Owner	Pose
Jamie Madrox	The good is always followed by some unforseen re-balancing. Jamie Madrox is all too sure of this as he struggles and fights with the truly ancient furnace beneath X-Factor Investigations. A little warmth in his night almost immediately replaced by cold air in the vents and a long list of laughing repair men. 'Sure, we'll be right out!' And they'd laugh and laugh. Hellacious weather is not at all a motivator this evening when it comes to making a few bucks. Freezing to death is. So Jamie bashes and cranks at the aged contraption that, upon his first inspection, seemed a marvel of modern can-do attitude and a healthy duct tape budget. A single kick to test tbe structure was met by a loud CLUNK and smoke. "That's probably not good." A Dupe says from the foot of the stairs with a mug of bourbon in hand. Madrox Prime sighs dramatically. "Not helping." He says. "I know." The Dupe confirms with a bemused smirk that Jamie now recognizes as the punchably smug expression he's been reminded of more than once. "Just get me some tools, alright? And be -quiet- about it. Vi's finally asleep. The girl could-" A door slams and Jamie scowls. The Dupe at the foot of the stairs merely shrugs while noisily slurping his bourbon like hot chocolate. A small cadre of Jamie Madrox Dupes marching up the stairs to gather various tools from the rooms above. Every last one of them clad in grey sweat pants and an oversized, zip front Yankees hoodie. Bare feet still stomping on hardwood floors and stairs. Downstairs, Madrox OG is dismantling the furnace housing with his bare hands and choice curse words. The tall, narrow brownstone slowly sinking from stuffy heat to a bone chilling freeze. Mostly because of the Dupe on the roof scanning police bands with the access door wide open.
Vi	The parade of bare feet up and down the stairs continue, as Jamies uncountable (if only because they keep moving and making you question your count) bring him tools or part, or go in search of same. Another pair of bare feet come down the steps, the person clad in a zip front Yankee's hoodie. Though the grey sweat pants are missing, just slender, rather shapely legs emerging from beneath the shirt which is zipped partway up concealing the bare skin beneath. "Is there anything I can help with?" Vi asks quietly, tongue touching her lips as she looks around at the state of partially disassembled that the furnace is in. Vi moves over closer to the Jamie working on the furnace. She's not actually sure he's Jamie Prime, though he seems the sort to Vi to usually do this kind of work himself. Though she also seems kind of accepting that all of them are Jamie to some degree she hasn't really worked out fully. "Not that I know anything about this," she says, moving a little closer to the furnace. "Though I have two hands." She glances behind her at another Jamie on the stairs. "Ok. You aren't actually in short supply on those either, are you?" she asks, the girl's soft brown eyes peering over at Jamie as she cracks the hint of a smile.
Jamie Madrox	A Jamie Madrox head count is a thing of madness and masochism. Ask any of the instructors at Xaviers years back and they'd have horror stories of attendance keeping and creative uses of death threats. As Vi pads lightly down the now cold stairs to the basement, Madrox Dupe leans helpfully to the side allowing her to pass. Eyebrows up, he lifts his mug of warmth and whiskey in cheers behind her back. An upnod to Jamie Prime but he doesn't say a word. Only smiles devilishly behind his easter bunny mug. "If you knew how to kill me right about now, that would be really helpf-" Catching his gruff reply, Jamie's back straightens and he bops his head against a piece of thick framing metal. Creative, rapidfire profanity follows. Two Dupes laugh behind him, one ruffling his hair as they drop off handfuls of tools. "Watch our head there, Bob the Builder." One replies unhelpfully. He yelps in surprise as Jamie Prime absorbs him after a sudden punch to the stomach. Hands dusty and greasy, Jamie sits back on his haunches. Forearms resting atop knees, hands dangling loose and filthy. He sighs with a half assed chuckle before looking back. A dull blink of confusion. "Some different company helps. I uh... You... " He clears his throat. Tries again. "Jacket a little big on you, huh?" He asks with a half-assed smile. Looking up at Vi, Jamie scritches at the back of his neck. Leaving black streaks. "I never turn down an extra set of hands. Grab that roll of silver tape there. Since you're awake." A glare passed to the Jamie on the stairs, to which only a shrug of -don't even care- is returned.
