and now my dreams are nothing like they were meant to be

[sagittae]

Who: Allison Argent, Anita Blake and Sam Winchester
What: New arrivals run around being new together
When: Evening; Day 100
Where: Middle of town, not far from the general store.
Warnings: Typical newbie confusion???


Allison is slow to wake at first. She sits up, presses the heel of her hand to her head and blinks as she peers around her; she doesn't know much yet, but this definitely isn't anywhere she recognises. She carefully pieces through the last of her memories - the car, she was driving, and that starts off a whole panicked spiral of thought about an accident. With that she jerks upwards, suddenly alert as she looks for the wreck and...

...Well. Obviously finds nothing, because this really isn't where she parked her car. Damn it. A more focused look at where she's woken up doesn't really reveal anything more than the first time around, it's a town, just a town, but she does notice one thing. Two things actually, in the form of another man and woman here with her. She can't be sure, but they seem to be in a pretty similar state to her, just waking up.

Gripping the dagger in her hand, more of a comforting reflex to assure her it's still there than anything else, she looks around once more before carefully taking a seat. She draws her legs up to her chest, rests her chin lightly on her knees, and just waits. When one of them seems responsive enough, she'll start grilling with questions, but for now she'll just wait.

Comments

[triplelindy]

At first, Sam isn't all that surprised to find himself flat on the ground. His body feels like it's been hit by a wrecking ball once or twice, possibly a third time. He can't decide if that's actually enough or a little bit of overkill, but the end result is all the same - he feels like shit.

Naturally, he doesn't want to fully wake up, not just yet. His head feels pretty fuzzy, so the pain is there but distant, and waking up would only make it worse.

It's not until Dean's words echo through his mind - Angels. They're falling/ - that he suddenly jerks awake, sitting up ramrod straight before letting out a pained sound.

Opening his eyes, he's instantly alert, or as alert as he can be, anyway. A hand goes up to run through his hair, taking in his unfamiliar location and already starting up a mental list of what needs to be done first.

'Get up' seems to be the top priority.

Leaning forward a bit, he shuts his eyes as a wave of dizziness hits him. Okay, top priority is to not pass out as soon as he starts to move. Good plan.

He can feel the presence of someone, and turns around to find a teenage girl watching him, practically curled up in her seat, and a woman near him that seems to be waking up, too. That can't be good.

"Uh--" This is all he can come up with before rubbing his face real quick with his hands. "Hi. Where are we?"

The question is directed at the girl, and the woman if she's awake enough to answer. The fact he's in a strange place (again) with no clue about the where, how or why, and the fact his brother isn't right there, hasn't sunk in yet.

[sagittae]

Allison is watching like a hawk as Sam comes to first - and honestly, she hasn't really thought about how odd that probably looks, having a teenage girl staring you down as you wake up in some unfamiliar town. Her expression quickly turns from wary and suspicious to something closer to concern as he sits up though. The man looks far worse than her, and she vaguely wonders if they've been kidnapped, if he put up a struggle.

The thought is pushed away quickly though. She would have fought back too if that had been the case, right? And she'd been with Isaac, and yes their history is capital C Complicated, but he wouldn't just stand by idly as she'd been dragged away. Right? Her own musings are practically giving her a headache already, and she's caught up enough that she almost misses his question at first.

Almost. When he speaks she frowns, because that question really isn't what she wanted to hear. He really is stuck in the same boat (or at least, is doing a very good impression of it) and for a moment she doesn't reply. When she speaks it's careful and hesitant, accompanied by that same concerned look that's spread from just for him to herself too. She hasn't moved yet, but she does shift her hand a little behind her legs. Just enough to hide her knife from view. In the event that he is faking it, she doesn't want to give all her cards away just yet.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," she says, and attempts a half hearted smile as she looks between him and the woman before shrugging her shoulders lightly. "Are you...okay? You look like- well. Like you got hit by a bus."

Off to a polite start, then.

[triplelindy]

He huffs out a chuckle at her question. Yeah, he can imagine just how he looks.

"Not exactly what happened, but close enough." While he answers he starts patting his pockets and sides, trying to figure out what he has on his person. He can feel the gun against the small of his back, but otherwise? Nada. It's not like Sam had to carry a wallet on him to do his final trial, and by the time he was dragged outside he was too far gone to even think about that kind of thing.

Not that he expected to get kidnapped and thrown into some abandoned town again, but it's just one more bump in the road.

There is something new on him, though it takes him a minute to notice - some kind of device on his wrist, and it sure as hell doesn't look like his regular wristwatch.

