8463/I've Got No Strings

I've Got No Strings
Date of Scene:	23 July 2019
Location:	Mercy's Garage - West Harlem
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Castiel, Mercy Thompson

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Castiel has posed:
It had been quite some time ago that Castiel had stumbled into Mercy Thompson's garage, following the pull of magic. Finding, instead, something more. Oh, there had been magic there, both mundane and wild, but in Mercy he'd found someone who had offered.. help navigating the waters of humanity.

For a long time Castiel had found himself seeking those answers in a solitary fashion. He'd taken her advice and found that he liked movies. Many an afternoon had been spent in matinees watching old fare, and re-releases of not quite so old fare. But he'd still encountered a disconnect between what he understood intellectually about humans, and what he understood in how to be one.

Not that Castiel would ever be one, but they were his lot now in life, and it would certainly help to at least emulate them a little more closely.

He was certainly better than he had been, but meeting Hayal had shown him all the ways he was still lacking.

So it was, much like a young coyote, Castiel, once Warrior of the Lord, former member of the Choir, tucked his figurative tail between his legs and returned to Mercy's garage. This time a humbler being, and one able to admit he needed help.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Mercy Thompson, coyote, mechanic, daughter of a Native American deity herself.....spies Castiel out the corner of her eye while using good old fashioned elbow grease to get rust off of several bits out of the engine of a BMW. The engine was a lost hope, but Mercy was salvaging what she could, that'd been an hour ago. All she's got out of it, rust, snapped and sheared parts, and a good grasp on why the engine seized and grenaded itself in spectacular style pulling out of a rest stop.

So it is that Mercy's muttering to herself about people who can't take care of older cars, as she finally pauses and with a thudd sets the piston down she's been inspecting. A lot has happened in the time between Castiel's visits after all.

Mercy's trouble, and her last escapade saw bullets rain down and a drug runner get shot, indeed Mercy's had to do a bit of housse fixing up around here, newly deep cleaned office, and.....oh yeah, the floor has a nice patch in it too. Still, Mercy got away lightly.

Shaking her head she finally turns to nod to Castiel. "I'll be with you in a sec" she says and grabs a rag to wipe the rust, dirt and.....things off her hands then waves as if waving Castiel into the garage proper.

Castiel has posed:
To be fair, Castiel didn't really pay a lot of heed to human boundaries on dwelling spaces, and whether or not you waited for invitations to come and go, other than Agent May had been making pointed efforts to impress these things upon him. He still would have come into the garage - she'd told him she would take him under her.. well, wing didn't quite fit, but close enough.. before. He'd once had an open invitation. However, it helped things along that there was one this day as well.

"I have been thinking," the angel starts, his gruff voice less abrupt than last they met, and much along the lines of he'd only wandered away for a few days rather than the nearly a year it had been. It didn't even occur to him that she might have forgotten him. "I do not understand humans. I do not have the time Hayal had to learn their ways. I.."

And here the angel is at a loss. He wasn't sure what words imparted that he was in need of help. Instead he stands there, near scowling, hands shoved deeply into his trench coat pockets, expecting her to decipher his cryptic words all on her own.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Mercy cants her head and gives him an understanding look. "Well" she says, having agreed to take him under her wing....paw, whatever she called it. That'd been a while ago but she's still prepared to. "For what it's worth....I don't gdet humans either. Would you like anything to eat or drink?" she adds, setting aside the salvaging task for a moment to make the angel more at ease, though her brown eyes reflect her curiosity and a little confusion at Castiel's words then she gets it.

"So....you've spent the past year trying to figure humans out? You know" she says brightly. "You, me, and my father could sit and put our heads together. On second thoughts that'll more confuse everyone. What don't you get about humans?"

She's oddly perceptive, maybe it's living in the big city, or having to deal with her father, or her being just as confused on humanity as Castiel, an angel and a coyote shapeshifter in the same boat. Truthfully, Mercy doesn't get humans either. Plus she's younger than Castiel, really. Shaaking her head with a smile, Mercy cracks a joke. "I had to sell my crystal ball to get new tools/ Just me and my mind figuring this out with you about humanity" she nods, the humor in her eyes.

Castiel has posed:
Castiel considers the offer of refreshment. Last time she'd handed him a bottle of water - he'd encountered them enough since then that he now knew what they are. Tentatively he grumbles, "If you have something other than that water. Whiskey is good."

There are no please or thank-you's from him. He is working on not saying 'the whiskey' anymore. It's slowly dawned on him that people don't pepper their speech with articles that way, and the practice already set him apart as 'Other'.

"Your father is a Trikster. You expect I should disregard him because he is not the One true God." Castiel shrugs. "I am not my fellows. Some never took the time to learn your lore." He knew the lore, but he did not *know* the lore. Everything was academic. "I expect your father would be amused."

There's nothing to suggest Castiel would be amused by such a meeting, but there rarely is such indication with him. He does sound much less gruff. Certainly less stilted - it was a way with him. When he tried to be in the human moment, he floundered. Things were all jagged angles and tightness. But when he spoke of matters from his celestial perspective, he was much more relaxed. Perceptive.

"I am not learning of humans fast enough," Castiel allows. "I am feeling distress."

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Mercy shakes her head. "I don't have whiskey but I do have fresh cocoa if you'd like some/ Or coffee" she offers with a smile looking optimistic at the idea of making coffee or cocoa for Castiel. Sure,the angel wants whiskey, but Mercy's just offering what she's got given she doesn't drink. Shaking her head she smiles though.

