Welcome to SU: Legacy, a next-gen Supernatural RP that takes place in the year 2040. The Men of Letters has expanded to include three base locations across the continental US. Angels and demons have gone mostly dormant but there are still supernatural evils lurking in the shadows. The legacies could use your help. Are you in?
Giving credit where credit is due. A big thank you to all the coders at PBS and various resource sites for any codes, plug-ins and templates.
Thanks to Nick @ Fidelius for the fabulous mini-profile. Everything else was created by our own staff. If we missed someone please let us know.
We don't own Supernatural, we just enjoy it's awesomeness. Thanks Eric Kripke for creating it, all the writers/producers for putting out a great show and the CW for keeping it on the air for almost 10 years now!
It was a little after two in the afternoon and the sun was shining. It filtered through the barred windows of the rundown sanitorium and cast striped shadows on the concrete floors making Brody think of tigers at the zoo. Not that he'd ever seen a tiger at the zoo, but the thought popped in his head all the same.
He'd left his swords at the door, two samuari style blades he'd grown fond of when he'd been a house guest of Chets back in the day, decorative items that had become useful weapons for a guy who was a lousy aim with a gun. Not that he'd really had to use them much, but these days, it was better to have something at hand rather than wander around naked, so to speak. Besides, they were the only keepsakes he had left now and they looked good against his red sleeveless t-shirt. Kinda made him look more threatening than he really was, which was handy.
In one hand he held a tattered cardboard box about the size of a book, the bright colours and labels faded and worn off thanks to time and over use. In his other hand, he was carrying a rusty metal chair into the centre of the room where a wonky wooden table and another, equally rusty chair already sat. All old features of the once bustling building, long since left to ruin by the frightened people of the city it was in.
"You know what I just thought?" He asked out loud, his attention not really waivering from setting the box down on the table and opening it up.
"There's probably tigers in New York city, just wandering around like they own the place." He said, matter of factly as he pulled out a fold up chequers board and set it up in the middle of the table, smoothing it down so it was flat enough to play on.
"I mean, there used to be a zoo in central park right? Considering the whole city kinda got trashed by the crazies, I think the tiger's would have escaped somehow and are probably riding around on the subway or something." He looked up and smiled, genuinely amused by the thought.
Last Edit: Dec 29, 2009 19:59:41 GMT -8 by Deleted
Ruby awoke to the sound of birds chirping. It was the first thing she heard as she drifted back from her semi-unconsciousness. She didn’t sleep so much as drift out of consciousness for short periods of time. As a demon, she hadn’t needed much sleep pre-Croatoan. Just a few hours a day where she relaxed and drifted in and out of full consciousness. Without a host occupying the body with her, she’d gotten a lot more sleep. It was easier when she didn’t need to worry about someone else swooping in from the subconscious and taking over while she was dreaming.
Lately, she slept less than she ever did. She was always alert, always listening, always thinking. It was difficult to get her brain to relax enough for her to rest properly. It was very rare for her to get in a good few hours of actual sleep these days. She’d flopped down on the bed the night before and stared at the ceiling, counting its tiles out of boredom.
And then she heard chirping.
It was a sweet sound and she smiled groggily as she stretched her arms and legs. The she opened her eyes and looked around and the smile faded back to the usual scowl her face was accustomed to. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, raking a hand through her greasy hair. She didn’t know what time it was, but judging by how the sun shone it had to be late morning or early afternoon.
“Jeez,” she muttered. “Good thing I didn’t have anywhere to be today.”
It had been a long time since she actually slept a full night, and it made her nervous that it had happened. Sleeping deeply meant letting your guard down, which was something that just wasn’t safe in 2014.
Ruby stood, her bare feet touching the cool concrete floor. She wondered if she good get herself a pair of socks, but it was a fleeting thought. One she had every morning when she first stepped onto the floor, then quickly forgot about. She straightened the white tank top she wore, too big for her. It came down to the mid-thigh region of her jeans and hugged her narrow frame. The shirt had once been Sam’s and used to smell like him.
