Glitterati [Ruby/Christopher]

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] The band had been in Vegas for five days of their thirty-five day gig, and already Christopher was feeling stupidly useless. He'd never been entirely comfortable traveling with them in the first place, but ever since Castiel had just popped onto the deck of the Sredni Vashtar (what, so he had a thing for Saki) while she was eighty miles out to sea and informed Christopher that: A) He (Castiel) was an Angel of the Lord, B) He (Christopher) had work to do in the name of God, and C) They (both Castiel and Christopher) were going to Oregon so that he (Christopher) could be turned over to the care of a small-time rock band until God was ready for him, it seemed to Christopher that nothing he did quite mattered the way it should. There was a sense, traveling with the band and their mad caravan of heroes and healers, that in between the concerts and the parties and the rowdy diner meals and ridiculously cheerful travel days that there was something important happening here. That these people were somehow plugged in to what actually matters in the world in a way that Christopher had never been nor wanted to be. It had been a hell of a culture shock when Bishop ran him through the basics of 'monsters are real, Hell is real, Heaven is real, that dude over there talks to ghosts and that chick is six hundred years old', but actually worse than that was the inescapable conclusion that while everybody else was involved in world-shaping events and life-changing decisions, Christopher was mostly just running errands and carrying around boxes. And worse, now that they were settled in to the casino, he wasn't even doing that. Just taking up space, waiting for somebody to tell him just exactly what God wanted out of him anyway. So to keep himself from spending all his time either sulking or wasting money on the slots, he volunteered for random tasks around the edges of things. Today, he and one other person, he didn't know who it was going to be, only that they were going to meet him down at the coffee bar on the lobby level, were going to take the pickup and make an oh-so-glamorous Wal Mart run to pick up various things that members of the caravan needed. Everything from shampoo to gym socks to dryer sheets to maxipads, he had a list three pages long and a wad of twenties in his pocket to pay for it all, and it was probably sad that he was actually kinda looking forward to it, just for the chance to get out of the casino for a couple of hours and feel like he was actually contributing. He was leaning against the sugar-and-cream bar, sipping an iced green tea and watching for anybody he recognized. When Ruby walked in he pushed up off the bar and headed over to her. "Hey," one of those lazy smiles that were kind of his specialty. "So are you my new Kotex and toothpaste buddy?" Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: They live lives of unspeakable glamour.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Speaking of feeling useless, well rather feeling helpless in the wake of what was going on around her; Ruby had slowly started to withdraw. When they first pulled into Vegas her eyes wandered all over at the sights from the RV, drinking it all in and excited to go out and explore. Rested, in clean clothing, and starting to see the world now through a human’s senses she was eager for the glitter and glamour that Sin City had to offer. Then she and Sam got to his room and sort of stayed there. Well mostly she stayed there, following him out when he bid her to and of course with the lure of food but the rest of the time she just wanted for him to notice how much she yearned to go out and see the city, offer to show her the world, but so scared to ask for that herself from him because of that feeling she got, like perhaps if she said or did the wrong thing he’d break even more. So she stayed in the room, some nights looking out to the bright lights of the strip longingly. The times Sam did wander off she would go looking for him and if she found him would stay near, when she didn’t she’d just wait for him in their room, feeling like a cooped up puppy, anxious and worried. She didn’t know what else to do though except to stay near him if he needed her for anything. Then she heard someone talking outside about a trip, true Wal Mart was not a wonderful fantasy land of lights and excitement but she might be able to talk the person going with her into just a little side trip to fun, maybe walk down the strip and see the sights, maybe even keep this person out till dark so she could see the lights for herself up close. Guilt set in at the want but for the first time in a week she shoved it aside and stepped up to “help” (read here run away from her self imposed prison). Her world was moving around her and she just wanted a moment to really feel what it was like to be human. So she pulled on her clothing, her boots, and grabbed a hat before heading out the door. A quick few words to Sam about how she was going to go out for an errand and to please call her if he needed her, knowing that no matter what she’d drop everything to run back to the hotel if he did need her. She headed down to the coffee place downstairs with a small amount of eagerness. As she turned the corner into it her eyes went up to the menu, idly thinking a mochafrapaletscallitcoffeemilkshake sounded good when Chris came walking up to her, smiling. She nodded to him, not really looking for a moment, eyes on the prize as it were, as she reached back into her back pocket, then stopped herself, knowing she only had a twenty on her and she didn’t want to spend half of it on coffee. Well damn it all. Her lips twisted in a little frustration as she turned to fully face him, having to look up. “Well I don’t really think tampon buddy is a title I was going for today. Ruby though, my name is Ruby.” She put her hands in her back pockets a moment, rocking on her boots, trying to figure out how to put this to him in order to get what she wanted. Hell, she was a demon for more than six centuries, talking someone into a trip into Sin City should be easy right? “Say, how quickly does this supply run have to be done in? Reason I ask is cause I am dying to see the strip and you know…buddy system is best. What do you say me and you take a walk first?” LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: Frappachino!!

