Chapter 4 Uncanny

Yes, Jackie looked exactly like Aria. Sure, her cyan hair was a little shorter than the hairstyle that Aria wore, but for the most part, everything was the same. Same slender build. Same green head and sky blue shell. Same purple eyes, deep and beautiful.

And it was while he looked into those two amazing eyes that it occurred to Ludwig why Jackie's name had been so familiar to him. He had met her before. Specifically, he had met her in a hotel, while he was in control of Lemmy's body. Ludwig had gone after her to question if she had ever heard of Aria, but she of course had said no (Aria had been dead for eleven years at that point). Even still, the fact that she more or less was Aria's perfect doppelganger had caught Ludwig's interest. It was similar to the feeling that he had right now, except this time around it was on a much greater scale.

As Ludwig and Bob stared at Jackie and Aria with dropped jaws, both girls looked confused. They looked around the restaurant, trying to see what had captured their boyfriends' attention. They inevitably set their eyes on each other, and when they did, like the boys before them, their jaws dropped. They stared at each other, not moving for the better part of two whole minutes. If Ludwig didn't know any better, he would assume that time had frozen around these two women.

After the third minute had passed, Ludwig smirked and got up from the table. He went over to Jackie and Aria, all while trying to hide his glee. Once he was close enough, he allowed himself to let out a chuckle. "Why, hello there girls. How might you two be on this lovely day?"

Aria and Jackie still refused to take their eyes off of each other (again, it seemed that they were stuck in a perpetual state of shock). Ludwig didn't mind though; he knew that this was a lot for anyone to take in. It kind of reminded Ludwig of when Bob had first been created, and how he had sort of a mini panic attack over seeing someone who looked just like him step out of a mysterious machine. The only difference (at least at the moment) was that there didn't seem to be any logical explanation for this. It just seemed like the coincidence of all coincidences, a fluke by the universe that had somehow ended up creating this bizarre, confusing, slightly humorous scenario.

Eventually though, Aria did manage to break the silence. "I… I don't believe this!"

"It's uncanny!" Jackie exclaimed. Man, her voice even sounded like Aria's!

Bob came up from the table too, still looking mightily confused. "H… how is this even possible?" He leaned toward Jackie, now donning a questioning look. "Jackie, did you use Iggy's cloning machine too?"

Aria and Jackie laughed. Ludwig noticed how different their laughs were. Aria's filled the entire room while Jackie's was… quieter. More reserved, he believed the correct terminology was.

"I…" Jackie curled a strand of her hair back. "I never used any cloning machine…"

"Me neither!" Aria exclaimed. "I guess…" she giggled, refusing to take her eyes off of the girl who Ludwig jokingly wondered was an interdimensional double. "I guess we're just doppelgangers!"

Ludwig chuckled. Man. Doppelgangers; was there a more strange and amazing concept? Ludwig had only ever thought doppelgangers were the stuff of stories, like that story written by a real world author about a Prince and a Pauper who looked exactly alike. To see that it was real, and that it was on display right here, right now, in front of him was so… thrilling. It was exciting to an unreasonable degree. He could only imagine the kind of reactions his siblings would have when he went home to tell them about this.

Oh yeah, he was going to tell the other Koopalings. It was just too amazing to not talk about.

"It is quite cool." He looked right at Jackie, figuring now was good a time as any for an introduction. "I'm Ludwig von Koopa, and this is my girlfriend, Aria Shellcreep."

Jackie blinked. "Aria Shellcreep…?" A flash of recognition zoomed across her face, possibly because she remembered the last time she and Ludwig met in the hotel. Ludwig had told her Aria's name after all. However, after a little bit, Jackie just did a double take and shook her head. Ludwig couldn't read her mind, but he reasoned that she felt like she was experiencing deja vu.

"Well!" Bob exclaimed with a happy-go-lucky grin. "If we're doing introductions, I think we should introduce ourselves too!" He bowed in front of Aria. "I am Bob Duckswan…" Aria made a weird face at that last name, to which Ludwig responded to by mouthing the words 'don't think about it too much.' "And this…!" He chuckled and wrapped his arm around Jackie's shoulders. "This is my girlfriend, Jackie Sidestep!"

Jackie, in direct contrast to the joy Bob displayed, titled her head to the ground, refusing to make eye contact with anybody. "It's nice to meet you both."

"You too!" Ludwig exclaimed. The more he looked at Jackie, the more discomfort he noticed she had. So, he gestured toward the table. "Why don't we sit down? I'm sure all of us are feeling hungry at this point."

Aria snickered. "I'm a little more shocked than I am hungry at this point." She beamed. "But yeah, we should sit down."

"Especially seeing how a majority of the people in here are staring at us…" Jackie said.

Ludwig blinked. He looked at the other restaurant patrons, feeling a little disappointed when he saw that Jackie's observation was correct.

"Well. That's lovely," he said. He gestured for the others to follow him. "Just ignore them guys."

