Just Swingin' In the Rain (Rain)

[Jonathan & Jacob Bishop]

John and Jake had spent many a happy afternoon at the Elementary School's playground when they were younger. Of course, that had been a few years back. Still, it was a good place to go when things at their house were getting crazy. Or when things were getting too dull.

The brother's woke up that morning full of energy only to peek out the window and see that is was pouring rain out. So they tried to entertain themselves indoors, but it seemed they'd annoyed one sibling too many and they had gotten ordered out of the house.

It has stopped raining mostly, but everything was still soaked out. The considered hiding out in the tree house, but ended up walking to the playground instead. And it didn't take long for the brothers to get bored just swinging on the swings and start daring one another to see the equipment in creative (and perhaps dangerous ways).

"Ya know, I think if I got a good running start I could jump off the monkey bars and land on that slide," John said, holding out his hands in the air, trying to measure the distance.

His twin laughed before adding "How ya gonna get a running start on monkey bars?"

"It's possible."

"Prove it,"Jake taunted, playfully.

So with Jake standing near the slide, John hoisted himself up on top of the monkey bars. He gave his brother a grin, before turning his attention to the task at hand. It looked a lot longer of a jump from up here, but he wasn't worried. He'd fallen from higher.

Still, he hadn't taken the rain into account and that the bars were slippery. He took two steps before his shoe skidded off the edge and he landed in a heap on the ground. At least he hadn't banged himself on the bars on the way.

Jake was laughing as he ran to his brother's side. He already knew his twin wasn't hurt as he offered a hand to help him up. "Nice one," he said, still grinning.

John was about to reply when he noticed a girl standing nearby. Jake turned at the same time.

"Enjoy the show?" "Enjoy the show?" They asked, wearing identical grins.

[Rain Tseung]

Rain spent her whole morning in her dorm room, making figures for people who had ordered off her Etsy. If it wasn’t for the rain she would have been outside enjoying the warm weather while she could. Once winter hit she would have to go into hibernation mode, because she would not be able to step outside in the snow… She was much more sensitive to the cold than anyone else, and it was depressing for the girl who likes to play in snow and dirt.

Once she heard the rain stop bouncing off her window, she looked out it and smiled. By the time it had stopped raining she had almost gotten at least one figure done. Might as well take a break, right? Right. So, she got up, put Ribbon, her pet bunny back in his cage, grabbed her bag, and walked out of her dorm room.


As Rain walked outside she instantly felt the happiness from the plants, she put a wide smile on her face. It made it her so happy. It always did, needless to say, she was pretty much always happy outside in nice weather. Rain already knew where she wanted to go, she actually wanted to spend more time with the plants, and where else to do that than a park? Well the woods, but she didn’t like going into the woods alone, she was always afraid she would get lost.

As she walked into the park she saw two guys hanging around the jungle gym. She stopped a few feet away from them and titled her head. What were they doing? She watched as one of the guys started running but instantly fell. She placed a hand over her mouth, to hide her gasp, and her chuckle. Then they both turned on her, and she froze to the stop, only blinking as she slowly pulled her hand away from her mouth, looking around her to make sure they were talking to her. “I… uh… Is that rhetorical question?” They were twins, she noticed as she was able to get a better look at them. She could feel her cheeks burning, she was a little embarrassed. “Hmm… Are you okay?” She wasn’t normally this shy, but she also never met two people like this either.

[Jonathan & Jacob Bishop]

The twins were used to people feeling slightly awkward around them. At a younger age that had mostly been because people had trouble telling them apart. After they had manifested, the whole twin thing had been a part of their life for so long that they barely noticed it getting cranked up a notch. They finished each other sentences or spoke in sync a lot, so most of their family and friends were used to it. But people they were just meeting took a while to adjust. The Hammel staff had told them that with control, they could learn to have just one of them speak at a time. But they actually enjoyed the way they spoke now, so they weren't all that concerned.

"I'm fine" "I'm fine" The twins said, although they were both rubbing the sore spot on their arms where John had landed. Still, a sore spot was nothing compared to some of the injuries they'd had trying stupid stuff before.

