The Magic Box, Wednesday

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

It occurred to Elsa that she really didn't know quite how to get in touch with Rinoa if there were things she wanted to ask her about. Things, like, say, going into the back room and pulling out all of the potentially dangerous reading material that Rinoa had packed safely away when she'd first opened shop here. The books out front were all fine and well if you wanted to learn about spirit animals or international myths and superstitions, but there wasn't anything up here that seemed solid enough to really be useful, given what was going on around the island right now.

Given what Joker had told her about Eleanor.

So, if she was going to pull risky, powerful books out from the back room, she was going to have to be discreet about it. Only a few at a time, and she'd silently read them while holding them out of view, just below the counter. So far... so far there was nothing about rifts or swapping people out for other versions of themselves. She'd found a spell that could trade the minds of a person and a cat, and another one to create miniature vortexes to a Hell dimension in case you wanted to banish cockroaches away, but she was filing both of those under, "Wait, what? Why?"

[OOC: Open! OCD-free!]

Comments

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

The door opened and Jamie Madrox walked through it. He took big breath, inhaling the sights and smells of the Magic Box and sighed happily.

"Oh sweet magical ingredients of goodness at last I have found you!" he exclaimed.

He then spotted the girl manning the shop at gave her a jaunty salute.

"Hi there. My name is Jamie Madrox and I'll be your customer for the day."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"The entire day?" Elsa quickly shut the book she was flipping through and shoved it into a drawer behind the counter. "And my only customer? You're not planning on chasing everybody else out, are you?"

Because that would just be rude, Jamie.

"I'm Elsa, and I suppose I'll be your... magic store clerk for the day?"

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Well I don't know about being your only customer," Jamie said as he sniffed some of the reagents that were on display. "And I promise not to drive anyone else away. I just arrived here from the future and I'm missing some of my stock items so I was hoping-"

Just then door opened and another Jamie Madrox walked through it. He took big breath, inhaling the sights and smells of the Magic Box and sighed happily.

"Oh sweet magical ingredients of goodness at last I have found you!" the dupe exclaimed.

"Dude! You're not supposed to be here! I told you to go talk to the principal!" Jamie yelled at the dupe.

"No way," the dupe said shaking his head. "I was supposed to get the reagents, you're supposed to talk to the principal and that other guy is supposed to find the mayor."

"Well I'm already here. Go talk to the principal."

"No way. You go talk to the principal."

"I'm not talking to the principal. You do it. I've already started here."

"No way! What if the principal is worse than Underwood? Forget about it."

Jamie groaned and absorbed his duplicate into himself. "Sorry about that. He really wasn't another customer because he was really me. Apparently I have to do everything myself today."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

And now Elsa was going to just sit there, wide-eyed, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened.

"... Did you just merge with your... twin?"

Because two people who looked the same, she could wrap her head around, but there were some things that even a tiny ice princess needed a moment to absorb. So to speak.

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Not exactly a twin," Jamie said with a small grin. "More like a duplicate. I'm what's called a mutant. I have the ability to turn kinetic energy into a fully formed duplicate of myself. I can then later absorb the duplicate and retain all his knowledge. I've been that way since birth."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Elsa sat back, wide-eyed, and swallowed a little. "I... Well."

Very eloquent, Elsa. Well done.

"So this is normal? I'm still working on getting a handle on 'weird' around here. Fandom seems to have its own definition of the word."

She kind of had a long way to go.

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Normal? No," Jamie said shaking his head. "Then again, normal for me is a different level than most people's normal. Though Fandom usually exceeds that level of normalcy."

He shrugged. "No, I've had this power since I was born. My parents tried to hide my power by dressing me up in a ridiculous suit so I couldn't duplicate. It was far from normal but then again most mutants ever have a normal life."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Oh, that was... Well. Elsa was staring at him some more, which probably wasn't very useful for conversation, at least. She'd gone a little more pale and was biting her lip, too.

"Your parents tried to hide you?" She pulled in a slow breath, and then ventured, "Why? Why wouldn't they want you to... duplicate?"

Did he hurt someone?

Or were they afraid?

[toomanyofme.livejournal.com]

"Well, where I'm from mutants aren't exactly well liked," Jamie said pulling out a picture (http://www.uncannyxmen.net/images/spotlight/multiple02.jpg) of himself as a boy with his parents. "In some cases we get persecuted by others. I'm sure they were just trying to protect-"

He paused a second when he looked up and saw Elsa's expression.

"Are you okay?"

[angelo_wings]

Lady Caraway wasn't finding much information, but she wasn't about to give up so easily. There was a magic store on the island; surely some of the items there might indicate what was going on, with the temporal rifts that had been appearing.

