Once they were alone, Obie started a more in-depth examination of his possessions as he quietly said, "I wonder how they got all our stuff here, I mean, how did they know which stuff belonged to us?"
"What's funny to me is that they didn't just get the stuff from the camp. They even got my stuff that was still at Uncle Aubrey's house, that I hadn't packed yet." Paul said slowly as he explored.
"Do you think that means that they know every single little thing about us?" Obie asked anxiously.
"Maybe. I think they could probably know anything that they wanted to know about us just by looking. But I seriously doubt that they'd have any reason to look that closely at any of us. I mean, they're guiding the fates of universes, I seriously doubt that they have time to see how many socks I have in my sock drawer." Paul explained intensely.
"But couldn't they slow time until they found out whatever they wanted to know?" Obie asked reasonably.
"Yeah, I'm sure they could. But I think they probably have more important things to deal with." Paul said reasonably, then cautiously asked,, "Did you understand what they were talking about when they said all that stuff about making copies of universes?"
"Yeah. Sort of, I guess." Obie said uncertainly.
"I think that has something to do with this. All the different versions of me in all the different universes have pretty much the same stuff that they own and carry around with them. So that when Alistair's friends created a new version of the universe, new versions of my stuff was recreated just the same as a new version of me, like it's part of me, an extension of me, like the clothes that I'm wearing. When they create another universe, it automatically contains an earth, which automatically contains a you and a me, and just as automatically, your stuff and my stuff."
"Does that include your fish? I mean, it seems like it should be different for living things." Obie cautiously reasoned.
"It's kind of a lot to wrap my head around but it kinda makes sense too. Doing it this way, Alistair's friends would only have to snap their fingers and it'd be done. The other way, they'd have to investigate each of us and get to know us to know what we have, what we need, and what we like and what we don't like. It's too much to do on a whim." Paul quietly admitted.
"Do you think we're doing the right thing by trying to figure things out with cartoons and science fiction shows?" Obie asked anxiously.
"Yeah. Just think about it. It's something we can do that no one else can. Uncle Aubrey always said that I don't have the talent for being a Shaman, but maybe that's because I have a talent for this instead. I can't tell you about what my ancestors would have thought about stuff, but I can make a pretty good guess at what the DigiDestined would think about something." Paul finished happily.
"I don't know a lot of things. What will I do if they ask me about stuff that I don't know about?" Obie asked anxiously.
"I don't know if we'll have all the right answers for them, but even if we don't, we can come at the problems from a different direction from everyone else and if we're lucky, we might be able to come up with some of the right questions. That's what they need us for."
"I wonder if Matt and Tai ever felt like this." Obie said quietly.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure they felt this every single day."
* * * * *
"All our stuff is here." Kole said as he looked through his closet to confirm what they had assumed earlier.
"And for some reason that seems like the least crazy thing so far in all of this." Ryvan said frankly.
"Why do you think we're here?" Kole asked curiously.
"I think Alistair's explanation was probably the most reasonable one we're going to get." Ryvan said honestly.
"No. I don't mean all of us, I mean you and me. From the look of it, everyone else was chosen to be something or to do something special. That joke about salsa man and chip boy really made me think. What do we bring to the table? I mean, really." Kole said deadly seriously.
"I don't know what it is, but think about it. They broke me all the way down to my funky drug-warped DNA and rebuilt me so that I can hear. Instead of making a copy of who I was, which had to be the easiest thing they could have done, they made me a completely new and unique person, the person that I could have been. I don't think they would have done that for no reason. I don't know what our purpose is, but I'm more confident than ever that we have one." Ryvan said confidently.
"But what about my purpose?" Kole asked weakly.
"What's chips without salsa?"
"Dry and uninteresting." Kole guessed reflexively.
"Damn skippy!" Ryvan finished with a smile.
* * * * *
"Are you okay?"
"What? Yeah. Why?"
"I don't know. You seem to have everything in your life thrown into chaos all at once. I just wondered if you felt like talking about it or anything." Donny said honestly.
