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_{[What qualifies as uncomfortable for someone who can fight off zombies like Cora? He can only imagine, and none of the possibilities exactly reassure him.

In contrast to Cora, all Adam does is think, it's all he can do. When it's the worst side of yourself you're talking about, how are his thoughts supposed to not be spinning with the worst case scenario?]}

If you can tell us apart, stay away from him if he comes back here. He's not human. He'll probably want to kill you.

_{[No, he will not cheer up, Cora! He'd prefer you not dead, so you better take his warning seriously!]}

[ telling cora to stay away from something dangerous is only encouraging her to hunt it down and walk right into it. considering she'd walked right up to his mirror without suspecting a damn thing, not even his scent to be off, is a little alarming. it'd only been his openness and the way he seemed to wear the body all wrong that had eventually clued her in. cora won't admit as much. ]

[ she's about to ask why his mirror simply didn't rip her to shreds at the party, but, then again, what kind of killer murders someone right in front of everyone? ]

Didn't exactly get that impression off of him.

[ but, then again, all killers can be charming. or attempt to charm. deucalion with his big words and his smiles can charm the pants off of anyone before slitting their throats. she imagines that's how he tricked his pack into becoming lambs for his slaughter. ]

If he tries anything, I'll rip his arms right from his body. Don't worry. I can handle a dumb mirror.

_{[He's heard promises like this the last time he'd been talking about himself and his Mirror. Isaac had said the same sort of thing--nothing can hurt me, I'll hurt them first--and if he'd known Isaac and Cora know each other from home, that might add another piece to the puzzle he's assembling in his mind.

He's struck by the similarity now. Her confident response is flippant and it's stupid, because it's not as though Adam hands out these warnings for no reason. He almost hopes she's purposely blowing smoke up his ass in some weird way of trying to reassure him and take him down a notch--that at least would mean she's not serious.]}

You can feel people when they're inside you, trying to possess you. I know what he is. I'm telling you, don't even try.

_{[What if next time the Mirror doesn't smile and give himself away? What if he goes the full distance and mirrors him like a magical duplicate's supposed to? It would only take a couple of seconds to stab a knife somewhere vulnerable--it'd take a hell of a lot longer to see through him and tear him apart as Cora wants to pretend.]}

I guess it's my fault he even exists, so sorry you had to meet my evil twin.

_{[He's sorry about everything in general. A part of him doesn't even really want to know what his Mirror had thought to say or do; he's getting tired of having to explain himself to other people without having to explain himself and unravel whatever spin the Mirror's thought to put on his life.]}

[ she doesn't understand the first thing about possession. the only thing that had ever overridden her ability to drive was moonstone in the bank vault blocking her from being able to shift and build her tolerance to the moon's pull. allowing that inner wolf to break free and almost kill her brother had scared cora to death when she realised what she had almost done. but as for mirrors? having never met her own, cora's finding it a very difficult learning curve to understand how they function and what they represent. but she understands that adam's mirror isn't adam — but he still contains shards of him. ]

[ but she figures, since maybe he's a little open to talking about it, she'll try and needle a few answers of her own out of him without so much as asking the questions she doesn't particularly want to ask — not if he's going to remember them. ]

If he's your evil twin, does that mean you think and feel the things he does on some level?

_{[That's not a question Adam wants to answer, but maybe not for the reasons Cora's thinking. When he thinks of his Mirror, the aversion goes bone-deep. Mirrors aren't natural, they aren't right, they're just another game Wonderland's playing with them. Adam might not be a whole person, he might be missing chunks of what made up who he used to be, but he's real and his Mirror represents something he doesn't want to end up as, despite everything he'd suggested otherwise to Castiel when they'd been talking about how demons are made.]}

I don't kill or possess people for fun, if that's what you mean.

_{[He needs some time to even compose that simple message. It's more than what he'd originally been tempted to say, which is "no" and nothing else.

No, he doesn't want to think like a monster. There has to be a line somewhere between the kind of damaged he is and being psychotic, or worse yet, like Zachariah or Michael. Maybe Cora's finding it hard to tell the difference and that's why she's asking, but considering that this is his life Adam needs there to be one.]}

The day you do, I won't be pulling you back from danger.

