2197/The Sincerest Form of Flattery Pt 2

The Sincerest Form of Flattery Pt 2
Date of Scene:	23 June 2020
Location:	April's Apartment
Synopsis:	April lets Vanessa test her mutant powers with her. A Copycat was born.
Cast of Characters:	Vanessa Carlysle, April O'Neil

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Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa had explained that it turns out she's a mutant. And shared what has been figured out about her mutant ability which seems to include copying other's memories. Also that a scientist suggested she seems to have the ability to copy another physically, based on how she has some of the healed bone fractures of the person she'd unknowingly copied.

And that same person had indicated Vanessa is probably holding herself back. But fearing she might copy someone physically and get stuck, Vanessa came to her best friend April, figuring if she was going to be stuck as someone else, she'd rather it be a woman. Not to mention, looking like April wouldn't be the worst way to spend the rest of her life if she couldn't be herself.

So having obtained April's permission to try, the two had hung out like normal for while. Vanessa had at various times tried to will herself to copy April, but to no avail yet. "Ok, maybe more contact would help?" Vanessa suggests, sticking with the plan they'd laid out.

She motions over to April's side. "Can I slide over there without getting too fresh with you?" she asks, her large eyes gleaming with a bit of humor and mischief with her old friend.

April O'Neil has posed:
April has a drink in her hand, wearing a white tanktop and blue jeans, some black and white running shoes on her feet and her auburn hair loose around her shoulders. She looks over at Vanessa after hearing the question and she just tilts her head. With a exhale she has to shake her head then and there. "You know, Van, if this is all just an effort to rub up against me, we could've just gone to a Nightclub." She teases, for good fun. "Where's Oliver? Wouldn't he want to watch this? Isn't that how relationships that have gone stagnant in the bedroom work?"

She's just playing wit her friend though and shrugs her shoulders, then flips her hair back behind her right shoulder. "Do what you think you need to though. I know this is a big deal for ya, and I know that you'd let me do whatever I needed to in order to figure it out, if it were happening to me."

And a sip is taken from her drink before she mutters. "Nevermind that everyone I know these days is a super hero or something close to it!"

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa's laughter continues at April's comments. "If it gets saucy enough we can record it and send him the video," she teases as she scoots over and rests against her friends side. Vanessa moves a hand to rest on the back of April's neck to have some direct contact to see if that helps.

"Well, it's happened so far just on its own. Could be prolonged contact. Could be stress led to it, when I got attacked and at the bank. I don't know maybe I unconsciously copied the person that would make me feel safest?" Vanessa muses and then shrugs her shoulders. "There's so many ways it could work."

She watches the show and hrms. "Everyone keeps talking about this," she says of Tiger King. "But it's... yeah, wow," she says, shaking her head. "I guess hearing the stuff about the guy that came out after also kind of shades it a bit."

Vanessa closes her eyes and concentrates, trying things like thinking about knowing April's thoughts, or even just trying to will herself to become April. Nothing seems to be happening visibly though.

April O'Neil has posed:
Nobody can say April isn't a good sport!

She lowers her drink back down to the top of her thigh and glances over at Vanessa when she reaches under her hair to lay a hand on her neck. She snickers a little before looking back to the show. "I already watched the whole thing with Harley, she was really in to it. I think she wants to be the Hyena Queen now, but... I mean, you know her life probably could make a documentary just as wild as this one. Maybe a little more actually."

She grins then before she glances back to Vanessa beside her. "What if what happened was just a one-off thing?" April asks then next. "What if what you experienced really was just a weird mutation from /some other/ mutant that was near by? Whose... mutation makes other people do things, weird? I dunno. I'd say we need to have you tested by a doctor, but then they'd have your name in their systems."

Her blue eyes go back to the tv across the living room. "I've heard bad things about mutants who end up in the system. Vanishing. Black bag kinda shit. I get those call-ins all the time on my podcast. People trying to find loved ones who've just, disappeared."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa gives a little bit of a shiver. "I did get tested by a doctor with at least some experience with his kind of thing," she says. "I went with someone that Green Arrow trusted would keep my identity secret. Though it's been kind of a nerve-wracking thing, yes. So far no black SUVs following me. And, I'm actually really good at spotting tails now," she says with a sigh and a shake of her head, as if finding that hard to believe still.

