Writing From the Inside

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Dead in the Water” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

 An excerpt:

“The boys go to check in with Bill, see how he’s doing. They hear the outboard motor of Bill’s boat, and in spite of it being too late, they try to save him. They run. Running on the beach like this should be an Olympic sport in which the boys would do quite well. Yeah, use the slow mo to see this scene, in all its grace and beauty. I did. Several times. Boys running is a wonderful thing. Dean starts out in the lead, those thighs of his pushing into the sand. Sam is behind, like a long-legged colt. And then, elbows pumping, Sammy takes the lead like Dean is standing still. It’s the legs, you see. It’s all in the legs. Oh, what were they doing in this scene? I think they were trying to stop Bill Carlton from killing himself, but they failed. Oh, well.”

Pictures…(Click on the links to display beautiful, full-size pics. Click on thumbnails for smaller but still beautiful pics.)

Caught digging

Leaving town

Galatea’s Becoming by Gradiva.

Slash.

The boys encounter a modern day Pygmalion, where a statue brought to life for revenge keeps on killing those who fall in love with her. That’s the plot. What’s more fun is watching the boys fall in love with her, and jealousy ensues, and Sam, in particular, realizes that he needs to tie Dean to him in the very most fundamental way, so that when Dean is in hell, Sam will be able to find him.

Lovely story, low key, terrific analysis of Sam. Some great lines:

“hen he takes the keys from Dean, who is waiting impatiently outside the inn, and gets into the car, Sam clenches his hands around the steering wheel, breathing steadily. He needs to find a way to make sure Dean will remember Sam, will remember himself, until Sam can get to him.”

and

“Dean stares up at him, almost paralyzed at the revelation. Sam shakes his head, closes his eyes for a second in disbelief. After all this time, it’s still a contest between them, who loves more than the other, and Sam’s not allowed to win. In Dean’s head, Sam can never love Dean more than Dean loves Sam… it’s the axiom upon which hang the tatters of Dean’s soul.”

Fanfiction by Big Pink.

Gen.

I’ve read Read, Dazzleland, and Fire in the Hole, and found myself being AMAZED at the quality and craft of this writer’s fanfiction. Everything she does elevates what she does into the stratosphere, and if that sounds like an exaggeration, it is not. I’ve been reading fanfiction for a while now, and there’s lots and lots of good writers and fabbo fic, but Big Pink’s stuff, man. It had me stomping around the house for three days, mad as hell, because it was all so good and there was no way, NO way I could ever be that good.

So I have to content myself with telling everyone else how good she is, how clever and clear and intelligent and just plain on the money. The way she writes John fits more closely with my own idea of who John is than just  about any other writer out there. Like for example, don’t know which story it is in, but the boys and The Dad go to a diner and John grabs the menu and, I’m paraphrasing here, cause I don’t know the exact qutoe, and it reads, “He read the menu like he was examining the enemy’s battle plans.” Which just got to be because for John, everything is a battle, even breakfast.

I could quote her stuff, but then I’d be here all night. So just go read everything she’s got. She’s got a suggestion of the order in which you should read, but if you started with Red, you’d be okay. And impressed. And want to read everything else she’s got. Which she has in these nice little pdfs. The page loads a bit clunky, but that’s the internet for you. The more interesting it is, the slower it loads.

And the Highway Lines Pass By by philalethia

Slash.

31,000 words of pure slashy goodness, with a plot and everything. I think this is one of the stories I was looking for, with the whole eyelashes against the neck thing, but I read it so fast the second time, enjoying it so much, I really couldn’t find that bit. But I liked it anyway. It tells the story of two brothers, how they are different, how they are alike, and the writer, you can tell, has got a grip on what makes these characters tick. Unfortunately, this is also a “last year” story but ups the angst by miles and miles.  

 Some good lines:

“It was kind of hard to miss, honestly. Growing up and passing through small town after small town to and from hunts, and Sam always said things like, “It must be nice to live here,” in a tone like Dean used to say things like, “Look at the ass on that waitress.” It was never any secret that Sam jerked off fantasizing about walking down the block to the grocery store for milk and being greeted by name—his real one—and invited to bake sales and shit.”

and

“Dean’s seen so much of Sam and no one else lately he’s starting to get a little delirious over it. Sam split his knuckles on the Satanist kid’s nose and dripped blood on Dean’s jeans, which Dean picks at when Sam’s not looking just to watch the flakes get lodged under his nails, and Sam hasn’t showered for two days and the smell makes Dean dizzy and half-hard.

Yeah, Dean thinks, way too much Sam.”

and, I love this reference to “Heart.”

“If he tells Sam, Sam’ll insist that they hightail it to Chicago, and he’ll spend the whole drive on the phone with every person whose number is in his address book and who might know how to cure lycanthropy. He’ll tell himself and Dean that this time will be different, this time they’ll save the poor fucker who’s eating people every full moon. Sam’ll meet the werewolf, see a little bit of Madison in them, fall a little bit in love again with or without the fucking, and Dean will have to wipe the splatters of blood and tears off Sam’s face when he has to admit for the second time that you can’t save a werewolf.

Dean clears the internet history and closes out of the browser window. He’s breaking a rule, one of the biggest rules there is, one Dad taught them and made them swear they’d always follow: you don’t turn your back on a hunt, and sure as hell not for personal reasons. But this, this is different. You can turn your back if you know for certain you can’t handle it, if you’re damn sure it’ll take more than you’ve got.”

Now that, my friends, is love.

they put me in a cage full of lions; i learned to speak lion
 by amerella.

Gen.

