Mistaken Identity [Giddy]

[Esme Bakus]

Certain things simply never occurred to Esme. It never occurred to her that pink and yellow could be garish. It never occurred to her that not everyone liked the Discovery channel, and it never occurred to her that Feivel might ask her out on a date. Sure he’d invited her to one of the games he was covering, and he’d been really smooth when they’d been together. But a date? Nah.

At least not until a few days later.

See, things never occurred to Esme until it was way too late. She was practically kicking herself by now for having not wrung all she could out of the game. It wasn’t as if she would know how to flirt if she read books on it, but she could have at least tried a little harder. Or something.

That was why she was so excited when she caught sight of Feivel in Kali’s shop. It was a sort of chance to perhaps redeem herself? Or at least say hello. Snatching up her purse and the scone she was eating, she scrambled a little to catch him at the counter. “Feivel! Hey!” She chirped brightly, hoping he’d look down and see her.

[Gideon Silverstein]

There were a lot of advantages to having a twin brother. Being able to get away with things by placing the blame on the other twin, crashing at his house for a couple years temporarily when cash was hard to come by, snatching his ID and credit card off the table and using them to set up a tab at the local cafe. You know, the usual stuff.

Gideon knew it wouldn't take long for Feivel to notice that his cards were missing, and even if he didn't notice, the younger twin was going to be found out eventually. In the mean time, he was going to make the best of the opportunity. He walked from his brother's apartment over to the cafe, and swaggered on over to the counter. After getting his (brother's) tab running, he ordered a few pastries and a coffee to start himself off. Feivel's wallet was going to feel the pain pretty soon.

He hadn't expect his little get-food-cheap-and-dirty plan to extend to the people around him, but he didn't hesitate to look over at the woman that called to him. Or his brother, rather. It was nothing new. People had been mistaking them for one another since they were toddlers, and since he was already impersonating his brother, he figured he might as well continue to play along.

"Hello there," he said in the cheesiest deep voice he could muster without making himself laugh. "How you doin'?" Yeah, this had fun written all over it.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme blinked, taken aback by the vaguely uncharacteristic nature of Feivel’s reply. Then again, she hadn’t know him that long, even if he sounded a little different. She shook it off, figuring she was simply looking too far into things, and beamed again. “I’m fine. I just really wanted to thank you for taking me to the game.” She chirped.

She idly picked at the hem of her top, peeking up at him through her dark lashes. “I had an amazing day, and wasn’t sure I’d gushed enough about it the day of. So I figure ‘hey! I’ll just bother him now!’…” She trailed off awkwardly, then cleared her throat. “So…here I am~!” Esme sang slightly, putting out her arms and chuckling nervously.

Unable to believe what a dweeb she was being, Esme groped at words to salvage the conversation. “So, how’s the article going?” she ventured to ask.

[Gideon Silverstein]

The game? Oh. That was the only clue he needed to figure out who this chick was. Her name was Esme, his brother had taken to one of the games he was covering as a date. Feivel had gushed about it up until he left to go pick her up, and fussed about it some more when he got back. It was all very annoying, but fortunate for Gideon, because he had all the information he needed to play his little game. "Oh, sure," he said with a nod, dropping the bro act he had going on before. The initial plan was to make Feivel look bad, but now that he knew exactly who he had encountered, Giddy had a better idea.

Feivel really should have mentioned that Gideon was his identical twin.

The bioluminescer rested his hand on his chin as she rambled on, an amused grin spreading across his face. She really did like his brother, it seemed. He could work with that. "You're not bothering me, it's nice to see you again." He was pushing himself to be nicer now, more Feivel like.

"Oh, it's going," he answered her question vaguely. Writing was something he didn't know anything about, and therefore a subject worth avoiding.

Grabbing the cup and plate that had since been placed on the counter in front of him, he grinned and gestured toward one of the cafe tables. "Would you like to sit and chat a bit?" So he wouldn't have much to say about Feivel's job or sports or anything like that, but he could fake his way through the game they had watched. The rest he could make up. Feivel was boring, and this was Gideon's chance to add some spice to his life.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme’s heart leapt with relief when he seemed to be as cool and unbothered as ever. She was occasionally shocked by how much people were willing to put up with from her, especially when it came to how excited she could get. She tended to just ramble on, and that was never good.

“Hmm…that doesn’t sound fun.” She said, wrinkling her nose slightly. Whenever someone said things were simply going, they usually meant they weren’t. But she didn’t press. Why bother talking about work? “But at least it’s going I guess.”

When he offered to sit for a bit, Esme looked to the table, then back up to (who she assumed was) Feivel. “Oh, yeah! That’d be great. I mean, if you don’t mind. I’d hate to keep you.” She blabbered. Chewing her lip, Esme shook her head slightly. “I’d like to sit.” She finally added, though now it seemed redundant. Esme sat down across from him after she’d ordered a muffin and a glass of lemonade, tucking her legs under the chair to keep them from swinging excitedly.

“How’s your brother?” She asked reflexively.

[Gideon Silverstein]

Gideon snorted at the mention of fun. Fievel's job was never fun. Boring; Was there any better word to describe it? "Oh, you have no idea," he said agreeably, rolling his eyes. A few years ago, back when he first moved in with his brother, he had to suffer through listening to Fives talk about his day. Nowadays, Giddy did his best to avoid those conversations. And it worked. Most of the time, anyway.

