Highway to H E L L. {open}

[castiel]

Something was wrong here. Castiel could feel it. This town was unlike any other human town he'd visited in that it practically reeked of darkness, though the reason for this was unknown to him. There was no blatant evidence that there was something off about to place, no ghosts or reapers lurking about that he could see. To the naked eye, the place looked relatively normal. Safe. But his intuition told him differently, and that was more than enough for him. It told him that this was exactly the sort of place that Sam and Dean might consider investigating, which was never a good thing. If Castiel was right and something was actually going on here, he'd need to inform the brothers quickly. Just as soon as he investigated the town himself, that was, to make certain that whatever this place held wasn't too dangerous. The angel was going to make sure that he got to the bottom of this whole thing before the night was over.

He trudged quietly through the empty streets, his posture stiff and alert as he moved onward. His icy gaze scanned buildings that lined the road on either side, searching for any signs of life - any civilians whom he'd be able to get a bit of information from. But everywhere he looked windows and doors were shut, giving the town a sense of lifelessness that Castiel had rarely experienced in the human world before. Had Lucifer been here? Wiped out this town as well? He couldn't think of what the devil would want with a place like this - it wasn't significant in any way; it had no intriguing history that Castiel knew of and from the size of it he'd guess that it didn't even have enough of a population to sustain a devastating body count should it be ravaged by hell's forces. Perhaps Lucifer wasn't to blame after all; perhaps there was something that Cas was missing here...but what?

At any rate, it was only logical that he wasn't going to get his answers if he had no one to ask. He decided to enter what seemed to be a public establishment - a small bar of some sort - in hopes that whoever he found within might at least prove somewhat useful. The door swung open and Castiel stepped inside, his expression its usual mask of contemplative wariness. To any observer who didn't know better, he might seem to be nothing more than a normal human - the shady character you might expect to find in a place like this, complete with trenchcoat. But perhaps it didn't matter what others might observe about him, because a quick glance around the place told him that...there was no one here to observe. No customers, at least. Whether the manager of this place was busy somewhere in the back or not, he did not know. None the less, the angel took this opportunity to investigate. He slowly approached the counter, his gaze flickering to the rows of drinks that lined the wall as if he were contemplating which one to order. In reality, Castiel was merely making a point to observe each and every aspect of his surroundings and make note of anything that might seem...unusual.

As it so happened, the dark speck of reddish-brown he spotted out of the corner of his eye didn't really strike him as normal. He turned to gaze at the wall where the substance had been smeared, instinctively sensing that it was indeed human blood. Not exactly a choice wall decoration - not for anyone who he wouldn't need to deem a threat, anyway. There was most definately something going on in this town, but whatever was responsible was not currently present - there was nothing more he could do but call in reinforcements. Fumbling awkwardly in his pocket for a moment, Castiel managed to retrieve his cell phone from its depths. It only took him about fifteen seconds of befuddled glaring at the device (a significant improvement from the last time he'd used it) until he successfully selected Dean's phone number and pressed the correct button to connect the call.

Except that...the call didn't connect. He watched, frowning deeply as the little icon of the satellite flashed upon the screen, drawing his attention to the fact that the meter that measured the probability of service in bars was completely blank. Narrowing his eyes, the angel cursed softly.

These blasted things never worked when he most needed them to.

[Richard]

"This place is nice." Hands on his hips, he surveyed the scene thoroughly, eyes half-squinted shut. "Quiet, nice atmosphere, not a lot of people around, occasional signs of struggle and death, bloodstains here and there....." He nodded his head firmly, his eyes widening into a broad, happy expression and nearly glowing with sheer delight. "I think I'm going to like it here."

Lifting one arm above his head, he set off through the empty town, as if he were dancing with someone only he could see, merrily twirling through the empty streets, and raising a great fuss and noise with his singing and knocking over anything that 'got in his way'.

"I don't know if I might be dead,
Or maybe trapped in a tomb,
I don't know if I'll never see,
Or hear my meals again.
I don't know if this is hell,
Or maybe my new home,
I don't know if I should stay,
Or if I should be on my way...

I don't know if this is admissablem
To stay here now and hide,
I don't know if I should make new friends,
Whom I can then make all die,
I don't know if I should summon my village,
And put them all here,
I don't know If I should even think about it all,
But I certainly do knoooow~

Come, and bow to me,
In this town of mine,
Come, and bow to me,
In this town of mine!