Now it smelled like dirt and sweat.
She bent down to unroll the one pantleg that had risen up to her knee while she slept. Man, she needed to shave these legs. She sighed as she stood, putting her hands on her hips. Ruby walked over to the window, too high for her to see out of without the aid of a chair. She looked down at her shadow on the floor, stretched too far and obscured by the window’s bars. She chewed her lower lip and sighed, grabbing an old book from the table and sitting down on the bed.
Ruby didn’t particularly like the book The Sun Also Rises, but it was the only thing she had to entertain herself. It was about this group of friends who did the same thing over and over again all the time. Even when they tried to go somewhere else and find a new crowd, they always ended up in the same restaurant with the same group of people talking about the same thing.
It was a lot like Hell.
She looked up when the door opened and watched Brody drag a chair in behind him.
“You know what I just thought?” he asked.
Ruby tossed her book aside and sat up.
“What?” she asked.
“There’s probably tigers in New York City, just wandering around like they own the place.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow.
“Um… Okay?”
She watched as he took out the checker board and laid it on the table.
“I mean, there used to be a zoo in Central Park, right? Considering the whole city kinda got trashed by the crazies, I think the tigers would have escaped somehow and are probably riding around on the subway or something.”
He smiled and Ruby laughed at the thought. Only Brody would think of something like that at a time like this.
“I hope you’re right,” she said, standing up. “They’ve been locked up in their little cages long enough. ‘Bout time they got to be the kings and queens of their domain again.”
She gathered her long hair and twisted it, pulling it over one shoulder, as she approached the table. She ran her fingers along the checkerboard.
“Wow. This thing’s looking pretty pathetic,” she observed. “If I didn’t know the black squares from the red squares already, I wouldn’t know where to put my checkers.”
She grabbed the rusty chair that sat against the wall and pulled it up to the table, straddling it.
“I hope you’re right. They’ve been locked up in their little cages long enough. ‘Bout time they got to be the kings and queens of their domain again.”
"If I am right," Brody said, holding up a finger as though he was about to say something very important and intellectual, "which I am because I'm smart like that..." he added, smirking to show he really didn't believe he was that clever at all.
"Then remind me never to go to New York. Because I seriously doubt I could out-run a tiger. Though if I had a giant toy mouse on a pole, I might be able to distract it long enough."
One by one, he started placing the little round plastic checker pieces on the board in their corresponding squares while Ruby sat down. He didn't need to ask which colour she wanted to be, Ruby was always black and Brody was always red, though admittedly, some of the red pieces looked more pink these days, bleached by the sun he presummed. It didn't matter, what colour they played wasn't the point really. He just liked spending time with Ruby because she kind of understood him. They'd been playing checkers every other day for a long time and she was the only person he was ever really himself around. He guessed that she enjoyed the break up to her monotonous day too, so it was win/win all around.
“Wow. This thing’s looking pretty pathetic. If I didn’t know the black squares from the red squares already, I wouldn’t know where to put my checkers.”
"I keep looking for a new one ya know, but the stores are always closed." Brody chuckled as he set the last piece on the board.
"Okay, today's best of three wins a prize that money just can't buy, which is handy because I have no money..." A little half shrug and he carried on in the style of a game show host talking about the dream luxury vacation to the Maldives that the contestants could win if only they could answer three seemingly easy questions.
"Forget your state of the art home entertainment systems, forget your latest model sports cars. No ladies and gentlemen, today we have something very special indeed!" He stood up a little so he could pull something out of the back two pockets of his jeans.
"It's not one, but two hand stitched, finest cashmere socks for the discerning lady around town." On cue, he sat down again and held out a crumpled and slightly threadbare sock in each hand, neither one being hand stitched or cashmere in the slightest. In fact, they didn't even match, but they were fairly clean and the best that Brody had been able to scavenge since he noticed that Ruby was without footwear.
