Henry Townshend is a ghost magnet (room_302) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-11-03 16:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, henry townshend, kenzi malikov |
Who: Henry and Kenzi
What: Kenzi needs a favor for a wedding present
When: Recently
Where: Henry's Apartment
Rating/Warnings: Low/None; Some haunting shennanigans
Status: Complete!
Oh, sweet baby jesus the things happening to the people around her - Bo’s upcoming nuptials, and then came the arrival of her niece (let’s say getting a wink of sleep was getting a little scarce at home lately due to infant wailing), which were big adjustments to everyone under that very roof. It’d kept Kenzi busy, and not in a bad way; she actually liked being involved in all this stuff, making sure her bestie’s big day would be the epitome of perfection and watching her Big Bro be covered in puke and figure out diaper-changing like it was some kind of rubik's cube.
But on the topic of her bestie’s big day, Kenzi was rolling the ball when it came to one of her gifts: photography. Photographic evidence of the event was a total must, and she had a plan of eventually compiling a wedding album for Bo once everything was said and done. It was all about finding the right photographer too, and who else but dearest Monster Boy.
Obviously she wasn’t expecting free labor, but maybe with the arrival of milkshakes and the batting of her voluminous lashes, she’d maybe get a discount? Maybe?
It was always a trip coming here with how jacked up his apartment was too thanks to the OC’s otherworldly butthole right in his bathroom. In case something did happen, she had a couple of sage sticks packed into her purse that’d leave with him - it was supposed to have some cleansing hoodoo abilities anyway.
“Hey, Monster Boy!” called the gothic princess from the other side of the door, hands currently occupied with some massive milkshakes (hers was butterscotch) and the knocking had to be done by the point of her fabulous boots. “It’sa me, Kenzi! I come in peace.”
Well of course Henry would get visitors when his apartment decided to go to town with all kinds of shit. His TV had turned itself on and every channel was nothing but static. Both his alarm clock and the clock on his wall were spiraling out of control, the alarm clock wailing and showing no signs of stopping, even when Henry threw it against the wall. And of course there was that distinct low pitched hum you could feel in your very bones and that hazy red tint was in the air. Oh, and a new twist? Blood colored liquid coming out of his kitchen faucet. Nice.
At least now Henry had those white candles that seemed to placate these hauntings. He had quickly dug a couple out of his trunk, casting a glare at the doll seated in the corner of said trunk as he did so. “I’ve carried you around all fucking week,” he said to it. “Revy doesn’t want you at her apartment, ok? I can’t exactly smuggle you in there. She means it when she says she’ll throw me out the window.”
He lit two candles, one in his bedroom and one in the living room. He had just set the one in the living room down on the coffee table when he heard Kenzi banging on his door. The sound made him jump nearly right out of his skin. Jesus Christ!
“Yeah, Kenzi, I hear you,” he called back. “Just...uh...just give me a sec!”
Uhhh -
Kenzi hoped she hadn’t come in at a wham-bam-thank-you-moment with his ladyfriend but she also knew the tell-tale signs of sex, and all the commotion on the other side of the door definitely didn’t sound like recreational body humping.
Sounded more like his apartment was losing its shit, but Henry seemed like a pro when it came to living with it. He really needed to pimp his own apartment out to the public and charge a cover fee, because it was legitimately the most haunted spot in the OC. At least that she knew of.
“Sounds like Halloween in there,” she called out, but also hoped he wasn’t getting maimed by ghosts or something. “Yell if you need me to break down this door! I’ve got my ass-kicking boots away.” The most she could do would be to bravely wave around burning sage and wave her arms around like she was in the middle of an epileptic seizure, but that seemed a lot better than slurping up both their milkshakes while being overall nonchalant.
Yeah….yeah, it was kind of like Halloween in there with the noise and hum and static and blood water and sounds of his clocks all going crazy. Fortunately, Chloe had already left for work that morning just before all the Weird started. “I’m alright,” he called back to Kenzi through the door. “Just a sec.” Henry let the candles do their thing and made his way to the door, slipping out of it and pulling it shut behind him. He looked at Kenzi trying to give her a grin, but came off looking more sheepish than anything else. “Hey, Kenzi, hi,” he said, folding his arms and leaning against his door, muffled sounds of haunting still coming from the other side. “Sorry, it’s a little, uhm, crazy in there right now.” He noticed the milkshakes in her hands, “hey, is one of those for me?”