"So, yeah. Harley. I'm still kind of worried about you. I'm sorry I was away in hiding from Yu Phun when all of that happened and I wasn't able to have your back. So are you... I mean, you're ok with it? You're not... terrified she's going to, you know. Be Harley Quinn again?" Vanessa asks. "How exactly has it worked anyway?" she asks.

The young woman continues to try to will herself to copy April, to know her memories and even to look like her. But nothing seems to her to be happening yet."

April O'Neil has posed:
April is smirk at the initial words but her eyes are on the tv, even if her mind she's thinking about how Vanessa means tails - as in cars following you - not tails on dogs. Or turtles.

When the subject of Harley comes up, April raises her drink up again for a sip and before replying she starts thinking about her new friend in Harley Quinn. About how scared she was the first night Harley showed up in her house, thinking the woman was going to do something terrible to her. But then she reached out to her, connected with her and got to know her.

Gave her a chance, and saw good in her.

"I... think it's possible." April replies to the question at first. "I mean I think she's trying to live a reformed life. But I also think that if something pushes her buttons in the wrong way, she won't hold back in her reaction to them. Like if someone, I dunno... ran over her bike while not looking. Or treated her badly in general. I think she'd go after them pretty good. I also worry what would happen if and when that Joker fella tracks her down. Which like all old boyfriends, it's bound to happen. Eventually."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa listens closely, distracted from intentionally focusing so hard on making her power work as she hears about the situation and pictures April in danger. She gives a small frown as she listens, the thoughts of what April felt so vivid. "You really need to be careful. I've been up against... er... Green Arrow has been up against a lot of pyschopaths. I don't dig into his memories deeply, but-"

Vanessa cuts herself off, frowning a bit. She started to think of Slade Wilson, who had walked into a changing room in a department store that Vanessa was using, to question her on why she was with Oliver.

Only her memories of Slade - Oliver's memories of Slade! - aren't there. She can remember discussing some of them, but not the memory any more.

Vanessa gives a soft gasp. "That first night... with Harley. When you went to bed you were curled up in your bed. Thinking about what makeshift weapons you had at hand if something happened. The scissors in the drawer... I... I remember it, April," she says.

April O'Neil has posed:
While the employees at Joe Exotic's farm ramble on about how much they don't like their boss, yet also still sound like they kind of love him... April looks over to Vanessa when she says she remembers those personal thoughts that April had had that night.

She'd been about to speak on the subjects of psychopaths and how she's met her fair share of them, and so far come out unscathed - mostly. But this changes that conversational direction.

"Is it working?" She asks of her friend.

"You can read my mind?" She asks further.

Now, April turns on the sofa so that she's facing Vanessa, she sets her drink between her legs as she draws her left leg up on to the sofa on it's side. She raises her headup for a second, the windows behind the sofa bathing the left side of her face in their natural sunlight, then she lowers her stare down to look directly at Vanessa.

"What am I thinking about?"

Inside of April's mind, she's thinking about her 10th birthday partay at her aunt's house in Boston. It was her cousin's birthday party too, since their bdays were only a few days apart. There's a bouncy castle that April had been enthralled with, a pony that the kids could ride around on, and a creepy clown that she caught smoking a cigarette in the bathroom and he yelled at her to tell her to get out and shut the door.

It made her afraid of clowns the rest of her years to where she is today.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
There's an excited expression on Vanessa's face. "I don't know about read your current thoughts, but, let me just think about something in your life. 9th grade. Your locker," she says. "It was on the east side of the building and it was annoying because your classes were on the west side. But it worked out ok because Larry - oh you're right he is cute isn't he? - and he'd walk with you to classes, even though you two never- agh! Ok, not going to think about that anymore for where it might lead!" Vanessa says.

She looks at April to see if that sounds right. She keeps up the contact April. "So maybe touch helps. Or maybe not, could be I just relaxed enough it happened," Vanessa says, trying to remember exactly what they were thinking and talking about since she scooted over after the hours of no progress.

"Oh, wait. Ok, I don't know what you were thinking when you were thinking it. But I remember you thinking it now. So I must have picked that up while I was talking? Your 10th birthday party in Boston, and the bouncy castle. I love those too. And the clown. I don't hate clowns but I can feel how you feel about them like it was my feeling," Vanessa says, eyes widening.

