InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Beep."

Henry McCoy (i_thebeast) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2011-08-10 16:05:00

Entry tags:

baba yaga, bad moon, henry mccoy, jesse custer

Down by the Bay of the Hanky Panky (open!)
Hank was… getting used to his bear form. Starting to enjoy it, a little. As soon as he'd found he could shift back and forth the whole thing became much more tolerable. Well, that and rumors has spread that he was not the only one, so maybe it was just the City toying with them as Hannibal suggested it sometimes did.

At nights he went out to the park, strolling around in his bear form and exploring. He liked to sniff out things, then take them to a hiding spot and come back to investigate them when he was human. The comparison between the sets of senses were pleasing, if not a bit useless.

Tonight, though, Hank went to the docks in human form, slipping into and ally and changing out of his clothes, shifting quickly. It was getting easier, the more he did it, and soon a polar bear was sneaking guiltily down to the water.

When he got to the edge he blinked, staring at the water and sniffing it. He almost smiled, though he was a bit nervous. The bear wanted to go in, to see if there was food. The human part of him knew polar bears were great swimmers, he'd studied up on them when he'd first returned to human form, but he was still a bit apprehensive even after deciding to come here.

All it really took was a small frog jumping into the water to his side, and Hank's predatory instincts took over. He lurched forward into a semi-graceful dive into the water, plunging in and finding the water perfectly deep enough for a giant mammal to enter for a swim.

Hank human mind felt a flash of terror as he cannonballed and the water enveloped him; he'd never actually swam before and had never been in water deeper than the shallow baths his mother had given him as a child, but the bear kicked in and knew what to do, plunging down and down and looking around. The moonlight didn't allow for much light, but it was still very clear, and as Hank turned joyfully he felt the polar bear's full appreciation for the world under the surface where his weight and bulk didn't mean so much.

Hank surfaced, taking a deep breath of air before spotting his frog on a rope hanging down into the water, looking disinterested. He went still, then lunged for it, far too slow to catch the slimy creature as it hopped into the water and bolted away, but then again he wasn't really interested in catching it anyway. He couldn't imagine frogs tasted that good raw, whatever the French liked to do with them in the kitchen.

Yes, Hank was a happy polar bear, surfacing and diving and testing how long he could go underwater. As long as no boat ran over him he could see spending the night here.

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i_thebeast
2011-08-11 12:03 am UTC (link)

Hank was thoroughly enjoying letting the bear have its fun in the water, but the human part of him kind of wanted to dive again. It had been a thrill to leap in and then turn over.

He swam back to the side, lurching up and scrabbling at the dock side. At first he wasn't up far enough, and he scrabbled for a moment before falling back in. This time he dove, then lurched up, leaping out of the water and getting up enough so that his nails dug into the gravel and let him haul himself out completely, huffing slightly as he got to his feet, then shook, spending a huge shower of water in all directions. His fur stuck out in all directions when he was done, and he backed up to get a running leap at the water.... only to catch a strong scent. He knew that smell. Cigarette.

He turned and looked over, seeing a man standing there.

Whoops.

He hadn't meant to let anybody see him, but the man was smiling? Maybe he was used to it.

"Herrow," he called out, politely bobbing his head. Without the Doctor's ship to translate him he'd found English to be much more difficult, but he could say a few things. Sort of.

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cowboy_god
2011-08-11 12:08 am UTC (link)

"Well shit." Jesse smiled still. "And ya talk. Son of a bitch."

He'd gotten a few water droplets on him from the great bear's shake. But he wasn't soaked, and his smoke was still burning, so he couldn't bring himself to be mad.

Like the cowboy he was, Jesse meandered closer to the bear, thinking that if the thing was able to talk, it certainly wasn't dangerous or malicious. And not one to jump right to the cute word, this was everything he could possibly imagine the word to mean, especially considering the way it'd said hello.

"Did I miss somethin, or have ya been here a while and I just ain't noticed?"

Unthinking, Jesse reached out with the intention of touching the big white bear on the ear, to see if he'd somehow ingested some drug or another, or if there really was a polar bear sitting here chatting with him. He was willing to bet on the latter, but as he'd learned here, contact was true belief.

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i_thebeast
2011-08-11 12:18 am UTC (link)

Hank didn't particularly mind the man getting closer. Not consciously, anyway, but the bear didn't like it. It wasn't the Doctor, and the Doctor wasn't around. He didn't know this person, and it put his instincts on edge. Still, he held still... at least till the man reached for his face.

The polar bear was not to be touched on its face, certainly not by a stranger. In a flash he turned, but his teeth had barely pierced the man's skin when he wrenched his own head back, leaping back a few paces and backing away, cowering slightly s human shame overrode the bear's fear.

"Sarry, sarry," he said quickly, shaking his head and then lowering himself to seem as unthreatening as possible. "Nerves."

Single words, struggling to get out. Very frustrating. Hank thought for a moment, then looked up. "'lease don't tutch the ears."

Alright. It was the whole face he didn't want touched, but he found it much easier to get words that didn't require lip movement out. His bear tongue could mimic most of the human sounds, but his lips and teeth made certain syllables useless, which really just meant he had to be very careful with his wording.

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cowboy_god
2011-08-11 12:23 am UTC (link)

Jesse jerked his hand back and looked at it, cussing low in his voice.

"Ya ain't got nothin to apologize for." He said, admonishing himself. "I know better, I ain't stupid. At least I know nobody slipped me nothin."

