Ollie Ollie Oxen Free *OPEN*

[proper_twinkie]

Of course Stryker would be nowhere to be found. There was only this huge catastrophe happening. Nothing he should concern himself with. She needed a drink but she didn't feel like walking all the way to the pub if there was no guarantee they would even serve her. Betsy was still tall for her age but her face left no doubt as to her womanly status

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[uptonogod]

Okay. Okay, shit officially sucked balls, here. Big...scary ones. Jamie had managed to steal a pair of shorts from an npcMP and thankfully, they were like long pants on him. And the socks he wore went up to his knees.

God Damn, he was a short kid. He'd pulled his red hoodie on over the oversized sweater he wore, pulled a stolen hat on his head (A cowboy one. Don't ask.) and made his way to the garage.

There was a bottle of Root Beer Schnapps he'd send a dupe into town for and he wanted it. Right now.

His shoes were still a problem, however. There were no kidsized shoes in camp and when he finally arrived at the garage, he'd tripped over them and taken out a small tool rack. The four Jamie's that were on the floor all shielded their heads, yelling in turn when tools smacked against them for a moment.

They held still. That was embarrassing and someone had to have heard it and he was so so screwed, wasn't he?

[proper_twinkie]

Instinctively, she ducked when she heard the clatter but then rolled her eyes at herself. Slowly, she stood back up and walked softly until she saw all the kids on the floor.

It took a second for her to realize they were all the same kid. She stared until she found dark eyes. "Jamie? It's you isn't it? Bloody hell. Ha! I knew it would be down here. Where'd you put it? I plan to drink until puberty's over."

[uptonogod]

Jamie didn't look for a moment. He was trying to reabsorb his duplicates and wincing each time he obtained a new injury. Fucking dupes. When he was done, he sat up with a groan, holding the back of his head a moment.

He wasn't sure who he was looking at until the 'bloody hell'. "What?" A pause and then he figured it out. "Oh. That."

Standing, he made his way to a jeep with a tarp over it. The engine was open, the whole thing taken apart. It had stopped working a few days ago and no one could figure out why. If they'd just turn around the spark plug that Jamie had messed with, it'd be fine. As it was, it was the perfect place to stash his contraband.

Jamie pulled open one of the doors and pointed at a duffel bag stuffed under the seat.

"Right there."

[proper_twinkie]

"Oy! I could kiss you." She announced happily snatching the bag to see what he had. She would have checked the jeep eventually... maybe.

"I can't decide if that was a brilliant hiding place or not. Forge said something about working on a jeep and from what I can tell he's quiet remarkable as a mechanic. You could have lost all this." Her smile got a little wider. "There's a lot in here."

[forgebyfire]

"It's not a good place to keep contraband," came a sour voice from the doorway. Forge closed the door behind him. He had to pick up his feet a little higher than he would have otherwise because his shoes were a bit large but at least he was used to walking with a real leg again instead of tottering around like a colt. "It was you hiding that stuff in there?" he asked, pointing at the kid on the jeep. He wasn't sure who he was.

He'd started to turn his attention to the girl when he noticed his tools. "Gods, what happened?" For a moment he put a hand over his eyes and just asked whoever would answer for strength--then he headed to pick up the things from the ground.

Kids.

[uptonogod]

Jamie was smirking at his success! Truly, he was a genius for what he'd done. This made him so very very h--

Jamie startled at the voice, big eyes going to the older boy and his jaw dropping. Well, shit. Now what? Damn it. This sucked a lot. Jamie looked from the bottle in his hand to the boy that'd just come in and back again before holding it out and smirking.

"Want some?"

[proper_twinkie]

Betsy snorted and shoved the bag back into Jamie's arms and went over to help clean up. "Think you could have made a bigger mess?" She didn't know where anything went so she just started piling everything up on the table for Forge to do.

When they were all off the floor, she made her way back to Jamie and rifled through to see if he had anything other than Schnaps.