It's a dead, dead town,
With a lots of empty room,
A free, free town,
With not a trace of life,
An eery, quiet town,
Where I can sing and dance,
A dead, dead town,
This is now my town!

All I know is this town is mine,
With empty rooms galore,
All I know is far too much land,
Where I can sing and dance,
All I know is that if you need land,
Then you go somewhere else,
All I know is I'm all alone,
And that's just fine with me!

Come, and bow to me,
In this town of mine,
Come, and bow to me,
In this town of mine!

It's a dead, dead town,
With a lots of empty room,
A free, free town,
With not a trace of life,
An eery, quiet town,
Where I can sing and dance,
A dead, dead town,
This is now my town!

Come, and bow to me,
In this town of mine,
Come, and bow to me,
In this town of mine!

It's a dead, dead town,
With a lots of empty room,
A free, free town,
With not a trace of life,
An eery, quiet town,
Where I can sing and dance,
A dead, dead town,
This is now my town!"


His raucous singing and dancing ended with him practically smashing the doors off of a small bar, standing there framed in the doorway for several seconds, arms raised dramatically above his head as he held the final note of his song for far too long.

When he finally trailed off, he blatantly ignored the other patron in the bar, and instead marched forward and flipped over the counter, disappearing behind it. Only moments later, he stood back up, an apron now affixed over his robes. "G'day," he said, finally acknowledging the other man in the bar. "Wanna hear our special drinks of the day?"

[castiel]

Was that...singing Castiel detected? Such a thing sounded so bizarre and out of place that for a moment he had to actually stop what he was doing and make sure he was hearing correctly. It was difficult to make out exact words until the speaker...err, singer, came a bit nearer. Or at least that was what Castiel assumed what was happening, because the voice was gradually becoming louder and louder as the seconds passed. His features etched with suspicion - and, yes, confusion - the angel whipped around just in time to see the door of the bar burst open. The being that entered promptly was unlike any that Castiel had ever seen before, robed in black with most of his features concealed - except for his bright yellow eyes.

The angel could sense some level of power radiating from man, though he wasn't entirely sure what this meant yet. This stranger certainly wasn't an angel - and Castiel didn't think he was a demon, exactly, either. No kind that he was familiar with, anyway. There was a brief, awkward (awkward on Cas' part - the other didn't seem to be particularly affected) moment in which the cloaked man stood triumphantly in the doorway, allowing for several seconds of silence as Castiel stared at him blankly. Finally prompted to act in some way, he eventually raised an eyebrow and let out a pointed 'ahem'.

No sooner had he cleared his throat than the stranger, without seeming to even briefly acknowledge his presence, marched forward into the bar. Castiel tensed, unsure whether or not to expect some sort of attack, but the other man walked right passed him and proceeded to...hop over the bar counter. And disappear from sight. Eh...was that considered normal? He'd never witnessed a human doing something like this before, but then again this town didn't exactly strike him as normal - and if it wasn't, then it only followed logically that its inhabitants wouldn't be either. Either way, this was undeniably an opportunity to try and seek the answers to some of the questions he had about this odd little town, assuming that this man knew anything about it at all. Wordlessly, the angel moved slightly forward to peer over the counter in search of where the robed stranger might have gotten off to --

GAHHH!

Castiel drew back sharply as the other man popped up from behind the counter again, this time having adorned an apron in addition to his already strange attire. Immediately defensive, Cas drew himself up...only to find that the man merely wished to inquire as to whether or not he'd like to hear about the drinks that this establishment offered. "I..." he began, frowning deeply as though he'd just been asked some sort of deep philosophical question. "No. I will not be having any special drinks." He didn't know what these drinks were, or why they were 'special', or why they were specifically significant to this day - but he didn't intend to find out. Alcohol wasn't especially good for this vessel, and while it most likely wouldn't affect Castiel himself much...it would only serve as a distraction, without a doubt.

"I assume that you work here?" he inquired almost immediately afterward, seeing no point of beating around the bush. "And if you do...I wish to know who you are, and whether you know what happened," He raised an arm to point grimly at the blood splatters on the nearby wall, "there."