April O'Neil has posed:
For April, she's quiet while Vanessa reads her and she has a slow grin form on her lips. She dips her head and nods to her. "You got it." She says, letting that sink in for a moment. She has to shake her head then and grin softly at Vanessa.

"I don't know how you're going to make this into a super hero thing though, if that's your goal here, Van. If you gotta sit on a sofa with your 'foes' to get all up close and personal just to read their minds. But hey, maybe you'll refine it more?"

She shows a quick smile to that then. "Now just stay out of my late teenage years, that's where the memories start getting weirder."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa lets out a laugh and says, "Well, so far I've just been using the skills of others." She stops speaking and looks off to the side. "Skills which... are gone. I don't... don't remember anything from before. I mean, I remember things I did. But I can't call up a memory and... I have a feeling my bow and arrow skills are back to what they used to be. So much of that was muscle memory and learned to the point of not thinking about it, even," she says with a frown.

"Hrm. Maybe it's a gender thing? Can't have boys and girls in my head at the same time? Or... maybe there's a limit or... a time limit or... wow, so much to work out still," Vanessa says. She looks over to April and then hugs her tight. "But at least this means, I'm not turning into the person, if it switches to someone else."

She smiles over to her friend and laughs. "I promise, I'll do my best not to think of it. Just don't say anything that's going to call the memory to mind." She looks down at herself. "I think I'm still me physically though. Though I feel relieved that I probably won't get stuck like someone else, if I can pick someone to do this with."

Vanessa pauses, seeming to concentrate. She looks over at April, and moves her hand over to cup her friend's cheek.

When the change comes, it's pretty quick. Vanessa's body changes forms, a lot like the T1000 Terminator assuming a new identity. There isn't a tremendous way to go from Vanessa's appearance to April's, and the change happens over a half dozen seconds.

April O'Neil has posed:
April returns the hug, but otherwise just listens to her friend trying to work out and logic-sense all of this sudden development in her life. She holds the hug for a moment before they part again and she stares right at Vanessa's face.

"Maybe it's a ---" April cuts herself off when she watches her friend's face suddenly shift and change, and after a second of clearance she realizes she's staring at herself!

"Holy shit." She says softly then, before her own hand reaches up and she touches her own face in front of her. She puts her hand on the side of VanessApril's face and then moves it up to her eyebrows. "Oh my god." She leans forward to get a closer look. "I did not pluck that right." She says about her left eyebrow. "Ugh."

She leans back then and stares in to her own blue eyes. "You're me." She says to Van.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa holds still as April examines her face. She can't help but give a soft laugh at the comment about the sculpting of her brow. The laugh sounds like April's laugh, not Vanessa's. "I never noticed," Not-April tells Is-April. "Ok I have to get a look at this."

She rises and heads over to the bathroom to look in the mirror there, leaving the door open. "Oh wow," she says, reaching up and touching her face. Or April's face. Well, her face which looks like April's face. "I think... I stopped fearing it. That I'd get stuck as someone else. And soon as I relaxed, it was really kind of easy to do," she says. "Hrm, I wonder if it has to be exactly like you?"

She stares in the mirror for a few seconds and then comes back in. "This look better?" she asks, sitting back down and motioning to the eyebrow. It's definitely plucked differently than it was, including part of it being there where it wasn't before, growing the eyebrow hairs back.

April O'Neil has posed:
April's eyes are just scanning Van's now that they're identical, she's looking all over her 'own face' across from her. At least until Van rises up and goes into the bathroom. April picks up her drink bottle and sets it down on the coffee table before she leans forward to sit on the edge of her sofa. She looks over to see the other returning and when she settles down she smirks at her.

"Better yes." She says. "God, you even have my mousier voice. Your husky sultry voice is gone, Van." She grins at that. "Welcome to mouse town." A moment later and she reaches for Van's hands, picking them both up she turns them to look at her thumbs.

"Yep, you got my club thumbs too." She grins at her. "My least favorite part of myself. I mean, they're great at manipulating objects, but still... they're hideous, always hide them, if you're stuck like this forever."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa lets out a soft April laugh. "Oh every part of you is drop dead gorgeous April. Part of why I chose you to try this with," she says, giving her friend's hand a squeeze with those club thumbs of hers.

