Owner	Pose
Tommy Shepherd	The takeout menu that Tommy scrawled his number on wasn't from this place, if only because he's been here enough that he has the damn menu memorized at this place. Not like it's hard. They sell ice cream, mostly in milkshake form. It's no Cheesecake Factory. Not that there's a Cheesecake Factory in Bushwick.     He'd been telling the truth, too, just before his departure. If Billy tries to call it goes straight to voicemail, but Tommy is extremely responsive to texts. There's gotta be some sort of superspeed in use here because there's practically no delay between question and response. Aside for whatever few milliseconds it takes for the 5Gs to beam the words around.     Look, Tommy doesn't know how the fuck phones work, okay.     "If it turns out he's actually an evil alternate reality version of me, you're gonna freeze him, right?" Tommy's asking as he stands at the counter, speaking with the blue-tinged man working it.     Who bobs his head agreeably. "Yeah, of course. If he comes in with a mustache, turn him to ice."     The reference goes straight over Tommy's head, as evidenced by the baleful stare he affords Cozwick. But support is support, so he nods his thanks and lifts his cap from his head long enough to run a hand through his hair.     Today it's the Biloxi Shuckers he's repping. Yes, that is an oyster as part of their logo. It's awful.
Billy Kaplan	Billy is into mysteries. Let's be frank, if he could spend his days hanging out with kids in a van unmasking Old Man Hickenlooper in the company of people who say 'Zoinks' and 'Jinkies!', he'd probably do it- if he couldn't be a superhero, that is. And because he /had/ the chance to be a superhero, there is a group somewhere that is missing its resident factoid nerd. Needless to say, the mystery of the boy who looks like him has had him intrigued since they first met. After a very puzzling (and quick) text exchange, they agreed upon a meeting place to chat. Billy comes in wearing a Labyrinth T-shirt with David Bowie's majestic face across it in full Jareth garb and wig- the one that looks like a melon and a tribble had an offspring (only David Bowie could pull that off), black jeans and sneakers. He takes a few moments to take in the place, and then smiles when he sees Tommy. "Hey," he says, approaching, hands in his jeans pockets. Probably hiding a blaster gun. Or a knife. Billy's hair is dark, which means he's the opposite universe twin, right?
Tommy Shepherd	Already there are a multitude of ways in which Tommy and Billy are polar opposites. The hair's one, and the whole mysteries thing is definitely another, because Tommy will happily play willfully ignorant if it means he can have some peace in his life for once.     Unfortunately for him, it's like he attracts weird stuff. A real chaos magnet.     "Nice shirt. You a big Tilda Swinton fan?" Tommy says this with absolute sincerity in his voice, and somehow he also manages to keep his expression schooled into neutral. It's just the creeping upwards of his eyebrows that gives it away. After a moment he turns away, has some kind of non-verbal discussion with the man behind the counter, and then he ambles over to an unoccupied booth.     He folds his arms against the table once he's sitting, and tips his head towards the seat opposite him. "So. Running into someone with my face once was weird enough, but two's really pushing it. You could be out there committing crimes and pinning it on me, and I'm not into that."     The ensuing pause is heavy, if brief, as he continues with, "Looking at you, though, it's probably the other way around. Not that I'm running around committing crimes. Who told you that? Don't believe a word they said."     His fingers drum against the tabletop, all pent up energy. Which explodes in short order, but only via a puff of air from his lungs as he sighs. "Thomas Shepherd, born July 9th, 2002, in Springfield, New Jersey." Purposefully, he overextends his almost non-existent Joisey accent at the end of that sentence. "Parents: Mary and Frank Shepherd. Couldn't tell you anything about my extended family because either I don't have any or there was some big falling out. Like I said at Pride, I think my mom is from Pennsylvania but that's about all I know."
