InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "you know the rules and so do i"

Celeste, Esme, Mindee and Phoebe Cuckoo (fiveinone) wrote in utr_logs,
@ 2011-08-03 07:30:00

Entry tags:

henry stillman, stepford cuckoos

Who: Henry and the Stepford Cuckoos
Where: Beach
Warnings: Nah

There were few things the Cuckoos enjoyed more than messing with people's minds. One of those things was the beach. The four girls wore matching silver bikinis that had men all over the beach staring. Fortunately, most of them were too intimidated to make a move.

The girls had casually mentioned to Henry where they would be. He was interesting enough, but not the sort of person they would actually invite to anything remotely date-like.

The Cuckoos were spread out on the sand, soaking up some sun. A nearby man who had been contemplating saying Hello suddenly found himself compelled to go buy four daiquiris.

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	fiveinone 2011-08-11 08:22 pm UTC (link)
	Mindee wasn't quite sure what to think of that. "It.. He," she corrected herself. "He's your Shadow?" She hadn't heard of people having funny bug shadows. She was awfully confused at this point. "He disagrees that your hair is a pet? Or that he is? Is he your hair?" Those had to be some of the dumbest questions she had ever asked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

henri_with_a_y
2011-08-11 08:25 pm UTC (link)

"He, yeah, and capital-S Shadow, not like the one cast by having a light nearby, think of him as sort of like ... uh... some combination totem animal and mood ring. He pretty much disagrees about anything being a pet, and he's definitely not my hair, but he's made out of the same stuff. I think. He comes from the place I was born in, and mum's always said that's why my hair is the way it is, because of where I was born."

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fiveinone
2011-08-12 08:17 pm UTC (link)

"...Oh." That was about all she could come up with. His totem animal was a bug thing? At least Henry seemed open to her questions, and didn't sound like he thought they were dumb. "You were born in a Shadow place?" It would be much easier if she could peek inside his head. She could get all this information much quicker, and wouldn't feel so silly asking questions.

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	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-12 08:19 pm UTC (link)
	He nodded, "Mum calls it the Backstage, I've always called it the Behind-The-Scenes, same thing, really. It's like..." His head tilted, squinting skyward, picking the shell off another crab leg while he thought, "Kind of like a pocket dimension, only backwards? It's bigger than our dimension is, so sort of more like we're the pocket dimension for there." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-12 08:30 pm UTC (link)
	Mindee furrowed a brow. The Cuckoos didn't know much about other dimensions beyond their home one and the one here. Time apparently seemed to be relative, though, given Sophie's age and theirs. "Do you go there often?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-12 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	He nodded, "Pretty much every day, I kind of use it to get from one place to another. Things here take up less space back there, so it's not as quick as the portkeys, but it's still faster than public transportation." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-15 04:33 pm UTC (link)
	"Oh! I don't suppose you've ever run into a blue man named Kurt there, have you?" It didn't sound too much like what Kurt talked about, and his hair didn't smell like sulfur, so it probably wasn't the same place. "Is it frightening?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-15 06:09 pm UTC (link)
	He shook his head, "Can't say as I have. Most people can't get back there." He shrugged, picking Sparky up and re-situating the critter on his shoulder, "These guys live there. Mom and me can get back there, and these guys can usually bring someone along with them. But I haven't met anyone else who can do it themselves." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-15 06:26 pm UTC (link)
	"Someone back home--Nightcrawler.. He can go into a place like that. But his seems.. different." She shrugged and peered at Sparky. He was sort of cute, in an unnerving way. "He seems friendly.." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-15 08:08 pm UTC (link)
	"Oh he is." Henry said, talking around another bite of crab leg, "Most of them are, these guys are the Herd, there's others back there that aren't as friendly." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-16 05:13 am UTC (link)
	Mindee seemed a bit nervous. She wasn't entirely sure what to do. She knew the other girls would be totally grossed out at what she was about to ask. "Can I touch him?" She was curious. She liked playing with his hair, after all. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

henri_with_a_y
2011-08-16 05:25 am UTC (link)

"Sure." He said, and she got another actual smile for it. He jostled his shoulder a little to shake Sparky loose, "Go on, go say hi, I know you want to." There was a rusty-hinge chirp from the critter as it scrambled down Henry's arm, moving quickly, finally launching himself in an apparent death-defying leap from Henry's arm to Mindee's, just clinging to her elbow, almost cooing.