[Richard]

"Don't wanna hear about 'em? Good." And he promptly ripped the apron off, tossing it away and causing it to burst into a brief flash of flame and fall to the floor as ash. "'Cause I have no idea what they are." And with that he turned around, rubbing at his masked chin in though as he surveyed the collection of drinks on the wall. After a moment, he started pulling them one by one from the wall, examining them, and then tossing them over his shoulder to shatter where they landed, giving a comment as to each one before he threw it.

"Nope. Nasty stuff. Can't read that one. Don't know what that means. Horrible year. Don't like the bottle color. Don't like the liquid color. Don't like the label font. Hmm....maybe....nah. Oooh, this could work." And he set this one aside, before returning to his 'work'.

At Castiel's question, Richard turned to look at him, but still kept right on chucking the bottles over his shoulder after examining them. "Well, I DO work here, yes," he said offhandedly. "As for what happened over there..." He paused to examine another bottle closely, setting it aside as well, before continuing. "Decoration. It complements the walls, don't you think?" Whether he was being sarcastic or serious was hard to tell, as it always was with such a.....person.

"But if you'd care to find out what actually happened, I'm afraid I don't know. I don't ask questions. Mostly because there's no one to ask." And finally he had gone through every single bottle on the wall, and saved only four of them for whatever purpose he had for them. "But I guess I could help you find out. I AM kind of curious as to what caused it. I need to get their services for my room. It's quite lovely."

[castiel]

He worked here, and yet seemed clueless about the establishment's own drink selection? This struck Castiel as a bit...odd, though he supposed he wasn't really in a position to make that sort of judgment seeing as he knew little about human customs, and even less about whatever customs might exist in this particular town. When the robed man proceeded to begin examining the various bottles that lined the wall and tossing them carelessly over his shoulder, Castiel merely watched with a blank, slightly cynical expression. It seemed best at this point to try and keep his reaction decisively neutral, lest this actually be considered 'normal behavior' in a town like this.

However, he was unable to keep from giving a slightly puzzled frown at the stranger's next words. "Decoration." Castiel repeated, his gaze flitting to the bloodstains on the wall again. This was hardly what he'd call decoration, and yet...maybe this was just another instance of human sarcasm. He wasn't particularly adept at detecting it, but the other man's words were so strange that he felt it was safest to assume that he hadn't been serious. "It certainly sets you apart from any of the other bars I have visited, if that's what you mean." he offered frankly. It was true; for all the very odd habits humans had, not many of them included splattering their own blood around the places they worked. Not from what he'd seen, at least. Who or what ever had committed this act had probably done it when the bar was nearly as empty as it was now, given the lack of witnesses - and if said witnesses weren't alive to tell the tale, he presumed there'd be a lot more blood than there was.

He listened carefully to the stranger's next words, attempting to discern what to make of them. When he'd mentioned that there weren't a lot of people around to ask questions of, Castiel's frown actually deepened (if that were actually possible at this point). So did that mean that this town was always this empty? And if so, then why? Towns like these, in Castiel's experience, generally didn't empty out unless there was a very significant something that forced them to. ...Though...he didn't get the feeling that they were entirely alone, but they could cross that bridge when they came to it. He nodded briefly when the man added that he'd be willing to help find out exactly what had happened here. "Your assistance would be appreciated." he admitted, half-hoping he wouldn't find the need to regret these words. It didn't exactly strike him as prudent to accept help from someone he didn't know, but as of now it seemed his options were somewhat limited. There wasn't much he could accomplish here on his own.

"I am Castiel." he introduced himself after a moment, realizing that this was customary. "I'm here to find out why this town...is the way it is. What happened here to make everything so empty. Have you seen anyone else around in your time here?" If not, then they most definitely had a problem. Not much about this town made sense, and the angel couldn't understand why no one had taken note of it before. If there was something legitimately wrong with this place, especially if Lucifer was at fault, it didn't make sense that none of the higher-ups had taken note of it before now. "You wouldn't have happened to notice any, say, signs of the apocalypse lately, would you?" he added, as if this were a perfectly common thing to ask a person.

[Richard]

After he had taken care of weeding out the unnecessary beverages for what he had planned, Richard again ducked down below the level of the bar counter, disappearing from sight for a few brief seconds. When he cropped back up, he had in his hands a large bowl of what looked suspiciously like it was made of ice. And he casually smashed open the remaining bottles, dumping their contents into the bowl while he answered the other man. "Yep, decoration," he said, as if the conversation were perfectly normal. "Uniqueness is the bread of strangeness."