"All you have to do to win these priceless items, is beat me at checkers, best two out of three." He waved the socks for a second then set them to one side on the table. Though he was acting like it was a challenge for Ruby, he knew damn well she would kick his ass every single time they played. She always did, somehow she was able to think about ten moves in advance and Brody never could figure out what she'd do next. But then that's why he did it this way. He didn't want her to feel like he was taking pity on her by bringing her a few little things she might need now and then, so he made it as though she had to earn them. Ruby probably saw straight through that ploy, but she never objected.
"I hope you’re right. They’ve been locked up in their little cages long enough. ‘Bout time they got to be the kings and queens of their domain again."
"If I am right, which I am because I'm smart like that... Then remind me never to go to New York. Because I seriously doubt I could out-run a tiger. Though if I had a giant toy mouse on a pole, I might be able to distract it long enough."
Ruby smiled, picturing Brody running through the streets of New York with a lacross stick, a rat strapped into the netting squirming around. All the while with a snarling tiger at his heels. Really, it shouldn't have been funny - the thought of her checkers buddy fleeing for his life from a bloodthirsty animal. But, Ruby was a demon and her sense of humor was a little off. Plus, she and Brody both knew damn well that he'd never be in that situation.
Besides, if he were in the middle of a once overly-polulated city with nothing but a lacrosse stick for defense, a tiger would be the least of his worries.
Ruby watched him set up the board, some of the checkers having been worn or replaced with other small items. A few of the black pieces were being substituted by blackened coins. One was a thimble from a Monopoly board.
"Wow. This thing’s looking pretty pathetic. If I didn’t know the black squares from the red squares already, I wouldn’t know where to put my checkers."
She picked up the thimble and put it on her index finger like a top hat, twirling it around slightly. It almost looked new.
"I keep looking for a new one ya know, but the stores are always closed."
A bit of dark humor there. Ruby put her thimble back on its faded gray square. Either she was rubbing off on Brody, or he was trying really hard to keep his spirits up. Either way, she wouldn't call him on it.
I bet Chet would know where to find a checker board, she thought, but she didn't say it aloud.
She didn't know a lot about Chet. Just that he'd owned a bookstore in Manchester, didn't particularly like her, and was very fond of Brody. Kind of like an uncle's fond of a nephew that blows in once in a while to touch all his stuff. Brody hadn't talked about Chet very much. All she knew was that Brody had left the store and somehow ended up here. She'd learned quickly that it was a sore subject and if she wanted to keep her checkers partner, she figured it was best not to bring it up.
"Okay, today's best of three wins a prize that money just can't buy, which is handy because I have no money..."
Ruby laughed as Brody did his best immitation of a gameshow host, which wasn't all that believable, admittedly, but it was funny. It was strange how it worked - Ruby couldn't remember a time since she'd returned from Hell that she'd been more miserable, but she also couldn't remember ever having laughed so much or so hard before she'd come to Jackson County.
"Forget your state of the art home entertainment systems, forget your latest model sports cars. No ladies and gentlemen, today we have something very special indeed!"
"Let me guess... It's a Mustang!"
Ruby spoke with mock-excitement, trying to play along but knowing damn well it wasn't a Mustang... unless Brody was being a wise-ass and got her a Matchbox Mustang.
"It's not one, but two hand stitched, finest cashmere socks for the discerning lady around town."
Ruby blinked as he held up two sad-looking mis-matched socks. She smirked.
"Wow. And in the latest fashion. I'm impressed."
"All you have to do to win these priceless items, is beat me at checkers, best two out of three."
Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know... You're not gonnaletme win like last time, are you?"
Ruby climbed off the chair and turned it around in one swift motion and sat so the backrest was behind her back where it was meant to be.
This was a little game within the game she and Brody played. If he came back from wherever it was he'd been with something useful for her, he didn't just hand it to her. Probably because he'd tried that the first two times and she'd responded by throwing something at him. Now whatever he had to give her, she played him for. Though they both knew checkers was her game, no contest. She did sometimes wonder if Brody was really as bad at the game as he seemed, or if losing was just a way for him to give her a pair of underwear or socks or a bar of soap.
