entranceway | 003 ♟ text/action

Entry tags:

003 ♟ text/action

_{[By the looks of the network, there's something wrong again, something about missing people, but when isn't something going wrong in Wonderland?

Adam has more immediate concerns, ones that, in comparison, are far more innocuous. In opposition to missing someone, if anything Adam is still trying to adjust to an addition to his one-man family. Getting a dog had seemed like a great plan when the event had been in full swing and encouraging him to ignore the oh my god, I can't be responsible for another living thing panic, but now the event's long over and the dog's still around with no humane society in sight. The destruction the dog wreaks around his apartment spurs him to write a text message he figures can't do any harm. It's not the weirdest thing he's ever asked on the network, anyway, and if nothing comes of it, no loss.]}

Anyone have any dog training tips? For a larger kind of dog if it won't listen.

_{[The warm and fuzzy honeymoon feeling has worn off and cold, heard reality has set in in the form of one barking, grunting, chewing, drooling, messy, smelly, furry giant.]}

And if it won't stop chewing everything it's not supposed to.

_{[At the end of the message, he adds:]}

Any good names for a guy dog?

_{[Not long after he posts his message, Adam takes his new responsibility out for his daily walk, phone in his jacket pocket and gun tucked into the back of his pants (hey, it's not like anyone's around to report him missing, but he's not about to become another statistic if he can help it). The mastiff, a soft fawn-colored dog nearing two hundred pounds and pretty much as tall as his owner standing on his rear legs, trots ahead of Adam, collar jingling merrily. Adam follows behind, rubbing his face tiredly. For once the redness around his eyes isn't just due to night terrors; lately, having a pet padding around his room and bumping him with its nose keeps drawing him out of nightmares and into the perils of having a dog that won't stop trying to crawl onto your bed.

It's a strange thing, having something there with him at all hours. Really strange. And comforting.

After a while, they end up on a patch of grass beyond the gardens. There, Adam tries once again to teach it the "stay" trick like he's been doing all week. He might not have picked a name for the bastard yet, but actually listening to him when he needs it to stay put is kind of important, and a command that has yet to stick in any meaningful way.

Housebreaking? Not really a problem. Sitting? Not too hard with enough commanding and maybe a beer to calm his nerves. But the staying...]}

Okay, stay. Stay there.

_{[He leaves the dog lying down at a point in the field and tries to back away. The routine almost always ends the same way: by the fifth step or so, the dog seems to think the distance means "green light, go!" and launches forward to paw his legs and nip his bootlaces, tail wagging, where he has to push it back to the start again.

At one point, the dog rips his laces undone completely and bending down results in a dog frantically trying to lick his face from top to bottom.]}

I'm starting to think you're just doing this on purpose. _{[Adam pushes its big head away, acting annoyed but not feeling it.]} Take a pill. You want one? I have one. Might kill you, but at least you won't be able to get up and follow me. Now get over there and stay.

_{[Back to the starting point.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[So she has met him.

He nods stiffly in confirmation. Dean Winchester would be the one, the one and only. Adam's not a part of that family, never had been and never would be, and the name Oliver doesn't ring any bells for him. Adam refrains from asking who she means. Winchesters aren't his business.

Try as he might to stand up strong for himself and help himself deal with this Hell damage, Adam hasn't found the secret to draining the bitterness out of his veins. The grudge he holds still squeezes his chest like a giant fist, and although he supposes he doesn't look like much on the outside, he thinks if he ever let that anger take him over he'd do worse than just beat Dean in the face. He'd take Daryl's knife or Clarisse's sword and just--

He twists the corner of his lip between his teeth at "bad blood." If only she knew.]}

Yeah, you could say that.

_{[He shifts his feet, slow and equally stiff. He's been working at holding back his more violent urges, not running around letting it all hang loose like Clarisse.

It hasn't been going well.]}

Doubt he would've told you the whole story. Let's just say if I were you, I wouldn't trust a Winchester to bail you out if your back's to the wall.