After a moment to consider, Ronny finally said, "No. Thanks for offering, but I think I'm okay."
"Really? Good. I'm glad to hear it." Donny said happily.
"I feel like it's the difference between trying to be something and actually being something. I mean, yeah, it's the guy thing too, but there's more to it than that. It's like now I know something that I hadn't even guessed at before. I just can't put it into words." Ronny said with a note of wonder.
"Is it a good feeling?" Donny asked cautiously.
After a moment to consider, Ronny carefully said, "It's a good feeling, but it's also a very different feeling than what I'm used to. Living inside my own skin as a girl was a completely different experience and I don't know if I can compare the two."
"You don't have to explain it. In fact, you don't even have to think about it." Donny said simply, then explained, "As long as you're feeling good about yourself the way you are right now, you don't have to agonize over how things used to be or over what changed. Good or bad or all mixed together, it was what it was, it is what it is, and you can choose to leave it behind you and continue on from here living your new life exactly how you've always wanted to."
"Yeah. That sounds good." Ronny said contentedly, then thought to ask, "Do you want to see what's on TV?"
"Sure. What are you in the mood for?" Donny asked with an easy smile at Ronny's contentment.
"I don't know. How about something mindless with lots of action?" Ronny asked happily.
"Sounds perfect. Let's see what we've got to choose from."
* * * * *
"You wanted to have Dylan as your roommate, didn't you?" Randolph quietly asked.
"I did and I didn't." Arlo reluctantly admitted, then slightly smiled as he continued, "Probably about as much as you wanted to room with Donny."
"No. Were I to find myself in such close quarters with him, I might be tempted beyond my ability to resist and end up doing things which cannot be undone." Randolph fought to explain.
"Like I said." Arlo countered.
Randolph looked at him uncertainly for a moment, then slowly asked, "Are you also concerned about going too far, too fast?"
"Yeah. That's exactly what I'm concerned about." Arlo confirmed.
"It's easy for me to blame my situation on my being from another time, having developed different sensibilities. But if you're feeling the same as me, under similar conditions, then maybe what I'm feeling is simply what people feel when they're first getting to know each other." Randolph cautiously suggested.
"That's how it looks to me." Arlo confirmed, then explained, "It's not that I don't want to spend time with Dylan, but I'm just afraid of screwing it up so bad that we end up where we can't even be friends when it's all over."
"Because Donny is so beautiful to behold, I'm afraid that he'll find someone as beautiful as he is and I won't have any recourse." Randolph reluctantly admitted.
"Yeah. That could happen." Arlo said frankly.
Randolph looked at him with surprise at the statement.
"I don't think it will, Donny seems like a decent guy, but we don't get to control how other people think and feel. We can hope and dream all we want, but nothing we do can keep someone who doesn't want to be there." Arlo said regretfully.
"Who knows? Maybe in this fantastical future in a splinter universe that we've found ourselves in, love can last forever." Randolph said with a smattering of� hope in his expression.
"I don't know. Maybe it can."
* * * * *
"Will you look at my back?" Teddy asked as soon as they were alone.
"Is it bothering you?" Jason K asked with concern as he crossed the room.
"No, and that's the problem. I just realized that I don't feel anything back there at all. I want to be sure that it's all healed and that I didn't just stop feeling it. That happens sometimes and it means that there's something really seriously wrong." Teddy said reasonably.
"It stopped hurting the exact second that everything went dark, didn't it?" Jason K asked as he lifted Teddy's shirt.
"Yeah. I think so. Like I said, I didn't realize it when it happened." Teddy responded, then cautiously asked, "How did you know?"
"I sometimes feel what other people feel. I noticed it when you and Dylan stopped hurting all of a sudden." Jason K said simply.
"Really? Why didn't you say anything about it?" Teddy asked curiously.
"Because it doesn't change anything. I just notice when someone is hurting, is all. I've learned that it's best not to make a big deal out of it." Jason K said casually, then thought to add, "Your back is fine. It looks like you never got hurt even once in your whole life."
"Maybe that's because I'm here in a new life where no one's hurt me yet." Teddy said speculatively.
