Bunnymund (
bringinghopewithme) wrote in
goneawayworld2020-09-19 03:02 pm
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🌸 001 🌸
Who: Bunnymund, Sam Winchester, and Dan Sagittarius
What:Sam Winchester and the Family Business Bunny attempts to pick up a scent trail, enlisting Sam and Dan to watch his back.
Where: The West side of the Rig
When: After Tenten and Setsuna's assault.
Warnings/Notes: It's a murder investigation, with the possibility of assault.
Bunny is not nearly reckless enough to go hunting down a supernatural killer by himself right now. If he were at full power, he probably wouldn't stop for backup, but as much as it infuriates him, he's not. Calling in Sam might still be underkill for this investigation, but Bunny's current list of trusted adults who can possibly get away from whatever is skilled enough to get the drop on Tenten and rip a man's heart out of his chest is . . . well, it's one person long.
So as he runs to the southwest corner to meet Sam, he's still mulling over ways to mitigate the risk of a duo tracking investigation that might run them up against a monster.
What:
Where: The West side of the Rig
When: After Tenten and Setsuna's assault.
Warnings/Notes: It's a murder investigation, with the possibility of assault.
Bunny is not nearly reckless enough to go hunting down a supernatural killer by himself right now. If he were at full power, he probably wouldn't stop for backup, but as much as it infuriates him, he's not. Calling in Sam might still be underkill for this investigation, but Bunny's current list of trusted adults who can possibly get away from whatever is skilled enough to get the drop on Tenten and rip a man's heart out of his chest is . . . well, it's one person long.
So as he runs to the southwest corner to meet Sam, he's still mulling over ways to mitigate the risk of a duo tracking investigation that might run them up against a monster.
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Regardless, he's not sure what time it is - funny how growing up in a bunker didn't bless him with a reliable internal clock - but he's exploring all the parts of the rig that aren't locked off because he may as well know the lay of the land before he tries to serve any function here.
He perks up and stands aside as Bunny runs down the same hall, giving space.
"Hey, you." He greets Bunny with a smile.
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Bunny skids to a stop when he passes Dan, expression evaluating. They had a rough intro, but if the memory magic was reliable, then Dan might be as well. And three heads are better than two.
"Hey. You hunted monsters before, right?"
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Which isn't to say he can't effectively work his way around a shotgun or baseball bat or wrench or hand grenade or, you know, whatever.
He lowers his voice a little. "The thing people were talking about on the radio, I'm guessing?"
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His tone is dark. Love and friendship are hardly nonsense, but they don't factor too much in his decisions once something has made the choice to half-flay a child.
"I've got Sam watching my back but I won't say no to a third if you're willing to take the risk."
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"I've never met a risk I didn't want to meet." His smile now is a little grimmer. "I don't know Sam yet, but I don't know much of anyone yet."
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"You better off with that than without?"
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Dan joins into the invitation with a certain level of gravity, like as much as he's chipper and optimistic, he does know what the stakes are and is willing to regulate to meet them.
"What information do you have that I need so far?"
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Bunny shrugs Dan on before dropping back to all fours to finish his run to the southwest corner of the rig.
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So Sam contents himself with waiting for Bunny to arrive, turning over what it could be in his head. It had to be something that would blend in with the population of the Rig but something that was strong enough to take out Tenten. So, of the things he knows about, he's mostly whittled it down to demons and shapeshifters. Which doesn't mean it's either one, but having an idea of what he might be looking for helped.
He looks up when he hears steps coming closer. More than he's expecting. Sam shifts into a ready fighting stance, ready to defend himself if it's not Bunny. Then relaxes as Bunny comes around the corner. With somebody else. He pauses, straightening up and looking the new guy over. "Hi."
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It's a decent enough introduction, right? Not even remotely incorrect, and leaves Bunny plenty of room to go in deep about the actual threat here, which Dan has emotionally already shuffled into "will kill" territory.
"Bunny gave me a cudgel already," Dan explains.
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What he wouldn't give to have his actual team right now, backup that he doesn't have to personally worry about. What he wouldn't give not to be drastically underpowered and doing his best. But these are the circumstances, and he could ask for much worse than Dan and Sam.