[forgebyfire]

Forge nodded his appreciation of the girl's help before pausing in what he was doing to turn at the boy's question. "No I do not--"

His words died off as a second thought occured to him. The first was duty. The second was this was entirely FUBAR'ed and why the hell not? Wouldn't it take the worst edge off his new and improved nerves? Forge sighed. "Yeah. Maybe I do." Leaving the tools piled on the table, he followed in the girl's wake toward the jeep and the boy, taking the alcohol out of his hands. "You're too young to drink, though." He twisted off the cap and looked at both of them. "Who are you?"

[uptonogod]

Jamie gave an indignant snort, rolling his eyes. Too young? was he kidding? "I am not. Despite appearances, I'm twenty one years old. My name is Jamie."

Now for the guy to actually believe him. He started digging through his bag, finally pulling out a bottle of brandy and handing it to Betsy before grabbing his own bottle. He cracked it open and took a swallow, sputtering slightly. Did it always burn that much going down? Holy shit.

"Who're you?" he asked when he'd stopped coughing. He ignored the duplicate that had appeared when he'd first started sputtering.

[proper_twinkie]

"You sure you're not a mindreader?" Betsy said when he handed her the brandy. It was even her brand and a sight for sore eyes. The bottle was bulky and as undignified as it was she had to use both hands to drink from it.

It burned so bad her eyes watered but managed to not cough or spit it out. "Hoo!" she gasped when she could speak. "Perfect."

Her gaze swung around to Forge. It took a second but she recognized him. With shorter hair she could see his eyes. There was no way someone else could have such thick curly eyelashes. "Betsy. We met."

[forgebyfire]

Forge made a face and coughed himself as he took a swig--but it was for the second Jamie that popped up, not the alcohol. "And I'm sure you are, but your body isn't," he pointed out. "You've got like, an eight year-old metabolism."

His gaze flicked to... Besty? "Your hair isn't purple. Sorry. I'm--" What was he, exactly? Forge sat down heavily in the footwell of the jeep's driver side. He scrubbed a flesh-and-blood right hand over the back of his head. "I am so already sick of my hormones. Sixteen is overrated. Please give me back twenty-nine."

Forge twisted to look at them. "Do either of you know what's going on?"

[uptonogod]

"No clue," Jamie replied as he downed another mouthful. "None whatsoever." He paused a moment, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and the bottle sitting in front of him. It was probably an amusing sight to see. He removed the cowboy hat long enough to run his fingers through his hair with a frown.

"Mass hallucination? A telepath fucking with us?" All things considered, they were good theories.

[proper_twinkie]

"I don't think we need to chastise him. I mean we're younger but I still remember what it was to be an adult. If he kills himself, that's his problem." She took another swallow herself and hopping up on the hood of the jeep. "Besides, he was kind enough to share."

Pulling a long leg up, she rested her chin on her knee almost pouty. "That's because this isn't my body. Even a 14 I had a decent figure." Her hand drifted up to her budding chest then reached for the bottle again. "I think I could stand a few more hormones."

"It can't be mass hallucination. I wouldn't be affected. It's an ability. Someone did this but I don't know who. Stryker changed the code to his office again or I'd say we go look it up. There have to be files on us."

[forgebyfire]

Forge was halfway to Jamie and blushing as he caught Besty's gesture out of the corner of his eye. He reached down to take the bottle. "It's not his problem." Forge looked at Jamie. "I'm Forge. And how about you just wait for those mouthfuls to hit you and then if you're okay I'll give it back."

He was nothing if not logical.

Straightening, Forge looked at Besty. "You're a telepath?"

[uptonogod]

Jamie watched Forge, completely ignoring Betty's gesture and not at all thinking about how she looked before. Nope. Not at all. This was why it was so easy for Forge to take his bottle from him.

Jamie gasped and reached for the bottle again, missing and sitting back down with a huff. Fine. If Forge wanted the bottle, he could have it. Jamie telepathically sent his duplicate to get another one. Smaller this time.

See what he did there, Forge? He smirked, sort of. "I only had two mouth-fulls. I should be okay." Still, he didn't open his new bottle just yet.

[proper_twinkie]

They could bicker if they wanted but Betsy couldn't care less as to whether the pipsqueak got drunk. Hell, it might even be funny.

She glanced at Forge and grumbled. "I was. I wasn't lucky enough to manifest an ability so young. Not that it would have mattered. Kwannon was human."