#mm. but don't mind me! just thinking out loud to try to get my characterization of her in order

[artekai]

Honestly, I struggle to write Tilda so I never guarantee I'm interpreting her character correctly, but she strikes me as someone who sees the world in black and white. She has all the Zeniths sorted into perfectly categorized lists of "good Zeniths" and "bad Zeniths." Far Zenith as an organization was all good until they proved her wrong and then they were all bad (but she had no other choice). Aloy is perfect but Beta is not and thus she must be unworthy. This world is not as Elisabet intended it to be so it can be discarded in favor of a new, better one. She's not as bad as the other Zeniths so she must be good. Then again she could also be lying through her teeth about half of these so.

[shallowseeker]

///

Sam can't help it. He barks a laugh, too relieved that he isn't the only sinner sofar as Marvin is concerned. "Cassette and all?"

Dean looks at Cas again. "Cassette and all."

Cas straightens up. "It was covered in ketchup, Dean. I didn't know it'd break."

Dean just laughs. "It's electronic Cas. You submerged it." He looks to Sam again. "Marvin's already got a replacement audio rig, y'see. The original did not survive Cas's attempt at playin' homemaker."

Cas huffs again.

"And luckily for you, the audio ain't damaged this time. Looks like s'just the controller that got banged up."

Sam hurriedly starts typing new search terms into his browser. "I can look for replacement audio, or I could download the Marvelous Marvin original stories to put on cassette if you need me to. I'm sure we could figure out-"

Mary cuts him off. "Oh, I wouldn't do that. He likes the new audio better." She's smirking, and she nudges Cas in the ribs, more playful than Sam's ever seen her with him.

Now, it's Cas's turn to look bashful. "It was...'new and improved.'"

Sam wonders what that means, but no one offers any further explanation.

Time crawls on, and together, they watch Dean work. At some point Cas leaves and returns with a magnifying glass to assist.

Mary makes one suggestion. "We could fit a Diamondback DB9 9 mm Pistol in there, too. Just in case."

To which Dean enthusiastically agrees.

Finally, Dean looks satisfied with his work and stuffs the audio gizmo back inside. But before Marvin gets sewn back up, Dean gives his chest a little poke, and Marvin blares to life: "Chin up, tough guy."

The voice is gruff and cartoonish, but oddly familiar in a way Sam can't immediately place.

Dean pokes it again, "Nothin' can intimidate me." This time it's equally as cartoonish, but it sounds like a different person. It's deeper and more wooden, somehow.

Poke. Second voice again: "Don't doubt me. That's when I get stronger."

Poke. First voice: "It's tough to get outta bed at 5 a.m. when you've been sleepin' in your silk pajamas."

Bobby roars with laughter, and Sam knows he's missed something.

Mary stuffs her hands over her face, flushed with delight. "Jack told me about it but I hadn't heard it in person yet. God, it's so much better than I'd imagined."

Cas is smiling shyly, and Dean looks puffed up like a proud peacock. He cycles through more audio.

It finally clicks.

Oh.

Those're Dean and Cas making those voices.

Now, Sam's laughing, too.

"You guys sound so stupid. What're those, your 'tough guy' voices?"

Dean's grin splits his face. "Marvelous Marvin's a boxer, Sammy. That's the whole point! These're things he'd say! I mean come on, he was the undisputed champion of the middleweight division from 1980 to 1987!"

"I was born in '83, Dean. I was four. Hell, you weren't even old enough to-"

Dean cuts him off by pressing Marvin's chest again. "I've been feeding the faith. I've been starving the doubt. So there's no doubt in my mind that I can win this fight."

Mary and Bobby get even louder, which is probably too loud, considering it's well past midnight. (Mary's practically howling at this point.)

"You should hear his Doc Holliday," Dean says, throwing Cas a look that Sam can only characterize as downright goofy.

If there's one thing Sam never wants to hear, he thinks, it's whatever Cas's 'Doc Holliday' is.

Dean cycles through a few more gravelly phrases before it starts to play a tinny, one-channel song. Before Sam can place it, Dean cuts it off suddenly, with a violent press of his thumb, looking embarrassed. Sam can see it in the pink tint to his ears and the reddening high points on his cheeks.

Mary tilts her head, trying to place it, too. "Was that Zeppelin?"

Dean doesn't answer at first. He acts distracted as he reaches for the needle and oversized thread. After a few seconds of Mary's impatient table-tapping, he blurts out an answer, "Yeah, Mom. Nothin' wrong with a little Zepp, though. Right?"

Sam notes that Cas is looking up and away now, too. Not embarrassed, maybe, but definitely dismissive.

"Right," Mary says, looking from one to the other.

"Thank you," Cas adds, though what he's thanking Mary for, Sam has no idea.

Sam thinks he's probably missing something again.

After that, Marvin is slowly sewn up, his audio gadget repaired and ass-full of even more Winchester family weapons. Dean leaves an "easy tear-away" knot, at the very top of the stitches, so that Jack can get to the hidden weapons if he needs to.

"Good as new," Dean says, standing Marvin up on two feet like it's alive. Dean waves the teddy bear arms and makes the same stupid voice he'd used to record his audio parts.

"Don't you throw me again," Dean's 'Marvin voice' growls in Sam's direction. "I know where you live, Buckaroo."

Cas comes over to puppet-nod Marvin's head in Sam's direction, too. "And I never sleep, Sam," he adds in his 'Marvin voice,' as menacing as he can make it. "You can't watch your back all the time."

Sam rolls his eyes, feeling a wave of secondhand embarrassment on their behalf.

They're stupid.

Both of them are so stupid.

That's when Jack makes his entrance, no doubt lured by the uproarious laughter of Mary and Bobby.

"Guys? Oh." He notices Cas, Mary, and Bobby. "You're back from Topeka already."

"Yup," Bobby grouses, eyes shifting to the teddy. "Heard that Marvin got dead again."

"Yeah." Jack looks dolefully at Sam, and Sam feels the guilt stab him in the gut all over again. Then, Jack swivels hopeful eyes back to Dean. "Could you fix him?"

Cas plucks Marvin from Dean's hands and plops him into Jack's arms. "Good as new," he says, echoing Dean's earlier words.

Jack grins and presses Marvin's chest: "Don't doubt me," Cas's Marvin-voice announces again, "because that's when I get stronger."

Sam smiles.

///END

I think Sam is the kind of guy to assume Marvelous Marvin is a normal stuffed animal and, in true sibling fashion, throw him at Dean when he does something annoying.

But on the heavy THWACK, he realizes his mistake.

It's a talking bear. It's battery-operated, so it's a little heavier than expected. Dean's cursing is the most colorful that Sam's heard in a while.