OPEN | here come the night

[halfwinchester]

Who: Adam Milligan (halfwinchester) and whoever else might be admiring Ewaymas!
Where: Around the mansion.
When: Dec. 13, anytime from late night to mid-afternoon.
Rating: G for now!
Summary: What the hell's with all this Christmas stuff? At least one newcomer is out and about looking at the changes.
The Story:



<sub>[Very rarely does Adam sleep through the night--or at all, if he's being honest. When the light fades and the mansion gets quiet, it's the perfect time for thoughts of his time in the pit to creep back in, and almost every night begins and ends with him sitting wide-awake until he's too tired to mount a defense. Sometimes he likes to ward away his nightmares in the bathroom. It's smaller in there, and reminds him of the times he'd hidden there when he'd been sick with the flu as a young child.

That night, he's counting spots on the ceiling of his room when the snow starts to fall, and it's the first thing that grabs Adam's attention before the noise starts. Snow? Had that been in Wonderland's weather report? By the time his curiosity wins out over his apprehension, the noises outside his door have long since stopped.

He creeps into the hallway in bare feet to see what going's on. Christmas decorations? Is it Christmas?

The mansion looks beautifully done up in the late hours of the night, and for a while Adam looks around until the pull to return to his room grows too strong. He can be found downstairs inspecting the giant Christmas tree once daylight breaks, dressed for the weather in a heavy sweater. His breakfast is an apple, which he eats while poking at ornaments on the branches.

For once, he has something to do in the mansion that isn't simply "avoid angels." It's strange enough thinking it's already December. A lot of the time it feels like he just arrived, soul broken and all.]</sub>

Comments

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nods and turns to face Adam again.]

Me too. The cracks are pretty weird, but otherwise nothing seems out of the ordinary.

[ex_alighthouse135]

[She nods. Looks like he finally gets it.]

Yes, and they're everywhere.

[She steps back to put a little proper space between them.]

I'm really sorry to have startled you like that.

[notthesecondworstfighter]

Right.

[Didn't even need to ask, did he? It only takes a brief glance over the guy, just standing there and staring at him, to realize that he's uncomfortable. Maybe he's newer to Wonderland and just not used to anything unfamiliar, not used to things just being odd in comparison to his home. Or, maybe the armour really is just that strange to some. Wash isn't sure, but he doesn't want to scare him off so he's quick to reach up and pull his helmet off to show off his human features; pale skin, blue-grey eyes, brown hair... Totally normal human face.

He should have just grabbed some clothes out of the closet today, huh.]

I'm not a robot or anything, if that's what you're worried about. Just a person. ...Wearing armour. [Awkward pause. This might be the worst reaction his armour's ever gotten around here, and he's not sure what to say.] It's just kind of a habit.

[halfwinchester]

_{[He lifts his eyebrows. If that's the case, he shouldn't feel bad not being the only one who's failed to ask the right questions since his arrival.]}

And nobody knows who's on the other end of the string?

_{[Now that he's come across someone else who's admitted to be just as in the dark as him, he can't help but ask.]}

[halfwinchester]

If no one's going anywhere in a hurry, I've got all the time in the world to learn.

<sub>[Adam's not entirely serious, but when he thinks of Hell and all the years there, he knows sitting around doing nothing in between spurts of Wonderland trying to kill them is a far better fate. He can afford to talk to people. He has the time and the space now to talk to others besides two angels. Chitchatting about Bela's motherland? Yeah, he'll take that over the rip-roaring social life he's had for the last lifetime or two.

He'll even take the possibility of Michael crawling up his ass by staying outside the angel warding for a while. But running? He's not sure if her telling him is an invitation or a passing hint as to how things work around here, and he tilts his head slightly, questioning.]</sub>

Is that what you guys do? Work out and body build for the next time something happens?

_{[He's not serious about this, either, but considering that he's thought about trying to pick up new skills himself, who knows. Playing Survivor is the least somebody can do if they really want to hold onto those five lives.]}

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Souji could speak for himself. Adam is still finding plenty of things out of the ordinary, including Souji...

... Out his idea of ordinary, anyway. For a place like Wonderland, maybe this is the status quo. Maybe this is just how it is here. He can accept that, can't he? More to the point, where's he going to find the time to not accept it? His plate's too full to make a stink about people who may or may not be human, who may or may not have special powers.]</sub>

What do you think it means? You said you've been here a while, didn't you?

[halfwinchester]

And... how many times have you done that already?

_{[He'd like to say he'd been more caught off guard than startled, but... getting embraced like that doesn't happen everyday. Startled is probably closer to the truth. On top of that, embarrassment has done a fine job sending a flush down his neck, too, by the time she apologizes again.]}

Err, it's okay? I guess. It happened. No offense to you, I just... wasn't expecting that. Nice wake-up call.

