thelongnow_logs | I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

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I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Who: [Bad username or site: ihadmittenson title= @ livejournal.com], [Bad username or site: smartest86 title= @ livejournal.com], [Bad username or site: doubtheaven title= @ livejournal.com] and [Bad username or site: iwantyousafe title= @ livejournal.com]. (AKA Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion respectively.)
What: Books Time Skip - The Wizard of Oz
When: Friday the 13th, mid-morning.
Where: The landing/Oz.
Status: In progress.
Warnings: None currently. Will be updated if need be.

She would blame it on boredom later if anyone asked, but something was making Brooke restless. She couldn't really sit still, so instead of trying to stay put (like she had been for the past half hour), she decided to go explore the hotel. She hadn't really made it too far on other floors, especially after the nightmare thing, but today she wanted to.

Needed to.

Eventually she made it to the third floor, her attention drawn briefly to the windows of the landing. She looked out over the back lawn for a moment, but didn't stay put. That restless feeling was still there and something inside of her was pulling towards the other side of the area.

When she tried the door to the library, it was locked. She fiddled with it for a few moments before giving up, her arms crossing over her chest. Just as she was about to turn around and go back to her own level, Brooke caught sight of the book sitting right in front of her feet on the floor.

Crouching down, she reached a hand out to pick it up. As soon as she touched the cover, however, everything around her changed. She was no longer surrounded by thick carpets and wooden walls; nothing looked remotely familiar and, when she glanced around, panic started to set it.

"Hello?" she called out, hoping that someone would be around to help her.

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"Yeah, it's me, Rose," Brooke called out, then glanced over at Max. She gave him a weird look at his last sentence, then shook her head a little. After pushing aside some of the tree branches as best she could, Brooke started moving further into the forest, following the direction she thought Rose's voice was coming from.

"You know," she said to Max, "I really hate nature. If I'm going to be stuck outside like this, I demand a cabin complete with running water and doors to keep bugs out."

Castiel puzzled Rose. He was unnaturally quiet. Trying not to take it personally, she blamed the growing pile of rusted metal. The bloke had been shackled up in a foreign place, without ever seeing his captors. He absolutely had the right to be traumatized. However, Rose had expected her confession to get a bigger reaction.

Her self-consciousness started looming over her. Maybe she was uninteresting. Ugly. Maybe Sam didn't like her at all and had told everyone else everything first. Where was Sam? Buffy? Norrington? Maybe they were dead. Maybe Rose was stuck here, while everyone else was dead! Maybe-

The girl paused. This wasn't right. Ever since she'd landed in the forest, it was like everything was... scaring her. She was usually much braver, and considerably more rational. Her free hand moved to bury itself in her hair. Rose hadn't noticed it, but her blonde locks were longer, shaggy, and ratted out. Awful! "Castiel, why didn' ya tell me I 'ad a bloody mane? I look like some type o'-"

Lion. She looked to Castiel, still standing in a heap of metal. No, more than metal. Tin. They were a lion and a tin man, standing in a forest, surrounded by the sounds of monkeys, tigers, and bears. Oh my.

"Brooke!" She yelled, figuring it out for herself. "Brooke, Brooke!!" Rose rushed over to Castiel, who still had a few more clasps about his feet. "We're gettin' out o' this mess," she said, dropping low to finish freeing him. "Now."

Max gave Brooke an equally odd look before nodding very seriously. "You," he said, "are entirely missing the point. But I wish you luck with that."

While Brooke and Rose were reunited, Max observed the situation. It was all very peculiar, but if he was remembering the story correctly, it really wasn't. There were four of them, and they all at least somewhat visually fit the roles: the Tin Man, Lion, Dorothy, and, of course, the Scarecrow - unless he was leaving someone else out. He frowned as he thought about it.

Finally, he said, "This is everyone, right? Or have you guys seen anyone else? I'm Max, by the way."

Castiel stepped out of the last remnants that were keeping him in place. At least he wasn't personally made of metal, and his personality didn't have the charm of Jack Haley from the film, but he might fit the bill in a pinch.

"Sorry?" Is all he could manage to say when Rose wasn't pleased that he hadn't pointed out her interesting hairstyle. He wasn't sure what was going on here, but after the last bout of dreams, he wasn't surprised to think the house had done it to them again.

All he wondered now was if Sam and Dean were around here somewhere or in some kind of trouble.

"I'm Castiel."

"Brooke," she said, skipping over the It's nice to meet you, Castiel bit. She wanted to get out of here, not sit around and chat with people.

As she worked out the second braid in her hair, Brooke glanced around the forest. "Did they have angry trees in the book, too, or was that just the movie?" If they had it in the book, then she was going to want to get back to the path as soon as possible because getting pelted with apples didn't sound like her idea of a good time.

But they did look delicious.

Without waiting for an answer, she moved over to one of the trees and picked an apple off the closest branch. Her free hand continued to fluff out her hair as she bit into the fruit.

"You're welcome?" Rose muttered under her breath, unacknowledged as Castiel stepped away. She secured the oil can in her belt loop. Everything was worth saving for later.

