entrancelogs | 001 :: >press any key to continue (arrival)

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001 :: >press any key to continue (arrival)

Who: Charlie Bradbury and anyone!
Where: Outside the mansion/entry hall.
When: January 1st, celebrating the new year newbie style! (Being confused)
Rating: Prob PG-13
Summary: Charlie's not in Oz anymore, Toto.
The Story:

One moment she's saying good bye, starting on her journey down the yellow brick road, and the next she's waking up beside a horse stable, propped against the side.

The high pitched whinny is what wakes her. Charlie comes to with a start, gasping and immediately regretting it as her nose is assaulted with pure horse. It's definitely not an odor she was expecting, which is why she chokes for a moment and starts coughing violently.

Once her initial shock dies down (and she's able to breathe again), Charlie pushes herself to stand, confusion starting to settle as she glances around. Anyone can see that this place? Definitely not Oz.

With more questions brewing in her brainspace, Charlie walks around to the front of the stables, checking out the horses she's had the pleasure of smelling today.

"You know, you guys look way awesome in movies and paintings," Charlie says this companionably as she crosses her arms, just having a friendly chat with the horses. "But in real life? Super smelly. Not majestic at all."

The horse closest to her snorts, pawing the ground. She gives it a suspicious look and decides maybe this isn't the time to make friendly with the animals.

"Gonna take that as my cue to get going. Later, my equine bros." Giving them a Vulcan salute, she turns around to take in the landscape and to figure out what's next on the agenda.

It's easy to pretend to be calm when it just seems so surreal. Like being in a lucid dream. That's what this has to be, right? As she starts a path down to the mansion, she doesn't feel so confident in that theory.

Oz is real, she was going to it. Who's to say she wasn't transported into some other kind of fairy tale world? And by the looks of this place, that's what it has to be.

Maybe there's be some dancing munchkins inside that can point her in the direction of the Emerald City.

As she walks, Charlie's looking over her shoulder every few seconds, wondering where her new traveling companion is. Traveling with Dorothy, the Dorothy, is like a super rad dream come true. Now here she is, alone in a strange place with no backup to speak of. Awesome.

It's like every fantasy novel she's ever read, or at least every RPG she's spent hours of her life chasing after every side quest she could find. Normally, that would make her feel a little better except for one simple fact: every hero, when beginning their quest, usually ends up running into some super hard tutorial fight. Maybe even an unwinnable one.

Charlie's wishing for a sword right now, and when she puts a hand in her jacket pocket, desperate for anything, her fingers brush against something unfamiliar.

"Huh?" Pulling out the object, at first glance it seems like a regular smart phone. Not hers, though. By now she's reached the steps in front of the mansion, and she comes to a stop, sitting down on one of the steps and turning the phone over in her hand.

She's in a hurry, sure, but she can take a fiver to figure out what this thing is, and more importantly, what it does.

(OOC: Charlie will chill on the steps a bit before going inside, feel free to catch her anywhere!)

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"Oh," her response is small as she looks back at her phone. So much for googling 'Getting out of Wonderland', but she's sure that would just bring up fanfics galore anyway. "So, it's like a LAN, then?"

She actually doesn't expect him to answer that, not after that Earth shattering revelation of his. It takes her a second to really hear it, but once it penetrates the fog in her mind that's been there since she's arrived, her head shoots up and she stares at him, her mouth hanging open.

"Back up," she points at him, not completely believing her ears. "I've been here before? Like, hung out in Wonderland and lived here?"

This is distressing, because she has no memory of it.

Castiel may have gotten lucky with "wi-fi," but he has no idea what a "LAN" is, and it's for the best that Charlie moves on and they don't get stuck on the topic of what terminology he is and isn't familiar with.

Because if they got started on that, they'd be here all afternoon.

"Yes," he says with a nod. "I don't know for how long, we only spoke once. Long enough for me to learn that you know Dean Winchester, but not much else."

Which he's still curious about. Seeing how he's taken the time to explain this much to Charlie, Castiel decides it's only fair that she tells him more than she did the last time.

That's a name that'll grab her attention quick and easy. All shock at her previous arrival has been set aside for the moment.

"Dean? Yeah, Dean's my bro....so is Sam!" She's looking at banker guy with new eyes, since he has now brought up the two people who have put her in more danger than she's ever been in and yet they also make her feel pretty damn safe. "Are they here? I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised because if there's some supernatural mansion place that likes to steal people, it would totally steal those two."

They've got the best luck, and it tends to rub off on the people they interact with. Trust her, she's read the books.

If Charlie's making that kind of statement about the Winchesters, then she must know them fairly well. On the other hand, maybe it doesn't take knowing them that long to work out that particular fact about them.

