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adam young is not your typical hellspawn (humanincarnate) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2010-06-18 00:41:00

Entry tags:

!closed, adam young, ben braeden

WHO: Adam Young and Ben Braeden
WHAT: Exploring.
WHEN: Not long after this.
WHERE: The forest near the edge of Colligo.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

The sun was shining brightly from above, casting a white glow across the light coloured pavement that criss-crossed all over the city of Colligo. On the stairs at the base of one of the apartment buildings - Apartment Building A, to be exact - that was intermingled with some of these criss-crossing walkways, was a young boy by the name of Adam Young.

Adam was a bit scrawny and certainly unkempt as most little boys often are. Not quite gangly just yet but certainly no longer burdened with the chubbiness of a young child either. His blond hair was almost white in the sunlight and the way he squinted against the brightness made his nose crinkle slightly. There were holes where the knees of his jeans belonged. The material was frayed a bit, the denim stretched and torn in the pursuit of climbing trees and crawling through brush. One trainer-clad foot dangled across two of the stairs, the offending appendage bouncing about at a tune that no one could hear. The boy sighed softly, glanced at his PDA for the time (he'd forgotten to put on his watch), then twisted around so he could see the doors leading out of the building. It felt as though he'd already been waiting forever. However just as he considered giving up, he noticed someone stepping out of the doors and perked up a bit in the hopes it would be his new potential friend.

When it was revealed to be someone else, Adam huffed softly and flopped back down onto the stairs. To pass the time, he went over the plan in his head. Mostly, it was to see what they could find in the forest. There was a whole city to explore, of course, but starting with a place that he knew pretty well just made sense. He gave a slight nod at this and turned at the sound of the door opening once more. He hoped it was Ben. At this rate he was starting to wonder if he shouldn't have insisted on talking to Dean and Claire. Or maybe just insisting Ben could go and would be on time. Either way would have worked, he was sure.

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humanincarnate
2010-06-18 03:40 pm UTC (link)

Adam already knew about Chomper but he wasn't going to tell Ben that. If there was one thing the boy had learned since coming into his abilities a year earlier, it was that it was best not to tell your friends know that you knew stuff you probably shouldn't. It kept the awkward questions and normal curiosity at bay.

So instead he grinned broadly and reacted as he thought he might have if he hadn't already known about the raptor. "Really? That's wicked! I reckon I could've kept a dinosaur when they were here, too, but Dog would've got jealous and I don't much really need one no way," he replied. He led them around the corner of the building to where a surprise he'd thought up on the way over was waiting.

"I didn't know if you had one already or not," he said as he paused, motioning toward the two bicycles. "But I figured if you didn't, you could use one of mine." He didn't explain how he'd gotten them both there and rationalized that technically he wasn't lying. The bikes were his. He'd created them both from absolutely nothing, after all.

Picking up one of them, he slung his leg over the seat and cast a grin at Ben. "This'll get us there loads quicker," he explained before answering, "And no, there aren't no others round except for the locals. They're fun enough I guess but they don't know what it's like, not being from here and get kinda funny in the head if you talk about it too much. So mostly I just keep to myself, or with Dog. Aziraphale is who is 'sponsible for me but he's kinda... stuffy."

Adam pushed off on one of the pedals and rode in a small, tight circle. "C'mon!" he encouraged the other boy. "The place is grand. There's all sorts of hidden spots inside and there's this family of rats that'll let you feed 'em if you want. When they aren't running from Dog, I mean."

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miniwinchester
2010-06-18 04:13 pm UTC (link)

Two bikes? The guy has two bikes? Who has two bikes? Ben was both confused and impressed. Even the richer kids he knew only had one better bike rather than two but that didn't stop Ben jumping on the spare eagerly. "Thanks!" he said enthusiastically. It was a cool bike too, black and silver and just his size. "I don't have one. I don't have anything from home." Except Dean. That was something, better than a bike.

"I don't know any locals really. Maybe they can play," he said reluctantly but he didn't really want to share his new friend. Not yet. He needed to find something at Colligo that was just his.

