Well Armed

Who: Dean and Caleb
Where: Park Ramp, center of town
When: Around midday

The day was dull and overcast, looking like rain. So much different to the last time she died. Maybe today he'd get the rain he'd thought should have fallen then. But it wasn't raining yet - by the looks of things, the rain would come later and Dean tried to factor that in. Would the rain be a good thing or a bad thing? It might keep the vampires away, but it would make it harder to work. He had to believe she'd resurrect, he had to. And he was hoping that it would definitely be where she died this time, not last time - if she reappeared where she'd been shot, everything he was trying to put in play would be wasted.

But, for now, he was in town - Sophie had told him that he was getting his first driving lesson today and that would be taking her into town. They'd stopped at Journey's on the way in, so they could pick up all of Lullaby's things. Not that there were many, but they didn't know how long the vampires would be in town for and she needed more than one change of clothes. Then they'd gone into the centre and Sophie had left him, saying she'd meet him back at the car at the given time and she had things to do. Which left Dean at a loose end. So he was leaning against the car bonnet, hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket, thinking, running everything over in his mind.

Caleb was out for a little bit, though mostly just to grab a few things then get back home, before he was missed. Which was weird, because he wasn't used to being missed by anyone. And he might be now, and it was about to make his head explode, really. Either way, he was walking by the parking ramp when he caught sight of Dean. Dean who was looking massively preoccupied, and really--who the fuck wasn't today. "Hey." Caleb called with a nod in his direction, walking into the darker shadows of the parking ramp. "I believe we were supposed to get in touch sometime today. So...good to see you still breathing and all."

Dean had been aware of someone's approach for a while, the echoing footsteps sounding as someone approached, but he didn't look up straight away, taking the time to judge distance from sound - not always something he could do with any accuracy, but he was wondering if he could learn that. Probably not, but he still wondered. As the footsteps obviously drew closer, though, he looked up, just as Caleb started speaking. Right, yeah - the text messages. Dean had read the ones that had gone back and forth between Caleb and Thia-pretending-to-be-Dean. "Hey," he said, his voice quiet, but still audible. "Yeah, still breathing," he confirmed, not sounding hugely happy.

Caleb kept walking up, then stood a few feet back from Dean, sort of assessing him. "You alright, man?" he asked. He almost added onto it an addendum of 'is everyone else still breathing?' but figured that would be Bad. So he didn't. Instead, he was going to wait and see what his friend said, and hope that it didn't involve horrible death and dismemberment.

Dean shrugged. "Yeah - well, y'know, town hit by massive fucking gang of vampires that look set to..." He took a breath, still able to hear her screams and he looked down for a moment, and spotted a bit of dirt on his boots. He cleaned it off on the back of his jeans, as though it bothered him, gave him a reason not to look straight back up, though he did after a moment. "You?" he asked instead. "Haven't seen you for a while - missed you in school."

Caleb internally sort of winced. Yeah, alright. He had a point there, but still. "Alright. Was out because my older brother decided to have a mental breakdown randomly. So...me and my other brother went to see him then by the time we got back...yay vampires." he said, rolling his eyes a bit. "Got tagged by a few on the way back into town, even. But I got a car out of it, I guess...which, I don't suppose you'd know anything about fixing them, would you? It's...kinda sorta almost totaled, but not fully, so Math gave it to me." And wasn't that random of him.

Dean eyed him a little. "Take it you both got out of it okay?" he asked, looking the other guy up and down, then frowning a little. The cast was gone from his arm. But, then again, he didn't know how long ago he'd broken it, did he - maybe it was due off. "And, yeah, I know some about cars. In theory, anyhow. Like books and shit - never much worked on one though," he added, pushing up off the car to stand. He'd looked at cars for the same reason he'd looked at guns. And household appliances, electrical circuits, anything else he could lay his hands on. As a study into how to stop them working.

"Then you probably know more than I do." Caleb said. "Anyways, if you wanted to help, or anything, that'd be cool. I don't really have the money to bring it into a shop." Then he shrugged. "We're pretty good at taking care of ourselves." he added to the question about getting out of things okay. He didn't mention he'd spent most of last night out picking fights with more vamps. He wasn't quite sure how Dean would take that, and he didn't know that getting into it right now was the best plan ever. "Everyone at your house okay?" he asked. Which reminded him that he didn't specifically know Dean's living situation.