"Yeah. From the way people have been talking, I guess everyone here's been hurt a lot of different ways. Being here gives them a chance to get past the things that were holding them back." Jason K said speculatively.
"What about you? How did you get sent to Camp Little Eagle?" Teddy asked curiously.
"I don't really have a story. I mean, nothing really bad like what you've been through. I've been passed around from one foster home to another for as long as I can remember. After a while it was like I was watching the same TV show every week with the same stupid plot, over and over again. All that was missing was the laugh track. The only thing that ever changed was that sometimes they'd switch out the actors."
"I don't understand what you're saying."
"The foster father would disappear, the foster mother would get sadder and more depressed until she started getting mean and stuff, then someone would notice, CPS would get called, and we would get moved to the next place, over and over like a bad sitcom recycling the same tired old story until I finally ended up at Camp Little Eagle." Jason K said tiredly.
"How many times did that happen?" Teddy cautiously asked.
"Ever since I can remember... too many times to count." Jason K said honestly.
"Wow. When my mom got taken away, I got sent to Camp Little Eagle. I didn't have to go through any of the rest of that stuff."
"I guess we went through different stuff, but we ended up in the same place. I think we should both remember that. In fact, all of us here in the splinter should probably think about it." Jason K said seriously.
* * * * *
"How are you feeling about things so far?" Dylan asked his roommate cautiously.
"I don't know yet." Jinx said honestly.
"It looks to me like things are going pretty well for you. Am I missing something?" Dylan asked curiously.
"Good times are only there to make the bad times hurt worse." Jinx said anxiously.
"You've been living with this a lot longer than I have, so I can't really say that you're wrong. I can only say that from my point of view it looks like good things are happening to you and because of you." Dylan said frankly.
"I'm afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of what's going to happen when all the bad luck catches up to me. It's going to make that time it rained crawdads look like nothing."
"It rained crawdads?" Dylan asked cautiously.
"Yeah. I guess that would've been bad by itself; those things pinch." Jinx complained, then continued, "But what made it worse was that at the same time a sinkhole ate our car and we were rushing around trying to get my mom to the emergency room because of the fruit flies."
Dylan stared for a moment, trying to process, then finally said, "Let's try to enjoy what we have for as long as we have it. I'll do whatever I can to make it so that you don't have to live with constant worry about your bad luck."
Jinx gave an ironic chuckle before saying, "Being transported to another dimension is probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. The thing I'm most afraid of right now is if it's going to end."
Jinx noticed a whisper, almost beyond his range of hearing.
"Johnny says that he'll help you, too, if he can." Dylan said with a smile at the magnanimous gesture.
"You're not lighting him, are you? Because I could almost hear that." Jinx said with surprise.
"Johnny holding on to me like this has given us a chance to practice his communication skills. If you're beginning to hear him too, then we'll probably be able to get a lot accomplished when we visit Obie's limbo door." Dylan said frankly.
"I think maybe he's getting stronger." Jinx said speculatively.
"I think maybe, little by little, we're getting on the same frequency." Dylan said seriously.
"So I guess you're thinking that if I work with the two of you, then maybe I can get stronger too."
"It'd be great if that happened, but I'm actually more excited to see what we can do when we start testing your luck to see if there's any way we can control it or predict it."
"I'm not sure I know what you're planning on doing." Jinx hesitantly admitted.
"When you do 'A', then 'B' happens. If you want 'B' to happen, do 'A'. Like that." Dylan finished seriously.
"Just so you know, messing around with that really scares me." Jinx cautiously told him.
"Me too, a little. But I still think the payoff could be amazing, so as long as you're willing, I want to try."
* * * * *
"Even though I'm ready to get some sleep, I need a shower first." Paul said frankly.
Obie looked at his bed and considered for a moment before reluctantly going to the dresser to forage for sleepwear.
"I wasn't telling you what to do. I mean, we don't have to answer to anyone, I just feel like I'll sleep better if I wash off first." Paul rushed to explain.
"I get it." Obie assured him, then held up his sweatpants and t-shirt before asking, "You ready?"
