"He's a clone of a famous evil person. We disrupted the cloning process and he was adopted by Z. Laser's psychologist has put us all under strict orders not to interrupt them, they're doing"-- he waves a hand-- "makeup affectionate bonding and stuff."

"....can't think of anyone that would fit but if someone got a really little kid off the Isle — everyone who's been able to come to Auradon so far has been a teenager —" 

"I guess not everyone across universes has to match. I am pretty sure no one besides me has a Pepper."

"Yeah. — they don't always have the same names, it turned out Cascadilev's Marlo was a version of Chen, I haven't checked with Noonlight yet." 

"Our Marlo has a different face but I wonder if they're the same person."

"Ridiculous paladin? The sort of person who finds out he's gay and promptly has a panic attack and a half? Has lots of feelings about how he's seen as public property which you will have to pry out of him with a crowbar? Cares a lot about his country which may or may not actually technically be a country?" 

"Volunteered for an experimental program to turn him into a super-soldier, was supposed to just raise money for the war effort, actually went 'fuck this' and liberated a bunch of concentration camps."

"Yeah, that sounds like him." 

"I assume Chen is not a terrible good person."

"No. He's the best." 

"He's pretty great. I annoy him and he is too like that to actually say anything about it and that just makes me want to be deliberately obnoxious. --I hit on him one time."

"Oh dear. — he and my Asher are pretty friendly but Asher isn't really his type." 

"He was not, in fact, aware that he was gay at the time."

"...honestly Chen probably wouldn't have noticed but if you're aware that being gay is even a thing then not noticing would be more difficult." 

"He had a fiance and he loved her and I think-- it was possible for him to very carefully think around the fact that he didn't love her the way he loved the Howling Commandos."

He imagines Chen doing that and — it's sort of disturbingly plausible — his shoulders curl inward, just a little bit. 

Asher hugs him.

"You look just like the other Sasha."

"You look just like the other Asher," he says, and puts his head on Asher's shoulder. 

"I'm older, I guess."

"You are. But — you smile the same, you move the same." 

"The other me has a charming Louisianan accent, no doubt."

"He does. It's lovely." He presses his face into Asher's shoulder just a little more. 

He pets Sasha's hair. 

He is uncomfortably aware that this is what he did when he was rationalizing not dating Spideysha.

He makes a quiet happy sound when Asher touches his hair, holds onto Asher's arms. 

Okay yeah his ability to resist doing this is pretty low.