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Billy has a plan. The plan involved him grilling up some cheeseburgers, and packing a basket full of stuff, and a cooler full of other stuff. He made calls: invitations were sent out (some easier then others, considering Teddy) that folks were to come and have a picnic, and to bring swimtrunks. He didn't tell anyone exactly what the plan is— not even Teddy— but given Billy's proclivities its more then likely to involve travel. He himself has a red pair of swim trunks and a red t-shirt on, as he leans against Teddy and waits for everyone to arrive. When there is arriving happening and knocking and such, he opens the door remotely and waves at people lazily.
Kellan arrives with Vic, this time dressed pre-emptively in swim trunks and carrying a small duffel bag with some street clothes that he drops off inside the door to pick up later. Prepared Kellan is prepared this time around. He seems a little subdued but has a smile for Billy and Teddy when they arrive. They still needed to eat, and so he'd agreed that a picnic would be okay. Besides, they hadn't seen Billy and Teddy in a while. "Hey, how's it going?" he asks the pair as he makes his way in.
Cheeseburgers? Vic is very interested in this plan. Besides, it's good to get out once in awhile for more than work, so he comes with swimtrunks under his jeans, and he has put his stuff in Kellan's bag because sharing is caring. "Billy, Teddy! Hi!" His smile is warm as ever, though also a big subdued. "It's been forever."
Teddy has been watching tv with Billy from the couch but looks over at the knock. Unsurprisingly, he hasn't bothered with a shirt and just has 'on' a square cut white swimsuit. "Hey. Pretty good. How about you? We all ready to go?" It's mostly asked of Billy since he's the one making a big secret of it. "Beer's in the cooler with some other stuff so we're ready to go."
"Good. It's been good. Besides food and swimming there's something I wanted to talk to you guys about." Billy waves to Kellan and Vic with a grin, still sorta lounging leaning against Teddy. "There's also the mixings for daiquiri's." Since that's so far the only alcohol that Billy seems to *like*. "And lots of food." He pushes up off of Teddy with some reluctance, and heads over where the food and coolers and towels and such are stacked, "Come stand near. This'll… be a little wierd. I'm not doing it like I usually do so there's a not impossible chance we won't quite end up where we're supposed to the first time. Don't worry, I can't teleport into walls or anything dangerous like that." He takes a long, deep breath and looks like he's focusing.
There's something a little skeptical in the look that Kellan gives Billy when he says they're not traveling by the usual method. "And this is why I brought spare pants," Kellan comments as an aside to Vic before heading over toward Billy to join him, helping by grabbing the handle of one of the coolers as well. "Ready as I'll ever be," he smiles.
Vic nods solemnly to Kellan. "You and me both," he says. He trails along with Kellan, faithful as a dog. Before things proceed much further, he clasps Billy in a hug. "It's good to see you," he says the little brother. Teddy gets a friendly grin. He's still not sure whether Billy would turn him into a frog if he tried to hug Teddy. He grabs the other handle of the cooler Kellan's got.
Teddy gives Billy a curious look at that pronouncement but stands up and follows him over. "You're not opening a portal this time?" he guesses. "I know you don't need to when it's just you and you're not going far…" Neither of which conditions are being met today. "Just don't take us to the moon again. The lack of air wasn't fun." After a brief pause, he looks at Kellan and Vic. "Joking."
"The door thing is too limiting, I've been working on something else." Billy closes his eyes and stretches his eyes hands out, and his expression tenses. "Beach for beach boys. Beach for beach boys. Beachforbeachboys. Beachforbeachboys. BeachforbeachboysBEACHFORBEACHBOYS." As he speaks the intensity of his expression gets stronger and stronger, but since none of them have the Sight, he might as well just be chanting. Then something happens. The whole room— the details of everything but themselves and the supplies— becomes a little blurry. The whole room suddenly jerks in a circle— but not them. They're utterly still. Everything else blurs more and spins around them as couch becomes a smudge of color and then a swirling light and suddenly the swirling resolves into blurry forms again, and everything stops.
