![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starandrea posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
starsficBingo? ♥
Bingo square #5: "Historical, ancient civilizations"
(All prompts from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
au_bingo ~ custom card.)
Ancient History
He was standing on the side of a mountain – and Gabriel was still with him. Sam wasn’t sure which one he wanted to look at more: the sharp drop, clouds like fog rolling over the green below, or the archangel who shouldn’t be there. He shouldn’t, right? Hadn’t he been splitting them up on purpose?
“This is what a tortilla looks like,” a small voice said. “It’s not what it tastes like, though.”
Sam looked down to find a little blonde-haired girl sitting in the dirt. She was wrapped in skirts and an square poncho that hung sideways off of her shoulders. She was also wingless, which didn’t fool him in the slightest.
“That’s because you didn’t make it out of corn,” Gabriel offered, and Sam reached for the chain around his neck.
He realized the ring wasn’t there about the same time he saw Gabriel – really saw him – and thought maybe he wouldn’t need it after all. Gabriel didn’t have wings either. Which meant that, whatever Castiel’s kid was doing here, this version of Gabriel probably wouldn’t kill her. Not if Sam had any control at all.
“I had corn,” Maribel said. “It didn’t come out right.”
“I think that’s a secret woman trick,” Gabriel told her. “They’ll teach you when you’re older.”
“I want to help,” Maribel insisted. “I’m not a child.”
“Hate to break it to you, kiddo,” Gabriel said. “But you are. You can thank your dad for that.”
“Daddy says it wasn’t his fault.” On her small face, Maribel’s frown looked dangerously close to a pout.
Sam could practically hear Gabriel roll his eyes. “Your father, then.”
“Wait, you’re together?” Jo’s voice interrupted. “I thought angels could sense each other.”
Sam looked across the bare outcropping toward the huts that huddled against the treeline. Jo was climbing toward them, bright embroidered blouse and skirt not appearing to slow her down at all. It made his head hurt, trying to figure out who everyone was over and over again. “Angels?” he repeated.
“Gabriel,” she said. “Samael. I thought Gabriel was staying away from you so Samael couldn’t follow him to you and bring you back to life. At least, that’s what Dean says. Cas says he’s trying to keep an eye on you remotely and it’s not working.”
Sam stared at her. “Wait, what?”
“Hello!” Jo waved a hand in front of her face. “What’s Gabriel doing with you? Doesn’t that make it easier for Samael to find you?”
“Are you really here?” Sam demanded. “How do you know about Samael?”
“Do I look like I’m here?” Jo said, clambering up onto the stone beside him. “Hi, Gabriel.”
“Hi, Jo,” Gabriel replied.
She gave him an odd look before frowning at Sam. “What’s with him?”
“That’s not Gabriel,” Sam said.
He could feel Gabriel glaring at him. “You know, I’m getting a little tired of your attitude, Sammy boy. Anything you can do, I can do better, and that includes playing at being human.”
Sam refused to look at him. “Did Dean send you?” he asked Jo. “How did you get here?”
“I let Cas kill me,” she admitted. “Not quite as violently as you, thank god. Or whoever. Mom was pretty pissed, but Dean’s angel swears he can bring me back. Plus Dean said she can kill them both if I get lost. I thought that was excessive, but Mom liked it.”
“Okay,” Gabriel said. “Time to go, munchkin. This conversation is clearly not for young ears.”
“I’m not young,” Maribel informed him. Sam was already reaching out to stop her from leaving, but the look he got from Gabriel was enough to make him hesitate. The cold disdain there made him doubt, just for a second.
“You’re like a week old,” Gabriel said, and Sam felt his stomach twist.
“Gabriel?” he blurted out.
“What,” Gabriel snapped. “I think I can keep her from getting eaten or stepped on for as long as it takes to walk back to the house. I’m perfectly domestic. I’m a domestic lamb.”
Okay, that made no sense, but Sam took some comfort in it. This wasn’t really Gabriel. It was just another character in the ongoing charade, and he felt himself relax a little. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “I know. Thanks.”
At least Jo waited until he and Maribel were a little farther away before she whispered, “A domestic lamb?”
Sam shrugged. “Like I know. Where are we, anyway?”
Jo gave him an incredulous look. “Why would I know that?”
“You really let them kill you?” Sam asked, because there wasn’t any answer and they both knew it.