It was a little bite, not even a bite. His skin was broken and he was bleeding a little, but he wrapped it in his shirt and waited for it to heal itself. No need scaring the bear any more than he had already with the automatic closing of the wounds.

"Won't touch ya again, I promise."

Jesse realized the bear was talking like a bear would, not like a kid's cartoon. He squinted his eyes at it, keeping his distance for it's sake.

"You ain't a normal bear are ya?"

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i_thebeast
2011-08-11 12:32 am UTC (link)

"No," Hank shook his head, relieved that the man understood. He walked a little closer, as close as he was comfortable, then sat on his behind, folding his back paws under him and tilting his head, looking at the man. Somebody who had experience with animals, it would seem. Most would blame an animal for its instinct, but he understood.

"I ahn Hank," He cautiously offered a paw to shake. A humanlike gesture, of course, but Henry had had manners drilled into him from an early age and felt wrong not following through with social expectations. "Doctor Hank." He couldn't, and wouldn't try his last name. It wouldn't come out anyway. "And yew?"

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cowboy_god
2011-08-11 12:37 am UTC (link)

Jesse put out the unbitten hand and rested it under the offered paw. Palm to palm, as a normal handshake would be.

"Doctor Hank?" He raised his eyebrows, thinking about that. A doctor polar bear. He wanted to laugh, almost felt it rise up in him, but the situation seemed a little too serious for that.

"I'm Jesse Custer. Pleased."

Jesse took his hand back and used it to throw aside his cigarette, remembering how his own dog used to highly dislike the odor, and thinking it might translate across all animals.

"I been a little outta touch the last few days, but I'm gonna guess this has something to do with the City and you ain't always been a polar bear. You gotta stay like this all the time?"

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i_thebeast
2011-08-11 12:45 am UTC (link)

Hank was, needless to say, very pleased that the cigarette was gone, though he was too polite to let it show. He merely bobbed his head in response to "pleased" and filed away the name just in case it was needed later.

To his question he shook his head, leaning back and scratching his chest with one heavily clawed paw. It felt so nice... he wondered why bears in the wild didn't waste away, distracted by such a pleasant experience as a good scratch.

"Huwan," he managed, then snorted at his own slurring. "Naked a'ter the change though. So this, fur tonight."

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cowboy_god
2011-08-11 12:48 am UTC (link)

"Mmm." Jesse made a face. He had seen something about a wolf and a naked man somewhere on the news, hadn't he. And too busy to put two and two together.

He looked at his own hand, the bite.

"Ah shit. I'm gonna turn into a fuckin bear, ain't I?"

Though, he thought that if there were an epidemic of werepolarbears running around, he would have seen more than just the one.

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i_thebeast
2011-08-11 12:54 am UTC (link)

If bears could blush, Hank would have. Instead he just looked incredibly admonished, even stopping his scratching and getting down, letting out a deep sigh.

"Dunno. I sarry," he apologized again. "I hear... aniwals all di'rrent. Could 'come anything. Or nothing. I'se turned fra' a wolve...." he stopped. Man. It would almost be worth it to turn back and hide behind something, just so that he could speak to this man. He looked down, then moved over to the gravel, extending his claws and starting to etch a phone number into the dirt. "Call. I talk clearer when huwan."

He looked at him, then walked over and sniffed the hand, carefully reigning in his own resistance to the closeness. His eyebrows knit. He couldn't smell blood anymore. "You ok?"

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cowboy_god
2011-08-11 12:58 am UTC (link)

Jesse watched the bear, then took out the phone and put the number into it under Doctor Bear. Because he had to. He even smiled as he did it.

Then he showed Doctor Hank his hand.

"I'm just fine, thanks." Might turn into anything. If a wolf bit a guy and the guy turned into a bear, Jesse supposed that he had a chance of not being a bear himself.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that. The unexpected was almost worse in a way.

"Listen, Doctor, I'm gonna go home. Wait. See if I change into anything, but you bet yer ass I'm gonna be callin you either way. You just get back to yer swimmin, and have a nice night." He wasn't mad at all, despite the curse words. He didn't even think about them when he spoke, though he supposed that someone else might take them as seriousness. "And don't worry 'bout me, you seem to be havin a good time with it, maybe I can too."

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i_thebeast
2011-08-11 01:07 am UTC (link)

Hank would have bitten his lip if he could without biting it off. Instead he paused and then held up a paw, bidding the man to wait.

"It hurts, the first, then gets easier," he said regretfully. "Do not have clothes, in case they get too tight, i' you get larger." It was all he could do, suggest ways to minimize the impact. "Call," he nodded, then backed off. Suddenly he wasn't so happy. Maybe he should confine himself and not turn anymore, after all, he didn't want to hurt anybody. He was a man of medicine and science, sworn to do no harm.

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	cowboy_god 2011-08-11 01:17 am UTC (link)
	Jesse paused to listen, and took it all to heart. It made sense that something like this wouldn't feel too good. Or be the greatest thing for clothes. "Listen." He said, being a little more gentle and more serious. "Really don't worry about it, hear? Really. I ain't gonna be mad at ya any way it goes." He really really meant that. "I'll call. Give my word." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	i_thebeast 2011-08-11 01:29 am UTC (link)
	Hank nodded, and when he was alone again wandered to the waterside. He lay down and looked at the water, despite the assurances his still felt guilty, and instead of getting back into the water he just lowered his paw and touched the surface, watching the ripples. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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