milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: We can't afford for me to do the right thing.]

It's been a long time since he'd last really 'powered up,' as Ruby teases him by calling it. Sam can feel the effects twisting through him. Everything seems brighter, sharper, clearer; he feels clearer, stronger, ready for anything.

He can't sit still, and he sure as hell can't go back to the motel room until it wears off a little - Dean'll notice something's wrong in a hot second, and Sam doesn't want to lie to him unless he has to.

He pushes through the door to Milliways instead. Maybe he can walk it off there, at least a little bit.

[OOC note: Sam is currently riding a paranormal high due to the effects of ingesting demon blood. If your character would be able to detect that sort of taint, feel free to have them do so! Just don't expect him necesssarily to admit it.]

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Satisfied that he's there, and not about to like, break her neck or whatever people do when they're behind you, she starts down the trail again.

The woods are mostly quiet and mostly still, but Ava can hear your typical Forbidden Forest noises: twigs cracking off in the distance, leaves rustling. Weird unidentifiable sounds that might be monsters.

"Okay," she says, coming to a halt. The trail's widened out some, into a very small clearing. The moon is visible through a break in the trees.

"This should be fine."

"Okay."

It's bright enough in the clearing that he doesn't need even the tiny flashlight any longer. Sam clicks it off and puts it away with absent, habitual motions while he looks around.

"Want me to do the circle?"

Ava blinks.

"Well, I figured I'd grab one from our world, so we don't really need to do anything."

He turns to look at her.

"You mean you just plan to ... hold on to it?"

"Until you kill it," she replies, pleasant but slightly confused.

"Yeah."

"I'm ... not sure that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"It's not that I don't think you can," he temporizes.

Even if he's not sure.

"It's that I don't know what it'll do to you if you are, when I kill it."

Ava's eyebrows arch.

"That's interesting."

Man. Now she kinda wants to find out.

"Huh ... um, I can see that, I guess. Okay, cool, sure-- make a circle."

He looks around for a large stick, and begins to draw the devil's trap in the dirt as clearly as he can.

"Be easier if I had paint," Sam mutters, as he works. "Harder to clean up, though."

He leaves one line broken -- easy enough to close it once the demon's inside.

"Sorry," Ava says with a faint grimace.

Sure, she's not helping, but that's because it's Sam's plan!

To not re-kill her.

He glances up and gives her a quick smile.

"I'll just have to remember for next time."

Oh hey now. We're already thinking next time?

"Let me know when you're set," Ava says.

Her own smile is slight. Maybe it's too dark for him to see it.

"Just a second--"

It's not much more than that, either. He finishes sketching, straightens, and moves to the side, where he stands prepared to close the circle as soon as the demon's inside it.

"Ready when you are."

Ava nods, glancing to him.

"Okay."

If she hesitates, she knows she's going to start coming up with reasons to hesitate more. So Ava decides to just skip that part and summon the damn demon.

As she focuses, telltale stabbing headache beginning, the air around them grows a little colder.

And a gray, smoky presence begins to materialize inside Sam's circle.

He watches with a focus that grows more coldly intent the more the demon manifests.

The last time he'd been around Ava when she was doing this, she'd been planning to use it to kill him.

Sam flicks a glance at her as the smoke begins to coalesce into the form of a child with clawed hands and a twisted face.

"Acheri?"

Dryly.

Ava looks first to the circle, then to him, and smiles faintly through the headache.

"What can I say."

(Slowly, she lets her focus and control recede. The circle'll take care of all that.)

"It's a classic."

"That's one way of putting it."

As the demon girl hisses and lunges forward, Sam casually closes the last line of the circle, then studies the creature within it.

"I would say it's going to be pissed at you for this, but it's not like it's gonna be around long enough for it to matter."

Ava shrugs.

"Most of them aren't exactly thrilled as it is. Meatsack pulling the strings, you know?"

She folds her arms over her chest.

"Yeah. I know."

The corner of his mouth twists.

"I've heard a lot of insults along those lines."

With that, he raises his hand toward the encircled demon, stretching out all five fingers, and concentrates.

It's not that Ava didn't believe Sam, exactly.

It sort of is that she didn't believe him, though; and even though she's not directly controlling the Acheri demon, she can still-- sense it, for want of a less hokey word.

Not that she needs to.

To see it jerk, and a snarl, and flicker for a moment like a TV getting bad reception, all she needs to do is look.

The ground under the demon begins to smoke. Red sparks sizzle at the edges of the ring.

The Acheri's hissing violently, even as the edges of its form lose substance, thinning into smoky vapor.

Sam's frowning a little, as though considering something. His forehead creases as he focuses harder, and a faint smile touches his lips.

Something about that smile, and that focus--

It gives her a little thrill.

(She'd be mad that it looks like she's about to lose the Acheri girl, but, well.

Cannon fodder.)

His fingers tense, and the Acheri demon shrieks once, a high-pitched scream--

--a scream which dissolves into a roar as its form dissolves into oily black smoke that falls to the ground and dissolves into the earth, leaving only scorched ground, fading sparks, and the faint stench of sulfur.

Sam lowers his hand and looks at Ava.

Ava stares, hard, at the spot where the demon was.

That's not getting sent back-- she's done that with circles and chalk and stuff and not just her powers, so she's seen it a few ways-- Sam did it.

He killed it.

You're better than me.

You're way better ...

"That," she says, feeling like she needs to get her breath back.

"Is so freaking awesome."