They're on a beach, and it's a couple hours from sundown, and there's absolutely nothing like civilization in sight. The water is bright and blue, the sand white and warm, and behind them is palm trees and the like. Billy looks around, blinks, "… this was not exactly where we were supposed to go. I was going for Bali, there was supposed to be this beautiful temple —" he says, sounding a little weary, "But its close enough."
"Well we ended up here with all our limbs, clothes, and the coolers.. so I'm going to count that as a win," Kellan says, apparently deciding that wherever they have ended up is better than many potential alternatives. He sets the cooler down and then strolls out a little closer to the water before looking up and down the beach, then finally behind them toward the palm trees. "I like it." He then dips into one of the coolers to grab himself a beer and floops down on the sand, kicking off his sandals to put his toes in the warm sand.
Vic gives Teddy some serious side-eye. The moon? Wait, what? But they're not on the moon. They're on a nice beach, and he nods to Kellan's words. "This is really nice," he says. He sets the cooler down as well, and he follows Kellan like it's a reflex. He shucks his jeans and t-shirt so he's just in his trunks, and he flops down on the sand as well, resting his head against Kellan's thigh. Looking up at him, he grins. He calls over to Billy and Teddy, "The sand feels great!" Til it gets everywhere, and it will.
Teddy keeps an eye on Billy through all the chanting and doesn't look around till they come to a stop and he knows Billy's not going to pass out or anything. "Bali? Like in that musical? We could be on the other side of the island." he points out. Grabbing a blanket, he snaps it open and lets it float down onto the sand before weighing down a corner with a cooler.
"So!" Billy eyes the soul-brother and his other half, and he considers, "So. Like. For reasons I won't go into, I'm getting some professional training on fighting. And not boxing, but real serious knock down the bad guy fighting, without the aide of magic. I think everyone should have this as a skill." And he peels out of his shirt, and grabs a blanket himself, "You interested in having me pass on what I'm learning to try to learn you up some too? I mean it also will let me practice because I am terribad." He grins at Teddy a bit sheepish, "Time's all wrong, Bali would be an hour or so before dawn. We're more or less — give or take an hour or two— in the same timezone, so I'm guessing… Caribbean or.. south america or something." And then he's going to the basket to spread out another blanket, and lay out the various food items. Besides hamburger fixings— of which there's everything from onions to pickles to every sauce imaginable, plus bacon— there's tons and tons of potato chips and french onion dip, and a garlic bacon cheese dip.
Kellan grins down at Vic when he settles in against him and drops his fingers into his hair, mussing the curls a little bit and lounging comfortably. Then he looks over to Billy with interest as he explains the combat training. Kellan nods enthusiastically and says, "I need to learn how to fight. If we keep running into the sort of things we keep running into.. it's just kind of clear that we need to be prepared for mroe."
"Sure," Vic says with a lazy, amiable smile. "It's a good idea to learn this stuff, and I could use the practice. I know how to scrap, but I have a feeling we're going to be fighting people who know more than how to throw a sucker punch." He gazes up at Kellan in sappy infatuation. "We could spar," he says. "Maybe every other night so Jay can get some sleep."
"Unless you also moved us in time." Teddy points out. Not that he really believes that Billy did that but it's a possibility. And really, he's not terribly sure they didn't. Who could tell, especially with all the special effects of the magic? "Not that it matters. Even if we moved back in time a few hours, we're here and our other selves would be there so there's no interaction. Not a problem." Unless the year changed and he frowns a moment as he thinks of that before shaking his head. "Yeah, you all should know how."
Billy gives Teddy a fairly horrified expression, "Don't even joke about that. That'd be…bad. I've got one accidental time-travel thing in my life and that was an interaction between my mom and my magic on top of a hellmouth." He shudders. "The idea of accidentally time-shifting… no, no, no." He nods to Kellan's enthusiasm, "So, I'm going to rent out and deck out a …. base. In it we'll put some workout equipment." Exactly why he has enough money to rent a nice apartment in the Village *and* a base may be unclear, "Anyways, until then maybe you guys can come over— bring Kaleb too?— a couple times a week. We'll show you what we know… Vic? You can show us what you nkow. And we can practice. In case we're ever in a situation where powers are nullified and suddenly we have to kick ourself out of trouble. Its _very_ important we not _rely_ on our powers entirely. If so that makes a huge weakness."
