OPEN | if you're missing, i will run away

[halfwinchester]

Who: Adam Milligan (halfwinchester) and anyone who's in the neighborhood!
Where: Library.
When: March 4th.
Rating: PG-13 for "how to properly dispose of a wendigo," IDK.
Summary: Adam's in the library, looking into the family business. This might take a while.
The Story:



With actual places to walk again and not just vertigo-inducing space in the middle of nowhere, Adam was more enthusiastic than usual to be out in public. Having a room, food, and relative safety was great when the world literally fell apart,but he'd had his fill of his tiny corner of Wonderland--there was caging yourself from the outside world, and then there was being caged. The latter made a person more antsy than the former.

After a late start to the day and a shower, Adam threw on some clean clothes, already knowing where he wanted to go.

The library was a pain the ass to find sometimes, but when he needed to shove thoughts to the very back of his mind and distract himself? There was no better place to visit. Wonderland reassembling itself seemed like the perfect time to not only just get out, but to look into something that had been in his thoughts now that he had the chance.

Crowley's tip about salt and how it worked could be true... or it couldn't. Adam hadn't exactly wanted to test it out by trying to convince a monster to jump over a line of salt in the middle of the chaos, and he was left with an unconfirmed suggestion that could be complete bullshit. How was he supposed to know what tips and tricks worked? What defenses could be counted on? There were monsters everywhere, and some of even came in human-shaped packages, like Tom, while there were still others that were inhuman inside and out. He was hyper aware of the fact that the only reason he knew a little about angel warding was because he'd had to twist his half-brother's arm to show him. He had been for some time.

Adam could only think to do what he'd always done when he needed to check facts: go where the sources were and research them. Hence, the library.

Not knowing where to start--or where to even begin to start--meant a good chunk of his afternoon was probably going to go toward figuring how where to look in the shelves. Add in the next fifty years and then some, and maybe he'd be on the right track. How did a person even know how to weed out information about the supernatural from straight fiction? Asking some experts on the subject like Sam or Jo were options, but... no, there just as many good reasons not to ask them. Being overwhelmed by things too big to grasp was a default state for him, anyway, so Adam sighed through his sense of intimidation and prepared himself by bringing his own lunch.

One perk was that there was no one around to tell him "no eating in the library." No rules, no worries.

He claimed a table, throwing a sweater along the back of his chair and setting out the usual culprits for a research project including a blank notebook, two different colors of pens, and sticky notes. After that, the young man could be found in and around the library, building a peculiar collection of occult books--histories, accounts, even the blatantly hokey, questionable sources, anything that really looked related to the supernatural.



_{(OOC: As ever, action tags are also welcome!)}

Comments

[naturalbornleader]

Although there was a part of Krissy that still doubted she was actually in Wonderland, she had to admit that the odds were leaning heavily toward actually being somewhere and not stuck in some hallucination or a really bad dream. Considering this was a place that could, apparently, fall apart at the seams and then, stranger yet, reassemble itself while everyone slept and wasn't any the wiser.

Or maybe it was more accurate to say that someone was responsible. Personally, Krissy's bets were on that being far more likely. The only problem was, she wasn't sure who, or what, could pull something like that off, especially if the laundry list of non-humans she'd been told were stuck there too could be believed.

Which meant it was time to do some research. Because even if she was wrong, and there wasn't a specific monster of some kind behind everything, there would - hopefully - be information available about the other kinds she was stuck there with. Either way, it was obvious to her that a trip to the library was in order.

Heading inside the place after a rather ridiculous amount of effort to even locate it, she was surprised to see that she wasn't alone. She didn't know why she expected it to be empty but it wasn't, and the knowledge made her pause in her tracks long enough to cast the guy present a cursory glance. She probably would have headed directly past him, truth be told, because she wasn't there to socialize, if not for one simple fact.

He was in the aisle that had the books she was interested in checking out.

Her gaze slid from him, to the book he was holding, and she couldn't help it. Before she even thought about what she was saying, the words were spilling past her lips.