"I coulda done it, if it wasn't so wet." John said, blushing a bit as well. They both felt a little ashamed of the klutz move, even if Jake hadn't actually done anything. Still Jake rolled his eyes a little at his brother, even though his cheeks were burning just as bright.

"You're from Hammel," Jake half asked, half said. Although the brothers lived in their family home, they spent enough time at the school that they knew most of the students faces. And in a town like Pilot Ridge, it was a pretty safe bet that a teenage girl would go to their school.

[Rain Tseung]

Actually, it really wasn’t because of them being twins that made her feel awkward. She had a set of twins in her family, actually they went to Hammel… They were her cousins, but still family, sort of… So, she was also used to the twin thing, at least more than the average person, she didn’t really spend a lot of time with her twin cousins, but spent enough time with them to where it wasn’t awkward to be around twins. What made it awkward was the fact that the one twin fell from trying to do something completely mind blowing to Rain, and her half laughing at him for falling.

Them speaking at the same time didn’t faze Rain either, what did was how the both said ‘I’m’. That was new to her, were they a gestalt pair? Yeah, her cousins were gestalts too, but she didn’t think she ever heard them refer to themselves as the same person like these two had. She tilted her head when they both rubbed their arms. “So, you feel each other’s pain?” She hoped that wasn’t the weirdest question they have ever heard… She was never really able to wrap her head around the whole gestalt thing…


Rain smiled, “I’m sure you could have. I don’t doubt it.” Ego stroking? Maybe, Rain tended to do that to a lot of people. She thought anyone could do anything when they put their mind to it. Old fashioned thinking, but it was her way.

She looked at the twin who spoke, and nodded. “Yes! I’m Rain!” She stepped closer to the twins and held out her hand for either, and both to shake. Also old fashioned, but she kind of like the physicalness to it, weird she knew, but it was comforting all the same.

[Jonathan & Jacob Bishop]

Although John and Jake were fairly synched in some ways, they were still coming to terms with the whole two becoming one thing. So they sometimes used first person pronouns and sometimes didn't. They also worried about the whole thing freaking others out.

John smiled at Rain and nodded along. Jake continued to roll his eyes even though he was smiling at her too. Somehow John being complimented made Jake feel complimented as well.

Still grinning. They each grabbed one of her hands (John on the right and Jake on the left). It was awkward and the brother's blushed. "I'm John. He's Jake." "I'm Jake. He's John" It wasn't exactly the smoothest of introductions.

"So..uh...""You're from Hammel...so..""What can you do?" they asked, still grinning and blushing slightly.

[Rain Tseung]

If they were still coming to terms with it, then they could come to terms with it, with Rain… Because gods only knows she doesn’t get anything having to do with gestalts, nor does she think it’s fair for both of them to lose their individuality. Even though she loved River to death, and wanted to be like him in many ways. She wouldn’t want to lose her identity as a single person… She guessed that’s where her brain stopped when trying to understand gestalts.

Rain smiled at both their blushes, now that was really cute. Both of them blushing for one compliment that had to do with only one of them. Granted, she would have said that to both twins. Still, it was super cute, and it made her blush along with them. “what were you trying to do?” She asked because awkward silence.

The girl merely smiled at both of them as they both as the same time said each other’s names. All she got was Jake and John. She missed which one was which, which she really felt bad about; not that she was probably even going to remember their names… “Nice to meet you!” She looked at them, and titled her head to the side. Plusle and Minin, those were their nicknames! She would have to figure out which one was going to be Plusle, and which was going to be Minin. Those seemed like good nicknames, they reminded her a lot of those two pokemon.

Rain nodded, then smiled, she looked at a patch of grass that was nearest to them; and waved her hand at her side toward it. A small patch of grass grew a few inches higher than the rest of the grass. Of course she couldn’t make all the grass grow… “I have plant manipulation, and empathy.” She smiled even wider when she felt the happiness of the grass because they were able to grow.