Dean took a breath and let it slowly out. "No, not exactly," he said, deciding against a flat-out lie and going with the semi-truth instead. ""We got attacked last night, big group. And Joshua - he and his guardian are staying with us right now - he ended up with a dislocated shoulder." Dean himself had a couple of bruises, but they were mostly from being manhandled down into the basement and thrown into the cage. Not to mention hitting the floor pretty damn hard when he was knocked out. He shifted again, the gun he was still wearing flashing visible for a moment before his jacket covered it once again.

Caleb had been about to answer when he stopped dead. His head tilted to the side and his eyebrows went up, as he blinked. "When did you start packing?" he asked. Because yeah that right there was a gun. And alright, granted, Caleb never went anywhere unarmed in some fashion, though it was usually a knife of some description. He supposed he could count the blood magic as 'armed', but...yeah.

"When do you think?" Dean asked in a very 'this isn't really a question' way. "Moment my aunt and her boyfriend heard about the shit hitting town, I had a gun thrown at me." He didn't mention about the reasons behind that - and he still didn't really buy the whole 'amongst other reasons' from Oz. - not entirely. Or, if that was the case, the werewolf had done a shitty job of explaining it right at the time.

"That's...extreme." Caleb said, not sure what else to say to that. "Was never much of a gun person myself. But..." he shrugged. "Better than nothing, I guess. Sorry to hear about some shit happening. At least no one was seriously hurt." he conceded. "You guys have everything you need? And...they all know by now the truth, yeah? I know you said before you did, but..."

Dean laughed a little, though it was definitely tempered by Caleb's first comment. But, what could he say? The only person who was dead had, as far as Caleb was concerned at least, been dead for over a week. "Yeah - they know the truth. No 'by now' in there - they all knew already," he told the other guy.
s
"Oh, well that's a relief." Caleb said honestly. He didn't ask how though. He figured--assuming they both lived through this mess--that they'd talk about it some other time. "This shit's always slightly easier when people don't have to have that ten minute blinking attack and sputter 'wait, vampires? But they don't exist!' and all that shit." Though he thought to himself that usually people freaked out the most when they saw werecreatures wandering around. Vampires at least looked human most of the time. It was less to crack the brainpan.

Dean's mouth turned up slightly at the corner and he upnodded. "Yeah, I know - but hey, I was kinda there a while ago myself. I didn't know shit til I got here, well, not about like vampires and crap. Bit of a crash course, being sat down and told what's what, y'know? But better then than when things are hammering down the door. But, then again, it's kinda depressing as well - apparently vamps like these ones hit the town they both grew up in and... it didn't go too well for the town."

That had Caleb's attention and he frowned a touch, shifting his weight between his feet. "How not well?" he asked. "I know this has gone on longer here than other towns they hit, and I know that there's...a few people out thinning their numbers down, but um...well. Yeah there's shit, and it met the fan, and got everywhere. I'm pretty sure Marquette as a whole isn't quite going to recover so well after this." But he wanted to know what to expect if Dean knew someone who had seen this before.

"As in - the town's not there any more," Dean said, bluntly.

"Not there." Caleb repeated. "That's...that's not good." he decided. Shit. Well, guess that meant he'd be out again tonight...and all night, if he had to be. Shit. With a side of Fuck. "They shut it down afterwards? What happened? How is it not there anymore?"

This was where Dean got a little hazy, because he was sure he hadn't been told everything. "No - as I understand it, the town was destroyed somehow. But I don't know who or what destroyed it. Just that I know that my aunt and her family moved back to England before shit really hit and yeah, the town is just... gone. Like no longer on any maps gone." And one day he was going to find out what happened - it just never seemed like a good time to ask.

Caleb looked even less happy with that. "...yeah, I'm sticking with my first call on that being really fantastically not good." he said. He'd have to say something to Math about that. Even though he was fairly sure his brother wouldn't be surprised. And again, Caleb's mind immediately went for the entire 'must go out and kill shit a lot' scenario. "What's your family doing to...I don't know. Stay safe and everything?" he asked.

