I'm fine, thanks for asking. Don't need anything either. [There is a smile in her tone, an appreciation of the fact that he was making sure she was indeed all right.]
It's good to hear from you as well, considering all the madness. I just wanted to see how you were and catch up, maybe in person if time allows for it. That is what friends are supposed to do, yeah? [A slight laugh.] Even now, I think I'm getting used to having friends.
Is there anything I can help you with instead? Since we're on the topic.
Good. You can never tell when it's gonna be an emergency and a serial killer is banging down someone's door.
[Cheery thought, right? But sharing a roof with people and creatures who like to dissect people and leave their bodies to be discovered is a sad fact of their reality. It'd be nice if Wonderland was all tea parties all the time, but that's not the case. Even so, Adam still has plenty of time to visit with someone who'd bothered to give him the time of day in two separate crises of his own.
Instead of hesitating like he usually does, he finds himself warming up to the idea of catching up with Bela.]
Sure, yeah. In person is fine. I'm around the mansion most days, just in the clinic, or the library, or... wherever. [Maybe getting used to having friends again is why Adam struggles sometimes with being socially awkward. Amused, he snorts at Bela practically reading his mind.] Me, too. But you don't get a lot of friends where I've been. What's your excuse?
[She's the type who could charm her way into anybody's life. Even if he didn't like her, he's already indebted to her thanks to how many times she's helped him out.]
Nah. You kind of already did. It's nice that you called.
[ oh, thank the gods, finally. she's so tired of talking in circles trying to convince him to actually do this. but at least he is actually going to help her, so that's more than she was really expecting. she already sounds about five times less agitated. ]
Just outside the mansion. I'm already here, so just. You know, don't take all damn day getting down here.
[ and that's all he'll hear from her until he meets her outside. ]
One day I'll explain the reason why I didn't have any friends. [Not exactly a long and complicated story but Bela didn't want to get into it now, especially when they were exchanging pleasantries. What mattered to her the most was that Adam was her friend and they got along.]
Well, I'm glad that my call has helped in some way. I should do it more often. [She makes a mental note to do so from here on out.]
Can we meet somewhere other than the clinic or library though? Maybe one of the tea rooms? I find them to be more comfortable and a better place to talk to people in.
[Okay, fair enough, though how bad can someone willing to save you during a zombie attack really be?
He chuckles faintly.]
Just don't get strung up like a human art installation and I'll be good.
[Adam's never asked anyone to keep in regular touch with him and he's not about to start. It'd be nice, but it's all right just knowing people aren't getting killed or disappearing into the ether.]
[There are several reasons why Bela tends to carry a gun around with her whilst out and about in the mansion. Maybe not all of the time but it made her feel safer when she was armed.]
All right, great. Just pick a time that suits and I'll meet you there, yeah? Oh, before I forget, do you have any specific requests? Like coffee or whatever? I'm not sure what you like.
[Adam could get that. He's officially joined the gun club, and though he's nowhere near as experienced a hand as Bela or Jo, he's similarly comforted by having something to fall back on if his limited wit and charm don't make the cut.
Now, if there was just a way to make sure Bela could keep that promise around here... Lost cause, huh?]
Today, or tomorrow? I'm still free.
[Weekends aren't that busy for him, not that the life Adam leads around Wonderland is all that normal or conventional. After all this time, Bela asking him what he likes is a little piece of civilization he's forgotten about.
It makes him smile a little.]
I guess I'd kick back with a beer. [There's a laugh in his voice.] But after that event where we all wanted something really badly, I'd say coffee's just fine. I'm cutting back on the day-drinking.
No alcohol for me either. I drank a lot during the event, didn't feel the impact until the morning after. Wasn't pretty. [Nope, she doesn't want to get into details.]
How about tomorrow afternoon? Say around two o'clock? Means that neither of us have to get up too early and it also gives us time to do a few things if necessary.
[There were some days when Bela found herself with nothing to do so making time for her friends and meeting up with them was something that she had promised to do more of.]
Think I'll pass on the coffee though. I prefer tea.