Woooooow. That bad, huh? Kenzi was morbidly curious. “One’s for youuuuuuu,” she sang, handing him his offering. “You know I never come see you empty-handed. I wanted to ask for your photography services in person, but -”
Was his apartment habitable for a casual hangout? Sorta doubtful, and before continuing her sentence she cocked her head at the close door before her crystal eyes flickered to him. “How long does this entire thing usually last? I did bring you some sage sticks. I don’t know if you’ve tried ‘em before but I hear they’re supposed to help quell the evil juju??”
Now that a hand was free she was able to fish through her purse, pulling out a bundle of wrapped sage - stinky stuff but rumor has it they were effective. If anyone needed these, it was Monster Boy.
Milk shake in hand, Henry took a casual slurp as he looked over his shoulder at the door behind him. “Well,” he said thoughtfully. “Before they just kind of lasted however long they wanted to. Recently, though, the Dreams gave me these white candles that when lit seem to take care of it. Sometimes it clears it up quickly. Other times…” he trailed, still hearing his alarm clock blaring, “not so much.” He shrugged.
He looked back at Kenzi. He wasn’t upset. Hell, he didn’t even looked annoyed. He had accepted this as being a part of his life. Would he prefer that it wasn’t? Of course. Random hauntings in his apartment certainly didn’t make his life easy. At some point he thought maybe it’d be nice if he and Chloe moved in together, but who would want to put up with that on a daily basis? Chloe was a wonderful person. She understood what Henry was going through, probably better than most. And she was supportive, urging him on to figure out the truth, but she had enough of this kind of bullshit in her own Dreams, and now in the Real World as well.
The gift of bundled sage was nice, though. And Kenzi was right. Henry had done a bit of reading since his Dreams had started and even more so since he and Chloe had started dating. Stuff about hauntings and ghosts and things of that nature. From what he read sage was good for cleansing spaces, keeping unwanted “visitors” out. Henry smiled at Kenzi. “Sage. Thanks, Kenzi. This will definitely come in handy.”
Henry was such a ‘go with the flow’ sort of dude (without even smoking with some Mary Jane as far she knew), so she couldn’t say she was surprised to see him handle it so nonchalantly. Better than spazzing out and running around in circles like a headless chicken, right? Major kudos for him still being able to sleep at night with all that creepy ruckus going on, too.
“You’re welcome, dudebro. We’ve all got our burdens to bare when it comes to the dream fairy and yours is definitely a little different,” Kenzi commented with a snort. “As long as the hole in the bathroom doesn’t suck you up in a reverse fart suction and keep you forever, right? But back to my favor while I’ve got you out here - my succubestie’s going to get married and I wanted to go ahead and pay for the photography, and I was wondering if you’d be interested in doing it? I figured going local for these kinds of services was best.”
Henry grinned a little. “Bo’s getting married?” he repeated with a brow raise. He’d only met Bo once some time ago, kind of in passing when she visited Kenzi while the goth princess was seeking refuge from a certain Dark One in Henry’s apartment. He didn’t know too much about her, but still, the news of marriage was always good news, and not just because he was being offered a job.
“Good for her,” he went on, and then paused. “Uh, congratulations for her...then…?” Awkward. “Uh, sure I can do the photography for her wedding. Shouldn’t be a problem. When is it?”
Her bodaciously bodacious Bobo was hitched indeed, sniffsniff. Kenzi was happy to see her in a relationship that wasn’t a total trainwreck like what they dreamt, and if Muscles ever hurt her, welp. Birkhoff helped her get rid of one body, he’d probably help her get rid of another if she batted those mascara-plump lashes at him the right way.
“Still going back and forth on that,” she wagged a finger. “But once I get a definite answer I’ll send you a text or something - I can put down a deposit whenever you need me to. My plan is to make them a wedding album once the photos are all touched up and purty. Gotta make sure I knock this ‘maid of honor’ thing out of the park, y’know?” Sluuuuuuuuuuurp.
Henry listened, slurping his own milkshake thoughtfully. “Alright,” he said. “Generally I put together the albums myself, but I really don’t mind handing that off to someone else.” He grinned. The albums were Henry’s least favorite part of wedding jobs. He could touch up the pictures, make them look as romantic and as glamorous as his clients wanted, he enjoyed that, but laying them out in a pleasing pattern in a book? Considerably less so. “Since you’ll be doing the album, what I’ll probably do is forward you the rolls to look at, you pick the ones you think are best and I’ll touch them up.”