“Jophiel says other angels are trying to follow Samael in,” Jo said. “To get you out, mostly, but Dean thinks they’re being sneaky about it. Pretending to be people you know, maybe. He and Cas were mad at her for something; I didn’t get all of it.”
“What’s going on out there?” Sam wanted to know. “Please tell me you’re not all gathered around my bedside or something.”
“Basically everyone’s yelling at everyone else,” Jo said. “It’s kind of a mess. It’s actually more normal in here.”
Sam caught her eye, and it was her turn to shrug. “For certain values of normal,” she added.
“You didn’t come here to get away,” Sam said.
“No, I came to keep them from possessing someone who looked like me.” Jo gave him a look like it was obvious, and where had he been for the rest of the explanation? “At least you have one person you know won’t suddenly turn into an angel and try to kidnap you.”
“I can tell,” Sam said. “The angels from the –” He waved his hand at, well, everything. “The illusion, I guess.”
“I figured.” Jo sounded like she wasn’t sure why they were talking about this. “Still keeps them from sneaking up on you though, right?”
“Yeah, maybe,” he admitted. “And, hey... I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, okay? Thanks. It was way weirder not having anyone to talk to.”
“Except random angels?” Jo said with a grin. “Yeah. I haven’t gotten used to that either.”
The day got more frustrating from there, and he grew more and more grateful for Jo’s presence. Not that he wanted her dead, but it was harder to take the death thing seriously when he didn’t feel dead, and she didn’t look dead, and Gabriel – the real Gabriel – didn’t show until almost nighttime.
Long enough for Dean to come looking for his kid. Long enough for him to be pissed that Sam had let her go off with Gabriel, which Sam almost felt bad about until it turned out that Gabriel had taken her to find Cas instead. Cas was some kind of village shaman, which Sam tried really hard not to laugh about, especially when it became clear that Dean was silently in awe of him and could barely string two sentences together when he was around.
“I thought Maribel was their kid,” Jo whispered to him at one point. “Like, both of theirs.”
“I dunno,” Sam whispered back. It was a relief to have someone who knew as much about what was going on as he did. “Everyone treats her like she’s just Dean’s.”
“But Gabriel took her to see Cas,” Jo murmured.
“Who knows why Gabriel does anything? Maybe he thought it’d be funny to embarrass Dean.”
That made Jo smile. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
Maribel got scooped up by the women as soon as breakfast broke – tortillas, and Maribel was right, they were some kind of magic because they sat weirdly well and lasted for hours, even when the only side dish was vegetables. Apparently Ellen and Jo and Sarah all lived in one building, and they included Maribel. (No Ruby this time, Sam wondered? No Jess? He couldn’t decide whether he was relieved or disappointed that his mom wasn’t there.) Sam and Dean and possibly Gabriel lived in the next hut over, and he couldn’t tell if they always had a place for Cas or if Dean just tripped over inviting him back for dinner.
“That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” Jo remarked, after she’d spent most of the day helping with the laundry and pretending she was somehow too sick to weave.
“Oh, it gets better,” Sam told her. “Picture Dean as the lead singer in a band. Guess who his stage manager is?”
Jo actually giggled. “Does Gabriel...” She glanced around, and Sam knew what she was going to ask before she found the words. “Make all this, or what?”
They were sitting outside in the evening light, sunset coming late to the high elevations. Gabriel, the fake Gabriel from the rural scene that Sam still couldn’t place, had glared at them all the way through dinner, but at least he was ignoring Maribel again so Sam figured he’d take it. Not that he had any real choice.
“Not sure,” Sam said. Mostly because it was true and partly because he wasn’t sure how much responsibility he wanted to own. “He asked if he could use some of my memories, but –” He waved like that should be enough of an explanation. “I have no idea where we are, so.”
“Is he trying to keep you busy?” Jo wanted to know. “Or is this part of the hiding thing? Surround you, surround us, with enough fake people and anyone who’s looking has too much extraneous stuff to sort through to recognize us right away?”
“Maybe,” Sam agreed. “He called it hiding before, so maybe that’s it. He hasn’t exactly given me a play-by-play.”
“But you see him, right?” Jo pressed. “Dean says he’s keeping you away from Samael, and whenever she gets too close, Gabriel grabs you and puts you somewhere else.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “Oh, is that what’s going on?”
She gave him a disbelieving look, and he shrugged. “You’ve just told me more than anyone else has. All I know is that Gabriel’s always in a hurry and he says if I don’t go with him he’ll die. So far he hasn’t pissed me off enough for me to let him.”