What? Exactly.

As his 'guest' went over whatever thoughts he had in his head, Richard busied himself with finishing whatever it was he was doing. The bowl now full of the contents of the bottles was iced over with a quick wave of his hand. And then he proceeded to pick it up and shake it roughly. His clawed fingers slipped and scratched about on the smooth ice and he looked like it was going to go flying out of his hands at any second. But, with the powers of plot, it remained within his grasp, and he set it back down, cracking off the icy 'lid' and tossing it amidst the glass wreckage on the floor from the numerous bottles previously discarded.

He took a deep sniff of the contents of his mixture, and nodded approvingly. He then pulled something from within his robes, and dropped the small thing -- a vial of liquid, to be exact -- into the mixture, and then tossed -- of all things! -- a small fireball into the mixture. Cue frothing and bubbling. He promptly clamped another lid of ice over it, and leaned on it, propping his chin up on one hand casually. "I'm all for finding out what happened here, so glad to help. That way I can take notes for my town back home."

When the man introduced himself as Castiel, Richard just nodded. "Richard. Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, Lord of the Dance, Mistress of Magma, Destroyer of Bunnies, and mayor of a little village in a different dimension." He said it all so casually, but even so, there was still a distant, low rumble of thunder.

"As good a reason to come to this place as any other," he said in response to Castiel's reasoning for being here. "And nope. Can't say as I've seen anyone else here." The bowl under his arm started to shake and wobble violently, and made an odd hissing, roiling sound, but Richard paid it no mind. "Signs of the apocalypse?" With his free arm he pulled a small notepad from his robe and, after flipping through it for a few brief seconds, stowed it away again. "Nope."

[castiel]

Castiel...wasn't exactly sure what sort of concoction this guy was stirring up at the moment with the drinks there, but it didn't look particularly appetizing. Still, what with the variety of different substances he was throwing in, it was probably particularly strong. He could use a strong drink right about now. Or...well, more like an entire liquor store of strong drinks, actually. Perplexed, he chose to watch for a moment before some senseless talk about uniqueness and strangeness and...bread of some sort gathered his attention. Somberly, he looked up from the bowl to stare at the man once again. "What?" But too late. The stranger had already busied himself once more with the process of his drink-mixing. The whole thing seemed very elaborate, though Castiel wasn't certain what exactly the point of it all was - especially the thing with the fireball. That...was unusual.

It was then, after affirming his own curiosity regarding the entire situation, that the man introduced himself by his very, very long title. Cas merely blinked, committing the entire thing to memory in an instant. As well as...the fact that Richard was evidently from another dimension. That would explain why Castiel had been unfamiliar with the nature of the powerful presence he'd felt up until this point - and it would also explain the whole 'keeping fireballs in his pockers' thing...still, it wasn't exactly something you heard about every day even when you were an angel. Despite the fact that there were other things at stake here, he needed to know more. "...Fine. Richard-Chief-Warlock-of-the-Brothers-of- Darkness-Lord-of-the-Thirteen-Hells-Master-of-the-Bones-Emperor-of-the-Black-Lord-of-the-Undead-Lord-of-the-Dance-Mistress-of- Magma-and-Destroyer-of-Bunnies, which dimension are you from and how did you stumble upon this one?" he asked in one long, ridiculously serious breath, as if he hadn't just repeated something quite so...eccentric.

Feeling the need to reassert that this conversation...wasn't as foolish as it was beginning to sound, he decided to add after a moment, "Not that it is of much import regarding our current situation. But it is better that I investigate these things." He tried to explain with some sense of formality, though he just ended up sounding a bit...stiff and official. It was his job to make sure other dimensions didn't interfere with this one of course, or...at least it had been when he'd been an angel 'right and proper'.

He coughed a little as he considered this, briefly averting his gaze and straightening his trenchcoat a tad as he awaited Richard's answer. Though...he did acknowledge the fact that the apparent 'Warlock' seemed to agree readily enough to assist him in his investigation. "But if you would like to help, I'd suggest we begin our search outside the premises of this bar since it seems obvious that whatever ran through here is gone now." the angel added, again noting the otherwise empty state that the bar held now. His gaze darted back to the bowl as it began to admit strange, vaguely ominous sounding noises, and raised his eyebrows. "...Once you finish your...drink, that is."

