Knowledge is good, okay?
Who; will_end_you & clairedanvers
What; Dean's gonna teach Claire all about monsters and ways she can protect herself.
Where; The library.
When; Now
Rating; PG for language cause it's Dean?
Status; Ongoing
( Lessons a la supernatural style )
What; Dean's gonna teach Claire all about monsters and ways she can protect herself.
Where; The library.
When; Now
Rating; PG for language cause it's Dean?
Status; Ongoing
( Lessons a la supernatural style )
He sighs, running a hand over his face. "But if taking out the purely evil vampires is gonna make the other ones attack you, you've gotta take them all out. I don't think it's... impossible, exactly, but it's definitely a challenge. Especially in large groups."
Dean takes a deep breath. "But enough about vampires, unless you've got any more questions?" Claire had expressed interest in learning about other supernatural creatures, after all. It would be good if they could cover something other than vampires today. She seemed to have dealing with them down pretty good anyway.
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She's glad to think about something else now and nods eagerly at Dean. "Yes, please. What else is out there." Claire opens her bag and takes out a notebook and pen in which she keeps all of her research written down in.
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But there were other things that they needed to talk about that didn't concern the morals of vampires. Dean leaned forward, folding his arms on the table in front of him. "Lots of things." It wasn't like there was any point in sugarcoating it for her.
"Pretty much anything you can think of. Ghosts, demons, werewolves, shapeshifters, changlings, angry spirits, pagan gods, djinn, wendigos, hell hounds, reapers, angels. You name it, we've probably fought it. All myths come from somewhere, right? Now. The good news is, all these things can be fought, killed, and taken care of. And they don't usually work on an organized basis. Pretty much every evil thing out there is a loner. The big exception being vampires, but you already know about them."
"Some of these creatures are more common than others. And some of them, like reapers, only come after you if you're dying. Or if you've really pissed one off. Hell hounds. They'll try to get you if you make a deal with a demon. Come and drag your ass to Hell. Don't make any deals and you're golden there." He pauses, thinking for a moment. "I think the things that we've run into the most are ghosts, demons, angry spirits, shapeshifters, and angels. The methods for dealing with any of these are pretty straight forward. Angels are the most difficult. You have to kill one with an angel's blade. But you can trap them if you know how. And I know most people think of cutesy little winged things, but angels are warriors of God. They're not fun to deal with and most of them aren't a whole hell of a lot better than demons. Luckily, all of the ones that ended up here are decent."
Dean pauses again, watching Claire's reaction. This was probably a lot to absorb, but he didn't know how much time he'd have down here. Apparently he'd already disappeared twice before. "Any questions?"
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She was glad to learn from Dean, because it seemed like he wouldn't sugarcoat things for her. He seemed very matter of fact, this is how it is and that meant he wouldn't treat her like she was a little girl who couldn't handle it or take it. Having graduated from High School early and gone to University early, she'd had her fill of people looking down on her and treating her like she didn't belong or couldn't possibly understand. Dean didn't seem to be doing that with her and she couldn't appreciate it more.
As he spoke she diligently took notes, her pen scratching quickly over the notebook she had pulled out of her bag. The number of things he listed surprised her. And she could tell she was going to have to do a lot of research on her own too outside of whatever Dean could tell her. She didn't want to hog all of his time, after all.
“Okay, okay... uhm. A few questions. What kinds of deals do demons try to make? What are the straight forward methods for dealing with ghosts, demons and angry spirits? How can you tell if something is a shape-shifter? I mean I'm assuming they can look like... anything? If Angels are doing God's work, don't we need to trust what they're doing? I mean... it's hard to think of them as being evil and needing to die.” Her eyes narrowed a bit and she pushed her hair back behind her ears as she looked over her notes. “Oh, and what are djinn and wendigos?”
And finally she looks up at Dean, her eyes wide and curious and of course feeling a little bad that she had so many questions. That usually annoyed people a lot, her curiosity.
