Always Together, Never Apart (Orion&Naomi)

[Dio & Evan Thanos]

Training sessions with students of the non-Gestalt type were often strange for Dionysius and Evander. It was part of the reason he specialized in helping fellow Gestalts make the transition smoothly. One mind, two bodies. It hadn't been hard for him, seeing as the two brothers had already been so in sync to begin with. The Thanos family always had such trouble figuring out who was who. And now they had to get used to knowing that instead of two separate entities, the twins were now one. It was a strange transition for everyone involved, but even more difficult when none of the people that were taking part in the transition knew what was going on. Dio and Evan had taken a strong liking to the idea of one mind in two bodies. It was a fascinating concept for two so young.

And then for it to happen to the Thanos twins? Crazy.

Dio and Evan just finished up with a training session and had to admit, it had been a little more tedious than what they usually were. The pair was exhausted and he found that he was in fact happy that it was the last scheduled training session for at least another hour. And then the process would be repeated. Hopefully this time around, it wouldn't be a mental ability that he was dealing with. Those were always something he struggled to understand. Physical abilities were straight forward. What you see is what you get. He much preferred to deal with such things.

As the student left the training room, Dionysius and Evander began putting things back where they had originally been, Dio going one way and Evander in another. It wasn't comfortable, doing two things at once, in fact it was this annoying, nagging feeling. Gestalts hated being apart, it was like having split minds, one doing one thing and the other doing something completely different. Once they both finished their task, it was like a magnetic pull that forced him back together. Dio looked at Evan as Evan looked at him and they both had the same look of distaste. The unspoken discomfort was shared between the two bodies and they shook their head in unison before going back to work. This time, he decided not to do two things at once.

Upon finishing cleaning up the room, he was just about to grab his bag and head out, when he noticed two familiar faces standing in the doorway. He offered them a nod and beckoned them come in. "What can I do for you?"

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

It was always…weird…to watch a fully functional Gestalt Pair. Naomi and Orion felt weird in general. Most of the other Gestalts were all close to their sibling. Or they’d at least known their sibling for most of their life and had liked to play tricks with them, being identical and all. The Stewarts had their moments of being synchronized. Sometimes they’d wake up and, if they were sleepy enough, they would become…one. They’d get their clothes on, brush their teeth, eat breakfast and make it to the car all without any words or, if there were, no debates. Just simple, calm peace.

And then, eventually, they’d wake up, and the bickering would begin. The consciousness-es would split again, sharply, and the next thing they knew they were one head with two personalities and eight limbs and four eyes, and would feel more like something out of a Greek tragedy than a meta.

And they’d know. They’d read a lot of them.

For that reason, sometimes the Stewarts came to just…watch Dio and Evan. It wasn’t really intentional. There were no thoughts to it. They’d just watch and…envy. And sometimes, when they were at home, they’d try to copy.

It didn’t really work most days, but it was…it was worth a shot.

This time, however, they’d been found out. And it had been so cool! They—he cleaned with an efficiency that they envied. He always knew where his arms were and he focused on one thing, instead of constantly feeling like his attention was focused on three different things at least.

The Stewarts occasionally came to Dio and Evan for things other than stalker-watching, sure. They had some training sessions with him when they weren’t working with Mike and Honor (the twins did a lot of trainer-hopping as they were still, well, two personalities with different needs). But right now, they were trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t came out as “we were stalking you, sir.”

”Um…”

”How do you do that anyways?” Naomi was always the more blunt one. ”How’d you make it so..”

”Easy?”

[Dio & Evan Thanos]

Despite the fact that they had more or less eased into being a gestalt pair, Dionysius and Evander had gone through their troubles, too. They were idetical twins, sure, but back before they manifested, they were still two different people. Their personalities weren't polar opposites, but there were some things that couldn't be any more different. Dionysius was the responsible twin, always thinking things through in all of their planning of trickery. Evander was the wild child, acting before thinking, doing whatever he wanted in the moment that it presented itself. He was the 'fun' twin.

When the manifested they had trouble thinking as one, especially when it came to sexuality and relationships. They both liked girls, but where Dio had been focused on school and getting good grades, Evan had been flirting like a mad man, playing sports and dragging Dio right along with him. It was their differences, experiencing each other's likes and dislikes that made the transition easier for them. It allowed for them to become like-minded, for them to see why the other enjoyed doing the things they did. In the end, it made them stronger and soon enough they became he.

Putting that all into understandable terms wasn't the easiest, especially when dealing with a pair of opposite-gendered gestalts. As he thought over his answer, his finger touched his lip in complete synchronization. "Honestly, it was a matter of practice and experience," he stated. That was about as basic as he could put it, though he expected questions because there was clearly more involved than just practicing over and over again.