"I'm going to take a leap here, but I'm guessing you've got one of these, right?" He holds his arm up to show her what he's talking about, and his eyes take a quick scan of the surrounding area, looking for any other signs of life. Or a building to duck in to. There's no telling who, or what, could be around. He has to wonder how he'll even manage to get up and get moving, honestly, but he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it.

[animator]

Anita is the last to stir, the sounds of their voices being enough to lure her towards consciousness. She feels disoriented, groggy, and she frowns to herself as she slowly pushes herself up into a seated position, supporting herself on one hand while rubbing at the back of her neck with the other. Damn, that was stiff. In fact, just about everything is -- stiff or sore or somehow compromised, some nasty scrapes visible on her arms just above her knife sheaths, and a big old green-and-purple bruise running down one side of her face.

She's in rough shape, but as she shakes sleep off and her vision clears, she gets a good look at the unfamiliar man nearby, and the assessment is instantaneous. She knows she looks like shit -- she sure as hell feels like it, but hell. He's exponentially worse. Was there a word for that? Whatever the case, he looks like he's been through hell and back. She can relate.

That has to wait for now, however. She moves just enough that she can lean forward and get to her feet, keeping herself in a low crouch as she takes half a step back and reaches to ghost her hand over the gun holstered at her hip. She's not about to draw and blindly fire, but her judgement is seriously impaired thanks to being sleep-fogged, and the situation as it is? Sure as hell doesn't bode well.

There's her. A man she doesn't know. A teenage girl. Their surroundings are like no place she's ever seen in St. Louis -- hell, in all of Missouri. They were landlocked, after all, but this place... she's not sure what to call it, but something smells all kinds of rotten.

"Huh. This feels like the beginning of some kind of weird hazing ritual." She grimaces, looking between the two of them and glancing at the device on her own wrist when Sam points it out to the both of them. She frowns, troubled. When the hell had that gotten there?

She knew where she was supposed to be. This wasn't it. Maybe someone was getting revenge -- or trying to. She'd pissed off a hell of a lot of people in Albuquerque, and that was just in the past week. Having someone gunning for her was pretty par for the course, really.

Kidnapping is easily the first thing that comes to mind.

"Whoever's responsible for this, I gotta hand it to them. They're either really sloppy or really generous." They'd left all of her weapons on her, for one. "Looks like neither of you knows anything more than I do."

That was comforting. Sort of.

[sagittae]

There's a few things that Allison notices pretty quickly when the two of them are awake. For one, the man is right: they all have those wristwatch things on. It isn't like any watch she's ever seen though, and she squints at it for a moment before her attention returns to her company. The second thing she spots is that gun at Anita's hip, and her grip tightens on the dagger in her hand again without even thinking. Bringing a knife to a gun fight isn't really her style, but needs must. It's not like she had time to fetch her bow out of the boot before she got up and kidnapped now, did she?

The third thing though, and more importantly, they're confused too. Just as confused as her, and that almost makes her more uncomfortable than anything else. Sure, the man looks like crap, but he doesn't look like he'd go down without some kind of fight. The woman has a gun, Allison has a weapon. None of these things add up with mystery kidnapping as far as she can see, and after a moment she sighs and presses the fingers of her empty hand to the bridge of her temple as she frowns.

"Yeah, neat wrist watch. Not really my style, but you know." She'll try to get rid of the bulky thing later, but for now there are more pressing issues. "And I don't know about you, but I don't know a thing."

She ends up sounding more frustrated by the end of that sentence than she'd initially wanted, and that frustration leads to her standing up quickly to look around them again. Not that it helps at all, but she needs to at least feel like she's doing something. Finally she drags a hand through her hair, turns the knife over in her hand and then tucks it in her belt before looking back at Sam.

"Are you going to be okay? It doesn't exactly look like there are doctors around here ready to answer a 911 call if we need it."

[triplelindy]

Hazing ritual sounds just about right, but Sam has a sinking feeling this isn't quite so simple. He's still on the ground, trying to get his bearings through the fog that's filled his brain. It's hard to concentrate when all he wants to do is just lay back down and close his eyes. Now is not the time to be feeling so damn sluggish, and he has to mentally slap himself. While he's relieved to see the woman up and about, though looking a little worse for wear and just a little armed, this makes Sam a liability in his condition, in case anything happens.

He taps at the watch, frowning down at it. "Doesn't seem to be working," he says, mostly to himself. Thinking out loud should help him concentrate a little better, he hopes. He's not entirely at ease, of course, after waking up in some abandoned town with two strangers, but he's more focused on getting out of open space. That will be the time to regroup.