He didn't seem to really weigh anything, and he was cool, as if something had just cast a shadow on her arm. Sparky's legs tickled, a little, sort of like having a stray hair on bare skin, invisible, tolerable, but still kind of annoying.

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fiveinone
2011-08-16 05:53 am UTC (link)

Mindee looked worried by the jump, bracing herself for the thing to tumble into her with a bit of a jostle. She could barely feel it, though. Like a tiny bug--which, she supposed, was what he was. He just seemed like he should be more heavy and solid. She looked down at her clinging to her and smiled. "Aww." He was adorable!

"You wanted to come say Hi?" She was surprised, really. She figured something like Sparky would be more shy.

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	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-16 05:59 am UTC (link)
	Sparky chirped again and Henry shrugged, "They feed off of emotions, and ... stuff. Like, basically everything we generate, electrical impulses and heat and even stray random bits of thought that don't go anywhere, those synapses firing for no reason." Another shrug, "I think he likes you though." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

fiveinone
2011-08-16 06:08 am UTC (link)

"What do they do with it?" The Cuckoos were skilled at getting in people's heads--most of the time--but they wouldn't say they fed on anything. They certainly didn't take thoughts from people, unless there were extreme circumstances. Generally, if anything, they added bits of information.

She looked back down at Sparky, reaching out the finger on her other hand to touch him. "Yeah?"

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	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-16 01:27 pm UTC (link)
	"They eat it. It's what they do. Keeps people from overloading and going crazy." Sparky arched up into the touch like a cat, climbing a little higher up her arm and making a tinny little sci-fi noise as he waggled his antennae. "Yeah, pretty sure." Henry said, smiling again, "He usually only makes theremin noises when he likes people." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-16 06:04 pm UTC (link)
	She tilted her head. "We haven't had one, and we seem to be okay.." Of course, the Cuckoos had their own way of damping their emotions. Their way seemed a bit more elegant, but this way seemed to work too. She pet Sparky, scritching his back gently. "You're cute," she told the Shadow in a bit of a higher pitch. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-16 06:07 pm UTC (link)
	Henry shrugged, "Lot of people don't and they're just fine. But he works for me, mum's got one too, lot of people we know do. Haven't ever figured out if that's why we know them, or if it's the other way around." Sparky, for his part, waggled his antennae again, mimicking the pitch and the cadence, but not the words. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-16 07:13 pm UTC (link)
	She giggled at Sparky's mimicry, petting his head between his antennae. "We want one," she said, cooing over the Shadow. That was probably very inaccurate. The other Cuckoos wouldn't want one at all, but Mindee did. She looked back up at Henry, smiling. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

henri_with_a_y
2011-08-16 08:18 pm UTC (link)

The head-plate scritches got an actual purr out of the critter, sounding like squeaky clockwork more than anything, just leaning against her hand and seeping contentment. As far as emotions went, Sparky was much easier to read than Henry, since the Shadows communicated mostly in emotional tags.

Henry smiled, "Sometimes a stray one shows up here sometimes, latches onto someone."

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	fiveinone 2011-08-17 02:17 am UTC (link)
	She was so amused by the little guy that she'd completely forgotten about her food, and even where they were. She kept petting his head, glad she was making Sparky happy. She was having a really nice time, much better than she normally did at the beach. One of her legs bumped against the inside of Henry's, and she ran her sandaled foot against his booted one. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-17 02:22 am UTC (link)
	"Hey now." He said, though there was amusement in the tone, "Careful with that, might make somebody jealous." Which, he figured, was kind of the point, but he wasn't going to say as much. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-17 02:45 am UTC (link)
	Mindee smirked, looking a bit more like one of her other sisters. She knew what he meant, but it was no harm having a little fun. "You want me to scritch your head, too?" She had fourth a mind to come across the table and just start making out with him again. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	henri_with_a_y 2011-08-17 02:57 am UTC (link)
	He laughed, an actual, honest laugh, the kind that were fairly rare, really, but he did lean his head forward over the table to where she could reach, "Sure, yeah, that's exactly what I meant." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fiveinone 2011-08-17 03:29 am UTC (link)
	Mindee leaned forward, one hand bracing her up on the table as her other hand snuck into his hair and pulled herself closer to kiss him. If he didn't like it, his hair would probably bite her or something, but she didn't really care right now. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)