[ it's not necessarily followed by an of course. the cora who went to high school would of course remember the birthday of one of her friends — and her supposed boyfriend — but the cora who had nothing at all, not even a friend to embarrass her when she didn't want to face the day she aged without her family celebrating with her, never really took to making a show of remembering. each birthday she'd spent had been alone, wishing a happy birthday to a ghost who wasn't as intangible as she had been lead to believe. but adam's a little different, as he's alive, even if barely, and sometimes it never quite hurts to act as though someone matters. ]
[ it's a little difficult for cora to shrug things off, even if she pretends otherwise. boyd continues to matter, even after he'd gone limp in her arms. erica will always matter, even if she had been someone she could touch again in wonderland. and adam, despite what he may believe, matters in his own way, even if he's sometimes as stubborn and as aggravating as trying to move a rock. she knows if she tries to push him she might end up hurting herself, but stubbing her toe against this particular stone may be worth it. it's a little difficult to even shake the feeling like this is an important day away. it'd mattered to her in an alternate universe; for some reason it matters now. ]
[ rather than take to audio, or even video, cora chooses to do something simple. it's long-lasting, if he doesn't delete it, and it doesn't mix any messages up, either. ]
Happy Birthday.
[ she wants to add in a joke, perhaps a one more year until you're legal, but she doubts a reminder of what it is neither of them have is the best way to colour his day. ]
[Adam has to give his device a double-take before he processes what he's reading. Birthday wishes are the last thing he wants to see, the very last thing. It's a cheap shot, one he's not prepared for.
No one here knows him, he hadn't been close to any of these people in his real life aside from John (and he'd remembered Adam's birthday sporadically at best, his phone calls coming less and less), so how--? Then he sees who'd sent the text. Cora? How?]
How did you know?
[He shoots a text back, not because he wants to admit she's right, but to voice the question he's asking himself in his mind. Does anyone else? Are more lousy reminders headed his way?
That's the important thing here, the only important thing.]
[ that's the simplest explanation. it avoids any other questions of how? being asked when it's laid out there on the table for him. she knows because in some alternate universe, she cared enough to want to know. she knows she would've made a big deal about it, as that cora had a social life this cora lacks. but it's easier to joke about it, even if she doesn't find it all too humourous right now. ]
[ maybe there's something wrong with cora in this universe where she doesn't want to know. shouldn't she? adam's a friend, one of the only few in wonderland she actually seems to keep an eye on. isn't it normal to want to know when their birthdays are? but it's easier for her to keep on trucking on without making those kinds of attachments. she seems to come and go; not even beacon hills can manage to hold her for too long. ]
Something I remembered. Kind of hard to forget when that me would've made a big deal about it.
[ and this cora wouldn't, hence the rather impersonal text. ]
[The fake memories. She's talking about the fake life they'd believed not that long ago.
It's possible, Adam realizes. Those little details had been a... are... a part of his life, just like when Cora had called him a medical student. He'd almost forgotten about the event, so eager to box all of that time up and lose it in the darkness of his memory. It goes without saying that anyone who'd known him might know things about him he hadn't told them.
Adam's chewing that unpleasant idea over even as he replies.]
None of that matters and it's not a big deal.
Forget about it.
[All of it. They'd agreed to forget, and forgetting is exactly what he's going to keep on doing.]
[ cora's not going to become overly defensive toward adam's response. it's the kneejerk reaction she has, but, it's not really her place. if he doesn't want it to matter, that's on him. cora doesn't particularly care. what does she lose if he doesn't want to face the birthday candles? nothing. but she loses if she doesn't send him some sort of message, anyway. maybe he'd appreciate it, maybe he wouldn't — and it's the latter. she knows what it's like to be forgotten; is it so bad she didn't want someone else to feel that exact same way, too? ]
[ pick your fights. she doesn't particularly want to argue over his birthday. did she want to celebrate hers? no. but it was nice to know derek at least remembered. ]
[ shortly after peter comes out on the network, cora decides to give adam a very angry call. she'd resort to text, but adam's a little too flippant sometimes to possibly take her seriously. and this is a matter of incredible significance. she'd lost someone of great importance to her before; she's none too keen to see other people she cares about end up six feet under, too. (or half-buried; he hadn't respected laura enough to properly bury her.) ]
My uncle's here. [ out of all the family members, it's him. it's clear cora's angry by how clipped her own tone is. if that could convey everything she wants to say to him, it'd make this a hell of a lot easier. but adam knows nothing about her family — that's her fault. ] His name's Peter Hale. I don't know what your social calendar's like, but if you talk to him, don't trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
[ she has, several times over, and she's been fucked over for it. ]
peter hale he's from my home, kind of the reason my life sucks he's really dangerous and really powerful and I wanted to make sure you knew he was here
[Given how out of the loop Adam is with his own family affairs, it's no surprise that he's even more ignorant about Cora's. Family is family business, as far as he's concerned, and when you're on the outside of that, you don't ask questions. She's been missing a brother--that, he at least knows, and that he respects as a private kind of grief.
