knightsoflegend | chicago ♔ subscribe me not to darkness

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chicago ♔ subscribe me not to darkness

♬ To Darkness - Mumford and Sons

WHO || Buffy Summers, Sam Winchester, Robin Wood [closed]
WHAT || Buffy accompanies Sam to Chicago, seeking answers about Dean's past... and the fate of the version of Sam from this world
WHERE || Chicago, USA
WHEN || Late-October [back-dated]
HOW || Actionspam

Sam Winchester has not a very easy time of this world.

Most of the reasons for which, it seems, can be traced back to the fact that there was another Sam Winchester native to this dimension. One who somehow managed to alienate his brother Dean to the point where he almost murdered Sam on sight, and it's been a very slow, uphill battle ever since to get Dean to say more than two non-hostile words in a row to him.

An uphill battle that's going too slowly for Sam's taste.

Upon googling his own name and doing some research in hunter circles, he learned more and more disturbing facts - including the fact that he and Dean from this world were held responsible for the deaths of Jo & Ellen Harvelle, and Bobby Singer. Distraught by what he'd learned, he shared the facts with his new friend, Buffy, who agreed to travel with him to Chicago tracing down one of the only leads they have on finding out more about what happened, since Dean doesn't seem inclined to share.

And so off they go to Chicago - home to some of Buffy's own demons - to check out the Hunter's bar run by Robin Wood.

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No offense, Sam, but... it's kind of hard to talk about one without the other. [ she nods off the roof ] Take a look around. What do you see down there?

[While it's a fair enough comment, it's also mildly irritating.

It would be less so if he wasn't dealing with a truckload of drama involving him, but he'd created this mess by avoiding talking about anything.

He peers off the roof, taking in the view (spot 23).]

[ they're not so far up that the people are reduced to ants, and so he sees plenty bustling too and fro, wrapped up against the chill october air. the city is alive at this hour, traffic and conversations and peddlers and beggars and limos creating an elaborate patchwork of motion. it's... a city, with all that entails. she watches him with interest, waiting for his response. ]

[So basically what he expected to see.]

A city at sundown. People heading home from work or heading out for the evening. An intricate network of people and community, electricity and steel working together to keep everything running.

[He pauses before he adds:]

Back home I'd comment on how ninety-nine percent of them have no idea the things that were going on around them, but things are...different here. At least in certain ways. [Another beat, then:] But they probably still don't realize how fragile it all is. People tend to take a lot of things for granted.

[Whoops he got...nerdy and philosophical.]

They really do. Things might not be as different here as you realize. [ she reaches up to drag her fingers through the back of his hair, keeping his head locked in place. ] Look past them. I know you can see it, Sam. What everyone else can't.

[His brows furrow, as if he doesn't quite understand, but her fingernails against his scalp is as distracting as the rest of her.

And so he looks, even though he has no real clue what she's talking about or what he's supposed to do, trying to let it all go in a way, as if losing focus on the individual pieces will let him see whatever she seems to think is 'behind' it.]

What am I look for exactly?

I think you know. Demons, Sam. You can see demons.

[ and in fact, the more he looks, the more things start to shimmer into view, as if they were there all along, out of the corner of his eye, an extra layer of movement below that's

well

everywhere.

everywhere people are gathered, people are arguing, beneath the framework of metal and flesh, creatures are lurking and roiling, fading in and out, as if drawn here and there. it's hard to say what they're even doing, and everyone seems completely unaware of their presence. ] It's easy for people with the sight to catch the more powerful ones without even trying. But it goes deeper than that. They're always pressing against the edge of this world, some just on the verge of spilling over.

Trying to feed.

[That's...not what he was expecting.

To him, demons are an ever present threat, but he hasn't seen that many of them. They crawl up from Hell from time to time, possess someone, do their dirty work, making deals, condemn human souls to hell, but they're no harder for him to see than anyone else when they show themselves. Their eyes give them away, or the smoke trails and the sulfur they leave behind.

This is so much worse than that.]

They're...everywhere.

[Just beneath the surface, not far below in the Pit. Just waiting.

He stares for what probably seems a long time, unable to look away. It takes him taking a step or two away from the edge, blocking his view, before he can stop.]

They're drawn to suffering and vice. Did you think those things were hard to come by in this world?

[His mouth is dry as he turns his head to look at her.]

...No. Especially not in a big city like Chicago.

[So many people in such a small space. Crime and booze and poverty. It wouldn't be hard to find either of those things.]

