2025-05-02 - Quality Of Advice Not Guaranteed

Jaime Kelly has set up in one of the larger booths in the back corner of Lucky's where he has a basket of seasoned fries, a pint, and a little sign hanging from the booth that says: "Advice: $1" but the dollar is scratched out and it says below it "Price Negotiable". Why? Why not? Maybe someone dared him to do it. Maybe he lost a bet. Maybe, he's just bored on a Friday night looking for a way to entertain himself.

Tig enters the bar to play a bit of pool and maybe drink a little beer, and shortly afterwards, Tig enters the bar to play a bit of pool and maybe drink a little beer, too. One of the best ways to have an even match is to play against yourself, which Tig can do quite literally. It's her day off, so casual clothing is on the menu, a simple jeans and graphic tee combo.

As they head towards the pool tables, one of them notices Jamie's impromptu advice booth and nudges the other, nodding over there. That one breaks into a grin and nods back. "I'll bring you a beer," she says, and changes direction to head to the bar.

The other one then moseys on over and slides into the bench opposite that of Jaime, fishing a dollar bill out of a pocket. "Alright," she says, still grinning. "What do you do when your ferret doesn't like one of your friends?"

Jaime is in his usual fare, which means a comfortable pair of well-worn jeans, some work boots, and a plain grey t-shirt. He's got a hoodie thrown into the booth next to him, but it's warm enough out at the moment not to need it. He lifts his pint in a kind of salute as he sees Tig wandering over toward both his booth and toward the bar. At least he knows he hasn't had enough to be seeing double yet, and as one half of a matched set, still doesn't think much of it when he sees duplicates wandering about.

As Tig takes a seat, Jaime considers this question and says. "Do your other friends like that friend?" he asks as he leans back in his seat and allows one arm to drape along the side of the booth.

"More or less," Tig says with a handwaggle. "He's part of my Saturday Night D&D group, and everybody seems to get along fine. Archimedes is usually pretty chill around people, but for some reason, he just hasn't taken to him. He'll just run up and bite him on the ankle." She shakes her head sadly, "I've had to banish him to the bedroom, but you know how ferrets are. They're great escape artists."

"I think, if your ferret really doesn't like the guy, then he's probably trying to tell you something," Jaime opines. "And if even your other friends are kinda lukewarm on him, maybe there's something to it." He shrugs his shoulders. "My advice? Either do the D&D game somewhere else or tell the guy to start wearing some chain mail socks." He then lifts his pint to her in a salute.

Other Tig wanders by with a pair of pints of ale, sliding one to the one that's sitting. "So, what did you ask?"

"Archimedes and Mark," the sitting Tig answers, picking up the pint and taking a sip.

"And the verdict?"

"Chainmail socks."

Standing Tig snorts and raises a glass to cheer Jaime. "Solid advice. I'm going to go rack up. You coming?"

Sitting Tig shakes her head. "Naw. Not yet. I'll think of something else to ask."

Standing Tig shrugs and wanders off to the pool tables.

Sitting Tig grins at Jaime. "I'm really going to miss being able to do that if I ever move on to another job."

Jaime raises his glass to Standing Tig and flashes her a broad grin, then nods as she goes over to rack up. His attention then turns back to sitting Tig. "Yeah, at least with Joey, even if we leave here he still sticks around. On the other hand, even when we leave here, he still sticks around." The grin doesn't abate. It's clear that he's joking. Those two are rarely ever far from one another. They always work the same jobs. They always live in the same town. The twins are nigh on inseparable.

"What're the chances of that?" he asks, curious, as to whether she's thinking about a career change or not.

Tig returns Jaime's grin, asking, "Twins? I'm an only child, so this is the closest I'll ever get to having a sibling."

She ponders the question of her longevity here. "Well, pretty high if Jim Hensom offered me a job, but otherwise I like it here." She shrugs, "We'll see in five, ten years."

Jaime nods, "Identical. Which is funny around here on a few levels. Imagine if we both got bilocation. There'd be four of us. I don't think even this park is ready for that level of nonsense." He takes a long swallow from his pint and then sets it down again.

"Fair enough," Jaime says. "Joey and I are in construction so.. depends on how long the contract lasts and how long it takes to build out the whole Lost City area. Once that's done? Guess it depends on if they have another dev project or not. Then, we either stay on for that or we find another contract."

Tig just grins at the thought of what kind of shenanigans Jamie and Joey could get up to. "That would be kind of hilarious," she admits. "It's bad enough that when I first split, I'm always talking in tandem. I figured out that I should keep a coin on me so I could flip it to create some form of divergence between the two of me." She shrugs, "Otherwise I'm just doing the same thing with both bodies."

She purses her lips as she considers Jamie. "Is this your first time working on a theme park? I've talked to a couple of other contractors working in construction. Mostly, they're just worried that the animatronics we're working on won't just get up and bite guests."

"Huh," Jaime says as he considers that. "So if you don't do that, you just keep doing the exact same thing? That's kind of wild." He then gestures with his beer and says, "Pretty sure Joey and I almost never do the exact same thing. But then, we've also lived together our whole lives so, that probably has something to do with that."

"First time working on a magical theme park where things do randomly get up and walk around sometimes, yeah. But honestly I'll take any construction job that requires digging up some dirt and laying a foundation. Whatever pays the bills."

"Until something happens to create a point of divergence," Tig explains. "When I split, I'm the exact same person at that exact moment, so I'm thinking the exact same things. Completely in sync. I've even got the exact same clothes on and the exact same stuff in my pockets, but, unfortunately, I can't use that as a duplication hack to make more money." She grins slyly as she takes another sip of her ale. "Believe me. I tried. It was the first thing I thought of. But whenever something leaves my touch, the one that's on me vanishes. So... coin. I think beforehand, the one whose coin disappears does x, while the one who has the coin does y, dig one out, and flip. I tried using both copies of my cell phone at the same time, but it made the cellular towers go nuts, so I ended up buying a second one to give my dupe when I need it."

She nods in understanding. "Yeah, I get that. There are really not that many jobs in animatronics and puppeteering, so it's not like I have a lot of choices when it comes to jobs. I worked for The Mouse for a while but... never again."

Jaime nods as she explains what happens when she splits. He reaches for a fry and pops it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully as he takes that information in. Then he gives a couple of small nods of his head and says, "Too bad. You could be rich."

Then he grins and says "Smart," when she says. "Get your own friends and family plan going."

"I'd imagine not. People are pretty much always building something, or taking something down and rebuilding something. Almost never entirely out of work," Jaime says.

"So, yeah. I'm probably going to stay here for a while," Tig concludes. "I'm not in any real rush to go anywhere anyway. Unless, of course, Henson gives me a call out of the blue." She smirks, "Not likely, but you never know."

Standing Tig looks over at the pair and shouts, "You coming, or what?"

Sitting Tig dips her head in an embarrassed apology. "Looks like I've been summoned. Thanks for the advice! I'll get working on those socks right away."