Blurred Lines (Open)

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

One thing the twins had never realized they enjoyed was bad pop. Yet as soon as they’d begun to synchronize, they couldn’t get enough. They’d save money from their allowance to load music onto Orion’s ancient ipod—bought for him by his foster parents—and would listen and sing to it until their roommates threatened to kick them out. But as it was still summer break, they’d decided there was no reason to hang in the rooms and had commandeered one of the classrooms, stretching out on the floor where each of them had a earbud in one ear. The song? Blurred Lines.

”God, this song is awful.” Naomi was smoking. They knew this was a bad idea, but they had the window open, and it was late enough in the evening that most of the staff should be gone. Logically speaking, right? She passed the cigarette to him, and he inhaled before passing it back.

”Yup.” They sat for a moment longer, then Naomi twisted her head to look at him.

”Want to try something? Like…dancing?”

They both considered it for a time. They didn’t know how synchronization could be of any use for that, but what was the harm? So they got up, fetched the small little speaker that Orion had acquired, and started to try. Neither of them were very good, but they had a good memory and they both knew enough moves together to make it decent. That, and it was nice to have a partner who would never step on the other’s feet. They were absorbed in the motions—two bodies being directed by one single conscience—that they didn’t notice the person at the door until Naomi was dipped by Orion. Then the synchronization was broken, and Orion dropped his sister. Naomi called him a nasty name and propped herself up on her elbows to level a hazel-eyed stare at the person at the door.

”What? Never seen Gestalts—“

”Dancing before?”

[Kelly Thompson]

Kelly has never been one to linger around the school if he didn't have to. Today was one of those glorious days where he wasn't stuck in detention or in the library working on a project that seemed to never end. But he was at the school. By choice amazingly. He had a sketch book under arm and a pencil, eraser, and sharpener in his hand. He had to work on drawing interior scenes. So far he sucked. The walls never lined up quite right to satisfy him. So he was going to find an unoccupied classroom and just draw it. On he way down the hall he stopped at the sound of music. It was a bit faint for obvious reasons as it wasn't hooked up to an amp or surround sound. Kelly peeked into the doorway to see a pair of students dancing.

Of course when the boy dipped his female partner in Kelly's direction they noticed him. The girl fell to ground, and seemed rightfully displeased. It was rude to just drop someone like that. He looked at the two of their faces.

"You two are a Gestalt pair?" He was rather surprised by that. He knew a few upperclassmen who were Gestalt, but they were always identical twins. Ergo same gender. He soon realized how blunt that was. "Euh, sorry... I just... only know Gestalts that're one gender..." He shifted his weight between his two legs. The encounter turned out a bit awkward for Kelly.

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

The Stewarts, however, were well used to this reaction. Orion helped Naomi up—which was weird with their partial syncing, as it almost felt like they were helping themselves to their feet—and while she was brushing herself off, he studied the boy in front of them. He smiled. He had to admit, he liked the hair. Might’ve been Naomi’s influence. Before they’d become more linked, she’d liked to dye her hair absurd colors so almost no one could tell the relationship between them. That had slacked off as of late.

”That’s pretty normal,” Orion said.

”We’re the weird ones,” Naomi added. She planted her hands on her hips as Orion went to turn off the music and looked him up and down. “Nice hair. What were you planning on doing, sketching?” She nodded to the book under his arm.

”I’m Naomi. Or, uh…” They looked at each other, then Orion shook his head and turned back to the boy in front of him. ”Sorry. I’m Orion, she’s Naomi. We weren’t bothering you, were we?”

“Who cares if we were? It’s a free country.” Naomi searched for her cigarette, realized she’d stubbed it out and put it out the window already, and made them both sigh at the lost nicotine. Then she settled down cross-legged on the floor. ”Come in. We don’t—”

“Bite,” Orion finished, because he could tell she wanted to add much and he thought it was better to stop that right then.

[Kelly Thompson]

"Thanks, and yeah. I suck at drawing rooms and crap. My dorm room is too boring at this point to draw." Seeing as Kelly had just moved into his new dorm room, there wasn't much to draw. A bed, closet, boring blank walls. Once the place looked lived in he wouldn't need to draw classrooms anymore. For now he was managing.

Kelly leaned against the doorway as the boy tried to sort out their names. It was amusing to watch. He's seen it before, but watching someone accidentally call themselves by a name of the opposite gender was rather enjoyable.

"Nope, I'm not bothered. My name's Kelly." He entered the room and grabbed a ruler off of the tray below the chalkboard before sitting down against the wall. "Well I hope you don't bite. If you do, I would hope you have all your shots first." He chuckled. He opened his sketch book to blank page and began to add his horizon line and vertical lines.

"So you two just vegging around the classrooms?" He asked them for conversational sake while his eyes took more focus on the room and his paper.

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

Orion and Naomi had to nod in agreement. They’d been there for four years, and they’d managed to buy a few decorations with the pocket money Hammel gave them, but not much. And the fact that they both had to figure out how to decorate a room when their tastes tended to converge. In fact, the twins were liking more and more of the same things, but neither of them admitted that.

