ᴀʟʟ I ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ʙᴇɪɴɢ ᴀʟɪᴠᴇ ɪs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʟɪғᴇ's ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪᴠɪɴɢ (open.)

[righteously]

Who: Dean Winchester & Others.
When: Post-Event.
Where: Cadens, the Horizon, Nocwich.
What: A catch-all of open & closed starters.
Warnings: A little grief, a little alcoholism, probably canon-typical violence and suicidal ideation. Mentions of fruit turbo-hell.

I ᴀɪɴ'ᴛ sᴇᴇᴋɪɴɢ sᴀʟᴠᴀᴛɪᴏɴ
Nᴏᴛ ᴛᴏᴏ ᴡᴏʀʀɪᴇᴅ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴅᴀᴍɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴ
I ɢᴏᴛ ʟɪᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴇxᴘᴇᴄᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴀɴᴅ ᴀs sᴜᴄʜ I ᴀɪɴ'ᴛ ᴇᴀsɪʟʏ ʟᴇᴛ ᴅᴏᴡɴ
Aʟʟ I ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ᴡᴀɴɴᴀ ᴅᴏ ɪs ʙᴇ ᴄʟᴏsᴇ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ
ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ᴡᴇ'ʀᴇ sᴛɪʟʟ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴀʀᴏᴜɴᴅ.

Comments

[sonofacesius]

[Thank you Dean, that little eyeroll made him feel right at home. He appreciates it.]

Okay, I'll give you that. Chemistry sounds fun. But, let me rephrase that. What can they teach me that would help me survive past 20? Because, I'm probably not going to. The fact that I'm 16 is amazing. Clarisse is in college. In demigod age she's old as rocks. Since we're not from the same world, let me tell you. That's really, really rare. So school? Algebra? Not really high on my priority list. Unless, you know, I'm stuck here for my entire life. Although even here, I wouldn't bet on my chances.

[He appreciates the thought. The idea. Going to school. Learning stuff that wasn't how to kill monsters and how to get yourself out of crappy situations you had absolutely no control over. Like....how to make scrambled eggs or solve for x. That would be so cool. But? That's also not his life, and Will's accepted that. Mostly. Kind of. ]

[righteously]

( He exhales slowly — oh boy, this talk was not on his bingo card for today. )

Alright, settle in, junior, because I wanna tell you something.

( He ruffles a hand over his too-long hair, makes a mental note to dig out his clippers sometime soon, and then turns a studious eye on Will. )

Where I'm from... we have monsters, too. Me and my brother were raised to fight them, ever since we were little kids. There was a time, back when I was your age, where I felt the same way you do now. Stuff like that- normal people stuff, it wasn't for me, and it was pointless, and odds are I was gonna die before I ever needed to use anything I would've learned anyway. My brother, Sam... he's the smarter one, you know what he did?

( A beat for emphasis and then- )

He got out, and he went to law school. Stanford. Believe it or not, what he learned there's actually come in handy more than a few times in the field. The point I'm trying to make here is, don't live your life thinking it's gonna end next week. Don't let things you're interested in feel pointless. If you're strong, and you're smart, and you surround yourself with people who are as interested in keeping you alive as you are them? Who knows, you might live to be an old man that yells at teenagers and re-shingles roofs.

[sonofacesius]

[Will sprawls on the ground as Dean tell him to settle in, because if he's going to listen, he's going to be comfy and listen. And Dean was right. His arguments were the very same ones he himself had said. To himself, to Nico, to his siblings. They were stronger together. So what happened when everyone kept dying?]

Stanford? That's one smart brother you got there. I want that, I want what your brother had. But, I also know, that doing what I'm doing now? In the depths with the monsters, trying to survive and keep everyone else alive? That's what I was born to do. So, is making myself happy worth sacrificing someone else's life? Because I wasn't there to help? Because I'd rather learn chemistry?

Nico and I are stronger together. I couldn't have survived Tartarus without him. And I suppose you never know, something I learned in school could have come in handy there. I mean, eventually I'm going to have to come up with a really good lie as to how I can tell when someone's about to have a coronary just by touching them but....I guess that's a little ways off? If I can survive without getting eaten.

[Will's trying to work this out in his head as he talks, he likes Deans ideas, he just doesn't know how possible they are.]

You and your brother fight monsters? You were taught how too?

[righteously]

( He shakes his head slowly, and tries very hard not to think about the fact that a lot of that? Sounds like himself. )

You can do both. Sam still hunts. He still saves people. You should reach out to him sometime, tell him I sent you his way. He can talk to you about it.

( It's not all or nothing, just for the record. It took him a long time to learn that, years longer than it should have, but now that he's older and he's got the wisdom he can at least try to impart it. Save the kid some time. )

But yeah. We fight monsters. We're called hunters.

[sonofacesius]

[Like a younger Dean, Will also has a very black and white, all or nothing attitude. It's something he's only just starting to shake off, SuperHell being the one place to really show him that shades of grey exist.]

Can you teach me? Something? So if I do end up in with regular mortals and monsters smell me coming, the entire like medical school doesn't get attacked trying to get to me? Or, you know, I don't get expelled? And Sam huh? I'll look him up.

We could sure use some of you guys in my world. Demigods smell like Happy Meals. It's why we don't really live that long. Hard to survive when monsters can ping you from miles away. How did you guys do it? And don't you tell me the power of brotherly love.

[Will meant it as a joke, but the moment he said it he winced. Know thyself? Wasn't that written on Apollo's temple at Delphi? Guess his son still had to learn that.]

[righteously]

( Ah, crap. Can you teach me — he should've seen that coming. He's made it a blanket policy not to train teenagers to hunt. He turned Jesper down back at the start, even despite that kid's insane crackshot talents.

It's a little different, maybe, when he's talking to a monster magnet who inevitably attracts them to him like a honing beacon rather than one who wants to wander out into the desert proactively searching for lethal behemoths. )

No, brotherly love doesn't stop harpies.

( He drags a hand across his face, then lets it flop down onto his thigh again. )

Alright, tell you what. You start taking a class- a real class, somewhere. At the school, or with a tutor, or something, and in exchange... sure, kid. I'll teach you a few things about hunting. Deal?

[sonofacesius]

[This, the thing he'd been dancing around since he got here. Enroll in the medical school here in the Free Cities, or work in the clinic and run around like he was used to. He'd chosen the latter, but he knew, even if he ended up back home, he'd be faced with a similar choice. If he survived. School? or Camp. Here at least, maybe he could do both.]

No...it doesn't. [Will picked himself up off the grass, dusting his hands off on his shorts.]

Alright. Deal. I've been meaning to check out the medical school here anyway. [You know in a roundabout I've been meaning to clean my room for the past 5 months and just never happened to do it sort of way]

Thank you.

[righteously]

( Will earns himself a tight, clipped smile. Dean stands up from his perch, claps the kid approvingly on the shoulder, and announces: )

You're welcome. Now get the hell outta here, I got work to do.

( Another firm pat pat, and then he turns to ascend his ladder again. That roof ain't gonna shingle itself. )

[sonofacesius]

And I guess I have school to enroll in.

[Will gives Dean a little salute and scrambles to his feet. It wasn't like Dean made him swear on the Styx or anything but, a promise was a promise. He wasn't like the Gods. He kept his.]

I'd ask you to teach me that too but...I think I'll stick to medical stuff. See you around, Dean.