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Gender/age: male/23 (younger twin)
Physical: physically identical to Dave, though he is usually unkempt and seems not to care about his appearance as much. Blond hair and blue eyes, fair skin (actually less golden, more pale than his brother) are their shared features, as well as their 6�3� height and slender build. Dane is more wirey and a little underweight. He often is found wearing only shorts, or a loin cloth in warmer weather, and seems to not understand the whole �clothing� thing.
Mental: Abused for many years at the hands of certain medics and House Faustas 'learned men', Dane is a remarkable young man. He is extremely intelligent, like his brother, though he is clearly not of the same caliber of personality. Dane is probably half again as smart as his older brother, but his inexperience and the lies taught him while with his captors have certainly stunted him. He is withdrawn, silent, and moody, though he has a curious sense of humor about him. He likes morbid things and often has a strangely joyous experience when something nearby dies. He is concerned that the group will not be able to remain together, as he was one of the last ones to be added to it, and he sees the stress lines between his brother and the others.
Skills: Dane is strongly telepathic, though his strength is mainly in receiving. He listens in to his brothers constantly, and has experienced many things they have, through their dreams. He rarely sleeps, perhaps because of the odd experiments done on him by the doctors. Dane has very little practical experience in the real world, and is far more curious than afraid of anything. He is likely to get bit more than once, by an Ant or aggressive animal, before learning which one is tame and which might bite.
A little pang of some foreign emotion flipped through him. Guilt. But not so much that he cared to worry about it. He was more concerned with the growing hunger for real life things that he saw around him.
Life, in all its brilliance and danger, was everywhere. His experiences within the House were quite limited. Almost caged, Dane's childhood was caustic in his memories. So he dwelled upon Dave's.
How the slightly older twin of his, connected since before birth in mind and soul, could go everywhere. Do anything. Learn any information. Catch any eye.
Why had he never told Rita that he loved her? That strange thought kept returning to Dane's own mind. She was so loyal to him, so strong. Even when she expressed a difference of opinion she did it only to help. But Dave was pretty... stone-headed. He'd never even admitted it to himself, until just a few moments ago.
The emotions below Dane grew, and he pulled in a breath. There would always be a rift between he and his brother. Never more apparent than just now. They made love without regard to his presence or his feelings. And of course, without remembering that he experienced everything that his brother did...
When Dave shuddered into climax, Dane's eyes clenched shut along with his fists. When he was at House Faustas, the doctors would often prod and poke and query. When he would go stiff and numb to them, they would burn or grip or scratch. Now his own hands clenched around his shoulders, and his teeth clattered. Not with cold, but with loathing.
It was nearly midnight. The stars were clearer here in the hills, Dane noticed when he finally opened his eyes again and wiped the tears from them. From the House enclaves, or his own small rooms, he could only see a few bits of sky at a time. As Dave and Rita clung to one another in the wagon, Dane fished out a paper and herb packet, rolling himself a small cigarette.
When they had broken him out of the sealed enclave, some of the members of the Clan tried educating him toward more worldly things than his education had shown. They made the mistake of giving the poor young man coffee, nicotine and music in one day.
He was now clearly addicted to at least two of the three.
Below, Rita coughed and poked the top of the wagon's cloth covering, where she saw Dane's rump denting it. "Hey! Put that thing out! They're bad for you."
"But they make me feel good," he muttered, not bothering to extinguish the herb cigarette. And it wasn't like she was doing anything to stop Dave from feeling fine. The pair of lovers exited the wagon, and went to the nearby stream to bathe.
Now with very little to think of other than himself, Dane leaned down again on the canvas of the wagon. The cigarette gone, while waiting for Dave and Rita to clean themselves, he had nothing to occupy his hands either. Sleep finally came to this strange young man.
While he slept, the images flew past. The sunlight as seen through a slit window, rising into the dusky dirt courtyard... An aquarium that held a small but highly poisonous fish -- a fish which Dane was forced to eat when his House captors failed to feed him... A woman's voice, so distant and so lovely that he knew her to be their dead mother...
"What was that!?" Dave's curious shriek cut through the dream and broke Dane's sleep. "Was that you?"
The twins looked at each other, blue eyes matched. Dave's wet hair dripped onto the dirt below the wagon, but were intent on their twins up on the top of it.
"I guess. You so rarely let me in on my own terms... I was asleep. I guess that's why I don't sleep much any more. You would shove me out of your dreams, mostly. Sorry." Dane hopped down to the ground, and sized up his brother, who was still somewhat shocked at having seen the odd images in his own head.
"I never knew how ... vivid they could be. And ..." Dave lowered his eyes, "I never knew exactly what they would do to you. I'm so sorry. You've kept a lot from me too."
"Only to keep you from feeling the pain, brother. Or maybe it's what I have all my own. Since you've got ... everything else." Over Dave's shoulder Rita could barely be seen, glowing in the dark like the moons. Her skin was beautiful, pale. Wet, it reflected the stars light. Dane's desire flowed from him to his brother, and Dave gasped again.
"... She can hardly tell us apart, Dane," Dave smirked. "And ... she and I spoke a bit, you might have missed that part."
"I got it all, Dave," Dane promised.
"She can tell you apart now," Rita said, startling both of them. "Cause one of you smokes..." She stood on her toes and kissed Dane's cheek. "But you're right, I can't tell you apart. He's the wet one."
They entered the wagon again, while everyone else was asleep or on guard, and spoke to one another about nothing and everything. But when it was all said and done... Dane had never (as his brother so aptly put) "gotten any". And Rita was just the type who could never let an opportunity like this pass her by...
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