Chapter Text
It's a well known fact that when you spend a lot of time with someone, you start mimicking and adopting some of their mannerisms. So what then happens when you've shared an entire mind and body with another person?
"Obviously the phenomenon has not been studied before," Billy explained between bites. "First, it would be difficult to procure willing test subjects. The interpersonal - and intrapersonal - dynamics alone make the ethics of putting people in such a situation…hard to navigate."
"Oh man, imagine being blindly paired with another person to have your bodies switched, and it turns out to be someone you don't like!" Kim suggested animatedly. "Or…" she raised her eyebrows. "Someone you do like."
Billy hesitated for just a moment. Was he blushing? "Second," he went on, "we don't even have a universal consensus on what constitutes the mind, or the soul, as opposed to the chemical and physical reactions within the cranial organ that is the brain. Given the assumption that the brain itself remains in the body of its original owner, how then to qualify and quantify the consciousness that is transferred?"
Kimberly's brow was furrowed as she attempted to follow. "It's hard to study and track something you can't observe. Observation is like the very first step of the scientific method."
"You do pay attention!" Billy laughed, then ducked as she threw a fry at him.
"So we don't know what the effect of this switch will be in the long run." She had obviously been hoping for a simple answer, preferably one that predicted a short duration.
Billy spread his hands. "Unfortunately, at this juncture there is no way to predict whether or not anything will change further for us." He peered at her. "Do you feel any different now that we've switched back?"
Kim took mental inventory. "Not really. I mean. The first several hours were like - have you ever seen a baby horse being born?" Billy shook his head. "Well, they come out and they can stand and start to walk. But they've never walked before so they -" she held her arms out and waved her upper body around. "They kind of wobble around until they finally get their balance and figure out how to walk."
"Ah. I understand the metaphor. I, too, experienced a bit of…disorientation…afterwards."
"And do you feel like yourself again?"
Billy frowned in thought. "Mostly. There appear to be some…traces…left behind from the encounter."
When he didn't elaborate, Kim tapped the table in frustration. "Such as?"
"Well." Billy smiled. "For both of us really. Kimberly, what are you eating?" He nodded towards her plate.
She looked down. "Bacon cheeseburger. Fries. So?"
Billy was trying unsuccessfully to not look amused. "Didn't you recently make the decision to abstain from all meat?"
Kim's eyes widened in horror at the realization. "Oh no! Why didn't you stop me?" She pushed her plate away and glared at her friend.
His expression turned serious. "I apologize. I hadn't realized the ramifications of it until just now. Believe me, I would never knowingly and willingly let you do something that conflicted with your belief systems."
She sighed and pulled her plate back. "I guess one time won't hurt. Don't you usually eat this kind of stuff?"
"Affirmative!" He confirmed. "And yet, I appear to have developed a taste for what you typically consume." He lifted a forkful of his meal for emphasis: Cobb salad without the bacon.
Now it was her turn to be amused. “Well, it definitely can’t hurt for you to get more vegetables in your diet. But you don’t seem to be surprised or upset by this?”
Billy shrugged. “I try not to be surprised by much. Everything is to be observed, neutrally. I knew logically that switching consciousnesses may have some effects on our own experiences of the mind. So I prepared to encounter anything with curiosity first and foremost.”
“Must be nice.” Kim shook her head. “I am rarely prepared to encounter…many things.”
“I know.” He offset his point with a smile.
Just then an annoyingly familiar voice could be heard close by. “Oooh look, the nerd and the cheerleader are having lunch together!”
Kim slid a quick glance over. “Bulk and Skull,” she hissed between her teeth, rolling her eyes.
Billy set his fork down as the two boys ambled over. His neutral scientist expression was on as he watched them strut and preen about whatever insult and injury they had concocted this time.
“Hey four-eyes!” Bulk rounded on Billy. “Eating a salad, huh? Sissy food for a sissy boy!”
“A what now?” Billy inquired cooly, his eyebrows raised. He almost looked bored.
“You heard me. I bet your mommy still tucks you in at night with your jammies -”
“Dude, no.” Skull elbowed his friend in the gut.
Billy closed his eyes for a moment, sucking a breath in through his nose. Then his eyes were open and his mask was back on. “You know my mother died five years ago.” It was just another fact. “I’ll forgive you the oversight; I can tell you’re running low on material because you called me four-eyes. An insult you’ve used on me about one hundred and eighty three times in the past.”
Kim watched closely, ready to move in at a moment’s notice. Since becoming Rangers, Billy’s ability to handle his old bullies had improved dramatically. He was no longer the blustering, pleading boy who had to be rescued. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t use someone’s back in the fight with him. She would do it in a heartbeat.