[ the killing she gets — and it's not like she's claiming responsibility for adam's safety, but it seems as though she's always bumping into him when he's in dire need of someone to slap him upside the head and pull him away from hurting himself. while she couldn't quite bring herself to punch his mirror's face in from the moment he crossed a boundary that she wasn't aware was even there, if she finds adam doing something he won't ever forgive himself for, she has a feeling she won't stand back and simply walk away. possessing, though? she doesn't understand anything of how peter survived his throat being slashed, ear from ear, as he'd so happily recalled for her, but she's heard things of possession and a girl and an alpha bite that didn't quite take. it's not something she particularly gets, just like angels. ]

Do you share the same feelings, though? You know, both like pie? The color red?

[ it'd be so much easier if cora tapped into her inner grump and merely said what she wanted — but it never hurts to know a little more, just in case his mirror really does make do on his making a friendship bracelet for her. ]

_{[He reads her message as a threat, and it feels like eating a fortune cookie and getting the same exact fortune over, and over, and over again.

Maybe she deserves special mention for sounding like she's willing to take responsibility for him as no one's really done since after Sam had pulled him into danger, but it still rubs him the wrong way. Not even that he might slip and have a serious psychotic break, not even that that day might be an inevitability, but that someone thinks they can dictate his fate after everything.

He should be angry, and maybe that's part of what he feels, but the mix of feelings he has refuses to be defined.]}

I thought it was all bullshit.

_{[He doesn't even know the answer, regardless of whether he'd give her the truth or keep it to himself.]}

Edited 2014-04-11 07:29 (UTC)

[ so, that would be a no, she guesses. she'll also take a wild guess and assume he's speaking about all the weird shit that's happened to him — angels, hunters, even wonderland itself — because there's no way anyone who had been born into this life would think it's bullshit. cora doesn't. ]

And now? Still bullshit?

[ she thinks she knows the answer without needing to know adam inside out, anyway. ]

Your mirror is full of it. A lot of it. His head is shoved so far up his own ass.

That's what I was asking you.

_{[She's the one who'd said she wouldn't trust what his Mirror had said, that it was nothing but crap. Adam wants to believe it can stay that way, just crap. But if she has to ask him, if she thinks there's a possibility he can be dangerous, too, then...

Then that's something he'll have to face in later, if it ever comes up. It doesn't matter now. The important thing here is that she has a fair warning, just like the one Sam and Dean had given him once. (And the one he hadn't listened to.)]}

I'm human, he's not, that's the difference. He's the unfriendly kind of monster we were talking about.

_{[So it's better if Cora go on letting the Mirror live with his head up his ass than baiting it.]}

[ adam might claim to be human, but cora knows humans have the ability to be just as dangerous as a feral alpha pack. he may not have the strength or claws or stamina to be a true physical threat, but he knows hunters, and that makes him dangerous in her book. ]

Not an angel?

[ definitely not a werewolf — cora has a feeling she would've sensed that. she's only met one werewolf who wasn't from beacon hills in wonderland and that had been over text. but she still thinks she would've sensed it. it makes her feel less powerless, thinking that. ]

[ if he happens to be something else outside of the box of angels, werewolves, and the thing that had ultimately ended adam's life, then she's going to have to go do some research of her own. she may have been born into the supernatural underbelly of beacon hills, but she wasn't born with an encyclopaedia in her head — and asking a hunter a hypothetical question of what his mirror could possibly be and how to fight it is completely out of the question. ]

_{[An angel? Just the thought makes him laugh to himself, a dark and muted sound in the quiet of his apartment.

His magical doppelganger, an angel. Adam has to admit, if Wonderland had wanted to twist the knife where it hurts, reminding him of his own stupid, stupid mistakes would do it. Being a vessel scares him more than being a demon.]}

No. Not one of them.

_{[She's ice cold, going in the complete opposite direction between Heaven and Hell.]}

Edited 2014-04-19 05:43 (UTC)

[ cora can't honestly think of anything else. unless he's the thing that had originally killed adam? but not even she's that tactless to even suggest his mirror is that monster that had ended his life decades too early. it's better he says it, than her bringing up memories that are definitely unwanted. ]

Give me a ballpark. If I run into him, I want to make sure I've got the right thing on me. Garlic. Silver. A song by Taylor Swift that might make him disappear.