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Christopher made some pretense of thinking it over, but the dimple at the left side of his mouth kept appearing and disappearing as he tried not to grin. "You know, nobody actually gave me a time that we ought to be back with the deodorant and nail polish remover. And I don't know about you, but nobody particularly needs me for anything in the next...ever." He did laugh at that, because what else are you going to do with being completely extraneous? "I don't see any reason we shouldn't take a couple of hours and get the lay of the land. You know, for research in case anybody needs anything. And because I've always wanted to know what a $6.95 prime rib dinner would entail." He took a long drink of his iced tea and then somehow managed to look vaguely shocked and dismayed when there was a slurpy sound the drink was gone. He even did that thing where he held up the glass and looked at the ice and shook it as though somehow the liquid would magically return if he could just knock it free of the ice. "Okay, first another one of these and then we go see if we can find something worth lying about later?" Another shake of the cup, he really was offended by how quickly it had gone. "You want anything?" Starbucks courtesy, the twenty-first century version of cigarette karma. Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: I didn't know he had dimples.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] She watched him with veiled curiosity, picking up on those subtle clues that she took centuries perfecting the art of, a young man who was an open book. When she was a demon had he been her assignment she knew she could have him eating out of the palm of her hand within days and thanks to thoughts like that she kept having to constantly remind herself she wasn’t anymore, that she didn’t have to see every person as a potential soul for damnation…or as Sam taught her someone who needed help. It was a strange sensation trying to just simply be a person in the world now and she found herself falling back into an old habit of hers, adaptation. She’d figure out what someone would like, the personality type, the jokes, the way she had to act, in order to endear herself to them. It’s why when she was first getting to know Sam she went with the kick ass and take names personality, that appealing to him at the time since he was desperate to find someone strong to save his brother, then when she came back it was the woman he could always rely on…which in truth was the closest thing to who she really was under it all. Now with Christopher she saw he responded to the flirt, the fun girl, well if that is what she had to be in order to get her way today and give him a little fun why not? It wasn’t like anyone else would really understand anything she was going through or even try to anyway. “What is a $6.95 prime rib dinner?” Ruby was always one to be intrigued by food of all types, only normally snack foods and fast foods, but the girl would put Dean to shame with the amount she could put away in one sitting. Of course so far she hadn’t done it as a human and figured out that while she was blessed with the ability to pack away infinite amounts of food as a demon, as a human it would give her a tummy ache. As he asked her if she wanted anything her eyes lit up a moment, chocolate coffee milkshake dreams reigniting, but then she remembered how hard money seemed to come by for everyone she ever knew and the last thing she wanted was this kid to have to spend his on her. She already had plans to “bump” into someone who looked well off and relieve them of their wallet…hopefully not getting arrested in the processes. Waving a hand to him she just shrugged off the offer. “Nah, it’s okay, you’re already fixing on falling to me temping you out into Vegas, that’s enough of debt I’ll owe you.” Those words giving away a little of her heritage, demons and their give and take of favors, still so ingrained in her as much as feeling as if she was now Sam’s property since Azrael gifted her to him. LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: Temptation successful!

