2. voice; and action, morning of the 23rd

[strangelic]

I've been scavenging plastic, electric wire and sheet tin from the buildings around the hotel. I believe I have enough, now, to build freshwater stills to collect rainwater, but this should be done below the jungle canopy to prove most effective. If anyone should want to help, I would be grateful for the company.

Furthermore, Daryl, I-- [ Hesitation. ] I'm very grateful for your generosity, but there's really no need to include me in your rationing in the future. Dean says to thank you on his behalf.

[ There's another long, thoughtful sort of pause, almost as though Castiel is considering disconnecting, before he presses on with his address: ]

The hotel rooftop has new residents. Please try to avoid killing them, they're only doing what God made them to do. [ So...mentioning that the new residents are bees might have been useful, right? ]


Action; feel free to join him at any point during the process, or post your own unrelated starters:

1. [ In the morning, before the sun has risen too high, and the thick jungle humidity has had a chance to dig its teeth in, Castiel makes his post and begins to gather up his supplies, moving them between the hotel and the gate. He doesn't experiment with his flight, which is still somewhat iffy, so instead the back and forth is a trial, a kind of drudgery that feels pure, a kind of repentance in its own way.

His pieces of scavenged material aren't all perfect; some of the pieces of tin are split, or made of a single pair of rungs, shattered from falling into the buildings that he'd taken them from. Some of the pieces of plastic are frayed in places. But the rain is daily, and reliable, and there's enough surface that most of the water should find itself in the still.

Once he's done moving the gear out toward the gate, he heads out into the forest to be certain that the area he chooses isn't littered with bodies before he begins. He picks out the tiniest clearing, with just a spotlight of sun coming in from above at the height of the afternoon. The tall, well grown trees, and the widowmaker leaning across the center of the clearing, provide plenty of flexibility toward engineering the stills, places to tie on the corners with the strong, load bearing electrical wire.

Work is always speedier with help. ]

2. [ That evening, Castiel is grateful to get back to the city. It's tiring - for everyone but Castiel himself, obviously - and despite care to keep quiet, not draw the attention of the walkers, it hasn't been an uneventful day. But there will be fresh water, now, clean rather than tasting of boiled lake, for anyone who needs it. It's a good thing to accomplish, makes him feel useful somehow, as though he has room to make up for...well, for being what he is.

He lingers at the gates for a short while, keeping a watch on the treeline, before returning to the rooftop of the hotel to check on his bees, and to watch the sun set. He can be spoken to, or sat with, at any time after his return. ]

Comments

[dirtyredneck]

[The whole point of having Maya take the damn meat to those two was so Daryl didn't have to talk to either of them himself. Or acknowledge that he'd made sure the two were still eating same as everyone else. The less interaction the better. But the stupid man had to go and call him out about it and try to be some martyr on the eating front. And what the hell was it with new residents?

He didn't bother keeping the annoyance and ire from his tone, but wasn't yelling.]

How many new mouths we feeding? And shut up about the food I gave you. Everyone's gotta eat and everyone gets a share.

[strangelic]

You misunderstand. Not being human, I don't eat.

[ Look, angel or not that has to take the pressure off, right? Unless Daryl thinks he's lying about that too. He seems uncertain about the other question. ] What were you saying about new mouths?

[dirtyredneck]

[Everything eats.]

Even the dead eat, Sunshine. You saying you're deader than them? And you said there more people with you. They some of ours that drifted in or did I miss another crash?

[strangelic]

The specifics would be difficult to explain, but this body is a vessel; I possess it, by permission of its former resident.

[ Who is actually dead on account of archangels turning him into mist. Semantics. ]

I don't drink, sleep or defecate either. [ Important information, obviously. ] --And I didn't say anything about more people. I would have noticed if I had.

[dirtyredneck]

[Okay, so all that with the vessel was creepy. But first...]

Then who the hell is living with you now if they ain't people?

choose your own actionventure | backdated to 2/22 | now with the right character!

[phaselocknroll]

(( ooc; takes place after this. ))

[ The interesting dilemma about only being able to communicate via audio is that she had no idea what half the people she’s been talking to look like, let alone their names. So she’s got no idea that “Dean’s friend Jimmy” is in fact the same person who accused her of being a soul-sucking monster. (Granted, she doesn’t know who Dean is either, but that’s neither here nor there.)

What she does know is that she’s got a sidequest to complete rations to doll out, and it’s important that everyone gets their share. She hikes her way up to the upper floors of the hotel where Dean and “Jimmy” are staying, and begins knocking on doors- or doorframes, if there aren’t any of those. ]

Hello? I’m here to drop off some food.

[strangelic]

[ Castiel is quite something. He's ruffled, beardy, and his clothes are ruined from his year in Purgatory, but the dust in his hair is a brand new touch. He's spent some of today pulling wires down out of ceilings, and its scattered all kinds of debris on his head and shoulders.

But there's no sign of the rolls of wire, which are stacked up elsewhere in the hotel. Instead their home is on the roof, or what's left of it, overgrown with grass and weeds, and sporting broken holes into the rooms below. There's a lean-to over a mattress against one wall, made out of a door found elsewhere in the hotel and some duct tape, and set up a stack of crates in the corner of the roof is a large waxy blob--a bee hive, which is buzzing gently with activity.

Castiel blinks at his sudden company, turning to greet Maya and then hesitating. The siren? Then why did she read so...human? ]

Who are you looking for?