Ruby moved one of her pieces diagonally to a gray square.
"It seems nice out today," she said. "And there are birds hanging around again."
Of course there were still birds in the world. Scavangers were more common now, what with all the corpses for them to pick at. But they had steered clear of the Sanitarium for quite a while. It was odd to have them back and she wondered why they'd stopped staying away.
"I don't know... You're not gonna let me win like last time, are you?"
Brody huffed and chuckled at the same time as he mirrored her opening move with one of his own pieces. Whenever he lost, which was pretty much every time they played, unless there was something at stake - like the socks in this particular game - he claimed to have 'let her win'. Never out of pity, but always to save his own pride. Of course it wasn't true. He never set out to actually allow her to win on purpose, it was just he sucked that bad it was the only excuse he could come up with.
"I didn't let you win last time, I was distracted that's all. By the..." He pursed his lips together and cast his eyes upwards while he thought of something plausible that might have thrown his game off. Saying that he was watching the game on tv might have worked, if there was a tv in the room, or they had power to properly run it or, y'know, the government actually allowed large gatherings for sports any more.
"Didn't let you win." He affirmed, giving up on a credible excuse and just going for the old 'because I said so' line of defense. Times like this, he knew he'd missed his calling as a lawyer.
"It seems nice out today. And there are birds hanging around again."
He glanced up at the barred windows automatically and then returned his attention back to the board as though he wasn't all that impressed by daylight. Understandably he could imagine that Ruby longed to go outside but he wasn't ever that thrilled about being amongst the crazies of the world so much.
"They're not birds, they're vultures. Which, I guess are birds, but not the tweet, tweet cute kind or the tasty chicken variety." For a moment he paused, mid-thought and stroked his chin.
“I didn’t let you win this time, I was distracted that’s all. By the…”
He looked up and Ruby followed his gaze to the ceiling, looking down again quickly to look down at the checkerboard. She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Didn’t let you win.”
Ruby smirked and moved another checker.
“It seems nice out today. And there are birds hanging around again.”
Brody glanced up at the window behind Ruby, seemingly indifferent.
“They’re not birds, they’re vultures. Which, I guess are birds, but not the tweet, tweet cute kind or the tasty chicken variety… I wonder if they taste like chicken though?”
Ruby shrugged.
“I don’t think there’d be enough meat on them to eat. Unless you got a really big one.”
She pulled her hair out of her face and let it settle on her neck and shoulders.
"I never caught a bird to eat, maybe I should give it a go. Can't be that hard right? Just need to build myself a fancy trap out of some old junk, like they used to do on the A-Team and hey presto! All I'd need to do then is figure out the Colonel's secret recipe and it'd be finger licking good."
The thought made his stomach growl and he frowned and poked idly at it whilst debating his next move on the checker board. The apocalypse hadn't really changed much of how he lived, he still had to find food where he could, though compared to many of the outcasts of these built up, Croat infested areas, he had better pickings in the ruins of the stores. Tinned food apparently lasted forever. Canned tuna did however, get very boring after a while.
Finally, after much deliberation, he moved a piece forward, keeping his finger on it for the longest time until he was certain that he hadn't put it right in the line of fire for her. Wouldn't be the first time anyway. One time, he'd put a piece down and on the next go, Ruby had managed to take seven of his in a single sweep but he had learnt from the mistake.
"I never caught a bird to eat, maybe I should give it a go. Can't be that hard right? Just need to build myself a fancy trap out of some old junk, like they used to do on the A-Team and hey presto! All I'd need to do then is figure out the Colonel's secret recipe and it'd be finger licking good."
Ruby smiled and heard a faint gurgle from Brody's side of the table. That was the thing about her current residence: it was quiet. You could hear anything from conversation going on downstairs to your neighbor's growling stomach.
One thing Ruby had neglected to mention to anyone was that she'd overheard quite a few conversations from this room. Important ones. But, since she didn't have many advantages these days, she had to take the ones she did have and cling to them for dear life.
