Regan and Cole Robins

[Regan and Cole Robins]

REGAN TANNER ROBINS and COLE TAYLOR ROBINS
16 // CIS MALE // STRAIGHT (REGAN), BI-CURIOUS (COLE) // GEMINI // STUDENTS // ALEX BLACK

:: Power ::

Regan and Cole experience the same physical sensations. They do not share thoughts or feelings, but all physical sensations and the resulting effects on their bodies (e.g. an injury, a haircut, sexual arousal) that happen to one of the twins also happens to the other.

:: Plot Note ::

Regan and Cole recently returned from an almost-year-long absence. They made some friends and then disappeared, and now are coming back and trying to re-adjust to life at Bellefonte. 




Regan is an active, outgoing and energetic person. He can be very blunt and aggressive, and is fiercely protective of Cole. He has a vivid imagination and loves making up stories and creating fantasies. He's a voracious reader and spends every night with Cole reading a book.

Regan plays almost any sport he's introduced to, but given the limitations posed by his mutation, he has to be very careful which sports he chooses to play. He's feisty, and would love to get into something like MMA, but since he refuses to risk getting Cole hurt, he settles for things like soccer and track.

Regan speaks without thinking, which gets him into trouble more often than not. He is quick to say exactly what's on his mind and damn the consequences. That said, he can be very friendly, and once he's gotten close to you, you'd never find a more loyal friend. He also is not passive-aggressive - if he has a problem with you, you'll know.



Cole is, in some ways, the polar opposite of Regan. Though they are very close, whenever they aren't together Cole is likely to spend his time alone with his sketchbook or his paints. He is very, very artistic and loves to draw and paint. Animals are a common theme in his artwork; he feels very connected to them and has always wanted a pet of some kind. Given the kind of life he has had to lead, that hasn't been possible.

Cole is shy. As such, he doesn't reach out and make friends easily. However, he's also extraordinarily non-confrontational, which makes him very easy to get along with. His mission in life when dealing with people is not to make waves or upset them. This backfires sometimes, but people tend to realize he's got his heart in the right place.

Like Regan, he loves to imagine his own stories, but he's more likely to draw or paint them to act them out or write them down. His ideas play out in his own head, and he's happy enough with that. He looks forward to curling up with his brother at the end of the day and reading with him.

During his previous time at Bellefonte, he met and fell in love with a boy named Gabriel. Returning to Bellefonte, he found that Gabriel had left. Ever since his return he has felt as if something is missing.

::The Early Years
Regan and Cole were born in a small town called Buckeye, just outside Phoenix, Arizona. They were the youngest sons of the owner of a small bookstore which, while it didn't pull in gobs of money, made enough for the small family to get by. Their father, William Robins, was well into middle age had purchased the store - which had formerly been a family business - only a few years earlier.

Regan and Cole had never known a mother; their biological mother arranged during her pregnancy that they would be put up for adoption, and William, growing lonely as he approached forty-five years of age, had signed the papers before the twins were born. It was a small and happy family: William, his two sons, and their older half-sister Arianna, his 23-year-old daughter from his first marriage.

Even in the earliest years of their lives, Regan and Cole were very different. Regan would never sit down, tearing around their little apartment above the bookstore as if wired to a car battery. Cole was quieter, and much more shy. He loved paints and crayons, colours and patterns, where Regan coveted the ball and his own running feet.

In spite of their differences, their imaginations shone every time they ventured down to the fantasy land that was the bookstore below. Too young to read all the old, thick books so loved by the adults, they buried themselves in the pictures, and in the stories William or Arianna would read aloud to the delight of their eager little ears. Their fantasies ran wild when they played together, dreaming up fantasy lands, scary monsters, or mystical worlds of the future. Their minds were their playground.

::Fate and William
Regan and Cole were five years old. Outside the contented family life above the bookstore, the real world from which the twins were sheltered was fraught with tension. They were too young to know what their father and sister did: William carried with him a mutation - a condition kept so secret as to never be seen or discussed. In William's case, the mutation allowed him an uncanny sense of premonition. It was this gift that had driven he and Arianna from their last safe haven in Edmonton, Alberta. In the years that had passed since, his gift had allowed him the comfort of knowing that the peaceful life he wanted was, in fact, going to work for him.