[phaselocknroll]

[ The purpose of staying in a building is kind of ruined by not staying in the building, if you ask Maya. (No one did ask her, so she keeps that opinion to herself.)

But gee, this guy sounds familiar, and Maya narrows her eyes at him for a second. ]

Daryl asked me to deliver some rations to Dean and Jimmy.

[strangelic]

Castiel, [ He corrects, immediately, without really thinking it through. ] Dean and Castiel. [ He shoots a glance over his shoulder, to the empty 'room', then looks back at her. ] Dean isn't here right now.

You're Maya. You introduced yourself on the radio.

[ If he were even remotely ashamed of himself this would be the moment to show it, right? Instead he steps back, as though to invite her in. ]

[phaselocknroll]

[ She quirks a brow. How one got from “Castiel” to “Jimmy”, she wasn’t sure, but she feels like that’s a little low on the priority list of things to bring up. ]

Castiel, then.

[ When he moves aside, she makes no move to come in just yet. ] You don’t seem to take much umbrage with my showing up at your door.

[nostalgiabomb]

Ugh. [ there's more than a little sarcasm in his voice. ] More folks to not kill? Hell, what kind of miracle workers do you take us for?

Who are we not murdering now?

[strangelic]

I don't take you for miracle workers. Besides, there's no such thing.

[ More than a little sarcasm still needs to be learned--and hey, it took him years to pick up on Dean's. Better buckle in there. ]

Not "who", "what". They don't have names, although I suppose I haven't actually asked.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ wOW that was a much more grim reply than he expected. He wastes a second to blink, but then-- ]

Okay, then-- what possibly nameless things are we not murdering, if we're being weirdly technical about this?

[strangelic]

[ Well it's not that miracles don't happen, it's just...usually someone has to do some actual work first. ]

Bees. I hadn't perfected their language, you see. They dance.

[nostalgiabomb]

[ another pause. Then, flatly, ]

You're... learning to speak bee. That's what you're telling me right now.

[pinner]

What sort of new residents?

[His not mentioning who or what the residents are and what work it is they're doing or why anyone would want to kill them is a little worrying.]

[strangelic]

[ Very cheerfully and almost smugly: ] Honey bees.

[pinner]

Do you have an entire hive?

[strangelic]

I do. Would you like to come and see them?

[pinner]

I think they'd be fascinating to watch, as long as we can find the queen. Are you keeping them for the honey, or just to have a hobby to pass the time?

( action )

[hasitsthorns]

[ Rose responds to his initial message only to say that she'd be more than glad to help him. She isn't quite as concerned with the new 'residents.' The way he phrases that makes her think they're not exactly human, but only time will tell. She hasn't scoped out the hotel yet, despite his suggestion to, and is instead still jungling it up.

He's not difficult to find; she bounces up with a smile ready despite how haggard she actually looks. ] Alright, dude, just tell me what to do and I'll get to it!

[ Please. It gives her something to do, something to help her feel like she's contributing. ]

( action )

[strangelic]

[ Castiel isn't the tidiest looking bear in the forest either. Despite his admission, he's no more revealed what he is, and wearing the dirt and unkempt beard of Purgatory is sort of like having an extra layer of protection against the world.

But that's all nothing. When she bounces up toward him, he freezes dead, staring for a few seconds, before his eyes narrow.

Just one thing to get out of the way first, right? ]

What are you?

( action )

[hasitsthorns]

[ He certainly isn't the first to be able to tell her otherworldly origins right off the bat, but... Usually people were a little more tactful. They at least waited a bit before springing the fact that they knew on her.

It's a little jarring, honestly, though he wouldn't know that because she keeps her perfectly pleasant smile plastered on despite his inquiry. ] I'm me, of course! [ That's neither here nor there and she knows it but she's hoping that'll give him the message not to pry. This obviously isn't something Rose wants to talk about. It isn't anything she wants anyone to know, could she help it, and...

Does it matter, anyway? If she wants to help? If she just wants to be of use? ]

Is there a problem?

( action )

[strangelic]

[ Unfortunately subtext...isn't Castiel's first language. Or any of his languages, to be honest. It holds that prodigious position with 'tact', which he's frankly never heard of. So he holds his distance, staying back at the base of the fallen tree. ]

I know there's creatures among the survivors here. Some of them are man-eaters, others are not. But you're something, and if I don't know what then I can't guarantee your safety.

My friend is a hunter. He would have killed you without asking. It's my hope to avoid that, but to do so, I will need to speak to him on your behalf.

[ He cocks his head slightly. ] I'll speak no more about it, but if you want to work with me, I have to know.

( action )

[hasitsthorns]

[ Hunters. Of course there'd be one here, of course- No. Breathe. This man is... being reasonable. He's trying to protect her.

Yet it still leaves a sour taste in her mouth when all she wants to do - has ever wanted to do - is not be seen solely as the 'monster' she was born as. 'He would have killed you without asking.' He doesn't know her, he wouldn't even try. People like him are the reason that she was captured, made to believe her life was worthless just because of what she was.

She didn't ask for this. She didn't ask to be a monster, but she had a choice not to be. That's a decision she made years ago and has stayed true to best she could because- ]

I don't tell people what I am because I don't want them to look at me as just a 'monster.' I'm not. I'm just as human as anyone else here is, and you can tell your friend that. I know he won't believe you or me, probably, but maybe he could talk to me himself someday. See that I'm not only a 'monster.'

[ Sigh. ] I'm sorry. I can't help you, if that's the case.