She had taken some of the Lieutenant Commander and Mr. St-- Jono's advice, such as it was, and toned down her wardrobe a touch. Not quite street clothes, obviously, but considerably less outlandish than her usual.

"Good afternoon," she greeted the girl at the counter. "Would you mind telling me where the reference materials are?"

(fleeing for work but wanted to establish her here first! SP ok??)

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Sorry, Lady Caraway, Elsa needed to kind of sit there and stare, wide-eyed, as she absorbed that whole...

...

...

Dress?

"They're toward the back, Rinoa," she ventured, a touch warily. "Except for the potentially dangerous ones. They're in the back room, locked away." A beat. "Mostly."

[angelo_wings]

The Sorceress stopped, turning to glance at the blonde girl.

"I'm ... sorry," she said. "I'm usually much better at faces. You are ... ?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm... Elsa?" She blinked back at the woman, kind of shrinking back a little. "I work here. You hired me."

There was another moment's hesitation, before she ventured, "Unless you're not Rinoa. Apparently that's been happening a lot around here, lately."

[angelo_wings]

Lady Caraway stared. "No, my ... my name is Rinoa," she said. "Lady Caraway. But I certainly ... I don't own this shop. Did you say that I hired you?"

Another Rinoa, then. Their host had said as much. It was still unnerving, hearing of another her befriending people and going on adventures all while wearing her own face.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Possibly not you," Elsa replied apologetically, falling into a curtsy as she realized her slight. If she had known it wasn't the Rinoa she was slightly more familiar with...

But then, 'Caraway' was a name she'd never heard, either.

"My apologies. There was somebody that was startlingly like you, though perhaps not half as extravagantly dressed. She owns this shop, and she's the one that hired me."

[angelo_wings]

Lady Caraway returned the curtsy with one of her own; she bowed her head respectfully to the girl.

"I've heard there was another version of myself wandering about," she said. "I shouldn't be so surprised that she's made herself known to other people, but it's still startling to hear. I suppose it's only fitting that it's a magic shop."

She gestured to her gown. "I'm being formal today, that's all," she said. "People expect a bit of grandeur from a Sorceress."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"It's... surprising that she's made herself known as a sorceress... but you're dressing formally because that's what people expect of one?" Elsa allowed herself the faintest hint of a smile. "If you'll pardon my asking... if she's another you, why would her being open about what she is be any more surprising than the fact that you are?"

While Elsa herself buried hers good and deep, thank you.

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Most of the shops were pretty self-explanatory around here, but Amelia hadn't been able to figure out what, exactly, the magic shop was supposed to do.

(A Materia shop was totally different, after all.)

So after puzzling over the display, which was rather beyond her understand, Amelia braved the shop enough to peer inside. The best part of peering inside? Finding out that she recognized the girl behind the counter.

"Oh! Hi Elsa!" Amelia wriggled inside, splendid in a pink tutu (http://yoursparklebox.com/images/smglitterpink2.jpg) and wandered up to the counter. She stood on her tiptoes to get a better look over it. "What's a magic shop?"

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Amelia!" Elsa gave her a warm smile as she leaned over the counter, putting away the book she'd been leafing through. "A magic shop is where they sell bits and pieces of things that people need for... magic spells, I suppose. Mostly, that's candles, stones, and incense, from what I've seen so far."

And apparently some of those candles smelled like snails, and the polish for those stones liked to watch you as you went about your daily duties.

"You're looking very lovely today," she added, motioning to the dress.

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

That was way creepier than a Materia shop. She thought about that.

Amelia smiled up at Elsa. "Thank you," she said. "I am going to watch Kenzi audition today, so I'm dressed up for her."

Please note that that was totally her excuse for the day for wearing it. She'd have worn it anyway.

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"Oh? You're going to watch an audition?" Elsa didn't know Kenzi, really, but the idea of an audition was intriguing, at the very least. "What's she auditioning for?"

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"Ummmm." Amelia had to think about that. "Giselle, I think. It's a ballet."

Amelia bounced on her toes.

"She looks really pretty when she practices. I want to be like her when I'm bigger."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa knew what a ballet was, at least, though she'd never heard of Giselle.

"Well, if you practice too, I'm certain you can be," she offered. "I bet that dress you're wearing twirls outward very nicely, too."

She'd never really been the skirt-twirling sort, but her sister Anna? All the time.

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"It does, it does! Look!"

Amelia stepped away from the counter to spin around in circles, her tutu swirling out around her.

She grinned up at Elsa, looking a touch dizzy, once she stopped spinning. "Kenzi's teaching me a little, but she's been really busy with practice for the audition."

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"I bet she's very excited," Elsa replied, covering her mouth with one hand to hide her smile as she tried not to laugh. "I'm afraid I don't know how to dance, so I can't teach you any while she's preparing. Why don't you teach me what you know, instead?"