Jean and Stewart, A Pair of Fraternal Twins Who Get Different Items

Jean and Stewart Robbins had a pretty ideal life, all told. Twins, they had been together since they had been born and now lived off on their own. Their family was wealthy enough to allow them to pay rent on a decent but not massive flat, which they used because it was close to the college that they attended. They did well in terms of studying and exams. Both Jean and Stewart were fairly intelligent when it came down to it. They had friends and rivals and enemies, the stereotypical college experience.

There was just one problem with their lives as they saw it.

They were bored.

At eighteen years old, the two of them had never before met much resiastence in the path of their lives. Smart enough to pass exams, and charismatic enough to make friends, they had effortlessly walked through life's challenges. Where others struggled and strove not to sink beneath the murky sea of stress, and debt, Jean and Stewart sailed through clear seas with a balmy sky and perhaps some sort of sunny drink in hand.

The point was, they were stuck in a rut. Every day they did the same thing, more or less. Wake up, attend classes, sutdy, hang out with friends and go to sleep. At first, it had been more than enough for them, but now they were done with it. The two of them wanted to explore something different. They wanted to experience something that they had never felt before. The last year in particular had been so very dull for them. Jean privately had despaired of ever finding anything that would really make her pay attention. It seemed a lifetome of medeocrity was waiting for them. Good grades at school followed by a good job which made good money and a good life with absolutely nothing interesting or exciting about it.

Then, just when they had thought that there was nothing more they could do, except perhaps turn to a life of crime and **** which, well, had its own particular set of problems, they had found Them.

Them the italics and the capital letter were absolutely part of the word. The funny thing was, neither of the two could quite recall how the items had gotten into their hands. They'd simply woke up one day and found that they had them. As their hands had closed around them, each of the two had realised that their normal, boring life had been changed forever.

"So..." Said Stewart the day after it had all happened. "Are we really going to do this?"

The two were standing in their home. It was a moderate flat, with a few rooms. A bedroom for each, a communal room, a kitchen and a bathroom. Around them there lay the various things that tended to accumulate in any area which plays host to a student for any length of time. There were old books, _new _books which probably shouldn't have been left lying around. Scrunched up balls of paper, a TV set against the far wall and a table,

"I don't know what you mean," Said his twin sister. Jean was on the tall side of things, with tanned skin and light brown hair. She liked to keep it short. She had light blue eyes which sometimes glinted with amusment, as if she was laughing at a joke that only she could hear. Her face was fair featured, delicate. She was slim, with long legs and a figure which certainly did not hurt her chances with the boys. She had had boyfriends before, but little had come of it. She was probably the smarter of the two of them by Stewart's estemate, and the few boys she'd tried to hook up with had not been able to keep up. Or at least, that was what she said when he asked her. Being a good brother, he'd never pushed the issue but he suspected deep down it was less them being too dumb for her to bother and more that she herself didn't know what she was after.

He would never say it out loud, of course. He knew that would only end in pain.

"I think you do," Stewart said in response to her. He himself was slightly shorter than his sister, which meant that he was shorter than most guys in turn. But as if to make up for it, he'd hit the gym a lot whne he was younger finding that he truly enjoyed working on his body. Stewart's chest was muscular, his arms were strong and visibly toned. He wasn't massive like some people, but he had made sure to work his whole body from his legs to his arms. He was fit, with blond hair and dark eyes. Like his sister, his face was fair featured and delicate in places, and he liked to wear his hair long.

He was holding somethng in his hand. It was barely the length of a finger and yet it felt heavier than the whole world to him then. It was cold to the touch, made of metal. A shaft of it hammered into a crude shape. The tip was edged, but not like a blade. It was a key. It looked like it was made of old iron, the surface pitted with age and a little bit of rust. At first glance, it wasn't very special at all.

It was when you picked it up that you realised how special it was. As soon as his fingers had brushed it, Stewart had felt something open up in his mind. A connection. A bond between the key and himself. And as soon as that connection was properly established, he'd felt the knowledge fill him. The key had told him what it could do. Not all of what it could do. Only the basics. The rest, he was supposed to pick up himself.