Edited 2014-06-12 18:43 (UTC)

[ adam wouldn't know oliver winchester, anyway. he's long since dead, but clarisse is pretty sure he was one of the many famous sons of ares — the man invented the winchester rifle, after all — which was the main reason she'd asked dean if he knew how far back his lineage went. with her dad getting around so much over the millennia, she's related to a lot of famous (and infamous) people. blackbeard and ulysses s. grant are the two names she can think of off the top of her head, but lord knows how many others there are. likely none of them are girls — except the amazons, of course.

to be honest, adam could probably benefit from hanging out with clarisse. she could teach him how to really let loose in a way that doesn't get people killed. she can't promise there won't be any broken noses, but no pain no gain, as they say. adam just needs to learn how to defend himself, not necessarily learn how to beat the shit out of people. clarisse had to work through a lot of anger issues when she was a kid, and while she's still quick to anger, she's better at holding back her fists. minus the case with adam's face. that was just an unfortunate coincidence he didn't deserve to be a part of. ]

I'll keep that in mind. [ and that would have been that, but the fact that he said "a winchester" makes her wonder if they're talking about more than just dean. ] You say that like there's more than one of them.

_{[Just as well. The Winchester lineage isn't his lineage, they're not his family.

The closer to the truth they venture--that he knows Sam and Dean because they're his brothers, and he can't be objective about them because they'd cost him his family to safeguard their own--the more Adam wishes he could deny ever knowing his father and who he'd really been. They'd disowned Adam, they were still disowning him by acting like he doesn't exist in Wonderland, why is it so hard to do the same?

It shouldn't cut this deep, this connection to people he barely knows. He feels betrayed, and maybe that's the arena he ultimately understands Clarisse the most in.]}

Sam. _{[Adam nods.]} That's Dean's younger brother. He's here, too.

_{[And Adam's older half one, but... well.]}

Dean would sell out all of us if it meant cleaning up one of Sam's messes.

[ well. that's certainly an interesting piece of information. and one she intends to keep filed away in the back of her mind. she almost wants to hear dean's side of the story, but she knows him even less than she knows adam. and, really, it's none of her business anyway. ]

And I'm guessing that's what he did to you, huh. Clean up on aisle Sam and you got stuck with mop duty.

[ she gets it. she knows what it's like to be betrayed, and the resentment runs deep. if dean really did betray adam once, she completely understands his anger. she's not sure she can ever forgive luke, so she wouldn't expect adam to ever forgive dean. ]

_{[Words cram on the tip of his tongue. He meets her reply with silence for a moment or two, debating whether he should open his mouth and let them out, what the point would be of telling her, if by telling the truth it might somehow come back to bite him in the ass later...

But then he looks at the dog, the stupidly innocent dog who doesn't seem to have a care in the world while he pads around, sniffing at patches of grass around their legs, and he gets angry all over again. There are people in the world who'd fuck an innocent person over, who'd torch an entire planet full of innocence like that over a dick-swinging contest, and they get away with it because no one does anything about it.

In hindsight, he hadn't had the balls to do more against Zachariah. If a trial by fire in Hell doesn't give him a pair, what will?

He doesn't owe Sam and Dean a damn thing.]}

There was a guy they were trying to stop. A really bad guy.

_{[He looks across the grounds, starting slowly and as steady as possible, like he's reciting a story he's memorized, one that belongs to someone else and not him. Not the boy who'd trusted angels and had been scared to die.]}

I wasn't even supposed to be there, I got roped into it. I was neck-deep in it before I knew it. Sam made a crappy call, dragged me down with him... _{[A pause.]} Dean had a chance to save him. All he had to do was horse trade my soul to do it.

_{[And the part he'd left out that makes him want to laugh the most is that he'd only been a part of their fight to step in for Dean. When neither Winchester had played ball with the angels, the consequences had fallen onto Adam. Adam's burden to bear in the Cage for all this time.