Skull laughed. “One hundred eighty three times? That’s like once for every day of a school year! Maybe you do need new material.”
Bulk let out a low growl of frustration and embarrassment. “I’ll show you new material,” he snapped. He leveled a meaty finger at Billy. “I’ve seen you in the locker room after gym class.” His cocky smirk was back. “Looking.” He used his hands to indicate his own body in a sexual manner.
Billy stood, wiping his hands on his napkin. “You only wish, Bulk.”
“Ha!” The larger boy came closer, getting very much into Billy’s personal space. “You only wish that you could…examine such a fine specimen as myself!”
“Why, Bulk,” Billy almost seemed impressed. “I didn’t know you knew all those words, let alone how to string them together in a sentence!”
“You little -”
Even as Bulk was gearing up for another tirade of insults, Billy was sighing and rolling his eyes. He let the bully get two words out, then suddenly his fist was flying towards the other boy’s face. It connected with a loud noise, and to everyone’s surprise Farkas Bulkmeier was knocked to the ground.
Billy picked up his tray and walked the few feet over to where Bulk was spluttering in disbelief on the floor, bruise rapidly forming across the side of his face. He looked down at his former antagonist. “Cancel my subscription. I’m done with your issues.”
Kim felt sure that he would've tossed his hair if it was long enough. Without waiting for a response, he stalked off - but not before taking his tray to the trash and the return area.
Kim knew that line. She loved that line. Ever since she heard it on a TV show, she’d wanted an excuse to work it into conversation. (She’d been hoping to use it during a Ranger fight, truthfully - they all seemed to have extra humorous quips and insights after felling bad guys, and she wanted more in her arsenal.) But Billy didn’t watch the same shows she did, and she certainly hadn’t mentioned it in conversation. She left her tray on the table and ran after him.
He was waiting in the hallway, leaned against the wall in a deceptively casual manner. Studying his hands, turning them over. As if he hadn't just punched a classmate in the cafeteria.
"Billy!" She grabbed his arm, barely slowing down, intending to drag him along. "Come on, before someone decides to come after you!"
"Kim." He pulled his arm out of her grasp. "Chillax."
There was a beat as he considered with surprise the word that had just dropped from his mouth. "Nobody will be searching for me," he continued. "Yes, I am sure the majority of the people in the cafeteria saw." She had been about to say that. "But who would believe them if it was reported? Really?" He was grinning. "Mild-mannered nerd punches out the school bully. Film at eleven."
He was right. Heck, some of the faculty would probably secretly want to throw him a party. "Okay. Fine. Whatever. Are you okay?" Other than the glaring fact that he had acted wildly out of character.
"I…have escaped relatively unscathed," he conceded after giving himself a mental once-over. "Physically, that is. I am, however, a bit concerned over these recent breaks in my normal expression - both in word and action."
"Yeah. It was funny when we were swapping food preferences. And I wish I could have recorded you saying 'chillax' like it was an actual word!"
"It is not." Billy stated firmly.
"It is. But the whole punching Bulk thing, that can't be blamed on the switch."
"He had it coming to him anyway," Billy shrugged.
"And I'm mad at you," Kim continued. He looked at her with puzzlement. "That was my line to use, and you stole it out of my head!"
"Not on purpose," Billy tried to defend himself. "It just came to my mind, and I said it." He smiled, remembering. "You must admit, it was a very well-placed dismissal."
"Yeah well." She wasn't ready to concede defeat just yet. "When I use it later, you better act surprised."
"You have my word," Billy replied solemnly.
They made it safely to their next classes. Before they parted ways, Kim stopped him. "Do you think we need to talk to someone about what happened? Like the team, or…A and Z?" She used the code names they had established.
Billy considered the idea. “I don’t believe it is necessary to involve A and Z, at least not yet. Let’s observe and see if the condition is something that will diminish over time on its own. Of course the team knows what happened with the switch, so they may logically deduce what is occurring with us.”
They couldn’t exactly have hidden it from the other Rangers. Even if they’d done an excellent job acting as each other (which, they had to admit, had not occurred), the Rangers collectively had developed extra senses and intuitions about each other. They would have known right off the bat, especially if called into action.
Kim nodded her agreement. “Do you think it will diminish over time? What if it, instead, increases? Would we even realize it?”
He smiled slightly. “Admittedly, we have done a subpar job of recognizing the differences within ourselves. It has been easier to notice changes in the other person. Perhaps we could enlist the team’s help and create a running log of events, to better be able to track the progress - and hopefully egress - of this phenomenon?”
“Sounds like a plan. Ernie's after school?”
“Of course. I shall -” He hesitated, then broke into a grin. “Catch you on the flip side!”
They laughed together.