Day 57: Cafeteria

[gald_digger]

Edgar's charming company had raised Anise's spirits enough that not even the Head Doctor's voice could bring them back down. Besides, she was feeling pretty sure that Landel wasn't actually around. To begin with, it wouldn't make sense, and secondly, his announcements sounded suspiciously like ones she'd already heard before. While Anise wasn't

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[poorexample]

Speaking with Sam had not gone as terribly as Castiel had suspected it would; it seemed that the younger Winchester had not been impressed upon as much as he had thought. That still didn't mean that there was anything like trust between them, but he had in fact revealed more to Sam than he had to Dean. That was mostly due to the fact that Sam had experienced more and could, in theory, better understand how it might have been possible for Castiel to have saved Dean

[affictitious]

Nothing like a morning of sleeping in when he had just been forced to ruin the lives of fifteen year old teenagers and their clones. Fifteen year olds. You have got to be kidding. Sure, prick jocks in college? Yeah. Fine. Deserved it, sometimes. Fifteen year olds.

Gabriel had not played the role of an avenging angel for a very, very long time, but he was willing to make an exception.

And, worst yet, the idea of making it alone was pretty. Well, it was pretty damn nixed by now. Community, bub. That was what it had all come to, and whether or not he was going to survive with two hot-headed mutants trying to get revenge for being baked in a modern confectionery delight. Maybe one. Half of one? Did clones count for that sort of thing? Whatever. The important thing was he had been forced to recognize that being a pagan and being an archangel wasn't going to help him here

[poorexample]

It didn't take long for Gabriel to show himself. That was another sign that this was serious; in Castiel's experience, whenever his brother actually took something seriously, something catastrophic was going on. Granted, Gabriel wasn't going to behave as such. He settled down while spouting more of his nonsense, causing Castiel to simply stare back at him

[affictitious]

Okay, Dad. Were you listening? Because that was seriously one lined-up opening, conveniently placed right where he needed it to be. Like, too convenient. Creepy.

Not that he he continually been entertaining the idea that the Big G himself had resurrected him and put him here to suffer another life with Winchesters (who were still screwing the pooch every other minute) and the angel that was their helpful fairy guide through life. Still. To this day. No continuing angst here, folks. No daddy issues. No Maury.

It was all very Chekov's gun. "Right. Okay, to play into that very convenient string of exposition, that guard thing? Yeah. She's not the only one who had a brain getting poked around." He wasn't sure why he was telling Castiel, really. It sure wouldn't change anything about last night, but it seemed... like a reasonable thing to do. It wasn't a warning or anything, obviously. "I dunno if you've heard about the whole brainwashing thing, but it's, uh. Kind of a legitimate threat. Go figure."

[poorexample]

While it seemed as if it was almost impossible for Gabriel to ever say anything directly (which was one of the most noticeable ways in which they were the exact opposite of each other), even Castiel was able to pick up on the implication. His brother's mind had been tampered with last night, likely meaning that he had been assigned to guard an area as well

[affictitious]

"Calm down there, Barbara Walters. This isn't exactly something I'm super thrilled to spill the beans on, all right?" The fact that he'd just admitted that was bad enough. Desperation was a messy business even when Tak wasn't dropping tongues on your dashboard. Desperation to... not get stabbed anywhere or die or get pushed off a cliff. Look, people like him were the sort of people to get that kind of crap. Being cautious wasn't his style, but he sure needed to learn to adapt.

And Gabriel was, if anything, quite adaptable. Kind of needed to be to blend in with the locals when you were a big name.

"Anyway, details are sketchy. No big surprise. Pseudo-doctors, kidnapped after dinner, blah blah blah..." He shrugged to show how little he cared that apparent humans had the capability to touch his mind (which technically wasn't even in this damn body) without losing their own minds or exploding. Archangels were not perceptible in any capacity to humans. Any. Capacity. So obviously he was dealing with... Kryptonians. That was the only

[poorexample]

Despite the fact that Gabriel would rather had kept the details to himself, Castiel appreciated that he was willing to share as much as he did. It gave him some information to work with, particularly the fact that they came to collect subjects for brainwashing after dinner. That was something he could be aware of and try to anticipate, at the very least. He realized that fighting back was likely futile, but that wouldn't prevent him from trying

[affictitious]

Oh, ouch. His little brother just had to go into forbidden territory, didn't he?