[ whatever. she doesn't want to run into mirror!adam again and be taken by surprise. if she can't will herself into punching him, then she'd rather throw holy water on his face and watch it sizzle. or enjoy him screaming to whichever pop artist it is that might bring him to his knees. ]

Do you believe angels are real? Would you believe demons are real, too?

_{[Adam's ballpark is nothing but crazy stacked on top of crazy, sorry to say. He can't blame Cora for wanting to know how to defend herself from dangerous Mirrors--Adam would like to know that one, too--but there's not much he can do to prep a person through text for the Dan Brown "Angels & Demons" talk.]}

Pretty sure he's the opposite of an angel.

I really don't know what to believe anymore.

[ honestly. considering adam's blown her entire supernatural world right open, cora's not really sure what she should and shouldn't bother believing. does the boogie monster exist, too? she feels like asking, but it's a little inappropriate to do so right now. ]

Aren't they under the thumb of the devil? So, your mirror's a demon?

[ got to get that confirmation there before she decides to torture herself with dan brown. ]

_{[Point taken. His couple hundred years of education on the subject trumps word of mouth. Adam knows he's not the most reliable source of information, at that.]}

Sorry. The truth bites.

_{[For a while, that's just all he writes, letting the unsent message sit there on his phone. He really doesn't want to get into who's really been under Lucifer's thumb.]}

But they're real, and yeah, he's probably supposed to be like them. I don't know how you stop them, so just believe he's not afraid to hurt a person and steer clear. The hunters must know more than I do.

[ lets not talk about biting. ]

[ so, cora's now regretting never watching the exorcist, since she's certain some of the methods used in that film could be used on adam's mirror. pity. just like silver bullets are a bitch to pull from flesh, she's starting to think she's going to have to do her own secondary research on demons. ]

The hunters better. I'm pretty sure you could turn your "I don't know" into something - the library is bound to have books.

[ cora's beginning to wonder if adam really doesn't know. he's been eaten by a monster he can't recall, he's been used by an angel in the worst of ways, and his mirror is the opposite of the guys he's warned her about. is he really that clueless and unlucky? or is he holding his cards close to his chest — closer than she is with hers? ]

Anything's possible in Wonderland. Why not a How To for putting demons down?

Some seem to.

_{[Like Ellen, who'd held him captive in a devil's trap when his Mirror had possessed him. That's plenty of proof hunters know what demons are and what to do about them.

But what Cora's talking about involves him confessing to John Winchester's friends and family (a different kind of family than what a bastard kid counts for) about his experiences in Hell, that his Wonderland duplicate is a demon, that he has mixed feelings on everything to do with these mirror personas. It's not like he hasn't been to the library for just that purpose, but it's not all that easy to master a whole new way of life through sources that may or may not even be accurate.]}

Fact checking is the hard part and I doubt they have books on Wonderland twins and how to deal with them. But if you find one that makes it that easy, great. Send it my way when you're done with it.

I will.

[ out of the two of them, adam seems to be the one who could use it the most. what does she gain from looking up demons? she's occupying hours she'd otherwise spend being bored in her room. she has no intention of finding adam's mirror again. but if mirrors haunt their reals ... how does he not know a thing about the creature his mirror is? is he disinterested? does he not want to know what makes it tick? cora doesn't understand it, how he doesn't know the basics of how to put his own mirror down. but maybe it's simpler for her to be critical since she hasn't had to tango with hers just yet. ]

You really don't think someone in Wonderland would've written down things that happened? Some people here must be adamant at keeping notes. surely, someone before the two of them must've tangoed with demons and jotted down a few notes on how to dip them and twirl them on the dance floor.

[ look at the pamphlet that sometimes circulates around when new kids flood wonderland. even though it's not exactly an academic piece of literature, it's still useful. cora always opens it up when she's in doubt about something. ]

_{[Adam's been absorbed in learning how to put a different kind of demon down--himself, his Hell self, the memories that eat up his waking moments.

Too many demons, too many things that would be all too happy to rip a person to shreds. There's not enough time or peace of mind to deal with them all.]}

Have you noticed there's no real record of this place? Nothing like a history book. I haven't exactly asked around the people who've been living here. It's not one of those question you want to fire off on a public forum.