“Dean says they’re looking for Samael,” Jo offered. “Apparently she and Lucifer have a thing, which is weird, because I totally thought she was with Anna, but who can tell with angels.” She paused, then added, “I guess if you live long enough, maybe you have a thing with everyone.”
Sam didn’t really want to think about it. “So which one wants Gabriel dead?” he asked. “Samael, or Lucifer?”
Jo shook her head. “Who can tell with angels,” she repeated. “Cas got all shifty when Dean asked him what Lucifer had to do with it, and the next thing I know they’re doing their staring thing and the rest of us might as well not exist. Whatever it was made Dean jump in after you, and when he came back he said you needed company. He said he was going to go talk to Lucifer. And I wasn’t supposed to tell you that part, if you’re curious.”
She didn’t look very sorry, and Sam tried not to assume his brother was doing something stupid. “I’m pretty sure Gabriel likes Lucifer,” Sam said. “At least as much as he likes Michael, which... now that I think about it, I guess might not be that much.”
“They all like each other,” Jo said. “Until something happens, like God disappearing or someone having a tantrum or a butterfly flapping its wings, for all we know. I’m still sort of surprised that you got in the middle of it.”
“Gabriel helped us,” Sam said defensively. “He deserves better than a sword through the heart.”
“Yeah, but would he say the same thing about you?” Jo asked. “I mean, believe me, I’m all about not letting people stab each other to death unless it’s totally necessary. But they’re angels, Sam. Who knows what any of this means to them?”
“Dean’s an angel,” Sam pointed out. “He still cares if we live or die.”
“Dean’s different,” she said.
“Dean always is,” Gabriel’s voice said, and Sam reached for Jo’s arm without thinking. When Gabriel appeared in front of them, wings and all, he wasn’t sorry.
“Oh, wonderful,” Gabriel sneered. For the first time, he looked every bit as pissy as his alter ego. “Now there’s two of you. I suppose this is Michael’s idea of helping. One of these days, someone should teach him basic arithmetic.”
Sam and Jo were looking at each other when Gabriel reached out and slapped Sam on the back of the head. “That’s for whining about being alone,” he said. And the mountains were gone like they had never been.
Bingo square #5: "Historical, ancient civilizations"
(All prompts from
au_bingo ~ custom card.)He was standing on the side of a mountain – and Gabriel was still with him. Sam wasn’t sure which one he wanted to look at more: the sharp drop, clouds like fog rolling over the green below, or the archangel who shouldn’t be there. He shouldn’t, right? Hadn’t he been splitting them up on purpose?
“This is what a tortilla looks like,” a small voice said. “It’s not what it tastes like, though.”
Sam looked down to find a little blonde-haired girl sitting in the dirt. She was wrapped in skirts and an square poncho that hung sideways off of her shoulders. She was also wingless, which didn’t fool him in the slightest.
“That’s because you didn’t make it out of corn,” Gabriel offered, and Sam reached for the chain around his neck.
He realized the ring wasn’t there about the same time he saw Gabriel – really saw him – and thought maybe he wouldn’t need it after all. Gabriel didn’t have wings either. Which meant that, whatever Castiel’s kid was doing here, this version of Gabriel probably wouldn’t kill her. Not if Sam had any control at all.
“I had corn,” Maribel said. “It didn’t come out right.”
“I think that’s a secret woman trick,” Gabriel told her. “They’ll teach you when you’re older.”
“I want to help,” Maribel insisted. “I’m not a child.”
“Hate to break it to you, kiddo,” Gabriel said. “But you are. You can thank your dad for that.”
“Daddy says it wasn’t his fault.” On her small face, Maribel’s frown looked dangerously close to a pout.
Sam could practically hear Gabriel roll his eyes. “Your father, then.”
“Wait, you’re together?” Jo’s voice interrupted. “I thought angels could sense each other.”
Sam looked across the bare outcropping toward the huts that huddled against the treeline. Jo was climbing toward them, bright embroidered blouse and skirt not appearing to slow her down at all. It made his head hurt, trying to figure out who everyone was over and over again. “Angels?” he repeated.
“Gabriel,” she said. “Samael. I thought Gabriel was staying away from you so Samael couldn’t follow him to you and bring you back to life. At least, that’s what Dean says. Cas says he’s trying to keep an eye on you remotely and it’s not working.”
Sam stared at her. “Wait, what?”
“Hello!” Jo waved a hand in front of her face. “What’s Gabriel doing with you? Doesn’t that make it easier for Samael to find you?”
