[Scene: Modern times in a trashed out foreclosure in Hen Tie, Washington. A teenager in workgloves, goggles, and mylar coveralls is holding a soldering iron next to a silvery crystal wrapped in fiber optic cables, while her brother watches in a similar outfit, a safe distance away.]
[She groans, sets down the soldering iron and pulls off her goggles]
El: This is useless, I need to be able to see what I'm doing.
[She pulls off the gloves and picks up the soldering iron]
Dev: El. No! Put your gloves back on! It's too dangerous! That crystal is pure concentrated light magic and we're made of pure evil. One touch and you go poof.
El: It would be more dangerous with the gloves on. It would be like doing neurosurgery with a butter knife.
[Dev pulls off his own goggles and gloves, standing behind his sister so she can't see him biting his nails in terror.]
El: [Brings the soldering close to the crystal] Just remember. We're doing this for Daddy.
Dev: You're doing this for Daddy. I'm doing this for you.
[El smiles at him over her shoulder and a split second before that he crosses his arms over his chest and gives her an aloof expression. When she turns back around, he goes back to biting his nails.]
El: You're not doing this for Daddy? This whole thing was your idea in the first place.
Dev: Need I remind you how that big lug crushed my skull in?
El: Yeah? Well, you started it.
Dev: [Jaw drops] I was trying to protect you!
El: [solders with a sly grin in her face] And you succeeded. Great job.
Dev: Don't mock me, dear sister. The only thing I succeed in was having my head stomped in.
El: You succeed in being so cute and lovable that Big Daddy felt really bad about hurting you, and decided to adopt us.
Dev: Conscript us into being his pawns against Metallia, you mean. And that had nothing to do with me having my skull crushed and everything to do with you charming him with your feminine wiles.
El: [giggles and pulls the soldering iron away from the crystal] Please, it's not safe for me to laugh right now.
Dev: [claps his hands over his mouth] Sorry. I'll shut up now.
El: No. Please keep talking. Your voice keeps me calm. [smiles and holds the soldering iron off to the side] Remember the first time Big Daddy gave us a bath?
Dev: [laughs] Oh my god. Like it was yesterday. It was like trying to wash a pair of rabid honey badgers.
El: [smirking] He made that tub up so cute for us. With all those bubbles, and the bath toys, and the scrub brushes, and the bottles of baby shampoo, and the water just the perfect temperature…
Dev: And we'd never been so terrified of anything in our lives.
[They are both laughing now]
El: No sooner did he manage to dip one of aour feet into the tub than we'd bite and scratch and try to claw our way up to the ceiling.
Dev: Meanwhile the other one took off screaming and tried to escape.
El: [shaking her head as she chuckles] He was so patient with us-
Dev: At first-
El: It's a good thing we couldn't understand the kind of language he was using back then.
Dev: Oh…I seem to recall his meaning was clear enough from his tone of voice.
El: Could you image if one of us got out of house? Not sure how he would have explained all that to the neighbors without them demanding he serve a lengthy prison sentence.
Dev: Oh, I think once we started *eating* those neighbors, it would have shifted their sympathies back to him pretty quickly.
El: Eventually he just had to pitch us both in into the tub, then seal us in with magic until we tired ourselves out trying to escape.
Dev: Poor bathtub…but after he scrubbed us off and combed all the tangles out of our hair, I couldn't believe how pretty we looked with our porcelain pink skin and our long flaxen blond hair and our cute little matching twinsie outfits, and I knew this guy couldn't be all bad.
El: I wonder why he wasted all the time and energy trying to make us take a bubble bath? Why he didn't use magic to hose us off with?
Dev: Because he was trying to train us to pass ourselves off as real human children.
[The twins stop laughing abruptly and their faces become somber as they heave a sad sigh]
El: [goes back to work with the soldering iron] Almost done. One last spot… Done. [lowers the crystal assembly into what looks like a bazooka then turns to face her brother] There, was that so bad?
Dev: Not at all. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go into the bathroom and vomit up a quart of blood from the perforated ulcer I just got from watching you work.
El: [Makes cooing noises as she hugs him] Oh, Dev, I'm sorry.
Dev: It's ok. Let's just hope this thing works.
[El backs away with her mouth slightly agape]
Dev: What?
El: It…never occurred to me this might not work…I…just assumed it would.
Dev: Oh well. I have 100% faith in you.
El: Really? 100% Because I've calculated our odds at about 50%.
Dev: 50%?
El: [grins and winks] This either works, or it doesn't.
Dev: [grins and clasps her face between his hands] Oh, you naughty little minx, using my faulty grasp of higher mathematics against me like that.
[El looks up at the clock and her face falls]
El: Oh, no. I'm going to be late.
Dev: [looks at the clock and is startled too but frowns at his sister] For what?
El: I promised a friend I'd drop by to help her study.
Dev: That's great. I was hoping to do some research at the library.
El: What kind of research?
Dev: The boring kind. What other kind is there?
El: Ok, well don't get too bored…
[They morph into jeans and t-shirts and leave, walking in opposite directions, then glance back to makes sure they are out of sight of the other. El morphs her outfit into a pretty red dress, makeup, and strappy ankle bootlets while Dev morphs his into a zoot suit. Then they both teleport away.]