"I wouldn't bother with that one, if I were you. It's total crap and pretty much a giant waste of time."

[halfwinchester]

After something like half a year in Wonderland (otherwise known to the average human as Monster Central), Adam was less surprised to bump into people outside of his apartment. There were always new faces, and when he turned and the girl entered his line of sight, she was just that: a new face, nothing to get excited about.

If there was something to get excited about... like, say, a perfectly normal person flying into a brutal, post-Valentine's Day killing spree, he'd left a gun tucked inside his jacket. He could always make a break for it if he needed to.

As it was, Adam stopped what he was doing and just stared at her a beat in a considering way. The type of material he was looking at put him on the self-conscious side of things, and he absently tried to turn his arm so the cover wasn't pointed in her direction, but apparently he didn't have to bother. She already seemed to know exactly what he was looking at, which... well, he wasn't sure if he was surprised or somewhat relieved. This wasn't his area by any means.

"This?" He looked down at the book, not trying to conceal the spine this time. "You're a big fantasy reader?"

"Fantasy" was one way of describing what he was looking for.

[naturalbornleader]

Seriously? Krissy stared at him for a few seconds as she tried to figure out if he was joking or not. She'd been there all of five minutes and someone was telling her about the non-humans who were there. How had he not, also, gotten the memo?

Or maybe, she reasoned, he was just one of those types who didn't believe things until he was confronted with them face-to-face. She'd certainly met her fair share of those over the years.

Or maybe he was new. She supposed that was also a possibility.

Whatever the case, she gave a shake of her head and a faint smirk. "Nope," she replied easily enough. "I prefer the ones that offer useful information. Sure, some of the others are good for a laugh but they won't offer much in the way of help when you need it." With a shrug, she turned her own attention to the shelf of books and began gathering a few titles of her own to look through.

[halfwinchester]

"Something I said?" Adam continued with the same amount of subtle dryness in his tone.

He was joking, but the bright side to coming out the wrong end of Hell and being surrounded by strangers you couldn't necessarily trust was that you didn't have to worry about making a strong impression. She had the look of someone who'd just heard a dumb question, but he'd already asked his fair share of them to learn how to get by and he felt confident there would be more to come. Adam couldn't bring himself to care what too many of the others thought about him, even if he wanted to.

Naive monster bait was slightly better than if people automatically zeroed in on the Hell part. He was tired of being faced with that every day when he had to see himself in the mirror every day.

When her answer came, he glanced down at the book in his hand with more soberness... and something else that bordered more on bitterness. He knew what was on the other side of the fence. He didn't have the luxury of saying anything was outside the realm of possibility now. "You mean about monsters," he clarified. His gaze flicked to the top of the shelf tiredly, sarcasm leaking into his voice. "Yeah."

Yeah, no matter where a guy went, they seemed to be everywhere nowadays like the best secret infestation in history. For all he knew, she was one of them, too.

[driven]

What brought Allison to the library was as much of a history to her as it was to anyone else. Maybe she was a little tired of watching movies, or watching the boys play video games. Maybe her self defense lessons were called off for the day, or she didn't schedule any at all. Whatever the reason, she's found herself wandering the floors of the mansion, looking for people or things to do or maybe a distraction or two. Why she's in the Library, and not Stiles and Derek's self-collected Library in their room? She has no idea. But maybe it was just the walls of books and the chance to find something new.

Without her dad around to teach her, most of Allison's hunter knowledge has come from Dean or Sam (mostly Sam), and maybe it was time she went back to some basics.

Which is how she comes across Adam's table - her eyes catching a couple of the spines of the books he's got piled up around him as she slides into the seat across from him. Allison tries to catch his eyes before she sits down so she doesn't startle him, but at the same time she doesn't really try that hard, picking up a book once she's claimed the seat.

"I didn't even know there were more of these left on the shelves." She flips through a few pages before she sets it down, a little wary of the pictures she's seeing on the pages. "Did you just grab everything?"