[lowkeyangel]

[Gabriel snorts, getting the mental image of a little kid bringing a small animal into his room and telling him to fix it, bro, fix it! That's more or less what had happened. And now, unlike the last few centuries, the archangel has been more or less actively considering his role as a family-member. If he wasn't, Castiel would have been out of luck.]

No one tells me what to do. Not any more.

[He shrugs.]

[ex_alighthouse135]

A few. Not that many!

[But a few times.]

Well, if you're not careful it won't be your only unexpected kiss today. Or you might be in my situation and do the kissing.

[A small step back and she nods in greeting.]

My name's Elizabeth. I figure you should know that.

[onsilksheets]

I don't about anyone else but I've always found that a brisk run can do wonders for you. I'm not looking to body build, just to keep fit and healthy.

[Fit enough to be able to run away from anything or anyone that might be running after her. As for skills? Bela thinks she should learn a few self defense skills rather than relying on her gun all of the time. She would just need to ask someone for help.]

You should consider it, Adam. Might do you a whole world of good.

[She prods one of the baubles with a finger, watching it swing back and forth. Bela is half-expecting something to come out of the tree but nothing does. It's just a normal, super-tall, Christmas tree.]

[eatsyourscience]

The cracks?

[Souji reaches to adjust a pair of glasses he isn't wearing and then tries to play it off as scratching the bridge of his nose. Smoooooth.]

Were you here at Halloween? When the roots took over?

[halfwinchester]

_{[Adam lets the silence continue on after the man's pause.]}

A robot, I could handle.

_{[Could be worse. He could've been an angel wearing someone's skin; they're bad enough that they don't need decked out body suits to protect themselves. But a person wearing armor for no reason is still worth a good eyebrow raise, angel or not.]}

And... what's it for?

[halfwinchester]

_{[There's a second's pause, but no more than that.]}

That's crap. You said it yourself, Michael gets what he wants, and I haven't seen any more portals in the ground to take care of him again. _{[He lifts his eyebrows.]} Unless you've got a thing for getting killed.

<sub>[He suspects this angel will understand what he's getting at, even if Adam doesn't recognize Gabriel personally from the other ones he's met.

The only way Sam, Dean, and Castiel had managed to put a gag order on Michael all those years ago had been to send him to Hell inside his vessel. Now Michael's free, the strongest of them all. If this angel really, truly thinks to stand up to Michael, he'd be roasted like barbeque chicken. Adam doesn't need to know the heavenly host very well to understand that. His certainty lends confidence to his words; he lets slip more than he'd intended to, expression hard with skepticism.

Adam can get away with not caring what Michael wants, because he's already had his helping of endless torture inside the Cage. Otherwise, avoiding a fate like that meant walking the line with Michael. Simple.]</sub>

He didn't flay you for doing what you did. It obviously must have fit into his plans somehow.

_{[He can likewise get away with talking about himself like he's a piece of meat, because he still is. That hasn't changed. A life-sized Barbie doll for angels to play with.]}

[halfwinchester]

_{[Elizabeth gets a look that's caught between doubt and a mild discomfort.]}

Oh, huh. Lucky me...

<sub>[What does a person say to someone who's been on a kissing rampage and is predicting it's going to keep on happening? This is bizarre on so many levels. So many. And all he can think is that he'd forgotten what it's like to touch someone like that after all the miserable time in the Cage, where physical forms don't really exist.

Adam nods slowly, like he's remembering how to do it.]</sub>

If you're going to slip me tongue, a name is nice, yeah. _{[He clears his throat.]} How many more times you think you're going to do that to random people until it wears off? Or is this like the zombie virus and you just infected me?

[notthesecondworstfighter]

[Oh. That's not really a response he'd been expecting. He though a robot would be weirder than a person in armour, but okay then.]

Well... Protection. [He says it like this should be obvious. Because it should be. Or, he thinks so. Armour is armour, it's all got the same purpose, right?]

I had to wear it almost all the time where I'm from, so the habit carried over here. And it hasn't been a bad idea, considering some of the events that go on around here.

[Shrug. It makes sense to him, but really, he wears it because he's paranoid that something might happen and catch him off guard and ill-prepared. So he makes sure he's always prepared.]

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[That about answers that. Maybe all people do just keep themselves in fighting form for the next near-death experience.