He nods, because it's true. "Both of them are here, yes. How do you know them?"

Castiel's come across a few of Sam and Dean's contacts in this place, people he's never heard of before. Bela's another example, and it goes to show that there's still plenty he hasn't learned about their lives. Not that surprising, when his interactions with them are usually very goal-oriented. He doesn't tend to stop and smell the proverbial flowers. No, it's always about the next step, the next target, the next horrible future they're trying to prevent, the next mess they're trying to clean up.

She's about to answer his question when it dawns on her that, hey, she has no idea who this guy is. Maybe she shouldn't be so free with details about anyone until she at least knows his name.

In case she ends up blabbing at someone who isn't exactly a friend of either Winchester.

"Are you friends with them?" She asks hesitantly. It's hard to keep in mind she should be a little more wary when she's still wrapping her mind around this crazy fairy tale land. "Don't get me wrong, if you can point me in the direction of where they've set up camp I'll be off to say hi, but I just wanna make sure we're all on the level before I go spilling stories about our great adventures."

The ones that end up with her arm broken, or meeting with a level 10 hot fairy, or dying. Maybe they aren't that great sometimes.

It's hardly surprising that Charlie's wary. Castiel doesn't come across as the most trustworthy figure, and more than that, anyone who interacts with the Winchesters should know to be cautious in almost any situation.

He's even willing to tell her where their rooms are, once he figures out who she is, but he'll answer her question to put her at ease.

For the moment, Castiel can sense that Charlie is human and has no mark of anything supernatural on her, which doesn't necessarily mean she can be trusted, but it does seem more likely than with someone like Bela, for instance.

"Yes, we're friends. My name is Castiel. I've helped them many times." He always has to take care in situations like this, seeing how he has no idea how much Charlie really knows about Sam and Dean.

Understanding dawns when he tells her his name. The wariness stays, if only because she knows books versus real life can be very different animals. She wasn't lying to Dean when she said Castiel seemed dreamy. Reading all about his pulling Dean from Hell, everything that happened in the Apocalypse has giving her a case of starry eyes when it comes to certain characters - people, or in this case, angels - from the books.

"Wow, okay. You're Castiel! I totally read about you in the books." Since he's already aware of them, it makes things way simpler to just come out and say she's read them. "Whoa, hang on, that means whoever's running the show here can pull in angels?"

That's worrisome. She seems a little more relaxed now, which is good, and gives him a bright smile.

"I met Dean and Sam when the Leviathans were doing their 'rounding up humans like cattle' thing." Pretty gross stuff, Charlie still has nightmares about Dick Roman on occasion. "I was working for Dick Roman at the time and helped them out a little. Got my arm broken, too, so. You know. Good times!" She gives a thumbs up at that, even if it wasn't good times.

The books...?

Castiel has a split second of confusion before it registers. Carver Edlund's books. Chuck's books, really, but Chuck's long gone and he was supposed to have stopped publishing them before Castiel became a part of the so-called Winchester Gospel.

He wants to ask Charlie about that in more detail, but she doesn't exactly give him a chance. He opens his mouth and closes it again when she asks a question, only to continue speaking after that. He may not be an expert on the flow of conversation, but this is somewhat ridiculous.

"You worked for Dick Roman. I... assume you weren't aware of what he was when you took the job," he says, still a tad suspicious. Still, he seems to recall the Winchesters mentioning that they'd had someone on the inside to help take the head leviathan down. "Dean and I stopped him, so you can at least rest assured that your broken bone wasn't a pointless injury."

At least he now has context and a general timeline for who Charlie is and where she comes from. Castiel's guess is that the Winchesters would be glad to see her, so he may as well point her in their direction once he's had his questions answered.

Though she's oblivious when it comes to Castiel's attempts to speak while she does her rambly thing, he does seem way more stiff than she imagined. Seeing as he's the first angel she's actually met, it makes her wonder if they're all like that.

"I had no idea!" She puts her hands up as if he's about to call the cops on her and have her arrested on suspicion of fraternizing with the enemy. Any fraternizing she did was in the name of the job (with Dean's help on the flirting with dudes front). "Dude was just creepy scary, if I'd known he liked to snack on people I would have totally quit the job."

Then she wouldn't have been able to help, so really it all worked out in the end.

"Oh, I know. Dean took a unexpected vacation to Purgatory and stuff, right?" It might not be in the books, but that doesn't mean she hasn't grilled her pals about their exploits every time she sees them. "That was a while ago, anyway. I was just getting ready to take a trip down the yellow brick road but ended up here."

Charlie seems to be telling the truth that she had no idea who she was working for, and Castiel believes it. Dick Roman had gone to great lengths to keep his identity a secret, so even someone working in his company might not have known. It had been rather large, after all.

