Happy To Be Free (Open)

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The man's eyes traveled upwards from the bear and back to Maleficent. He shook his head, his hair moderately swishing with each movement of his head. "No, can't say that I do," he replied, taking another glance at the Care Bear before returning his gaze to the dark fairy. When Maleficent further explained the situation, it sounded all the more strange. His brother wasn't here, he was in another world, fictional characters exist, and birds could speak to him telepathically. This looked like a fine start to the day. Who was Ask ThatGuy? Why would he want anything to do with Sam? It seemed like Sam had more questions than answers when he received explanations.

His heart just about stopped when he was asked about what his world was like. What was he supposed to say? Just tell them what he did for a living? Would they think he's crazy? Then again, he was talking to things that really shouldn't be able to, so maybe he didn't have anything to worry about. Yet, he was a bit reluctant to talk about himself. He was always told to keep the family secret, well, a secret. He didn't have to give away too much, did he? "It's a lot like this one, actually. There's cars, there's Chicago, houses, it's pretty much the same except our animals don't talk." He paused before continuing. "And... There's supernatural creatures where I'm from that aren't too friendly."

He could leave it at that, couldn't he? No need to go telling everyone that he was a hunter, he could just say that there were paranormal things that existed in his world and be done. If they wanted more information on his background, well, then he'd just have to figure something out.

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Maleficent was initially an attentive listener to Sam’s explanation of his world. When he mentioned supernatural creatures, her curiosity was piqued, being a fairy herself. However, she soon found herself frowning when it became clear that the young man before her was still holding some information back.

Maleficent couldn’t understand it. Why did he feel the need to keep secrets? She didn’t want his life’s story, but a decent explanation of why he had turned up on their doorstep would have been nice. Couldn’t he see the kind of people he had been surrounded with? What could be stranger than this?

“Really now, how can you expect us to be open with you when you keep omitting details, Sam? And after we were so kind as to let you inside the house too.” The dark fairy’s voice had by now developed a certain chill. “Stop tiptoeing around the truth and just tell us everything. I assure you that whatever it is you’re trying to hide, it’s not the most bizarre thing any of us have heard before. Least of all me.”

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Nope. It wasn't enough information. The corners of his mouth dipped downward into a slight frown. If he wanted to get anywhere, it looked like he needed to spill the beans about what he did for a living. Lying wasn't going to do him much good here. If someone caught on that he was lying, they could call him out on it if they figured out what show he was from. Not exactly looking forward to having to redeem himself if someone figured out he wasn't being entirely truthful, he decided he would have to tell quite a bit about himself if he wanted to get anywhere. Plus, by the dark fairy's tone, it probably would have been best to just come right out and say who he was. If there was anyone he didn't want to confront about lying, it was definitely her. Angering her seemed like a stupid thing to do if you asked Sam.

With a minor sigh, he decided to expand on his story. They probably needed some background information if anyone was going to figure out what he was from. "Alright, so there is a little more to me. Ever since I was little, I've been in a family of hunters. It's the family business, I suppose. But, we didn't hunt animals. We hunted demons, ghosts, spirits, all kinds of supernatural things. I couldn't take it anymore when I got older. I just wanted to go to college, study there, be normal. So, that's what I did. I went to college, and I was normal for a while. Then this one day, out of the blue, my brother shows up and says that Dad's missing on a hunting trip. We go looking for him, and I just got sucked back into hunting on the way. We still haven't found our dad, but we've gotten rid of a ghost or two while we've been looking for him. And then I ended up here in Chicago, and that's about it."

They didn't need to know about Jessica. That was one detail he wasn't going to dive into, no matter what. He didn't need to add in that she was one of the main reasons he went back to hunting. Her death hit Sam pretty hard. Talking about her around complete strangers was something he just wasn't going to do.

[Pushing Up Roses]

(ooc: So sorry. man this post is like a month late. oops. xD)

Nani nodded.

"I hope so. Chester and Ma-Ti have done so much for us and now Ma-Ti's gone and Chester's in so much pain. I hope we can do something for him." said Nani.

