STEPH CYGNET
HE/THEY| INSIDER | TAGS: INNES
"Morning, Steph."
Bell tinkling as they opened the door, Steph skipped gracelessly into his brother's shop. Innes' voice greeted him from behind a cluttered shelf, and Steph had to scoot through piles of books and cardboard boxes to peer around the corner and wave to him. His brother looked up and grinned, sat in the worn-looking lime armchair he never could sell, flipping through an insect anatomy textbook like a teenager reading a magazine.
"It's... Almost the middle of Summer." Steph commented vindictively, pointing to Innes' thick raincoat, printed with dragonflies. He looked down at himself and snorted in laughter, before slotting his book back onto the shelf beside him, and starting past Steph toward the door.
"I'm going out to that place at the edge of town again tonight..." Steph said, stretching his arms across the counter at the front of the shop as Innes flipped the open sign in the window. His brother raised a knowing eyebrow as he spun back toward the counter.
"Come on, Innes! How long have you been in the same dusty old room?" They grumbled, an annoyed smile growing on their face as they rested their chin in the nook of their crossed arms.
"I'll... Think about it." Innes replied skittishly. "If you stop prostrating yourself all over my counter, that is."
INNES CYGNET
HE/THEY| INSIDER | TAGS: STEPH
Innes watched in amusement as Steph sighed dramatically and skulked off further into the shop.
"Are we still after bigfoot?" He called after them with a facetious grin, "Or is it the moth man now?"
He heard a groan emanate from within the shelf labyrinth Steph had wandered into.
"It's just Mothman, so you know. And he doesn't even live here." Innes didn't need to see his brother to sense the death glare pointed in his direction. He decided against commenting on the phrasing of mothman 'living' in Leesville. "And to answer your... dumb question; no, I'm gonna try to talk to some spirits with that new radio mom and dad got me."
"Ah! A seance then!" Innes replied jauntily, clapping his hands together. "Fancy!"
For that comment, Steph dug a face-sized hole through an overstocked shelf and shot him an unamused scowl. He chuckled silently to himself, then sighed dramatically.
"All right then... I suppose we can't have any little kids wandering around in haunted fields at night!" The Scowl grew yet more bitter. "Oh Dear! It seems I'm being menaced by a makeshift photo stand-in!"