THe comment about getting stuck like this does give Vanessa pause though. "Well. I've kind of assumed I'm going to be able to get back to my own body. I suppose another possibility is I HAVE to copy someone else. Though... ah, well I was able to edit the eyebrow. Or... let's see." She concentrates for a second and then her hair changes drastically, both in hairdo and color.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/87/2a/69/872a695e7337bcab286c3f7eaf82fc51.jpg

"Ok that wasn't all that hard to do, really. I just kind of pictured what I wanted it to be like," the now-blond haired version of April O'Neil says. "Ok, the biggest, most important test though."

Vanessa looks like she's concentrating for a few seconds. Nothing happens for a few moments, but then over the next half dozen seconds, her form changes back to that of her normal appearance. "Oh, I'm me again, aren't I!?" she asks, hands going to her face to see, and pulling out her phone to use it to view herself in selfie mode. "Not that it wasn't an improvement!" she says with a grin to April. "And... ah, you had fish tacos yesterday for lunch, but your friend who was supposed to make it didn't show and you waited 30 minutes until she finally texted she wasn't going to make it. But, wow, they were good. I'm going to have to give that restaurant a try."

April O'Neil has posed:
April grins at the first part, but her grin fades when she sees the ease of how Van adjusts her hair tone to a golden shiny blonde. "Unfair." April says in a flat tone to that display. "I could use that power like you wouldn't believe!" She groans after saying that.

But soon to follow, her friend is back inside of her own body. "That is so trippy. Like that Michael Jackson music video from the 90s." She grins lightly, for a second before the story about the fish tacos is brought up.

THAT gets an eyeroll. "That woman is not my friend. We just sit near each other and she rambles about her spoiled kids and fat husband all day. But ... admittedly, she does know where the good food is in town. Thus, the fat husband."

Another quick grin comes and goes. "Vanessa." April says with a leveled tone. "You're figuring this out, like rapidly now. Does this mean you can turn into a coat hanger and a soda machine too?"

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa nods her head as she listens to the description of the woman. "Oh, but he's nice at least. He was really polite that day he stopped and brought her flowers himself on Valentine's Day," Vanessa says, the comments about the woman pulling up April's memories in her head. "But yeah, oof, if I have to hear one more time how she brags about Joyce-"

Vanessa cuts herself off. "Ok, see, this is the weird part for me. Realizing that's now how I felt, but now those memories are there, I understand completely." She reaches over to squeeze April's hand. "And hey, the whole hair thing is at your disposal. Want to try out a new color or style? We can nail it, snap a picture and tell the stylist it's the way you used to have it and want to go back to it. This is a very practical super power!"

She pauses at the comment about turning into a coat hanger. "Um, good question," she says. "Maybe, I should try someone else first. Someone I don't think I've got their memories," she says.

She concentrates for a moment, and changes into a someone else. Thea Queen, that April probably saw in family photos when she visited the Queen mansion. Vanessa checks in her phone. "Wow. That wasn't hard at all. But... I can't think of any of her memories. I don't know, do you think it's safe to try something not a person? I guess I wont' know if I don't try?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April has to laugh softly at the Joyce part, but also wince a little too afterward. "Okay, you're not coming to any company parties with me anymore." She says of Channel six and her job there. "You'll end up misreading my thoughts and telling someone how much I hate them." She grins again before her eyebrows rise...

Because now that woman from the pictures is sitting on her sofa in front of her. "Hi face." She quietly says to Vanessa's new face. "And you're right, that kind of photo manipulation is tempting, if something like that comes up I might just take you up on that offer."

A quick glance is given over to the hanger beside her door and she gives Vanessa-Thea a concerned look.

"I don't think so..." She warns. "I mean, your insides would be all gone, or, I dunno. It could be a bad idea to try to change into something that isn't, ya know... human."

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa-Thea seems to consider and nods. "Yes, probably best. If it worked but I basically stopped being able to think or control it? Ouch. And... well, maybe in time I'll get more insights on if it's possible, or safe," she says.