Another slurp. “You don’t need a deposit. You get the Keeping Me Company While I was Heartless Rate. Super rare. Super exclusive. Just let me know the date of the wedding as soon as you have it.” Another slurp and a glance over his shoulder. The wailing alarm clock seemed to have quieted, he couldn’t hear it through the door anymore. He glanced at his watch. The candles should have burnt down by now and hopefully quelled the rager going on in his apartment. “I think the candles have done their job,” he said as he turned back to Kenzi, “you wanna risk coming inside?”
Okay, so enough time has officially passed that they could joke about that particular saga in their lives - she snickered, biting down on her milkshake straw as she grinned. “I hope it’s super rare, otherwise we might need some kind of chastity belt for your chest or something, but you’re amazeballs.” Kenzi appreciated it; she wanted to do something special for her bestie anyway, and since everyone tended to give Bo weapons for birthdays or any other special event in her life she figured the succubus would prefer something a little more personal and less deadly.
As for the invitation inside? “Well, ‘tis the season for the spooks, right?” If Henry could stomach the hauntings with his fleshy mortal self than so could she. Both of them were made of tough human stuff. “I’m game. You ever tried the ouija board thing in there yet or would that be too much?”
If Henry hadn’t had a sense of humor about these things that occasionally happened to him, he would be in a sorry state. Henry grinned a little sheepishly. “I might actually have one of those,” he said. “Kind of. I’m like a magnet for ghosts or something and they just love shoving their hands into my chest. So, uh, Regina was nice enough to give me a protection spell to keep that from happening all the time.” Which came in handy considering he had actually traveled to the Other World since talking with Regina last. Plus he was dating a necromancer, so coming face to face with ghosts was something that was going to happen. If they would kindly keep their hands to themselves, that’d be awesome, thanks.
Henry let them into his apartment. The candles had burned themselves out and had disappeared, leaving no trace that they had even been there. No waxy residue on the coffee table, no burn marks. Nothing. Henry rather liked this self-cleaning feature of the candles. The apartment had returned to normal. There was some thick red residue in his kitchen sink, but if Kenzi kept to the living room, Henry could deal with that later.
“I don’t know about ouija boards,” he said as the two of them entered and he closed the door behind them. “From what I’ve read they can be kinda dangerous. Plus, every time some character in a horror movie pulls out a ouija board, something bad happens and we’ve pretty much established that I am living a horror movie. I don’t want to compromise my Main Character Immunity by doing something the Horror Movie gods think is stupid. Besides, I know where the hauntings are coming from anyway.” slurp
Main Character Immunity. Yep, totally a thing. Henry seemed like the star of his own dreamshow, it wouldn’t really make sense for the dude to croak from all this unless he died by normal means - like, oh, choking on a chicken wing? Kenzi didn’t notice the sink stains, and instead got herself re-acquainted with the couch. It had been her bed for a couple days. She and this couch were tight friends.
“Truuuuuuuuuue,” she sighed, ultimately agreeing. At least there wasn’t blood dripping from the walls and items floating across the room? No creepy phantoms in the mirror? Did she have to knock on wood? “I always thought the hauntings came with the hole in your bathroom. Is that what it is or is there a plot twist?”
“It’s not really a plot twist,” Henry shrugged. “Kinda unexpected in a not really kind of way. You remember that doll I got from the Dreams? According to Regina, it’s the source of the hauntings. I’ve been Dreaming of being in an Other World version of my apartment building...uh, that is the apartment building where my Dreams take place in. There’s a guy there. I’ve seen him before in the Dreams a couple of times. I don’t like him, but I found him sitting on the stairs with the doll. He said something about some little girl giving it to him and he handed it to me. I have no idea why I took it. I don’t really understand why I do a lot of things I do in my Dreams.” Like crawling through a random hole that had appeared in his apartment by obviously supernatural means, for example. “There’s...something attached to it. Regina wasn’t able to cleanse it and I wasn’t able to burn it...so I’m kind of stuck with it now.”
Kenzi’s sip of her milkshake was rather sloooooooow while he explained the source of it all, because, um. Doll? That upped the creepy factor by the thousands, let’s be real. Suddenly, she felt the need to pull her feet off the ground and up on the couch in case there was a toy running around grabbing ankles. Or worse, stabbing them.
“Is the doll then...possessed?” That’s what she assumed when he said there was ‘something’ attached to it. Either way, the heebie-jeebies were officially received and she started to look around, just to see if there was anything out of place (not that she’d really know, she didn’t live here). “What if it does something to hurt you? How do you off an indestructible doll? Remove the batteries, cut off its head?”
