New Arrivals Log (January)

[thepull_mods]

Who: January Arrivals, Greeters, & anyone else who happens to be hanging around the Tower Apartments to greet newcomers.
When: Throughout January, 2012(Please Specify Date & Time in Thread Header)
Where: The Sector 4 Baseball Diamond, Parking Lot & Lobby of the Tower Apartments
Summary: This is your catch-all one stop log for arrival interactions!

Comments

awww yeah.

[refrigeratormom]

Mary heard the tell-tale sounds and thud of a new arrival from outside the dugout, looked out the window to confirm, and almost smiled to herself. As intense as this job could be (and invariably was), she craved the business, the emotionality, the pure energy it took to pour herself into caring for someone else and handling someone else's stress. "Rough week" was putting it lightly- even now she didn't like looking at her wedding ring for too long, lest she get caught up in herself again.

Pushing outside into the cold, she could hear the Newcomer already conscious and active, which was good... mostly. He was doing the absolutely charming "screaming to the Heavens" routine, which never got old, oh no. But once she really listened, the voice she heard stopped her cold in her tracks.

It was Dean.

Dean, here. Again. Again and back and whole so soon. Jinx was right, his soul was still here, and god only knew if he would remember anything but who cares he was here.

It took her a few long, long moments to pull herself together (long moments of standing in the thin beams of the solitary light that lit the diamond by night, backlit and framed by Darkness, staring at him openly stunned) and move. And move, and run at him, suddenly irrationally scared that the Darkness would take him again if she didn't get to his side immediately.

"Dean. DEAN!"

Yesss

[fairymicrowaver]

He became aware he was being watched seconds before a voice hit his ears and caused him to turn around. Dean froze, all of his hunter instincts abandoned as Mary ran towards him. His mother, one of the few things that could shatter his guard and get inside it. "...mom?" The question hung in the air even as he moved to intercept her. He had to make sure she was real, and the distress triggered old instincts.

Whatever was wrong he had to make it right. If it was really her, he would do everything to put whatever caused that pained sound in her voice right. "Mom!" The steps in her direction became faster, as he reached out to catch hold of her. "What the hell is going on here?"

[refrigeratormom]

"Dean!" That's all Mary could manage. Explanations and complete sentences would have to come later. She grabbed onto his jacket as soon as he was in arm's reach and yanked him close in a tight, panicked hug like she was trying to squeeze the air out of his lungs. Her face buried in his shoulder muffled the breathless, "You're alive. You're here."

She allowed herself a few long seconds like that, breathing hard just to stay steady, before pulling away and looking him. "You're alive, you're here." Something stung her cheeks- a cold breeze against the tears she hadn't even realized she was crying, and she couldn't stop touching him. Her hands smoothed back his hair, touched his cheeks, tugging at the collar of that stupid jacket. He was solid and real under her hands, solid and real and here. She pulled him close to press her forehead against his with a breathless, "Thank God," before pulling back again. "We should go."

[fairymicrowaver]

And like that his mother gripped his jacket, her arms around him a faint echo of childhood. Dean didn't hesitate to hug her back, his eye shut and breathing slowing down. Until she spoke. ...immediately the world seemed a bit harder to deal with. It could be an alternate reality like the Djinn had showed him. It could be another Djinn dream only how did it sneak up on him, Bobby, and Sam?

Dean lingered in the hug, the comfort something he'd needed for a very long time. "Yeah, I'm here. It's ok, mom." As she pulled back he looked directly at her, trying to see some physical evidence what he was experiencing was real. The tears made his chest ache and he reached up to brush them away. Dean leaned into her hand in his hair, his eyes never leaving hers. "Mom, I've been here before? For that matter, hang on a sec. Where are we?"

As much as he'd love to sit in the situation a little longer. He had to know what was and wasn't real.

[refrigeratormom]

He didn't remember.