Adam looks at the decoration, swinging gently on its hook, before glancing back at Bela. She's nice. If anything, she's been more than nice to him, she's helped him survive, and that says more than words could ever capture. She's one of the few people he feels comfortable around--comfortable enough not to have that vague worry in the back of his mind that he's going to find a knife in his back, anyway--but he's been out of his room for an hour or so already. That's pretty adventurous for him all on its own.]</sub>

I did ten flights of stairs, that's close, right? _{[He pauses after the rhetorical question.]} I should... say thanks again, too. For before.

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Now he really thinks this guy is a little weird, as if he hadn't already, what with the hair and the talk about crawling into television screens like the evil girl from those Ring movies.

He waits a beat, but not entirely out of bemusement. It takes him a second to remember if it had been Halloween. October? He'd gotten here in October? Sounds right, maybe. He hadn't exactly kept a calendar of all his days spent thrashing around in fever dreams.]</sub>

Yeah. When people were possessed. That time?

_{[People like him. Another reason he doesn't spend much time thinking about his first month in Wonderland is because of his time spent alongside his Mirror.]}

[eatsyourscience]

[Adam, you are just thinking what no one else is willing to say.]

Yeah. [Souji'd had to share with his Mirror as well. He'd rather not remember it.] It was the roots that caused it, remember? The ones down in the cracks now look the same. If they are, that means they're still inside Wonderland and things will break again.

[lowkeyangel]

Probably prefers you knowing how to string words together.

[Gabriel shrugs again. It's much more tense this time, because, well, Michael flaying him could happen. Just because it hasn't so far doesn't mean Gabriel thinks he's more important - or even equally important - as Daddy's little plan. This is Michael from before the Cage, and that means duty above all else. Even family.

Maybe especially family, because it's been a long time since Gabriel felt like Michael actually gave a damn about most of the Host.

On the whole, Gabriel is probably about as significant as a flea to his big brother. Maybe less. Yeah, he'd come to help during their trial with the zombies, but he hadn't exactly oozed any concern. Just exasperation. And what had he said the second he'd shown up in Wonderland? Cut it with the jokes.]

But he didn't tell me to do it, kid. He'd have done it himself if Castiel had taken you to him. Michael and I don't exactly see eye to eye.

[It goes without saying that Michael and Castiel don't, either.]

[onsilksheets]

[Nice is the last word that Bela would use to describe herself. Adam wasn't the only person she helped during the zombie invasion; but he did have her back and according to her own rule of thumb, she didn't like being in anyone's debt. Maybe she should hold off on the nice a little so that he didn't get the wrong impression of her- but then Bela thinks of what Adam told her the first time they met and she didn't want to be cruel.]

You're welcome. [Rather than just brushing it off, Bela accepts his words of thanks for what they were. She doesn't expect anything in return.] I couldn't just leave you there to become zombie food.

Besides, you could have turned and come after me so you had to be alive. [It's said in a wry kind of tone.]

[ex_alighthouse135]

[She's mildly amused by the way he puts things. It's a bit strange.]

I think we're all infected, so to speak. And I can't predict when it's going to happen. I suppose I could hide in my room until it's over, but I've spent enough time locked up as it is.

[And she doesn't like to do it herself is she can help it.]

[halfwinchester]

Yeah, I figured that part out on my own.

<sub>[But protection from what? He'd seen police in riot gear with less full-body protection than this.

Adam's not about to let himself become the odd one in this duo.]</sub>

What, you're worried we're going to have a HAZMAT situation?

[askedforit]

Not really. I'm just guessing here, but there's some people who seem to know a lot more than I do. Maybe you should try talking to them.

[Or he should. Actually pin some people down for specifics, since he's just figuring things out as he goes along. At least the people he has in mind have the sort-of benefit of having been there for a long time.]

It would be nice to actually get some answers.

[halfwinchester]

_[Sullenly:]

I remember.

_{[And he still has the scabbed skin on his abdomen to prove it where the roots had dug in and his Mirror had tried to play doctor.]}

You mean you've never seen them before then?

_{[The way people talk, it's like they've gotten used to inexplicable effects happening around the mansion; he'd assumed the roots fell under that category, that they had just been something the long-term residents had known about and filed under "weird stuff that happens." Maybe not.]}

[halfwinchester]

Then what's your excuse?

<sub>[Not "why'd you do it?" No, that would imply the angel had done him a favor, and they both know he hadn't, not really.

All he'd done in essence was patch up a vessel and put it back out on the playing field for Michael to use as he saw fit. How else could Adam view what he and Castiel had done? They'd given him back just enough sense of self to recognize the bone-deep dismay for what it'd been the moment Michael had swooped down on him that day on the tenth floor.]</sub>

You guys have got to realize by now that I've got nothing to do with Sam and Dean anymore.