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Christopher smiled and raised his eyebrows. "I have no idea, other than the fact that it purportedly contains prime rib. But let's go find out, shall we?" He held his hand up to excuse himself as he went over and scored another iced coffee, then came back and gave Ruby another of those wide-open smiles that both did and did not fit his lifestyle and his past. "Exploring, then?" As they headed out through the casino (you had to go through a huge room full of slots and five dollar blackjack tables to get basically anywhere in New York New York, something that Christopher's experience told him was universal to big Vegas casinos) Christopher snagged a cartoony tourist's map off a rack and opened it up so that the two of them could look it over as they walked. "So what do you want to see? Fountains at the Bellagio? The statue of David at Caesar's palace that's half-again larger than the original? The pirate show at Treasure Island?" He himself was in the mood to be pleased, doing dumb touristy stuff wouldn't bother him a bit. "I've got the keys to the rape van, so if we want to explore a little more widely than the Strip that's an option too." He'd picked up the terms that people in the caravan used for the permanent vehicles. There was: The Schoolbus, which was the black RV that the band rode in The Pickup, a specific black Dodge Ram that had started out the trip in L.A. with the band and which was always driven by one of the two head roadies Tonka, the panel truck that had a Lorica logo slapped onto the sides but you could still see the UHaul logo through the cheap white paint job The Rape Van, a white Dodge cargo van that carried the cables and sound boards Bob, a newish Grand Cherokee that the backup singers usually rode in Other Bob, a slightly older Yukon Denali that usually carried random hunters and strays (like Christopher) ...and then a series of between three and nine other vehicles that were the personal possessions of various hunters and hangers-on He was dividing his attention between weaving through slot machines and the map he was holding up. "So what are you in the mood for?" Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: These weird little bits of exposition just happen now and then.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Pulling her hair back into a pony tail she pulled the hat over her head, the pony tail threaded through the hole in the back. As she moved through the casino she looked over all the sights and sounds, her head turning quickly as a slot machine paid out winnings to a lucky person. She almost reached out and took Christopher’s arm so as to not get separated from him, knowing full well she was getting distracted by all the flashing lights and could loose him in the mess of people, she didn’t though, unsure of how Sam would take it. As they came up to the tourist information rack her eyes danced across all the things to do then as he started listing off possibilities she heard one that made her smile with delight. “Pirates, can we see the pirates?” Of course her idea of what pirates were might be totally (and was) different than what the show was, but still it was going to be something loud and flashy. Speaking of loud, at that moment overhead the inside/outside rollercoaster came by on the tracks overhead causing her to look up, that smile growing even more as she bit her bottom lip, now wanting rollercoaster more than pirates. She looked back at Christopher and gestured upward. “We should do that too. I’ve never been on a rollercoaster but they look like fun.” That’s when she stopped, furrowing her brow a moment, her lips twisting into a frown. “Okay, just realized something, guy with the keys to the rape van isn’t a good name for you so you got one or should I go with terrible influence?” Reaching out and gently poking him in the side, again judging his reaction to the flirtation while at the same time hoping no word of how she was acting would get back to Sam. Her eyes flicking back to the map that Christopher was holding again, looking it over. “White tigers, gondolas, rotating restaurants on top of hotels….is this like the biggest city of fun stuff to do or what? Ohhh shopping…can I go try on stuff, I mean I don’t have to buy it right?” Course in her mind she was already working out possible bump and grab candidates, her eyes scanning people for the wealthy and distracted who might be headed outside and away from cameras. LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: Used to live near Vegas, went there every chance I got...

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] He looked up, catching the roller coaster as it swung out and then disappeared onto the roof. "I think we'd better do the coaster first," was his solemn opinion on the matter, clearly he was putting real thought into this. "Because what if it turns out that $6.95 prime rib dinners and roller coasters are a bad combination? That would be a hell of an end to an adventure, even an adventure that includes Wal Mart. No, I think coaster, then pirates, then food, then trying on clothes, then Wal Mart, assuming that we can't think of any more trouble to get into along the way." Clearly taking this to be the new plan, he steered them toward the bank of elevators, talking smoothly. "How come you've never been on a roller coaster? Are you scared of heights? Because I've got to say, starting off with one that's on the roof of a building might not be the way to go." Hitting the call button on the elevator, Christopher leaned back against the wall and smiled at Ruby, lazy and casual and almost without flirtation. (Almost, not quite, he was still a guy and he did have eyes.) "My name's Christopher. Always Christopher, never Chris, I have childish tantrums when people call me that. And you're..." his eyes narrowed in thought, "no, I got nothing. You're newish, like me, and usually ride with the tall guy who has the, uh, headaches." At the last moment he changed his wording from 'epic freakouts', it just seemed more polite. "You've never been to Vegas before? I thought that was a great American rite of passage. Come out here, binge on free booze and cheap food and expensive games, rewrite history after you're home again to make it seem like you tore the town up instead of the other way around?" God knows he and all his friends had done exactly that. Many times. Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: Smooth, Christopher. Really.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] She chuckled at him, following willingly, eyes dancing at the idea of the coaster till the questions started, then the mention of Sam, she couldn’t hide her reaction to his current state nor cover it up quickly enough. Her whole demeanor changed at the mention of “headaches”, growing darker, quieter, the joy fading as she struggled to try to put words to everything. “I never took the time to roller coaster, never took the time to do much else in my life…well what was my life before. It’s complicated. Ruby, like I said…name is really Ruby and the tall guy is Sam.” Sam’s name even sounded like a small defeat coming from her lips and her eyes couldn’t meet Christopher’s anymore. She so much wanted to just unburden herself to someone, anyone, tell them how strange this world was now, how scared she was, how she felt so off balance that she might actually be falling and there wasn’t anyone to catch her. How she was seriously considering burying a box at a crossroads just so she could go back to being something she was used to being. “I’ve been to Vegas before but I was different….so how much do you know about all the stuff not having to do with the band? Like what all is going on with the other people who follow the group around?” There it was, that loaded question, one that might lead her to telling someone besides Sam the truth, who she was, because under it all the girl really needed someone, anyone, to just listen to her. She needed a tutor in how to be human again. LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: Dude….he forgot her name that quick?