"My faather is indeed a trickster. However.....Raven is no better, really. They are a thorn in each others sides" Mercy explains with a gentle laugh and looks around like her father could be hiding somewhere listening. "Though, I'm still unsure asking him would get anything amazingly useful, or maybe that's his way of making my life more interesting" she muses studying the angel, listening to him as if looking for telltale clues or....anything really.

"Let me ask you something?B?# Mercy says. "Okay, a few things even. You know you have an open invitation right? Also, do you really, deep down want to understand humans quickly? I understand to a point, believe me, but surely the learning is the best part? Humans are strange" she says looking past Castiel for a moment then to the doorangel again. "Then again, the other day I had a gang war in here. I'm trying to understand that, they came in here shooting up the place, that's got me on edge." she admits, looking a litle worried. "Who" she asks at the mention of Hayel. "And why compare yourself to him? You're doing great at your own pace"

That's what her old history professors always said, study at your own pace, really. Mercy's a big fan of that, given she could have been a teacher. Instead she's a mechanic.

Castiel has posed:
"I will have the cocoa," Castiel decides given the choices. "I will have to remember you do not have the whiskey."

Her talk of Raven has him nodding, his shoulders relaxing so that the trench coat is no longer a tight draw along his back. "There will always be Triksters. Raven. Coyote. Loki." There are others, but he's content to let the numbers remains limited or their conversation could be sidetracked. "Sometimes they tell true tales. Sometimes they are merely amused with humanity. It makes them laugh to think anyone would care to learn of them. Beneath them. Playthings."

He shrugs. In many ways his own Father could be said to be the same depending on who you talked to - delivering blessings and curses on seeming whims. The destruction of Soddom and Gammorah. The trials and tribulations of the Isrealites. The list was endless.

Her question takes him aback, sending him into another postured hunch. She might recognize it's gaurded. Defensive.

"Not quickly," he answers carefully, not sure there isn't a catch. "But quickly enough."

Then there's that unguarded honesty again as he admits, "I am feeling things I do not understand. I am.. Hayal is.. a friend. He has been here longer than I have."

Castiel does not meet Mercy's gaze as he speaks of Hayal.

"He can still sing with the notes of the Choir. I do not understand why I am being punished this way. I would protect him with my life but it hurts me to know that he.. He has lost less for greater sin."

And there it was, the complicated jumble of CAstiel.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
$RMercy nods, "Cocoa it is" she says then smiles. "The world needs tricksters. If only to keep people on their toes. I could stand here and list my people's deities" she says with a smile. "Or, I could get horribly sidetracked too. So" Mercy adds looking a little unhappy at the defensive crouch, unsure how to vocalize what she's thinking.
$RShe does though, retreive cocoa and motions for him to follow, leading the way to her kitchen gently and carefully, nodding to the ketle. "Feel free to make your own coca if you want to. There's cookies on a plate if you want any with your cocoa" Mercy says and nods.

Mercy's not quite sure she's getting where Castiel's coming from. "I don't see it as a punishment. You want to learn about humans, yes?" she asks. "You're among them now. You're here, in a garage, being offered cocoa by the daughter of Coyote. Across the street, humans, down the block....more humans. You're in the right place. Is it such a punishment to be here up with people when you want to learn about them? I mean, if I was an angel, I'd rather be here than up there, ya know?" Mercy asks. She's unsure again if Castiel will take offense to the remark, but she's just voicing her thoughts. It makes sense, really. Or it makes sense to her.

Castiel has posed:
"I would not argue," the angel grumbles. "Free will is not free if there is no temptation. Humans have forgotten what the old tales were saying. The truths they carry. Instead they focus on details that were only meant to be metaphor and patterns. It is no wonder things have become so confusing and they have strayed so dangerously far from their Father."

His unkempt brows knit together in consternation as he speaks, waiting impatiently for his cocoa, if only because it can be an excuse and a focus when other things become too real.

"Hayal turned from the Choir. He was cast down to Hell, to Morningstar's domain. I do not know how it was that he left there, but he is of neither place now, and yet he still bears more of my Father than I." The differences between the two strickingly filling gaps in the other. But where Castiel was forced to inhabit a vessel, Hayal still bore his angelic body.

Her words draw an abrupt, and angry, "You are not an angel. You have no idea what you speak of. The Choir.." His longing is clear. But how do you explain the loss of that to someone who bears only a mostly mortal soul? "I do not.. can not.. regret my choice, but I regret the loss of my Grace. I hear it sometimes now. It is like a low murmur in the background. The buzzing of a gnat I cannot find. And my voice, when I lift it, it is not even average by human standards."

He had tried, but the act had only left him feeling more broken than before.

Mercy Thompson has posed:
Mercy raises one hand, the other holding out cocoa. "Your cocoa" she says then listens. It's not she knows anything of angels, but she does speak once he's done.

"No I'm not an angel, but.....you can thank my schoolteachers for that, I had to go through religious studies classes and lerned all about angels" she says, doing the air quote thing for 'all about angels'. Well, air quotes with one hand, even.

"You can tell how well that went, can't you?" Mercy asks, looking genuinely apologetic to Castiel.

She's not commenting any more on angelic matters, but....she's hopped up on her counter and watches Castiel quietly.