Kellan's never had a shortage of money in his life so it wouldn't even occur to him to question how Billy has the funds for these things. He just does things and they get paid for. That's how life works. Though he does say, "Well, learning how to fight in combination with my powers would also be.. beneficial, since I can suddenly have eight fists if I need them.. you know? Right now I can mostly just give bad guys a stern talking to in quadruplicate.. It's not nearly as impressive sa it sounds." Which isn't impressive at all.
"It's a good idea," Vic says. "I don't know how to train below my strength, but if it ever does go away, knowing techniques that don't rely on it would be good. Same with my speed." He nods to himself then reaches for Kellan's beer, since he forgot to get one of his own. He glances between Teddy and Billy. "Yeah, no time travel would be good. I'm just getting settled in this timeline. I don't know what I'd do having to learn how to be a person in another one."
Teddy opens a cooler and pulls out a beer before sitting down on a blanket and pulling the cap off. Giving Billy a quick grin, he takes a swig. "I think you just keep doing the same things you'd normally do." he says to Vic. "But knowing how to fight without powers is useful. You never know what's going to happen."
"Oh, we gotta do both, but with your power, Kellan?" Billy laughs, "You can spar with yourself. That's… funny. But anyways, with your power, learning to use it in concert might be like… learning to teamwork yourself. I don't know how that would work but we should learn both how to use our powers— and what and in what ways we can help *eachother* power-wise— and how to defend ourselves in case our powers get nullled. Its sorta a multi-crisis mission." He assembles a burger for himself, settles, and noms it. He made a LOT of burgers, knowing Vic, Teddy, and if he was honest, himself.
Kellan lets Vic take his beer without thinking about it, seeming content to share. He ruffles Vic's hair lightly and says, "You're doing just fine learning how to be a person, and could do it in any timeline." Not that he's looking to go time-traveling, himself. He nods in agreement with Teddy. Looking back over to Billy he says, "Well, it's better to spar with someone more skilled so that you can learn. Sparring with myself doesn't necessarily encourage overall improvement. Though I can do it for basic practice, or to repeat something to gain muscle memory."
"I'll get you a burger," Vic tells Kellan. It's his excuse for abandoning the boyfriend, however briefly, for food. It's a tenuous balance, his love for those two. He gets up and comes over to where the food is, loading up both burgers. He then grabs another beer for them to forget whose is whose and pass back and forth. "For the muscle memory," he agrees. He comes back, offering Kellan his burger before reclaiming his spot in the sand. "This day is about perfect," he muses.
Teddy isn't in a hurry to get food so waits where he is till the others have theirs. "He's more likely to anticipate his own moves too." he points out. "Kellan should spar with you, Billy and Vic can spar with Kellan. And doing it all in just shorts while I watch is a fine idea. I'd suggest wrestling too."
"Oh, I wasn't saying you should spar with youself as a whole thing." Billy grins at Kellan, "I just mean you could. And I found that sorta funny. Me, I've been training to fight without my telekinesis. Of all my powers, my TK is the most… instinctive. So if someone gets a drop on me I react with the TK instantly— so I don't have the fight-instincts. So I had Dad make me something to nullify my TK so I can un-learn those instincts some." He eyes Teddy a moment, and he laughs, and a not-hard but not-gentle invisible pinch suddenly pinches his butt. "Note to self: no sex for the boyfriend tonight because he's talking about other men shirtless." As if. But, even mentioning sex has him blushing. He does nod to Vic, "Hey, anytime you want a picnic on a beach, I got you, bro."
Kellan grins and says, "Thanks," when Vic gets up to get the food, because he knows full well that Vic's hungry and that's why he's getting a burger, and it amuses him a little bit. He leans back comfortably in the sand, however, and laughs at Teddy, "Oh, so what you're saying is you want to watch me get my ass kicked by everyone at once?" He smirks just a little bit, and then blushes toward the end of Teddy's comment. "That's really cool though," he says to Billy, "That you can use something to turn it off to train with. I mean.. I don't have anything to turn off, not really. Determining probability isn't really a power at all, it's just a thing, though I suppose determining multiple probabilities using multitasking would both be beneficial in a fight and an inherent use of power.. not sure how I'd turn that off though."