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Christopher laughed and shook his head. "Even I'm not that forgetful, I know your name. I meant I don't know what you do for the tour. They've got me hauling boxes and driving vehicles around, but I think it's more a pity job than anything else. I was kind of, uh, wished on them and they found me something to do." He was going to drop the subject there and let her assume that he was some record producer's nephew or something, move the conversation on to vacationing in Vegas, but when she asked how much he knew Christopher redirected. "I know what's going on. I don't understand it, mind you, but I got picked up off my boat by an angel who told me I had 'work to do', dropped off to Bishop with a five-minute introduction and then informed that I was a roadie now." He grinned at the story, but it didn't entirely banish the lost look in his eyes. "I get that it's important, and I'm picking up some of the terminology, but I'm pretty lost." And Christ, wasn't that the truth? He felt like the original stranger in a strange land, lost and pointless. Carrying equipment around, running errands, but he couldn't help with the hunting or any of that, he'd never held a weapon in his life, and he couldn't even help with the band stuff, he didn't know a thing about sound equipment or lighting design. Christopher was torn between a desperate need to prove himself to these people, to be as real and as involved in the world as they were and fantasizing about just running away and going back to his boat and his happy ignorance. But he still asked, "Are you...do you know what's going on? Do you understand it?" Because if she did maybe she'd sit still and actually explain it to him instead of just patting his hand and telling him he was better off not knowing or that she'd explain later the way everybody else seemed to do. Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: Sorta desperate for answers.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Well then he went and said the A word...Angels that is. Ruby's head snapped up at attention at that, sympathetic eyes for the kid mixed with anger for one of her favorite vocal punching bags. "Fucking Angels, they screw everything up. Lemme tell you what they are good for, absolutely nothing. They walk around saying they are on these orders from God and judge people like they never make a fucking mistake but ohhh when you need them where are they, sitting around with fingers up their feathered asses. I?m sorry you got mixed up with them Christopher." Sighing softly, her day of fun seemingly dwindling away now she pulled her hat off, holding it between her hands a moment, considering now what to do about this new development. She could hear her conscious as clear as day telling her 'Ruby, he needs to know something....anything...' Sam's voice of course pleading with her to be a better person and not just leave him hanging to get what she wanted, some fun. It was the proverbial angel and demon on either shoulder and of course the angel won out. "Christopher, I'll teach you if you want, hell I'll give you ever damned juicy detail, but some of the things I'm going to tell you they have to stay between us because what I know, who I was, might very well get me killed if the wrong person finds out about it all. You think you can handle that? If so why don?t we find ourselves a quiet and secluded place, maybe grab some beers, and have a long talk about how weird the world really is." She then reached back and pulled the pony tail out of her hair, letting the dark locks cascade over her face, standing up a bit straighter and looking him over carefully, reading him now as it were to make sure he understood what he was getting into and the risk she was taking for him. LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: Will give him answers he may not like

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] He laughed at her rant about angels, shaking his head and saying mildly enough, "The only one I've ever met is Castiel, and he was very...abrupt, but other people seemed to like him fine." Christopher hadn't felt like he was on very solid ground with the whole angel thing, but then he felt like he was standing on quicksand more or less constantly these days. Which is why when she made the offer to explain things to him the gratitude on his face was a fierce and vivid thing. "Really? Because it's like...Bishop gave me a ten minute speech the night I got here, then dumped me in a room with a real nice gay kid named Jeremy and checked to make sure I had a valid driver's license and that's about all I got. And everybody's busy, I don't want to bug them, and I don't know who knows and who doesn't to ask and I'm just..." he trailed off and laughed helplessly, redirected to, "whining like a bitchy little girl. Sorry. It's just been a thing for a while now, not knowing how to figure out all the things I don't know." He glanced around and realized that they were still in an elevator heading up for the roof, then hit the lobby floor. "Look, let's go to the fake Irish pub? I will personally pay for as many pints of Guinness and deep-fried sausages as you can stand to shove in your face if you will fill me in. We could even go really wild and graduate to decent whiskey and cheese fries. Tell me that you've ever had a better offer than that?" A sort of puppy-dog smile because he knew exactly how pathetic he sounded here. Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: Poor puppy.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] “Oh Cas, yea he’s….complicated.” She knew no other way to explain Castiel that that, they had ‘worked’ together but as far as she knew Cas was in God’s corner and Christopher’s life now was the latest that the absent father was now dicking with. Her eyes lit up a little at the mention of food, he had her number but then he said the magic word, fries. For french fries she’d sell her soul….well maybe not that but damn close to it. Yea he had her ticket. “I’ll help you Christopher, you aren’t the first person I’ve tutored in the ways of the world that most don’t really want to know. The french fries, they are just to tempting for me I’m afraid.” She waited for the elevator and moved back though the casino quietly, gathering her thoughts, really steeling herself to tell a total stranger things she probably shouldn’t but there was just something about him, something that reached out and tugged at her heart strings in a way that few had. Plus, puppy dog smile, she’d always been a sucker for anything puppy-dog looking on a guy. When they got to the pub she had the waitress sit them in a back booth, away from most of the people, keeping her back to the wall and her eyes on the doors and windows. Part of her now oh so cautious about what might come in, as if she were waking up ghosts who might seek her out by just saying what she was prepared to say. “Okay, there is a lot to cover, so did you want to start with who I am or just generic information?” LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: FRENCH FRIES!!!

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Once they were settled in with a pitcher of Harp's and two orders of cheese fries and one plate of ale-battered fried sausages to share between them because Christopher had a kind of a bet on with himself about whether just being in the same two-foot radius of them would cause a heart attack or whether you'd have to eat a piece first, Christopher thought about that question for a minute. Somewhat counterintuitively he decided, "Tell me about you? I know the broad strokes, sort of, but it's the fine details and implications I don't get. Maybe if I can get your story, or as much of it as it's any of my business to hear, I can start to see how it all connects together." And, not that he said it out loud but it was there to see on his face because Christopher had apparently lost any ability he ever had to lie effectively, because he was intrigued by Ruby. She was such a confusing combination of tough and vulnerable, fierce and wounded. There was some deep well of hurt and uncertainty inside this woman, and Christopher found himself wanting to soothe that pain in her, even as he was completely sure that she would reject it, and him, if she ever thought there was any aspect of pity in it. But he wanted to know her, he wanted to know about her as well as figuring out what made her tick. And so he asked about her and used pouring out beers as an excuse to drop his eyes away from hers for a bit, give her a little false privacy while she figured out what, and how, to tell him. Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: He wants to cuddle her, but is afraid that makes him a creeper.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Reaching over for a cheese fry she sort of bounced it in the cheese sauce a little, trying to figure out how best to start this, figuring just ripping off the band-aid was better than letting it slowly peel away from the skin and give him a slow hurt. Besides something in her, something against her better judgment, told her to trust him. This could be potentially the worst mistake she’d made yet but as she brought the fry to her lips, licking the cheese off her fingers her dark eyes looked up to him, making sure he could see them, knowing that when ever she lied to Sam he knew it because she could not meet his gaze. “I was born in 1342 in Cornwall. My mother was the village herbalist, midwife, and healer, my father was a fisherman. About that time the plague was pretty big and everyone wanted to know whose fault it was, the Roman church used people like my mother as scapegoats, calling her a witch and burning her at the stake. My father, seeing no value in a girl child, sold me to the church as well, calling me a witch, I was eleven.” She reached for her beer at that, taking a deep drink of it, her mouth suddenly dry. She searched her memory and was amazed to find she honestly had never told Sam this story, her story, and couldn’t really remember the last person she had told this to. Clasping the glass between her hands she looked into the liquid inside it a moment before looking back up at him. “A demon came to me the night before they were to burn me at the stake; she gave me a deal, she’d rescue me from that fate but my soul would be hellbound, I’d get five years of life then she’d collect my soul. Faced with what I was, after seeing my mother die like that, I took the deal and then spent the next five years running from the inquisition. When I was sixteen Tami came and collected me, killing me and I spent what seemed like forever in hell being tortured till