If she knows about Purgatory, that must mean that Dean reconnected with Charlie after getting out. He nods, because it's been some time for him too, which means that they might be situated in roughly the same place when it comes to timelines.

Her explanation of what she'd been doing last doesn't mean much to him, though. Castiel tilts his head slowly.

"... The yellow brick road? A particular one?"

The look she gives him is astonished. She can't even fathom someone asking her that.

"What - the yellow brick road, dude!" Did angels not read stories? Charlie tries to think back to what little info she does have on them, but she's been so flustered since arriving her memory isn't working too hot right now. "You know, going to see the Wizard, taking a trip with a scarecrow, tin man and lion?"

She gets the feeling its a little futile to explain, since he didn't immediately pick up on the reference to begin with. She blows out a long breath, telling herself not everyone is completely immersed in such things like she is.

"Guess they didn't go over that one in angel English class, huh?" She gives him a sheepish smile at that, knowing she probably seemed like she was overreacting a little. Just a bit. Awesome way to make a first impression, Charlie.

Even as Charlie tries to elaborate on her remark, Castiel doesn't find that any of it rings a bell. This must be another reference, and seeing how she's friends with the Winchesters, should he really be so surprised by that?

He shakes his head slowly. Pop culture is not part of an angel's lessons, no. Seeing how those things can change over the course of a century or so, he's never seen the point in keeping up with them.

Though that has changed somewhat, purely due to the fact that he shares company with so many humans now. But he hasn't gotten to The Wizard of Oz in his studies yet.

"You mentioned that you knew me from the Carver Edlund books," he backtracks. "But they never should have been published to the point where I became part of the story." Did she have some inside information, like Becky Rosen?

Charlie knew he wasn't much for the pop culture stuff,, but she assumed a lot of it would rub off by now. Though it was pretty clear from her time devouring the Supernatural books that angels aren't exactly the type to chill out for an evening with a TV and a Lord of the Rings marathon.

"They went super viral online." Realizing she might be using jargon he's not familiar with, she goes into more detail. "I bought the published books, but someone got a hold of all his unpublished stuff. I was totally skeptical at first, it seemed like really ridic fanfic."

Seriously, she had a hard time believing everything she read until she got to the point that she couldn't help but believe it. Talking to Sam and Dean later just confirmed that yeah, they were the real deal.

"I've only read up to Sam jumping into the Cage with Lucifer." And Michael and his younger brother. She might have had a rough night after she was done, comforting herself with a lot of junk food and video games. It's rough stuff to read about someone she considers practically family sacrifice himself like that. "After that, there's nothing new. Unless you count the actual fics that are out there."

And boy, are they an interesting read.

Strangely enough, Castiel does know a few things about Lord of the Rings. Dean's definitely educated here and there, but there's plenty to cover and he's often too restless to actually sit down and watch a whole movie. Not when there's a jabberwocky on its way to ruin their lives unless he does something.

The books were on the internet? That still doesn't seem possible -- who could have gotten a hold of them? Unless Becky's to blame, which could be the case. Castiel never interacted with Becky himself, but he's heard enough to have an idea of what to expect from her.

But if Charlie knows about how the Apocalypse was prevented, then there's no denying that she read the genuine article. Which means that there's a record of some of his escapades on the internet somewhere. While most would see it as fiction, it's still not a comforting thought.

"Then there's plenty you still don't know about, unless Sam and Dean have brought you up to date," he says after a pause. And even though he probably shouldn't ask, he isn't able to help himself. "What are... fics?"

It's not a word he's ever heard before. Of course he wants to know what it means.

"I know that Sam's about a thousand times better than he was a few months ago. At least he didn't look like he was about to fall over if I poked him too hard, and that's practically him being a picture of health."

She worries over that guy sometimes...most of the time.

Having found herself explaining what fanfiction is to several people in her lifetime, it's no problem to explain it to an angel. Even if she's a little on this side of nervous because come on now, it's Castiel. This is definitely one of the most bizarre situations she's found herself in.

"It's just one of those crazy hobbies." She shrugs, thinking back to her own fics she's written in her time. Not so much anymore, she's more about taking action rather than writing about it. "People get really excited over a fandom, like a television show or book series, and write the characters doing different things."

And here she tries to think of some broad examples, ticking them down her fingers as she goes. "There's the typical 'What Happens After Canon' fic, then all kinds of AUs that have people either not dying or coming back to life if they did die. All sorts of shipping stuff, I mean Destiel fics are super popular..."

She trails off, eyes widening as she remembers just who the hell she's talking to. Thinking maybe he won't notice she speaks a little quicker, rambling a bit to cover that little hiccup.