“Nice to meet you, Kelly.” This was in unison, despite the fact that they probably would’ve been Orion’s words. It was nice to have someone not entirely freaked out by them.

”I bite, but I got all my shots years ago,” Naomi said with a flash of a smile. Then she sank down cross-legged against the wall, and Orion settled down by her.

”We get tired of our rooms sometimes.” Orion added. ”Here we can listen to music and be ourselves—”

”Without feeling weird.[/i[“ Naomi scooted over so she was sitting next to Kelly and leaned over to study what he was drawing. ”Do you just do empty rooms?”

[Kelly Thompson]

Kelly still wasn't used to people talking in unison, and honestly, it kind creeped him out at times. But he wasn't going to tell Naomi and Orion that, it was bound to happen with those two sometimes. "Well better to have shots at one point than never and get rabies."

"Yeah, dorms aren't too fun, are they?" He had to admit they get tiresome quick, looking at the same walls night after night. He didn't know why anyone would want to spend the day there too. Kelly wasn't entirely sure why they would feel too weird being themselves at their dorm, but their choice of music was a bit odd.

Glancing up at Naomi as she sat next to him, Kelly sighed. "Not usually. I mostly do figure drawings, but like I said, I suck at rooms." He worked on the room which began to take shape on his paper. He kept glancing up at the room every so often to fix a detail or two.

"Sooo...." He tried to keep some sort of conversation going, being in a room with two others without talking was a bit awkward for Kelly's comfort. "How's your summer been going?"

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

Orion and Naomi would’ve been grateful that he hadn’t said anything, although neither of them would’ve been able to express it. Mostly because Naomi was too stubborn and Orion was too proud and together that made nothing good whatsoever.

”Yeah, rabies,” Naomi mused. ”Sometimes it feels like that.”

”You normally, uh, fear getting rabies?”

”Shut up, O.” Naomi gave him a look, then turned her head back to Kelly.

”Better than some of the places we’ve seen,” Orion said. ”The dorms, I mean. They aren’t too bad. But we came from foster care.” Neither of them were particularly bothered by this fact and were more than willing to share—once again to make people uncomfortable, they’d admit.

”Figure drawings?” Naomi inquired. ”Like, people figures or something else?”

”Like cartoons?”

Conversation. They weren’t used to normal conversation—but then, neither of them were too popular. They tended to keep to themselves. “Fine,” they said, again in unison. “Nothing too interesting. Looking for work.”

”What about you? Or just drawing? Or is this just polite conversation where we’re not supposed to ask stuff like that?”

[Kelly Thompson]

"Nothing wrong with being scared of rabies. It can kill, y'know." He added after their short squabble. Kelly wasn't necessarily scared of rabies, but it was definitely something he didn't want to get.

The Canadian shrugged. "I guess you're right. It could be worse." He looked up at the both of them at the mention of foster care. They both seemed so non-chalant about it. After figuring it wasn't much of a big deal for them, Kelly asked, "did they keep you two together? They try to, at least back home in Canada they do." He wasn't sure how the American system worked, and the only reason he knew about the Canadian foster care system was because he had a friend with a sister in foster that ended up in the same family.

"Figure drawings as in people drawings. Not really cartoony. When people say figure drawings they tend to mean more realistic people." If he was good at anything cartoony it would be faces, but even so he liked to be more realistic and accurate.

He nodded at their answer. Like many of the students they were looking for summer jobs. "I haven't really been looking for a job. Mostly drawing, probably going to paint some and try to sell 'em." He shrugged. "Go ahead and ask, I'm not really picky about where the conversation goes, as long as we don't start doing drugs or weed or crap like that." There was a faint smell of cigarette, but that didn't bother Kelly. He would rather have a cigarette and get caught with that than with drugs. His father would kill him over the cigarette, but skin him slowly over drugs.

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

The almost instinctive reaction was shut up from both the twins, who didn’t like being interrupted and sometimes forgot someone else was there to listen to their arguments. But one of them—both of them?—managed to bite it back. They didn’t get company a lot. They didn’t want to scare him away.

Yet.

”Wish I’d grown up in Canada, then,” Naomi muttered under her breath, although neither of them could really picture what it would’ve been like to grow up knowing each other as something other than a distant thing that they were aware of but didn’t really know.

”To answer your question, we were separated,” Orion said. ”I’m guessing you had a normal family, then?” Orion was the only one of them who knew even what that might’ve been like.

“That’s weird.” It was in unison this time, and they looked at each other. But it did make sense. Both liked to read. Neither had ever been much good at art. Hm. And then, because it had to be asked, Naomi added, ”Could you draw us?”

“I’m sure you get that a lot.” But they were curious, besides, it was a conversation starter. Then again, he seemed to be working on rooms at the moment, so it was a bad idea…God, they were bad at being social.

”Well, we’re on that topic, would you like a cigarette?” Naomi inquired, pulling out one and lighting it. Orion’s fingers twitched, and she passed it over without thinking. No parents to kill them over drugs, and the only mom they had unlikely to chew them out over a cigarette. If they knew who she was.

”So what paintings do you want to sell?”