Roman

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Sorry, I took the last two slots.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Failing that they could all just be day drinkers. Gem sure is.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Dude, come on.

It's me.

In all seriousness, thanks. I know a big concern of Twin Charas is 'playing with yourself', but I'm conscious of this, hopefully as evidenced by my immediate splitting of them as the team start to better acquaint themselves with each other. And hopefully I will continue to show Gem and Sia as unique individuals, despite similarities. So far I've gone for a polarised dynamic while sharing similar speech patterns. I'm certainly going to try and avoid tripping into the cliche pitfalls that you've mentioned can come from this sort of character.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

That's nice to hear! What makes you cautious about twins anyway?

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Grounded.
Grounded.
Grounded?!

Gem was furious.

They were Teen Titans. She could build a warhead out of cardboard and tape, and her sister could make it strong enough to level the moon and take out Superman if he got in the way, and just because she'd had an 'episode' - god forbid that constantly seeing how to turn everything into a WMD would occasionally become a bit stressful - they, the both of them, had been grounded. Confined to the dorm floor, barred from missions, taken from quarters to training and back again. Escorted.

"You can't make nuclear explosives from cardboard, Gem." Sia said, reclining on her bed. She didn't even open her eyes. "And I don't have the time in my life to hold a WMD until it vaporizes the Man of Steel." She sighed, crossing her legs and bringing her hands behind her head. "Quit pacing."
"How did you know what I was thinking? You're not doing that freaky twin thing again, are you?" Gem said, brought out of her tantrum by her sister's words.
"No." Sia replied, smiling. "You were muttering. You mutter too loud. Go stew if you have to but be quiet, at least."
Gem just huffed. Sia said nothing, and for a few seconds, it was peaceful.
"But we're GROUNDED." Gem yelled, and Sia opened her eyes this time. No use anyway.
"Yep."
"And we're TITANS."
"Uh-huh."
"And we didn't even do anything wrong!"
"That's a matter of perspective."
"They just went on a mission without us!"
"Mmmhmm."
Gem sat on the floor, crossing her arms. "It's not fair."
"Wrong." Said Sia, standing up and walking over to her sister. She held a hand out and Gem looked at it sullenly, before accepting it and pulling herself up. "We have to learn. That's why we're here, after all. The world needs protectors, and that's what the Teen Titans are for, but sometimes we need protecting as well. You don't realize how wired you get when you're stressed out, Gee, and that leads to episodes, and that leads to bombs." Sia put her hands on Gem's shoulders. "We're not grounded, that's just what Rose called it so she wouldn't seem nice. It's a vacation." Gem sighed, and Sia pulled her into a hug.
"If you say so, Si." Gem conceded, returning the embrace.
"I do. Now be quiet so I can rela-"

There was a rumbling as the T-Wing returned, and Gem and Sia heard echoes of Rose chewing out the team. There was the sound of breaking glass, then they heard Sentinel's dorm door open and slam, and then there was a knock at their's, and Rose opened it.
"Your team is back. You're un-grounded. But the team's on orders to take some downtime. You guys are the newest - so get to know your teammates. They're upstairs."
Gem pulled out of the hug, and looked from Rose to Sia, and then gave Sia a grin that almost frightened her. She shot past Rose and up the stairs.
"Thanks, Rose." Said Sia, sincere.
Rose didn't say anything before she left.

Sia joined Gem upstairs. She'd already grabbed a beer, and was sat watching the Guitar Hero proceedings. Sia settled for a can of cola, and stood behind said sofa.
"Dibs on next game. Winner stays on?"
"Si, you only say that because you always win." Gem said, smirking at her sister while playing air-guitar to the riffs coming from the TV.
"Because I'm good, Gee. Natural talent."
"I'm not sure superpowers count as talent, hun'." Gem remarked, pushing playfully.
"It's not my fault those controllers are so simple. Things practically play themselves."
"They do after you've been holding them for a few minutes." Gem said, and Sia threw her hands up in defeat, walking away as Gem remained.

Sia stopped beside Pistole-Simone. Man, really gotta learn actual names.
"So..." She started, unsure of her words. Simone was rather...imposing. "...how was the mission? We heard Rose yelling...and apparently we've been ordered to 'take downtime'. That bad, huh?"

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Thanks, NR. It wasn't intentional - I wasn't aware of an imbalance in the first place - I just tend to play a lot of female characters. I don't know why.

Is there a beer stash in the tower? Can Gem have one if there isn't?

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Grounded

@Hillan

That's not half bad...

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

So as far as I understand it, being caught up on the IC, you're all hanging out int he tower post-mission on orders to get to know your team better. Cool.

Just gotta figure out why Lock&Load weren't sent on said mission.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

Aw man. I thought we weren't accepting new characters. I've been watching Justice League Unlimited again and I was thinking of throwing up a protege to the Question. Probably not a member of the team, but someone who runs into them every now and again.

@King Kindred

Status still says apply so I threw it up. Plus, I got them special ins anyhow.

Teen Titans: Divided We Fall

| NAME: |

Gemini 'Gem' Trent (Left) & Siamese 'Sia' Trent (Right)

| ALIAS: |

Lock & Load

| ABILITIES/SKILLS/EQUIPMENT: |

Gem (Lock) and Sia (Load) possess unique, but oddly complementary abilities.

