entranceway | Kevin Tran | 001

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Kevin Tran | 001 | video

[ Kevin looks into the camera, stricken and worried, but more together than he would've been two years ago. That's not saying a whole lot, but he has the added bonus of being slightly angry. That helps cut through the fear. ]

H-Hello? [ He twists to check his surroundings; if he has been kidnapped by Crowley, he's not thrilled about making a video message, but then he's clearly in captivity anyway, so... ]

Dean, Sam? Are you -- What is this place? How did I get here?

[ And maybe more importantly: why? Is this over the angel tablet? Kevin's so not in the mood to be held captive over translating a tablet again. Dean had told him he was out of the life, and Castiel's words had registered. But there, he'd done what they asked him to do. He's not about to carve out another six months of his life, this time for a tablet he doesn't even --

The point is, he's earned his time off. Or he thought he had. Or, okay, he wanted to have found the way out of this situation, but instead he finds himself... here. And something tells him this is a little worse than Castiel picking him up by his shirt. ]

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[What Martha's slowly starting to realize is that Dean and Sam seem to know quite a lot of people here, and that number only seems to be increasing. The boy who shows up on her mobile screen this time around isn't quite what she'd expect, though. He's still young, and while he's clearly annoyed by his situation, he also seems scared underneath all that.

She can't blame him. Martha still doesn't quite understand how some of the younger people who've been brought here have handled all the stress.]

I'm sure Dean or Sam have found you already, but just in case they haven't... they should be around. [The two of them had only just returned from a week-long (or year-long?) vacation themselves. One that hadn't sounded like much of a vacation. But this boy seems completely new, and Martha figures he'll need someone level-headed to explain a few things to him.]

Thank you. [ He thinks? At least she doesn't seem like she's planning on killing or kidnapping him, so that's a plus. He can't tell what her intentions are though, not when she seems so... unsure? ]

And who are you?

[Right to the point, then. Martha doesn't know if he switched so quickly from the subject of Sam and Dean for a reason, but she decides not to push it.]

Martha Jones. Doctor Martha Jones, if you want to get technical about it, but I usually prefer not to. And you?

Kevin Tran. [ A doctor. That's a good sign. He needs to be careful who he trusts here, but he can judge her safely from over the network. ]

So they're both here? [ That's comforting; Kevin can't help but find some solidarity with the two of them, who are the only sort of friends he has anymore. He's had plenty of reasons to be disillusioned by them and what they're capable of, but they are capable, and he'd rather tackle this with their help than not. But if he has to do it on his own? He can do that too. ]

What -- What even is this place?

Nice to meet you, Kevin. [Martha doesn't know that for certain yet, but from what she can tell, Sam and Dean are careful about who they interact with. Dean is, at least, and she can only assume that transfers over to his brother as well.]

Both of them, yeah. They just disappeared for two years and showed up with some extra memories. I guess that happens here sometimes. [Which isn't the best thing to tell someone who's just arrived, but...]

It's called Wonderland. Like the book, or the film, or whatever version of it you're familiar with. It dresses itself up to be pleasant, but it doesn't take too long for it to show its true colors. [She feels bad being so blunt with a teenager, but he needs to know these things too.]

[ Kevin's gotten used to bluntness; he didn't get the chance to be eased into being a prophet, and at least now he's somewhat used to being presented with a barrage of new information and life-altering circumstances. ]

I just saw Sam and Dean a few hours ago. [ So it makes sense, maybe, that they disappeared from here and turned back up at home, right? That's what happened, obviously. ]

So... Wait, you're saying we're in... Wonderland? Like -- Alice, Mad Hatter, all that? But that's just a book, just a story.

Time here is strange. [That's something he should probably also accept as soon as he can, because it's one of those things that just keeps coming up.] There are people here who I met back home who don't know me because they were brought in from further back in their timeline. [Which is probably a difficult concept to grasp for someone who isn't used to time travel, but it makes sense to her.

She's curious to know how someone like Kevin ever got involved with Sam and Dean and everything having to do with vampires and werewolves, but she can probably ask about that once he's settled a bit.]

There are a lot of aspects... and people here, who take after things from books. Just because it's fiction where we're from doesn't mean it's not real someplace else.

[ What? Seriously? He doesn't want to accept any of this, but how can he resist it when it's right in front of him? So he needs to back up and take it one at a time. Time is weird here. Something about timelines that sounds like it's right out of science fiction. That one's tougher to deal with than the last one, that one place's fiction is another place's reality. That's... halfway... sensible. ]

How... How long have you been here? [ Is he moving from one prison-like environment to another one? And for how long this time? ]

I got here toward the beginning of April and it's the end of May now, so... about two months. But there are people who've been here for years.

[Which is something she's known for quite some time now, and yet she's still having a hard time wrapping her mind around it. Martha doesn't know how someone as young as Kevin is going to handle that. He already looks like he's struggling, but for as long as he has questions, she'll answer them.]

