elaboration on the three-in-one;
this is how I see the Cuckoos' three-in-oneness; there are a couple of ways to interpret and portray it and it isn't exactly specified in canon, but this is what makes the most sense to me:
i. their three-in-oneness
↳ they are clones.
↳ they are also individuals.
↳ they're so similar due to both nature and nurture: being clones, they all have the same genetic material; but they're so similar because they spend so much time around each other. being individuals, they also have the power of free choice. when it comes down to it, they're three separate but similar persons.
ii. their hive mind
-- X-Men: Warsong #1, page 12
↳ their hive mind works like this: it's like being in three rooms that are really just one large room, with connecting doors, that they can will away if necessary.
↳ their default state is to be in constant contact with each other.
↳ but they are able to have their own privacy if needed, and each girl is able to keep secrets through sustained willpower. secret-keeping has to be a conscious thing, and deliberate effort has to be made to hide a thought from the other two girls.
(ICly talked about here.)
iii. the 'three-in-one' as a name:
a little wordplay/essay on the codename Three-in-One:
There were essentially two sides to the Stepford Cuckoos past and present: their outside and their inside.
To the X-Men and other outsiders, they were the One-in-Three. Three identical girls, so similar and so entwined in each other’s thought and talk and actions that they might as well have been one entity split into three bodies, for all the past infractions and independence of their late sisters. This was the side of themselves that the world saw; the same world who thought of them as the uncanny paper-doll replicas of each other, the distant and cold ice queens who were inaccessible to all except the most skilled telepath. The girls with no friends but themselves, who spoke in eerily similar cadences and moved in perfect synchronisation with each other. The outside world - and everyone was an outsider to them - in essence treated them as one individual, addressing them as one and hardly as three.
But to themselves, within the vast worlds of their own minds, they were the Three-in-One. Celeste, Phoebe and Mindee Cuckoo were the only individuals in the universe who would ever truly know each other, because only they were privy to the deepest thoughts and core of each other. They knew each other’s thoughts, habits and attitudes and distinct personalities, right down to the most minute and infinitesimal detail. No sister had ever mistaken one for another, because each knew the individual aspects of the other - and this was something that no outsider could ever hope to achieve.
And above both these levels, they were the Three-and-One. There was a unique intimacy their telepathic hive mind granted them that transcended the boundaries of individuality instead of subverting it, something Esme never quite understood. Together, they were far beyond what they might ever have been apart.
iv. miscellaneous Q&A
❝ What are your character's canon or head canon phobias and how did they come to exist?❞ ♣
Logical head canon, I think, but the girls are deeply afraid of being separated from each other. They are each others' security blankets and since two of their sisters have already died, they cling to each other all the more. They're always in each others' minds and fear a void of solitude-- so I guess they fear losing their powers as well. Emma forcefully separated them telepathically once and they threw all they had into reconnecting with each other overriding her.
❝ Why do you think they're so comfortable being known as a collective, rather than separate entities?❞ ♣
In canon they say something like "together, we're the (five)-in-one; apart (from Esme) we're just four smart blondes". I take that to mean: their identity as a collective is what makes them special and sets them apart from everyone else. The ironic thing is that even though they're really similar to each other, they fear being not-unique like everyone else, just one ordinary individual in a sea of people.
❝ Do they take more after Emma, or do you think each one has a "personality" that's still developing?❞ ♣
Each girl definitely has her own personality, even though when they come together they tend to act more like a younger Emma. This is mostly because Emma was their first and most impactful teacher, so their baseline personality and opinions are most similar to hers. Also when you aggregate them together, Emma's teachings are what they have in common, since their experiences with life are their own.
From what I can tell given the inconsistencies of canon, very generally: Phoebe is the assertive/bossy one, Celeste is kind of naive and a tattletale and easily scared, and Mindee seems the most level-headed. I'm basing this mostly off Warsong though, it really varies from writer to writer-- most of the time it feels like whenever anyone wants to single out one Cuckoo, they just pluck a name out at random, so there's no fixed characterisation of their separate personalities.
i. their three-in-oneness
↳ they are clones.