As with so many things, this, too, was temporary. William returned home one evening unable to shake a hideously foreboding feeling that something was coming - something that would alter all of their lives forever. Someone would soon come to know his secret, he said, though he didn't know when or how.

They argued for weeks. Arianna wanted to leave, try again somewhere else. It wasn't worth it, she said, to stay and risk something terrible. William, though, was stubborn. He felt at home in Buckeye, and he loved the small bookstore with a passion. He could not and would not let go of their simple, happy lives. The fight would have carried on for weeks to come, but fate stepped in before that could happen.

William was walking. Ahead of him, so was another man, someone he didn't know. Admittedly an odd man, he'd thought - muttering to himself aloud, he carried an aura of strangeness about him William couldn't quite place. Without warning, he felt his 'gift' warning him. The man must not cross the street. He didn't know how he knew, only that he was filled with certainty.

He called to the man, waved to him, but the man paid no attention and stepped off the sidewalk. Filled with dread, William did the only thing he could do: dashed out onto the road and pulled the man back to the sidewalk. The man's protestations and curses were cut short as a van swerved around the corner, barreling along the patch of road the stranger had occupied only seconds before.

Out of breath, William turned to face his quarry, and he felt his blood run cold. The man stared at him not with awe, or even gratitude, but with fear. William could feel it. It sent a shiver up his spine, an all-too-familiar sensation. He quickly turned and walked away, but he could still feel the man's eyes on his back.

Arianna never knew just what had happened. She knew only that she had been nursing a cup of coffee in the kitchen when William had burst in, sweating, panting, panic etched on his face. His words were short and clipped, though for Arianna, they hardly needed to be said aloud. It's happened. Get the twins out.

She had never moved so quickly in her life. Keys to her own car in her pocket, dressing the sleepy and confused twins, she made him swear to follow them when he could. They would meet in Phoenix and continue together from there. He promised he would.

She loaded the twins and two small suitcases into her small sedan and roared away, not daring to spill tears, easing the twins' fears with soothing answers to their frightened questions. They slept soundly that night at the hotel in Phoenix, guarded by their big sister, who stared out the window and dared not sleep a wink.

The news the next morning showed their home a blazing inferno, the towering flames rising high into the night. In the aftermath, one body was found inside, the three other residents missing. The official statement from the Buckeye Police Dept. ruled the incident an act of arson, though there were no suspects. Arianna tried to shield her brothers from the new, horrifying, tragic reality thrust upon them, but ten o'clock that morning saw them huddled close, soaked in tears, the three of them all that remained of their happy, peaceful life.

::Emerging Instability
Years passed. From Phoenix they had gone north to Minnesota, near the Canadian border. Arianna had been able to claim the insurance payout on the small bookstore in Buckeye, and they lived comfortably in a small apartment, slowly rebuilding their lives. The twins started school, though all they had suffered meant a difficult, sometimes impossible, adjustment to school life. Arianna, now 29, worked with them as hard and as patiently as she could through her own grief. Her father would have wanted them to thrive. At least, she thought, the stresses of being a "special" family were behind them.

Maybe that was why she hadn't noticed the little signs in her brothers, which nowadays she can trace back to age seven. Regan had gotten into a fight at school and suffered a black eye for his trouble. Cole was home sick that day. Minutes before Arianna got the phone call from the principal, Cole said his left eye was tingling.

When the twins were 12, her sanity nearly plunged irretrievably from her feeble grip. It was after dinner on a Thursday night. They were cleaning up the dishes, and Cole dropped a knife, which landed on his bare foot, leaving a small cut. Not one, but two voices yelped and cursed, and cradled their injured feet. The shattering sound of the plate falling from Regan's hands to the floor, Arianna thought, was appropriate. It resembled the shattering of their newly-rebuilt lives once again.

The twins were terrified. Don't worry, Arianna told them as they coached each other and learned to hide. Don't worry. We'll be okay.

It worked more often than it did not, but it only ever took several months for something to slip. A bruise here, a tumble to the ground there, and away they would go to somewhere new, the three of them too frightened to take the chance and stay. Arianna's frayed nerves barely held together through the stress. Cole's anti-social tendencies increased. Regan became more and more aggressive, which led to close calls more than once. They kept going through sheer willpower, and clung to each other for dear life.