Years? [ He sounds close to tears, but more from frustration and exhaustion than anything else. But then again, like Cas reminded him, this prophet thing is lifelong. He'd be trapped under that at home too. Clenching his jaw, he tries to get himself back together so he doesn't have a breakdown in front of a stranger, not that he even really cares that much about that anymore. ]

What do people do here? Just... live? Is that what this house is for? It doesn't seem very prisony to me.

[Martha can hear the tears in his voice and her stomach turns in on itself in response. This isn't the way he should be finding out about all this, over a mobile phone with no sense of physical closeness or comfort, but she doesn't know that it would be any easier on him if she was face-to-face with him either.]

I... suppose that they want us to be comfortable here, so that we don't want to leave. Doubt that actually works, though. Not when they seem to enjoy unleashing monsters on us when they get the chance. [She's not sure what she means when she says "they," because she's unclear on who's even behind all this at this point.]

As for what people do, I think it depends. I help run the clinic we have here, others do research or find other ways to pass the time. [It's definitely a situation where each person has to find their own method to not die of boredom. Martha's managed just fine, but she knows others have struggled with it.]

[ Of course there are monsters. Life would be too simple otherwise. On the upside, he doesn't think there's any reason why he should be held to helping out, and he isn't sure how much he could do. The demon tablet probably doesn't apply to this place, unless it's hell, and neither would the angel tablet, unless this place is Heaven.

He really hopes it's not either of the above. Unless his mom is here. ]

And how do you know Sam and Dean?

[It's looks like Kevin beat him to the question. She doesn't mind answering, though, since it's all rather simple.]

I met them both here. Dean first, and I know him a bit better. Sam arrived later... and then disappeared along with Dean soon after that.

[She imagines she'll be getting to know both of them better before long, though. They seem very involved in their own ways.]

How about you?

Um... We were working together to fight demons. [ A roundabout, summary kind of answer that doesn't reveal too much. He doesn't know how secure this channel is. ]

This place is... Are there demons here?

[Maybe it's wrong of her to think it, but Kevin doesn't exactly seem like demon-fighting material. Then again, she probably doesn't look like world-saving material either.]

There's at least one that I know of. It's someone Dean knows, too. His name's Crowley. [At this point Martha's heard Dean's account of him, but she wonders what Kevin will have to say.]

Crowley? [ It's more what Kevin does first, which is turn pale, but then he somehow manages to swim through that, swallowing down his fear and instead adopting a far wearier attitude. Crowley. Okay. He's taken him on before. He won't let him get the best of Kevin now. ]

Of course. If there was one demon here, it'd be Crowley. [ He breathes in and out once, then seems to slump. ]

What's he up to? Does anyone know? [ Because Kevin suspects that he has to be up to something. ]

[That's a more severe reaction than she'd expected. While Dean had definitely recognized the name, he hadn't gone white just at hearing it. Then again, Kevin is much younger, and it seems as if he's legitimately frightened.

Which is odd, because Crowley doesn't cut that imposing of a figure. Martha imagines there must be good reason for Kevin's feelings despite that, though. This is a demon they're talking about, and that has to mean something.]

Up to? Nothing, that I know of. He's stuck here just the same as the rest of us. [She sighs and shakes her head.] Dean also told me I shouldn't trust him, though.

[ Kevin snorts, but he's approaching a mild hysteria that he'd thought he put behind him when it came to Crowley. Maybe it's just the shock. ]

Yeah, that's an understatement. He hasn't hurt anyone?

Not that I know of, but it's not as if I've been watching him 24-7, either. Is it... common for him to hurt people?

[Crowley had always been composed during their conversations, though Martha realizes that doesn't mean he isn't capable of doing harm. It definitely makes her uneasy to know she's chatted with someone who this boy is so scared of.]

In my experience? Yeah. Pretty common. [ Of course, he'd known Crowley in the high stakes situation where he needed information. Kevin knows Crowley is dangerous, intelligent, and crafty, but he's not quite as aware of his pragmatic survivalist streak, and if he got hints of it, he doesn't really care. ]

I mean, he's a demon. He's the demon.

Well, if he's done something like that here, I haven't heard of it. [Martha likes to think that news like that would have spread, but it's not as if she can say it for certain. There are a number of reasons that people might want to keep that sort of thing under wraps, but still...]

He's been presenting himself as wanting to get out of this place as much as everyone else, so it could be he's adjusted his priorities for the moment. [It's not much of a reassurance, she knows, but there you have it.]

Maybe. [ He doesn't sound completely convinced, though, or... convinced at all. ]

Just watch out for him, okay? Don't trust him too much. And don't believe everything he says.

Understood. [Martha doesn't know Kevin, but it also doesn't seem like he has much reason to lie about this. Between him and Dean's words of caution, she's definitely going to keep an eye out for Crowley from now on.]

Did you have any other questions about this place? I know it's a lot to take in.

No, I think that's all I can handle for now. [ And it's enough. Now he kind of wants time to wander around and take it in on his own. ]

Thanks for all your help.

Not at all. Good luck with everything.

[Martha smiles at him and then ends the feed. She hopes that he'll adapt to this place with some amount of ease, at least.]

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Kevin Tran | 001 | video

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