Not Enough, obviously Dean thought, but that wouldn't be happening again - if he had to board up every fucking window in the house and make it so that people couldn't go within three feet of the walls, that would not be happening again. "Staying inside after dark - our house is like a fortress now. Motion sensored floodlights in the garden, about as much ammo as you can lay your hands on. And...." he paused for a second, before figuring 'what the hell, we're talking about vampire defence, right?' "And a werewolf. And an angel. A couple of psychics." And a fade...Hopefully. That word popped into his head and he immediately quashed it. No, he couldn't think like that - she would be back. Tonight. And they'd get her inside before anything could get to her and it'd be okay.

....okay, your life is far more interesting than I ever imagined." Caleb commented to that laundry list of supernaturals. "You sound pretty damn covered." And what was it with angels? Could you not throw a fucking rock in this town without hitting one for fucks sake? At least Leija was still safe, and listening to him, so that was a definite plus. But now there was another angel...damnit. He hoped he didn't have to worry about that from Dean's end. If things would stop being stupid for ten minutes, he sort of wanted to keep up the friendship they had started.

"And I didn't mention the dreamwalker, but, really? He's kinda useless," Dean shrugged, figuring he may as well complete the list as much as he could. "Oh! yes and a spirit that can call down lightning - telling you, frying vamps? Stink to high heaven." He could feel his control slipping as he spoke, as if any moment he was going to completely lose it in the face of the insanity of the situation and the enormity of the last few weeks. He was almost feeling giddy, as if nothing really mattered any more, as if none of this was real. And he'd been doing so well up til now as well.

Caleb was staring again. Though it was mostly just the sort of demeanor and tone Dean was coming out with. "You sound well guarded." he said, in a partially quiet tone. "I asked this before? But I'm going to ask this again. And ignore the vampire shit for it this time. Are you alright?" he asked. He was usually good on picking shit up from people, and he was hoping his instincts weren't off today. Which they very well could be, though still. He'd rather ask and possibly get a nicely horrifying answer than wonder.

"Ask me tomorrow," Dean told him, really not wanting to answer that question. He'd be fine, tomorrow. Then things would be back to something vaguely resembling normal - though the definition of that was shifting so fast he wasn't sure what it even meant any more. He should ring his mother. They hadn't talked for nearly a week. She'd be worried - not that a phone call from him would help matters, except give her more reason to be worried. Maybe he shouldn't. And his friends back home - he hadn't talked to them since Thia died. The first time. He needed to shoot them a line at least. But not today - he had too much to do today. he still had to figure out what exactly he was going to do tonight. Maybe Joshua would have thought of something, maybe he'd have a plan and then Dean wouldn't need one. But he'd come up with one anyway - two plans were better than none at all.

Silence greeted that, before Caleb conceded and nodded. "Alright." he agreed. "I'll ask you tomorrow. I'd say let me know if you guys need anything but erm. You seem to have a walking arsenal at your house already so you're probably better off than I am." And he was pretty damn well off right now. He and Math really could just...burn through shit if they needed to. It was fun.

"Thanks," Dean said, to both comments there. That helped a little, knowing he wasn't going to be put on the spot, but he didn't feel as strong as he had last night, or even this morning.His anger was draining away and he was clinging to bare determination and worry. Screaming, horrific, unthinkable worry. "How about you - you and your brother all set?" he asked.

"Yes." Caleb said with full confidence. "We're...pretty good at taking care of ourselves. So, we're more than good. Very covered." he assured Dean. And hey, it was even the truth. It wasn't just to make Dean feel better or anything. Then he paused, not sure if he should go on or not, but he did anyhow. "We've been sort of going out and taking down vampires at night. We're...fairly good at it."

That had Dean attention and it showed in his face. "Really?" he asked, straightening slightly. His mind went back to his conversation with oz, when he'd been told he wouldn't be able to handle going up against those vamps. And yet Caleb could. "How do you do it?" he asked. because he didn't like not being able to do that - right now, it seemed important to him and he didn't want to find himself in a situation where he couldn't fight if he had to.