At Max's introduction, she smiled, extending a cordial hand. "I'm Rose." She quickly ran through the characters in her head. "Yea, this should be everyone, unless someone gets t'be Toto!" Rose thought of Dean, and smirked. Brilliant.

As Brooke took an apple from above her head, the forest seemed to tremble with discontent. Were the trees moving, or were winged monkeys assembling just out of view? The blonde tried not to be intimidated. She assured herself that the fear in her chest was the Lion's, and not her own.

"Can we get goin'?" Rose asked. "I'm sure we 'ave a Wicked Witch t' melt, yea?" She wasn't thinking about the Wizard, or the Emerald City, or even the sparkling shoes Brooke wore on her feet. No, there was surely a villain to kill, just like last time.

"Yeah, no, I don't actually see any dogs here, so we should be -" Max cut himself off suddenly, and his expression went very sad at his mention of a dog. He had a dog. Back - wherever they were. And his dog was fluffy and adorable and missed him probably, and that was just utterly depressing.

But then he found himself distracted by Brooke's decision to steal fruit from the trees. He couldn't actually remember what happened at this part, but he found himself shaking his head fiercely. "Yeah, we should go. I feel like this really isn't a good idea."

He took a few steps across the yellow bricks. "So basically, all we have to do is find the Wizard and melt the Witch and we should be good, right? Unless...!" Max's eyes widened and he snapped his fingers. He had a hunch.

Rose followed the others until her feet hit a surface much harder than grass and dirt. She looked down, and saw brilliant, yellow bricks. Despite being the last one to notice the iconic road, the blonde grinned. Her mum had once read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a childhood bedtime story. Sure, they were trapped, but this was-

"Amazin'! I'm definitely skippin'," she said, unaware of Brooke's rule against it. Trying to make the best of things, Rose grabbed Castiel's arm. Not waiting for his permission, she more or less dragged him down the path, mimicking the footwork of the film.

Castiel wasn't sure what everyone was talking about. He wasn't familiar with any stories, but the others seemed to have some idea about what to do. "There is a witch? Are you going to set her on fire?" How else would someone melt?

And a wizard, too? "Are we setting the wizard on fire?" Because a wizard could be up to no good as well.

Before he could ask more, he found his arm grabbed and lurched forward after Rose. Why was she doing that! It wasn't very effective when it came to walking, and he wasn't aware of any traditions when it came to yellow bricks. She might have skipped, but he continuously stumbled after her.

Brooke had followed them all back to the road, munching into her apple when Rose decided she was going to start skipping. Despite her best efforts to not skip, Brooke found herself tossing the apple aside and linking arms with Max.

"We're soaking the witch with water, actually," she said to Castiel as she glanced over at Max. Instead of just taking off like Rose had, she was waiting for her skipping partner to agree as well.

"And the wizard's supposed to help us get out of here. At least, that's what happened in the movie."

Max was actually glad about this development in favor of skipping. Of course he had been planning on keeping up oh-so-professional airs about this, but really? He didn't think you could have this story without some skipping.

"Let's do this," he said, and he started down the path.

But, unfortunately, he didn't keep it up for very long when he spotted something in the sky. He tossed it off as a bird, but then it kept coming. And he saw that it was a bit too big to be a bird. He frowned, looking at it closer.

A - monkey?

"Guys?" Max tried.

And then he did remember the flying monkeys, just as his foot caught on a badly-placed brick and he went tumbling to the ground.

"Holy mother of pearl," he yelled. Maybe if he somehow rolled into the grass, they wouldn't see him.

At the sound of monkeys screeching, Rose's unkempt mane of hair stood on end. Oh no. Her grip on Castiel's arm fell loose. Before she could speak, though, the sky around the group went dark.

The air was instantly aflutter with fur and feathers. Rose looked up. The noise was deafening. Winged primates swooped and dipped chaotically, the image of mayhem. If the apes belonged to an army, their organization tactics were indecipherable.

She was entranced. Just like a feline, Rose turned her head back and forth, watching one creature, then another, then another. Several moments of distraction passed before she could snap out of it. The girl- not lion- shook her head sharply, and covered her ears. Despite this, Rose could feel the familiar fear of the character creeping in.

The Wicked Witch of the West knew they were here.

"I think this is the par' where we run!!"

"Is the water really hot?" Because Castiel still didn't understand how they were supposed to melt a witch with water. Unless the water was hot enough to boil the witch, in which case, it might not melt her so much as create a really disgusting mess.

The logistics would have to wait until later. With the swarm approaching, he stared at the sky and knit his brow. A frown began to crease his face. Were they to run? Where exactly should they run to?

Brooke remembered what happened in this part of the movie, so she didn't waste any time; instead of standing there staring at the sky full of monkeys, she took off running. Of course, her brilliant idea to try to escape only succeeded in her getting further away from everyone before one of the monkeys swooped down and grabbed her by the arms.

Internally, she was cursing herself. Externally, she was trying to get the monkey off her as she screamed for helped. "You guys can't let them take me," she yelled, because she knew exactly what would happen to her. And just because the movie ended happily didn't mean that the book did.

Suddenly, she found herself regretting not caring more about English.