“Are you really here?” Sam demanded. “How do you know about Samael?”
“Do I look like I’m here?” Jo said, clambering up onto the stone beside him. “Hi, Gabriel.”
“Hi, Jo,” Gabriel replied.
She gave him an odd look before frowning at Sam. “What’s with him?”
“That’s not Gabriel,” Sam said.
He could feel Gabriel glaring at him. “You know, I’m getting a little tired of your attitude, Sammy boy. Anything you can do, I can do better, and that includes playing at being human.”
Sam refused to look at him. “Did Dean send you?” he asked Jo. “How did you get here?”
“I let Cas kill me,” she admitted. “Not quite as violently as you, thank god. Or whoever. Mom was pretty pissed, but Dean’s angel swears he can bring me back. Plus Dean said she can kill them both if I get lost. I thought that was excessive, but Mom liked it.”
“Okay,” Gabriel said. “Time to go, munchkin. This conversation is clearly not for young ears.”
“I’m not young,” Maribel informed him. Sam was already reaching out to stop her from leaving, but the look he got from Gabriel was enough to make him hesitate. The cold disdain there made him doubt, just for a second.
“You’re like a week old,” Gabriel said, and Sam felt his stomach twist.
“Gabriel?” he blurted out.
“What,” Gabriel snapped. “I think I can keep her from getting eaten or stepped on for as long as it takes to walk back to the house. I’m perfectly domestic. I’m a domestic lamb.”
Okay, that made no sense, but Sam took some comfort in it. This wasn’t really Gabriel. It was just another character in the ongoing charade, and he felt himself relax a little. “Yeah, okay,” he said. “I know. Thanks.”
At least Jo waited until he and Maribel were a little farther away before she whispered, “A domestic lamb?”
Sam shrugged. “Like I know. Where are we, anyway?”
Jo gave him an incredulous look. “Why would I know that?”
“You really let them kill you?” Sam asked, because there wasn’t any answer and they both knew it.
“Jophiel says other angels are trying to follow Samael in,” Jo said. “To get you out, mostly, but Dean thinks they’re being sneaky about it. Pretending to be people you know, maybe. He and Cas were mad at her for something; I didn’t get all of it.”
“What’s going on out there?” Sam wanted to know. “Please tell me you’re not all gathered around my bedside or something.”
“Basically everyone’s yelling at everyone else,” Jo said. “It’s kind of a mess. It’s actually more normal in here.”
Sam caught her eye, and it was her turn to shrug. “For certain values of normal,” she added.
“You didn’t come here to get away,” Sam said.
“No, I came to keep them from possessing someone who looked like me.” Jo gave him a look like it was obvious, and where had he been for the rest of the explanation? “At least you have one person you know won’t suddenly turn into an angel and try to kidnap you.”
“I can tell,” Sam said. “The angels from the –” He waved his hand at, well, everything. “The illusion, I guess.”
“I figured.” Jo sounded like she wasn’t sure why they were talking about this. “Still keeps them from sneaking up on you though, right?”
“Yeah, maybe,” he admitted. “And, hey... I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, okay? Thanks. It was way weirder not having anyone to talk to.”
“Except random angels?” Jo said with a grin. “Yeah. I haven’t gotten used to that either.”
The day got more frustrating from there, and he grew more and more grateful for Jo’s presence. Not that he wanted her dead, but it was harder to take the death thing seriously when he didn’t feel dead, and she didn’t look dead, and Gabriel – the real Gabriel – didn’t show until almost nighttime.
Long enough for Dean to come looking for his kid. Long enough for him to be pissed that Sam had let her go off with Gabriel, which Sam almost felt bad about until it turned out that Gabriel had taken her to find Cas instead. Cas was some kind of village shaman, which Sam tried really hard not to laugh about, especially when it became clear that Dean was silently in awe of him and could barely string two sentences together when he was around.
“I thought Maribel was their kid,” Jo whispered to him at one point. “Like, both of theirs.”
“I dunno,” Sam whispered back. It was a relief to have someone who knew as much about what was going on as he did. “Everyone treats her like she’s just Dean’s.”
“But Gabriel took her to see Cas,” Jo murmured.
“Who knows why Gabriel does anything? Maybe he thought it’d be funny to embarrass Dean.”
