WHO: Claire Bennet (future), Margareta (human!Ruby) WHERE: Ruby's apartment WHEN: Sunday, June 11, 2006; afternoon WHAT: Claire attempts to welcome Margareta to both L.A. and the twenty-first century. RATING: PG STATUS: log; partially completed to date, remainder to be posted when finished
Shutting the door of the Rogue with her hip, Claire headed in the direction of Ruby's apartment, several bags in hand carrying things both edible and not, thoughts on what had happened, not just with all the swaps, but with this one specifically. Ruby gone. It wasn't fair to Castiel, as he'd lost the woman he loved, and it wasn't fair to Sam, as he'd lost a friend after losing the woman he loved, no matter what opinions about said friendship were like right now. Neither of them deserved that kind of pain.
But she hoped by being here, it might help Castiel in some way, and the human girl who Ruby had once been as well. Claire couldn't imagine what it was like to be eight hundred years in the future. At least if she were sent eight hundred years ahead, she'd seen things like Star Wars and all of that. This girl hadn't, at all.
Shifting the bags to one side once she'd reached the apartment door, Claire knocked and waited for an answer.
Margareta was getting better about the noises, and this was just a simple knock on the door, nothing strange, nothing unusual. Castiel had told her he was going out for a little while. He got so pensive around her sometimes, she didn't entirely understand it, but who was she to presume to know the mind of a Holy Warrior.
She moved toward the door slowly, nervously, and stopped before undoing the locks as she had been advised to.
"Yes, Who is it" she called tentatively.
She didn't know what else she was supposed to say, how could this person even verify themselves as being who they said they were. It was all very confusing. But then so was everything else here
Shaking off the strangeness of the unfamiliar voice, Claire raised her own. "Hi, I'm Claire. I'm a friend of Castiel's, and I brought you a few things. Stuff you might need."
Realizing Castiel had no doubt given her at least a "don't open the door for strangers" talk, she frowned, looking at the peephole on the door a second before getting the idea.
"See the little hole in the door? You can see out here if you look in that," she said, then stepped back and dropped the bags, quickly digging in her purse for her wallet. Once her diver's license was in hand - hardly 'legal' but it was still identification - Claire held it up in front of the door within distance for it to be viewed.
"That's me, see? Claire," she said, then dropped the ID lower so her face was visible. It was only after she did that that Claire realized there was a possibility the girl couldn't read. Still, it might be enough, and Castiel had likely mentioned she'd be coming to visit.
She couldn't read the ID, she could read spellbooks in old languages like Tatiana had taught her, but she didn't read or write the basic things. It was a strange situation she supposed, chanting all sorts of dreadful things from a book but unable to do the most basic of tasks.
Still the picture was of the woman outside the door. And Castiel had mentioned the name Claire. Besides who was there to be scared of, she wondered would the woman consent to drinking holy water before being let in. That was the only thing Margareta feared now.
"I have water here, blessed, if you drink it then that will be proof enough" she said simply, moving back into the apartment and bustling around until she found the strangely capped bottle, you twisted it rather than pulling it. And the bottle was not glass. She moved back to the door and unlocked it, leaving the chain attached. And passed the bottle through to Claire.
Nodding slightly in approval of the request - she'd been around Dean and the Winchesters too long to find it a strange one in the least - Claire tucked away her driver's license and set her purse back down. Taking the bottle, she made sure to stay where Margareta could see her. Once the bottle was open, she downed the water, more than enough to have put a demon in a serious world of hurt, then capped it and passed it back so the girl could see the water had been drunk.
"I'm not a demon, or anything else, I promise," she said. "Just human." Well, almost 'just' human. Still, evolved human was a technicality and an explanation better saved for a day when Margareta wasn't still learning about all the things they all took for granted, let along the one's that were weird even to them.
Claire drank the water and it didn't burn her. And given where she'd gotten this particular batch from blessed by an Angel himself she suspected her visitor was who she said she was. She undid the last chain on the door as she'd been told how and opened it slowly.
"...Did you know me...her?" asked Margareta, more out of curiosity than anything else. It was unbelievable to her that a demon could ever be considered someone to befriend. Unless Castiel had been the only one to know of her nature, but that wasn't very plausible either.
She didn't understand any of this. Claire however seemed to be carrying bags filled with all sorts of things and almost by way of distraction Margareta decided to ask instead about those.