Max was vaguely aware of what was going on around him, especially of Brooke's screaming, and he knew that he should do something - but what? What did the Scarecrow do?

Oh, right. Be brainless and stuff. Cool.

But either way, Max found himself scrambling to his feet and running headfirst into the swarm - which probably wasn't the best idea, but what else was there to do, exactly? Besides, it gave the others a chance to hear some loud swears coming from his mouth as the monkeys attached themselves to him. Some of those words might not have actually existed.

Monkey claws sank into Rose's arm, and she joined her companions in screaming. Another ape dove down to grab at her side, followed by another. "Three o' ya??" she protested, swatting frantically at her tormentors. "I may be a lion, but I ain't FAT! This is bloody unnecessary!"

Her arm (paw?) connected with one of the little monsters, batting it to the side. In this moment of clarity, Rose could see Brooke being hoisted into the air. "Dorothy!" she cried, falling into character. Suddenly, the blonde could feel her own feet being lifted from the ground. "No!!"

Rose remembered this part of the story. She knew where Dorothy was headed, but couldn't recall the fate of the Cowardly Lion. Was she going to be tortured? Put into a zoo? An oven? Panic set in. "Brooke, Brooke!" she cried, hoping to be heard. "Don' let th' Witch near your shoes! Uh, uh, there's this hourglass tha', um, OH!! If there's a crystal ball, it'll show ya 'ome! Call Sam!!"

Rose had very little faith in Brooke, to be honest. The younger girl didn't believe in aliens or ghosts or anything supernatural, and now they had to trust her to conquer a living book. Rose wished she were Dorothy, instead.

She opened her mouth to call out again, but one of the monkeys' feet became tangled in her hair. The ape flailed, screeching and tugging at her gnarled locks. The other creatures struggled to hold onto the lion. Again overcome with cowardice, Rose screamed and kicked about. The mess of monkeys ascended clumsily into the sky with their prisoner.

Call Sam. Crystal ball. Shoes. If Brooke hadn't seen the movie a few hundred times when she was little, she never would've remembered all of that.

She struggled again to get free of the monkeys and finally one of her arms slipped free. For a terrifying moment, she dangled one-armed from the monkeys' grip, another scream getting caught in her throat. She was too far up to not break anything, if she were to fall. So when another monkey came to help, she nearly sighed in relief.

Of course, when she realized how far away the others seemed to be, any relief she felt disappeared.

"Be careful," she yelled, though she wasn't sure if anyone of them would hear her.

And then, not five seconds later, Brooke was being flown as quickly as possible to the castle. She even stopped struggling, simply because she didn't want to end up falling to her death.

With the monkeys swarming in and Brooke being lifted off into the sky, Castiel could only wish that he still had access to his powers in this strange world they were in. He felt helpless and didn't like it at all, but all he could do was try to protect himself and watch out for the others.

A tin man may not have a heart, but the woodcutter wasn't really short on courage. Luckily, he had the nerve to fight back and a few monkeys would not like it if he did manage to connect with a punch or two.

He tried to rush after Rose's direction, but with too many enemies in the way, he couldn't stop them as they carried her off.

"Let go, let go!" Rose yelled, thrashing about. One monkey lost its grip in the struggle. The lion's weight became too much; the two apes still holding her began to descend under the burden. Then, the claws locked in Rose's hair ripped free, taking a few strands with. She yelped in unison with the final monkey. The lone creature couldn't hold an entire lion by itself! Down they spiraled, Rose's stomach turning as if on a roller coaster. The ape flapped its wings hard, keeping them from plummeting too quickly.

The monkey had enough. As Dorothy had been the real target, the blonde was dropped like a ragdoll. Rose landed on her side, her cheek hitting the forest floor. It hurt a bit, yes, but she was thankful. The fall hadn't been far enough to break anything. She lifted her head from the prickly grass to a chorus of victory howls. The leftover mass of monkeys rose up into the air. The Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man were unceremoniously abandoned. Brooke was gone.

Rose pulled herself to her feet. Her face now scraped and streaked with dirt, she sighed. They were certainly acting out the plot properly. Unfortunately, though, this meant putting their lives into the young, snippy hands of Brooke.

She made her way back to Castiel and Max. After that episode, the forest's sudden quiet was eerie. "Tha' was awful," she groaned, as if it really needed to be said. "Everyone okay?"

Edited 2010-08-28 17:04 (UTC)

Max had luckily not been dragged by the monkeys; somehow his flailing had managed to deter him until he'd re-collapsed in the grass, more or less playing dead again. At Rose's words, he peeked out from under his arm. "I think so," he said. His eyes darted from the left to the right and he finally pushed himself to a sitting position. "Are they gone?"

Max looked over his shoulders and then turned back, scanning the sky for any sign that they'd been there in the first place, other than the messy hair and tattered clothes that the crew now had. And then it hit him.

"Guys," he asked, not looking at anyone in particular. "Where's Brooke? What are we supposed to do now?" He supposed they could wait to see if she pulled through. Either that or they would have to find the Wizard themselves, probably.

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I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

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Sorry, I know it's not my turn, but Rose HAS TO DO THIS.

/snerk

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