[halfwinchester]

He's busy, because not only is knowing how to take care of himself without needing demons' advice important, when he has something to occupy his attention and keep himself from thinking too hard about other things, he clings to it with both hands. When Allison comes up to him, he’s engrossed, busy hunched over his paper, pen moving. Distracted.

Ultimately, Adam had decided against pulling some music out of his bag precisely so he wouldn't be surprised by people sneaking up on him and the sight of Allison brings his head up, everything coming to an abrupt halt. He has to resist the urge to put his arm over it and protect his reading material from sight--especially to snatch the book back before she can look at it.

It's not like he can really keep what he's doing a secret, but he'd like to. He'd snap his fingers and move the whole library to his room if he could.

"What, books? Generally I thought that's where you found them, on the shelves," he says after a moment. Yes, he had just grabbed everything, but then he'd have to explain why and what for, and he'd rather not, even to a stranger who's been decent so far. "It's... Allison, right?"

[driven]

She notices that distinct feeling of you're not really wanted here the moment she sits down, but that feeling is battling with that insane amount of curiosity that tends to bubble up and consume everything else inside of her. Their first conversation was purely over the phone, so she hadn't gotten a chance to read him when they spoke, but having Isaac point him out and putting her own pieces together helps.

So she tells herself to be patient and just nods at his question, scanning over the spines of the other books he's got around him. "Yup. And you're Adam?" Which, okay, she knows. But being polite. "And I meant books about the supernatural. A friend of mine- do you know Stiles? He's been doing a lot of research with them recently. Judging by his stack, I figured he'd grabbed them all."

[halfwinchester]

Allison's instincts aren't leading her entirely astray, but his caginess is nothing personal toward her, a product of being out of his element and forced to confront the decisions people had made for him long before he'd ever had a say so. It is personal, but for him. This is a completely different way of looking at the world spread out on the tabletop; not just a recreational foray into the occult, but basically the sum and end worth of his life.

His feelings about the girl catching him in the act are conflicted, to say the least.

Adam nods, having to consciously remind himself not to get defensive. She... she can't know what's going on in the rat nest that is his head and she hasn't done anything to deserve getting a taste. Not to mention, he'd all but agreed to be on friendly terms with her group of friends.

"I've just heard his name, never met him," he goes on to answer.

Someone else hitting the books? That probably shouldn't be surprising, considering. If Adam had felt up to carrying a bag full of books up and down from the tenth floor, he would have taken everything he could get his hands on up to his room, too, for that matter.

He glances at the nearest book. "It's not like this library has a good filing system, so who knows. There could be plenty more."

[justrunsasaloon]

Ellen tries to spend a part of her day in the library most days. That way, she's reading about this place, but not spending her entire... whatever it is here doing it. The still is running on its own, Jo doesn't need her hovering and with Dean gone... well.

She finds a pile of books on the table and stops to look. Someone's researching something. Interesting. Ellen settles down and pulls over a blank piece of paper, writing her own notes. Years of being a hunter have helped. She can pull out the bull from the reality.

[halfwinchester]

Stupid for him to think this wouldn't become a public sideshow in some way or another. When he comes back from a stint in the shelves, there's someone snooping around his table, just like university but without the courtesy.

Simple nosiness, he can deal with, except he knows this person, and where he knows Ellen from is a completely different beast.

A muscle in his jaw jumps as Adam comes to a stop a few feet away. He's had no cause to talk to the woman since that time with the Mirror, and she's been out of sight, out of mind. Even with the person from the memories making themselves comfortable at his library table in the flesh, Adam finds he has no overpowering desire to break his silence now and defend himself as Adam, the illegitimate child.

He stares. What are the chances she'll just pick up and leave him alone once she sees who it is?

[justrunsasaloon]

Ellen snorts at something she sees. Her neat handwriting marks out 'silver dipped in lamb's blood' next to djinn. She makes a few other notes, detailing what they do, how to fight it, how to break the cycle.

She reaches for another book, and sees Adam out of the corner of her eye. Ellen turns fully, resting her elbow on the back of her chair. "Yours?" She asks, waving the pen at the books. "Added a few notes for you."