The girl's question is met with a slight frown, and rather than answer right away, he struggles to stand up. There's some effort on his part, and he looks damn shaky on his feet for a second, but he can at least stand on his own. "I'm good enough. We should get moving, find somewhere with a few walls."

It makes him uncomfortable, just how little they all know and how incredibly empty the town seems. He is not going to have a repeat of Cold Oak if he has anything to say about it - and he'll have plenty to say, once they figure out who's behind it.

He studies the pair in front of him, knowing he should be more cautious than he's being at the moment. Ava had seemed timid and frightened, when really she turned out to be twisted and warped by her time spent in Cold Oak. It's hard to be cautious, though, when he feels like shit and looks like death warmed over.

"I'm Sam." First time meetings don't typically involve random kidnappings, but he can say it's not the weirdest situation he's ever been in. "Looks like everything around here is empty, we should be able to just duck in one of these buildings." And find some salt is his silent addition.

He's already given up on the idea of his brother being there - wouldn't they have just shown up together? It's not like Sam has the energy to start on a bro hunt right now, anyway, but his first thought is always Where is Dean when something like this happens. It's never just a coincidence, not with the lives they lead.

For now, Sam finds it easier to work down a list of steps they should be taking. Like an emergency list - In Case of Kidnapping and Being Dumped in a Strange Town - and Sam's only on step three at this point.

[animator]

"Anita."

She straightens up soon as she introduces herself, economic with her words, relaxing and letting her hand fall away from her gun for the time being. The fact that they're all questioning what's going on makes her think that if shevis going to have to shoot someone, it's not going to be either one of them. She's had worse hunches. She'll go with this one.

She looks to the third member of their little gang, waiting a moment for the girl to give her name, too. With her hand eased away from the Browning, she braces it against her hip, cocking them to one side as she looks over one shoulder to get another glimpse of their surroundings.

Heh. Rustic. Kind of a generous word for it, actually.

Sam, at least, has the right idea about things. She can respect that. Reasonably good head on his shoulders, as far as she can tell. "Hopefully they have running water. We can figure out what to do from there. You going to be able to walk okay? You look like you're about to keel over any second."

[sagittae]

"Allison."

She offers the name up without any real inhibitions, and almost immediately regrets that. They haven't given her any real reason for her not to trust them, but she's sure that if her dad were here he'd be telling her to keep that piece of information to herself.

Her dad. The dad who - to her knowledge at least - is running around the town murdering and sacrificing innocent people. Maybe following the advice she thinks he would be giving her isn't the best idea.

In an attempt to side track herself from that piece of thought, she moves to walk over to Sam's side. She doesn't take his arm just yet, mostly because she's sure that she would hit someone who tried to coddle her like that, but she's there just in case. He really doesn't look well, after all. Looking back to Anita, she shakes her wrist with the communicator on lightly.

"They played something while you two were still coming around, did you catch it? Sounded pre-recorded, maybe you can pull it up again...?"

[triplelindy]

He understands their concern, and on small level he can appreciate it. He would be asking the same questions, but since he's the focus of their concern he's determined to just push through it.

"I can make it," is his response, which isn't a reassurance of his well being at all, but that takes a back seat in his mind. Hopefully he won't topple onto Allison, who looks like she might fall under his weight. He starts moving forward, keeping his mind off the ache in his body or the tiredness that swamps his mind.

"Didn't catch the greeting before." He looks down at the thing on his wrist, fiddling with it a second before he can pull up the recorded message.

It makes him stop in his tracks.

The hell is this about their safety? A hand comes up to press against his forehead, as if all his thoughts are going to fall out at any moment in a heap and he has to keep them inside. Great.

"Never heard of Cape Kore before." His mental database of abandoned towns is pretty large, and the ones that are haunted/possible murder towns is half that size. Cape Kore isn't anywhere on that list. "Nice of them to give us a warning."

There's just a hint of sarcasm them, because Sam Winchester is not in the mood for kidnapping shenanigans, especially when lives are being vaguely threatened.

[animator]

"I've never heard of it, either."

Anita grimaces as she looks to her own watch, fiddling with the settings on it to see what she might be able to coax it to do. Sure enough, that same recording is there, though she silences it about halfway through before putting her hands on her hips and looking to the other two new arrivals, looking as though she's about nine thousand percent done with this crap.

"This is seriously un-funny. I couldn't pick this place out on a map if I tried, plus the power's out? Shit. It's a bad slasher flick waiting to happen."

And she so needed to live through another one of those. Damn it.