Her reason for calling, though? That's something completely different. This Peter guy is really popular.]
... Okay. Bad uncle. I'm starting to get the picture.
[Getting a warning like this not once or twice, but three times? Adam's getting the message loud and clear.]
You know the rest of the guys from Beacon Hills, don't you. Your friends said something like that about him, too. What's the deal?
[What's the deal with your family? he is what he really wants to hear. Family drama isn't a concern for the general public, but when it has to do with monsters? Adam's happy to get nosy in that case.]
[Hale. He doesn't have high hopes this is headed anywhere good, and that suspicion is all but confirmed when Allison puts "Peter" and "Hale" and "trouble" together in the span of a single text.
Isaac had said something about a Peter, that he's a monster, not to be trusted. The details on why and how are still pretty skimpy.]
I know he's here and he's bad news, but that's it. What did he do?
["Life ruiner" isn't just a label moody teenagers slap on people who give them a curfew, not for them. "What kind of monster is he? Has he killed?" are the sorts of questions people with his and Allison's life have to ask now.]
[ allison had hoped that there would have been a certain level of understanding somewhere in here. castiel and sam had been okay enough with just accepting 'he's dangerous, watch out', but dean and jo hadn't been so easy to convince. she wasn't sure where adam would stand, but now that she knows, she has an answer set up.
because as much as she's spent her time here keeping her friends safe, peter is too dangerous. peter is more dangerous. ]
he ripped out my aunt's throat in front of me he drove my best friend crazy to make her his puppet to bring himself back to life he's killed a ton of people just because he can
[The worst kind of monster, then. The kind you dream about a thousand different times and in a thousand different ways, wishing you could have done something differently to stop them.]
Are you okay telling me like this?
[Adam has told horror stories that would make people's skin crawl through text messages, but not everybody is him.]
I guess I've only got one more question and that's what he is. Human? Not human?
[He'd had a feeling about her group of people and their home, like a shadow in the back of his mind constantly nagging at him, but now it's impossible to avoid the question when they're talking people who can find ways to bring themselves back from the dead.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-09-09 10:46 pm (UTC)It's good to hear from you as well, considering all the madness. I just wanted to see how you were and catch up, maybe in person if time allows for it. That is what friends are supposed to do, yeah? [A slight laugh.] Even now, I think I'm getting used to having friends.
Is there anything I can help you with instead? Since we're on the topic.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-12 03:14 am (UTC)[Cheery thought, right? But sharing a roof with people and creatures who like to dissect people and leave their bodies to be discovered is a sad fact of their reality. It'd be nice if Wonderland was all tea parties all the time, but that's not the case. Even so, Adam still has plenty of time to visit with someone who'd bothered to give him the time of day in two separate crises of his own.
Instead of hesitating like he usually does, he finds himself warming up to the idea of catching up with Bela.]
Sure, yeah. In person is fine. I'm around the mansion most days, just in the clinic, or the library, or... wherever. [Maybe getting used to having friends again is why Adam struggles sometimes with being socially awkward. Amused, he snorts at Bela practically reading his mind.] Me, too. But you don't get a lot of friends where I've been. What's your excuse?
[She's the type who could charm her way into anybody's life. Even if he didn't like her, he's already indebted to her thanks to how many times she's helped him out.]
Nah. You kind of already did. It's nice that you called.
voice;
Date: 2014-09-16 03:25 am (UTC)Just outside the mansion. I'm already here, so just. You know, don't take all damn day getting down here.
[ and that's all he'll hear from her until he meets her outside. ]
no subject
Date: 2014-09-18 08:15 pm (UTC)Well, I'm glad that my call has helped in some way. I should do it more often. [She makes a mental note to do so from here on out.]