Ellen pushes the paper over, so he can see.

[halfwinchester]

"Yeah." He doesn't hesitate to answer, but he's wary all the same.

Adding... notes? What the hell for? His gaze follows her before dipping skeptically to what she's doing. He can't remember passing out a free invitation to just pop on by and backseat educate someone, but that's his edginess talking, a part of him knows it is. There are people offering to teach things and people wanting to learn just like this all over the place, and beyond a shadow of a doubt there are people around who could summarize some of these books faster than he could read them.

But Adam hadn't ventured to make himself a part of that crowd for the very same reason he hadn't sought Ellen out. When you were alone, sometimes it was easier to keep on doing things alone. At least you could trust who was doing the instructing, and there was no extra baggage to handle.

Adam eyes the paper a bit longer before finally saying, "Thanks." He doesn't move.

[fivepetaled]

Ib is happy to see the library in one piece and is even more happy to be off of the stairs. She's in the library today, looking through the shelves for books on art, and of course, all of them are up on the top shelves. She hears Adam at a nearby table and she peeks through the shelves at him, but leaves him alone.

Ib is a quiet child. Normally. However, the sound of about thirty books falling off of a shelf is not quiet. Nor is the yelp she lets out as several of them hit her, or the thump as she falls under them. The only thing quiet about this slapstick routine is when her rose lands on the floor nearby in a flurry of petals.

[halfwinchester]

You know what doesn't mix well with someone whose nerves are already shot? Sudden noises. Adam jumps at the crash, startled from his spot in his book, and for one sharp, ear-ringing moment he's not sure if he's heard something, or if he'd just thought he'd heard something, or what's going on. His heart thuds painfully loud.

He stays right where he is for a few long moments, counting down the seconds until realization strikes that he's not anywhere near the Cage--any screams he hears are probably not Hell related. Which just leaves reality... and, given he's in Wonderland of all places, Adam has to rub his eyes just to make sure his head is securely attached to his shoulders and not drifting in the clouds before he gets up.

He takes another moment to reach into his jacket and take out what he has there: a gun. He's done with victim status if he can help it.

Slipping it into jeans at his back and pulling his shirt over top, he heads toward where he thinks the avalanche of books had come from.

[fivepetaled]

The books shift as Ib tries to push them out of the way so she can get up with out immediately falling over again. She shifts onto her knees and then slowly stands up with one hand on the shelves to help keep her steady.

Things spin a little at first, and a darkening bruise on her forehead serves as a decent explanation for why. Some of these books are too thick to have fall on an unprotected head without risking some damage, especially when the unprotected head is on a little girl.

When she sees Adam come into view down the aisle of shelves, she's immediately embarrassed and looks around her feet, as though there might be some easy way to hide the mess she's made. A convenient blanket she can just pull over the books, perhaps?

Then she sees her rose and the fallen petals and crouches down to pick it up, touching it gingerly, like she might bruise it with her breath.

[halfwinchester]

A kid? Where had she come from?

"What happened?" is the first thing out of his mouth. Just like the angels in the beginning and how good they'd seemed, there's something automatically non-threatening about a small child.

Adam knows better in regards to the former now, but as for the latter... He's seen Ib on the network before, and even despite her eye color's off-setting red tint, she's only ever looked her age. Young. Dainty. The rapidly worsening bump on her head makes her look especially human in the moment.

Just a kid. A really young kid.

[notmymccalling]

Twenty four hours passed since his arrival and to be quite honest, he was overwhelmed. The information dumped on him was, by all accounts, too much to handle. There were times when company and companionship were absolute necessities, then there were times when he wanted to be alone with his thoughts. Certain thoughts plagued his mind more than most and the company of his friends didn't help to ease them any. So, where was the best place to be when one wanted quiet time? The library, of course! It was always the most underpopulated place in Beacon Hills, not to mention all libraries had that 'quiet' rule. It had to be the same in Wonderland, right?