"Who's Aziraphale?" Ben asked. "What kind of a name is that? Where's he from?" Ben imagined some far off country. Then he wondered if he may have been something else. Another angel or a vampire maybe. All of that stuff seemed to be real here. That gave Ben another thought. His voice was wary as he asked, "Are there any... monsters in the forest?"

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humanincarnate
2010-06-18 07:46 pm UTC (link)

"He's British," Adam responded matter-of-factly, about Aziraphale. Then he paused and felt a slight flush of guilt at not being honest. "Well," he amended carefully, "he's not really British. But he's lived there so long, he might as well be, see?"

Frowning in thought at the question posed to him, he finally shook his head. "And no," he replied, "there's no monsters in the forest I don't think. Or if there are, they aren't bothering anybody much. I reckon I'd have heard about it by now, if they were." Scrubbing at the end of his nose with one fist, the other gripping the handle bars of his bike as he steered past a group of people and completely ignoring their calls after him to slow down, Adam glanced over at Ben and grinned brightly.

"Just you wait'll you see this place. It's so very wonderful. I'm thinking it might almost be better than where the Them'n I used to meet up, even." He glanced back and forth as they drew close to an intersection then sped up a bit, standing up on his pedals as they rode through. There was a blare of a horn from a car but it wasn't very close. Adam ignored it as he'd ignored the protesters on foot. He and Ben were going to get there and nothing was going to slow them down, that's all there was to it.

Finally the forest came into view and he pointed with one hand. "See that path to the right?" he called over to the other boy. "Follow close now. We're gonna take that one and leave the bikes in a little ways." And with that, Adam drove straight into the woods via a small path that only a select few could even see.

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miniwinchester
2010-06-19 03:11 am UTC (link)

"Oh. Then where is he from originally?" Ben was not one to be content with hand an answer because, really, he didn't see.

Adam's answer wasn't that reassuring. There may be monsters but don't worry, they haven't done anything yet? He rode a little closer to Adam, hoping he didn't notice. It wasn't that he was scared or anything, he'd just had enough of monsters for a while... a longer while than this. "Have you ever... seen anything, you know, weird?" OK, so in this place it wasn't the best question but Adam wasn't from here. He would know what Ben meant right?

Ben was a little more cautious crossing the street. He could hear his mom's voice on his head but he was no less impressed with Adam's fearlessness. Maybe on the way back he could...

Ben didn't need much prompting to follow closely, he didn't know the way, had no idea where they were. He was charged with excitement. This was more like it. An proper adventure. None of that hush-hush weirdness they had left behind. It was cool. The ground was hard enough to support their wheels, made it easy to ride. "OK," he said, acknowledging Adam's instruction. The sun was warm, on his face. He smiled. He felt... happily.

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humanincarnate
2010-06-19 03:33 am UTC (link)

Adam didn't speak as they made their way through the woods. The trees grew closer together, the branches sticking out at odd angles to offer some close calls but none getting close enough to scratch. Then the path opened up and there was a clearing. Adam put on his brakes and swung his back tire around. Clearly, they were stopping there.

Once his bike was parked - meaning, leaning up against a tree - he finally looked at Ben and spoke with a grin. "It's just up this way," he assured him, motioning to a small path with barely beaten down grass and undergrowth. "And I reckon I've seen weird stuff before but, well, this whole place isn't quite right besides," he offered, mind flickering back to the conversation now that there weren't cars and people and trees and all sorts of other interruptions.

"The way I see it," Adam continued as he led the other boy closer to their destination, "I spend lots of time in these woods and I've never had nothing bad happen here. Mostly it's just rats and squirrels and you might get lucky and come 'cross some other animals every once in a while." His blue eyes shone with open honesty as he added, "But nobody is gonna mess with you. And if they do, they gotta deal with me."

He said it with such certainty, such confidence, that there really wasn't much room for doubt that he meant it. There was an unspoken, unidentified something in his voice that it simply couldn't be ignored. Then he smiled and the heaviness was gone, replaced with more excitement and exuberance as the building finally came into view.

It was only partway out of the ground, the other half having sunken into the earth and offering a below level view of the world. It was overgrown with trees around it and vines across it. Adam hadn't done a single thing to the outside of it since the day he stumbled across it. Honestly, he wasn't sure if it had existed before him or if he'd just been that bored. All he knew was that it was absolutely perfect.