Vi	Vi watches the interaction between the Jamies, and her smile grows a bit wider. "So, does joining back together make your stomach hurt after doing that?" she asks him. The teen gives a nod about the coat. "And I figured it wasn't the best to sleep in. My other clothes were still kind of damp," she tells him, looking down at the hoodie. She moves over to get the silver tape, holding it up to make sure it's what he wants. She brings it over to stand at his side and unroll the end of it and get it ready for use. Vi reaches over, and her fingers brush the back of Jamie's neck where the black mark is. Her fingertips come up away with soot. "So this is what heats the building, then?" She asks him. Vi looks about, but doesn't see any stacks of wood nearby to feed it. She smiles to Jamie and says, encouragingly, "It looks like you're doing a good job," she says. Obviously moral support. She doesn't even know what it burns, or if it burns. "I have great faith in you," she says with a nod. "Just be careful with your head." Was that a joke? A little twinkle in her eyes?
Jamie Madrox	Her question gets two answers. The wince and grunt of dulled pain after absorbing his mouthy counterpart and a held up digit for a momentary pause. "Yeah. A little. If I were to -shoot- one of us... Not naming names or pointing fingers..." He says while looking directly at the Jamie still at the foot of the stairs. He slurps his bourbon and waggles dark eyebrows in challenge. "But if you shoot one and I absorb him, I'd be hurt by, I think half? Works the other way around too. I get hurt, I can heal faster if I absorb healthy Dupes." "Thanks, Vi." Jamie says with far less malice in his tone than from when he addressed his do-nothing duplicate. Taking the roll, he pulls a longbstrip and tears it with his teeth. A glance back over shoulder, a light wink to his newfound accomplice and he starts the technological mummification of the furnace all over again. More tape. That always helps. The touch to the back of his neck brings a momentary pause. Warm. Gentle. "Ahem. Right. Yeah, this is -supposed- to heat the place. Inspection clearly went a bit lazy down here. That's what I get for paying cash." More and more tape is bound to pipes and anchored with excessive strips here and there. "It does? Oh, thank God. I could have sworn I was faking it -hard-." A laugh escapes him, a pause in his task sees Jamie turn to Vi with a brow lofted in open surprise and a touch of pride. "Was that a joke? Sure sounded like one. Back handed advice with a pretty smile? Vi, have you been taking notes?"
Vi	Having Jamie appreciate her joke brings one of the most beautiful smiles to the girl's face. Two months of mostly being quiet and watching others, with no one to confide in, or joke with, is a long time. And one would have to go back far longer, a year perhaps, past the time she was held by Hydra, to find when she truly was with people she could joke with from time to time. So that smile from Jamie as he appreciates the joke just means everything and leaves Vi practically radiant. "I guess I'm loosening up around you," she says, looking away from Jamie and smiling to him. She looks at the furnace and asks, "Should I go and start up the firepit you said you had?" A quick look back. "Just until you get it working. Which I know you will," she tells him. Full of confidence in his abilities. Or, wait, was that a small quirk in the corner of her lips? It's difficult to tell, those big sweet eyes of her shining like that.
Jamie Madrox	Does she have a latent temporal power she didn't tell him about? The smile on her face, genuine and warmer than anything in this cellar by far, seems to slow the world. Time stretches like taffy as he looks up at that beautific grin, a gentle sigh of relief sagging his shoulders. He's used to begrudging smiles, annoyed smirks and outright scowls. He pushes buttons and weathers nerves on a regular. This? This was like seeing the sun after weeks of rain. Jamie can only smile back and wonder how she even retained the memory of a smirk after a Hydra upbringing. "Yeah? Guess my evil plan is working then." He says while still looking up at the mysterious and near blank slate that is Vi. "Moo hoo ha ha." A flat, deadpan villain laugh. He tosses the duct tape up to her before picking up a crescent wrench. "Not a bad idea, Vi. Always play the odds. Got wood by the door up there. Lighter fluid under the BBQ pit." Jamie Prime rolls his eyes with a low chuckle and a nod of lazy acceptance. "Right, right. Of course, I will. I can do everything." He pauses a moment, squinting ever so slightly at that hint of a curve on full lips. "We're all going to be standing outside, watching this place burn down. Not sure who will spark it though..." Dupe Jamie says, gesturing between the two with his mug of booze. "The Multiple Problems Man or Hot Hydra Girl. Jamie, what's the over under on this one?" The other Dupe in the room sighs oh so dramatically. "What am I? A future seeing guy?" Jamie Prime throws the crescent wrench at his Dupe. "We were LITERALLY trapped in the future once! Get out! Both of you!"
