Log:A Shadow of Porter's Former Self

2015/04/03 Bullet Malcolm Porter Rose 1

It's a nice early Spring evening in Bridgend. There's still parties going on at the beach down the way from spring breakers. The glow from the coffee shop is still inviting and warm. Everyone's just eager for Friday to come and go for the weekend.

Parties. Porter went to a couple of those. Last year sometime. Before that, he was too worried. Now? He's too busy. Today he's out walking on his way to... wait for it... the coffee shop! No one would eer think he might be there! Well, maybe not right at this instant? Maybe?

Malcolm Gibbs sits on the curb on the Past Times side of the street. For entirely unclear reasons, he is just sitting there... Eating an apple. There is nothing at all weird about this, no sir.

There's a young man several inches under six feet with an average build with his hands plastered to the windows of the coffee shop as he watches the patrons inside eating. He stares curiously with bright coffee brown eyes and opens and closes his mouth in chewing pantomime. He'd be easily overlooked, except some of the patrons inside are watching him nervously. His clothes are fairly common, with comfortable jeans, name-brand sneakers, and a tee that varies by mood. Today's shirt has the logo of a popular band, Anarchy for Annabelle.

It looks like Porter beat Porter to the coffee shop...? Because he's already there. Right at this instant. Definitely.

For Porter to get to the coffee shop, he presumably has to enter into Malcolm's sphere of awareness. Despite being focused on eating his apple, Malcolm takes a moment to look up and smile, waving as he comments, "Afternoon, Portman."

Wait for it.

Malcolm's brows furrow as he bites into his apple again. There's something wrong.

Wait for it.

"... Wait... When'd you leave, Porter? You were just peering in the win-"

The tall man has turned around to point at what he expected to be open space. Malcolm's jaw hangs open and he loses his grip on the apple in his hand. Poor, poor apple, it bounces on the pavement and rolls into the gutter to begin a horrendous adventure in the city's sewer system.

"Porters?!"

"Heya, Mal." The arriving Porter gives a grin and wave. "What's-huh? Leave? I just got here..." Then he follows Malcolm's lookin. And blinks. Then frowns. "Oh, great..."

Pendragon has disconnected.

It looks like Porter beat Porter to the coffee shop...? Because he's already there. Right at this instant. Definitely.'

The Porter at the window straightens up and sets his arms to his side. Presumably he's done drooling over coffee. He's still looking in the shop, studying...someone. And then he grins to himself. It just looks unnaturally forced.

Bench pressing is boring. Why lift those weights when you can play around with cars, trucks, etc? Bullet uses the gym for delicate things that really aren't the sort she can find elsewhere, but she's on her way here from the scrapyard where she was actually getting -quite- a workout by helping to manually power the compressor at the scrapyard. Sure, she can't generate the kind of pressure others who are stronger might be able to, but 25 tons of force is quite a lot, and she has enjoyed crunching old broken down cars. But... she had promised to meet a friend at the gym.. and so when her phone alarm warned her, she said her goodbyes and whooshed out of the yard. So it is that she's screaming down towards the gym as others arrive in the area.

For his part, Malcolm stands up and takes a few steps toward the Porter at the window. That's the Porter that's acting the weirdest. Experimentally, Malcolm extends a metal cable and pokepokeprods Porter's back a few times with the cable, perhaps expecting him to *POP* like a dirty soap bubble.

And then... hey, it's Porter! Bullet grins and flickers as she bursts into even faster movement. She skids to a stop beside Porter... er.. the one at the window. "Lookin' for anything in particular Porter?" she asks as she comes to stop there, grinning with her cape fluttering to fall behind her and her arms folding over her upper abs.

The Porter at the window steps sideways and turns towards Malcolm as he tries to poke him, noticing the attempt. The grin drops to a neutral expression. He looks at Bullet. "Coffee," he replies.

On the street...

By the window of the coffee shop stands Porter and Bullet. Malcolm is extending cables towards Porter as he tries to casually sidestep them. By Malcolm is...also Porter. Two Porters.

Porter watches as Mal goes to Porter. Well, the other one. Ok, he gets that. Then Bullet runs right past him and talks to... well, him. Sort of. He lifts a hand and opens his mouth to say something. Then lets it close. When in doubt, be quiet?