But even the basics had made his head spin. If things were otherwise, he would have ignored it as impossible. Laughed at the very idea. But when the information was beamed right to your head by a magic key, you sort of had to throw disbelief out the window.

Jean also had an item. In her case, it was not a key, but a ring. He could see her wearing it now. It fit around her finger as though it had been made for it. Maybe it had. It was a silver ring, shaped into the image of a coiling snake. The head was slightly raised, and the eyes glinted with tiny dots of cold. Compared to his boring old iron key, it certainly looked much more fitting to the part of a magical item that could warp reality.

He didn't know what it did. She hadn't answered when he'd asked. This was the first time they were even properly talking about them.

"I really don't know what you mean,. Stewart." She turned to look at him, fixing him with her best ''I know more than you so shut up'' look. It might have stunned the class, but Stewart had been subjected to it since they were both kids. At this point, it just bounced off.

"You're totally going to use your ring in the college, aren't you?"

"What? N-no!"

"You hesitated! I knew you were!"

She flushed red, the colour flowing to her face.

"Well don't tell me that you're not tempted as well! Sometihng like this falls into our hands and you just want to ignore it?"

"Well, no..." Stewart admitted. Truth was, he _was _tempted to use it. The key had certain powers that made him very vurious as to how it would go. Its power was senseition, feeling. Both literally as in nerves and more metaphorical as in emotions. All he had to do was hold it in his hands and see the one he wanted to affect with it. The idea made him giddy, and it was hard to pretend otherwise. He had plans for what he was going to do with it. But he was also ****, realising that the item was, well, possibly evil in a sense.

After all, to effect someone's emotions without their knowledge, to change them and use them, even do it so well that they didn't ever realise you had. That was what the key promised. It could inflict pain, heighten pleasure, make someone afraid or scared for their lives. What sort of person would use something like that without at least hesitating?

He'd spent the night deep in thought. Wondering if he would even use it at all. He wanted to, but he was also aware of just how much power it actually represented. And how much using it might twist him over time as well.

Jean read his hesitation in a moment. She saw his fears and his worries, and gave a sigh.

"I suppose you're right," She said. "I still can't believe things like this exist at all. A day ago, the world was normal and now it's all spinning out of control. We've been given power. More power than we've ever seen in our lives and for what purpose? As far as I can tell, none. Should we use it for ourselves? Should we try to get something out of it or just leave it to rot?"

"Using it isn't bad," Stewart said. "We just have to be careful how we do, that's all." He didn't know if he was trying to convince her or himself.

"I think it would be worse to do nothing," Jean said. "I think that it would be a waste if we didn't use these. I know you feel the same way, Stewart. I know you feel how boring everything is. This is our chance. Our chance to do something more than we ever dreamed we could. These items offer us a power that we can really enjoy."

"You're thinking about sex, aren't you?" Stewart said. He felt the head moving to his face. Sex wasn't a topic he would typically disucss with his twin sister. But the way she'd said that last line had really left no other conclusion.

"Maybe I am," Jean said. Her own face was colouring red. "You know I've never really...uh, clicked with anyone, right?"

He nodded slowly, not sure where she was going with this.

"This might be my chance," She said. "This might be the way forward. I want to do this, Stewart. I've spent all night thinking about it. Tossing and turning. I even dreamed about it! I can't let this chance pass me by. And I know that you're interested in what yours can do as well, aren't you?"

"I can't deny it," Stewart said after a moment.

"Then let's try them out!" Jean said. "You must have been told by your item how it works, right? Anything we do, we can totally undo as well! It's not like we're going to be locked in. So why not enjoy them? Why not use these things that we've been given. No one else in the world has anything like this! Not using it would be criminal!"

"Well, I suppose..." Stewart was still ****, but he could see his sister's point. And it was true that he too had been feeling rather bored of late. Maybe the key wasn't so bad after all...? He certainly had some uses he could put it towards.

"Then let's go," Jean said with a nervous smile. "We can go to college and see how this all works out."

"All right," Said her brother, "But I don't want to do anything major, okay? Nothing in the first few days. I want to see how these work out...and whether they even work the way we think they do at all."

Jean nodded.

"Okay," She said. "I can agree to that."