself is not that unusual, as Jamie's duplicates often spend his money, but he recognizes the card immediately, and it causes the vein in his temple to stand out.

"What the hell? How did this asshole spend SEVEN HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE DOLLARS on drinks in one day? Forget resorbing him... I'm gonna kill him!"

Back on Genosha, the shirtless, and undeniably juicier version of Jamie looks a bit annoyed to be interrupted by Mix-A-Lot Marge when he's catching up with an old acquaintance. But she seems serious.

"Sorry Madrox... looks like your card's been cancelled. Do you have some other form of payment?"

Looking embarrassed for a moment, Jamie adjusts his stance, puts a hand on his hip, and flexes his arm as hard as he can.

"Oh... I'm sure I can think of another way to pay..."

The woman just stares blankly.

Noriko Ashida has posed:
When the woman finally looks to Noriko in despair for empathy, the Japanese girl just shrugs as if she's not responsible for any of Jamie's actions or behavior.  Nori doesn't envy the woman.

"Wow.  So that's how it's done.  I knew it."  Noriko folds her arms and laughs.  The speedster is quick on the uptake, but the order of her multi-processing outcomes isn't guaranteed to make any sense to a serial brain.  "Seems like your sugar daddy figured out what was going on.  Probably knows where you are now too," she says as if it seemed like a silly thing to do.

"Hey lady.  You okay?" Noriko's interest seems to snap toward the woman.