She moves to Sam's other side, and like Allison, she makes no move to reach out and offer him support -- she's not sure how much good it would do, anyway, since he easily has more than a foot on her -- but she's there all the same. Just in case. If they've all been kidnapped, then sticking together for the time being is their best option. If one or both of them isn't to be trusted? Well, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

[sagittae]

Allison is becoming more convinced that she's the only one here not ready to collapse, and the concern spurs her into leadership mode. Be strong when others can't, right? If there's one thing she's certain of, it's that she's not about to abandon these two to their fates when she's the only one of the three uninjured and unharmed - and un-whatever the hell Sam was, because she's still not sure if that's just a really bad drug trip or some serious chronic illness. Either way, she's taking that burden and placing squarely upon her own soldiers.

"We should probably look for somewhere a little less open than the middle of this town," she makes the suggestion carefully - almost hesitantly, like she's waiting for someone to rebuff. She'd feel more comfortable with a wall at her back and known exit and entrance points, but maybe that's just her. Glancing between Anita and Sam, she frowns for a moment in thought before adding, "Will you two be alright to move, if I help?"

She doesn't exactly want to emasculate anyone here, but she certainly wants to be sure that they think they can go for a walk before she just heads off herself. They're all in this together after all, right?

[triplelindy]

While he doesn't want to be that burden, the one holding everyone back, he also knows when to accept help when it's offered.

It's easier to brush Dean off when he fusses over Sam, but two strangers? It's a little difficult. And honestly, he would feel better having the help. There's a time to be stubborn, and a time to give in.

"Yeah, if we could just make it over there --" and he nods in the direction of a building nearby, one that looks empty (like everything else), "We can work out what's going on."

He gives Allison an exhausted smile. "I probably will need a little help if we want to get over there before tomorrow, though."

They can really just drag him over there for all he cares. He's feeling a little wobbly on his feet.

[animator]

Anita casts Allison a quick glance. She knows she's in rough shape, and she's betting she looks like hell, but she's not nothing on the (admittedly handsome) yeti they have with them. She shakes her head, rolling one of her shoulders back to loosen it.

"I'll be fine. I'm easily not one hundred percent, but my legs work just fine. You get one arm, I'll get the other."

She takes Sam's arm rather unceremoniously, despite the drastic height discrepancy, trusting Allison to grab the other. She doesn't have quite as much of a problem with emasculating people, it seems, but at least he was being gracious enough about accepting and admitting that he needed help. She lifts the arm and drapes it over her shoulders, putting a hand around his wrist to anchor it in place.

"Got a good grip, there, Stretch? Come on, let's get you sitting down somewhere." She wouldn't hate getting off her feet, either, if she's being honest. She begins to head in the direction he'd nodded in, the indicated building growing closer with every step.

[sagittae]

Well that certainly settles that, and she's immensely glad that Anita's stable on her feet at least. She's likely stronger than people would assume on first glance, but she's not a superhuman by any means. Carrying one person too far - let alone two - would be a little out of her reach. Allison quickly moves to follow suit on Sam's other side, echoing Anita's movements with the other arm and casts a quick look in his direction before adjusting slightly to take a little more of his weight.

"I don't..suppose it's worth asking what happened to the two of you to get so banged up, huh?" It's worth asking at least, even if she doesn't exactly know how open either of them will be to talking just yet. She probably wouldn't be all that upfront with the nitty gritty details if she'd wound up arriving here injured - hell, she's already concealing weapons and she's only been here five minutes. Still, any information is better than none right now so she tries all the same, slowing a little as they make it to the building without anything drastic happening.

[triplelindy]

It helps, having them carry some of the weight. He's careful not to put too much on them, since Anita does look pretty banged up and he doesn't want to overwhelm Allison. As they start forward, he shakes his head a little.

"Just related to something I've been doing back home. Didn't know it'd get this bad when I started, but that's usually how it goes." His world comes with no warning labels, and it was a risk he took without a second thought, starting those trials. He doesn't regret it, but damned if he doesn't feel like he could pass out standing up. "Don't worry, it's not contagious."

He's teasing a little, because he's reaching that point where the pain and fatigue is so extreme his body is starting to just ignore it. His head feels swimmy and he really has to watch the ground to make sure he's walking on it properly. Oh the joys of his life.

[animator]

"I got shoved through a window. Among other things."

A lot of other things. She's not sure she could name them all off the top of her head, and hell, at least half of it would make her sound absolutely insane. The scuffle at the hospital was what stuck with her, though -- a desperate fight to protect those who couldn't protect themselves that landed her with a bunch of cuts and bruises and two digits' worth of stitches in her back. Shit, those still hurt like a bitch.

"Sounds like we've both taken our lumps," she remarks as they near the building in question, and Anita loosens her hold on Sam just enough to take an extra step ahead to push the door open. "Come on, now, nice and easy."