Ezra dipped and left the interrogation onto Oscar. The Vanburens were skeptical, that was something that Sabrina understood. Maybe she was playing the Devil's Advocate here, but she was giving them the benefit of the doubt at the very least. Alexander gave a very roundabout answer to Justin's question (that can be surmised as no) while Trisha was being a lot more negative. She wanted them to get to the point and Sabrina, again, understood, and she too felt that they should just get the point rather than just wasting their time - even if Trisha was being rude. Though Junior was, well, himself, and egging Trisha on and Sabrina had to do what a big sister does best when said she said:
"Junior, quit it." She didn't get
why exactly Junior had to be here. Even if it's a family meeting, town hall, etc, the youngest Vanburen had no real place there. He could just go play Fortnite on the big TV or something like he always did. Sabrina sighed as she was hoping that these two people would help them solve their problems,
regardless of how young they were.
Justin was completely unphased by Trisha, it was almost like he ignored her when he spoke. Merely facing Alexander when he answered, "Well, my theories won't make sense
unless you know about the world of magic. So, to start there are the Awakened who get..." Then Justin droned on...
"... Adepts are people who pass down a spiritual connection to this thing called Luminscience..."
... And on.
"... Apparitions are beings born from belief, emotion, or the emotions of the recently deceased..."
...
And on.Sabrina rolled her eyes as he kept talking, ignoring pretty much everything that the Vanburens said while he went on this huge rant. Eventually, Sabrina just gave up and leaned over on the table, Mary Roberts created a long strand of cloth as she started fiddling with it. Now, she was starting to understand the concerns of the other Vanburens, but as Justin rambled on. Oscar's whole demeanor changed after he got a phone call... he seemed to be confused about something? Even
suspicious of the two all of the sudden, which Sabrina was about to ask Oscar about because all of this seemed strange.
However, it got even
stranger when two more of these two made their entrance. Honestly, at this point, even Sabrina was getting annoyed when she scrunched her eyes and tilted her head. This
had to be a joke. There was no other explanation for this
circus that was unfurling before their eyes. Sabrina shook her head as she groaned,
"Oscar..." Sabrina said,
"I've had enough of this circus-"However, at this point the "imposters" dropped all subtly and hit them with a wave of water... it came so sudden that she had no time to respond. She was knocked out of her chair as LeBeau was launched out of her hands. Water went up to her nose as she managed to keep her mouth shut, but all she heard was the sound of the Vanburens muffled by water. She hit the ground as she was distracted by coughing up water.
Like many stories, this one began in the back of an Uber.
After the meeting with Oscar went well - the guy seemed nice, just a bit overenthusiastic about this - the two were set to meet with the rest of the Vanburens. Which, kind of had Justin nervous a
little bit. He was hoping that he didn't set expectations too high if he couldn't come close to meeting them. While he was trying to figure out this new world he got shunted into, if he wasn't useful, what was stopping from finding somebody else? Justin was not going to ever come close to showing it, at least not in front of Tuyen. So, Justin was just sitting in the back of the Uber that
somebody probably got a very shameful blowjob in, playing on his phone.
"So, uh," the Uber driver, some scrawny old guy with a goatee and a... MAGA hat. "What are you kids doing out here?"
Justin stopped as he looked up from his phone at the guy.
"Out here for an interview?" The guy asked. "Nobody really goes out here unless they're working for one of the rich folks."
"Yeah," Justin sharply answered, he wasn't sure what the hell to call this arrangement... he just hoped that he wouldn't ask just what-
"... So what are you doing?"
"Just gonna do housekeeping, you know," Justin shrugged. "Easy money."
He shrugged. "Know that's right." Justin was happy that he didn't make a vaguely racist comment
like he thought he was gonna do.
Though, the young Liao's attention and gaze drifted over towards his companion Tuyen who was mindlessly scrolling on her phone. He cleared his throat as he was glad that things between them didn't get too awkward. Though, he had to make conversation with anyone except a thirty-something uber driver.