"-and there's also the silly crack stuff, like sticking people in the Sims or in World of Warcraft. Lots of song fics, but I never got into those because reading the lyrics between paragraphs just throws me out of enjoying it, especially if it's something like Tool lyrics. Can't really get into a story if you've got the lyrics from 'Stinkfist' smacked right in the middle of some prose."

There's a totally-not-nervous-at-all laugh after this and she hopes he changes the subject because this could go down a road she's pretty sure Dean would not be happy about. Or Sam for that matter - neither one seemed super thrilled with their status as fictional characters at the ready for any and all fangirl torture.

Sam being in bad health doesn't exactly narrow down timelines, but considering Charlie's from after their time in Purgatory, it must have something to do with the trials. It's true that Sam had still been suffering from symptoms when Castiel first arrived here, but he's improved slowly but surely over time. Sam seems capable of bouncing back from just about anything, amazingly enough.

There are all kinds of terms that Charlie throws out which mean nothing to Castiel -- AUs, canon, shipping -- but he gets the general gist. People watch or read a fictional story and then write their own stories about the characters.

It's creative, though it strikes him as a waste of time, mainly because Castiel hasn't yet mastered the concepts of "fun" or "taking it easy." Though he does have to take a minute to wonder what Destiel is. There's no angel with that name, so did these amateur writers make that up? Strange.

Around the time that Charlie gets to speaking about song fics and Tool and Stinkfist, Castiel's lost both interest and any idea of what she's talking about.

"I see," he says once she's decided to stop talking. "I had no idea that the Winchester gospel became so popular." At least everyone out there thinks it's all fictional. Better that it remains that way.

A subject change is definitely in order, though. "... I can tell you where Sam and Dean's rooms are, if you need to speak to them."

Her shoulders do a noticeable slump in relief when he doesn't ask for details. She would have given them, but it would have been a very awkward conversation. Plus, she didn't want her first interaction with an angel to be talking about the intricacies of fanfiction and shipping.

"One of those underground hits." She shrugs with a sheepish smile. Charlie feels like she might have dodged a bullet for now. Maybe he'll ask Dean for more details, and that will just be funny.

"That would be super awesome, actually." If anything, the idea of dropping in on her bros pushes aside notches her mood up a bit. "Please tell me it's not on the tenth floor, that is just too many stairs for my health."

It may be a conversation that will come up another time, if Castiel's run out of anything else to do. Which does actually happen around this place, as someone can only patrol the mansion so many times.

The tenth floor? No, the Winchesters might be interested in privacy, but even they didn't go that far. (Adam, on the other hand, is another story.)

"They're both on the fifth floor." He considers handing out room numbers, but he decides that he doesn't trust Charlie quite enough for that. "There's a bar up there too, which Dean runs."

Does Charlie have some health issues, though? Castiel tilts his head. "Did you need me to take you up there, or can you manage on your own?" Is four flights of stairs a lot?

Charlie hazards a glance up the stairs when she learns the floor number, figuring it wouldn't be too much of a hassle to go up.

"Nah, I got this." An errant thought occurs to her, though, and she turns to him with a curious look. "Unless you wanted to wing it and fly me up?"

Not that she expects him to, but who is she to pass up an opportunity to catch a ride with an angel?

Charlie really does seem to know about him, if she's aware of how he can fly people places. Granted, it's the sort of thing that someone might assume, seeing how he's an angel, but it still stands out.

It's no inconvenience for him to take her, and if she's interested in what it's like to fly passenger with an angel, then why not?

"I can do that." He steps toward her and sets his hand on her upper arm. There's the sound of rustling feathers and in the next second, they're standing in the fifth floor hallway.

Castiel removes his hand and then nods. "Here we are."

It was one thing to get a little excited about flying (or teleporting, really, is what it feels like) and entirely another to experience it. When they end up on the fifth floor Charlie's blinking owlishly, looking around before nodding.

"Okay...yeah. Okay, cool." She shakes herself a little to get over the stunned feeling before giving Castiel a grin. "Thanks for the ride, dude. Guess I'm gonna head down, and you know -"

She gestures down the hallway, figuring she'll kind of knock on every door until she finds a Winchester.

Charlie manages with the backlash of the sudden movement better than most would, which Castiel finds interesting, but chooses not to comment on.

He nods in response to her. She shouldn't be searching long. Those two Winchesters aren't exactly hard to miss, generally. Dean's most likely in the bar, which is an easy place to find.

Castiel doesn't know if he will have much interaction with Charlie beyond this, but he's done his duty for a friend of Sam and Dean. With his work done, he takes off again, disappearing like he was never there to begin with.

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001 :: >press any key to continue (arrival)

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i never thought i'd write a tag this long about fanfics lmao

this is the most amazing thread thank you

it's everything i've ever wanted with these two <3

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