Vanessa pauses for a moment and then changes back to her own appearance. "I am so going to sit in front of the mirror changing into people for like... days, now," Vanessa says with a laugh. "Also, I think first thing I'll do when I go back, is see if I can get Oliver's memories back. I'll let you know if I lose yours. At least with his... I can remember memories of his personal assistant, Ellis, because we discussed him and those memories pulled up. But I only remember the bits that we discussed and I thought of. I can't remember what his first day on the job was like now, something I never thought about. So if it's the same with yours? I'd probably recognize her and remember bits of it but not too much more than if you'd just told me."

April O'Neil has posed:
April watches her turn back into her true self again. She has to shake hre head at the display of it. "It's just remarkable." She says. "Your bones are almost instantly change, and you don't seem to feel even the slightest negative side effect of that." Her eyelashes flutter and she adjusts her seated position before telling a story.

"A guy on my podcast called in and said he heard some noises in the alley behind his house. He said he looked out the window and saw a man changing forms, but he was screaming while he did it. Said it took like two or three minutes before finally he changed into a werewolf and then ran off into the park beside the alleyway." She shakes her head then. "He described it, like bone popping noises and such. It was disgusting. Like that old werewolf movie."

She draws in a light breath then. "But yours is like, almost ghostly. Smooth and graceful." She bites her bottom lip in thought for a moment before she lets it pop out again and grins softly at her.

"Just be careful. And don't trick me. Don't walk up to me in the shape of Dwayne Johnson, holding a bouquet of flowers and asking me to marry him. Then change back and say 'Gotcha!'. Because I'd /lose it/ on you, okay?" She smiles at her friend then.

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa ends up laughing heartily at that. "Oh I wouldn't change back on you until after the honeymoon," she says with a laugh. Vanessa pauses a moment. "I haven't tried changing into a man. But... ah... you know, I don't know what he's like... Duane Johnson. I mean, down there," she glances down towards her lap. "I wonder if it would be accurate. With you, and with Thea too, I just kind of... felt like it was the right shape. It wasn't like I was a sculptor getting each feature right. Though... well hell. I might as well try Ollie now," she says.

Unless April moves to stop her, Vanessa takes a deep breath and then concentrates. And very soon she's changed into a perfect copy of Oliver Queen. She looks down at her hands, and then at her... his... face in the phone. She moves her hands to feel her chest and then the muscles in her arms. "Oh yes. This is him," she says. She gives a little squirm as if feeling other things. "Yep. Him," is said in Oliver Queen's voice, though with a more light-hearted grin than he usually gets.

She doesn't stay long, needing to assure herself she can change back. It only takes an extra second or two, the extra mass seeming to just melt away as she shrinks back to plain old Vanessa.

April O'Neil has posed:
April just snickers at the topic of Dwayne Johnson, then shakes her head. "I don't know either, but it doesn't mean I can't imagine." She states. "You seemingly got me just right though, you even got the mole on my neck right." She notes with a grin.

But when Vanessa shifts back again, but this time into Oliver Queen, April just leans over on her left to prop herself up on her elbow against the back of her sofa. "My god, he's so pretty." She says at the face now before her. "You're a lucky girl, Vanessa." She grins at her friend and especially at when she realizes what Vanessa realizes she has now, which makes her shake her head side to side. "I don't even wanna know what that part feels like. The rest, those muscles? That all just looks so heavy... Like I'd be tired just walking down the stairs."

When she shrinks back then, April rubs at the side of her head with her fingers in her hair. "I don't know where this is going, Van. But I'm here to help you where you need me too. But for now, you wanna go get some dinner somewhere? You can take on the form of like... Morgan Freeman and get us free food maybe?"

Vanessa Carlysle has posed:
Vanessa gives a smile that reveals everything about how she feels about Oliver Queen. "I'm so much luckier than I deserve, April. You've met him, but, the tabloid stuff, is so wrong about him. He was a playboy, sure. And I was a hooker. And he doesn't care about that. We talked about it finally, because he wanted to know more about me, about where I came from. But, he didn't care," she says, smiling softly. She was always confident enough she would face down someone who gave her grief over her profession. But that doesn't mean she couldn't be hurt by someone whose opinion she cared about.

She sighs. "But I'm fine feeling the real muscles," she says with a warm laugh. She rises from her seat and says, "Sure, let's go eat. But I have to use this power for good! What if we actually ran into Morgan Freeman!?" she says as she loops an arm through April's once she rose. "We could pretend to be identical twins though," she says with a laugh.