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It's a Sunday evening, and Kellan normally would be prepping for the drive back out to Westchester for school, but since the addition of the doorway to take them there — he hasn't needed to get ready to go as early. So instead he is here in Narnia where it is quiet. He's sprawled out on one of the chairs that has been set up in here, a sketch pad open on his lap, and a pencil scratching idly across the surface, writing little notes under small boxes.
Narnia is quiet today, it's true, but Kellan isn't the only one with ideas to benefit from this. Teddy is also looking to get away from things, and when he walks into the team's home base, he blinks a few times at the room's other occupant. "Hi, Kellan," he greets warmly. In his hand is a notebook stuffed with looseleaf papers and photographs, a single pen sitcking out of one end, also held between the pages. "What are you up to?" He nods to the sketch pad curiously, craning his neck for a peek.
Kellan glances up from where he was writing when Teddy comes in and gives him a bit of an up-nod in greeting, followed by a smile. That and the fact that he's in jeans and not a suit is how one can tell him from his twin. "Just writing out some dialogue and doing a little bit of blocking out of a comic idea that I'm going to run by Billy. We're going to work on it together. He's going to do the art part. I"m going to write the story."
Teddy crosses the room to the table where Billy recently pinpointed the location of the diamond heist and tosses his notebook onto it. "Oh, that's boss! How's it coming?" He spots an unused chair and moves to carry over to the table before sitting. Today, he's in a white shirt and a cream blazer, with brown slacks under that. He wears an easy smile and looks genuinely interested in the writing, to the point where he expectantly waits to hear more.
"Slowly," Kellan says with a little bit of a laugh. "It's harder translating a story from a long wirtten form into visuals and shorter bits of text than I thought it would be. I think this is going to be a challenge… but it should be fun." He is in a pair of jeans and a plain blue t-shirt, and a pair of running shoes. He is the more casual twin, almost always.
Teddy also laughs at that, but it comes along with a distancing shrug. "Yeah, I don't know about all that, but I'm looking forward to reading it." He reaches for his notebook and slides it over, tugging the pen out and tapping it against his palm a few times. "Let me know if there's ever a film version, though." That would be the project Teddy could get more involved in, unfortunately not being much of an artist outside of acting.
"Sure. If there is, I'm sure you'll be the first to hear about it," Kellan says, since, well, Billy would know. When Teddy pulls his notepad over, Kellan asks "What are you working on?" curiously, perhaps not quite ready to go back to what he was sketching just yet.
Teddy nods and glances to his notebook, looking a little apprehensive for some reason. "I, uh, came here to go over some notes. And maybe also to…train?" Yeah, there's definitely a reluctancy to come out with something. Either the material is sensitive or it's because, well, the two teammates might not be the closest pair. "I just came from watching an alley cat for about 20 minutes. I keep thinking if I study them hard enough I'll be able to shift into one."
Kellan notices the apprehension and says, "Cool," letting it go there and not pressing any further. He looks back down at his own sketch pad then, and goes back to writing a little bit, here and there beneath one box, and then another, putting a little bubble into another one with some words in it. Teddy and Kellan have really only chatted in a group with the others, whenever they were out doing things as a team or whenver Billy magicked them off for a beach party or something. The two had never really spoken one on one, this is probably the first time that they've actually been alone together anywhere. He grins a little lopsidedly at that and says, "Is that how it works? You need to study something and then you can turn into it?"
Teddy opens his notebook and starts to peruse some of the written notes there while Kellan works on the comic. It's a little awkward at first, but he eases into it. Not having the rest of the team around feels strange, but it shouldn't, and he looks happy to have conversation on the table when the other teen asks about how his powers work. He sighs and laughs, turning to admit, "I have no idea, to be honest. You know, one day you think you have a good handle on things, the next someone tells you you're an alien. Then you have to wonder if there's not something *else* to look into." Like turning into a cat, apparently. "Are you totally certain how your powers work?"
Kellan seems perfectly comfortable whether alone, or with other members of the team coming and going. He doesn't seem like he's going to bother Teddy at all, and if the other teen doesn't seem interested in talking, he seems prepared to go about his business and leave him in peace. But when he does answer, Kellan tucks the pencil behind his ear and shakes his head, "I don't know everything about mine, so I do experiments to try to find out more."
Teddy seems to perk up at this, though it should come as any surprise to him. It would be rare for a powered person to admit knowing everything there is to know about their gift. "So, what are you experimenting with then? If you don't mind me asking." He lifts his arms and holds out his hands between the two of them, not wanting to intrude if tehere are secrets to be had. Still, he is curious.
"Well, you know how I make reflections of myself? Split myself into more than one? I can communicate between all of the parts of myself through telepathy. And I can dissipate them at will. But.. if I use telepathy to talk to you for example, it only goes so far.. about a block, and then it gets hazy and stops. So I was wondering.. how far away can I talk to myself if I'm split, right? And more than that.. how far away can I be from myself and not.. dissipate? Also, how long… So I sent myself on a road trip.. well, one of myself.. and I got all the way out to California and was fine."
Teddy nods as he listens. He knows fairly well Kellan can do, having seen it in action before, but any intricacies of the power have escaped him. So, it's safe to say much of what is being said is new to him to some extent. And at the end of it? He laughs and says, "You took yourself on a road trip? That's so neat! Where else did you go?"