As he came to find out, the library wasn't entirely as empty as he had hoped. He skimmed the shelves idly with no real book in mind, until he passed by an occupied table. There was no real reason for this table in particular to catch his attention, except the books piled high around the slender young man seated there were all of supernatural origin. All of them. Scott's step faltered, bumping into the chair to Adam's right. Way to go McKlutz.

"Uh, interesting hobby." He laughed nervously, righting the chair he'd toppled. "Aren't you reading that a little too seriously for a fantasy novel?" With such a stern look on his face, Scott pegged the other kid as someone who was cramming for a test, not reading for pleasure.

[halfwinchester]

Welcome to the Adam Milligan Show: all supernatural crap as far as the eye can see. A veritable ocean of it, with one all too human and all too helpless human being right in the middle of it.

Quite honestly, Adam didn't know what he was expecting to find in his reading. There was no step-by-step guide to make yourself more prepared for the angels who were possessing your family members, or for the demons you'd shared a dimension with, or the monsters who could wear the skin of a normal person and turn around and kill you. The best he could do was skim, mark portions he found interesting, make notes where he felt necessary. The longer he kept at it, the easier it was to sink into a flow. The hardest part of all wasn't even stomaching the material, it was trying to cross-check facts. More often than not, Adam found himself brushing his fingers through his hair, a habit on bad study nights.

Thank god for sticky notes. Wonderland might have had magic, but being able to tab pages in all his many books was doing great things for his sanity, that was for sure.

He was right in the middle of finishing a chapter and applying a neon green tab to the top of the page for future reference when the stranger passing in the aisle veered so close, Adam could almost feel the other boy's eyes boring into him. He looked up, drawn by the chair's crash.

Someone seemed to find him, or what he was doing, interesting. Encouraging that kind of attention these days wasn't a good thing, in his experience.

He schooled his face into a neutral expression. Interesting hobby, yeah, that was one way of putting it. But who was asking? "We're living in a fantasy novel right now," he replied evenly, shifting an arm so that at least the open page of his notebook was covered. "Doesn't seem like it gets much more serious than that."

[notmymccalling]

It wasn't that he hadn't noticed the notebook before, but he didn't pay it much mind until the arm seemed to subtly, yet deliberately move to cover it. Hey, he was a teenager and he went to school, covering things from the keen eyes of teachers was a skill all kids develop over the years. Mind you, he couldn't see a thing the other kid had covered, but that just made him more curious. Oh Scott, if only Stiles was around to remind him that curiosity killed the cat. Or other related creatures of not so normal origin.

The sticky notes hanging out at this angle and that seemed to draw his attention next, skimming his eyes over the pile of books and obvious bookmarks. Adam really did look like he was cramming for a test of some sort. What was this, Hogwarts? Surely if there were witches and wizards here, Stiles would have flailed about it right off the bat, right?

Whatever the case may be, it sounded to him by the comment made, that Adam really was taking this seriously. It probably wasn't a bad idea to study up on the things around him while he was stuck here, because whatever was out there, there was bound to be something worse than what he knew back home. Fantasy novels always seemed to entail a great mystical creature that terrorized the towns and villagers, didn't they?

"I guess that's right." Scott conceded and smoothed out the top of the chair with his hands, something to keep them busy, as there was nothing to actually smooth out. "Is any of it helpful? I mean, how can you tell if it's real or not?" He knew first hand that not everything you read about mystical lore was true. "Seems like that'd be the hard part, right? Figuring out what works here and what's just colorful words on a page."

[evilhandissues]

Lindsey liked to spend time in the library. At the very least he was reconnecting with a part of himself that he'd thought had long since been destroyed by the work that he did. Even if he didn't like to read - it was important.

He's got his own stack of books at another table, just reading for the sake of reading, but one of the books the other guy has...

It doesn't hurt to ask right? The word demon catches his eye and hell, for old times sake, "...Can I borrow that?"

[halfwinchester]

He was only skimming one of the books in his collection, chin propped in his hand, when someone spoke up to him, drawing him out of his own personal cloud of frustration.