[Richard]

When the other man repeated all of Richard's titles like it was his full name, the warlock paused, lifting his head and looking off to one side, like some actor breaking the key rule and looking at the camera. His expression was a mask of "Are you serious?" For a few seconds, he simply held his gaze there, then abruptly his head swivelled back to face Castiel. "You flatter me with use of my titles. But please, at the expense of time, Richard will do just fine."

"As for what dimension I'm from......hmm......" He brought a hand up to his masked chin in thought. "Can't really say. Don't keep track of that sort of thing. First time jumping dimensions, you understand." He gestured in the air as he talked, as if trying to indicate how ordinary it was to hop across dimensions for the first time. "In regards to how I got here, I have honestly no idea. I just kinda...." He gestured even more blankly in the air. "....did."

At Castiel's next statement, Richard quirked an eyebrow. Just staring for a second, quirked eyebrow and all, he finally reached forward with his free hand and waggled his fingers in Castiel's face. "Lighten. Up," he said flatly, clearly not amused by the other man's seriousness. "Otherwise I think you might kill anyone still alive in this town with your aura of buzzkill."

"Yes, searching in someplace aside from the clearly empty bar would generally be considered a good idea." His tone remained flat, and seemed as stiff as Castiel's own. Mockery, imitation, or both? You decide. "As for this...." Richard cracked the lid off the bowl again, and was greeted by a puff of smoke and a flash of fire. "Done!" He tossed the lid away, resulting in it taking out a window, and the highly improbable noise of a yowling cat came shortly thereafter. "S'not a drink. More of a....bomb, really."

[castiel]

It seemed something had distracted this warlock, and for a brief moment he cast an odd sort of look off to one side - perhaps he had sensed a potential danger in that direction. Immediately suspicious, Castiel turned and looked glared in that direction as well, trying to determine who or what Richard was looking at...but he found nothing, and when the other man spoke to him again the angel abruptly turned his attention back to him. Yes...people did seem to make a habit out of shortening their names. The Winchesters, for example, commonly referred to him as 'Cas' for whatever reason. He supposed that, just as Richard had said, this made things more convenient when they did not have time to waste. So Castiel gave a slow nod in response, muttering a careful "If that is what you wish." before allowing the subject to drop - and remaining quite oblivious to Richard's exasperation at the same time.

That was irrelevant anyway; the matters related to dimensional travel were much more important. Initially however, Richard's reply struck Cas as a bit...strange. He didn't know how he got here? Well, that...you didn't just cross dimensions without knowing it, that was...wait. How had Castiel himself gotten here? He couldn't remember actually intentionally setting out for this location. He'd just sort of...come upon it. "Odd. This realm must have some way of drawing people to it." If that were so, then it wasn't just what had been here (or still was here, possibly) that he needed to be suspicious of. It was...this place itself as well. But how was that possible? Was the town cursed somehow? Had the things that called it home left their mark on the location itself.

The angel's musings on all of this were interrupted when Richard quite abruptly decided to do some sort of strange finger-wiggling ritual - a bit too close to his vessels' face for comfort. He scowled slightly (yet again), evidently displeased by being told to 'lighten up'. Dean told him that all the time. In fact...lots of people did. What was their obsession with finding humor in every situation? Castiel shook his head, somewhat affronted at the very idea that his somberness would be harmful to anyone - and then he proceeded to take Richard's joking statement quite literally. "Impossible. My aura is not deadly while I am in my human form." Otherwise, there would have been little point in even taking a vessel at all. Taking human form was somewhat tiresome at times. "Anyway. Making light of dangerous situations is how people get themselves killed."

Oh, and it looked like his urging for Richard to finish his drink was working - or...not. Without so much as flinching, Castiel stiffly watched the progress of the bottle as it soared out the window, resulting in a rather showy display of smoke and fire. Interesting...perhaps with skills like these, Richard would be a useful ally to have. Even if that had been a bit...random. "Yes. Well..." A bit awkwardly, he watched the window for a moment longer before turning and taking a few paces toward the door. Before he could reach it, however, he turned back to Richard to address him again. "We will need to proceed with caution. Do you have means of defending yourself? More bombs, perhaps?" the angel inquired, blinking.