entranceway | 005 ♟ action/text

_{[If you're travelling between the second and tenth floors of the mansion, you might find a great big lumbering mastiff has taken over the staircase today, ready to knock you over if you're not careful. Cooper enthusiastically thunders up and down the stairs with a frog toy clutched in his mouth, following his owner around, who's busy carrying armloads of stuff downstairs. It's an exciting day! Things are happening! Stuff is being moved!

His owner is Adam, and Adam is moving boxes, lots and lots of boxes. Unofficially, it's moving day. Goodbye, tenth floor. It's been real.

Adam leaves behind the furniture in his room, but otherwise everything else he wants to take ends up in packing boxes that he pulls from the closet. He hadn't announced he was changing rooms, or even really planned on it, but it's a long time in coming, something he should have done the moment he found out Michael had a room nearby. Locking himself up like Rapunzel in her tower had done him good for a while, but not anymore.]}

Are you excited? This is a lot closer to the front door, isn't it?

_{[When he brings down Cooper's dog bed and sets it the middle of the floor, Cooper jumps on it, wagging his tail. Then he barks. Must be a "yes."

Slowly, the rest of the floor starts to fill with unopened boxes. He'd changed the room to make it look like an exact duplicate of his old one, and the sound of classic rock drifts past the door as he props it open with a chair to keep working. Cooper helps the move along by chasing the odd item down the stairs, like a soccer ball or his favorite frisbee, getting in the way as much as he possibly can, reminding Adam that he's not the only one who needs a change.

It's not so much a birthday present to himself as a marker. A milestone. He's made it a year, and he's still here.]}

| blocked to any and all angels, and the Winchesters... and Becky |

_{[Adam's come a long way since last October. Castiel had described his soul as meat stripped down to the bone once, but that it had the potential to heal if given enough time. Maybe it has a little. In some ways, maybe it hasn't. Adam knows for sure that before, he wouldn't have even bothered to let people know about something like this; he wouldn't have told anybody, because he hadn't had anybody to tell.

Now he does. The people he's managed to befriend might be the surest sign of his progress. He has people now who'd come looking for him.]}

FYI: I moved. Don't bother checking the old place if you have to track me down.

I'll message you with the new room number if you need it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ there is no point, and while dean's sure adam would love nothing more than for him to wrap it up right here and now and leave him to his boxes, dean won't. ]

When did you moving around in this place start mattering to me? Doesn't really. [ sam could move around, cas could as well (if he had a room), and jo, and charlie-- anyone could, and it's not really any of his business. just as long as he knows where they end up moving to. ] Not like there's a lack of rooms, you're free to live wherever you want-- and move around as much as you like.

[ dean steps closer to the door, and peeks inside. ]

D'you need a hand with the rest of your stuff? It looks heavy. Unless you're planning on loading up the pony.

After where you guys put me before I came here, that's real sweet of you.

_{[There's no bite to the remark, just the immutable edge of fact to it. Three days ago, he'd been hurting, now the hurt is being dulled by just how done he wishes he could be with it all.

He turns in the doorway to keep Dean from following him in. Dean had been inside when it'd been in far worse shape, had even helped him pick out the lovely shade of angel warding to paint the walls with, but Adam supposes that had been the old one. The new one doesn't remember any of that--not the state he'd found Adam in, not their discussion, not how extra worthless and small Adam had felt afterward when he'd been left along with the phantom of his dead mother.]}

The pony and I are fine.

_{[It doesn't get much more true than that, either. He pulled himself together by himself. He can lift a few heavy boxes like a big boy himself, too.]}

[ forever with the scathing remarks....

it might be a fact, but dean's growing tired of having it shoved in his face each time. maybe he has no right to be, but then, dean's never really acted like any normal person should. still, he remains quiet for a beat, just watching adam and his dog go about their work. ]

You sure?

[ he knows he'll get brushed off, which is fine, but he has to try one more time.

if not, he'll just leave. ]

_{[Adam weathers the conversational tone, but he can't help but quirk his lips at the rhetorical question, bemused by it. By this whole "be nice to Adam and pretend everything is cool" vibe, as a matter of fact.

If this is some harmless, friendly neighbour way of offering an olive branch, it's just weird. "Colossally inadequate" is also accurate. A better gesture would be if Dean brought an olive bulldozer to uproot the entire family tree they come from.]}

Yeah, I'm sure. _{[The bemusement doesn't leave.]} If you got something to say, just say it. I find it hard to believe this is just a social call.

_{[And after Tuesday, he's fresh out of patience to try figuring out what people want from him with their cryptic crap. Not for a second does he believe his half-brother's here to spend some time together, try to make amends for that big black spot with Adam's name on it he's got on his soul.]}

Actually it's an accidental call. Usually I don't wander up here, but I did today and found you and, uh, that... [ he nods at the pony-dog. ]

I know how seeking you out with any actual purpose tends to go, and that no matter what I say about it, you're not gonna forgive me, so just... a happy accident. Seriously. Or awkward accident-- however you wanna see it.

[ there's no hidden purpose here. maybe there should be-- like offering said olive branch --but dean hadn't come with that in mind, so he won't pretend he had. ]

He's a dog.

_{[Adam deadpans at the remark about Cooper. If anything, though, the rest of Dean's answer just confuses him all the more and causes that gap between what his brothers say and cold, hard reality to get wider.

Dean pretty much characterizes their relationship by himself in so many words: Dean doesn't come up here unless he's wandering because they don't have a relationship. Accepting that he doesn't rank highly in anyone's thoughts, whether in or out of Hell, has been part of his 12-step program. It's not worth being angry about that part anymore, not where the Winchesters are concerned, anyway. He can live with barely speaking to either of them in a whole year.

But he's sure as hell not dressing up their absence as them seeking his forgiveness. John never being around didn't make him a father.]}

Do you even want me to forgive you?

_{[For once, Adam's too tired to even let the anger fill in the cracks and crevices of his words. He almost genuinely curious.

Just how deluded is this guy?]}

That's news to me. So what's it really about? If it's guilt and you're having a slow week, call a spade a spade.

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