Not Until We Are Lost

Bruce had forgotten all about Destiny since he had arrived.

His heart raced as he walked through the jungle. It wasn't the first time in his life that he had been in a jungle setting, he had concealed himself deep within an area similar to this a few times. Running. Always running. Though SHIELD never did let him get too far out of sight. Perhaps there was comfort in living off of the grid, to him it brought some consolation. At least here he couldn't hurt anything except for a few trees. But even though it was familiar to him, that didn't mean it wasn't unsettling.

He could survive out here. He knew the plants and the animals. Bruce was a survivor, he had to be to exist in a world that would never understand him. His intellect far surpassed most that he knew which offered him insight to things others might miss, but what he had in brains he lacked in other places. Social skills, mostly. They were alright, he supposed. They could be better.

And they never would excel being stuck here with nothing to talk to other than the trees, a few predators, some monkies...

The sign etched in Latin had been curious. Bruce felt like he was on display like a glass figurine in a Curio cabinet rather than a human being. Or, part of a human being. At his core he knew what he was, what he had become. But this? This felt like a bad joke even though he knew it wasn't.

A while back amidst the wandering, Bruce had managed to fasten together a wrap consisting of large fronds of a fern and some vine. Interweaving the mechanism together, he was able to use it to encircle his waist. That was embarrassing enough being awkward, but being naked too? There was no way.

All the moving he was doing, the searching to find someone, anyone (particularly Natasha), was making him exhausted. He was beginning to get hungry, and his body ached from the constant motion. He felt like it had been hours since he had seen anyone.

"Hello?" He called, knowing it was probably futile. Did he want to be found? Natasha was better of without him, both of them knew it. Maybe it was better to not find her. Maybe.

Inque was dumbfounded.

She stared openly at the sign pressed firmly against the side of the door that faced out in to the hallway. RA. She was an RA at what seemed to be some sort of University on God knew what planet. She had hated the pirate ship, that was no lie, but at least there she could be by herself if she wanted to. Here it was far too noisy. No. She certainly hated this much more. She was not a social creature. At one point in her life she had been, when she was a girl not much older than some of the ones that crept down the hallways here she craved attention. She wanted to be accepted, the daughter of poor parents from a dying, starving country. She had earned attention alright. And she had made bad decisions but Inque was past that now.

No longer did she suffer in a life that she had no control of. Or, at least she hadn't until now. She didn't particularly care for all of this jumping around. But it couldn't be all bad, could it?

A quick scan of the corridor coupled with a scowl given to a young man that had been staring at her from across the hallway, and Inque allowed herself to see the potential in the situation.

She had murdered one of the aliens in cold blood. It had been in disguise but it had been one of theirs. She would do it again, too, if it came down to that. She would survive and prevail.

"What label is that?" Came a slur of a woman's voice. Instantly Inque whirled around to face the young woman, eyes narrowing with hate, "What hole did you crawl out from?" Inque snapped. The girl frowned and backed off a few paces, "Uh, sorry. I was just curious. Kay?" With a roll of her eyes the girl turned and was gone. Inque was fuming. "I hate this planet."

Sympathy woke up to the smell of sea air. This was a very pleasant change to the last thing she had known, which was the strange space ship. Not that being among the stars hadn't been a worthy adventure, but it scared her. Things like that were not even thought of in her time. 1752 was a world where doors opened with latches, not because you pressed a button. While she didn't particularly enjoy a lot of the things that were on the planets they went to, at least they were on the ground where she could deal with whatever went on a lot better.

The last planet they'd been on had been the ocean, too. That one, though, had been an ocean nobody could go into. She looked around the room, finding nothing but silly clothing and no weapons. She read the note and sighed. Well. She would have to find who remained, then.

The pirate found a bathing suit that was acceptable. Black with bright red flowers all over it. She didn't mind that it showed most of her body off, she was quite proud of how she looked, and it also gave her room to move and very little to get snagged should she run. She did find a pair of little red shorts, though, and pulled those over the bottoms.

On her mission, Sympathy left the room - very glad it had a knob - and began her search. She managed to pop into two rooms before the sea outside called to her. The note had said that the only dangers were beyond the wall. She didn't intend to disobey it. But she had to take part in the waters. She had to know the ocean again.

Abandoning her mission entirely, the pirate found a way to get out of the building and to the beach. She waded right into the surf, filling her mouth with the salt water, and laying back to let it float her around.

Starting the day by running off in short shorts to stop someone from being eaten by baby allosauruses was stressful.

Happily, once that was over, Destiny was able to go back to her cabin unscathed. Once there, she had some time to poke around her living room area and see what was left for her.

