Mutant Multiverse

Life was busy lately.. especially considering the things going on around. Cadmus moving in and reuniting with his twin not long after? Meeting Jesse and then suddenly rekindling that previously unknown sibling relationship?

Elsa's head was spinning.

Between Cad in the bedroom and Jesse on the couch, Els had opted to creep into the still cluttered guest room to sleep for the night and now that it was 'morning', it was time to jumpstart the day.

Bacon sizzles noisily and other pans heated in the kitchen, music trickling from the little stereo sitting on the windowsill nearby.
It took a hit minute but eventually Elsa was hollering.

"Guys, breakfast!"

Jesse still wasn't sure what he was doing. He shouldn't be here. It was an inconvenience, and it wasn't really necessary. He needed to suck it up and go home. And... other places. But right now, the unfamiliarity was somehow comforting. The change of scenery was good for his still reeling mind.

He'd slept like a brick. Even the smell of vacon cooking hadn't roused him. But the voice calling out did. He jerked awake, eyes staring across the unfamiliar room for a moment before he sat up with a groan.

After rubbing his hands over his face a few times he stood up and followed the smells. Smile was offered when he saw Elsa there, cooking.

"You didn't have to do that... but thank you." Arms lifted over his head to stretch before he walked over to pluck a piece of bacon from the pan. He realized that he hadn't eaten more than a few mouthfuls in the last twenty four hours and he was starving...

Cadmus seemed to sleep a little better recently. Meeting up with Phineas and clearing the air a little, questions answered... it really eased the mind. Similarly to Jesse, Cad had slept pretty soundly through the night. Unlike Jesse, however... the smell of cooking bacon was ultimately what awoken the guy from his slumber.

He'd get up, grabbing his hoodie and sliding it on, grey sweatpants retrieved from the floor and after performing the sniff test, he'd toss them on too before making his way toward the kitchen.

Hands lifted to rub sleep from his eyes as he took a look around, nose twitching to that godly smell, "Surprise bacon is my favourite." Eyes would follow Jesse as he plucked the bacon from the pan, "You know that kinda move is illegal, right? The first piece of bacon is a sacred thing..."

When the sound of both boys getting up and around started, Elsa canted and twisted her head around to peer at Jesse as he approached, "Morning squirt." She wondered how rough the night had been but as he moved in to grab the bacon right from the pan like a fucking heathen she'd chuckle, "Ehhh dont think anything about it."

As though on cue for food, Cadmus's voice had her dropping new slices into the skillet to cook and she'd chortle, "Sacred? Like your fuckin wet towel parade?"

The smile was proof she was only joking, setting breakfast out on plates for the pair before getting her own, "Cadmus, this is my baby brother Jesse. Jesse this is Cadmus. Cadbury. Yeah."

Jesse was just lifting that piece of bacon to his mouth when the red dude walked in. He didn’t stop the trajectory of that food, popping it into his mouth as he was given a playful lecture about breaking the law of bacon. He smirked, giving a shrug of his shoulders. “Nah, that rule is only for boyfriends. Brothers are exempt.”

He stepped out of the way as Elsa came through with plates and started getting food ready. His hands were wiped on his pants as he turned attention back to Cadmus, right hand extended to the guy. “Hey, nice to meet you.” He decided not to call him Cadbury to his face, though that nickname might be forever stuck in his head now.

He took a plate after it was fixed up and plopped himself down at the table. “I promise, I’m not here long. I’ll be outta yer hair before you know it.” Thankfully he was usually good on his word. He didn’t have any intentions of turning into a bum that never left the couch. I mean, he didn’t even have a change of clothes with him so he couldn’t stay long, right?

He dug into the plate of food, not realizing how hungry he was until he started in on it. After a moment he paused for a breath and looked over at Elsa, fork pointing at his plate. “This is good. Maybe I won’t leave.” Smirk was evidence that he was just teasing.

Cadmus... paused, eyes narrowing somewhat as Jesse began to speak. What did he know? He'd look over to Elsa, then back to Jesse as he took a seat at the table, stretching his arms out at his sides as a long yawn escaped his mouth.

Ignoring the 'boyfriend' comment, Cadmus offered up a nod to Jesse, "Yeah, you too." Attention diverted to Elsa as she placed his plate down, smirk crossing his lips as she made mention of the wet towels, "Well, hey... I cleared them up, didn't I?"

Attention was soon brought to his food, and he'd shovel some of that bacon into his mouth, eventually looking back up to Jesse, "Where you leavin' to? You got another place?" he'd ask, "If you can handle the odd lead pipe attack then the bacon is worth sticking around for."

The blonde almost missed the teasing boyfriend comment, fork stopping mid lift to her mouth and cheeks flushed dark, "Wh- we arent.. we're not dating." She was almost as red as Cad now and it only prompted her to bury her face in her plate.