"So, uh, hey, Tuyen," Justin asked. "How ya'... holdin' up? How ya' feel about all of this?"
"Oh, uh," Tuyen hesitated, locking her phone to look up and over to Justin. She smiled slightly even though she didn't look too comfortable (she couldn't wait to get out of this uber). "Alright. A bit nervous about all this, but that's to be expected, right? Hopefully, they won't take one look at us and tell us we're too young for... the job."
"Eh," Justin said. "I think we can at least bullshit our way through it." He shrugged.
"True, the one we met with seemed like he'd accept anything we said," Tuyen nodded, trying to ignore the anxieties creeping at the corners of her mind over it. "I doubt the rest know more than us. They know we're coming, right?"
"Yeah- well, they should," Justin shrugged as he crossed one leg over the other. However, it was around this time they were only a few minutes away. He scrolled down to his Contacts and phoned up Oscar. Hopefully, this will go smoothly.
The phone buzzed for quite a while, Tuyen watched with a frown as it did. Eventually, it got through. "...Hello?"
"Yo- Good afternoon, Mr. Vanburen," Justin tried to sound as professional as possible. "Just to inform you, we're right outside the gates."
"Outside the gates?" The voice on the other side of the line sounded very confused. "Are you-" Oscar cut off for a few moments, as if considering something, then spoke again much quieter. "But you're already here?"
"I... um," Justin felt the question marks fill his head before he asked, "What do you mean?"
"I mean that you... well, someone who looks eerily identical to you, is already here. Inside with my family. Both you and your friend. How does that-" There was quiet, but audible, cursing on the other end. "Magic. There's two of you."
Shit. Justin thought to himself as he had to think fast, like really fast. "Don't make a scene," Justin started, "Send someone to let us in."
"Got it," Oscar hung up immediately, presumably to get someone to let them in.
Tuyen narrowed her eyes as she looked at Justin, having tried to follow along the one side of the conversation as best as she could. "What happened?"
"Um, apparently we have imposters..." Justin started. "Shit, this might get a
little dicey, but, been through worse, right?"
"Imposters?" Tuyen's eyebrows raised. She'd expected a lot of questioning but not... this. "Yeah, if we survived
that we can get through anything... But I don't think they'll be happy if we burn down their mansion."
"Eh," Justin shrugged and he gave her a cocky smile as he said. "They can just buy another one."
When the Uber stopped at the gates, they had to play this smartly. Now, the first thing that came to mind for Justin was causing a huge ass scene that'd make them
suspicious. He had to think of something, he had to think what would his grandmother do? Well, she'd probably go on a huge self-aggrandizing spiel about how good looking she was.
Then she'd maybe come up with a plan to out and handle these imposters.
Justin got out of the sedan and Tuyen followed as he wished that he wore some thermals under this fancy suit that he rented. He was used to Farmer Hill being a fucking freezer, thankfully. However, he still didn't like the cold much and then he activated his abstraction and his hands were surrounded with flames. He thought for a second.
"Alright, we gotta smartly handle this," Justin said to Tuyen, who nodded. "I have a feeling that we're not getting... impersonated... for... the hell of it..." Justin raised off as a lightbulb went off in his head and he felt a sense of dread.
Justin quickly pulled out his cellphone and dialed Oscar
again.
"I already sent someone out to let you in," Oscar picked up instantly, straight to the point. "Is there a problem?"
"Um, yeah, I hate to alarm you," Justin said, "But, they're
probably after something -I don't know
what but keep on your toes and uh... can someone let us in?"
"I'll keep an eye on them, make sure they don't do anything until you get in. I've sent someone, they should be there soon."
"Okay, stay safe," Justin said, as he hung up the phone and wasn't going to do it again. Now, they had to think. "Okay, um, fuck," He cursed out loud.
"Someone
definitely has been watching us," Justin said to Tuyen. "Hopefully, it's not a huge deal like an assassination plan, or a heist... fuck. Okay, let me think, how do you think we should handle this?"
