Chapter 79 - RIPutation

'...Okay, gimme just a small clue.'

[You only saw him for a short moment, and you were paying attention to other things at the time, but you were definitely looking in his direction.]

'...The fuck kind of clue is that?'

[So what you're saying is, you want a bigger clue?]

Lucas tries to hide the fact that he's staring at Timothy by just so happening to put his suit jacket back on while conveniently facing in his direction, chewing on his lips and squinting while deep in thought.

'...Yes please.'

[He was in costume at the time.]

'What the hell? Wait! The last thing I can think of involving costumes was before you were around!'

[...You thought about it plenty though since then.]

'So he WAS in that dumb wannabe wonderland movie! Wait, okay... So... No, he wasn't the twins... Oh! The sleeping dormouse! Aha! That was totally him!'

[...Congratulations, you figured it out.]

'...Has he done anything else notable? Why's he trying to hide his face?'

[No, he is just a minor celebrity, though he has a bit of a social media following as well. There's been a bit of a fuss around him since he's started developing his powers younger than most.]

'...Oh. Well? What are they?'

[It's hard to define mental powers while they're in their developmental phase, but so far it seems to possibly be memory-related. Power mutations do tend to follow genetic lineage, in their family's case his uncle also has, albeit weak, mental powers. His is minor precognition.]

'Woah wait, isn't that seeing into the future? How the hell can that be considered a weak power?'

[...He has to concentrate on something specific and it's only about a minute into the future.]

Lucas struggles greatly to hold back a snort of laughter, managing to successfully cover it with a cough. Loudly clearing his throat afterward, he turns away from the two other men's direction. His wandering attention lands on Miss Masher, who is still lying on the floor, but is now occupied with a round of tug-of-war with Willy.

Somehow managing to take the poor damaged phone's abandonment as a personal slight, Jonathan picks it up and dashes over to intercept Timothy's path to the counter his paperwork is waiting on, equally abandoned.

Suddenly showing up in front of him out of seemingly nowhere, having Jonathan instantly appear with the cracked phone held out in front of him gives Timothy an even bigger spook than when his uncle had barged in. Reaching the peak of a uniquely high pitch belonging to a prepubescent boy, his exclamation of surprise puts his previous yelp to absolute shame. The standing jump he makes also brings him several inches off the ground, partially losing his balance when he lands and nearly falling backward as a result, but at least he manages to get his feet under him at the last moment.

Somehow, Jonathan manages to keep a straight face the entire time, as well as a steady hand. He hadn't looked at the phone enough to notice the live-stream broadcast and was inadvertently recording Timothy's reaction for him. Poor little Timmy, it seems that bullying is subconsciously ingrained in the Lynn family, regardless of bloodline.

"Um, hea-here. It was still lit up, so I think it's still working? So-sorry, didn't mean to, um, scare you..." While Jonathan's signature brand of awkwardness is publicly shared online, Timothy has taken a few deep breaths while he calms himself down. Holding his right hand over his heart and sighing, he then reaches up with a still slightly trembling left hand to claim the offered phone, not yet looking at it to realize that it is still streaming.

"Holy shit, you must scare the hell out of people all the time. Haah, thanks though, Jackknife." With the phone back in his rightful possession, Timothy gets his emotions back under control enough to manage to smile as he thanks Jonathan, a bit stiffly as he isn't used to saying it.

"Oh, uh, maybe..? Um, you're welcome, Timmy." The moment Jonathan finishes responding, he darts back over to stand where he was a short time prior, much preferring Natalie's company over the skittish boy's.

Blinking a few times at the now-vacant place that Jonathan was just occupying, Timothy's gaze finally shifts over to Jonathan now standing next to Lucas, shyly asking Natalie a question.

Spending a moment wondering if his powers are speed or outright teleportation, Timothy finally looks down at the severely cracked screen of his phone, seeing his own face looking back at himself with a live-stream interface around the video.

