here lies kevin tran

[vates]

Who: Kevin Tran and YOU.
Where: The Oregon Trail obviously.
When: All during the event.
Rating: PG probably.
Summary: Kevin only makes it to Day 2 before he breaks his leg, which rapidly gets infected, leading to his death on Day 3. And after he dies? What else does he have to do except heckle and critique everyone else?
The Story:

Day 1: Kevin spends the first part of the day grappling with the weird nostalgia that is being plunked down in apparently Oregon Trail Town, combined with the fear that they're about to go and live out, he guesses, the Oregon Trail. How screwed are they? And how many pounds of food is it per person again? How do you even prevent dysentery? Do they sell bottled water anywhere?

Day 2: They have to cross a river, and Kevin votes to caulk the wagon and float it across, all the way, thouh the guide is tempting, honestly. He never did it that way in the game because he has some self-respect, but maybe that's different in person.

Even though Kevin survives the river crossing, he manages to trip and break his leg, and it promptly gets infected. The infection's actually moving pretty quickly, and by the end of the day, he's not just in pain; he's shivering with a fever and chills and not able to keep any liquids down.

Days 3-5: Overcome with infection, Kevin passes away soon into the third day, and mostly he's just really freaking annoyed. At least he has some experience at being a ghost, and he figures out the new rules of ghostdom so he can visit his friends and survey (and critique) their attempts at traversing the trail. Actually, being a ghost is pretty fun. It's sort of like playing the game, except he doesn't have to make any actual choices and he just gets to heckle people to their face instead of to the computer screen. Though it does suck watching people actually get dysentery.

Comments

[vates]

"Broke my leg. It got infected. This is actually better." He doesn't hurt and he isn't going to starve to death, and he is physically incapable of being able to help fix wagon wheels, though having to watch without being able to help is pretty frustrating.

He drifts closer until he's sort of sitting next to him, watching him work.

"I wonder if you could take some wood off the wagon and make a new spoke or something."

[ganking]

That sounds like a grim way to go, has Dean making a face as he settles back to working on the wheel. Maybe being a ghost is better in this scenario, especially if it means skipping out on the tired, and cold, and hunger, and, and, and...

But Dean can't just... up and die, either. What would Sam do without him there to help a lending hand?

"Might not be the worst idea." Not when it has Dean pausing to consider it. This is the first time a wheel's broken on him, and while he might remember kids going on about The Oregon Trail, he's not savvy enough to know what fixes what and how. This thing ain't a damn car, after all.

"Don't tell Sam or Cas, but-- those two? Freakin' useless at this crap. Next time we get stuck livin' out all our unwanted wagoning, you're with me, alright?"

[vates]

"Cas seems pretty sick," Kevin says softly. He and Cas aren't that close, but he spent some time watching him suffer, and it had been really difficult to watch that much suffering up close.

It's awkward to suggest dying. What does that even mean? Putting Cas out of his misery? That's not something Kevin thinks he could do, even if he knows that it would turn out fine and all of Cas's suffering would be over.

"Are you and Sam doing okay?"

[ganking]

"Cas'll be fine, always is." The words are quick, snapped. Cas has to get better. Dean can't just-- he'll get better. An angel dying from-- what, a cold? A fever? Please. Dean won't let that happen, not when Cas is part of his wagon gang. They'll all make it to Oregon, shout a big, fat fuck you at Wonderland and its hosts, and call it an event.

Yeah.

"Sam's alright. Kind've a bitch when he can't get enough beauty sleep and no one one the road's even heard of a salad." Haha. "He'll be fine, too."

Just like Cas.

i hope this direction is okay, lmk if it's not!

[vates]

Kevin's looking at Dean with a mix of sympathy and you're an idiot. He's fond of Dean and all his good and bad characteristics; his stubbornness can be endearing, and his determination that the best outcome will be the outcome they get because it has to be and there's no use worrying about other outcomes until we get there. It'd been an annoying position to take while Kevin was killing himself with the tablets, but he can appreciate it now.

It does, however, have its flaws. Like how Kevin doesn't think Cas is going to pull through.