We're half demons. Caleb thought but didn't say. Instead he went for the better answer, and it was far more the truth on at least his end. "I...kinda sorta am fairly adept with blood magic." he said. "Which kind of fucks your shit up sometimes, but it also puts a whole lot of hurt down if you can pull it off and not get yourself killed from backlash." That was the working theory, anyhow. Since this, he had been thinking more on writing up a few more spells to see if he could come up with something new to try out. But so far he hadn't quite yet.

"Magic?" Dean asked, surprised, but not from the 'existence of magic' side of things - after all, he'd spent time around Maddie. Apparently. He couldn't actually see her, but he'd heard about her. Though not much from Sophie - Sophie, he'd noticed, seemed to steer clear of magic. He'd told Thia as much, after all. And there it was again, the existence of magic. Thia herself. God, let the magic work, let her dad have not screwed this up, he thought. "I'm seeing a lot of that around these days."

"Yeah?" Caleb asked curiously. "Where at? Hopefully it's not necessarily my kind. Mine's...well, I mentioned that part where it fucks your shit up and you have to worry about instantaneous death over backlash?" he continued. "It's unstable. But it's also the only thing I can actually do. So..." he shrugged. "I do it. I have for a while now. And while vampires are tough, and all that, they don't move around so well when they're down a few limbs."

Dean raised an eyebrow at that. "Down a few limbs. Shit, that's stuffs fucking powerful then? And - if you don't mind me asking - what kind of backlash do you get?" he asked, cos, well, Dean knew about backlash. Being laid out on a concrete floor for taking out a few lightbulbs just screamed knowledge of backlash.

"It is if you can get it to do what you want...which by the way isn't at all easy." Caleb said. "And if you fuck up it's bad. But it can be that powerful, yes." He didn't mind answering questions, though. He wasn't going to recommend Dean try it however. Because...yeah no. And no. Lots of no. Dean may know about the supernatural but that didn't mean he had the resilience Caleb did. "Backlash as in physical, scarring damage." he said. "As in you need blood to do it in the first place, which quickest source is yourself, unless you plan to run around with blood on your person all the time, and that gets tricky to explain. So there'd be a cut there somewhere, and after that, for anything you put out, it'll come back on you in the form of physical injury. Mostly slice wounds, but sometimes that shit's deep. It wouldn't be exaggerating to say I nearly bled out a few times just from backlash."

Dean considered this - and quickly came to the conclusion that Thia would kill him if he even contemplated it. Or stand by him and take his injuries upon herself, which was as bad. Not that he'd been seriously considering it, but... Okay, he possibly had been considering it. Right now, he'd look at any and every option available to him. Vampires were in town and people who were important to him were dead and wounded. And in Dean's world? That was Not Okay. "Why do you do it then?" he asked.

"Because it's all I can do." Caleb answered easily. "And in the world I occupy, I need it. I tend to get attacked or...whatever. I'm unlucky." Also, he went and deliberately sought out trouble, but that didn't really need saying, did it? "But that's it. I don't really have anything else going for me, so I do that. My brother got me a knife that heals me, so...it's kind of better paying off now than before, since at least there's less chance I'll fuck up and get myself killed immediately."

Dean frowned a little at that. "You occupy a different world than the rest of us?" he asked, tipping his head to the side a little and contemplating that. Because that was the way it had been phrased, but the guy still seemed to be standing in Marquette. Which, sure, was fucking insane at times, but still. Anyway, it paid to be strangely literal at times.

Caleb paused for a moment, then looked Dean in the eye. "Until a few days ago, most of these people never would have been able to conceive of vampires coming through town to tear it down on them. But I've been in a world where that shit happens. It's...different."

Dean considered this. "So, Marquette: better or worse? Than what you're used to? More shit, or less of it?" he asked, wondering at that. For him, there was more, so much more here - more than he'd ever been able to contemplate, so much more that at times he didn't think he'd be able to take it all in, actually cope. Then again, at other times, he felt like he was thriving here. It was a rollercoaster alright.

