OOS: On the Road (again)

[amazonofthe21st]

Sleeping in a car isn't all that comfortable to begin with. Add that she'd chosen the backseat (cramped from Dean's things) and that her traveling companion snores like a damn chainsaw, and Rachel is bleary-eyed, glaring, and grumpy in the morning.

Metal on the stereo helps, though.

So does the mangled and broken Welcome to California! sign that

Comments

[hector_aframian]

See, Dean is completely used to sleeping in the car. And he's bright-eyed and cheerful, almost obnoxiously so. (Compensating.)

"Wake up, sunshine! We're in the lovely state of California! Beaches and parties, here we come, right?"

[amazonofthe21st]

Rachel grumbles.

A lot.

"Beach parties hosted by kraken with human-corpse hor d'eourves," she mumbles, slumped in her seat with her eyes only half-open and watching the desert scenery. She glances over at him and sighs to see his pure obnoxious cheerfulness. "You know it's gonna be hell, right? I'm going to be stunned if my mom's house is still standing."

[hector_aframian]

"Why so cheerful?" Dean demands, and smirks. "What's the worst that could happen?"

[amazonofthe21st]

"The kraken could snore."

She slumps in her seat a little further, eyes closing. "I've got," interrupted by a yawn, eyes dragged open to stare out the window again, "three places I wanna hit. S'up to you where you go while I'm doing it, but I dunno if what I was fighting is still gonna be there or not."

[hector_aframian]

"There'll be plenty've other shit to fight."

Dean shrugs.

"I don't care much if I stay or go. May as well have someone at y'back."

He doesn't care much about anything except, right now, staying away from Lawrence and trying not to remind himself how much happier Sam is now with his pseudo-family.

[amazonofthe21st]

Rachel thinks about this for a long moment before sighing softly. "Question-answer time," she announces in another yawn, pushing at her seat to sit up, though her eyes stay tired and focused out the window. "Is all that Exorcist stuff true? Possession and kind of sitting passenger in your own brain?"

[hector_aframian]

Dean glances across at her, and frowns. "Yeah. Yeah, it really is.

"Remind me to give y' an amulet when we stop -- got a few in the trunk."

[amazonofthe21st]

She waves a hand, unconcerned, and muffles another yawn as she shifts to sit cross-legged in her seat. "Don't bother, I'll just lose it when I morph. I just wanted to know because it'll make it easier to explain what I was fighting, what might still be there."

[hector_aframian]

Dean slides a glance over at her. "You fight demons?"

[amazonofthe21st]

"Aliens," Rachel replies, quiet but even, holding up a hand with fingers spaced about four inches apart. "Slugs. They get in through the ear and flatten out, wrap around your brain. It's like Exorcist, but with less vomit and head-spinning and... well, God."

[hector_aframian]

Dean's eyebrows quirk again.

"...huh."

It's no crazier than using salt on corpses, he guesses.

"Sounds like fun. How'd'you fight those?"

[amazonofthe21st]

Rachel shrugs, face blank and staring at the window - not out it.

"Three ways. Starve them out, poison, or kill the host."

[hector_aframian]

"And by 'host' you mean the human it's possessin'?"

[amazonofthe21st]

"The human it's in. Assuming it's human."

It's a correction but she nods all the same.

"If they have the same numbers now as they did then, that's going to be pretty much the only option we've got."

[hector_aframian]

"A'ight." Dean shrugs. "I'd sure's hell rather be dead than be controlled by somethin' outside, demon or slug or what-the-hell ever. Figure they would too."

[amazonofthe21st]

She looks over at him, lifted brows and serious eyes, and nods once.

Hell, yes.

But if they find a stockpile of maple and ginger instant oatmeal, she's stocking up on it, that's for damn sure.

"You won't be able to tell if someone's a Controller until they decide to let you know. Which is partly why I don't want to split up once we're there."