"All right." Brief time. "What we know is that something attacked Tenten. We also know she's real far from being a slouch, and it was close to killing her before it was interrupted. It set up a slow murder for Setsuna, but murdered one Jorg guard by just ripping out his heart. So we know its calculated, strong, skilled, sadistic, but not too particular not to go for a quick kill if it's in a hurry.
"We also know it has a way through doors New Hires arent supposed to be able to acces. Could be able to go intangible, could be invisible, could have posessed a Suit, or just look like one. Could be a Suit that just thinks of us as expendable enough to kill for kicks. Point is, it's got access to a lot of power, a lot of resources, and we've got three big sticks."
So this is risky. In so many ways, this is risky.
"The only thing we have going for us that none of its victims did is that there are three of us, and we're all paying attention. Our best bet is to stay together, stay alert, and not get overconfident. In that order. No unnecessary risk taking. If we retreat, we retreat together. No one gets left behind unless there's only a body to leave. Can we all agree on that?"
He doesn't quite give them enough time to answer right out.
"There's not a lot of way out of mitigating the risks to this. Even if we get a trail, we could be caught where they don't want us. I need someone to watch my back on this, but not if you're not prepared to get hurt or Punished."
Dan and Sam seem like the sort of mortals not to turn away from those consequences, but he has to be sure.
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It's easier to trip him into 'kill it' territory. That's been so much of his life, really.
He listens to Bunny, taking an experimental swing with the club to make certain of the weight and balance. Pretty much perfect, which is what he sort of expects from the Easter Bunny.
"I'm good with those possibilities and those procedures." He would never leave his brother behind unless there was no other way forward. He won't do it here, either. "I'm in the wrong business if I wasn't prepared for pain."
And Bunny had seen that Sam has been through worse than the corporation could likely dish out.
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Dan listens attentively to Bunny's ground rules, only fiddling with the cudgel slightly; he's always had a great ear for memory, and there's nothing Bunny says that he disagrees with, bar two exceptions, one of which he'll bring up without interrupting and the other he'll just quietly sit with because he knows himself and he knows how he is*.
He shrugs at the mention of Punishment. "Might actually be something interesting around here for once."
Has Dan mentioned how much he hates it here? He hates it here. He's so bored. Who knew that being zapped into another world with people from all around the multiverse or whatever would be so incredibly claustrophobic, regimented and tedious?
"I do want to bring up one thing - it's not that I think you're wrong, Bunny, but just want to make sure we have an open mind about it - we keep saying "it", but especially if it's a Suit, there may be more from wherever it came from. The Rig's a big place and Corporate ain't exactly straightforward with us on a good day."
Dan's demeanor is significantly more muted and serious now, and it makes more sense now that he's the kind of person who'll hunt a monster than when he's looking peppy and a little ditzy.
"Let's get to it, then. Lead the way, pal."
*No unnecessary risk-taking. He can't promise that. He should, but, well.
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Otherwise, assuming he's gotten both humans full agreement, he nods. "Let's go."
He leads the way to the site of Tenten's attack, ears switching each way, listening for anything that isn't the sound of Dan or Sam's footsteps. The lingering smell of the violence done to Tenten upsets him, but he clamps down on it with a deep breath. This isn't the time to get in his feelings. This is the time to gather as much info as possible - however hard that may be, as he looks over his shoulder at Sam and Dan keeping watch, and leans in to concentrate on distinguishing all the present scents.
He's had hundreds of years to master self-discipline and restraint, and thats all well and good, but beneath that discipline and restraint is still a prey animal. With all those same prey instincts fully intact. So when he catches a scent that makes his every hair stand on end, freeze perfectly still, eyes wide and staring ...
"Think I've got what we're looking for," he says, very softly, his breathing firmly wrenched back to normal, fur laying down as he summons back a sense of calm. Still, its likely Sam and Dan saw that momentary freeze. Like a deer in headlights. Or a bunny staring down a . . .
"Definitely predatory." He forces himself to take another sniff, break down the scent. "I don't recognize it. Not human, not a mundane animal."
But there is a trail - leading towards a set of doors that they're distinctly not authorized to enter.
Too flippin bad, as Bunny lopes over to check if they're locked or not anyway.
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Sam pauses, then glances at Bunny. "Uh. Apologies for the language."