That made Jo smile. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
Maribel got scooped up by the women as soon as breakfast broke – tortillas, and Maribel was right, they were some kind of magic because they sat weirdly well and lasted for hours, even when the only side dish was vegetables. Apparently Ellen and Jo and Sarah all lived in one building, and they included Maribel. (No Ruby this time, Sam wondered? No Jess? He couldn’t decide whether he was relieved or disappointed that his mom wasn’t there.) Sam and Dean and possibly Gabriel lived in the next hut over, and he couldn’t tell if they always had a place for Cas or if Dean just tripped over inviting him back for dinner.
“That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” Jo remarked, after she’d spent most of the day helping with the laundry and pretending she was somehow too sick to weave.
“Oh, it gets better,” Sam told her. “Picture Dean as the lead singer in a band. Guess who his stage manager is?”
Jo actually giggled. “Does Gabriel...” She glanced around, and Sam knew what she was going to ask before she found the words. “Make all this, or what?”
They were sitting outside in the evening light, sunset coming late to the high elevations. Gabriel, the fake Gabriel from the rural scene that Sam still couldn’t place, had glared at them all the way through dinner, but at least he was ignoring Maribel again so Sam figured he’d take it. Not that he had any real choice.
“Not sure,” Sam said. Mostly because it was true and partly because he wasn’t sure how much responsibility he wanted to own. “He asked if he could use some of my memories, but –” He waved like that should be enough of an explanation. “I have no idea where we are, so.”
“Is he trying to keep you busy?” Jo wanted to know. “Or is this part of the hiding thing? Surround you, surround us, with enough fake people and anyone who’s looking has too much extraneous stuff to sort through to recognize us right away?”
“Maybe,” Sam agreed. “He called it hiding before, so maybe that’s it. He hasn’t exactly given me a play-by-play.”
“But you see him, right?” Jo pressed. “Dean says he’s keeping you away from Samael, and whenever she gets too close, Gabriel grabs you and puts you somewhere else.”
Sam raised his eyebrows. “Oh, is that what’s going on?”
She gave him a disbelieving look, and he shrugged. “You’ve just told me more than anyone else has. All I know is that Gabriel’s always in a hurry and he says if I don’t go with him he’ll die. So far he hasn’t pissed me off enough for me to let him.”
“Dean says they’re looking for Samael,” Jo offered. “Apparently she and Lucifer have a thing, which is weird, because I totally thought she was with Anna, but who can tell with angels.” She paused, then added, “I guess if you live long enough, maybe you have a thing with everyone.”
Sam didn’t really want to think about it. “So which one wants Gabriel dead?” he asked. “Samael, or Lucifer?”
Jo shook her head. “Who can tell with angels,” she repeated. “Cas got all shifty when Dean asked him what Lucifer had to do with it, and the next thing I know they’re doing their staring thing and the rest of us might as well not exist. Whatever it was made Dean jump in after you, and when he came back he said you needed company. He said he was going to go talk to Lucifer. And I wasn’t supposed to tell you that part, if you’re curious.”
She didn’t look very sorry, and Sam tried not to assume his brother was doing something stupid. “I’m pretty sure Gabriel likes Lucifer,” Sam said. “At least as much as he likes Michael, which... now that I think about it, I guess might not be that much.”
“They all like each other,” Jo said. “Until something happens, like God disappearing or someone having a tantrum or a butterfly flapping its wings, for all we know. I’m still sort of surprised that you got in the middle of it.”
“Gabriel helped us,” Sam said defensively. “He deserves better than a sword through the heart.”
“Yeah, but would he say the same thing about you?” Jo asked. “I mean, believe me, I’m all about not letting people stab each other to death unless it’s totally necessary. But they’re angels, Sam. Who knows what any of this means to them?”
“Dean’s an angel,” Sam pointed out. “He still cares if we live or die.”
“Dean’s different,” she said.
“Dean always is,” Gabriel’s voice said, and Sam reached for Jo’s arm without thinking. When Gabriel appeared in front of them, wings and all, he wasn’t sorry.
“Oh, wonderful,” Gabriel sneered. For the first time, he looked every bit as pissy as his alter ego. “Now there’s two of you. I suppose this is Michael’s idea of helping. One of these days, someone should teach him basic arithmetic.”
Sam and Jo were looking at each other when Gabriel reached out and slapped Sam on the back of the head. “That’s for whining about being alone,” he said. And the mountains were gone like they had never been.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-10 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-10 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-11 08:19 am (UTC)I am loving this verse, darling :) and you xoxox
no subject
Date: 2010-07-11 02:17 pm (UTC)