“I don’t think it’s possessed,” Henry answered as Kenzi pulled her feet and glanced around. “Not like you see in movies, you know? It’s not going to animate to life and run around.” It hadn’t yet, and Henry’d had it in his trunk for weeks now. “From what I understand, it kind of causes the hauntings to happen. If I leave it here by itself for too long the hauntings get worse, but if I take it with me when I leave the apartment I’m less likely to come home and find everything going nuts.”
He looked towards his trunk where the doll was currently locked up. “Though, today was kind of an exception to the rule.” Henry paused a moment. “I really don’t understand why I took it from Walter in the Dreams. I wish I did.” Henry looked back at Kenzi, “how are yours going?” Henry hoped they were better than his. He hoped they at least made more sense than his did.
“I’d say it’s moody, but if it’s not possessed or alive in any way…” Welp, Kenzi didn’t know what the deal was - she was used to some pretty weird things, sometimes really creepy weird things thanks to her own peculiar set of dreams, but Henry’s always had this thing of making the hair on the back of her neck rise and goosebumps pop from smooth skin. Her eyes did follow his gaze though, a little warily.
He said it wouldn’t come to life but, jeebus, she still have expected to have it burst from the trunk and have its head spin like some weird Exorcist thing. Remind her to never suggest that they watch Annabelle here.
But, anyway, she turned her attention back to him and gave her frozen milky beverage a long sluuuuuurp before responding. “It’s alright, still kind of butt hurt over the kitsune thing,” she sighed. “My dreamself keeps wishing she were anything but human, and I got a nifty twig from my dreams that comes with some strings attached.”
Henry frowned a little bit. He sympathized to a degree what it was like to be a normal every day human in a world in which supernatural creatures were the norm, even the majority. He lived it practically every day of his life. Though, the fact that his energy seemed to be a magnet for ghosts maybe made him a little more than just the mundane schmoe he had started life as. Not that it actually helped him in any way.
“Personally, if a kitsune kidnapped me, then stole my identity and then attempted to fuck up my life, I’d be pretty pissed,” Henry said. He was mostly done his milk shake by now, but still continued to drink it thoughtfully. “A twig.” He raised a brow up into his shaggy hair. “What kind of strings? I hope they’re better than the ones that come with that doll?” He motioned towards his trunk.
Yerp. Henry hit the nail on the head, but at least here she wasn’t so hurt by it? People started figuring out quick that Inari’s poor attempt at duplicating her was horseshit, and she at least had closure by cutting the bitch to pieces - but the dreams? A totally different story. Kenzi had sought help, was continuously ignored because, gosh, how could a human’s problems trump the fae drama going around? And then she didn’t even get to kill Inari. What a load of crap.
But it was what it was, there was nothing she could change on the other side. It didn’t exactly make the bitterness about the entire thing go away, though she tried to metaphorically punch it to the precipice of her mind.
“Well, alright, twig’s kind of underestimating it - think giant branch? It’s called the Staff of Righteousness, and it sounds like it’d look badass but it’s really not. Perks of it include immense strength and superb, effortless ninja skills. Downside is that it literally melds into your hand and you can’t pull it off, not even when you’re trying to tinkle in the potty or make a damn sandwich. But anyone who permanently wields it accepts the sacred mantle of Ruler of Forest Nymphs and Wood Sprites.” Something about truth, love and justice went with that spiel trick had told her. Sailor Moon, much? “Too much responsibility. I’d use it for emergencies, though - all you have to say is ‘I Decline’ and you can separate it from yourself.”
Henry had to laugh. “You got the Staff of Righteousness and I have the Sword of Obedience. Between the two of us, at least we sound like a badass pair.” Though, let’s be honest, Kenzi was already pretty badass. She had gone into the underworld to drag her brother out, after all.
“What happens to your hand when the staff melts into it?” He asked, tilting his head slightly. “LIke, does your hand disappear and it’s all arm, wrist and then staff? That is one serious handicap.” Henry slurped the rest of his milkshake thoughtfully before putting the empty cup down. “I don’t know if I’d do that, even in an emergency. I rely on these too much,” he held his hands out. “Kinda hard to wield a camera one handed.” And that was pretty much all Henry was good at. At least in this world. There wasn’t much call for Monster Killing in “normal” society. Another thoughtful pause. “So, let’s say it’s an emergency, one of Orange County’s fun times, and you grab the staff and wail on the baddies. Afterwards, can you say ‘I decline’ and let go? Or is it like on you permanently because you used it?”