Billy Kaplan	"Whu- that's David Bo-" Billy starts, and then he notices that faint expression and is left wondering. Sitting down at the table, he adds, "I don't think I'd go around committing crimes, that'd put kind of a damper on..." he lowers his voice, "The team." The team tat Tommy didn't join, of course. Last night. Yet. Billy blinks, and pauses for a second before saying, "So... I'm Billy Kaplan. July 9th.... 2002. New York. Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan are my parents..." He's digging something out of his pocket. His wallet. He opens it up to his ID and takes it out, to show Tommy he is not making this up. "Okay. So we were born on the same day. And we have the same face..." he peers and narrows his eyes, "But you have the cool hair." He exhales and leans back on his seat, looking at Tommy. "Sooo... theories?"
Tommy Shepherd	In response, Tommy pushes his butt off the seat long enough to dig his own wallet out of his pocket, and he tosses his own (New York) license onto the table. "The team," he repeats. "You mean the five strangers you met in an abandoned building?" The distrust that led him to reject the offer to join is once again out on full display here, but that's not what they met here to discuss.     "I dunno. Switched at birth? Maybe the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants hid all of their leader's illegitimate children amidst an unsuspecting populace for... reasons?" One of his shoulders hunches up slightly. "Evil reasons. Hence the name." Clearly he's not up on the Brotherhood's PR attempts to spin their once-terroristic ways into something more family-friendly. But let's be real, does Tommy seem the type to read press releases?     This is when Cozwick appears with two loaded milkshakes, both apparently cookies and cream flavor (as designated by the fan of Oreos and assorted other Oreo-products decorating its gigantic whipped cream mountain topping) which he sets on the table.     Tommy mutters a quick thanks and slides one closer to himself, before leveling a look across at Billy. "I'm judging whether or not we're actually related by how you respond to this milkshake, by the way."
Billy Kaplan	"I mean... I asked my mom if I was adopted, and she said I wasn't. Of course, that's what someone who /wanted/ to keep it a secret would say, right?" Billy asks, scooting forward and eagerly reaching for the milk shake. He gives Tommy a glance before he begins to sip. At first, there is no reaction, his face looking slightly impassive. And then his tastebuds react, and his eyes widen a little. A second sip. Then a third. A fourth. By the fifth one, he's reminded himself he's with someone. Right. The kid who looks like him. "... do they let people live here? Because I live here, now. I'll die for this," he says, sipping again, this time a much longer one, whatever topic of conversation they were going for has been momentarily forgotten. "If this flavor could be a guy, I'd date it. What's it called?"
Tommy Shepherd	Tommy sinks down into his seat, arms folded over his chest. But only for a moment, because he realizes he, too, has a milkshake, and he goes from terrible posture to sitting prim and proper in an instant, spoon in hand. "If you tell Coz that, he'll hire you. And to be fair to him, it's the best job I've had."     For a little while he, too, is so absorbed in the milkshake that all thoughts of conversation, or figuring out the mystery of their matching faces, is forgotten.     "It's the Only Oreo Overload. Or as I call it, the ooooooooooo."     He puts his chin in his hand and looks as glum as a person can possibly get while also sipping at a milkshake. "There's no way the Brotherhood isn't involved, though." From one second to the next, his phone appears with a surreptitiously taken photo of one Pietro Maximoff, in fancy dress, standing next to a woman with green hair that is upon further inspection the Queen of Genosha, Lorna Dane. It isn't quite one to one like it is with Billy, but Pietro and Tommy are carbon copies of one another. Well, Tommy's younger, so that technically makes him the copy.     "I've met them both. Lorna, uh, her Majesty, is convinced I'm related to them somehow," and this for some reason makes Tommy's shoulders shrug upwards and inwards, cringing. His eyes shift back and forth frantically, but then he forces out a low, slow breath. "They're not getting my DNA. I'm not--it's not happening."     After tearing the straw wrapper from his milkshake up into little pieces, a process that happens over an excrutiating (to Tommy) few seconds, he swallows. "But there has to be some way we can figure this out."