"Well, that's kinda the specialty of the house you know." says Bullet towards Porter. "Right back." she remarks. Then.. she's gone. Of course, she doesn't just yoink coffee, she gets into line, and fidgets, taps toes, fingers, etc... while waiting. Patience... is not her strong suit.

The doors of the gym open to disgorge Rose, hair still damp and cheeks still flushed from struggling through one of the exercise routines Eden has written up for her. Today she made it all the way through the warm up exercises and everything. On seeing the two Porteroids she pulls up short with a blink. ""There are some key signs that today is not going to be a good day. If for example you get to work and there's a 60 minutes film crew in reception.... or..."

Malcolm's cables are thwarted by Porter's legit dance abilities. Retracting his cables, Malcolm steps over to the Porter that has just arrived and gone silent. He looks at the Porter by the window and then to the Porter in front of him. "Do you have sick dance moves like that too?"

Is it bad that Porter could probably think of a bunch of reasons for two of him to be in the same place at the same time? When the bit of shock finally passes, his brain jumps to the most recent example. And blink goes to scowl. "Sure. I'll dance." So Porter walks right towards Porter. Hand balling into a fist on the way. The suddenly angry look on his face isn't all that common to Porter.... but it's not all that rare for those around Porter. Maybe he just needed another him so he could join the crowd himself?

The other Porter, dressed similarly but with a different shirt, steps back, expression still cool and neutral. "I'm sorry," he replies in a very Porterish way.

That's not quite what Malcolm had expected. He looks at the Porters, then around as if expecting Bullet to pop out of nowhere and save the day. Instead, Malcolm finds Rose. Malcolm waves to Rose and calls, "Is this how we go out? Not with a bang, but with two Porters?"

Waiting... WAITING! Bullet just shakes her head and almost vibrates with boredom. After all, hours are passing here while she waits in line! Finally!... She gets to the counter and smiles at the barrista. "One of the Porter Specials please." she remarks as she slides some cash over. She doesn't actually -vanish- this time. After all, shaking it all up and spilling most of it is Porter's job, not hers. She strides out front and .... then she looks from Porter to Porter. "Um..." and she just holds out the cup of coffee hesitantly...

Rose lifts a finger. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." She intones. "In this case that would be the Porter who has not adopted the shape of someone else in even creepier circumstances than these." She ppauses to stare at the scene for a moment before small voice in Eden's mind ssoftly says: <>

Wait a minute.

Wait just one minute here!

Malcolm shifts his stare back to the Porters again. Something troubles the tall man as he stares until long after Bullet has arrived with coffee. He frowns sourly and comments, "Don't beat up Gabrielle's shadow, Porter," before glancing over toward the curb line and whining, "I liked that apple too."

What happens when a stoppable force meets a moveable object? Porter has his fist up, cocked back, and then. Blinks. Stops. "Wait. What?" He noticed something odd, but wasn't sure what it was. And not odd in there being another of him.

The window Porter perks up at the mention of Gabrielle. "Hello, Handsome!" he greets Malcolm. It's the name he's heard Gabrielle use for him all the time, after all.

"... Aaaaaaand it cycled back around to creepy," comments Malcolm, his attention drawn away from the lamentable loss of his apple.

"So, no coffee then?" asks Bullet. She looks to Malcolm, "Um, Double-U, Tee, Eff?" she asks him aloud as she looks back towards the Porter duo.

Porter may never stop blinking. Or openining his mouth and not saying anything. He finally gets out. "Ok. That's not really me." He points at the one perking and complimenting Mal. Then he sidesteps to reach out for the coffee Bullet has. Because he can definitely use a drink.

"Adopting someone's shape is kind of invasive and open to abuse. It leaves the person you're duplicating feeling violated so this may be an opportune moment to reconsider if this is such a good idea." Rose enunciates slowly and carefully as she advances on the gathering.

Window Porter seems oblivious to Rose's warning. Or he just doesn't understand a word that she just said. "Gabrielle. Safe?" he asks hopefully, his attention on Malcolm.

"Of course she's safe," replies Malcolm, smiling quixotically. It may take some spring break liquor to cleanse his mind of the memory of a Porter saying Grimm's traditional opening line to him. He rubs the back of his head a little bit, shooting a glance toward the similarly approaching Rose with a little smile and a shrug before he looks back to the Shadow. "Time to go home, don't you think?"