"Yeah. No. Give me a second!" Paul stammered before rushing to his own dresser.
"What's wrong? You're acting stressed out or something." Obie asked uncertainly.
"I don't know. I guess I'm not always sure what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm afraid that if I tell you to do something that you'll get mad at me for ordering you around. But if I don't tell you, then maybe you'll miss out on things because you just didn't think about them." Paul rambled.
"Let's go shower." Obie said simply, then took the lead.
* * * * *
When Ryvan noticed that Kole was pulling back the covers on his bed, he cautiously asked, "Are you going to shower?"
"What are you trying to say?" Kole asked warily.
"I'm saying that you need to wash the stink off of you, nasty ass." Ryvan said frankly.
"Oh, okay then. Give me a second." Kole said as he walked to his dresser.
Ryvan went to his own dresser to do the same.
"Hey, do you remember these sweats?" Kole asked as he held out the navy blue sweatpants.
"Yeah. Didn't you wear those things out?" Ryvan asked curiously.
"The crotch got torn out one night when we were being rowdy." Kole answered as he examined the seams to verify that it was intact.
"Yeah. Nathan was being a dick... worse than usual." Ryvan recalled.
"What about you? Do you have any of your favorite clothes reborn all of a sudden?" Kole asked curiously.
"No. But I have a few more things here than I had back at the camp. Check out these gym shorts. I've always wanted some like this." Ryvan said as he held them up.
"Nice. Those look comfortable. Do you want to take a look at the weight room before we hit the showers?" Kole asked curiously.
"Naw. We can do it tomorrow." Ryvan said casually, then explained, "Right now I just want to get cleaned up and go to bed."
"Good plan. Let's do it."
* * * * *
"Do you like to take a shower at night or in the morning?" Arlo asked casually as he gathered the things he would need.
"I don't really have a preference when it comes to that. I need to get used to showering more often. In my former life, I didn't have an opportunity to indulge in such luxuries more than once or twice a month." Randolph said frankly, then added in a slower, more reminiscing tone, "Of course, if not for my aunt's wealth, I probably wouldn't have been able to enjoy a sit-down bath even that often."
"You seem to be adapting fairly well to finding yourself in 2004. I doubt that I could be anywhere near as calm as you are about it." Arlo said honestly.
"I don't know about that. You seem to be adapting to the new world that you've found yourself in at least as well as I have." Randolph said frankly.
After a moment to consider, Arlo smiled and said, "Maybe it's your example that has inspired me to be so accepting of my new situation."
"If that is at all the case, then I am honored to have been of assistance to you." Randolph said formally, then more casually asked, "Will this be acceptable?"
Arlo looked at the flannel pants and cotton t-shirt before saying, "Yeah, that should be fine."
Randolph smiled at the assurance, then followed Arlo out of the bedroom.
* * * * *
"I don't feel like going to bed yet." Teddy said simply.
"As far as I know, nobody said that you had to." Jason K said cautiously.
"Do you think the older guys are going to start acting like they're the adults and bossing us around?" Teddy asked curiously.
"Maybe a little, but that's just because with them being older, they probably know some stuff that we haven't learned yet. It's better to have them tell us than if we have to figure everything out and do for ourselves." Jason K said speculatively.
"Yeah. I wouldn't have made those nachos if it was left to me to do it." Teddy said frankly.
"Then we would have come up with something else." Jason K said simply.
"But do you think they're going to be ordering us around and watching to be sure we do what they tell us?" Teddy asked seriously.
"I don't know. Have they told us that we have to do anything?" Jason K asked uncertainly.
After a moment to consider, Teddy finally admitted, "No. They said that they were going to bed. I don't think anyone ever said that we had to."
"I guess if they start trying to boss us around that we can worry about it then." Jason K cautiously suggested.
"Yeah. So far, everyone seems nice, so maybe it won't be a problem."
"If you don't feel like going to bed, would you like to watch a movie or something?" Jason K cautiously asked.
"Do you want to see if there's any cartoons on?" Teddy asked hopefully.