↳ they are also individuals.
↳ they're so similar due to both nature and nurture: being clones, they all have the same genetic material; but they're so similar because they spend so much time around each other. being individuals, they also have the power of free choice. when it comes down to it, they're three separate but similar persons.
ii. their hive mind
-- X-Men: Warsong #1, page 12
↳ their hive mind works like this: it's like being in three rooms that are really just one large room, with connecting doors, that they can will away if necessary.
↳ their default state is to be in constant contact with each other.
↳ but they are able to have their own privacy if needed, and each girl is able to keep secrets through sustained willpower. secret-keeping has to be a conscious thing, and deliberate effort has to be made to hide a thought from the other two girls.
(ICly talked about here.)
iii. the 'three-in-one' as a name:
a little wordplay/essay on the codename Three-in-One:
There were essentially two sides to the Stepford Cuckoos past and present: their outside and their inside.
To the X-Men and other outsiders, they were the One-in-Three. Three identical girls, so similar and so entwined in each other’s thought and talk and actions that they might as well have been one entity split into three bodies, for all the past infractions and independence of their late sisters. This was the side of themselves that the world saw; the same world who thought of them as the uncanny paper-doll replicas of each other, the distant and cold ice queens who were inaccessible to all except the most skilled telepath. The girls with no friends but themselves, who spoke in eerily similar cadences and moved in perfect synchronisation with each other. The outside world - and everyone was an outsider to them - in essence treated them as one individual, addressing them as one and hardly as three.
But to themselves, within the vast worlds of their own minds, they were the Three-in-One. Celeste, Phoebe and Mindee Cuckoo were the only individuals in the universe who would ever truly know each other, because only they were privy to the deepest thoughts and core of each other. They knew each other’s thoughts, habits and attitudes and distinct personalities, right down to the most minute and infinitesimal detail. No sister had ever mistaken one for another, because each knew the individual aspects of the other - and this was something that no outsider could ever hope to achieve.
And above both these levels, they were the Three-and-One. There was a unique intimacy their telepathic hive mind granted them that transcended the boundaries of individuality instead of subverting it, something Esme never quite understood. Together, they were far beyond what they might ever have been apart.
iv. miscellaneous Q&A
❝ What are your character's canon or head canon phobias and how did they come to exist?❞ ♣
Logical head canon, I think, but the girls are deeply afraid of being separated from each other. They are each others' security blankets and since two of their sisters have already died, they cling to each other all the more. They're always in each others' minds and fear a void of solitude-- so I guess they fear losing their powers as well. Emma forcefully separated them telepathically once and they threw all they had into reconnecting with each other overriding her.
❝ Why do you think they're so comfortable being known as a collective, rather than separate entities?❞ ♣
In canon they say something like "together, we're the (five)-in-one; apart (from Esme) we're just four smart blondes". I take that to mean: their identity as a collective is what makes them special and sets them apart from everyone else. The ironic thing is that even though they're really similar to each other, they fear being not-unique like everyone else, just one ordinary individual in a sea of people.
❝ Do they take more after Emma, or do you think each one has a "personality" that's still developing?❞ ♣
Each girl definitely has her own personality, even though when they come together they tend to act more like a younger Emma. This is mostly because Emma was their first and most impactful teacher, so their baseline personality and opinions are most similar to hers. Also when you aggregate them together, Emma's teachings are what they have in common, since their experiences with life are their own.
From what I can tell given the inconsistencies of canon, very generally: Phoebe is the assertive/bossy one, Celeste is kind of naive and a tattletale and easily scared, and Mindee seems the most level-headed. I'm basing this mostly off Warsong though, it really varies from writer to writer-- most of the time it feels like whenever anyone wants to single out one Cuckoo, they just pluck a name out at random, so there's no fixed characterisation of their separate personalities.