"It's no problem," he chirped back. "I've only just got here, and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon." There was still so much FOOD he could buy using his brother's money, and now there was entertainment too. He definitely didn't want to leave.

He went on ahead to the table, and managed to scarf down a danish before the woman could follow. "Good. He's doing good," he said in his own accent. Somewhere between asking her to sit with him and her coming over to join him, Gideon forgot about his little scheme. It took him a moment to realize that Esme was actually asking about him, and he open and closed his mouth rapidly as he worked to not talk about how much of a drag Fievel was.

"He just won a huge settlement from the Gatorade company, so he's rolling in the cash now," he continued, reigning in his accent. "Have to say, I'm a bit jealous." Well, if she was going to ask about Gideon, he might as well make it interesting, right? And toss in a few of his usual pickup tactics. Indirect flirting; it could work.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme was shocked by how quickly Fievel ate. That didn’t seem like him at all. Though, as she recalled, he probably never had much time to enjoy his food. Maybe it was just a habit. She was even more arrested when he spoke with an accent. “Wow. You weren’t kidding about being from Georgia, huh?” She teased, chuckling quietly.

Funny, she had sworn he said that he rarely slipped into it…

She blinked, her eyes widening. “He’s a…corporate lawyer, then? But I thought…” Come to think of it, Fievel hadn’t managed to say what his brother did for a living. Only that they lived together. “I didn’t know Gatorade was making settlements right now. What was the suit?” She scratched her cheek thoughtfully. “Are you even allowed to talk about it? Or is he, for that matter?”

[Gideon Silverstein]

Giddy's head tilted slightly at Esme's teasing. It seemed to him like that had come out of no where. "No. Of course not." If he was a little more intelligent, he might have noticed that she was referring to his accent.

That information stunned her! Good, that meant he had her interest. "Oh, no. Not a lawyer," he corrected, launching into his story, "He sued the company for their campaign ad. The one with the black and white video and colored sweat. It's reminiscent of one of his power's side-effects, and he was able to sue them for intellectual property theft." Based off a true story, Gideon had once tried to sue Gatorade to pay off his debts and travel expenses. He didn't have an actual case, however, and despite a lot of whining on his part, the claim never got anywhere. That didn't stop him from fabricating a story about it.

He shrugged as he went on. "Yeah, you probably didn't hear about it because they like to keep those kinds of things quiet. I guess I should shut up...." Gideon took one last swig of his coffee and waved the waitress over for a refill. "But, yeah. The short answer is he's doing good. You have siblings, right? How are they?" That was a complete shot in the dark, but the question was vague enough that he thought he could get away with it. He wasn't worried. Should he be wrong, it was Feivel's neck on the line.

[Esme Bakus]

Esme was starting to get a little weirded out by everything. Feivel was acting a little out of it. No, not out of it just…being a bit of a ham. At least from what she knew of his understated personality. Maybe she was looking to hard into things. Her leg bounced curiously, crossed girlishly over the opposite knee.

She screwed up her face in shock. “He sued Gatorade on an intellectual property suit? And there was no press coverage?! That’s a shame really…” She murmured. “It might have put meta-humans on the map. Or at least in some kind of media light that didn’t have to do with the military.” She curled a lock of her hair around her finger, her eyelids lowering in thought. “Though I really didn’t think that was how intellectual property theft worked…” Giggling, she shrugged. “Shows how much I know!”

Esme nodded, her heart leaping in momentary joy that he even remembered she had brothers. “They’re doing well. The family reunion is coming up.” Esme chewed her cheek thoughtfully and turned her large eyes up to the ceiling. “They’re trying to organize a football game again. But it’s difficult with so many boys that want to play and no one to cheer them on.”

[Gideon Silverstein]

Giddy quickly shook his head. "I don't think it was kept quite because he's meta, the company was just avoiding unwanted attention in general. That's probably why they settled so easily." No, that wasn't even close to how intellectual property theft worked, but the luminescer figured he could get away with calling it that as long as Esme didn't know the difference either. He thought he had all the angles worked out for this fib.

Shame, really. That would only encourage him to use it more often.

Again, things were in his favor, but the way the woman spoke about her brothers alarmed him. "They?" he repeated nervously. Suddenly, the practical joke wasn't as funny as it use to be. He wanted to screw up Feivel's reputation, not piss off a bunch of guys and get his brother's ass kicked. The Silverstein's were not small people, but that wouldn't matter against a group. And by the sound of it, this woman had a lot of brothers. "Hold on, how many siblings do you have?" he inquired, putting down the small danish he was about to swallow whole.

[Esme Bakus]

“Hm.” Esme murmured with a shrug. Good for Gideon, she supposed, that he had the guts to do something so…well…frankly it seemed rather strange! Ah well, she didn’t pretend to really understand law that well, and she was excited that the conversation was turning to her family. Feivel and Esme hadn’t shared much about their families during their first date (which was probably why Esme had no idea Gideon was Feivel’s twin), and it was such a big part of her life!

Leaning her chin on her hand and giggling slightly, Esme ran her fingers thoughtfully through her hair. “Four brothers: Junior, Tyrone, Reggie, and Julius. I’m the youngest and the only girl.” She explained, chuckling again. “That’s why we’re always short on cheer leaders at my family reunions. Lots of sporty guys, but very very few girls.”