"Home?" The mimic Porter asks dumbfoundedly. He looks to Rose finally and opens his mouth to say something. Then closes it again. "I'm sorry?"

"To Gabrielle?" inquires Malcolm of Shadow Porter.

Shadow Porter's eyes widen. "Can't. She sent me away. Don't get caught. She told me."

Rose nods slightly. "Why would you be in danger of being caught?" Her head tilts fractionally, lips pursing. "That would suggest that not only you are in danger but Miss Grimm is as well. Howlong has it been since anyone here was in contact with her?"

On the bright side, turns out Porter didn't have to look too hard to find Gabrielle's shadow. He snatches up the paper cup and takes a long sip. On the bad side, he did wonder if something like this was the problem. He sighs. "She's safe. She just didn't remember sending you away. And couldn't find you to tell you to come back..."

Shadow Porter just shakes his head and repeats, "Don't get caught."

Rose nods. "It's very important not to get caught, which means you should go to somewhere where people don't expect you. Whoever was trying to cath you now knows that Miss Grimm has no shadow, so they won't look for you near her."

"Somewhere where people don't expect you," Shadow Porter ponders. He's fond of repeating people. Or maybe that's all he can do. He's thinking very, very hard, though.

Suddenly, Shadow Porter looks like he has an idea. Uh oh.

Rose nods. "Or you should stay near Mister Porter. Becuase you're very good at emulating his behaviour patterns, so it's a very good disguise, anyone trying to catch you will catch Porter instead, because his bad luck will make it happen."

Shadow Porter looks at Rose blankly. And then suddenly he looks like she's come up with a brilliant plan. "Where people don't expect me!" He suddenly vanishes and flickers into existance next to Porter. His clothes begin to shift subtly to match Porter's current outfit. Then he looks down at Porter's hand. The one with the coffee cup in it. And extends his hand in the same pose, but holding air. Shadows form around his hand in the shape of a vague coffee cup, and then suddenly materialize into an exact color copy of Porter's cup.

There's a mispelling on the text of Porter's shirt. When he moves to drink from his cup, he just lifts the cup and lowers it without trying to actually drink it. Shadow Porter fails at seeming very human.

Rose looks to Porter. "Now all Porter has to do is under no circumstances go to where Miss Grimm is. He should totally go to someother place where Miss Grimm will totally not be able to sort the situation out."

"Not get caught?" Shadow Porter asks to confirm. "Catch Porter instead?"

It's Ok. Porter can fail at that alot, too. Even sipping coffee, because some dribbles down his shirt as he nods to Rose. "Yeah. I'll make sure I do that. Or not do that." Then he nods to the Shadow. "Don't worry. You won't get caught."

Shadow Porter smirks. Because it thinks that is the same as a smile. At least the smirk is very Porterish. He nods decisively.

What? So now the fate of a naive, innocent being that is trying to learn through imitation is in Porter's hands? Oh great. Er. Wait. That sounds strangely familiar...

Rose nods. "Don't get caught. Stay near Porter, he's good bait for the bad guys, they won't catch you." She smiles and looks to Porter. "Sometime fate serves up a heaping helping of irony."

Porter returns the smile. It's nice to see Rose in a good mood. Even if it's at his expense. Besides, she actually came up with a really smart idea. Not the he expected anything different. "Yeah, fate just loves me. Us," he fixes, looking to his copy. "Us. Stick with me, and everything'll be ... Ok."

Shadow Porter looks to Porter Porter. "Stick with me, and everything'll be ... Ok." Right, hearing that back, does it really sound encouraging?

Rose nods firmly. "Good to see that there is a positive outlook and party unity is strong. Where angels fear to trade... it's probably becuase there's double the normal quota of Porter's in the area. Anyway, I should be returning home. Eden will be wondering if got crushed by a weights machine."

Porter nods. Because he can't argue with Rose. Not on anything she's brought up, anyway. He nods to her. "Go let her know you're not crushed." Then he gestures with the cup to his other self. "C'mon. Let'

Porter nods. Because he can't argue with Rose. Not on anything she's brought up, anyway. He nods to her. "Go let her know you're not crushed." Then he gestures with the cup to his other self. "C'mon. Let's get you somewhere you won't get caught."

Shadow Porter gestures back at Porter with his shadow cup. "Let's get."