The Other

The darkness was chilly and strange, but not altogether unpleasant. It had the welcome effect of soothing Solvay’s battle bothered brain a little.
He allowed himself to float with little resistance through what he supposed was an interdimensional membrane. A glittering light sprang into existence and wrapped around him, surrounding his body for an impossible to measure length of ‘time’. It was comforting.
After a while, the light shimmered more vibrantly, filling the ‘air’ around him with light golden grains, which gradually transformed into solid shapes and stronger colours.

Then, with a whoosh, he was on his feet.

He blinked and looked around.
The smeg?
He was in a small room, stacked with boxes. On top of a couple of the boxes were books. From a quick glance he wasn’t entirely sure what they were called, but some had interesting, wizardy, cover illustrations. He distractedly ran his fingers over them, noticing there was one large volume with what looked like the Jurassic Park logo adorning the front. ... Cool.
The room was lit by a dim green bulb. Green? Interesting – from the look of the boxes Alex had assumed he was in a house or something but who chose green bulbs for a house? Weird. He’d have a dull green bulb - comfortingly spaceshippy - but he couldn’t imagine many people’d want one.

In front of him was a brown, sturdy-looking door. He shrugged, turned the knob, and pushed it open.

The room the other side was dark, save the less-than-bright light spilling from the green-room, and that radiating from what looked like a portable computer screen.

“What the FUCK!?” Growled a voice, not entirely unlike Alex’s own, a touch younger, perhaps. It was, somewhat unsettlingly, accompanied by a ferocious animal snarl from somewhere in the darkness.
“Hello?” Said a confused Alex, swallowing and tightening his grip on his gun at the sound of the low rumble, readying himself for battle or retreat. “Where am-"
He didn’t finish the sentence, ‘cause someone smacked him in the kidneys with something hard.
“-Oof!”
“GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY FLAT!” Yelled the almost-Alex-voiced person in his ear, employing his knee now, too. “SEE ‘IM OFF, WEASEL!”
Alex tried to turn, to fight back, but the creature had him.

From it’s strength the ‘weasel’ seemed far larger than a normal weasel, it was more like a baby giant weasel. Not more Roo!? Or perhaps it was a weasel-backed dog. Whatever it was, it growled and tugged at Alex’s combats, causing him great difficulty in keeping his balance.
“Yeahhh, get ‘im!” Hissed the assailant, in sinister tones, giving Alex an enthusiastic whack on the shoulder. “How DARE you break in, you C*CK!”
“Uh! Uh! Stop it! I don’t even know where I am!” Protested a tired, aching, and bewildered Solvay, ducking as best he could on one foot from the other man’s weapon, while trying to wrest his leg from the beast’s clamp-like jaws.
“I don’t wanna have to use my SNIG!” He warned.
“What?” The other guy suddenly ceased his assault.
“SNIG? Sam, stop.” ‘Sam’ did not stop.
“Samwise!” The other snapped, using the creature’s apparent full name, and mercifully, the ferocious weasel-dog stopped tugging at the trouser of Alex’s already scissor-sore leg.

The attacker moved away and slapped the wall. Light began to flicker, painfully slowly, into life.
“Sorry, energy-saving bulb” the formerly violent one grumbled, stalking round to face the intruder.
Groaning, and realising the danger was likely over, Alex took off his pack and put his SNIG down so he could give his achey back a good click.

The light flourished into full bloom.

As the two saw each other properly for the first time, they uttered “ho-ly smeg…” in unison. And, for a while, they just stared.
Bored now the 'playfight' was over, ‘Weasel’ went and curled up on the bed at the side of the room.

The two guys reached out and touched the other’s almost identical hair, and ran curious fingers over each other’s bandana.
“Head wound?” Alex murmured, thinking of his own bag-bashed bonce.
“No. Rock n’ Roll” breathed the Other.

“You’re…”
“I’m…”
“We’re…” “We’re…”
They could feel a strange connection fizzing between the two of them.

The other guy dropped the foam covered baseball bat he was holding, and his eyes flicked to Alex’s gun. Mind reeling, Alex stepped backwards, nearly tripping over a dumbbell, and almost knocking a ‘genuine Gibson Les Paul copy’ from its plastic crate perch.
The Other crouched, ran his fingers gently over the SNIG, hefted it to test its density, and chuckled disbelievingly. “Cool...”
He put it down, stood up, and gave Solvay a tight smile.

“Hello Alex.”
He held out a hand, and a frazzled Solvay shook it.
The white dog jumped off the bed and pushed affectionately against the front of his legs, her floppy ears were too big for her face and, now she wasn’t snarling, she was very cute. Alex absently-mindedly stroked her head, still curiously examining the stubble-faced Other.
The guy was wearing a blue checked shirt and black jeans. Something Alex might wear himself.
Had he just, somehow, been on the receiving end of his own temper?

“This is intense.” They said, together.
“Synchronicities are like the universe gently stroking your face…” muttered the checkshirt. At Alex’s confused look he explained “That’s what this cool lady I follow online says.”
Alex frowned. “I could do with a bit of universal stroking at the moment.”
The Other raised an eyebrow, ran a hand through his slightly shorter than Alex's hair, and swallowed a snigger.
“I mean-“
“I know what you mean.”