Dude, the names of their weapons did make them sound totes badass, didn’t they? They could pretend to be superheroes together, wear tight spandex and run around the OC - they wouldn’t be the first, according to a couple things she heard from the network grapevine. Not like they needed to make their lives anymore interesting, with him having a necromancer girlfriend and living in a haunted apartment to her living under the same roof as Disney villains, having a succubus for a best friend and a rogue hacker evading the government for a boyfriend.
Life could be stranger here.
Kenzi was grinning, though, shaking her head at Henry. “It’s like you’re permanently holding the thing - no matter how hard you try you can’t let go, and no one can tug it off you. I’ve only wielded it once and had to say the ‘decline’ thing to drop it, but we’ll see how things go. Worse case scenario my hand can just be cut off and I’ll really be Killian’s mini-me. We’ll have to team up with your nifty weapons one day and see the damage we do. I mean, seriously. With weapons like those we’re just asking to be a superhero duo. Kind of like the Wonder Twins, but not related and with better clothing.”
“Kinda hope it doesn’t come to that,” Henry frowned slightly. He then cast a glance towards his bedroom again. The Sword of Obedience was in his closet, along with the ax he’d received from the Dreams. “Well…” He started carefully. “I’ve never actually seen the Sword of Obedience used like a weapon. The first time I saw one it was pinning a ghost to the floor. When I grabbed it and took it out it released the ghost.” Not one of Dream Henry’s best decisions, he readily admitted. He looked at Kenzi a little sheepishly. “I make a lot of poor decisions in the Dreams. This one resulted in me being chased by the ghost for fifteen or twenty minutes. Did I use the sword to pin it to the floor again? Nope. That would have made sense. After that, I woke up and the sword was just sitting there on the coffee table. That’s where all my ‘gifts’ appear for some reason.”
Kenzi’s hand waved dismissively, shaking her head. “Dude, no one makes the best decisions in dreams - kind of like real life, you know? We’re not perfect, completely flawed, occasionally prone to some serious fuck ups. I mean, it’s pretty human.” Not like Henry had any control of what he did there anyway? Best they can do is facepalm, learn where they done fucked up, and try to move on. “There are times where I question my own choices on the other side, but I think we’ve all got a more sensible head on our shoulders here.”
Mostly.
“Either way, the sword sounds nifty. Like it could be used towards the dead or something? Good to have, considering…” The next exaggerated hand motion was to his apartment. “You never know when you gotta pin a ghost with it, or something.”
Occasionally? Henry couldn’t help but to laugh lightly. It seemed like every time he closed his eyes he caught his Dream!Self doing something he shouldn’t be. Crawling through holes, taking dolls from strangers, pulling swords out of ghosts. That being said, he could definitely say that he knew better than to do any of that in this life. Nevermind all the lessons he’d learned just being in proximity to other people’s Dreams. He smirked at Kenzi, “I’ve definitely gotten an education,” he said, “learned what not to do in certain situations.”
He glanced around his apartment as well, a thoughtful look on his face. “Maybe,” he agreed. “No ghosts have come crawling out of the walls yet...except for that one, but that was kind of special. Regardless, having a sword that can pin one to the ground? Yeah, I have a feeling that’ll come in handy at some point, either having to do with my dreams or Chloe’s.”
He looked back at Kenzi, still smiling somewhat. “We’ve come a long way over the past year,” he said. “The two squishy humans caught up in all this supernatural magical bullshit. I like to think we’ve proven that we’re both forces that shouldn’t be taken lightly, right?”
Huh. Come to think of it, it was nearing a year of when they became totally awesome human friends? Kenzi had taken him to a rave around Christmas time last year - good times were had, and he always stayed pretty consistent in her life. Even through the crappy, dark times - they had survived a lot of things too, by a mix of skull and luck and just knowing the right people.
“Hells to the yeah,” she concurred, nudging her elbow against his. “We’re scrappy. And we’re a special kind of tough - and I got your back, dude. If you ever need me to plant sage all around your apartment and set it on fire so do away with evil, call me.”
Special Tough. Henry liked that. And choosing to live in this place surrounded by the people they knew? One had to be a special kind of tough. “I got yours too,” he said. “Complete with pom poms and one of those huge foamy Number One Fingers. The sage around the apartment?” Pause and a quick glance around, as though he expected the apartment itself to either protest or jump for joy, “probably not a bad idea.”