Because part of him can't stop remembering that Bunny used to be terribly small and cute. And also because he's the Easter Bunny and it feels a bit like swearing in church. Not that that's ever stopped him or Dean, but still.
He follows Bunny along, glancing over at Dan as they go along. Not that he doesn't think the guy can take care of himself. And he carries himself a bit like a hunter. So it could definitely be worse. Though he'll have to wait and see Dan in action before deciding more.
"Not surprised. If this were home, I'd be placing bets on it being a shapeshifter. But I don't know that we have any silver to be able to check them and...well. There's a lot of those corporate ass...erm. Jerks. More than we want to be testing."
If the door is locked, there may not be much they can do. Sam's out of his usual kit.
Hope this is good!
So. They really are hunting a monster.
"Silver? You kill a shapeshifter with- oh, wait. Different worlds. In mine you got to burn the corpse of the original form they stole." Great. That means no common lore, no ground rules for any given monster type they run into - if they run into anything either of them are familiar with at all.
Lots of "ifs", but Dan likes those odds. The worse the odds get, the more he likes them.
Dan bites his lip and teases one corner of his mouth to the side looking at the lock. If it's a typical lock, he can probably figure it out with fifteen minutes and a paperclip. If it's something technological...well, he hasn't properly warned Bunny and Sam that he can't do just about anything with computers, or that he can't read, well, anything, and looking back that's probably something he should have in fairness mentioned as a liability. But it seems like it would be a bad time now; all that matters is that when it comes to electronic locks, Dan's hopelessly out of luck.
With one exception.
"Here, let me try something." He slides the ID card from the cafeteria worker he was absolutely flirting with earlier today, and absolutely feeling up, and absolutely stealing the keychain off of.
No response.
He tries again, and there's a flash of green, like this time he finally got the right angle. The door opens.
"They're gonna zap the shit out of us for this, aren't they?" he says, grinning at his compatriots.
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It's not comforting as he sniffs at the door that the trail doesn't get any stronger. It doesn't STOP, it just doesn't change in intensity. Which means - "It didn't have to stop at the door long. It went through without a pause. Either it can walk through walls, or it had a key."
When Dan swipes the lock with his stolen card, Bunny nods approvingly and holds both of them back at the door briefly while he listens in. Once he's sure it's clear he steps in and holds the door for both of the humans.
The trail just keeps going as the door glides shut behind them. Constant and steady, but there's no more indication of violence, which just makes the scent stand out all the clearer as they track it.
"It wasn't in a hurry at all," Bunny reports to the humans, as he pauses to grab a scrap of fabric. It's torn from his issued blanket, washed as free of his scent as he could get it. He begins scrubbing the stronger parts of the trail with the rag, soaking up as much of the scent as possible. He'll present it to Stacia once he gets back. "Invisible, maybe, if not a shapeshifter. Or if it doesn't just belong here, and Jorg didn't care to warn us about it."
They follow the trail quietly, pausing occasionally around corners to let an exec pass. They're making good progress, getting good time, until the next door takes them into the Executive Lounge.
Bunny spares barely a glance for the tacky finery before returning to concentrating on following the trail, and soaking up as much scent on his rag as he can. This is harder. The trail meanders around the lounge, and so does Bunny, as it becomes rapidly clear that the source of the smell just . . . hung out here for a while. Lounging, maybe? There's traces of the smell at the first exit Bunny goes to, but then - it's also on the next. Every exit has traces of the trail, none of them really lending themselves to a certain choice as to which was the most recently used.
Bunny looks around the lounge, and the different directions the trail COULD follow, frustrated as he tucks the scent rag back in his holster. "Right," he whispers to Sam and Dan. "Pick a number between 1 and 7."
Sometimes the trail does go random. So random they must go.
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This is all familiar in a way that little has been since he's arrived. Sneaking around where he shouldn't be, trying to avoid people who would only cause problems. Still, with Bunny and Dan, it feels a bit like hunting with Castiel and Dean.
Well. Castiel would have left a lot of unconscious bodies in their wake instead of just hiding, probably.
Not that Cas was doing much at the moment.