"Do you want to put them down perhaps?" she asked, trying to peer in at the contents
Having expected the question, if not immediately, then at least early on, Claire nodded while keeping the friendly smile on her face. After picking up all the bags again, she moved toward the now open door.
"Yeah, I know Ruby," she said simply and with as even a tone as she could manage as she eased inside with arms full. No elaboration unless asked and even then, Claire hadn't quite sorted out what to say.
"That would be great, thanks!" The bags were deposited to one side, out of the way and she quickly rearranged them, pushing a few bags back so Margareta didn't get into them right away. Left in the forefront was one bag of clothing and one of the food bags, the food inside already sending smells toward them.
"Castiel said you were taller, and I thought something a little less modern might fit better and be more comfortable for now until you can have your own clothes, so..."
She paused, dug into one of the bags and pulled out a dress. In the end, she'd gone to a costume shop that Sarah had recommended and come away with something that, while definitely not circa 1300, was at least in the same general construction as clothing of the era, according to the enthusiastic shopboy. Definitely not the same materials, of course, but this was the modern age of fabric that looked expensive and yet was very cheap.
After shaking it out, she held it up. "What do you think?" She grinned. "It's probably still a few hundred years ahead but it was the best I could find without some idea of what your clothing looked like."
Ruby. Thats what she called herself, the demon that she had become. There was something a little off about Claire's tone when she spoke and Margareta couldn't not ask it. Castiel had never been entirely forthcoming about her.
"What is she like?" she asked "Beyond...I mean she is a demon. How can she have friends such as you, how is it she is so aquainted with one of our Lords Warriors."
The dress looked very fine, more than she was used to if she was honest. She examined it for a moment shocked that someone had gone to so much trouble for her.
"Its very beautiful, thank you Claire" she exclaimed. "Should I wear it now, what do I do with this?" she asked, indicating the dress she currently wore, it was relitively clean, as clean as she could make it, but nothing like what she had been brought.
"You're very kind to do all this."
"I can tell you about Ruby, but it's kind of complicated, so let's settle this first, okay?" Stalling tactic, sure, but the 'friends such as you' had thrown Claire off. Worked on the same side for the same interests, gotten along at times, but friends?
"There's a laundry room downstairs, so don't worry about your dress right now."
Claire studied Margareta for a moment, debating how to approach this. The plague had been carried on fleas who'd bitten rats, so she'd read online, and while Margareta looked clean, Claire wasn't sure if Castiel would have had her try to definitely wash. Running water might be a novelty, or it might scare her. And she didn't want to insult her.
"I brought some things so you can take a shower - where the water pours over you," she said, briefly gesturing, "or a bath, if you want."
Margareta probably knew baths, Claire just wasn't sure what time period thought washing too often meant you'd get sick and die or things would haunt you or whatever. Of course, maybe the girl wasn't as superstitious due to what she knew or it just wouldn't matter to her because she was already sick.
It was strange, not really knowing what Ruby and Castiel had to do to keep their host bodies clean and together. They both ate, but likely didn't need to, so how many other things did they do or not do?
Margareta accepted it without much further thought, she'd ask again later. Right now she was fascinated by the idea of the shower, Castiel had briefly mentioned it, explaining how it worked and said to ask him if she wanted to try it.
"I'll do that. I don't know how it works beyond filling the bath, what things do I need to put in it, what other things are necessary?."
It was all strange and new to her but she was getting better at not being scared of things, Castiel had said there was nothing in the house that wanted to hurt her, and had pointed out the things she shouldn't touch. It was a start.
"You're very brave to come you know. I try to stay clean to stop the sickness spreading from me, I wasn't...I mean I wasn't in danger of it, for so many months but its going to return, and then it takes you, so quickly"
"Oh, it's not brave, I'm... immune." Yeah, that worked. "It means I won't get sick, even if it passed from something biting you and then biting me."
Picking up two bags, one which had a few different sizes of lingerie-type items in it and the other which had bath and other toiletry items, Claire headed toward the bathroom. As she did, she cast a curious look in the other girl's direction.
"You weren't in danger before? Castiel said you were... well, you were sick." Though, even as she asked the question, Claire began to wonder just how long before the deal Margareta was from. Had she already encountered a demon, had she been possessed?