She didnt know what they were except smooch buddies!

The compliment of food earned a chuckle, shaking her head, "This? Nah this is just standard college kid food.. thanks though." Scratching at the back of her head, she'd work her jaw, "Jesse has a place with his foster folks but it's been super hectic. His brother is the radio host of that one place that uh.. just.. yknow." Subtle.. but not really.

Eyes settled on Cadbury, nose wrinkling, "Only after I busted in on you in the shower shrieking to a glam rock song. Amazing what that does to someone to motivate them. And hey. I haven't attacked you since I met you."

Jesse didn’t know anything, but he suspected. It was no skin off his back what the two of them were. Made no difference to him at all. But it made for good teasing material. Afterall, look at how red his sis got from that little comment! It made him grin, and that made it worth it. Because for just a few minutes it allowed him to forget what else was going on.

He kept quiet after that, eyes going back and forth between the other two as they talked about wet towels, pipe attacks, and… walking in on the red man in the shower? He smirked, shook his head, but kept quiet. There’d be plenty of time later to carry on with the teasings. At least, he assumed there would be. Of course, he’d assumed the same thing about him and Tesh, and here he was…

“Yeah, just need a day or two to clear my head, that’s all. Change of scenery, ye know?” He was hiding. Plain and simple. He was hiding from all his own problems. It was easier than facing them. At least for now. Eventually he’d have to suck it up and deal with it all, though.

He'd remain relatively silent as Elsa explained their... whatever it was. He himself hadn't put a huge amount of thought into it, mind so muddled with everything that had gone down recently that he'd just been happy with... whatever it was he and Elsa had between them. Certainly helped take his mind off of everything else that was going on.

Cad swallowed down a mouthful of bacon, scoffing at Elsa's comment.

"You can't blame a guy for having a great taste in music."

He'd move past the comment about the recent radio station incident... probably best to leave that kind of conversation for somewhere other than the breakfast table. He'd look back over to Jesse, "You've come to the sewers for a 'change of scenery'?" he'd question, "Sorry but I'm not so sure I want to see where you usually stay."

"It's no prob Jesse.. I promise. And if you need more time, I don't mind crashing on the sofa so that you can take the spare room. All things considered its probably not a bad idea. Things are starting to get hairy up there.." Jaw worked and she'd rub the back of her neck, "How are you gonna handle the backlash of everything? Because if there's one thing I know is what starts a riot."

Her breakfast was finished relatively quickly, chuckling at Cadmus's reply to her comment, "Mmm yeah I guess but I could argue you got good taste in women too." Wait. .did she just.. A wink was sent the red man's way nonchalantly before lifting up from the table to wander to the television, "So anyway boys, there's no running to do or anything like that. We can wander the city, we could go topside for a bit or we could just watch tv... Tv sounds good."

Plonking down into the cushions, Elsa settled in and flipped on the screen in time to see a familiar green figure with.. oh..

oh no.

The longer she stared at the screen, sitting forward slowly, her mutation began to spazz and launched her through numerous hair and face changes, hands coming up to cover her mouth.

Jesse laughed at Cadmus's words, shaking his head as he scraped the last bits of food from his plate. "Nah, it's not like that. I just needed different scenery, thats all." Different scenery, different (or no) memories.

He looked over at his sister when she offered to let him take the spare room. "Oh, no. The couch is fine and really, you won't even know I'm around." He considered asking why she had the spare room when this was her place vut decided it wasn't worth getting into right now.

When she started to tease Cadmus he just got up with his now empty plate, took it to the sink, and rinsed it. He followed to the living room after the fact. "Yeah, TV is good." He didn't want to go topside, see people he might know, hear chatter about the radio station, and DK...

As he rounded the couch to take a sear he noticed Elsa going all wonky. He stared at her, the tv, and then Cadmus. Lucky for him, he'd never known their mother so he had no idea that was who was being shown on the television. "Hey uh... is she okay?"

Cadmus would blush upon hearing Elsa's retort... except, he was already red, so there wouldn't be any obvious sign that he was phased by it. Eyes followed her as she moved over to the couch, Cadmus finishing up his bacon and moving off to put the plate in the sink. He wouldn't rinse it, but at least he hadn't left it lying around like a wet towel. Maybe he'd do it later.

For now, at least, he'd silently agree that TV was a great idea, arms stretching out at his sides as he followed the others into the living room.

"Look, don't worry. I'll sleep on the couch. I only use your room because you seem so insis..." he'd pause as he moved through the doorway, head tilting and eyes widening as he spotted Elsa's mutation going haywire.

"...tent. E-Elsa?" He'd finish, taking a few more steps toward the couch, looking toward Jesse with a puzzled expression, "I uh... I don't... This is uhh... new?" The TV hadn't even entered into his attention by this point, redman simply taking a knee beside the couch as he inspected the rapidly changing woman.