Vic ducks his head and grins at Teddy's comment, then laughs quietly when Billy says there will be no sex tonight. He asides to Kellan, "We're on for tonight." Just in case there was any doubt. Poor Jay will never get a night's sleep til they move into the bigger flat. "Oh, yeah. That's a good idea, to get something to null the telekinesis. I get kind of reliant on that sometimes, too." Makes him a great housekeeper, in fact. "I wonder if Dad could make me a thing to suppress my energy flow. That's another thing I could end up too reliant on if I'm not careful. These days Kaleb's got me using it to cure hangovers."
Teddy just grins at Billy though he twitches at the pinch. Someone will pay for that. Later. He mostly stays out of talk about not using powers since his is easy to not use. "It'll be useful to have Kellan outnumber you too. That requires totally different tactics and fighting style. I'm not as good at that either." Lack of opportunity to get that kind of practice in.
"Dad is like… its a little hard to explain." Billy considers a moment, "He's the King of the Wizards. That's both a position— he's in charge of earth magically— and a major powerboost. There's not a lot he couldn't do if he put his mind to it. He was reluctant to do it though— he was worried about the idea of something out there that could nullify my most useful ability. So its temporary and has a safe-word." He considers, "Is there a limit to how many of yourselves you can have going independantly?" he wonders, then nods to Teddy, "Yeah its not something we get to practice." He considers Vic, "It doesn't hurt to ask him."
Kellan grins sidelong at Vic and laughs just a little, "Good." Then he digs into the burger that was brought over to him, taking several bites and nomming them while he listens to the others talk, nodding along a bit. He swallows and then says to Teddy, "Oh, that I could do. I could let everyone fight the copies if they want to practice taking on multiple people at once." Then he tells Billy, "It kind of depends.. on the strength of my abilities.. so like, I can make more copies that are doing less taxing things, or fewer copies doing more strenuous things. Right now, I generally stick to only three additional copies, because I can do the most with that easily. I have created up to seven, but then they can only do like.. easy mundane tasks, nothing complicated.. the more split.. the more focus and energy it takes. I think.. maybe I could do more in time, but.. it's going to take more practice."
Vic nods to Billy and says, "Yeah, I oughta go visit them again and bring Mom some baklava. She seemed to like the last box I got her." He smiles winsomely as he mentions their mother. Mama's boy. He too digs into his burger, and it doesn't last long against his neverending hunger. For the moment, he listens and stuffs his face. And drinks Kellan's beer, because beer tastes better if it's stolen.
Teddy heads over to fix himself some burgers. "Then only one person at a time should go up against the four of you." he says. "Though once you get some skill at hand to hand. We need to get Lorna involved in this too. Though maybe not the wrestling part."
"Vic." Billy looks seriously to Vic, even as he blushes red, "Two words. Man Sandwich. Kellen is the bread. This is my latest lesson and gift to you, assuming you haven't thought about it yourself." His face is going to explode. But he nods more seriously to Kellan, "Yeah, practice generally makes all of us better… except Teddy who just does what he does perfectly." He sighs, vexed. The effortlessness of shapeshifting is so unfair. He nods in agreement to Teddy, "Even if you have really basic skills, four on one should be a decisive advantage— and practicing against that would be good. Besides, I'm really bad. WEll I'm getting a little better, but its sorta pathetic."
Kellan reaches over to steal back his beer, maybe just to give Vic a little bit of a contest and takes a swallow from the bottle and setting it just out of reach where Vic will have to stretch for it. Meanie. He grins. Then he continues to eat his burger. He nods his head to Teddy and then he says, "Kaleb too, and probably Jay as well." He then looks over at Billy adn though his ears flush red he says, "Oh, that lesson's been learned." And then he goes right back to eathing his burger.