Billy Kaplan	Oh, right. The likeness issue. Billy looks at the image of Pietro and nods. Definitely a resemblance. The Kaplan kid frowns and sinks into her own thoughts for a bit, occasionally rescued from them by sips of the Oooooooo. He clearly loves it. They must be related. "Well... that group of strangers you mentioned- I mean, one of them is /Miss America Chavezz/. Like, Tommy, she's a hero. She's with the Titans. She punches holes into reality!" Nerd alert, nerd alert. "Maybe she's got resources you can trust? I don't know. I'm spitballing here." The dark-haired twin rubs his chin. "I could try and make a spell to find out? But I'm not really great at that right now, that'd be super complicated and I am still just doing basic stuff." He glances at the white-haired boy, "Wouldn't it be just wild? But, like... how did it happen..."
Tommy Shepherd	The namedrop doesn't get much more than a blink from Tommy, and as Billy goes on about heroes, Tommy says nothing. Though he does shake his head, still clearly not buying into the hype.     "She acts like she knows me," he says, and his body is doing the same uncomfortable posturing again, though not to nearly the degree as moments before. "Maybe she knows some version of me from another universe, but he's not me." There's something deeper there that Tommy isn't saying, but he occupies himself with a spoonful of ice cream (actually, mostly milkshake and cookie) but when Billy mentions the possibility of spellwork solving their problem, he looks up sharply.     Yeah, that's what he was angling for. Tommy nods, and shoves the spoon into his mouth, briefly muffled before he manages to swallow and--okay, at least the brain freeze only lasts a quick second or two from his perspective--before he manages a, "Well, maybe we can work up to that? You were talking about training or something at Pride, yeah? You find any magic tutors?"     Though that seems to make something occur to him. "Is your magic, like... is that how your X-Gene manifested? You woke up a wizard? Harry Potter but without the owls and transphobia?"
Billy Kaplan	"Wait, if she knows a version of you... then she knows a version of me. Could /that/ tell us something? I mean, it's worth a thought, right? I could ask her. Orrrr..." He digs into his own shake, imitating his twin, a thoughtful look coming over him. "It wasn't quite... like that. Though, let's be honest here, Terry Pratchett > She Who Must Not Be Named." Yes, he did the actual sign with his fingers, "So I guess it's more like Unseen University but without the copious lunches and very old men. But... I did work towards getting a tutor! I haven't had my first lesson yet, but..." He rests his cheek on his fist and looks at Tommy, frowning. "I know some basics of mysticism. Like how a strand of someone's hair can be used to represent their whole person for certain magic- that's called a synecdoche," he points out. "I could research on how to do a... relative-test, a brother test?" His eyebrows shoot up. "... so let's say we do this. And it works. And it says we are... what then?"
Tommy Shepherd	"Guess you could," Tommy says, which is as much agreement he's willing to give in regards to working with any heroes, it seems like. The, uh, present company excluded.     The follow-up nerdery has him snorting into his milkshake, but he concedes the point either way. Without any experience with magic of his own, Tommy can only nod along with everything. At least until--"Uh, like the city?"     Okay, yes, he clearly knows his comments aren't helpful by the way his brow wrinkles. "We'll deal with it. Guess that'll be a couple of really uncomfortable conversations with the 'rents." There's an uncertain tremor in his voice, and he hugs his arms around himself only long enough to realize he's doing it, before he forces his palms flat on the table. "Then, I don't know, we storm Asteroid M."     That was a joke. But Tommy's not exactly laughing.
Billy Kaplan	"It's /kind/ of like the city. Although I think Schenectady is the least real of the two, to be honest," Billy smirks, sending a big glob of deliciousness into his mouth via the spoon. Tommy's gesture isn't missed, but Billy doesn't draw attention to it. "Well... no matter what, we'll figure it out together. Or, you know... if you don't want a brother, you could always look on the bright side?" he shrugs, "I could be a you from another dimension and not just know it yet." He pauses, Star Trek nerd engines gearing up, "Wait. Wouldn't that make me the evil version, though? No way. I can't even be /mean/ much less evil." He glances at Tommy. "Of course, that's what an evil version would probably want you to believe." He sips down the milkshake, "But would an evil version like /this/ so much? This is clearly condensed goodness. It'd kill me if I were evil, right?"