_{[And not with the kind of company this mansion keeps.]}

Hunters and I aren't really buddies if that's what you've been thinking. But I've got my ears open.

I haven't exactly been in the library, no. Figured someone who was bored enough would keep some sort of record — even if it was brief.

[ but adam shoots that down. cora spends the majority of her time outside. it's been a few months or so since the bank vault, but cora's felt like she's been trapped in a stuffier and smaller room for years; being able to move freely and outside of the confines of beacon hills and being a hale in beacon hills has been a breath of fresh air. besides, stiles knows everything — she figures he's more useful than whatever one can find in the library. ]

[ he does say something surprising, though. ]

I thought you were. Aren't you in with them? Not a hunter, but a friend of.

Not that I ever heard.

_{[And although the library has a ton of reading material and it's the one place he'd think to go looking for information, it's not the most helpful place, never where it's supposed to be, never looking the same from day to day.

If there is a cache of factoids on Wonderland, Adam hasn't found them yet in between his search for supernatural-related books.]}

No.

_{[Which is the simplest and most truthful answer.]}

The people I know from home aren't my friends.

It doesn't hurt to look. It's not like I'm doing anything crazy during my days.

[ for the first time in forever, cora actually has downtime to be normal. and she's not quite sure how the hell to do that, when she's so used to leaping from one dramatic extreme thing to the next. ]

[ cora supposes she's lucky to have the people she likes from home in wonderland. even though she thinks lowly of a few of them … it's not like she's stuck here with jennifer blake or kate argent or peter and his confusing lies. she doesn't quite know how she would approach it, let alone cope being in a place with no already built-in support system. ]

Sorry. At least you can avoid them in Wonderland. Or anonymously harass them on the network.

[ that's an upside, isn't it? ]

_{[It's a little weird, the sudden sense of guilt that she wants to research something dangerous that had come from him. His Mirror, his demonic other self. She's right to push him; he should be trying to bolster his education instead of being ashamed and uncomfortable talking to someone like Ellen thanks to what he is.]}

I want to know, too. We can end up swapping if something pans out. If I find out your twin's a grade A psycho along the way, I'll pass the news along.

_{[Trying to joke, even just a little, is the best he can do. Mirror clones aren't funny, and being surrounded by the kinds of people he is isn't funny, either. He doubts he'll put her suggestions into action, but he appreciates what she's trying to get at all the same.]}

It's fine, it's not like you knew. It's a long headache of a story. But they know things. If anyone knows, it must be monster hunters.

Do one better and put her in the ground.

[ she doesn't want to know her mirror out there is free to run around being a grade a psycho. she'd feel better if she knew she was gone, kaput, like how she's meant to be. though, she doesn't completely trust adam to be the one to put anything in the ground, at least she knows she can trust him — as much as one can trust a boy who is a blend of confusion and teenage angst and death — with whatever information he happens to pass on, demons in general or her own damn mirror. ]

Isn't that what every story is? One massive, long headache? It sounds like a migraine if you toss in monster hunters.

[ and it feels awfully a lot like betrayal to type monster. werewolves have hunters, but she doesn't view them as such — but she supposes, sort of like adam, the ones that have hunters seeking them out fit the bill of monster. but the hales had been hunted down as though they were, when all she can remember is mom wanting harmony. if she looks at it black and white, monster hunter describes the alpha pack and nothing more. ]

_{[Cora doesn't pull her punches, does she? Adam can't say he disagrees with the sentiment. A good monster is a dead monster in his books.]}

You think they have nine lives like the rest of us?

_{[Because having a Mirror come back from the dead in a pissy mood sounds like a good way to start a turf war. Who knows, maybe Cora's Mirror is as soft-spoken and sweet as they come...]}

I'm not arguing, but that story's one especially.

_{[As much as he might claim he's not a part of Sam and Dean's profession, and as much as he doesn't want to be, the fact remains that it was partly thanks to them knowing what kind of assholes angels really are and their intervention that he'd seen the truth about Michael's plan. Not enough to save him, but enough for him to realize his mistakes.

To him, a hunter is at the bare minimum someone who's aware of the supernatural and smart enough to have an idea of what to do about it. What's that saying, "knowing is half the battle"? That's a philosophy Adam could learn to live by if he had the chance.]}

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