Vic blushes, too, but he grins. Oh, does he grin. "Yeah, ah… yeah. I've been studying that one really hard." He glances at Kellan sidelong, brows lifting. Then he goes back to eating his burger, washing it down with more bear. Then, pink-cheeked, he clears his throat and says, "So it sounds like we've got a plan, learning real fighting and practicing it. Maybe we can do a few dry runs over New York. It's important to know the streets. I can show you guys places in just about every borough where you might want to steer a fight to use your surroundings to your advantage."
Teddy grins at Billy's blushing but shakes his head, deciding not to comment on the ramifications of Kellan's power. "I've practiced for years, Billy. Lots of sports every year since I was a kid. And while it wasn't fighting, it's what I do with my powers since I don't have magic or energy beams or anything. So it's just easier for me to pick it up when… they teach me."
Billy tries very hard to not think about anything being said because dear lord he needs blood to be in his head— but in the *brain* section and not the skin. "Sure, show the streets. We all probably have different skills we can share. I… uh. I, frankly, don't know anything useful in life besides how to speak Yiddish and an encyclopedia trans-temporal understanding of sci-fi." Pause, "I'm surprisingly good at lockpicking, though." He eyes Teddy, "Well I think its easier for you to pick up because you're naturally… *physical*. I'm a nerd." He shrugs, not minding, "And all my powers I got by accident and they all mostly work on an instinctual level I don't understand. Except the spells. But even that's *will* and *imagination*, not anything physical."
At this point, if people are going to keep making allusions to, or discuss outright his sex life, or potential sex life, Kellan has just opted to embrace it, even if it does still make him blush a little. He glances back at Vic and just grins. He opens up the second beer with Vic nearly finishing off the first one, and takes a swallow from it. "Most of my abilities are tied to the splitting and compartmentalizing of my mind and body, so like, I can make multiple copies and know what all of them are thinking and doing and are aware of all at the same time… but I can also split my mind within a single body and handle multiple different mental tasks at the same time. And the connection between my selves.. I can extend outward as telepathy. So I can sense the presence of minds and I can telepathically communicate up to about a block.. the powers outside of the copies are.. more limited using them outside of my own selves. But it's all mostly mental. I'm also kind of a nerd. Probability, considering multiple outcomes, variables, factors, environmental changes, and that sort of thing.. I can sort of predict multiple outcomes and consider contingencies." He grins a little at that. "But that's .. again none of it's really physical. But.. I think if I could learn to fight, I could probably learn to effectively fight utilizing some of those skills. I'm not sure that any of it is something I could teach anyone else though." His brow furrows slightly.
Vic grins sheepishly at Kellan, but yeah. If people are going to say it… He also looks just a little smug as he takes a drink of beer. He's content to listen for now, glancing between the three as the conversation continues.
"And you're better at the academic stuff and all the procedural stuff we're learning." Teddy points out. They actually complement each other well. "No one's good at everything." And he's so staying out of the discussion of Kellan and Vic's sex life.
Billy hasn't mentioned anything about the sexytimes since the sandwich comment! He's just working on getting his blushing under control, so he takes some time and finishes off the first burger. But Kellan explaining about his stuff helps some, "I wonder if I could make myself be able to coexist in two places at once." he muses, as he turns his brain over the thought of what sort of spell that would be. "Hm, might be dangerous. Should stick with teleportation until I master it, since I am figuring out to not do wormholes. Teleportation is safer." He does nod in agreement with Teddy, though.
"Possible," Kellan says with a nod when Billy contemplates whether or not he could be in two places at once, "Seems to me that what you can do is pretty much limited to your imagination, as far as being places goes." He grins over at Teddy and says, "That's why we work together.. use everyone's strengths to make us all better."
"I can think of at least a dozen things that could go wrong," says Vic, the optimist. He eyes the burgers, then holds out a hand. Slowly, one of them makes its way toward him. He concentrates to keep all the innards on the inside. "We should practice that spark maneuver sometime," he says, "Where you say spark and I give you a jolt."
Teddy is about to give Billy a Look when he decides it would be a really bad idea to experiment with that. "Good idea. And yeah, it's good to have a team at your back." he agrees. "Good to have extra resources and stuff too."