As Brody concentrated on making his next move, Ruby glanced over toward her bed. Ruby did have one advantage Brody didn't. She had food. She didn't have to go hunting and foraging for it. Food was handed to her daily, either in meal form or snack form, depending on what was available and who was delivering the food.
Ruby smirked as Brody sat with his finger on his checker, looking around at all the angles on the board, making sure she couldn't catch him off guard. Of course, this early in the game there weren't many angles to examine and there wasn't much she could do to catch him by surprise. But she liked that he was making an effort.
"Wow. Don't strain yourself. Wouldn't wanna waste all your brain cells on a checker game. You might need those."
She slid another black piece forward and stood from her chair. She'd already decided on that move while Brody was thinking. She crouched down beside her bed and reached under it to pull out a small bag of Doritos and a package of chocolate frosted donuts. Vending machine food she'd stashed. When she returned to the table she held up both snacks, one in each hand.
"Okay. You put up the socks, I'll put up a snack. You want sweet or salty?"
"Wow. Don't strain yourself. Wouldn't wanna waste all your brain cells on a checker game. You might need those."
"Shuddup!" Brody scoffed, pretending to be more offended than he was. Ruby was always generous with her tactless opinions but he'd grown accustomed to them and gave as good as he got in return. At least she was honest.
"Quit trying to put me off, cause you know I'm gonna win this time." Before he'd even finished talking, she'd moved another of her pieces and had then gotten up and wandered over to her bed. Puzzled as to why she was leaving, Brody stared at the layout on the board, wondering if she'd somehow won already.
"Okay. You put up the socks, I'll put up a snack. You want sweet or salty?"
"Huh?" Brody's head moved in Ruby's direction, but he kept his eyes on the checker board until the last moment.
"Hey, where'd you get snacks? And awesome snacks too!" He exclaimed, pawwing at the donuts that she was pulling just out of his reach.
Ruby smirked as she sat down and Brody grabbed at the package of donuts.
"Hey, where'd you get snacks? And awesome snacks too!"
Ruby chuckled.
"Well, they do feed me around here. They kind of have to if they don't want me to get cranky."
She grabbed the Doritos and opened the back with her teeth, then looked at Brody seriously.
"No one knows about that stash, though, so keep it on the DL if you want to keep your vocal cords, 'kay?"
Ruby never joked about food. Her last host's metabolism had been fast and she'd always been starving. This one wasn't that bad, but she was still hungry a lot of the time. And Ruby got bitchy when she was hungry.
She munched a Dorito while she waited for Brody to make his next move. She trusted him to an extent. Enough to share her secret stash of snackage with him, anyway.
"You gonna move a checker before I die of old age?"
She smirked. She liked when Brody got all paranoid, like she had some trick up her sleeve every time she moved a checker piece. Really she'd just been playing the game since the Black Plague. That kind of practice tended to give a girl an edge.
"I got it. Secret stash, secret. Check." With that, Brody added a little salute to acknowledge his allegance on the matter. Sure he was Lucifer's lacky, but that didn't mean he would always tell him everything about everything. Unless pain or the threat of death was involved. Then he might reconsider. However he strongly believed that the big guy had better things to concern himself with than Ruby's secret snack pile.
He opened the end of the packet of donuts and took a big long sniff of the chocolatey goodness inside. He was practically drooling over them and sneakily dabbed his finger into the sticky topping for a taster of the prize Ruby was offering up.
"Oh my god that's sooooo good!" He said happily, licking his lips and grinning like an idiot.
"You gonna move a checker before I die of old age?"
"Stop rushing me when I'm making complex strategic manouvres in my head." Brody huffed, feeling under pressure to outsmart Ruby now that he had a stake in the game too. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a donut and sugary baked goods were always his favourite.
Finally, he moved a piece, pleased with himself that he'd managed to take one of her checkers in the process.
"Oh yeah, those donuts are gonna be mine baby!" He exclaimed excitedly, oblivious to the fact he'd left himself wide open for her to take several of his on the go.