Can we meet somewhere other than the clinic or library though? Maybe one of the tea rooms? I find them to be more comfortable and a better place to talk to people in.
The kitchen is fine but it isn't always quiet.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-20 05:31 am (UTC)He chuckles faintly.]
Just don't get strung up like a human art installation and I'll be good.
[Adam's never asked anyone to keep in regular touch with him and he's not about to start. It'd be nice, but it's all right just knowing people aren't getting killed or disappearing into the ether.]
Yeah, that works for me.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-22 09:44 pm (UTC)[There are several reasons why Bela tends to carry a gun around with her whilst out and about in the mansion. Maybe not all of the time but it made her feel safer when she was armed.]
All right, great. Just pick a time that suits and I'll meet you there, yeah? Oh, before I forget, do you have any specific requests? Like coffee or whatever? I'm not sure what you like.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-26 03:01 am (UTC)Now, if there was just a way to make sure Bela could keep that promise around here... Lost cause, huh?]
Today, or tomorrow? I'm still free.
[Weekends aren't that busy for him, not that the life Adam leads around Wonderland is all that normal or conventional. After all this time, Bela asking him what he likes is a little piece of civilization he's forgotten about.
It makes him smile a little.]
I guess I'd kick back with a beer. [There's a laugh in his voice.] But after that event where we all wanted something really badly, I'd say coffee's just fine. I'm cutting back on the day-drinking.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-27 08:23 pm (UTC)How about tomorrow afternoon? Say around two o'clock? Means that neither of us have to get up too early and it also gives us time to do a few things if necessary.
[There were some days when Bela found herself with nothing to do so making time for her friends and meeting up with them was something that she had promised to do more of.]
Think I'll pass on the coffee though. I prefer tea.
text »
Date: 2014-09-30 10:50 am (UTC)[ it's not necessarily followed by an of course. the cora who went to high school would of course remember the birthday of one of her friends — and her supposed boyfriend — but the cora who had nothing at all, not even a friend to embarrass her when she didn't want to face the day she aged without her family celebrating with her, never really took to making a show of remembering. each birthday she'd spent had been alone, wishing a happy birthday to a ghost who wasn't as intangible as she had been lead to believe. but adam's a little different, as he's alive, even if barely, and sometimes it never quite hurts to act as though someone matters. ]
[ it's a little difficult for cora to shrug things off, even if she pretends otherwise. boyd continues to matter, even after he'd gone limp in her arms. erica will always matter, even if she had been someone she could touch again in wonderland. and adam, despite what he may believe, matters in his own way, even if he's sometimes as stubborn and as aggravating as trying to move a rock. she knows if she tries to push him she might end up hurting herself, but stubbing her toe against this particular stone may be worth it. it's a little difficult to even shake the feeling like this is an important day away. it'd mattered to her in an alternate universe; for some reason it matters now. ]
[ rather than take to audio, or even video, cora chooses to do something simple. it's long-lasting, if he doesn't delete it, and it doesn't mix any messages up, either. ]
Happy Birthday.
[ she wants to add in a joke, perhaps a one more year until you're legal, but she doubts a reminder of what it is neither of them have is the best way to colour his day. ]
text;
Date: 2014-09-30 02:21 pm (UTC)No one here knows him, he hadn't been close to any of these people in his real life aside from John (and he'd remembered Adam's birthday sporadically at best, his phone calls coming less and less), so how--? Then he sees who'd sent the text. Cora? How?]
How did you know?
[He shoots a text back, not because he wants to admit she's right, but to voice the question he's asking himself in his mind. Does anyone else? Are more lousy reminders headed his way?
That's the important thing here, the only important thing.]
text;
Date: 2014-09-30 02:45 pm (UTC)[ that's the simplest explanation. it avoids any other questions of how? being asked when it's laid out there on the table for him. she knows because in some alternate universe, she cared enough to want to know. she knows she would've made a big deal about it, as that cora had a social life this cora lacks. but it's easier to joke about it, even if she doesn't find it all too humourous right now. ]
[ maybe there's something wrong with cora in this universe where she doesn't want to know. shouldn't she? adam's a friend, one of the only few in wonderland she actually seems to keep an eye on. isn't it normal to want to know when their birthdays are? but it's easier for her to keep on trucking on without making those kinds of attachments. she seems to come and go; not even beacon hills can manage to hold her for too long. ]
Something I remembered. Kind of hard to forget when that me would've made a big deal about it.