Dean called the decision to save Sam a "tough" call, but how tough had it been, really? Sam and Dean got to live, and they'd walked away thinking they'd never have to own up to that decision. They still hadn't.

It brings a dark little smile to his face.]}

It was a family affair, but a half-brother you didn't grow up with isn't worth as much as the one you did. And I don't think I'm the only one they've sold out. Just the one unlucky enough to be born the third wheel.

[ clarisse listens closely, her arms folded across her chest. she doesn't really understand what he means by trading his soul, but she figures that's a question better left unanswered for now. it obviously means something bad, so there's no real point in asking anyway.

it was a family affair.

she can hear the words ringing in her ears, her brows creasing as her expression turns into a frown. she's been there, done that. the whole war back home was a family affair. one giant family feud that could have been avoided if the gods weren't such dicks. ]

Guess family doesn't mean as much to some people as it does to others.

[ half-brother or not, family is family. that's what clarisse has always believed. hell, she's not even technically related to her brothers and cousins and everyone else because the gods don't really have dna. family titles are just formalities more than anything, and it's just easier that way. but luke sold them all out, threw away his whole family, and for what? revenge? to finally satisfy his sense of self-worth? clarisse will probably never know, not unless he shows up here. ]

All of us got unlucky with Luke. I'm not sure family ever meant a damn to him. He sold all of us out, every single one of us. Demigods aren't exactly a traditional family, but at the end of the day — no matter how much you hate your brothers or your cousins or your dad — that's what we are. Family. I don't know what Kronos whispered in his ear, but he nearly destroyed everything when he decided we weren't good enough, and he got a lot of people I care about killed or almost killed. If I'd realized sooner you weren't him... [ well, she wouldn't have punched him in the face. ] I should have, but can you blame me for not wanting to? [ and, to be honest, that's the closest thing he's gonna get to an apology. ] I'm sure there's a whole lot you'd like to do to Dean. [ she pauses for a moment, long enough to look at him expectantly. ] Why don't you? [ though, if he turned the same question on her, she's not sure she could answer it. there's a hell of a lot she'd like to do to luke, but would she? is she really that person? maybe one day she'll find out. ]

_{[Catharsis is supposed to make a person feel better, just like talking out your feelings is supposed to, but the cold, hard knot inside him doesn't untwist. It remains right where it is, like a tumor, a cancerous object slowly eating him up. The sun keeps on shining, the dog keeps on rustling in the grass. There's no sudden sense of relief at confessing his role in the Sam and Dean saga.

Things don't change. He at least appreciates that Clarisse isn't liable to change with this new found information, either. If he'd sensed she'd stick her nose into it, Adam wouldn't have said anything.]}

Well, now you know. He's no hero of mine.

_{[And he could leave it at that without making Clarisse share with the class in return, but she chooses to volunteer. Although Adam doesn't understand everything to do with Luke, he takes it in, trying his best to be unprejudiced.]}

Sorry you got stuck with the big shot version of me. It's Opposite Day where you're from.

_{[Adam smiles at her humorlessly at the irony. He'd screwed the pooch in his own way, too, but it'd been for family, it'd been to stop bad things happening on Satan's watch. He's not ambitious enough to be a demi-god who wants to change the whole status quo, he'd just been...

What he'd been doesn't really matter anymore.

Whens she apologizes--and it does read like an apology to him--he just shrugs. He'd been pissed at the thought of more monsters trying to bully him for no good fucking reason, but she's either a really good actress, or she's not on the same level as Zachariah. Besides, wounds heal, and so does his pride.]}

Where I've been, I've had worse. Taking lumps is the easy part. _{[The question about Dean is harder to find words, and a shadow returns to his face, a thoughtful one.]} Dean chose his family. His real family. If I tried to punish him for cutting and running with his brother and taking their lives back, I'd be full of shit, too. What's the point.