Everyone nodded and followed him to the table. As they walked, Ludwig noticed that the one who seemed most affected by being on the receiving end of all these stares was Jackie. Her face was pinker than a flamingo, and it looked like she was just minutes away from retreating into her shell and staying there for the rest of time. This ignited some sort of empathy in Ludwig. This whole discovery of theirs must be affecting Jackie on some level. Sure, he, Bob, and Aria found it more cool than anything else, but Jackie? It seemed Jackie was stressed out over everything that was happening within the four walls of this restaurant. As such, when the two sets of doppelgangers took their seats, Ludwig kept his eyes on Jackie specifically. The thought of her becoming too stressed to function just wasn't appealing to him.

Unfortunately, more stress came in the form of the waiter. "Hi! I'm Trey, I'll be your waiter this…" he stopped. He did double take after double take, looking at the four people here with so much disbelief one could easily think that he had just witnessed a shooting. "I.. uh…"

Ludwig snickered. "Waters all around please." That wasn't what he wanted, but he figured it would be easier on Jackie if she wasn't forced to endure this type of surprise longer than she had to. The waiter nodded and walked away, still looking like he had just found out the Matrix was real. When he was out of sight, Ludwig actually let out a breath of relief.

"So…" he tried to speak, but he immediately realized he had no idea what to say next. Nothing he thought to say would make for pleasant conversation.

It was a good thing Aria was there. "So! I don't know about you guys, but I'm really interested about the untold stories here!" She looked at Bob, all while Jackie's face turned from pink to red. "Bob, how did you meet Jackie?"

Bob chuckled. "I met her in the store. I was manning the cash register when she came by to purchase a blender."

"Oh! That's cool!" Aria leaned forward. "Seems like a perfect way for destiny to intervene."

Bob laughed out loud. "Yeah! It really does seem that we were destined to be together." He smiled at Jackie, an action that actually helped the Koopa girl to look significantly less flustered and uncomfortable. "I will never forget that day, when the most beautiful girl in the world decided to walk into General Woodley's General Store of Generalness."

That actually got a very potent snicker out of Ludwig. "Ohh…" his snickering turned into laughing. "I completely forgot about that stupid name."

Aria actually laughed at that as well. "Yeah. I think a name change is in order for such a place." She blinked a little bit. "Man, I've lived in Sparksville for a long time, and I had never come across that store." She chuckled. "Man, I guess I need to be more observant from now on."

Ludwig chuckled just as the waiter came back with their waters. Like last time, the waiter still looked taken aback at seeing two sets of identical people. However, there was also another emotion showing through on his face; excitement. He actually looked excited about this, like he had discovered a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He even asked the group if he could take their photo once they put in their food orders, going so far as to fish his phone out of his hammerspace. Ludwig saw how red Jackie was turning though, so he politely declined. He couldn't help but notice Jackie flashing him a thankful look as the waiter walked away.

"So," Ludwig said, deciding now was as good a time as any to start up a conversation to help people feel more comfortable (and get to know each other outside of "hey, you look just like me!"). "Jackie, where do you work?" Yes, Ludwig already knew the answer to this. However, he decided that he might as well ask.

Unfortunately, Jackie's response made him regret asking at all. "Uh… um… uh, I…" she hesitated more times in the one minute following that one question than Ludwig had ever hesitated over the course of his entire life. It was then that Ludwig realized that he more or less put her in the hot seat, which made him feel bad. Like… really fucking bad.

"I work at a hotel," Jackie finally whispered as she looked ready to crawl under the table and die there. "I provide room service for all of the customers."

Aria nodded. "That's pretty cool."

"It sure is!" Bob said. He chuckled. "On our third date, Jackie managed to talk to her manager and get a room for us in the hotel and some room service for free! Free!" He gave Jackie the most adoring look Ludwig had ever seen. "It was certainly awesome, and I'll always remember it."

For the first time since arriving, Jackie actually smiled. "I will too." Man, the way she looked at Bob was so.. precious. She didn't appeared scared, or shy, or uncomfortable. Instead, she looked content, she looked happy. It seemed that Bob really brought out the best in her, which only made the theory that the two were destined to be together all the more powerful.

"Yeah." Bob turned away from Jackie for a minute and looked at Aria. "And I heard that you're demon hunter! That's pretty cool!"

Aria snorted. "Some parts of it are, some parts of it aren't." She chuckled before taking a sip of her water. "I guess, in that sense, it's like pretty much every other job on the face of the planet."

That got both guys to laugh. While Jackie didn't laugh, she did adorn a smile, possibly finding some relatability in the words that Aria had spoken.

"Man," Ludwig said after a little bit. "I still for the life of me can't believe this." He chuckled and leaned back. "I never would've expected that something like two sets of identical people becoming two different couples would ever happen in a million years."

"Me neither!" Bob beamed when he said this, sounding like this whole experience had opened his eyes to the joys and happiness the world they lived in could provide. "It's just… oh man, this is so weird! Cool, but definitely weird!"

Both girls nodded. "Yeah! It is!" Aria exclaimed, her voice loud and cheerful.

"It is…" Jackie said, her voice quiet and docile.

With that, the two couples continued on their double date. As the day wore on, Ludwig became more and more eager to tell his siblings about this. He seriously wondered how they would react…