It is worse in these kinds of places, you're right. [ she looks almost proud ] Gold star.

But they're easy to find in any place on earth, if you know how to look. Greed demons find the greedy and feed, and grow in power or reproduce. Pride demons shadow the proud to do the same. They multiply and multiply, and wherever they gather in mass, they tip the scales, push people closer to temptation, make it harder for them to turn around.

It's a self-sustaining system, a cancer devouring this world and everyone in it, and it's the reality that underlies every single thing that happens here.

So you're right. Most people will never really know how fragile things are. How close this world is to the edge of despair.

Demons, from each of the nine Hells.

[Thanks for that bit, Dumage. No, but really. Nine Hells. And denizens from each are this fucking close?

It's pretty...horrifying, really.]

I'm guessing this isn't something particularly common or those Hunters wouldn't be sitting in that bar having drinks right now. So how do you know all of this?

[The who are you really goes unsaid. She's not just some hunter that happened to know the other version of him.]

Most of those Hunters can't even see demons. The ones who can don't understand what they're really looking at. And very few of them have as powerful of a gift as you do.

[ she turns and hops up to sit on the edge, facing him, legs crossed, hands gripping the stone on either side of her. ]

I've been around the block, Sam. I was there through the whole big mess with you and your brother. I know what you both did for each other. Did to each other.

And the real kicker is? You both thought you were doing the same thing. [ she jerks her head behind her towards the city ] Putting an end to that.

But Dean can.

[It's not even a question.]

Then my brother knows you? What do you think he's going to tell me when he find out I talked to you?

[It's worth knowing what to prepare for, because Dean was good at making snap judgements, at ignoring the grey between the black and white.]

But we went about it in different ways? And whatever I was doing...I screwed up somewhere. Made the wrong choice.

[A guess, but he's pretty sure he's right.]

[ her expression becomes almost sympathetic at the last part. ] Oh, Sam, no.

You stopped Dean from making the biggest mistake of his life. At the cost of the thing you valued more than anything.

Your relationship with him.

[He didn't fail to notice that she didn't answer his first question, okay. Just pointing that out.]

What was he going to do?

[He probably doesn't want to know.]

Become a martyr for a cause he didn't really understand, and in so doing, more likely make everything you saw down there worse, not better.

And lose himself in the process. All his memories, everything that made him him. Worse than a Veil wipe.

Worse than death.

[It's information, but it's not helping. He feels like he knows even less than he used to.]

He couldn't have honestly thought I'd let him do something like that.

He has an amazing capacity for self-deception. And considering who else was trying to stop him, well.

It didn't seem to look too good for you to argue too much. Not that you didn't at first. But the more you protested, the more he started to wonder if you were both really on the same side.

He stopped trusting you. You didn't really have much left to lose.

[It didn't make any sense. There were too many other players left unnamed, things he didn't understand.

But if he didn't have anything left to lose...]

So, what? Did I stop him? Get myself killed in the process? Did I take his place? What?

[ ♬ the line begins to blur - nine inch nails ]

There was only one way to stop him.

He had to be driven to quit of his own accord. To feel like the cost was too high. That it wasn't worth it to go on anymore.

Losing you to Hell, seeing you agree to forsake your own humanity to betray the cause he thought you'd both been fighting for - to stop him.

That did it, Sam.

It broke him.

Did I become...one of those things?

[He gestures to the quivering mass of hideous behind that thin wall.

It doesn't escape him that it sounded like in order to make Dean give up, he had to do the same. Become a monster to save his brother from becoming nothing more than, what, a shell?]

What happened to the Harvelle's? To Bobby?

A demon? [ she laughs at that. ] No way. Humans can't turn into demons, for one. They're more... abstracts given form. They don't have souls.

Sam became a fiend. Immortal, powerful, inhuman, but still himself in every way that counts.

The Harvelles and Bobby Singer were just three more casualties on the quest your brother was undertaking. Demons took the girls. Iscariot killed Bobby.

[His lips press together.]

That's why he tried to kill me the moment he saw me. He thought I was...that. He asked...which one sent me. If it was Lucifer.

[So they...were gone. And by the sounds of it, Dean was the one responsible, if he's going strictly on her word? He doesn't know Iscariot, but he's sure as hell gonna find out later.]

And he's...still around. Somewhere?

[He means...himself.]

Edited 2015-01-09 20:40 (UTC)

Somewhere. [ her eyes sling to the ground, indicating down there. ]

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