After another minute’s fascinated staring, the other lurched forward. “Wow! I can’t believe it…”
He prodded at Alex’s face.
“You’re really real...” His voice had changed into a squeaky Californian one.
It was Alex's turn to raise an eyebrow. “Are you pretending to be Edward Furlong in Terminator 2?”
“Yep.”
“Knew it.”
The other chuckled. “You’re actually covered in mud!” He said in his own voice again, apparently delighted, pacing around Alex and examining him. “From the Roo tunnels!”
At the mention of muddy tunnels, Alex winced. The other did too, in sympathy. He sucked air through his teeth. “Sorry.” Then he noticed something else. “Your vest - it's really cut open!”
At this, Alex chuckled gently. He wasn’t sure how The Other knew about his shirt-snipping-shenanigans, but he seemed pretty pleased about them.

They shared a glint-eyed glance, like reunited cousins.

Suddenly the blue checked shirted guy hugged him. It felt strangely healing to the both. Maybe the preachers of kindness-to-one's-self were onto something.
The thought of “self-love” lead his thoughts down another, different, avenue.
“If we were to, you know, kiss, would that count as-“
“Uh… What?”
“Nothing.”
They continued the hug.

“I just won an award on the site Blue Dwarf is on.” mumbled Bluecheck. “So cool.”
“What do you mean? ‘The site’?”
The lad/boy/man – he was difficult to age - let him go. “Yeh. Bit difficult to explain. It's where we, uh, write the Blue Dwarf stories.”
Alex’s eyes opened wide, trying to take this in. “What?"
"The Blue Dwarf posts. The crew's adventures."
"You're saying you make up what happens?”
The other guy shook his head. “Nah, what happens happens. I’m merely the instrument through which it gets noted down. And only one of them, at that.”
“That’s…”
“… Hard to process, I know. Tell me about it” he sighed. “Gum?” Clearly even in this dimension – or wherever the smeg he was - Alex – or whoever the smeg he was - was into oral-hygiene. He took one. "Thanks.” A thought struck him. “Wait… you can write?”
“Got my techniques, like you” he winked.
Alex was finding it difficult to take this in. Was he hallucinating?
“Are you me?”
“What, like the whole Ace Rimmer thing, you mean?"
“Who?”
“Nuthin’. Sorry for attacking you. Thought you were a burglar.”
“’Sokay, I’d have done the same.”
They shared their natural half-smiles. The two halves creating a whole.

Light, and a strange whistling wind started to swirl around Alex and he could feel himself being pulled elsewhere.
“SHIT!” The Other yelled “Don’t go! I wanted to show you the park! The stump of the Brachiosaur Tree!” He reached out his arm and Alex grasped it, as he was sucked towards the vortex, his hair flapping in the gale.
He tried walking out of the vortex's pull, but his feet couldn't get proper purchase and his boots skidded over the carpetless floor. “There was another Brachiosaur Tree?” He yelled.
“Yeah! Same one! It was here first! They cut it down so I sent it to Fernandos!”
“What!??”
“Yep!" There was a stronger gust of wind, which blew Alex fully off his feet so that he was only anchored by The Other's iron grip. "NO! Don’t go!” The vortex was only after Alex, the other could stand quite unaffected.
“Argh, I can’t… Help it!” Alex yelled, as the light swirled more strongly and he was torn partially from The Other’s grasp, each man's hands sliding painfully down the others' forearm, till they were just clinging by their fingertips. The Other grunted, gritted his teeth and tried to haul Alex back into the room, but it was no good, the vortex was too strong.

“Hey!” Shouted Alex, knowing he'd be in another dimension in a minute and snatching at the chance. “What’s your name?”
“Jack!”
“Ha! My middle name’s John!” Came Alex’s bellowed reply. “One of my nicknames in my gambling days was-”
“Milky Way Jack. I know! …The others don’t, yet!”
“Of course you know!”
The dog tried to leap into the vortex with Solvay, but Jack yanked her back into the room.
“My surname’s kinda like yours, too!” Jack bellowed."The others don’t know that, either! More, accidental, synchronicity!"
It was getting harder to hear each other. With a super-yank of the vortex they were separated, and Alex was thrown completely from Jack’s grasp, further back into the swirling gateway.
“What?”
“Yeah! We probably have Nordic ancestry!”
“I’m a Vi-king?” Alex yelled. “I tho-ught I wa-as a c-ow-boy!”
“Bo-oo-otttthh…”
Alex gave him a thumbs up.
"A-A-a-le-ex?"
“Ye-a-a-ah?” The wind was buffeting more strongly, any second now the doorway would close.
“Re-mem-ber… A-nything is po-ssible!”
“A-nything... is... po...”
“Aaaahh-nnyy-thiingggg… … … … ...”

And then, the vortex, the bedroom, the aesthetically pleasing white-blonde dog called Weasel or Samwise or whatever the heck it was, and the check-shirted Other, were replaced with a hot, dark and sandy room. And a thumping headache.

Lying on his back in the sand, he groaned. What had just happened? Where was he?

Was he… chewing gum?

His backpack fell out of nowhere, thumping heavily into his stomach and winding him.

“Uurffhh.”

His thumbs bent out of their erect position as he pushed the pack off and clutched at his new ache.

When he got his breath back he returned to his former line of fuzzy mental questioning. He poked his tongue around his mouth, there was no gum there. Had it just been blasted out with the force of the pack? Or had he just been dreaming the gum and the gum-giver?
Did he detect a hint of minty freshness?

His SNIG landed to one side, missing his head by inches and almost giving him a heart attack.

He groaned loudly.

"This sand'd better be from a smeggin' beach..."

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Note. My dog's nickname is Weasel, 'cause she goes "weasel back".