132nd page

[ladybirdshit]

The kind Loch Ness Monster (?) drops you off once the swamp comes to an end. The ground is dry and stable again, but the eerie fog lingers still. The old trees around you are covered in heavy moss, but you can tell you'll be soon out of the forest since the weak wind carries a smell of fresh air. One last push and you'll be out of here!

[ mission: don't get lost in the forest. ]

Comments

[inenochian]

[ yeah his issues are all stocked in those rigid plastic sleeves in the cardboard boxes, neatly packed away like a prized collection. ]

[ cas keeps his issues in a junkbox, like oh, balls of twine, bronzed baby shoes, suicidal thoughts. ]

[ joins him on watch. ]

[sawedoff]

[these woods sure are exhilarating. sitting on the highest ground around the camp he could find to keep a better eye on it. plus it's further out, always a bonus.]

[looks over at him and takes a deep breath, straightening up and rubbing the boredom sleep creeping on away]

Hey Cas. You finally coming out to play?

[uve been very shhh lately]

[inenochian]

[ kind of wants to push a tree over just so they'd have a comfortable, mossy bench to sit on. ]

I was listening earlier. I think it's best if I stay off the radar as far as Constantine is concerned.

[ crouches down to dean's level and assesses his level of wakefulness with a look. ]

You can rest, if you like. I'll take over the watch.

[sawedoff]

[yeah they p much decided that way back]

Nah, are you kiddin. I'm the energizer bunny.

[sleeping is dreaming and dreaming is balls lately. if he can even fall asleep these days. theres always someone shuffling around, makes for a very fitful attempt at rest for the sleep with one eye open type]

You're free to pitch in though. Never hurts to have another pair of eyes. Or- several..hundred.

[whatever. looks over at him crouching and glances pointedly at the ground]

[inenochian]

[ accepts the pointed glance and makes himself at home on the moss. ]

You're still discomfited by learning about that? We aren't called the Iyr for nothing.

[ seriously. do you even know what grigori means. ]

[ reaches up to un-knot the tie that keeps his coat closed near his throat. ]

The air is warming. We're headed East again, presumably.

[sawedoff]

[no?]

Southeast. The good news is Hook seems to have saved me the trouble, bad news is who the hell knows where he went off to or what doomed comically to fail plan he's screwing around with now.

[and a few others too.]

[inenochian]

[ you are so monocultural. ]

[ shifts around until he achieves maximum comfort pose, which for cas still looks fairly uptight. ]

So long as he has not absconded with the map...but yes, chances are his disappearance is probably a portent of some greater calamity. [ because hook sort of invites calamity. ]

[sawedoff]

[looks to him with the i'm judging the words you use eyebrows]

...Yeah, something like that. Shadier than a by the hour motel, probably with the herpes to match. Wondering if he didn't have a part to play in Clara's Jesus comeback.

[he calls her clara2 in his head]

[inenochian]

[ my vocabularly's so big it's probably very intimidating, i know. but shh. ]

Do you honestly believe him capable of such a selfless action? [ that kind of a favor doesn't happen without some big time sacrificing. ]

[sawedoff]

I don't really know the guy at all. Who's to say he wouldn't throw it all away for her? He wasn't exactly discreet about his borderline obsession. Psychopaths need love too.

[creeper love is deeper love etc]

[inenochian]

[ ah. looks back at the camp very intently. ]

There was nothing of love there. [ reliving that moment when from across the castle he'd felt clara's distress, heard her refusals, and how easy it had been to leave hook to rot in the cell below for it. ]

[sawedoff]

Not on her part.

[the funny thing is he still doesn't know about any of the times clara almost went for it or how close they actually were. they managed to skip all that drama. small blessings.]

Like you said, for all we know, the crossroad shtick might not work here. Maybe something else is wheeling and dealing around these parts. Something that collected ahead of schedule?

[that would be the best case scenario here lbr]

You ever hear of anything else that swaps eternal damnation for favors?

[another angel? balthazar 2.0?]

[inenochian]

Only demonic influence is involved in that sort of an exchange. [ balthazar was just...a hobbyist. a private collector. no damnation involved there. ]

This is presuming that he didn't leave of his own volition, which he may have, Dean. We have no evidence to the contrary? [ are we really discussing turning hook into a case. i do understanding your "saving people" clause but does it really apply in this scenario. ]

[sawedoff]

[no, fuck hook. but if its running around swindling people out of souls he's gonna fuck it up. he could definitely use a case right now]

You kidding me? The dude that's had a hardon for the map since day 1 just ups and leaves without it? Nah, he's up to something or something's up to him.

[inenochian]

[ nods to show he's listening and sits forward a bit. ]

So an exchange, of some sort, was likely made. Not to resurrect, but to [ backpedals from the choice of "replace" ] summon this Clara here? That sort of sorcery isn't exclusive to demonkind, as we've seen. [ the troll's magic could handle it, so could that wrinkly old guy with the limp and the blood rituals. ]

[sawedoff]

I guess nothin to do but figure out what we could be dealing with. If it's making "exchanges" maybe Hook's not the only one that made out. Ask around?

[basically just spinning his wheels because he hasn't had a lead since the crossroads hunch didn't pan out, but couldn't hurt to question the locals as they go. find out if there's anything local that's known for signing off on loans. or something non-local that's been paying visits. maybe someone else upped and vanished after getting a shady visit.]

[inenochian]

Mm. [ subtle noise of assent. ]

[ spins his own wheels, but it's the kind that's powered by the 100-legged hamster of celestial brain function. ]

...How was it you learned that this girl [ u know who ] had arrived?

[sawedoff]

Isabela spotted her in the crowd back in the city. Decided to use her as leverage instead of picking her up, that was the last mistake she made.

[inenochian]

[ eyes get all supersquinty. ]

Spotted her. In a crowded city. Where the pirate just so happened to be, despite knowing we were likely to arrive at any moment.

[ brushes his fingers across the mossy ground, meditating on the tactile sensation. ]

That seems a remarkable coincidence.

[sawedoff]

Too late to ask her about it now.

[kind of fed her to the wolves. not that the thought hadn't crossed his mind, after the fact. but it didn't make any sense to him why she wouldn't use that as leverage instead knowing he was probably marching her to her demise, so he's going with likely candidate #2]

Either way she got what she deserved.

[inenochian]

[ more interested in who fulfilled the terms of the deal than who requested it, of course. it's really only relevant in terms of a trail to follow. ]

[ face relaxes and he looks up from his study of the green matting to study dean's face instead. ]

[ rubs a thumb across his own bottom lip, pensive. ]

You consider it justice.

[sawedoff]

[poetic, in fact]

Hell doesn't have the market cornered on evil bitches. Plenty of them walking and talking and completely human.

[inenochian]

Oh, no, I agree. I agree with you, completely. [ suddenly serious eye contact here, along with an emphatic tone. ] I think it's one of the things I've always loved about you, that unshakeable sense of righteousness, how you understand that wrongness is begot by action rather than an innate quality.

[sawedoff]

[head tilt of not sure if he just heard what he thinks he heard. he might have been about to say something, but it got choked out and died a fish open and closed mouth death]

[it's not even that it's so scandalous, so much as he's just not used to hearing it. the occasional roundabout we're brothers man and i love you from sam, yeah, and clara, who he couldn't nut up enough to repeat it to. it's foreign and he doesn't know where to go with it.]

[sawedoff]

[right ok stop looking at him with deer in headlights face is probably a step in the right direction]

Yeah well it's... kinda a baseline requirement for not being a scumbag. You wanna tone down the love all creatures great and small before we have to hug it out or something?