[Open] I don't want to start any blasphemous rumors...

[ahellofheaven]

Characters: Anna Milton and whoever wants to greet her.
Time: Morning
Location: The Bean
Content: Anna arrives in Chicago, just a little bit freaked out.
Format: Prose
Warnings: Wary angel fresh out of prison? Fear not, she doesn't even know she has her stabby angel dagger yet!

Comments

[legallygreen]

The park was safer during the day than it was at night, but still not as safe as it might have been if it were earlier months. Jennifer had her umbrella over her head as she walked through the park, the rain still hopelessly pouring down on the city, though that morning it was lighter and easier to handle.

When she saw a new figure at the Bean, a female figure, she hurried over in time to hear a name that she recognized. Castiel. The angel friend of the Winchesters that looked so much like John. Not certain whether she was friend or foe, Jennifer approached her carefully, though with a warm smile.

"Hello. Just arrived?"

[ahellofheaven]

Whatever sort of trick this was, in truth she expected to be greeted by more henchmen than a decidedly not angelic woman with an umbrella. They weren't, she could at least assess, in anyone's version of heaven.

It didn't lower her guard at all. If anything, it made less sense. Anna stood her ground, fists clenched, watching the woman with unblinking eyes, trying to sense- anything.

"Arrived where? Who are you?"

[legallygreen]

"Chicago. But not the real one. This is just an illusion of Chicago, built by people who need our help."

Jennifer's smile was still there, but a little sad now. Wasn't what they had enough? Did they have to keep bringing people here? "My name is Jennifer Walters. What's yours?"

[ahellofheaven]

'Chicago' would have been enough to confuse her. Adding 'illusory' and 'built by people' creased her forehead even more, and though this woman didn't seem to be a demon or angel or anything but human, Anna's mind felt dull and distant, her own senses unreliable.

"Anna." That was going to have to do. "Who is it that's brought me here? Where are they?"

There were only a few answers, to Anna's mind, and they'd best be gotten out of the way quickly.

[legallygreen]

"Pleased to meet you Anna."

Jennifer sighed softly before she spoke again. "The people who brought us here are wizards. Where they are currently residing is a mystery, but you can reach them on one of the little devices in the box near you. Whether they will answer your questions to your satisfaction is iffy. They don't particularly tell the entire truth all the time. But apparently lying by omition isn't a crime here."

Reaching into her bag, she took out a smaller umbrella and held it out to Anna. "Here, it's raining pretty hard, and has been for a while. I always carry a few spares for the people I find wandering around without one."

[ahellofheaven]

Anna was sopping wet, but she hadn't noticed. Even in the face of an offered umbrella, eyes piercing the woman stood in front of her, she didn't appear to realize, or much care.

Wizards. It wasn't a word she'd heard in a very long time, but it could be used to mean a lot of things. Her gaze darted briefly toward the box the woman - Jennifer - indicated, before resuming her wide-eyed stare, hair dropping down her face. She didn't take the umbrella. Focus, and a growing sense of urgency, precluded noting any kindnesses for the moment.

"What kind of help."

[legallygreen]

"Fighting some kind of evil. Something that threatens to destroy all the worlds we come from. They still haven't been very forthcoming with information, I'm afraid. But there are still safe places to stay. The Hard Rock and the Blackstone hotels are here for people like us. The Blackstone is warded against the vampires."

Jennifer still held the umbrella, hoping if she coaxed the woman to take it she might dry out a little beneath it. But she would wait patiently. "Unfortunately the streets are rather unsafe. Faeries are looking to make deals that will enslave the unwary. Vampires take people and change them at night. Demons, monsters, and don't pick up any loose change. Some coins have fallen angels inside them."

[ahellofheaven]

Anna's eyes narrowed. The stream of information Jennifer was proffering flowed as quickly and easily as the rain, no sentence making any more sense than the last, but for being accepted at face value. Apparently this 'illusory' world was filled with as many kinds of creatures as her own.

If she took this calm, helpful woman's word at face value and accepted she wasn't in her own world anymore. There was evidence beyond that; Anna felt almost empty. Disconnected from the host, and not because she was hiding. Separate.

Prepared to tell the woman that she was anything but unwary, Anna's eyes snapped up from the umbrella still bridging the gap between the two of them. "Fallen what?"

[legallygreen]

"Fallen angels. I wasn't really a believer myself until I saw someone I knew get taken over by one. But they're real and they're nasty. It's why I tell people to avoid all spare change. They hang out in silver denarii. But you should be okay if you don't pick up any random coins."

Jennifer shrugged her shoulders a little. "I'm sure there are good angels out there too. I've met those as well."

[ahellofheaven]

"Have you." That was more than enough warning; really she'd had plenty already, and whoever had pulled her into this strange Chicago, stage magicians or Castiel or God himself, that was Anna's cue to leave. Stretching her mind and her wings both, though Jennifer would see neither, letting the space around her race forward by itself the way it always seemed to-

"Ow." It had rushed, yes, but not for very long. In one sense, Anna hadn't moved from where she stood. In another, equally real sense, she'd hit what felt like a very tangible wall. With her face.

"Warded." No less wide-eyed, she sounded angry and afraid, demanding answers. "Is everyone here trapped? Or can your 'good angels' come and go?"

[legallygreen]

"Are you well? Injured?"

The concern on Jennifer's face was hardly false as she took a step forward, one hand still holding the umbrella.

"It's okay, please calm down. I know it's not really okay, but getting upset won't change anything. Everyone is trapped here. We come and leave at the whims of the people who brought us here. One day we'll be here, and the next..."

Now was not the time to think about John. "The next, someone disappears without a word. Back to their own worlds."

[ahellofheaven]

Blood seeped slowly from Anna's nose, but she wiped it away, glancing at her hand only briefly in what could have been horror or disgust. Either way, turning to look again at Jennifer through the hair cemented wet against her forehead, she didn't look pleased.

Having a history with being at an invisible higher power's whim, wizards seemed a poor opponent to cave against.

"And you're some kind of greeter?" If there were other angels, Anna couldn't hear them. She started to wonder how hard she'd hit that 'wall', her head beginning to spin.

[legallygreen]

"Not..really. I just don't like the idea of people being sent here, ending up alone in the park, and having to wander around alone in a rainy, strange place. When I showed up it was dark and cold and I was in heels. Nobody should have to deal with that."

Jennifer shrugged her shoulders a little. "If I wanted to hurt you, I probably would have tried already. All I really want to do is get you out of the rain and help you know more about the world here. It's not a nice place, and too many people get hurt because nobody really comes looking for new arrivals."

[ahellofheaven]

The human obsession with rain and getting out of it had never ceased to bewilder Anna. Even when she'd been human, she'd loved to walk outside in all kinds of weather; it was only water. She only noticed it when Jennifer brought it up, and that through an increasingly dizzying set of realizations, most of which slammed into the same wall that Anna had.

"I won't be hurt." She was already bleeding, but that was- she wasn't sure what that was yet. Jennifer, once focused on, seemed like a reasonably kind woman, assuming she wasn't responsible for this. Anna struggled to be anything but furious, beginning to wander away from the rain-spattered twist of metal she'd found herself underneath.

"I can take care of myself."

[legallygreen]

"Everyone can take care of themselves. Whether they do it well or not depends upon what they know about the world."

Noting the bleeding, Jennifer dug in her bag and took out a pack of kleenex. "Here. You've still got a little blood on your face. I understand if you are feeling a little apprehensive. I'd like to walk you to one of the hotels, so you can dry off, because you don't want to be away from home and be sick. That's just awful. But I understand if you don't want me too. At least please take the umbrella?"