Tommy Shepherd	After a moment of consideration, Tommy puts his head in his hands. "This AU shit is so confusing. Nothing can ever be simple in my life, can it?"     His spoon clatters into the now-empty milkshake glass. At some point he must have eaten more, but aside for a few visible bites Tommy's never quite visibly seen eating. Which is generally true, in his case. "I mean, I don't--it's not like I've ever thought about it. Having a brother versus not. Up until now I didn't think I had any, but what the hell do I know? We could have a dozen other siblings out there that we don't know about and I'mtryingnottolet that freak me out."     His words come out in a rush all of a sudden, though he forces himself into stillness after, a Herculean effort judging by the grimace on his face. In his lap, he clenches his hands together. "Best shakes in the tri-state area. I've been all over, can confirm."
Billy Kaplan	"They're excellent," Billy replies, falling into the cadence. He takes the final sips and leans back, satisfied in some ways, and dissatisfied in others. When he speaks again, he says: "I used to get bullied at school a lot. 'cause I'm, well, very into superheroes. But also because- yeah, the gay thing," he says, glancing down at his lap, where his hands are clenched together. "And one day I met someone who told me I could take care of myself just fine, and I thought... you know? Maybe I should. I should stand up for myself." He glances up at Tommy. "And so I did. I decided to stand up to the biggest bully in the school- dude was always targeting me. John Kesler. And I-" He takes a breath, and closes his eyes. "I almost fried him. That's when they manifested, see..." he opens his eyes. "Electrokinesis. Lightning. I guess electro-magnetism too if I really think of how to pull it off. Magic didn't come until a little later but... that's when I swore I'd be very careful with my powers. Use them to protect and help people." He exhales again, and raises his eyebrows. "This is freaky, but we don't have to be afraid, right? It's not like we're alone."
Tommy Shepherd	Despite visible attempts to look outwardly calm, the way Tommy is sat is still vaguely uncomfortable enough to ping that he's not at ease at all. Or maybe it's just that their own mannerisms are somehow similar enough that it's obvious, with them sitting across from each other.     Either way, Tommy's feeling a little too seen at the moment. But he pushes the bottoms of his shoes against the floor and does his level best to convince himself he's rooted to the linoleum. "So basically your mutant powers happened because you decided to start a fight?" he asks, smiling despite himself. "Guess we're not too different after all." There aren't any details being divulged on his end, but he's already given away more than he would normally. "You think those are just you channeling your magic? Like Thor?"     Which may or may not actually be how the God of Thunder's powers work. He's not the walking superhero encyclopedia sitting at this table, after all.     "I don't know how to explain what I can do. I can move fast but it's..." Tommy falters, expression shuttering as he reconsiders sharing, but he's already started, hasn't he? "It's not always centered on me. I can make other things move fast too but, uh, mostly that just makes stuff explode."
Billy Kaplan	Billy nods. It's clear Tommy isn't terribly comfortable, so he doesn't push for more, just whatever the other teen wants to share. "I'm not sure. I mean, I could be just one of those mutants who can also do magic and that's not related to my X-Gene at all. It's why I want to learn to do magic proper so I can figure it out. But if I shoot lightning, and you move fast... like lightning, I mean, I'm sensing a pattern." He smiles a little, "But maybe we should stop the heavy talk for now and just hang out. I've got to do research on doing the test, and until that's done, we can speculate until the cows come home and won't know which is right. I mean, you brought me to this awesome place," he gestures to the empty glass. "Maybe I could show you one of mine." He ponders, and leans forward, asking: "How do you feel about... Korean BBQ?"
Tommy Shepherd	"...We talking All-You-Can-Eat or what? Because I can eat my body weight in samgyeopsal." Tommy rises halfway to his feet, and then with a quick zip of superspeed their dirty glasses are back on the counter and the bill's been settled.     He reappears back by the table, hands on his hips, saying, "I'm serious. I've done it. I'm banned from that entire chain for life."