Vi	Vi's face lights up a little bit at the villain laugh. She doesn't know what it is, not having grown up watching TV or movies. But it's charming to the girl to hear. Vi reaches up to brush some hair back from her face, her smile staying bright as Jamie compliments her idea. "Ok, I'll go ahead and get it going," she agrees. She looks over to the other two Jamies as they begin cracking jokes. "I think maybe I'll soon be able to tell you apart by your senses of humor," she comments, looking over the other two as if seeking out any other tells. The thrown wrench causes Vi to try to suppress her smile. Which only manages to leave her looking like someone who is trying to suppress a smile rather than looking neutral. Vi moves over to Jamie and tells him softly, "Try not to kill yourselves, ok?" She rests her hand on his side for a moment, smiling gently and then moving away. The cold floor doesn't seem to bother her bare feet as she slips past the Jamie by the stairs to head up them. Slender bare legs the last part of her that can be seen.
Jamie Madrox	Tragic. His massive stores of pop culture knowledge are hitting the targets but not the right ones. He's starting to get a feel for when something goes over her head and the smile she offers regardless is nothing short of reassuring to his fragile ego. "Don't stay up there too long. That ice and those legs might not be good friends." He says after dragging a well worn hammer to his side. At the notion of being able to tell them all apart, all three Madri look at eachother. In a creepy, unrehearsed unison, tbey reply with deadpan humor. "One of us. One of us." Drunk Dupe laughs and gestures up the stairs with a sweeping gesture and theatrical bow. "After you, Vi. Ladies first. That's a rule, you know." Madrox Prime looking up to Vi, simply chuckles under a breath before waggling a hammer at one of the Dupes stalking up the stairs. "No promises, Vi. No promises." Watching Vi disappear up the stairs, Jamie OG glares at Drunk Dupe as the clone just smiiiiiiles. "I'm watching you." The Dupe laughs as he follows Vi up. "And I'm watching her. Who's watching you?" The hammer is thrown and clatters noisily back down the stairs.
Vi	The interplay, and the similarity, of the three just sustain Vi's smile, which ends up shared with all three as she heads up the stairs. The minutes pass, with the furnace being worked on, and alternate heating being arranged upstairs. After awhhile there are a few sounds of some banging, and thumps on the ceiling as of something heavy moving. More sounds of activity, multiple feet. What is going on up there anyway? Whenever Jamie Prime does venture upstairs to check, he'll find that the firepit has been brought inside and down into the kitchen. A makeshift extension has been added to the stove's exhaust so it reaches out to hang above the firepit, suspended from ropes. There's a cheery fire going in it. No sign of the lighter fluid. Vi didn't know what that was, but the girl knows how to make a fire like nobody's business. A couch has been pulled over to sit near to the fire, and Vi is sitting on it, her back to a couch arm and her legs drawn up and feet on the couch. A blanket is tented by her knees as she sits there in the relative warmth the fire is giving off. Fire detectors? Batteries removed.
Jamie Madrox	Up the stairs the trio goes. A Jamie infront of her opening the door and letting out a shrill whistle to gather the troops. "Boys! We got a life or death situation here! Avengers Assemble!" The Dupe behind her groans audibly in protest. "This is cutting into my Me Time." He bemoans while peering into a woefully empty mug. Meanwhile, down in the cellar, Jamie literally wraps up his work. With tape. He's starting to see why and how this thing survived so long in an age where everything is connected and accountable. The ruckus upstairs draws a worried glance into the support beams. "Am I going to regret this or am is my insurance provider?" With a grunt of effort, Jamie pushes himself up. Wiping his hands off on an old rag made from one of his more bullet riddled shirts, Jamie cautiously makes his way up those stairs. Rounding the corner and tossing a dirty green rag over shoulder, Jamie surveys the changes to the kitchen with an obviously impressed and horrified expression. He's very confused by what he sees. Two Dupes high-five and grab up overcoats. One snaps a picture and immediately starts tweeting. "That look was perfect. Profile picture? I think so. Oh, I think so." Coming back to his senses after trying to rationalize it all, Jamie Prime ends up with hands on hips and nodding in impressed acceptance. "Well. That definitely works better than what I had in mind." Pulling his hood back, Jamie walls on cold feet across a warming floor to FLUMP down on the couch beside Vi. He doesn't hesitate to scoot in an steal over half the cover while making himself comfortable. "Forget coffee, Vi. You're moving up in the ranks fast. Fire Marshall seems fitting. Congrats, Fire Marshall Vi. You've been promoted."