"An assassination is something we can't deal with," Tuyen shook her head, internally beginning to panic much more than she wanted to. Her shadow curled around her, instantly latching onto it and adding to it. "We need to act calmly because only Oscar knows we're the
real us. Maybe we can talk to them? No, scrap that, that's a terrible idea. If we get to him before the rest of his family... and just go in ready for anything."
She frowned. "That's not really much of a plan though, is it?"
"Nope," Justin chuckled. "You know what? We're overthinking this waaaaay too much. Let's just go in and pull the rug from underneath them."
"You're right, we're good at that, huh," Tuyen smiled, shoving her hands in the pockets of her thick jacket. She was still anxious, but he was right. "They won't be expecting us. Assuming we ever get in..."
However, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps and they were introduced to the tall, aging,
Leonidas Klein. He was wearing a black winter coat, obviously thrown on over his fancy black butler suit. Leonidas raised an eyebrow as he asked,
"... Didn't I let you two in earlier?" He asked.
"... Nah, I don't think so," Justin shrugged.
"Ah, it seems my eyes are failing me again," Leonidas said with a deep voice as he opened the gates for the two. "Come on in."
Justin felt a little nervous as he stepped through the gates and then hoped that this wouldn't go tits up. Like everything
else in his life tend to do. However, Justin had a plan... not a good one, but he was going to make it work. He was lead through the building by Leonidas as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the steel bearing balls. He only brought them
just in case but he didn't know that he'd be impersonated. He walked through the front doors of the place and then took a deep breath as he tried to hold his metal balls out of sight. He didn't want to give off the wrong idea to the Vanburens, after all.
Then, the two approached the dining room where they heard small amounts of chatter. Justin had a cocky look on his face that he
hoped betrayed the nervousness that was on his mind. He
hoped that this wouldn't end in blood or something crazy! As he stepped in, he had this cool little one-liner in his head - this epic speech.
That was when Justin finally stepped into the confusion of the Vanburens... and his imposters.
"... Well, well, well," Justin started as he clenched the balls of steel in his hand as hard as he could. "If it isn't- Dude." Justin tilted his head as he looked at his "imposter".
"... What the
fuck are you wearing?" Justin chuckled for a second as he looked at the guy. "You look like a gay Hells Angel, and that's coming from a gay guy. And her!" Justin pointed at "Tuyen".
"She looks like she's an Asian-mobster, cosplaying as a Russian mobster!" Justin chuckled as he held the steel balls in between his fingers.
"I literally never wear black, you're not even trying," Tuyen piped up from beside Justin, arms folded. "Nevermind whatever that," she gestured to her "imposter", "is."
"If you're gonna impersonate us, at
least get the outfits right."
As the two were called out in front of the whole family, they were looking around nervously. Before their eyes landed on each other. "Tuyen" whispered to her partner,
"... I thought somebody was supposed to be distracting them."
"That somebody was Elize,"
"Of fuckin'
course," The Tuyen-imposter said before she sighed and that disguise started fading away. Before she screamed,
"Plan B!"That was when the imposter quickly swung both of his hands out and he summoned water out of thin out. In all directions in front of him, he sent out a powerful wave of water that would definitely knock everyone into the wall. At least off balance for a moment.
"Ah, fuck!" Justin shouted as he was swept away in the wave of water and hit the wall. Knocking the wind out of him, as he realized that they'd ruined his good suit. At least he was more than
certain that the Vanburens figured out who the imposter was. He coughed up water as he started shivering as he was already cold from outside and
of course the water was cold. Just his fucking luck. What was worse was that water cut off his abstraction.
The disguise on the two imposters wore off and the guy that was impersonating him transformed into some
white kid with brown hair all tidy and stuff. Probably the same age as him which was
odd.
The Tuyen impersonator transformed into some
Twenty something chick with long black hair and pointy lips. However, she had turned around and pulled out her cellphone, and clapped her hands together before she brought them apart. When she brought them apart, she opened a glowing purple portal.