Lock's power presents itself as a low-functioning form of technopathy that focuses on creation and, though she'd not care to admit it, warmongering: she is able to take rudimentary resources, such as metal, wire, wood, etc. and craft it expertly into weapons of many functions almost without a second thought. Through this, she is the ultimate combat pragmatist, taking basic components off the battle field and creating a potent tool with which she can triumph over her enemies.

Load, meanwhile, has a separate ability which, while useful in its own right, becomes downright sadistic in tandem with her sister's. Load also possesses a form of technopathy, although one that functions on a higher level than Lock's; Load can hold a weapon or tool in her hands, and instill it with power in order to 'upgrade' the object, directing it to perform its function better, at a higher level, or more efficiently. Load can take a crude shield made from a sheet of metal and survive an RPG, or a roughly-hewn sword and slice through titanium - all she needs is time and energy.

| LIMITATIONS AND WEAKNESSES: |

Gem (Lock):
-Builds require resources. Gem only constructs, not creates, so if she doesn't have the raw material, she can't make anything.
-Her builds are only as effective as the material she has allows them to be; refined, plentiful resources will create effective weapons. Crappy materials won't.
-Complex weaponry requires greater amounts of resources, and wider varieties. Weapons are only as complex as Gem's creativity allows her to make them.
-Builds are limited to weaponry only. Gem can't seem to make anything else.
-Builds do not instill innate knowledge on proper usage. No matter what she constructs, Gem is only as effective with it as her training.
-Lock has no power to 'turn off' her ability, and is always seeing ways things can be put together and constructed and mechanized into tools of war. In the field, this is useful; out of it, it can be a little overwhelming.

Sia (Load):
-Upgrades require energy and focus, and take time to ramp up in power.
-Upgrades are lost if Sia loses possession of the item; an upgrade must be constantly fed energy to maintain itself.
-Upgrades require additional energy to manipulate in a specific direction; if Sia wants a shield that is lighter over sturdier, she must focus to push the upgrade that way.
-Upgrades are not unconscious. Sia must intentionally begin an upgrade process.
-Upgrades do not instill innate knowledge on proper usage, unless the upgrade gets advanced to the point of the object being able to use itself. No matter what she upgrades, or what the upgrades do, Sia is only as effective with the object as her training.

Finally, both girls do not gain any extra durability, survivability, strength, stamina, or speed from their abilities, unless they specfically engineer equipment for these uses. They are human, and suffer all the drawbacks of their species.

| SAMPLE POST: |

It was clanking that awoke Sia. Clanking and muttered groans of frustration and more clanking and- Sia rolled over, lifting an arm to check her clock, red LED's glowing harsh. 8:13. Gem had had worse episodes. Sia strained her neck to check the corner of the room where Gem's scrap heap resided. It was less of a heap, now, more of a...mound? Pile? The words still seemed too big. Whatever, it was smaller than it had been when they'd gone to bed. Or at least, when Sia had gone to bed.
"Gem?" Sia said gently, sitting up in bed, carefully prodding her sister. It was important not to startle her in an episode. Who knew what she'd constructed. "What've you been building?"

Gem dropped the scrap that was in her hands and hovered a hand over a pile of odd, near-spherical objects that lay beside her. She picked one up and cradled it in both hands, standing and turning around - Sia could see her eyes were bloodshot, hair greasy and pulled back. Oil marked her face, though Sia couldn't see any cans or containers in the room. How did she always manage that?
"Bombs."
Oh. Good.
"At first explosive!"
Naturally.
"Just plain bada-boom, y'know, bit of gunpowder? But then I saw these," Gem threw her arm behind her and scooped up some metal shavings, "and I thought, what about a dispersal system? Like, a scatter-bomb." Sia nodded along, ignoring her need for coffee. It was best to let Gem talk. "And that got me thinking about dispersal systems in general! SO many different things you can put in a bomb, Si, it's crazy! This one's just the boom, but you've got EMP's, sonics, heat. You just put this there and then that goes around here and then you press this-"

Sia leaped frantically from her bed and nearly tackled Gem in sweeping the bomb from her hands, then fled to the window, flinging it open and tossing the small metal bomb out into the open air beyond. It clicked mid-flight and Sia pushed herself flat to the ground. There was a boom and a rumble and Sia got up, peeking out of the window. There was smoke, and a small piece of metal was vibrating in the wall next to their window, but through the lingering black plume Sia could see small bits of coloured paper fluttering gently in the breeze, starting their fall to the ground.
"Oh, that one was confetti. A celebration-bomb!" Gem said from behind her, cheerful and spacey.
"What were you celebrating?" Sia asked, exerting calm upon herself, turning around to face Gem.
"Well that's for whoever throws it to decide."
Sia tried to respond, but the tannoy crackled to life, and whatever she was about to say was cut off by the icy tones of Rose Wilson, their leader.
"Gemini and Siamese. Attend breakfast. And then the training room."

Sia groaned, rooting through her drawers to find suitable clothing. Gem just grinned.
"Excellent." She said. "I'm starving."

| NOTES: |

-Their parents have a sense of humour. Whether or not it's good is another question.