"You like cartoons?" Jason K asked with interest.
"Sometimes. They're something that I can watch without watching. It's been a long day with lots of weird stuff. There's so much to think about that I think it'd be nice to just stop and not think for a little bit." Teddy carefully explained.
"Yeah. That sounds nice."
* * * * *
"Hey, Jinx, do you have any problem showering around other guys?" Dylan asked curiously.
"No. Why?" Jinx asked cautiously.
"Some guys do. If you felt weird about it, we could work something out for you." Dylan said honestly.
"It's fine." Jinx assured him.
"Johnny? Jinx and I are going to get a shower. Do you want to wait here for us? We'll be back in a few minutes." Dylan said as he looked over his right shoulder.
Jinx looked on curiously as Dylan's expression changed.
Finally, Dylan quietly explained, "Johnny doesn't want to wait here."
"We'll only be gone a few minutes. We won't forget about you and leave you here." Jinx quietly said as he tried to summon up his spiritual light to be able to get a glimpse of Johnny, riding on Dylan's shoulders.
"No. He's not worried about being lonely. He wants to see us... see me... naked." Dylan quietly admitted.
After a moment to consider, Jinx finally asked, "There's really not anything you can do to stop him, is there?"
"No. I guess not." Dylan reluctantly agreed.
"Maybe, if you're feeling weird about it, we can work something else out for you." Jinx offered with a playful grin.
"No. It's okay. I'm a big boy. I can handle it if someone looks at me." Dylan assured Jinx with a chuckle.
"Give me a second to get something to change into." Jinx said as he hurried to his side of the room.
"Yeah. Good idea." Dylan said as he walked in the opposite direction.
After a moment, Jinx heard Dylan quietly say, "It's okay, Johnny. I'm not mad."
Jinx smiled at the gentle words so softly spoken, then moved to the door to await Dylan.
* * * * *
"What would you do if I tried to use the mirrors to check on my family?" Paul asked as he and Obie walked into the locker room.
"Help you, probably." Obie said honestly, then explained, "If we can find a way so that you can see your mom and dad, then I'll know what I have to do to check on my brothers."
"My mom and sister." Paul automatically corrected.
"What about your dad?" Obie asked curiously as he began to undress.
"He's not around." Paul quietly admitted as he followed Obie's example.
"I've heard that you can't miss what you never had, but I don't know if that's right. Me and Mike feel completely different about it, so maybe it's one of those things that's different for each person." Obie quietly reasoned as he put his clothes into a locker.
"I guess so. It's not a big deal for me either way. My dad works in Saudi, so most of the time he's usually off doing that. But even when he's in this country, he's usually in Texas or California, doing his job there. I haven't seen him in person for more than a day or two in the last few years." Paul said as he continued to undress.
"Are your parents divorced?" Obie asked as he walked, naked, to a stack of towels and picked two up off the top.
"I don't think so. My mom gets really upset when I try to talk to her about Dad, so I've learned not to ask." Paul said frankly as he put his clothes away.
"You don't think so?" Obie asked hesitantly.
"They'd probably tell me if they got divorced." Paul said uncertainly, then asked more slowly, "Wouldn't they?"
Obie draped a towel around himself and held it in place with one hand. Once it was secure, he walked back to Paul and offered him the second towel.
"Thanks." Paul said quietly as he accepted it.
* * * * *
"This place is built weird." Obie said in an echoing voice as he and Paul walked into the shower room.
"It looks like a regular shower room to me." Paul said honestly as he took off his towel and hung it on a hook by the door.
"It is, but it isn't. Look at how big and spread out everything is in here." Obie said slowly as he hung his towel beside Paul's.
"It's not built for kids, that's for sure." Paul observed as he looked around the shower room.
"But we are kids." Obie said frankly..
"So either this was made for us to kind of grow into or it wasn't made for us at all. It was made with someone else in mind, someone much bigger than we are." Paul said speculatively.
"From what Alistair was saying, it sounded like this base was built for someone else. We're just using their floorplan." Obie said slowly.