Ruby watched as Brody sampled the donuts. She guessed it’d been a while since he had quality junk food.
“Stop rushing me when I’m making complex strategic manouvres in my head.”
Ruby rolled her eyes, leaning both her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her hands. Part of her was annoyed he was taking so long, but once he left she wouldn’t have much else to do with her day.
She smirked as he jumped one of her checkers triumphantly.
“Oh yeah, those donuts are gonna be mine baby!”
Ruby sat up and examined the board before using one of her checkers to take two of Brody’s.
“Not if that’s the best you got, they’re not.”
Ruby sat back, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she smiled up at him.
Brody stared dumbfounded as Ruby proceeded to make him look like a total amatuer yet again. One of these days he was going to find a board game that he could beat her at. Possibly hungry hippos.
"See what happens when you rush me into making a move?" Brody sulked, studied the board once more with twice as much concentration as he had done before. His competitive streak shinning through just a little.
"Okay, let's see how you deal with this then." Rather triumphantly, he picked up his checker and took another one of hers, smiling smugly that she hadn't gotten the better of him just yet.
"I got one of your checkers. La la la la laaaaa la." Brody sung giddily, holding the little round piece up to his eye like a monacle.
Rubyraised an eyebrow and snorted a laugh as Brody had his little victory song. If nothing else, the guy was amusing.
"Okay, you do know you're jinxing the crap out of yourself right now, right?"
Ruby sat up in her chair and stared down at the board, putting a look of deep concentration on her face. Not that she actually needed to concentrate much. She could probably have beat him blind-folded. But, what fun was bruising a man's ego these days?
She tapped her fingers on her chin thoughtfully before slowly moving one of her pieces forward, a strategic maneuver that, at a glance, would appear to put her checker in a safe spot. But, one of Brody's pieces was sitting in a very convenient square, putting it in a position of being able to take two of her pieces in one move.
"So, how's life looking for you these days?" she asked casually.
She honestly didn't know what Brody did whenever he left one of their checker games. It had been a while since they'd had an actual conversation about anything substantial.
"You just don't wanna admit that maybe this time I'm gonna kick your ass for a change." Brody said smugly, flipping the checker he'd just taken in his hands like a coin as he watched Ruby made her next move.
Oh yeah, I've got her on the ropes now. Look at the concentration on her face! She's definately going down. Down to Chinatown! Or she would be if she was allowed out of this room. Or if there was a Chinatown intact anymore....
"So, how's life looking for you these days?"
"Oh you know, same old same old. Get up in the morning and open the curtains to the wonderful world outside. Avoid getting chewed on by the crazies that roam around the neighbourhood while I'm on my way to see if the big man has any awesomely dangerous, slash disgusting, slash big time evil jobs for me to do. All the while hoping he doesn't try out his Darth Vader death grip on me because something I did the day before wasn't quite up to his evil standards. Y'know, the usual."
He'd said it casually, but whenever Brody did have to be face to face with Lucifer, he was always nervous. There were few in his entourage that weren't demons and Brody always felt like he was the outsider in the gang. Which was true really, he didn't want to be on the bad guy's side, hadn't initially signed up to help roll out the apocalypse, but circumstances hadn't permitted him a choice. Whoever had picked his name out of the hat for holy affliction duty way back when, well they certainly mustn't have liked him very much because all it had ever brought him was the wrong kind of attention and now look where he was. As much a prisoner of Lucifer's as Ruby, just because he didn't have a cell like she did, didn't mean he was any more likely to escape. Too terrified of the consequences.
"Oh...what's that?" Brody said with mock surprise as he pointed at what he thought was a bad move by Ruby.
"Did you just leave yourself wide open to me doing this...?" With a little gleeful smile on his face, he bounced one of his checkers over the one of her's she'd just moved and then over another, effectively taking two at once. A rare and highly exciting event for Brody.
"Ohhhh! I think I just did!" He teased, taking away her pieces and stacking them up on the table in front of him with what he'd already won.
"How does it feel to be on the losing side for once?"