"Is he always fine? He wasn't alright when I met him." He was actually crazy. And then he was human for a while there, not that their paths crossed.

it's perf :3333

[ganking]

They are so not going to talk about that. Hell, Dean's surprised he can keep his temper with the comment.

"If you're trying to say something, just can it, Kevin."

It's a grunt meant to end the conversation there. Done and done. He doesn't really wanna hear it, how he might fail Cas and that the sickness slowly killing his best friend might actually manage to do exactly that. Kevin's already a ghost, can't they leave it at that? Nobody needs a ghostly Castiel floating around when he could be a healthy and alive Cas instead.

"Got enough problems out here without you piling them on."

Like the wagon wheel, which is not getting fixed any faster by them talking about this.

[vates]

Yeah, he knows he's running into a sore topic, but he also isn't that afraid of Dean that he won't keep pushing. Maybe if Cas were actually in danger of dying and it was going to be bad and permanent, yeah, but ghost life on the trail is way better than regular life.

"I'm pretty glad I died," he offers, though he's watching for Dean's next potential blowup. "My leg hurt like crazy, and it definitely wasn't going to heal in time for me to be useful again. Plus, being this kind of ghost is way easier than back home. I don't even have to concentrate to be visible."

If Cas is going to die, he's going to have it pretty good, is all Kevin's saying.

[ganking]

But dying is dying. Maybe being a ghost would be easier, but Dean can't just risk letting Cas pass away when this is Wonderland's work and anything could happen. What if the angel doesn't come back as a ghost, what if instead something goes wrong, and-- he just can't risk it.

"So what? I should help him die? That's messed up, Kevin." Even for a ghost expert like him. "Not like I would've let you die either."

Here. Or back home. He still can't believe that's all there's in store for Kevin. It seems so unfair. But then, aren't most things.

[vates]

"No, I'm not saying that." Though Kevin had the thought, but he doesn't think he could go through with it. Well, and he's physically incapable of doing that right now, too. Maybe this event won't last too long, and Cas will get better, or they'll go back to normal before he dies. How long could it possibly last? Could the Mansion manipulate time so it feels like they're here for months? Has that ever happened?

"I'm just saying, you know. He might. He... probably will. Sometimes stopping the wagon to rest a few days helps people get better in the game, but I don't really know if that carries over to this."

[ganking]

Dean draws in a breath, sighing.

"... We can't afford to stop." Uttered like it's a confession, because maybe then it would have been the first thing Dean would have done, instead of setting the grueling pace he's forced on both Sam and Cas over the past some days.

"It's not like the finish line can be too far away, right? Even if it's just a couple more days, I know I can pull him through this, and then he'll be fine. He just has to get his mojo back." There's no need to die, Cas is strong enough to make it through this.

"You'll both be fine then."

[vates]

Kevin's been wondering about that, about when this will be over. He's been wondering, mostly, if this place will make them feel like they've been on the trail for a lot longer than they actually are. It's not like this place isn't capable of time manipulation. That doesn't seem likely, but who knows, really?

He still looks unconvinced and like he's pitying Dean, the tiniest bit.

"Yeah, we'll get there. I can't remember what the order of all the stops were on the trail in the game, but we can't be that far off."

With a sigh, he turns back to the wheel.

"As long as we can get the wheel fixed."

[ganking]

More than glad to have the subject dropped, Dean casts a look at the long road they're to follow if they do get the wheel fixed. Hopefully they won't run into any rivers, he has a feeling they'll lose a whole lot more than just a wheel at that point.

"You gonna stick around?" Now that Kevin's a ghost, he has more freedom to move... Of course, Dean would understand if he fluttered off, with how things are currently in their broken down wagon. With that, he moves to the back of the wagon, leaving the broken wheel for a bit and expecting Kevin to follow. If he can find some spare parts, or do as Kevin suggested earlier...

"Let's see..."

we can probs wrap this!

[vates]

Kevin does have more freedom, and he does plan on exercising it to visit some other wagons, other people he's met here. He is enjoying this idea of having friends, having something closer to a normal life -- normal for people who live here, anyway. But Dean and Sam will always represent a different kind of pull, something more like family.

"Yeah, I can stick around." He follows after Dean, and he hopes that he can come up with some good ideas to help and get them back on the road.