JGOB, Saturday Afternoon

[reicicled]

Look, Bobby was still disappointed that none of the food he and Uma had attempted to smuggle out from the Danger Shop earlier this week had actually turned out to be real. Not because he actually had a habit of hoarding food for survival... he just liked food. Like, a lot.

So of course during his first real foray into exploring the town he ended up in the bakery.

"I'll take... one of everything." Decisions were hard, and this way he didn't have to make any! But wait, it'd be rude to come back to the room without anything for his partner-in-food-smuggling. "No, two of everything."

Honestly, the staff didn't even blink at the request. This was Fandom, after all. They'd seen far weirder than an indecisive, hungry teenager.

Comments

[momslilassassin]

"That is a lot of--Bobby?!" Ben said, giving him a huge grin. "Granddad said something vague about you being back!"

[reicicled]

Well, there was a lot of Bobby, actually. Just ask Jono. Or Kitty. They'd confirm.

"Uh, hi?" Bobby said, hesitantly. "I'm not back. I just got here a few weeks ago." This was gonna be another person who knew older-him, wasn't it?

[momslilassassin]

"Ohhhh," Ben said. "That's why Granddad was vague. You're a different one than who I knew. Unless you've ever seen Warren do live-action Angry Bird?"

He'd remember that, right?

[reicicled]

Bobby nodded. "I get that a lot, it's cool," he said, with a kind of resigned eyeroll. "... I don't know what an Angry Bird is but it sounds hilarious."

[momslilassassin]

"It's this game on your phone where birds get flung at...well, barrels and stuff. In my defense, we were really drunk. And Tony Stark was there."

Tony was always a good excuse.

[reicicled]

"... Isn't Tony Stark kind of old?" Bobby squinted at Ben. He, Bobby could buy hanging out with the older-him who wasn't as old as the other older him, but Tony Stark? Nah.

[momslilassassin]

"Different Tony," Ben said. "I went to school with him. You get used to it. Rumor has it that there have been, like, ten different guys named Harry Potter. They never last."

[reicicled]

"I've never met anyone named Harry Potter," Bobby mused. "Wonder if it means that sort of thing isn't just confined to people from my version... versions? Of reality." That was kind of comforting, in a way. "Older me is never gonna believe that in-between us knew Tony Stark as a teenager though."

[momslilassassin]

Ben laughed. "He's one of my best friends, despite the weird mustache thing."

[reicicled]

"...Weird mustache thing?" Bobby asked. "Also, uh. So you know who I am thanks to knowing another me, but I don't know who you are..."

[momslilassassin]

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Ben said, blushing. "I'm Ben Skywalker."

[reicicled]

"Skywalker," Bobby echoed. "Like the teacher with the robes! So... time travel thing?" he guessed. "Or he's older than he looks?"

[momslilassassin]

"Time travel thing," Ben said. "I'm his grandson. If you ask him, he's still 25."

[reicicled]

Bobby absolutely was not going to snicker. "Right, of course," he nodded. "Bet that makes family get-togethers fun."

[momslilassassin]

"Oh, it's very weird," Ben said, laughing. "We all look the same age, then we call him 'Granddad' really loudly and he gets very annoyed. So I ask if his hearing's going."

Ben: such a little shit.

[reicicled]

... Oh now Bobby was going to outright cackle. "And I thought the face my older self made the first time someone thought we were father and son was hilarious, I bet that was epic."

[momslilassassin]

"It's astral," Ben said, laughing. "And the best part is that he does it every. single. time."

[reicicled]

"That's amazing," Bobby snickered. His expression then turned somewhat serious as something occurred to him. "Hey," he said slowly. "Can I ask you something?"

[momslilassassin]

"Of course," Ben said earnestly. "What's on your mind?"

[reicicled]

"You knew this other me," and had gotten drunk with him a few times, which at least indicated they were friendly, if not actual friends. "Was he- was he happy?"

This was a thing he worried about, okay.

[momslilassassin]

"I think so," Ben said, frowning thoughtfully. "He never seemed unhappy. Why? Are you not happy here?"

[reicicled]

“No!” Bobby said quickly. “Actually, it’s been pretty fun here so far. It’s just that, okay, I also know an older version of me? And things didn’t work out so great for him in some ways,” he shrugged. “I dunno, I guess I just want to make sure I do things differently, you know?” And coming to Fandom was supposed to be one of those things.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded sympathetically. "One thing I know about in having a billion relatives run through the place over the years is that it's very tempting to try to change history--sometimes it even works."

Not for Anakin Solo, but other things.

[reicicled]

“Well, going back to my original time isn’t an option, apparently,” Bobby shrugged. “So it’s not so much about changing history, as just... making sure I don’t end up making the same kinds of choices, I guess.”

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "I know what you mean," he said. "I've seen a different version of me and he doesn't seem as happy as I am, but I met my husband here, so that was definitely a path changer, you know?"