The few images available of the stranger on screen were all Elsa truly needed to connect the dots.. that was their mother.. or at least some version of her that was most likely just as shitty as their original was.

Hands lifted and ran over her chin, trembling violently from the flashbacks of trauma that had led up to her eventual hyper mutation to spiral and lock her into that permanent form.. what was this one like? Were they all inherently bad in every timeline?

Cadmus's check in had a flinch, Elsa sinking further back into the cushions with haunted eyes, "Huh? I- n-no you're fine.. I mean honestly if its not weird we could even just bunk up." Hands slid up, framing her face as she tried to come to terms with what she was seeing, "That's our mother on screen- whatever version of her- but its still her.. And if she's in the city there's a good chance she's looking for any children she 'released' ."

Jesse just stood there, staring back and forth between the two of them as Elsa wigged out and Cadmus offered his comfort. He had no idea what the problem was.

But then she was talking about their mother and Jesse found himself sitting on the arm rest of the couch, staring at the unfamiliar woman on the television screen. His mom. Their mom.

"What does that mean... looking for the children she released? What the fuck does she want with any of us?" He didn't know her the way Elsa did. He disliked her for an entirely different reason than she did. This was completely foreign territory...

Cad ignored the comment about 'bunking up', not quite as concerned with sleeping arrangements at the moment as he was with Elsa's well being. He'd seen her use her powers before... but this? He knew what it was like to have his mutation overload, but at least for him he only had one other 'form'. Switching so rapidly between multiple transformations? Not good.

He'd lean closer toward her, an arm moving to wrap around her shoulder as he shook his head,

"No. Like you said, probably a version of her but... Well, you're the second Elsa I've known and you're pretty different." He'd watch her, noting how troubled the news had made her, "Don't know what your mother was like in your world but uh... maybe this 'mother' is different?"

The sudden stress of everything was momentarily alleviated the moment that Cadmus hooked his arm around those scrawny shoulders. Huge blue eyes stared up, fingers trembling from where she'd set them on her lap before glancing down. Maybe she was different? Jaw worked slowly and Els would stretch her legs out, beginning to bounce them to try and channel all the nerves coursing through her very core.

"Maybe.. I.. Its not likely if we're being entirely honest. Or maybe it is and I'm just a distrustful dick."

It wasn't until Jesse spoke up that she'd run her tongue over her lips, hesitant to speak on it, "Mom ah.. So.. Mom in my timeline was a mutant terrorist who ran a collective called The Carnival. It was just a group of shit lords who operated as a traveling circus to steal and damage shit. But she would.. Have kids. Like a lot of kids along the way. If you weren't mutant enough- as in didn't immediately display powers or some form of mutation she would just.." Hands gave a vague gesture to Jesse himself as a person, eyes sliding in sockets to stare at him, "...Its why you wound up in foster care without a doubt. I already looked into it and the one from this dimension has been dead for a loooong ass time. But seeing this report? She's probably fucking no good either."

Jesse gave Elsa a hard time for whatever it was she and Cadmus had. But it was just brotherly love. He was happy she had someone close. Especially right now. He watched quietly as she seemed to settle, at least a little bit, from his comfort.

Somehow he haf managed to avoid meeting any duplicate people in his life, so he couldn't really relate with any of that. But it seemed so weird to think about. Despite being an EDE himself and not truly belonging here, it was hard to imagine another Elsa, or another Raven, or hell, another one of himself. Weird.

But, currently he was more worried about this mother figure. He gave a snort when Elsa gestured at him. It made more sense now. There had never veen a noted reason for him being in the system. Go figure. And now, what? She'd want him back because he turned out to be something, afterall? Well, to hell with that. It was a good thing he kept his own powers quiet. "Yeah, well. Fuck her."

He'd shake his head. Honestly, he'd never really stopped to think about the complexities of inter-dimensional familial relationships. He hadn't even really heard much about Jesse or how he and Elsa had worked out they were related... and now, a mother? It was hard enough for him to reconnect with Phineas... and even then, for Cadmus, they'd only been apart for a couple of months.

He'd keep his arm around Elsa, shifting only to find a spot on the couch.

"Sounds like a real asshole." He'd respond, eyes fixed on the news report as he listened to the other two speak.

Eventually, he'd pipe up again,

"Can't say I remember a version of her from this world... Did you find out what happened to the 'her' of... uh... this place?" He'd confuse himself a little. Life would've been so much easier if all these dimensions just kinda... didn't bleed into each other. Then again, he'd probably still be trapped in the egg...

"Assuming this version is as much of an asshole... What do we do? If she's looking for you guys..." He'd sigh, "I mean... maybe not a great idea to go topside for a little while."