The windows had boards across them. He had cracked a few, from the inside, so he had a better view of the woods beyond. He'd also made some furniture because, well, it didn't seem like something terrible to do. It wasn't anything particularly fancy or new looking. It actually went with the worn out, dust-covered chair he'd found there. And the rickety table. A couple of crates and the sofa were his but they really fit right in. Pushing open the door, Adam grinned over his shoulder at Ben.

"Come right on in," he said excitedly.

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miniwinchester
2010-06-20 03:59 am UTC (link)

Adam was a boy, just a kid, barely older than Ben so, really, his assurance of protection shouldn't have been given that much weight, even if two years older seemed a lot when you were ten. Adam was really just a rather skinny kid. It really should not have been more than a nice gesture.

So it really didn't make sense that Ben was suddenly taken by the wholehearted belief that Adam could protect him from anything, anything. Even things that Dean had no hope of saving him from. Ben's fear vanished. There was nothing in those trees, under those bushes, that could harm him, not while he was with Adam.

The little building itself was amazing. It looked like the earth had tried to swallow it but choked halfway through. The windows were boarded up which made them instantly cool and creepy. It was just cold enough to make it feel forbidding but not so cold you wanted to leave. It even had furniture, items that looked like they had seen years of service and hundreds of stories. No one had ever shared anything like this with him, he didn't know anyone who had such an amazing thing. This place he found himself in, it was a little like a fairy tale, but the good kind like from the adventure books he liked to read. He felt like he was in one.

"Wow," he said when he looked around, truly impressed. "This is awesome! And no one ever comes here?" He poked at one of the chairs, made the table wobble a little. He grinned at Adam. "What's your favourite game?" he asked, feeling ready for just about anything, even monsters.

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humanincarnate
2010-06-21 01:41 am UTC (link)

"Nope, hardly anyone even comes this far down the path, much less all the way cross the clearing," Adam assured the other boy as he fondly patted his overstuffed armchair before dropping down into it. His legs bounced up then flopped over one of the armrests, his neck and head going to the other. He twisted a bit to look at Ben, all set to reply when Dog began barking and darted across the room to the far wall.

Adam grinned and scrambled into a sitting position. The scuffed toes of his trainers bounced excitedly against the floor. "He's found himself that rat again," he told his friend, nodding toward his canine companion. Dog meanwhile was busy digging for all he was worth at a hole in the corner of the room while barking and whining loudly. Finally he gave a muffled huff and flopped down directly in front of the hole, determined to wait his adversary out.

Adam looked back to Ben. "I like all sorts of stuff," he finally said with a slight shrug. "'Sides, I reckon you're the guest so you ought to be the one to pick, besides." Manners were manners, after all, and while Adam was a natural born leader even without meaning to be that didn't mean he didn't do what other kids wanted to. A guy wouldn't have many friends, otherwise. That was just common sense.

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miniwinchester
2010-06-22 12:59 pm UTC (link)

“I wonder I could bring Chomper here, he’d love it!” Ben said, watching Dog worrying after his rat. A butterfly flew past his vision, settled on his chair. An actual butterfly. Ben couldn’t remember ever being this close to one outside the butterfly house at the zoo. He kept his hand still, watched it walk along on its little legs. It tickled the back of his hand as it walked across it. “Adam, look!” he breathed! He sat there for some second, on the back of Ben’s hand before finally stretching out its bright blue wings and fluttering away.

He really was torn, every minute, between wanting to go home and never wanting to leave this amazing place full of things he’s always wanted and never had. But what match was that for his mother. It was his turn to pick the game, and he would but he had to know something first, had to talk about something.

He swung his legs, kicking the base of his seat, smacking his toes on the floor. “Adam, can I ask you… where are your parents?” He asked the question slowly because it would hurt less if you asked it slowly, every one knew that.

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humanincarnate
2010-06-25 10:18 pm UTC (link)

Adam frowned in thought at the question. He knew the answer, of course. He also knew that this was a tender subject for Ben and that playing it off casually wasn't a good way to go about it. He couldn't blame the other boy. He'd missed his parents when he'd first showed up, too. He just also knew that there wasn't anything that would make it all better, overnight.