"No," was his immediate, clipped answer. Look, he was great at hiding in general - and it'd been annoying enough when Peter had actually accused (his words, not Peter's) of being the guy himself - but family was just. One thing he didn't want to talk about, Dad being the top of the "go screw themselves" list. Except in a polite, holy way, like "go contemplate the nature of the universe in the Bermuda Triangle and get lost for a century or two

[poorexample]

It was difficult to believe what Gabriel was saying, despite the harsh way that he'd responded (or perhaps because of it). How could it make sense unless he'd believed he'd been working on orders from Heaven? After he'd left, he had only ever been working for himself, and -- as he just pointed out -- sometimes that even involved killing. While Castiel had shed his fair share of blood, he always did so for a reason. Gabriel's concept of giving people their just desserts seemed petty -- and more than that, the result of some sort of God complex

[affictitious]

Well, sound the freaking bells! Someone besides him was starting to get freaked out!

"About damn time, Sherlock," he grunted, turning his head away from his brother to look out at the pulsing flood of humans around them. How many others had been forced into what he had? It wasn't just him. Sure, Gabriel was vain sometimes, but he wasn't a moron. Peter had said something about the same thing happening to him. Was it only the people - the things - that were beyond human? Fictional superheroes and archangels were on two totally different levels. Those were planes that didn't touch, let alone exist in the same dimension.

"Did you figure out it was time to worry before or after the guys revived a couple of angels? Humans shouldn't have this kind of power. To be contrary, they can't. This is beyond any attempt they could make at science, bro." This was taking up Dad's mantle, what the humans aptly called playing God. He might have done a similar thing, but - it was useless to explain to anyone, especially someone like Castiel. "And I don'

[poorexample]

The last thing that Castiel needed at that moment was for Gabriel to treat him like he knew nothing. He had realized from the start how serious their situation had been, but gaining access to an archangel's mind reached an entirely different level than anything he'd witnessed beforehand. Removing an angel's abilities wasn't impossible, but taking complete control should have been

[affictitious]

The archangel sighed with subdued exasperation, turning his head to watch the door. Hiding behind his veiled amusement was really getting pretty damn difficult. "Really, Castiel? Do you think I get a big kick out of dropping all of these super-vague hints everywhere?" Okay, he did, but that wasn't the point. And maybe saying he enjoyed it with this subject was going a little too far. Or a lot. "Even Hansel and freaking Gretel followed the crumbs faster."

This was the whole problem with the destiny versus free will argument. As a, er, somewhat firm supporter of... humanity, he had put his vote in the free will ballot. It wouldn't decide the election, but even he could acknowledge what that meant without much vanity. There was consideration to be put into whether he thought telling Castiel what had happened in the angel's foreseeable future would change the time line at all. If he was following the examples put out by those other Quantum Leap angel escapades, the answer was a big-ol' resounding hell no, fate for life.Even taking his

[poorexample]

In fact, Castiel did believe that Gabriel enjoyed being cryptic. The fact that he had recreated the sets of TV shows in order to make some sort of point to both Sam and Dean made it clear that the archangel was a fan of explaining things in the most roundabout way possible. It had grated on him then and it grated on him now. All they had right now was each other, seeing how both of the Winchesters had no idea of what they were truly facing, and yet Gabriel was still persisting in these evasive maneuvers

[affictitious]

Well, at least he hadn't cried. That would have totally been embarrassing for them both, even if seeing any change in Castiel's emotional demeanor was like watching a Nicholas Cage movie that wasn't filled with a plethora of crazy eye moments.

That was, it didn't really happen. Ever. But Gabriel had also been spending a few hundred years - give or take - around humans, and even a vessel gave off tell-tale signs. Gee, someone cared. That sure filled him full of warm and rosy feelings. Except, you know, Castiel had been miraculously absent during that whole diabolical scheme and he'd been pushed into the angelic savior caricature, with dramatic entrance and everything. Tables, turning, etc.

"How do you think?" It wasn't a really big secret that killing an archangel wasn't even near on the same level as killing one of the Host missing out on the whole arch thing. It was a private club, and murder stayed up in the white collar portion. To be honest, Gabriel wasn't sure how much he wanted to get into the Elysian Fields disaster.

[poorexample]

Considering the seriousness of this situation, Castiel was hardly in the mood for Gabriel's attitude. He didn't need to be treated as if he was incompetent. What he'd wanted to know was the circumstances, since he'd already suspected -- known, deep down, in fact -- that Lucifer was the one behind it. Gabriel had left Heaven to get away from their bloodthirsty family members, so