There were a lot of things here she could use, and right away Destiny started to grab herbs and liquids off of the tall shelf left for her, gathering them into the crook of her arm. She might be stuck here, but that didn't mean she couldn't do a little bit of folk magic to find out what was going on with people she cared about. At worst, it wouldn't work. At best, she'd feel better about everything. Likely, she was going to need a drink. But she had to know what was going on in Hemlock Grove without her.

Destiny ground some of the herbs with a mortar and pestle, then started some water for tea. She took the blue liquid that had been on the shelf and poured it and the herb mixture into the tea once the water boiled. She opened a drawer to see how good these alien captors were gonna be to her... and it turned out pretty good. She didn't have everything she needed, but it was close.

She grabbed the cup of tea and sat down in one of the nearby chairs to drink it. Almost instantly, she could see Lynda in Romania. That was good. She was frustrated, but safe. Trying to grocery shop not knowing the language. There was something hazy about Roman, and Destiny wasn't sure if that was because she didn't really care about him or because she was missing some ingredients. There was nothing about Miranda. No further information about the guys in the masks, but she didn't care about them, either, so, Destiny wasn't surprised.

Then it was like she got hit by lightning.

Peter.

She could see Peter, and he was in the old west town they'd all just been in. He was turning against the moon--again. He was out under the stars smoking a cigarette.

"Ooooh, you motherfucker," Destiny said. She took another long gulp. He was here, too. And apparently he was sitting outside one of the cabins, just in front of the front door.

Smoking.

She was out the door like a shot.

Destiny woke up in a soft bed, with white sheets.

She wasn't against white sheets. Some of the best beds she'd ever been in had those. But they were never her bed, which meant this wasn't, and that was really disappointing. She sighed into the pillow, then sat up very abruptly.

Wait.

She'd been in the fucking old west. There were tumbleweeds. And Sam had a cowboy hat, and she had her little fortune telling stand...

She ran her fingers through her hair and rubbed her eyes. Where the fuck was this? The room was nice, if sparse, and there was another one, seemed like. Everything was more modern. And her favorite tarot deck was on the table next to the bed, along with a lot of her jewelry. Destiny realized she was dressed in some of her favorite stuff, too--she had on short pink shorts, a tank top, and a flowered, flowing robe of the kind she would wear at home.

She stood up and checked the closet. Her boots were there, and some other wardrobe choices that she hadn't seen since Hemlock Grove.

Sufficiently weirded out, and sure this was another 'planet,' Destiny grabbed the tarot deck and began to do a reading.

She had her specific question in mind, but as she laid the cards down, they told her something else. They were telling her that a man (male, based on the card, formerly of high rank) was in a dangerous position. The related cards showed her it was potentially mortal danger.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit," she said to herself, with feeling. She shoved boots on her feet and ran out of the cabin, not even looking at the other room (which was stocked with a few things she could use for potions and other divination purposes). Outside was tropical paradise, but that fence...

... that fence....

She stopped at the center of what seemed to be a neighborhood of cabins and looked around for whoever it was doing something incredibly stupid.

Much as Destiny was iffy on her arrival, and a little bit on Sam, she managed to make the best of it.

Rumanceks always did.

She found a room at the inn, near to Sam's. She found a longer skirt, and while getting things together, she decided that there was a point where if you couldn't beat a stereotype, you oughta pander to it. It'd worked for her in Hemlock Grove, it would work here. So rather than trading in her clothing completely, she made herself look every inch the fortune teller she intended to be in this little shit town.

She set a table up outside the inn and put out a painted sign with a crystal ball.

CARD READINGS--LEARN YOUR FUTURE!

No price was listed. Depending on how savvy the person was, Destiny was taking their entire billfold.

She sat and waited, long folds of purple-pink skirt fluttering as a breeze went by, head wrapped in the same fabric, silver jewelry glinting in the sun.

There were worse places to end up, Sam decided. This world wasn't in the midst of a conflict at least. That was an improvement over the last world. Though from the rumors he'd heard, it was some of their group that had started the revolution in the first place. He just had to hope that it wasn't a regular occurrence. Dean hadn't mentioned that if it was, so Sam had to assume that they didn't have a group that raised a ruckus everywhere they went. With any luck, they'd all be a little quieter on this world.

He needed to find Dean and Jo, but he also needed to find Annabelle. He'd promised to train her and she was so young that he didn't like the idea of her wandering in a world like this without someone to watch her back. It might not have been this particular version of Sam who'd promised to help her out, but he still felt like he owed her all the same.

The day after he'd arrived in the world, Sam started out bright and early. He wasn't sure where he should be looking, so he simply went around checking all of the shops and taverns he could find. He just had to hope that they were all placed around the same little village, because he had no idea where the next settlement would be or how long it might take to get there. Never mind that he would have to find a way to borrow a horse or... something.

So he simply hoped for the best as he set off on his search.