Nani paused looking at Sam and grinned.

"Look's like we got a new member. Let's go say hi." said Nani.

Nani smiled standing up and walked towards the group.

XXXX

Nostalgia Chick turned to Snob and smiled.

"Yeah. I think maybe a lot of us should talk to them. We've all been through a lot this past couple months. The war. Ma-Ti's death. Captures. Battles. We can't keep it all in or we'd end up going crazy." said Chick.

She paused looking up to see Sam talking with Maleficent, Diablo, and Tender Heart. When Nani went off to talk to them she looked in shock.

"Is that Jared Padelacki? No it must be one of his characters. I wonder which one." said Chick.

She paused turning to Snob.

"I guess we better go introduce ourselves." said Chick.

She walked over joining the group.

XXXX

Roses nodded.

"I hope we can help them. But there's only so much we can do if they don't want to talk. At least Chester has good friends like Iheart, 90's Kid and Willie to help him." said Roses.

She paused and nodded.

"We should find a way to capture the children somehow if possible. To keep them out of the war. None of us want to hurt them." said Roses.

She knew how much Nella cared about Pinocchio as if he was her son as she and Dark Nella had once been one being after all. She nodded at Joe.

"I agree. We need to teach the adults a lesson. Especially Malachite. That bastard took Ma-Ti from us. He had more heart than we realized. That boy's been through enough and he's died twice to save us. We can't let this happen again. I don't want to lose someone else I care about. Like Paw or Spoony or Iheart. Or you." said Roses.

She smiled wiping away tears that had started to form.

" I'm glad you're here Joe. I'm glad to have another gamer here and another friend. Maybe we could go a few round in Mortal Kombat later." said Roses.

She saw the others going to greet Sam and stood up.

"Come on. Let's go greet the new recruit. I wonder who it is." said Roses.

She walked up towards the group

XXXX

Tender Heart smiled glad Pepper was happy and eating as he focused back on the conversation between Sam and Maleficent.

"Hello Sam. I'm glad you made it here safely." said Tender Heart.

XXXX

Diablo watched amused at Sam's reaction to Tender Heart.

"So you're from a world similar to this one. But how do you know these creatures aren't friendly? Unless..." thought Diablo.

He trailed off realizing he must have met some of them. It'd make sense why he wasn't as scared or upset as some of the others had been at first. He heard Maleficent ask for more information and he grinned. There wasn't much you could hide from her. She was very good at getting information out of people. He listened as Sam shared more of his story.

"You, your brother, and your father hunt supernatural creatures for a living? That's very impressive. With no training or magic of any kind you trained yourself and did this for years. I didn't realize humans in such a modern era would go around hunting creatures like that." thought Diablo.

He was beginning to like Sam actually. The thought didn't cross his mind he might have gone after Maleficent. He was just interested in Sam's stories.

XXXX

Nani, Nostalgia Chick, and Roses joined the group.

"Hello. I'm Nani Pelaki." said Nani.

"I'm Nostalgia Chick." said Nostalgia Chick.

"And I'm Roses. This is my home and our safe house for the war. We mostly keep injured and the children here and the rest of us rotate between here and the other house which is our main base." said Roses.

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So he had been hiding information after all. Maleficent didn’t get the opportunity to feel triumphant about her small victory. Quite the contrary, the dark fairy could think of only a few instances where she’d been more horrified.

The man before her was a hunter – and a killer – of supernatural beings. Supernatural beings not unlike herself.

“Really?” Maleficent was no longer attempting to sound at least halfway benevolent. Her gold eyes had narrowed to slits. “And what have these supernatural creatures done to get themselves killed?”

It soon became aware that not everyone shared her disgust. People were practically lining up to introduce themselves to Sam, and Maleficent could barely resist the urge to snap that they were consorting with a murderer. As if that wasn’t enough, even Diablo seemed to have been drawn in. He actually seemed interested to hear about the hunter’s exploits. Didn’t he realize what that entailed, what it could mean for her?

Maleficent fixed the raven with her coldest glare, an extreme rarity. She couldn’t remember the last time she was angry with Diablo.