Panicking once again, before he ends the stream he can't help noticing that this impromptu stream currently has more viewers than any of his regularly scheduled ones, and the chat is notably more active than usual as well.

SuprisingIdeal: OMG that cutie was Jackknife!??

DesignerVillain: Oh! I saw him earlier this morning! Is his dog there too? Point the camera at the doggo!

CoffeeSoul: That was Xenoclast's sidekick, they were on the news just last night too, are they doing some sort of viral campaign? [Link to news segment]

MashMyFace: Who cares!? Go find a new table for a rematch!

UnwieldyUgh: That announcer chick is hot go back to her

CaptainPickle: hwo is no1 talking about how nice they were is ths sum nu rich ppl thing tht must be y alle cat has ben doin all that wierd stufs lately 2lol

MommaEcho: uWu adopting a new brother 4 you bby echo~

MammothJerky: speking of catz, sense when wuz echo such a scardy cat lol???

Visibly paling as he reads the most recent post, Timothy finally successfully hits the button to end the broadcast, powers the phone off, and then facepalms with the phone still in his hand, smacking his forehead with it.

"Fuck..." Cursing under his breath, Timothy wallows in self-pity for a few seconds before hastily putting his phone away, scrambling to finish the repeatedly neglected paperwork before his uncle starts yelling at him again.

Back over by the dork brigade, Natalie has opened the gap in her barrier again and slid a small square device attached to the desk by a chain through to Jonathan's side.

"All right, Jackknife, just need to put your fingerprint confirmation on file and your ID update will be finalized, and then all following ID scans will show the updated information from that point forward." Giving him a professional smile, Natalie can't resist giggling after seeing how rapidly he plants his thumb in place on the top surface of the screen of the device.

"Okay, you're all set! While I run the QA check on this chip for Willy, would you guys mind looking over to make sure all of the information it will have linked to it is correct?" Once she tugs the chain to pull the small scanner back to herself, she then gently pushes a two-color screen that is similarly chained to the desk through the gap towards him.

Opening the small static-shielding hard case, she slides the chip inside of it into a piece of machinery built into the desk she's seated near, making a point of never physically touching it. Once it has fallen into place, after having to tap it a few times, she starts sliding a lever to close the top. She then enters a few commands into her tablet and the machine lights up, making a low buzzing sound.

Lucas makes a show of coming over and reading through the information displayed on the screen that she slid over, but really his mind is immediately elsewhere once 427 declares it is all in order.

'...So you're telling me that the twins were really just one person that they just used special effects to make a double of? I mean, it makes sense, but still... I guess I'm just not used to CG being good enough and they'd just do different camera angles or a stunt double or somethin'.'

[You've taken more complex things at face value, it's pretty funny that this is what you're hung up on. Oh, by the way, you actually know one more of the actors, apart from Mark that is.]

'Wait, what? No, I definitely haven't seen anyone that looks like the mad hatter so... The march hare..? Wait... WAIT... OMG, THAT WAS DAN! HOW DID I NOT REALIZE TILL NOW!?'

[...Probably because you were focused on Sylph the whole time instead of really looking at him.]

'...Touché.'

-----

Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.98

Lucas's fame level: 2.75* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1.5* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.98 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 10

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, actually reading Willy's information, as he isn't in the middle of an idle conversation with his system: Oh wow, he's more than 70% greyhound, I thought he was more mixed up than that!

Willy, fully engaged in his bout of tug-of-war with Miss Masher: Grr bark!

Lucas, cracking up over his insight: Oh! I should make them all sign something! Hahaha! Oh man, I wish I had a marker, I'd go make Timmy sign my phone case or something.

427, resisting his own urge to laugh: [I'm pretty sure it would be clearly insincere to have such a delayed reaction before asking.]

Author, openly laughing: I hope you enjoyed the brief time spent with Timmy P.o.V.

Mr. Quacks, mood greatly improved after Timothy embarrassed himself repeatedly on the offending live-stream: Quack!