I gave in, became what becomes of ever soul that goes there, I became a demon. I spent the next six hundred or so years securing souls for hell, temping people, turning them, corrupting them, till I met Sam Winchester, and he changed everything. See, he was supposed to be my big ticket to the next step in the hierarchy of demons, a promotion if I did my job, but instead of me corrupting him he changed me. Unlike anyone else in my whole life he knew the truth of what I was and he trusted me in spite of it. He didn’t totally judge me as evil and try to kill me like so many others would; he looked past the stuff on the surface into the possibility of what I could be and pulled out of me something that had never been, a demon who fought on the side of the hunters.” At that she paused, finishing off her beer, feeling like she’d opened the floodgates of her life to him, afraid if she stopped to long she’d never be able to start again, her hands shaking from the effort this confession was costing her. “I answered to a demon called Lilith and she knew I loved Sam, it didn’t matter how a demon had learned to love, only that I did, and she told me if I didn’t play along she’d kill him and Dean, his brother, too. I spent the better part of a year trying to figure out a way to keep Sam safe while doing what she ordered me to. In the end because Sam trusted me he went against every instinct he had and killed her, lead to her by me, and that opened up the prison that Lucifer was kept in. I was used, played, and then killed for what I did, I betrayed him and the way he is now, how broken he is, that is my fault. I’ve spent the last…I don’t know how long it’s been, but all that time in hell being tortured for being a traitor to it. An Angel, Azrael, brought me back and gave me to Sam. I think it’s heavens twisted way of making me pay more for what I did, having to watch him go through this and not be able to do anything to stop it, or it could be this is just a new and inventive torture method and I never left hell, either way, there is my sad, pathetic story.” Her eyes dropped to the table at that, feeling drained, exhausted from the outpouring of it all, finally putting a voice to all the things rattling around in her head. LOCATION: NYNY Casino, Vegas MUSIC: Hey Salior by Detroit Cobras OUTFIT: I got a hat! NOTES: Awww poor Christopher, talk about information overload!

[Christopher Price]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2zri8ah.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #3c4048; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] When Ruby started her story Christopher was watching her, but as it went on he dropped his eyes to his beer, his fries, his hands moving on the table. It was too much. Not too much for him, too much for her. She shouldn't have to deal with that, nobody should. Eleven years old. He had a cousin who was eleven, a spoiled southern California baby with blonde hair and sparkly pink fingernails and her biggest problem in life was whether her Mom would let her put pink streaks into her hair like Hannah Montana or iCarly or whoever the fuck it was that she watched on the Disney channel and got all her opinions from. He tried to imagine Linda watching her mother burn, cowering in a cell waiting for the same. And he just...couldn't. His mind didn't stretch to that, it was like his brain went to white noise. Condemned at eleven, damned at sixteen. Chistopher was no kind of historian, he'd never really thought about the fact that even a hundred years ago adulthood started at thirteen, not some-vague-point-between-eighteen-and-thirty. Hell, he still sometimes felt like he wasn't fit to be making adult decisions. Trapped into a decision like hers at an age when he'd still believed that fart jokes were the pinnacle of humor and internet porn was what girls looked like naked? Impossible. Inconceivable. He definitely noticed that she skimmed past six hundred years of God only knew what and focused on Sam, the freakout guy. Which, given that she flat-out said that she was in love with him wasn't all that surprising maybe. He didn't understand the tangled story of trust and betrayal, thought there were probably key pieces of the story that he was missing which would make it track more logically. But really, did it matter if he understood it? He understood that she'd picked what seemed to her to be the best of a bad lot of choices. He understood that it had hurt people, including her. He understood that redemption seems impossible when you're still struggling with the feeling that you can't possibly forgive yourself until you gain the forgiveness of those you've harmed. And at the end of it all, knowing that he was tremendously out of his depth but knowing also that this woman was hurting and alone, what Christopher did with all that new information was to reach across the table and lay his broad, warm hand over her much smaller one and say, "Whatever the reason you're back here, I'm glad you are. Whatever the resentments and old wrongs and new hurts, whatever the motives behind returning you to humanity, I at least think it's a good thing. That the world is a little better with you in it." Location: NYNY Casino, Vegas Outfit: A black tee shirt and jeans Music: Chick Habit - April March Notes: Focuses right down on the personal. It's where his head is.