[ and this cora wouldn't, hence the rather impersonal text. ]
no subject
Date: 2014-09-30 03:05 pm (UTC)It's possible, Adam realizes. Those little details had been a... are... a part of his life, just like when Cora had called him a medical student. He'd almost forgotten about the event, so eager to box all of that time up and lose it in the darkness of his memory. It goes without saying that anyone who'd known him might know things about him he hadn't told them.
Adam's chewing that unpleasant idea over even as he replies.]
None of that matters and it's not a big deal.
Forget about it.
[All of it. They'd agreed to forget, and forgetting is exactly what he's going to keep on doing.]
no subject
Date: 2014-09-30 03:32 pm (UTC)[ pick your fights. she doesn't particularly want to argue over his birthday. did she want to celebrate hers? no. but it was nice to know derek at least remembered. ]
Fine.
No problem.
Have a boring Manic Monday.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-01 12:30 am (UTC)[But he'd rather not get into the details of his own experience, either, which means he'll give the same allowance to Bela.]
Okay. Deal. [Then he laughs a little.] That's very English of you.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-02 07:01 pm (UTC)[She laughs in return, teasing him. It was good to laugh whenever there was a chance to.]
I will see you then, Adam. Take care, yeah?
no subject
Date: 2014-10-03 04:28 am (UTC)Thanks for not asking.
no subject
Date: 2014-10-03 04:34 am (UTC)[Though "sooner" might happen a lot later than expected. Being English does not excuse sudden vacations, missy.]
text » private » backdated to peter's post
Date: 2014-10-22 02:00 pm (UTC)audio »
Date: 2014-10-23 04:16 am (UTC)My uncle's here. [ out of all the family members, it's him. it's clear cora's angry by how clipped her own tone is. if that could convey everything she wants to say to him, it'd make this a hell of a lot easier. but adam knows nothing about her family — that's her fault. ] His name's Peter Hale. I don't know what your social calendar's like, but if you talk to him, don't trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
[ she has, several times over, and she's been fucked over for it. ]
text;
Date: 2014-10-27 02:43 am (UTC)Try to. Why, what's up?
text;
Date: 2014-10-27 05:44 pm (UTC)he's from my home, kind of the reason my life sucks
he's really dangerous and really powerful and I wanted to make sure you knew he was here
voice;
Date: 2014-11-01 03:59 am (UTC)Her reason for calling, though? That's something completely different. This Peter guy is really popular.]
... Okay. Bad uncle. I'm starting to get the picture.
[Getting a warning like this not once or twice, but three times? Adam's getting the message loud and clear.]
You know the rest of the guys from Beacon Hills, don't you. Your friends said something like that about him, too. What's the deal?
[What's the deal with your family? he is what he really wants to hear. Family drama isn't a concern for the general public, but when it has to do with monsters? Adam's happy to get nosy in that case.]
no subject
Date: 2014-11-01 04:18 am (UTC)Isaac had said something about a Peter, that he's a monster, not to be trusted. The details on why and how are still pretty skimpy.]
I know he's here and he's bad news, but that's it. What did he do?
["Life ruiner" isn't just a label moody teenagers slap on people who give them a curfew, not for them. "What kind of monster is he? Has he killed?" are the sorts of questions people with his and Allison's life have to ask now.]
no subject
Date: 2014-11-03 07:01 pm (UTC)because as much as she's spent her time here keeping her friends safe, peter is too dangerous. peter is more dangerous. ]
he ripped out my aunt's throat in front of me
he drove my best friend crazy to make her his puppet to bring himself back to life
he's killed a ton of people just because he can
no subject
Date: 2014-11-09 05:42 am (UTC)Are you okay telling me like this?
[Adam has told horror stories that would make people's skin crawl through text messages, but not everybody is him.]
I guess I've only got one more question and that's what he is. Human? Not human?
[He'd had a feeling about her group of people and their home, like a shadow in the back of his mind constantly nagging at him, but now it's impossible to avoid the question when they're talking people who can find ways to bring themselves back from the dead.]