[ clarisse wishes she could just say she were over the whole luke thing, but even after months of being in wonderland, it's still too fresh a wound. she's bitter — a lot more bitter than percy or annabeth will every be because it's been nearly a year for them since the end of the war. as far as clarisse is concerned, she's still in the war, and that makes it harder to get over. the most she can do in her position is not take it out on adam, because he doesn't deserve it. he never did in the first place.

she shrugs and doesn't say much else about the luke subject. she's said her piece, and that's about all she's going to say. there isn't really anything else to say, anyway. it is what it is; luke made his decisions and in the end it nearly fucked them all over. ]

Yeah, well, he's dead now, so it doesn't really matter. [ and that's really the most important part here. ] Guess you have a point, though. [ she almost laughs, then, but it's more of a huff than anything. ] But at least we're settled. Yeah? [ she never would have figured she'd have a bizarre heart-to-heart about family with luke's face twin, but it's wonderland. anything can happen. ]

_{[Except in Wonderland, dead people do matter to an extent. Adam's dead, too, but he'd found his way here. Luke could as well. The people he knew have to deal with that. Maybe they already are.

For Adam, it's not much easier to be the dead guy walking, but it's almost worse, in a way, knowing his death(s) hadn't been his fault, not entirely. He's in a strange limbo with the people who'd used him, who'd tortured him, who only knew him by looking through someone else's lens. Telling someone who's outside of that limiting circle the truth, even a demi-god with a background he can only imagine involves god knows what, is strange because it's a nice change.

She's not giving him that look. The look everybody who knows John and his sons well gives him.

Maybe he looks like her Luke, but he's got none of the baggage that comes with being the Winchesters' half-brother.

... So yeah, he guesses they're settled. A fresh start, in more than one way. Or so he'd like to think.]}

Yeah. _{[After deliberating, he nods.]} So long as we're done for the ambushes.

_{[There are way better Winchesters for that, the full-blooded kind. Clarisse could have at it.]}

[ they're definitely done with the ambushes. it had been a weird coincidence that her initial ambush had gotten her into this mess; wonderland should really come with a warning: may encounter people who have the face of someone you know despite not actually being the person you know. someone put that in the goddamn pamphlet so no one else has to learn the hard way. she wonders if she would have even cared to talk to adam if she'd known, though. probably not, but that's not really here nor there anymore.

she holds out a hand with the intent of initiating a handshake. if they're settled, they might as well shake on it. ]

Knuckle sandwiches are officially off the menu.

_{[Adam looks at the proffered hand in the same vaguely perplexed way he'd looked at the dog once the event had worn off and he'd been left with, well, a dog.

Now you really are making things mushy, Clarisse! If she hadn't ambushed him, and he hadn't found out why she had been so vengeful, would they have gotten to this point? The point where a demi-god would be offering him her hand like an equal--not in strength, but as a living person, as validation Adam is here, he's his own person, and he means something? That's another "probably not."

But God help him, Adam's going to do the crazy thing and accept it.

Who would've thought this would ever happen...]}

[ look, she never thought she'd be shaking hands with luke's face twin, either, but she supposes weirder things have happened to her in her lifetime. find out the gods were real is still a pretty weird thing, right? it all seems so normal now; in a few months this will probably seem pretty normal too, especially considering all the crazy shit wonderland likes to throw in their face in between people going about whatever kind of lives they have here.

her grip is firm, like iron — a good, hearty handshake. she'll try not to accidentally break any of his fingers. she's not really quite sure what to do afterwards, though, so she figures now's the time to bow out. ]

So, uh, guess I'll see you around. Have fun with your dog.

[ she nods at him, a flash of a grin on her lips, then takes her leave. today took an unexpected turn, but, for the most part, she thinks it turned out for the best. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

003 ♟ text/action

LMAO, and here i missed it since i went to bed...

we had a 3x boomerang combo... and then i broke it

and i'm just slow as shit in general, whoops...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject