Not My Home

More than scared, Jude looked embarassed. His older self had made the exact same assumption he'd made. Probably a safe one, considering their ages. Considering their hair--which was almost the same, only he hadn't spiked his up.

"Uh," Jude said, trying to figure out how to say it without it being too awful and coming up blank. "I'm not him. I'm actually you. I'm Angelo Genovese."

There was no possible way it would end up not being weird. It was always going to be weird. Angelo just stared down at the kid in front of him--the kid that was maybe Roa's age—and squinted.

"Me. You're me?" He said, looking incredulously down at him. He'd expected Roa, but him?

"Oh, fuck," Angelo muttered under his breath. "That's what you meant when you said the people least likely to kill you."

Who better to send someone to then themselves?

Jude was baffled. His eyes? The innocence of youth? His hair? And then the kid just... walked off.

What?

He looked up at the taller version of himself, shifting awkwardly for a moment.

"Can I... get up? This kind of hurts the knees."

Angelo let out a little sigh, then gestured for him to stand up, which he did, brushing himself off as he adjusted the mask around his neck.

"Okay," Angelo said, leaning up against the wall and wondering why no one came through at 3PM in the afternoon. "So why are you here, exactly?"

Jude shifted nervously, his eyes fixed on Angelo's hair.

"I'm from another dimension, and they sent us to what would be our families so you'd be less likely to hurt us. What's up with your hair? My hair?"

"My hair," Angelo said. "And nothing. Roa's just messing with you. What's with the metal?" He asked, gesturing to the spots on Jude's face.

Jude was in no hurry to explain that.

"Power," he said. "My arm's metal too."

Angelo's eyes flicked between both and came up empty. Both were covered by the suit, and as far as he could tell looked identical.

"Roa!" Angelo yelled. "Grab me a - nevermind!"

Angleo had a better idea, and stepped over, putting his hand on Jude's back and literally pushing him towards the kitchen. Better to sit down and talk it out there, rather than standing in the hallway.

Angelo snorted at the comment, noting the multiple similarities between Roa and the kid. The blond hair. The height. Definitely not the personality though. His mini-me seemed pretty well behaved, maybe even a bit nervous, and Roa was... not.

Very not.

"Uhm," Jude said, "You can just call me Jude. It's probably easier." He was called Jude often enough it wouldn't be a big deal, but it did sort of feel like he was abandoning being Angelo entirely. Angelo was going to be, uh, big him. He'd just be Jude.

Just Jude.

"Well, try and play nice," Angelo said. "I'm going to talk with him for a little bit, and we'll see what's going on. I've got to check in with the school, and..." He scratched at his head for a moment, considering. "I think there's a help line I have to call for someone-portaled-into-my-house."

He definitely had to do that.

"You should probably go to sleep, though. Get back to bed... and hopefully don't get woken up again," Angelo said.

Jude gave a sheepish wave.

Angelo snorted at the don't touch my cornflakes gesture, and then noted that Jude looked... scared? Definitely at least intimidated. He supposed that Roa was pretty intimidating if you didn't know much about him.

"I'd say he doesn't mean it," Angelo said, "but he does. Just kind of know that he's not reacting to you or anything, he's just always like this."

Always. Literally always.

"But why don't you grab a seat, and we'll talk things through, and maybe we can get this sorted out in a reasonable amount of time."

It was not going to get sorted out in a reasonable amount of time, to say the least.