Wait, did he...? Yeah, after a moment Adam realized he recognized the speaker's voice--not from a personal meeting, but from the network. He remembered the guitar music. Another face in the crowd in the mansion.

And the guy wanted to borrow... a book? Adam followed Lindsey's gaze to one sitting by his elbow. If the guy wanted to look at some obscure book on a topic Adam didn't even know the technical term for, he could keep it if he wanted. Somehow Adam doubted the secrets to the known universe would be found inside, and not in the piles of others.

"Yeah... sure." Slowly, he straightened up from his hunched-over position and stood up, taking the book to Lindsey's table. "Here."

[evilhandissues]

Lindsey sat back, accepting the book, and staring at it. "...some library huh?"

The book is flipped open, those are demons. Those aren't demons he knows. For a moment he looks lost, staring at them.

"...Books from other dimensions."

He's not really talking to him, but talking to himself before he looks back up at Adam, "...Sorry to bother you. For this."

He taps the cover, "But thank you."

Deal with my action spam since I'm doing third person everywhere else ever and u g h

[algidity]

[ Lurking, sneaking and generally hiding are things Isaac is rather good at, he's got his shitty family life to thank for that. It was always best that he was as small as possible and as unnoticed as possible, because sometimes it saved him from his dad's wrath. So of course, sneaking up on the untrained human is an easy feat. The books give away exactly what Adam is up to, and while it makes Isaac a bit nervous, he can't help but raise an eyebrow.

Whether Isaac scares Adam or not doesn't seem to be on his list of priorities, so he simply speaks up: ]

Look, if you're a LARPer or a D&D nerd, Stiles might be the person to go to. It's the closest he gets to an exciting life.

[ How can something be the truth and a lie at the same time? This is one of those cases. Regardless, the younger teenager steps closer after making his presence known. He doesn't even ask for permission as he grabs one of the close by chairs and moves it by Adam's before sitting down. Really, he's looking to hear anything other than "I want to be a monster hunter extraordinaire." They were friends, and if he had intentions of curb stomping the things that went bump in the night out of existence... Well, it might pose a problem to said friendship. ]

IT'S OKAY, GIVE ME YOUR ACTION SPAM.

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Wow, really not appreciated. Adam's head snaps around in the direction of the voice, but seeing Isaac does nothing to alleviate the deep frown he's wearing.

They'd just had a psycho killer on the loose. Why do people seem to think it's okay to just appear out of nowhere? Although Adam had escaped unscathed from that horror show, he'd already been one step closer to fight or flight than a normal person before Tom. Having someone sneak up on him, even a friendly face, chafes his nerves.]</sub>

Get a bell or something.

<sub>[Good thing Isaac doesn't ask for permission to sit, because Adam likely wouldn't have given it. No proper explanation for why he happens to be surrounded by a pile of special interest books in the library is forthcoming, either.

This is private, regardless of what everyone else seems to think; sitting in a public space isn't an invitation to come up and start jerking his chain. Adam's answer is ultimately a non-one. He stays where he is and taps his pen against the table, waiting for Isaac to get to his point first. If this is a "hello, nice to see you" visit, then they can read off that script and skip the rest. Adam can avoid talking, and they can part ways without Adam admitting what's making him uncomfortable.]</sub>

What are you doing in here?

<3

[algidity]

[ Lips curl up to show his amusement at Adam's straight to the point behaviour. Isaac doesn't let it put him off though, he picks up one of the books ant turns it around in his hands. When his attention finally turns back to his friend he can't help but thrum his fingers against the spine of the book idly. ]

The better question is what are you doing here? I'm not the one surrounded by... [ Blue hues flicker back to the book for a moment to read the title aloud. ] Books about things that go bump in the night.

[ He sets the book back down where he grabbed it from and looks at the one Adam currently has open in front of him. He can definitely see where Syfy gets all their inspiration. But with all the hunters around in this place, this is a little startling. Isaac is well aware that Adam could easily get the training he needs to be a hunter... ]