"Did you bring any soap with you?" Paul thought to ask as he paused with his hand on the faucet.
"There's pumpers on the wall." Obie said simply as he pointed.
"Hey! That's handy!" Paul said with a smile.
"What's handy?" Kole asked as he and Ryvan walked into the shower room, both draped in towels.
"The soap dispensers built into the wall. I didn't think about bringing soap until I was already in here." Paul explained.
"Yeah. If it's the same as the camp, you can use it as body wash or shampoo or whatever. Unless you have really sensitive skin it's usually good enough to get the job done." Kole said as he hung his towel on a convenient nearby hook.
"We were just talking about how this place doesn't seem to be made for kids. It looks like it's scaled up for full-sized adults." Obie said as he stepped out of the shower's spray to lather himself.
"I didn't really think about it, but I guess so." Ryvan said before turning on his shower.
"Hey guys. Any new discoveries since we've been apart?" Arlo asked as he and Randolph walked into the shower room with towels cinched around their waists.
"Obie was just saying that all the facilities seem to be made for adults." Kole said simply.
"Yeah. You know how, at the camp, the showers and sinks and everything were set low for the smaller kids? This place is made just for adults." Obie explained.
"I hadn't noticed that. Do you think it's going to be a problem?" Arlo asked with concern as he took off his towel and moved to the bank of showers across the room from the others.
"No. I don't think so. Teddy and Jason K are the smallest ones here and I don't think they'll have any problems reaching anything." Paul said speculatively.
"If they do need help, we can reach stuff down for them. It's not that big of a deal." Kole said easily, then turned to Obie and asked, "You haven't noticed not being able to reach anything have you, Obie?"
"I haven't had a problem, but I've noticed that things aren't where I'm used to finding them. Back at the camp, the sinks are lower, the toilets are shorter and the shower controls are usually in front of me where I don't have to reach up for them as much as I do here."
"Did you guys start without us?" Dylan asked as he walked into the shower room with Jinx following closely behind.
"We couldn't wait around here all night for you." Kole said with a teasing grin.
"Have you seen Ronny or Donny since we all said goodnight?" Paul asked curiously.
"No. Maybe they fell asleep. To be honest, I'm not too far from it myself." Ryvan said seriously.
"Yeah. I'm probably going to be asleep two seconds after my head hits the pillow." Kole confirmed.
"What about Teddy and Jason K? Do you think we should wake them up so that they can take their showers?" Paul asked cautiously.
"If they fell asleep, they probably need their rest..." Kole began to say, but trailed off when he noticed that Jinx had taken his towel off.
"Is something wrong?" Jinx asked anxiously when he noticed that Kole was staring at him.
"For such a little guy..." Kole began to say, but then seemed to think better of it and instead quietly said, "Come over here."
"What? Why?" Jinx asked suspiciously.
"It's nothing weird, I promise. Just stand beside me for a second. I want to see something." Kole insisted.
Reluctantly, Jinx walked across the shower room and stopped at Kole's side.
"See?" Kole said as he gestured from Jinx's penis to his own. "We could be twins."
Jinx looked up at him dubiously, then down at their nearly identical equipment.
"Yeah. Look at that." Ryvan said with a chuckle.
"So, it's okay?" Jinx asked to be sure.
"Yeah. It just seems strange since your body is so much smaller than mine. But it's also weird to see my junk on someone else." Kole said honestly.
"Johnny? Are you here to shower?" Arlo asked cautiously as he spoke to the spot beside Dylan.
"No. He's here to look at all the naked guys." Jinx said frankly.
At Arlo's questioning look, Dylan nodded his confirmation of Jinx's summary.
"Oh well, you'd better get an eyeful while you can, Johnny. The show's almost over." Kole said before getting under the shower's spray to rinse the soap off his body.
"Nothing else is going on tonight, right?" Paul asked curiously.
"Just a long night of good sleep, I hope." Ryvan said simply.
"Sounds good to me." Obie said seriously.
Paul turned off his shower and walked to the hooks to retrieve his towel.
His action seemed to inspire the others as, one by one, they finished.
To Be Continued..