Having to stop and think about that, Caleb pondered for a few long moments. "I probably would have said better, before this shit." he said. "But I'm not sure anymore honestly. I'm from New Orleans, and...that city was fucking insane. But I don't know. This town...it kind of seems like it's just as insane, it's just quieter about it than back home. Or, it used to be quieter about it. Lately it seems like it's panic button is stuck on and everything's falling apart on a regular basis."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Dean agreed. "For me, home was nothing like this - s'why I got sent here. Cos I'd probably 'fit in' better - or so the theory went, I guess. Now? I'm wondering if my aunt's actually told my mum what's going on and if she's going to try and drag me back home again." Try being the operative word. It beign that there was not a hope in hell of him leaving Thia behind. No way.

"...think that'll happen?" Caleb asked. "It might...well, honestly, it might be better off for you if you did. This place--there's just something about it. Honestly, when I first got here? Inside a week I was attacked by a vampire. Out of the blue, mind you. Random shit. And let's just say that when I was in the hospital, it wasn't necessarily from natural injury." He didn't say how it had happened, but the point was there was enough shit around to find badness and he didn't have to look that hard.

Dean shook his head. "No, it's not going to happen - I'm staying here," he said with an undertone that suggested that there was nothing that could sway him from that decision. "Your brother's knife - that why you've not got a cast anymore?" he asked, realising he was jumping around a little, going back to parts of the conversation that had long past. His mind was all over the place, he knew. It had been for days - he was catching it all, just not always in the right order.

"Yes." Caleb admitted, seeing no harm in owning up to that. "And alright, just might be safer...say, anywhere in the entire world but here, lately." he added. "But you're not going back. Check." Not that Caleb planned on leaving either, even if he figured he probably could. He and Math could just...pick up and leave. Easy, right?

"You don't just leave people," Dean said, aware as he said that that had apparently been exactly what Sophie had done. Packed up with her parents and left town. What was more sensible? To stay or go, and did that really matter to people? Obviously to some of them it did.

Caleb nodded. "Yeah. I get that." he said. Not that he knew who Dean would be leaving, besides...a household chock full of supernaturals that were all in cahoots together. So....that was weird. But he could understand on some levels. Like Math wasn't leaving Olivia around alone. And he'd worried about people as well. There were factors involved, definitely.

To Dean it wouldn't have mattered even if he was completely useless, he'd still try and find a way. Oz and Sophie were family. Thia was... Thia. Joshua was her boyfriend, therefore important to Dean and Sean seemed to come with Joshua. So they were all important to him in their own ways, he wouldn't leave any of them. "So, you have any tips for fighting vampires?" he asked.

"Yeah, don't let them get ahold of you." Caleb said. "These ones are fast, way too fucking fast. They aren't that bright though. And they aren't that well versed in everything, since a lot of them are new. ...Fire's good. Decapitation is always a plus. Don't get cornered. Stakes work and all that, but it's a lot harder to actually stake something through the heart than it looks in the movies. I mean there's ribcage and shit there. Plus, it's not like there's a big target where their heart is. So it can get missed fairly easy. I wouldn't recommend that method unless you've got one fully immobilized."

"Yeah, Sophie mentioned decapitation." How had he gotten here? casually talking seriously about killing vampires? Or killing anything. He'd never shot anything in his life before a couple of days ago. It was... Yeah, it was still completely unreal. But at least his hands had stopped shaking now. He was fine as long as he could act and not have to think about what he was doing.

"That's kind of harder to do than you would think too." Caleb commented. "And did I mention these things are fast? So...honestly your best bet is to stay where they can't get you, and try to figure shit out from there. I mean, digging deep pits with wooden spikes at the bottom is pretty time consuming, and while it might work...kinda impractical."

"Yeah, just a bit," Dean agreed. "I think we'll be sticking with holding them off - though I know Oz went out last night and took a couple out." Which, yes, he was pissed about. What with the whole him being stuck in a cage of it all. "Anyway, I guess I should actually get going - looks like sundown's gonna come early today."

"Yeah...probably will." Caleb agreed, looking back out at the dreary weather. Absently, he was thinking Leija's wings would look good against the stormy, dark grey backdrop, but it was a fleeting sort of thought. "Call me tomorrow, alright?" he asked. With as many things at Dean's house that would watch his back, he wasn't as worried as he had been yesterday about Dean's wellbeing, but at the same time, he'd rather have that whole check in thing going on.

"Sure - tomorrow," Dean agreed. And he'd stick to that. Things would either be better, or worse. Tomorrow would tell.