That one fact out of everything - wiping her tears, hand in her hair, those pained green eyes- that one thing stood out to her. He didn't remember.

They had to start all over again.

She shut her eyes tight for a labored moment, taking a deep breath to steady herself before she could face his question like a Greeter instead of a panicked mother. He had to be hopelessly confused not only from the situation and her, but how she greeted him. "You're in Canada. In an alternate dimension." She put a hand to his face again. "I can explain everything, but it's not-"

Suddenly she was a blur, yanking her gun from its holster and firing once, twice, three times at something disgusting and winged that proceeded to fall out of the sky behind them, dead. Mary clicked on the safety, put away her still-smoking gun, and grabbed him by the arm. "It's not safe outside. Come on."

[fairymicrowaver]

It was like one of those weird movies where everyone knew what was going on except the hero. Dean paused at the new information. Canada. In a what? "Wha-" But then he heard something and his mother whirled like well a hunter. He'd seen it before in a much younger Mary Winchester. Another view of it from an older age was almost disorienting enough to make him miss a few details.

It was cold out yet she wasn't dressed that way. Instead, she wore a tank top. In January. If she wasn't his mom, whatever she was meant the cold didn't bother her. Dean eyed the think she'd shot for a second, committing it to memory in case he had to do the same. Then she grabbed his arm and he just had to go with his gut. It told him to go with her, to run and most of all be prepared.

Whatever was going on, the answers lie with her. "Yeah. Ok." Dean went with the tug, ready to draw one of the numerous weapons on him in their defense. Just because things were in doubt didn't mean he'd let anything happen to her.

[refrigeratormom]

She pulled him in the direction of a small building right where a dugout should be- not far enough, really, to chance much danger, though the gunshot attracted more Darkness and she at one point had to shoot at an ooze. Yes, an ooze. Shooting it didn't actually do much, but the force of the bullet sent it careening back a few feet to regroup so they could keep running into the small building.

As soon as Mary closed the door behind them it felt to her like walking into a freezer. The temperature was actually quite a lot warmer in there than outside, but there was a draft from the two doors (double doors, both very heavy and secure like bomb shelter doors) and a pair of creepy-looking, disturbingly bland guards who didn't seem to register much. Mary didn't seem to notice or care about them as she shut the second door, shivering hard already. "Jesus," she said, reaching for a coat hanging right next to the door. "I hate the ooze more than anything."

Okay, probably not the right thing to say. Mary glanced at Dean sideways sort of apologetically. "Sorry, I'm not doing a very good job of this. I promise I can answer everything and before you ask, I'm not dead and neither are you."

[fairymicrowaver]

An ooze.

Really?

Dean muttered about it as they ran, his disbelief written on his face. It was like when he found out dragons really did exist. His ability to accept some things just didn't extend to them. But it all ended as he got inside. Nothing felt strange to him. It was just a place to hole up. Which is what they needed in his mind. "It's fine. So let's get a few answers here. If we're both not dead, where is here?

...and why weren't you cold out there?" He'd been half sliding his coat off to offer it to her. "The angels didn't do this did they?" The question had to be asked even if he didn't like it. It could mean Castiel was dead and Raphael had won. Then again it wouldn't be half this pleasant in that case.

Small favors.

[refrigeratormom]

A place to hole up overlooked by two incredibly unsettling Void guards. One Core guard was bad enough, but since that phone threat against the Newcomers the suckers were doubling up, mayor's orders. Mary cast a glance at them then back at Dean with a shaky almost-smile.

"Those are all really long stories." Yes, even the question about being cold. She led him to one side of the small building, a tiny little room with chairs, a table, and a filing cabinet. "For starters, no. The angels are trapped here, too. This is a lot bigger than what they are- it's an entire island, Dean. Think Manhattan. The city we're in is called Siren's Port, and a lot of people end up here exactly the way we did."