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"Demons will make any kind of deal. Pretty much anything that you want, they can give you. For a price. You want to be a famous doctor, an amazing artist, save a dying loved one, bring someone back from the dead... Hell. If you want them to kill someone, they'll do it. The kicker is that you have to sell them your soul. Standard deal is that they send the hell hounds for your ass in ten years. But they'll do it sooner if they really want you. Either way, when your time's up, you go to Hell. And believe me. It'll make this place look like sunshine and daisies." He was going to leave out the part about demons coming after babies and giving them abilities for now. The main point was that demons were bad and people shouldn't make deals with them. Not that Dean could really talk about that.
"Angry spirits and ghosts are... pretty much the same thing. Or at least they can be. I have run into at least one ghost that wasn't trying to off me. But those types of spirits and demons can be held off with salt. You make a line of salt across all the windows and doors or, if you need to, you make a circle of salt around yourself and they can't cross it unless the line is broken. Angry spirits and ghosts can also be repeled with pure iron. Like a fire poker or something's probably your best bet there. Or shotgun shells packed with rocksalt. That'll work wonders. At least temporarily. Best way to deal with a spirit is to figure out who it is and where they're buried. Then you've gotta salt and burn the bones." He was very matter of fact about it, but he knew that the idea of digging up a grave wasn't something that sat very well with a lot of people. But doing so could save lives.
"Now. Demons can be a lot nastier in some ways. Every demon was once a human. And they have to possess a human or they just look like smoke. They've got their own goals and they'll try to get in your head, find out about your past and tell you lies. Especially if you've got one trapped. It'll try to get you close enough that it can take you out. Luckily, there's a few things you can do." He paused, pulling a book off the top of his stack and flipping through it until he found a diagram. Dean turned the book so it was facing Claire and pointed to each diagram in turn. "A devil's trap like this one, this one, or this one can be used to contain a demon. Of course, you have to draw them pretty big. Under a run or on the ceiling are the best places to put one. If they see it before they're in it, they can break the circle and it's useless.
"There's also..." He paused again, pulling a folded up piece of notebook paper and handing it to Claire. "This. It's an... incantation of sorts. Trap a demon, read them that little bedtime story, and it'll send their ass right back to Hell. And if you're lucky they haven't killed off the person whose body they're possessing. Since they can be possessing just about anybody, there's a few ways that you can tell if you're dealing with a demon; they'll flinch at the name of the lord and if you splash them with holy water, it'll burn them. Pretty straight forward."
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Dean stops talking for a few minutes, rifling through his duffle bag and giving her sometime to catch up with her note taking. When he looks back up, he slides a small, sheathed knife across the table at her. "With shapeshifters, yeah. They can look like anybody too. They can also access the memories of the person that they look like. So you can't really ask them any tricky questions that only that person would know. If you're lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one on film, their eyes will glow. It'll look like some kind of lens flare. If you're not that lucky or you want to make sure, silver burns them. If you nick their arm or something with a silver blade, you'll know that they're a shifter. The wound will steam and all sorts of fun stuff. A silver bullet or knife to the heart will kill one."
He took a deep breath. Angels. Now that was a touchy subject. "Not all angels are doing God's work. Not all of them have even seen God, and some of the ones that are higher up on the food chain like to pass down orders to the others. They don't all agree with each other. And as someone who's had several different angels try to kill him, his brother, his parents, and the rest of his family? Yeah. Some of them are pretty fucking evil. And they'll do anything to try and get someone to agree with whatever their plan is."
"Djinn are like...genies. Except, you know, less "I Dream of Genie" and more.... not. Anyway. They don't live in lamps or anything. And they don't grant wishes. Not really. Once they get their hands on you, they'll put you under and stick you in a dream world that coincides with, well.... with what you really want. It can rearrange your entire life. But it's just a dream. And while you're in the dream, the djinn feeds off your life force until you're dead. Nice, huh?"