"Yeah, so while I was here going to school and hanging out and doing stuff with the team, I was also in a car driving out to Chicago, and St. Louis, and Las Vegas, and San Francisco," Kellan says with a grin. "It was a little disconcerting at first sometimes to be both awake and asleep at the same time, but I got the hang of it, and after a while it wasn't hard to maintain the two separate reflections even at distance. Though I stopped at San Francisco. I didn't want to risk it. I can still die if one of my reflections dies, so I need to be careful." Because he doesn't yet know that's not the case anymore.
Teddy seems captivated by this story and he gives a little shake of his head at the end of it. "I can't even imagine what it must be like to be in more than one place at the same time. You must have so much going on up here," he says, moving his hands back and forth around his head. When he drops his hands, it's with a kind of sad look that suggests he doesn't want to touch the idea of one of them dying. "So what was your favorite city, then?"
"I can split my mind even with only one reflection. Right now, I could hold this conversation and read a book and be working out probability calculations, plan out the strip, and .. I don't know.. I can do a lot of things simultaneously. Then to split them off into physical bodies so that I'm actually physically in multiple places is a natural extension of the multitasking," Kellan explains, "So I mean, I sort of get how it works. But I wante to start testing the boundaries, seeing what else I can do with what I can do." He then grins, "Sometimes I take Kaleb's classes for him." Then he considers the question and says "New York. It's home, you know? I've lived here all my life."
Teddy blinks at the explanation. For him, it's not exactly a natural extension of anything. It's fascinating. "I guess I missed the extent of it, because you are a kind of amazing, Kellan." Not that they aren't all amazing, but yeah, they should have done this sooner. "The idea of splitting my mind scared the hell out of me, though." He shudders and glances back to his notes on theoretical shapeshifting and Skrulls. Nothing scary there! "I do love New York."
Kellan grins a little bit lopsidedly and shrugs his shoulders, "I'm just me. I mean.. in the end.. I'm just.. smart and can do a lot of thinking and things at once. But like.. caught off guard without a weapon or anything in the middle of that heist? Making more of me just makes more targets. I have no super strength or defense or anything. I'm just a human, even if I'm multiple humans. Best I could think of to do was try to help people inside…. but there was nothing to do there." He shrugs his shoulders and then shakes his head, "I'm good at communications and surveillance and I don't know, if you have to press three buttons on opposite sides of a room. But most of the time I'm just squishy and in the way."
Teddy frowns and furrows his brow. "In the way? I never thought that." Then again, at least in the diamond heist, he was busy dealing with a bunch robotic thugs. "In fact, I could have used you the other day when I was stupid enough to try and infiltrate the bad guy's warehouse." He rolls his eyes at that and sighs. "If you were there I bet you would have had my back like nobody else." Multiple lookouts *and* telapthy - surveillance, as Kellan said? Those are a spy's best friend! "By the way, not having to do anything to help those people is probably I good thing."
"Well sure, I mean.. not having to help anyone because they were fine and it was over is.. good," Kellan says, conceding the point, and not really arguing it any further. He then raises a brow and asks, "You tried to infiltrate their warehouse?" He didn't know that. Then he nods and says, "Well sure. I mean.. I'd have anyone on the team's back if they needed me."
Teddy smiles and nods. "Yeah. It was probably a dumb move, but I tend to leap before I think and…" He shrugs, giving a shake of his head that seems to suggest there's more to the story, but isn't there always? "There's this box thing I came away with. I can't make heads or tails of it, but maybe you can, being so smart and all." He leans in and lifts his brows to Kellan hopefully.
Kellan grins and shrugs his shoulders, "Hey, you came away with a box thing. That's something, right? I could take a look at it and see what I can tell you." He offers, this in return for the hopeful look that Teddy gives him. "I mean, I am not claiming to be a genius or anything. I just… can do a number of things at once."
"Yeah, it's totally a thing. A box thing!" Teddy laughs and leans sideways against the table, letting his head rest in his palm as he relaxes. "Well, I can barely put together a single theory on my own so you're already miles ahead." He waves his other hand in front of him to indicate distance. "Seriously, though. Whenever we're done here we can go grab it. There's a shiny diamond in it, too, so at least it's kind of pretty."
"Well I'll be happy to look at the shiny box thing an the shiny rock in the box thing and if I can try and help figure it out, I'd be happy to," Kellan says with a smile, seeming actually excited to be able to try and contribute something — whether he is successful or not.
Teddy laughs at the choice of words and offers a soft applause, "Great! We'll solve the box-thing mystery in no time. Then we won't have to worry about Billy's family being in danger." Because there were threats, didn't he mention that? "So, anyway, you said you to take classes for your brother. What exactly do you guys study?"
Kellan frowns a little bit and says, "Yeah.. we don't want Billy's family in danger." He's seeing Billy's magical mote brother, after all. "Maybe we ought to look at that box sooner rather than later." But then he chuckles and says, "I've taken classes for Kaleb since we were pretty young. But he's an Architect and I'm.. well.. I'm just taking my first year college classes trying to figure out what I am."
"Same here," Teddy says, having been in school perhaps just a touch longer and still not sure exactly what he's going to do with it. He's been way more caught up in things with SHIELD than he likes to let on. "Maybe you'll make a good comic book writer? They're pretty popular, it's not a bad thing to be practicing." More useful when it comes to earning a proper income than, say, turning into a cat.