::Hope Lives in the Mountains
Just before the twins' fifteenth birthday, it happened again. Regan ran into their little apartment in Livingston, Montana in tears and great, heaving sobs. Cole followed shortly, crying only because his brother was, wordlessly showing Arianna a scraped elbow. Arianna's heart broke for them yet again - a scraped elbow for any other kid would be so normal, so uneventful. She sent Cole off to be with Regan and calm him down, and she opened her laptop. She didn't know if they would have to leave, but she wanted to be ready.

She ran a search through Google, researching places they could go next, but an email popped up. She flipped over to her inbox. It was from an Alistair Magnussen. She didn't recognize the name, but as her eyes drifted to the subject line, she felt a pit in her stomach. It was about the twins. Feeling more trepidation by the second, she clicked it open.

She must be aware by now, it said, of the twins' scraped elbows. It was seen by - Arianna shuddered - no less than twenty students. Her fear mounted as she wondered how this 'Magnussen' could have known these things. The pit in her stomach grew larger, but she continued reading, preparing for the worst.

The worst didn't come. There was a place elsewhere in Montana, the letter said, that was so secluded and so secretive that nobody, with the exception of a very select few, was permitted to know of its existence. It was near a town called Kalispell. It was a school - "a school where boys like Regan and Cole could be safe, with others like them."

This sounded too wonderful to be real. "Expect me soon," was Alistair Magnussen's sign-off. Arianna hesitated. She poured herself a cup of coffee. She listened to the clearly audible sobs from the bedroom down the hall. She sat down, and she began composing her reply. 

::In Absentia

In March of 2014, Arianna woke Regan and Cole up late one night in their dormitory, told them to get their coats and pack their most important belongings, and together they left. 

Since coming back, neither the twins nor Arianna have spoken a word about what happened and where they went. 

The year of absence means that now Regan and Cole must adjust again to life at Bellefonte, while at the same time struggling with whatever it was that tore them away at all. They are carrying something around with them now, and nobody but the three of them knows what it is. 
 

SAMPLE:

Arianna's hand trembled on the mouse. She bit her lip, and she clicked 'Send'. She slumped back on her chair, her arms on her lap, and took a deep breath.

Now what?

She glanced toward the hallway. She could still hear the boys crying, though the heaving sobs had subsided somewhat. Again, her heart broke for them. She knew what was going through their minds. Another town, another school, another fucking move. She hated it as much as they did, but at least this time there might be a silver lining.

She snorted. Silver lining. If it was true, it was more of a giant golden parachute. Still, she couldn't help but be skeptical. Her life had taught her to be. A familiar pang hit her as she thought about her dad, and she shook it off. She leaned forward on her elbows, staring at the screen, and the sent-message confirmation that still sat there.

Now what? she thought again.

On the one hand, she ached to tell Regan and Cole about this possibility. Anything to lift the weight of the world off of them right now. But then, she thought, sitting back and running both hands through her auburn hair, what if it was all for nothing? What if this place didn't exist at all? And, for God's sake, Kalispell? The place sounded like something out of Harry Potter and the One Ring. She couldn't bring up their hopes only to have them crushed later. She just couldn't.

"Phbbbt," she said. Then, sighing: "Merde."

"You're swearing in French again, sis," said Cole, making her jump. She let out a breath. "Jesus Christ, Cole. How long have you been standing there?"

Her brother shrugged. "Just a couple seconds."

She looked him over. His eyes were thoroughly red, but it looked like the waterworks had stopped, at least for now. He'd been sweating a little. Some of his long blonde hair was matted to his forehead. What caught her attention most, though, was the way he was carrying himself: his shoulders sagged, as if he were truly holding the world on his back.

"How's Regan?" she said.

Cole shrugged again. "How do you think?"

She nodded, both to him and to herself. She'd made up her mind.

She stood, rounding the table and putting an arm around her younger brother. "Come on," she said. "I've got some news for you."

"We already know we're moving, sis," Cole replied sullenly. "It doesn't count as news anymore."

"Not this time, pal," she replied, patting his shoulder as they walked into the bedroom. "Not this time."

USERNAME: Teodor
AGE GROUP: Mid-twenties
EXPERIENCE: I have been writing since I was ten years old; I participated in my first online role-play about four years ago.

[CeeCee *]

Yay!
Go do dem CLAIMS !

[Regan and Cole Robins]

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