"And the Wedigo. It's like I really tall man that's kind of... wolfish. They live in wooded areas and they're faster than a normal human. They'll catch people and tie them up so that they can, well.. feed for an extended period of time. Typically, this will be in a cave or someplace like that where they make their lair. Wendigos originate in Native American folk lore. A lot of those legends have their basis is things that are true." He stops for a moment, grinning. "Of course. Big foot's a hoax."
Dean leaned back in his chair, running a hand over his hair. "Any other questions?" He didn't mind talking to Claire about this. She was smart enough that she didn't ask stupid questions and it was almost enjoyable talking to her. Aside from all the monster stuff. But it wasn't like any of that was new for him.
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She continues to diligently take notes, nodding eagerly at several different times. She was really curious about how Dean knew so much about all of this. And at the same time, she was a little bit scared. Vampires were scary enough. It was a little disconcerting to think that there were even more things out there.
In fact she shudders at the description of a Djinn. That one seems the most scary to her. But she writes it all down in her notebook. And when he seems to be finished, she pulls the papers with the devil's trap symbols over to her and starts to draw those into her own notebook as best she can.
"Wow, this is a lot of stuff. I mean... there's a lot of stuff out there." Way more than she had even considered anyway. "But it's good to know. I'm going to have to start carrying salt with me everywhere. How do you know all of this?"
When she gets to the incantation to copy it down, she gets curious yet again. "Is this Latin?
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When she asks her next two questions, Dean swallows, but quickly covers it up with a careless grin. He should have known that she'd ask something like that. It was an obvious question to ask and she seemed to be really curious about everything. While he considered how much he wanted to tell her about his family, Dean decided that he would answer her other question first. That one was simple enough.
"Yeah. That's Latin. A lot of summoning... incantations and stuff are in latin. There's one for blessing water, too. To make it Holy Water. If I could just..." He turns, leafing through another one of the books from the stack next to him. When he finds what he's looking for, he turns the book so it's facing Claire and slides it towards her. "There. You need a rosary, too. Drop it in the water, recite that, and dunk the demon."
Now for Claire's other question. "I learned most of this from my dad. He raised me and my brother to hunt these things down. To save people. We've been on the road since I was four and my brother, Sam, was less than a year old. Things were pretty normal before then, but... a demon killed our mother. And once dad realized what was out there, he decided that he was going to hunt it down. I guess it's kind of the family business to know these sorts of things.
"There are other people here, too - people from back home - that you can go to if you need something. If, you know... I'm not around anymore." Since people seemed to be sent away at random.
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And then of course she has another musing because Claire's mind can be like a hedge maze of twisty-turny thoughts. She pauses, tapping the end of the pen against her notebook. "I've always wondered why it's so easy to make water holy water. The Pope prays over it and ta-da, it's holy! Or whatever. Weird."
She looks up, listening to his explanation of his life. She can't imagine having been raised like that. But also, having been thrown into Morganville without knowing anything, it probably would have been nice to have had all of this knowledge prior to that. But at the idea of his not being around anymore, she frowned. Dean kind of felt like a security blanket for all the creepy weird things that went on in the world. She didn't like the idea of his not being here.
"So you have a brother. Is he here? Does he know all of this stuff too?"
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Dean shrugs. "Who knows. Either way, it works, so I'm not going to complain. Looking a gift horse in the mouth and all that." He's not 100% clear on the technicalities of how holy water is created. As long as it repels demons, it's good enough for him.
"Yeah. Sammy's here. He's left once since I've been here, but he's around right now. And he knows everything that I do about hunting. Back home I'm usually on the road with him. Working to save people from the things that they don't are out there. If you need anything and you can't get ahold of me, you can ask for Sam Winchester or Bobby Singer. Both of them will be able to help." The thought that he might leave this place against his will isn't really comforting. While he really should be back home, a lot of his family is down here. So it's difficult for him to believe that he would be better off back home.
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