He shakes his head as they make their way into the Executive Lounge, frowning at the decor and thinking. "So, whatever this is? Seems to be pretty high up the food chain around here. I'd guess probably middle management. Somewhere easily overlooked." Nobody paid attention to middle management, after all.
Sam glances around the doors, then pauses and goes more methodically, eyes flicking from left to right in order before starting over again. Finally, he nods. "First door would be my choice."
Did he maybe just do an 'eenie-meanie'? He absolutely did.
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He pokes around the Executive Lounge while Bunny sniffs the trail, looking for any trace of which exit the thing took - if it took an exit. More than once Dan glances up at the ceiling and checks under the furniture. Dan doesn't have Bunny's sense of smell, but he's good at tracking; only problem is that he's good at tracking outdoors, not in the weirdly swanky areas of a management suite. He comes up dry.
Ultimately, random is probably as good an idea as anything.
"Staying together to go through the first door? Works for me."
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Every second is a second closer to getting caught. But that was always more of a likelihood, not less, and Bunny puts it at the back of his mind as he tries to stay locked onto the scent, opening the first exit and hopping through.
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It's packed.
They blend in for all of five seconds, with a mother telling her daughter, "And when we surprise Mommy with it, you can tell-" before being cut off by the eight year old's horrified shriek at seeing the Easter Bunny.
Heads swivel. The mother screams as well, scooping up her daughter and dashing down the hall. An angry and frightened babble starts and people start rushing every which way, with the only ones making their way towards the trio being serious looking men with hats, bulky jackets, and wires leading to their ears.
In a world where Stuff sends out every twisted variation of life that can be imagined, a New Hire looks about as New as the next warped creature of fantasy. Security closes in, tasers drawn, shouting orders for the three to raise their hands and go to their knees. They know the trio aren't New. But that doesn't mean a New Hire gets to go by in an area they're not cleared for.
Even if they're tracking a murderer.
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When it sinks in that the kid's afraid of him he does not do a good job of concealing his dismay right away.
Its not personal. Different kids have different tolerances for the strange and unusual, and no matter how well meaning he is, he is absolutely strange and unusual. So he does clamp down on his reaction - just not right away.
Refocusing on the guards, he does raise his paws, dropping the club, but he does not get to his knees. "We're tracking what tried to murder those two kids and it was just here," he objects, knowing it's not going to do any good, but still grasping at straws. "You should let us keep going."
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Still. "You guys know it's happening. We're here to stop it, whatever it is."
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Dan's reaction is almost identical to Bunny's when he hears the kid scream, his body seizing with sudden action that's only cut short when he sees that the kid isn't in danger, just...not a fan of rabbits, he guesses? In a way, getting charged by security is a massive relief, because at least that means the people in immediate danger right now are three grown-ass guys and not the little girl clinging to her retreating mother's neck.
As he drops the club, Dan uses that famed sleight of hand to quickly also drop the ID and kick it into the scuffle of the crowd; it's one thing to be caught somewhere you're not supposed to be, and another to be caught somewhere you're not supposed to be with clearly pilfered credentials. And he puts his hands up where security can see them, glancing at Sam and Bunny.
"Fellas," he says to the advancing guards; somehow he's not feeling lucky about their chances of talking their way out of this, no matter how adorable the three of them are. "I think y'all might be in danger, and it ain't from us. Let's just make sure everyone gets through this night alive."
cw: shock collar punishment in this thread onward
"Boys, I'm disappointed. I assure you, Jorgmund cares deeply about the safety of everyone on the rig and that is why our security team is on top of tracking down the...intruder everyone is looking for."
He shakes his head.
"There was no need to break into an area you weren't supposed to be in. Rules are rules, healthy boundaries are important for our continued working relationship."
He sighs.
"You've left me no choice but to be a little more... strict in enforcing them." It's only after the room is completely cleared of everyone but himself and security that he takes out the fob. For just a moment, he hesitates, hand shaking.
Avoiding looking at Bunny, specifically, he clicks the button, initiating a Level 1 Violation shock. One minute doesn't seem like a long time but at that pain threshold it feels a lot longer.
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He's cut off mid-word, and all the training in mental calm in the world doesn't do much in the face of a full minute of being tased. Even getting a second breath, much less a calming one, in during that time is beyond him.
