hadriel_logs | August 15th; It's a Spooky Party!

Who: Castiel and YOU. ALL OF YOU.
What: It's a party! It was going to be a fun game of Twister party, but now it's a spoopy party. This is a massive mingle, so please feel free to write your own starters! And feel free to jump on the party game headers as well, or include them in your starters too!
Where: The bar!
When: August 15th
Warnings: ALL THE WARNINGS. No, I lie. Alcohol, truth or dare, people falling on each other, scary stories maybe and snogging in a closet. And talking about feelings. Please add your own warnings to your comment thread headers and I will add them to the list!

Whether or not the lights were off, Castiel was determined to go ahead with his plan to cheer up the residents of Hadriel, and get them interacting with each other. He'd made his plans a week in advance, and when it came right down to it, the idea of whether or not he would allow Fear to get in the way of having fun was practically moot. Of course he wouldn't. It was far simpler to be oblivious, far easier to overcome fear - at least his own, if not the god - with amusement, and companionship.

It threw a bit of a monkey wrench into his plans, and was, it had to be said, particularly devastating for his personal party trick in particular. How would his "pull my finger" joke work now? But he was determined to soldier on, and that meant that the bar was taken over by an eager angel, complete with food that had been collected from the orchard, and around the town, a pack of cards, a bag full of pebbles, a bunch of sticks with tiny carvings on them, and as much paint as he had left over from his aborted attempt to redecorate the Winchester apartment.

Not much of a party, but that was what guests were for. And party games. And alcohol, obviously--that was why it was being held at a bar.

So maybe they'd have to bring their own light, and perhaps people might take advantage of the spooky mood and audience to tell some of those stories that Fear wanted people to share, or to play horrid tricks on each other...but so long as things didn't turn into a remake of Cabin in the Woods, Evil Dead, or House on Haunted Hill, they were probably fine. Actually, scratch that, so long as it didn't turn into any horror movie ever, they were probably fine.

But then, with Twister, Truth or Dare and Poker (any of which you can add "strip" in front of and they will be infinitely more fun) as available gaming options, perhaps it was a horror movie already.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ River affixes the man with a look, as if he were being deliberately obtuse, letting her arms drop to her sides. ]

The purpose of you has been determined too long by the other. The purpose of her was the same. Infiltrate. Kill. Report. They didn't get as far, with her, but they got farther.

[ She switches to Mandarin, after the surprise and understanding bolted through his mind caught her attention. ] Your mind may heal. Hers will not. Too much has been taken away, scraped with the surgical scalpel, never to return.

Games can be useful. We learn, through games, hide and seek becomes prey and predator. They're useful. They're tests.

[ River smiles as he looks her over. ]

If she kisses the blue boy would the soldier get angry?

[Her speech is like a puzzle to be solved: confusing at first, but it makes sense as it passes through his mind. The switch to Mandarin goes more smoothly this time, now that he knows she speaks it.]

You're like me?

[He's never met someone like him before. Or maybe he has. He's not sure. He feels like he should remember something here, but he doesn't.

That last part though, that makes him frown. It shouldn't make him angry, but the thought does... irk him.]

Does he... want you to?

[If it makes Steve happy, he should be okay with it.

Should be.

He's not sure he will though.]

They said they were a school, they said they were helping. They hurt her instead. Hurt a lot of them. Cut out the parts that didn't help them, took them away, made her stronger, faster, more dangerous, and now she's left with stardust and hand grenades for feelings all happening at the wrong time in the wrong order. She doesn't think like a girl, not anymore.

She's a weapon. Like you. Struggling to be a person again. Like you.

[ Watching him consider her...not quite request, not quite suggestion, River tilts her head before pulling a face and shrugging. ]

He thinks she's pretty.

He's probably too nice to think of kissing her on his own. Yet.

It's not a theft! She doesn't want to take him from you; can't there be a share?

[The conversation is going in two places at once, and he can certainly follow it, but he's not sure he wants to. She's like him, she says, but different, she says.]

Who was it?

[Was it Hydra? For a brief moment there's a flicker of fear. Has Hydra finally come for him in the form of a... whoever she is?

He frowns and shakes his head.]

I don't... he's not mine.

[He just protects him. He protects him and watches him and orbits him like he's the sun. He can't escape him. Wouldn't want to even if he could, wouldn't even try.]

The Academy. The Alliance. Not the same...similar. But not the same.

[ Shuddering, she turns away and swallows, once. They rule the 'verse, essentially. They already got what Hydra wanted, and at an even larger scale. ]

It's not about possession, but...to have and to hold? It's about the size of the heart to contain the wanting warmth of another, or more than one other.

She understands the gravitational pull at work. He's a lightwell but it's spilling out, leaking into the universe and we're too dark, our hands are bloody... [ Palms open in front of her. ] He's so strong his body can't contain him. It's not terrible, is it? It's not impossible. She would say, if you were asking, she would say it is neither, but the doubt is thick like oil on her tongue now.

[His face falls a little, and he looks down at his hands, leans against the wall.]

His body will contain him. Eventually.

[And he'll have to kill him when that happens. He's found a way around the orders to be here, be with Steve, protect him and help him and keep him safe, but as soon as the serum takes effect... he won't know if he can hold himself back any more.

He shakes his head a little.]

I'm not... good. For him.

[But he can't stay away. Gravitational pull indeed. He looks back at her, studies her in the darkness.]

I won't stop you. [He's not mine to keep.] But if you hurt him, I will kill you. [And I will make it painful.]

There's a lot River could say to that. She could tell this man that Steve loves him, a lot (but he will say it doesn't matter). She could tell him that he is stronger than the words in his head. She could suggest that Wanda help him to with those words.

She could tell him that he is the best for Steve and probably will continue to be.

Instead she says: "Thank you," for his permission, leans up and kisses his cheek. The door comes open just then and she darts out before she can say, or promise, anything, clutching the box she came to the party with to her chest and mixing into the crowd.

[He manages not to flinch or lash out at the kiss, and holds himself still as he watches her flit away, like a bird or a butterfly.

There's a sinking feeling in his chest that he doesn't understand. There's a lot he doesn't understand when it comes to Steve, and he's managed to ignore it until now, concentrating on the surface impulses rather than the deeper drive.

Echoes of memory surface and sink, and when he makes his way out of the closet and back into the party, he's not sure if he can handle the noise. Maybe he'll just find a quiet place to... recover, before he finds Steve again.]

August 15th; It's a Spooky Party!

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