[castiel † 1] For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;

[rushofwingbeats]

Who: Castiel and you!
Where: Near the southeastern forests of Espoir.
Style: Whatever you want! I'm flexible
Status: Open.

Comments

[gleam_and_glow]

Rapunzel has been exploring, bit by bit anyway. The world at large -- even a dream world at large -- is still a big place, after all, and a little overwhelming to a girl who has spent all but a day and a half confined to a tower. But still, she was managing. She'd even managed to find a decent pair of shoes and a cloak, that was currently wrapped tight about her slight frame, her long train of golden hair still following after her, though she'd made some effort to tie it up so that a mere 30 feet trailed behind her at the moment.

It's in the midst of this wandering that she sees the man dozing on the bench. She paused and tilted her head to the side, curious. Was he all right? It seemed just a little chilly to be napping on a bench. She approached him a bit cautiously, wondering if waking him just to see if he was okay was a bad idea.

Still pondering, she took a seat on the opposite end of the bench, legs crossed, elbows leaning on her knee and chin propped in her palm. She was thinking hard enough that she didn't notice the little green chameleon darting off her shoulder and climbing up the slumbering man's chest. When Rapunzel did notice she hissed softly, scolding. "Pascal!"

[rushofwingbeats]

Castiel is quiet and unmoving in his sleep, and if he's having any dreams there's no external show of it. He certainly doesn't acknowledge the girl sneaking over and sitting in front of him. For what it's worth, he doesn't look externally cold - there's no shivering or chattering of teeth or goosebumps. He just looks like one comfortably asleep gentleman, albeit a little hobo-y, what with the coat and five o'clock shadow.

When the chameleon hops onto his chest, though, he startles slightly, and then after a few moments, wakes. He blinks a few moments before looking up at Rapunzel, leaning forward and either forgetting or disregarding the lizard on his jacket.

"Was I asleep?"

[gleam_and_glow]

Rapunzel startled a bit herself when the man wakes up. Pascal went tumbling with a cooing and dismayed little sound, until he was scooped by the blonde. With a sheepish little shrug, Rapunzel half began to apologize before she heard that question.

"Oh, umm... yes. That's sure what it looked like to me. I was just going to make sure you were okay. What with it being winter and all, chilly for napping. Maybe. Or! Maybe not, depending where you're from."

[rushofwingbeats]

"I'm not cold." He sounded very sure of himself in this matter, at least. He also sounded distracted (and looked so), pulling his hands out of his pockets and staring at the backs and the palms like he was growing sores or something. He flexed his hands and turned them into fists a few times, like he'd forgotten how to work his own body.

"Do you know how long I was asleep for?" He sounds a little demanding now, or maybe concerned, but probably both. There's definitely something wrong.

[gleam_and_glow]

The blonde watched him uncertainly, setting the chameleon back up to his perch on her shoulder before scooting in just a bit nearer to have a better look at the stranger. Hmm. "Well, that's good. Are you okay though? You look a little out of sorts. Or maybe you're just still waking up, I mean, I guess not everyone is a morning person." She realized she was mumbling and rambling a bit and clammed up for a moment before turning her attention to that other question. "Well, at least a little while. I saw you about ten minutes ago, and you hadn't moved between then and just now."

[rushofwingbeats]

Castiel looks tired. There's bags under his eyes and stubble on his jaw and it looks like he's struggling under some pretty heavy mental baggage. Despite that he looks alert, and clean, and primarily concerned by something, most likely his sleeping habits. When Rapunzel moves forward to study him, Castiel watches him. He doesn't mean to stare, but his gaze is hard and intent, and he doesn't blink that often.

"I usually don't fall asleep on benches," he offered. He had slept. Legitimately slept. There was no way this was a good thing. Ten minutes was a longer rest than he'd taken in his life, besides the part where he had fallen.

[gleam_and_glow]

"Honestly, you kind of look like you needed the rest." Rapunzel probably ought to have been a little more off put by the staring, but she took it in stride. Her basis for comparison between what was strange and what was not was a bit limited, and even then, quite skewed.