When the electric stream stops he's panting for breath in shallow, rapid gasps. Crouched in a defensive bundle, ready to bolt. Eyes enormous and pupils tiny pinpoints of animal panic.
He does a good job - usually - of not letting his body language remind all these primates that he is, however dangerous he's made himself, a high strung prey animal.
Now it takes him a few seconds to put that veil on again, slow his breathing, and feel anything other than panic.
"Rack the rules. You should -" his voice is ragged with panic and outrage and frustration. "Still let us keep tracking."
It occurs to him that Washburn won't look at him. He doubles his efforts to get a lock on the human's gaze.
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But, for all that he remembered it, Castiel had sacrificed his own sanity to give Sam his own back. The memories were there, but faded. Something that he could acknowledge but didn't really have on his mind most of the time.
But the memories were there. Which was why he clamped down, teeth grinding as he kept the curse words swallowed back. Lucifer and Michael enjoyed his reactions. They would keep their attention on him and not Adam when he refused to give them anything.
It's only a minute, but it feels longer before the pain ends. Sam leans against the wall, cradling his arm a bit because he hadn't been able to control his fall. Nothing major, probably just bruised, but it hurt. But it gave him something to focus on other than the twitches still jangling down his nerves.
"You don't even know what you're looking for," he points out between gulps of air. "Bunny can track it better than you can. Dan and I have more experience than all of you put together. This is part of why we're here. Protecting people. Let us do it."
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"Ain't no reason for this to be-" Dan coughs on some saliva he aspirated during the shock- "adversarial, Mr. Washburn. We're trying to help, not break any rules, and if we got a little overenthusiastic, that don't change that Bunny's got the thing's trail. At least let him talk to the people you got tracking the intruder."
Please, Dan thinks, sustaining eye contact with Dickwash as best Dickwash will allow. If they can't appeal to Dickwash's humanity - and Dan reckons that's loser's odds there - maybe they can appeal to the reptilian social climber in him.
"The faster this gets brought in, the better this looks on you for using your assets resourcefully." Dan twitches, not just from the shock but from the fear that he might have just played his hand.
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"Our company president is a stickler for certain rules." An interesting admission, that the president would micromanage that much. "We'll take your concerns under advisement. We did just bring in some tracking dogs and we'll bring them to this area to start tracking down the scent right away."
He signals to one of the security agents, who murmurs about the dogs to someone over a walkie talkie, making it clear he's not lying about immediately following up.
Then he signals to the other security agents to see them out.
"But I'm afraid you have to go back to assigned areas."
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If the stakes here weren't sky high, he'd be insulted. Maybe he is insulted, but that's not the point.
The point is there's nothing but pain coming from this, but fury and frustration are their own kind of pain, and Washburn hasn't had to press a button to overwhelm him with those.
"Your rules were ready to write two children off as acceptable losses! Two little girls already almost died! They're gonna have to carry that - that butchery in their heads the rest of their lives and you're bringing in dogs?"
Dan and Sam, bless them, are being reasonable about this. They're not bristling with every hair on their bodies, heart rates accelerating because this goes nowhere good but is too infuriating to keep inside, this ridiculously, outrageously passive evil.
And Bunny is not used to it. Where he's from, there's no bureaucracy to navigate, because there's no bureaucracy that can account for his existence. There's no prison that can contain him. There's no shock collar wired under his skin.
Where he's from, he does whatever needs to be done and he does it well and he isn't shackled by the most boring, dithering form of evil that has ever manifested in a mortal heart. And children may die tonight over it. Children are already traumatized for life over it.
"What part of it's here don't you get? What part of it almost killed our children, and now it's among yours doesn't matter to you? Which kid is going to be the next acceptable loss?" His voice doesn't break - it shatters. "Are you going to tell them so first? Because right now, it's set to be one of yours!"
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Girls only a few years older than his daughter.
But his daughter isn't here on the rig, she's in the Livable Zone with her mother.
But if she was here, like those girls have no choice over being, she'd be at risk. Just like the children of rig staff are currently at risk of this thing.
Bunny gets another zap but it's a stun zap this time.
But...
"I'll...speak to my superiors and see if they'll allow more collaboration with the New Hires on this issue due to your unique skills."
He's not lying that he'll actually ask.