Lowered Expectations
a collab with @Subject Zero
Vincent leaned his head back against the wall, staring up through half opened eyes at one of the Nates who had shuffled into the bathroom asking about all the commotion.
“I have no idea, bro.” Vin responded, releasing a long breath of air. “No. Idea.”
He drew a knee up toward his chest, positioning himself on the shower floor so at least his midsection wasn’t in complete and awkward view of the guy standing there. Not that it mattered much to Vin at this point, since there were certainly more pressing concerns than his dignity.
“What are we anyway?” He asked, closing his eyes to hopefully clear the migraine that continued to beat around in his head. “And what the hell did I do back there and, more importantly, why can’t I control it?”
"What are we?" said Nate, echoing Vin's question. "Well that's a loaded question...Handsome devils for one." He turned and planted his back against the glass of the shower, sliding down until he was sitting on the ground as he continued "Maybe we're mutants...Maybe we're superheroes...Maybe we're just people who have been through some really messed up shit." Nate glanced over at Vin for a second, realizing that he really had been through a lot. It would have been a lot for Nate, nevermind a civvie. "I don't have the answers." He informed Vin "...But I plan on finding them. That's why we're going where we're going. Maybe once we get there we'll figure out why you can do what you do...Or, better yet, stop doing what you do...I don't want to end up like that poor bastard in the alley."
Vin shook his head, cringing at the thoughts of those wildly chaotic scenes playing out in his visions, not quite grasping whether it was truth or simply what he wanted to see.
“Are you planning on killing her? JJ, I mean?”
Nate scrunched his face up at the question, looking both confused and annoyed at the same time. "Kill JJ?" he asked. "No. I mean I know she's annoying but not so much that I'd put a bullet in her...Not yet anyway." He turned to Vin again and said "I'm a bodyguard. Not a killer."
“Hey I’m just asking questions bro, trying to wrap my head around the shit storm brewing over our heads. It seems every-fucking-where-we-go, someone or some thing is trying to end us like yesterday’s news. My head is filled with unimaginable shit I’ve never experienced in my life. In fact…” He paused for a moment, hesitant to even broach the subject. “Forget it. All I know I owe her, and I don’t want to see her dead. Not by you, not by anyone...”
Vin reached to grab the towel hanging on the hook, and wrapped it around his waist as he slowly stood to his feet. Holding the wall for support, he stepped from the shower onto the cool tile.
“Well, I either need to get the blood off of those...” He said, pointing to the cluster of bloodied clothing on the floor. ”Or, I find replacements.” Vin glanced up at Nate and smirked. “I don’t know if you’re actually Nate or a copy, but it must be nice not having to change.”
Vincent picked up his clothes, walked out into the bedroom, and collapsed onto the bed, which had probably been the softest landing he'd experienced in the last couple of days. He lifted his arms and examined the tattoos, which he'd had for nearly ten years, never having any problems with them trying to kill other people, or him. "Mutants." He mused aloud, thinking back to what Nate had said and guessing he'd read too many comic books lately. He then dropped both arms to his side and stared up at the stucco ceiling, tracing the lines and imperfections in the patterns.
"But what else could we be?..."
"Awesome." was Nate's response to that as he followed Vin back into the bedroom, pulling his t-shirt over his head as he went. "I mean think about what we could do if we actually figured out how to use these powers properly." His shoes were kicked off and were quickly followed by his pants. "We could be pretty awesome." He gathered up the clothes and tossed them to Vin on the bed before saying "I'd give you the underwear too but I don't think we're at that stage in our relationship yet." Nate stood with his hands on his hips for a second, clearly thinking about something and then said "Y'know what? I'm a nice guy. Here." A pair of boxer briefs were then thrown at Vin, landing on his chest.
Vin lifted his head and made a sour face, as he tossed the boxers off to the side. "What the fuck, you fucked up-" And then he noticed the pile of clothes lying next to him that Nate had apparently given him in his own twisted manner. "Ah, shit...I see what you did there."
He sat up and looked at the clothes, and back at the fully naked Nate, and couldn't help but laugh, possibly because of the absolute absurdity of the whole situation, or maybe he was in fact going insane. Either way, the one question still begged to be asked:
"Where they hell do these clothes go when you disappear?"
"No idea." answered Nate after he had thought about it for a moment. "But won't it be fun to find out?"
There was a lot Nate didn't understand about his powers. Where did the extra matter come from. Where did it go? He knew enough about physics to know that matter can't be destroyed. It was simply transformed. But what did that mean? Was he converting air molecules into human life when he created his clones? The implications of that made his head hurt so he decided to change the subject. And Nate always fell back on annoying others when he wanted to avoid a subject.
"So I bet this isn't the first time you've been naked in a bedroom with another man." He winked sarcastically at Vin, knowing that it would weird him out.
"Actually no, but I was also stoned out of my mind and I'm pretty sure nothing happened..." He paused for a moment to think, then shrugged as he grabbed the pile of clothes Nate threw on the bed, and handed them to him as he walked by.
"And thanks but no thanks. I think I'll take my chances with JJ's washing machine, provided I can find it." He said, patting Nate on the shoulder, picking up his bloodied clothing, and heading out into the living room area where he tried to guess where the laundry room might be.
The clone followed after him, not bothering to put his clothes back on. Nate, having emerged from JJ's room, looked at the situation, noting that Vin was only wearing a towel. "I don't even want to know." he said, throwing his hands in the air.
@Subject Zero
@Xandrya