"Nothing wrong with dozing off a little accidentally, right?" Even she did it in between one hobby and another.

[rushofwingbeats]

"Thank you, but I'm fine." He stares off at the ground, his eyebrows knit close in deep thought. Then he looks up at the girl, studying the chameleon and letting his eyes trace the long locks of hair accompanying her on the bench.

"I don't sleep," he rumbles. "Ever. If I'm sleeping now.... something's wrong with me. More than being trapped in this place."

[gleam_and_glow]

"Ever?" That had wide green eyes blinking rapidly. That sounded exhausting. But then, if it was natural for him, maybe it wasn't. Usually. He sure looked exhausted now.

She lifted her hands to toy with a lock of blonde hair thoughtfully. "Well, maybe that's why?" Rapunzel pursed her lips for a moment. "Aurora and a couple others said that this is a dream world -- even if I'm not sure how that really works. But maybe it's making you sleepy because of what it is."

[rushofwingbeats]

"Not until now," he assured the girl.

"If this place can make people sleep, it's more powerful than I though." He was beginning to suspect that Raphael had not created this place, merely tossed him into it. "I didn't dream. Should I have?" he added, because this seemed the next sensible thing to say. What an angel's dreams would look like... well, that was a strange thing to think. His dreams would be worse, he was sure.

[gleam_and_glow]

Rapunzel nodded a bit at that. "I've been thinking a lot about it, really. This place is really different from home. That I'm even here seems, well..." She shrugged slender shoulders slightly, but turned her attention to his other question.

"Not necessarily. People don't dream every time they sleep, especially if it's a short nap. Or sometimes you don't remember your dreams anyway." She paused for a moment before adding. "Is it usual, for people not to sleep at all where you're from?"

[rushofwingbeats]

"I also have someplace important to be," he says. Dean is wandering around trying to stop Crowley and Raphael is...

He swallows and stops thinking about it. For now, negative thoughts are useless.

"My kind do not sleep," he explains. "We gain our strength from the clouds and our blessed Father, and don't require the recharging that humans do."

[gleam_and_glow]

"Mm. Me too. There's someone back home I'm really worried about."

Rapunzel set her hands on her knees looking back to him, a bit confused at what he had to say. "Your kind?" Obviously not human -- but he looked awfully human. Then again, appearances could be deceiving. She'd learned that in some fable or another, right? "What are you then? I've never heard of anyone getting strength from clouds before. But I haven't really been all that many places, honestly."

[rushofwingbeats]

"I also have someone I need to check on." That seemed like a good explanation of a civil war in heaven. "I'm an Angel of the Lord." It felt comforting to say, even now, even to these captives he shared this prison with. Angel of nothing, here, but it was important to stick to what he had left. Not much it seemed, these days. "Getting my strength from the clouds is not technically correct. Angels gain strength from being in Heaven."

[gleam_and_glow]

Somehow that hadn't been the answer that Rapunzel was expecting. The surprise was clear on her face. "Oh well, that makes sense. The strength from being in Heaven thing. But I didn't know that there really was such a thing as angels." She knew her experience was a bit limited, still this was definitely a surprise. Pascal skittered down from her shoulder then, towards the no longer sleeping stranger and scaled up the back of the bench near his shoulder to peer around him. Rapunzel blinked a bit as the chameleon made a little pantomime of wings and shook his head.

[rushofwingbeats]

"There are, though up until recently in my universe we had kept ourselves hidden from human eyes. I don't know if there are angels where you come from." Perhaps there were more of his brothers spread across this new multiverse, but that was a question for another day.

He turned from the girl to the chameleon. Lizards were not usually intelligent and certainly incapable of understanding human speech, but this one obviously knew exactly what he was talking about. He had already spoken to an intelligent weather-controlling horse, so this hardly seemed as strange. "Your senses are too dull to perceive them," he answered, feeling a little stupid. "You can understand what I'm saying."