He could remember when his trainer told him that it was all about practice. The guy had some stupid ability like paper manipulation or something. He didn't even remember, but regardless, the trainer hadn't understood well enough what being a gestalt was like. It was easier said than done especially when one twin was less-enthused about practicing than the other. The two men turned to each other and smirked at the memory before focusing back on the teens. "Please, if you have questions feel free to ask." That was the only way they could help.

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

Orion and Naomi suspected that, despite their general belief that identical twins had an easier time of it, they weren’t quite correct. This power sucked no matter what your original problem was, and they were doing their best to remember that. But sometimes it was a little difficult. At least most of them had grown up with each other. Known their habits. Orion and Naomi had had to figure that out on their own, and found a few weird ones that their combined personality had seemed to acquire. There was no fun twin, although Orion was definitely responsible one. There wasn’t even a bad twin, as Orion had had his fair share of misadventures. There was just…a lot of confusion, unhealthiness and general bickering. A great start.

At least they hadn’t had problems with relationships. For one, they’d started young. For another, they tended to agree on that, of all things. They found the same people attractive and were equally unable to do anything about it. Orion blamed it on going through puberty from both the male and female perspective. All the awkwardness of puberty, doubled with very different and equally bizarre symptoms that made them wonder why anyone at all wanted to relive high school.

”Practice.” Naomi said flatly.

”Right.” For once, Orion didn’t sound much more thrilled. They got that a lot. Practice. But practice didn’t quite prep them for the eerie oneness they felt when they finally did let go of their rather…unique personalities. And the loss that they felt when it was broken. There had to be something other than that that could help them out.

”So how does that help exactly?”

”I mean, it’s not like it’s a muscle that we can just turn off and on again.

”Or that we want to.”

”And it feels—”

“Awful.”

The twins glanced at each other, then away, even though it was that kind of thing that was beginning to make them feel like their attention was fracturing.

”And what if we don’t want it anyways?” Orion spoke, which seemed to startle both. Normally that was Naomi’s thing. ”Will not practicing help with that?”

[Dio & Evan Thanos]

Dio and Evan smiled faintly and a bit sympathetically. Practice wasn't the most fun way of going about things. Not in the slightest and he often used it as more of a punishment than a teaching tactic. It was all somewhat trial and error with him seeing as how he was still fairly new to training at Hammel. Still, he knew what practicing did, it grew tiresome and the pair often began getting irritable. That was not what he wanted, so though he told them it should help, it wasn't what he was going to tell them that they needed to do.

"I understand that it's not a muscle, it's a mindset. That's what all of it comes down to. Thinking as one person," He folded his hands in his lap and sighed. "Practicing, dreadful as it is, will help you grow accustomed to the feeling, but that being said, you can't practice your way of thinking necessarily. You have to know each other. Really know each other in order to be able to think together." For them, it hadn't been quite so difficult, they grew up practically attached at the hip, something told him that these two weren't quite so close.

Dio looked at Evander and they both let out a sigh simultaneously, "Whether you want it or not, you don't have much of a choice. Look around you, do you think everyone wants the ability that they have? It's part of who you are, you can't change it no matter how hard you avoid it." He pinched the bridge of his nose and then clasped his hands together again before looking up at the two. "If you don't embrace it, it gets harder. You don't choose how it happens, and you aren't prepared for when it does. And, it also means you have to train more after you graduate, if they let you graduate because of it."

[Orion & Naomi Stewart]

The twins just weren’t feeling ready to practice. There were so many things to be done, and practicing meant the things that had been happening all unwilling and unknowing would have to occur on purpose and they didn’t think they’d grow to like that at all. Still, it was part of the requirements, they might have to get used to it. And there was another thought that hadn’t occurred to them, which was the more they practiced, the less jarring the other experiences would be. But of course they wouldn’t think like that. They were 16 and rebellious.

“Yeah, a mindset neither of us likes,” Naomi murmured.

”And getting to know each other isn’t something we’ve ever gotten used to.”

The two looked at each other, measuring each other, and then mutually looked away. Sometimes it felt more like looking in the mirror than staring at a twin. That part was a problem. They already knew each other better than either of them had ever wanted to. That was part of the problem, really. Knowing each other wasn’t something they’d ever wanted to do. They might’ve gotten to it eventually if they were just normal twins, but as they weren’t…they’d both decided not to.

”Never expected to go to school anyways, so who cares?”

”Kids like us don’t go to college, not really.” But despite the words, both twins looked longing at the thought. They liked school. They’d both been intelligent before and now were even smarter. Despite their ne’er-do-well attitude, they got good grades and seemed to work hard for them.

“So how do we practice?” This was in unison.

”Like, meditation, tai chi, what?”