Still, he wasn't one for lying or coating the truth. So with a slight shrug, he looked back to his friend. "They're back home," he stated. "Nobody I know from back home is here 'cept for Aziraphale and Crowley. And Dog, 'course." Rubbing at the end of his nose and leaving behind a smudge of dirt, he shrugged again and glanced toward the canine in question.

"I miss 'em," he admitted with a sideways glance at the other boy. "But Aziraphale says they don't even know I'm gone so I reckon I'll just have t'be right enough knowing they aren't worrying about me." He grinned ever so slightly. "'Least, not much than they normally do."

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miniwinchester
2010-06-26 04:39 am UTC (link)

"Yeah, Claire and Dean said that too, that mom wouldn't know, but I don't see how she couldn't notice I wasn't there. It doesn't make any sense. You don't think they're just trying to make you feel better right? I mean, grown-ups do that all the time." He looked at Adam intently, the other boy's reaction is all important.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Dean and Claire, he kinda knew why adults lied to kids sometimes, but that didn't mean he believed everything he was told by them. Other kids could lie to, of course, but in a different way. Most kids lied to get some thing or to protect themselves. Adam, though, he was odd. He seemed to think as much like an adult as a kid... it was weird and Adam had never met anyone like him. He wanted for Adam's answer, his body taught with interest.

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humanincarnate
2010-06-26 05:04 am UTC (link)

Adam thought for a moment and shook his head. "No," he said decisively, "They're telling the truth. There's been folks who've left and come back and they say pretty much the same thing." His foot bounced against the floor lightly, a soft scuffing sound echoing around the building. "I reckon it's just one of those things that don't make much sense but is still true just the same."

His blue eyes shone brightly as he offered Ben a reassuring smile. "I wouldn't much worry about it. Way I see it, you'll go home whenever you're meant to," he simply said. "Until then, why not just have some fun? Look at it like being on holiday from your real life."

Dog yipped in agreement and Adam's grin grew a bit. "See? Even ol' Dog says I'm right and you can't argue with him. He might be just about the smartest sort of dog there is, I figure," he joked.

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miniwinchester
2010-06-26 05:50 am UTC (link)

"I can't see my mom. I don't want a holiday from my life. I liked my life. I mean, I wished to see Dean again. I kinda... wished he was my dad, but I wanted to keep my mom too! This bites! I don't care if it makes sense it's stupid. Why can't she come here too? She can't get together with Dean if she's not here." Ben's plans for his family future were quite clear. As much as he liked Claire he really needed to get this right. He needed to fix his family, make his mom happy. He was the man of the family after all.

"I am worried. It's... it's great here but it's not home. I can't let it be home. I... don't know how to tell Claire and Dean. I think they'd be kinda sad if I said I didn't want to stay. I mean, I think they sorta know but... I think I'm meant to go home now. Or maybe..." Ben brightened. "Maybe when I convince Dean to come back with me! Maybe I'm here to get Dean!" Ben switched in a moment from near-despair to delight.

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humanincarnate
2010-07-01 01:24 am UTC (link)

Adam wanted to correct his friend. He wanted very much to point out that Dean seemed pretty happy with Claire, and that it wasn't very fair of Ben to just show up and take Dean away from her like that. He wanted to explain that the odds of Ben being able to leave, especially with Dean in tow, were pretty much slim to none. He wanted to make sure his new friend understood that it was really for the best that he just accept his time at Colligo and try to enjoy himself instead of fighting it at every turn.

However, he didn't say any of that. He just sat there, studying Ben with a thoughtful look for a few minutes, before finally offering a small smile. "I think," he said slowly, the words forming in his mind even as he said them, "that you ought to just let Dean and Claire know that you still want to go. Secrets are never any good, 'specially when they're about feelings."

He shifted a bit in his chair then glanced toward the window nearest him, peering out the gaps in the boards that covered the broken panes. The sound of leaves being disturbed became audible within a few seconds of his looking and Adam physically relaxed when a jogger simply made his way down the path and out of sight. Adam looked back to Ben.

"C'mon," he insisted with a grin, "let's do something!"

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