[fairymicrowaver]

The guards are met with Dean's hard stare. Just what was going on? His focus turned back to Mary and he followed her into the next room, while tugging off his coat. But The dark green duffle bag on his shoulder isn't given up until he sat down with a sigh. "Is Cas here? I mean if they're taking angels, he'd be one to take to make things difficult."

A lot bigger. It had to say something about his life that he could very easily picture that. What with Eve, Mother of All in existence. "Don't tell me this has to do with Purgatory." Dean asked as he rubbed his temples, the information from the worm dancing in his head. "...Ok so they end up here. Why? What's the reason for it?"

[refrigeratormom]

Mary reached over to the windowsill and swiped a partly-drunk bottle of water from it. "Cas is here, but he's not the reason. It's not about Purgatory, Heaven, Hell, or the Apocalypse." The hardest part was always getting people to think outside their own paradigm. Hell, she was still struggling with it. "This isn't about anything that's happening in our world."

She crossed and uncrossed her legs, shifted restlessly, then finally settled on a position with one leg bouncing restlessly against the concrete floor. It was all nervous energy, jitters, a dam of tension and stress that needed to release. "There's a force here called the Pull that brings people from all different dimensions and universes. It comes from a piece of broken technology and... possibly magic called the Core. It's buried under this field."

[fairymicrowaver]

Outside of everything they'd dealt with. Yeah, that was big. Dean leaned back in his chair and tried to process it. Even God was smaller than what they were faced with? He had a hard time even picturing that. Yet, he had no other choice in the matter. It was a little easier since Eve essentially was on God's level and he had to face that too. "Damn." It was the only word that left his lips but it carried the weight of years of struggling against the big pictured.

And his mother was restless, he could see it and to be honest so was he. What did he need to kill to make things right? Where was the target? And like that it was laid out for him why he was here. The Pull, considering his family and their cursed beginnings. From Grandfather Campbell to Adam himself, they were all touched in some way. As Vessels to the Almighty forces or otherwise. "What does the freaking thing want? Does anyone know?"

Because one thing he'd learned over the years was nothing did something for the hell of it. It always had a purpose. Always.

[refrigeratormom]

Mary sat back, temporarily puzzled into silence. That wasn't something she'd ever thought about before. "Well," she began tentatively, "I don't know if you can even talk about it having motives or... thoughts. It's a broken machine."

Another restless hand through her hair before she absently touches the back of his hand. "The Pull itself is very strong. The city's own citizens can't leave the island. If you try too hard, you... die."

[fairymicrowaver]

It was one of the first things on Dean's mind. Especially after his previous few days mulling over the subjects of Eve and Purgatory. He scratched the back of his neck with one hand and nodded. "And no one knows how to fix it?" He asked as if knowing the answer would be no.

Then silent hit as he pictured trying to leave the city and dying for it. "...this place just keeps getting better and better."

[refrigeratormom]

“I know,” she agreed ruefully, shaking her head. “Don’t take this as gospel, though, I don’t actually know anything about the Core’s real nature.”

Given her luck, it would turn out to be sentient and friends with the talking house and anthropomorphic cats in her life, just to prove her wrong. She nodded her head to the side, considering his question. “Well, no. But everyone thinks they have an answer. Depending on which company you ask, the answer is either to try repairing it or just to destroy it.”

Mary preemptively rolled her chair to the filing cabinet, pulling out pamphlets and papers in preparation for his inevitable question about the companies.

[fairymicrowaver]

He'd have to do the usual pumping the masses for information then. It never hurt to see what everyone else was saying on top of what you heard directly. "We'll find out what it is. Nothing keeps its secrets forever." Bobby had always pulled through and long before him other hunters had too. Not to mention Sam.

Dean folded his arms over his chest at the answer. "Oh great, sounds just like Heaven and Hell. I'm going to feel right at home here." He quipped as he watched her move to the filing cabinet. "I'm guessing you have information on these companies. Both collections of whack jobs or does one side sound like they're not talking out of their ass?"