I’ve often thought that the Winchester boys were exceptional children at risk. Smart, bright, but in an enviorment that could prove harmful to them, even as it made them tough. Like the title of this fic, if you put a child in a cage with lions, you get a child who can speak lion, who is lionlike. This fic, as well, is mostly Dean’s story, though you can see Sam, who likes to squeeze himself into small spaces, learning to speak lion as well.

The fic is more of  character exploration, with not plot, but it did have some nice images.  The part I liked best is when Dean, having fallen of his bike, waits for his dad to rescue him because he likes how his dad looks when he’s walking towards him, intent on rescue.

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Hook Man” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

“Next, Dean and Sam rolling up to a fraternity house is a satisfying combination of sight and sound. The Impala rumbles like an unsettled beast, Quiet Riot blasts from the speakers, and every frat boy head turns his head to look at the sleek and shiny sex on wheels thing that has poured into their midst. Frat boys, need I point out, who are working on a not-too-new BMW, a car that will never, not in a million years, come even close to approaching the Impala in mystery, magic, and machismo. The headlight that is out on the Impala only adds to the bad boy just-been-in-a-fight air to the car. Throughout this ep, the Impala makes many manly entrances and exits, and I WANT an Impala like this so bad, I can’t even tell you.”

Pictures…(Click on the links to display beautiful, full-size pics. Click on thumbnails for smaller but still beautiful pics.)

Brothers

Winchesters on the job

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Bloody Mary” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

“So anyway, Sam and Dean march into the local mortuary to check out the dead body. They’re posing as medical students and you can see they’re not quite comfortable with their lie yet. They manage to muddle through, but when the guy at the desk still refuses them entry, Sam pulls out a wad of cash. Dean protests to Sam that hey, he earned that money! Sam says, “You WON it in a poker game.” Dean goes, “Yeah?” Like, that’s supposed to matter? To Dean, winning and earning are the same thing. Sam, of course, knows the difference between the two. What’s interesting to me here is the fact that if Dean won the money, what’s it doing in Sam’s wallet? Did Dean instantly hand over his winnings to Sam, or was there a tussle about it? Does that make Sam the banker? Does Dean get an allowance? Personally, I don’t think he’d stand for that, so I kind of imagine that their money is communal, and they both pull out of a common kitty, and Sam just happens to have the nicer wallet. What’s Dean’s is Sam’s and vice versa. Which is rather nice, you know?”

Pictures…(Click on the links to display beautiful, full-size pics. Click on thumbnails for smaller but still beautiful pics.)

Dean listening

Sam talking in the car

The Impala in the rain

Unspoken by raina-at.

Slash.

Fun story. Sam and Dean are investigating a werewolf in the woods, but at night they are at each other, having sex,  and then sleeping really well afterwards. Sam wants to talk about it, Dean refuses to do so. What was really good was the sex in the silence, sex that isn’t romantic or even fun. It feels desperate and dark and edgy, which, given the taboos this particular act is crossing, seems perfectly right.

A good mix of angst and boys and skin and working a job. And some wonderful tension added when one night the lights go on and the boys have to confront what they are doing. Being Winchesters, of course, the confrontation involves running off into the night, arguments that have no solutions, and all the while this job has got to be worked.

“Releasing Dean’s arms, he spits into his hand and wraps it around Dean’s cock, strokes it quickly, roughly, lubricating it with saliva and the precome leaking from the tip. Slowly, holding on to whatever part of Dean he can get his hands on, he lowers himself on Dean’s cock, shuddering as mingled pleasure and pain split through his body, making him instantly aware of just what he’s doing, and in the next instant forcing everything out of his awareness that isn’t Dean’s hands on him, Dean’s cock inside of him, Dean’s panting breath under him. He’s tempted to turn on the light and see Dean’s face, see him stripped of all defences, willingly in Sam’s hands, at Sam’s pleasure and the source of it. Only he doesn’t, because he’s afraid to see what he always sees, the smooth mask in place, and he’s afraid of what Dean might see, Sam broken open to take out whatever he wants.”

So I went to Cafe Sol in Boulder, expecting better than what I got. I’m not saying the coffee wasn’t good because it was, though the poppy seed cake had a hair in it. The tables were pushed up at the edges of the room, it was on the chilly side, and the conversations were BOR-ing. There were two women to the left of me. One of them was getting signed up for Share A Car or something, where you buy a part of a car, or lease it or something, kind of like renting on a permanent basis. Oh man. The rules to doing this went on forever.

The two women on the right of me bitched on and on about how the coffee shop overcharged them. Turned out there was a ghostly charge for some juice, and the coffee shop happily gave them their money back. Yes, cash instead of putting the charge back on their card, and oh, how they moaned about that!

I couldn’t write a thing. It was not a good atmosphere. The Cafe Sol was a bust, sadly.

Keep Going and The Truth About Lies by dodger_winslow.

Gen.

Dodger_winslow and I do not agree. I’ve never talked with her about it, I’m sure she doesn’t even know I exist. She wrote Keep Going shortly after A Very Supernatural Christmas aired, and wouldn’t you know it, she thinks that John was robbed because fans thought that he didn’t come home because he was too busy hunting or that he forgot or some other unfatherly thing. I agree with them and not with her. It’s the way John comes across, and you know Dean, in that ep, he’s not very surprised that The Dad is not there and neither is Sammy. But Dodger, she disagrees.

She wrote Keep Going to describe the scenario where The Dad gets into a car accident and can’t make it home because he simply can’t. Dodger wrote it to refute all those John haters, which, based on my review and my own privately held convictions, put me in that camp. Hate John? ME? Perish the thought. I adore him. He’s a great character. He is bursting with testosterone, and is boys adore him too. Sure, he’s not a great father, but I never gave much thought beyond looking at that MOUTH of his and imagining things that I probably shouldn’t.

Enter Dodger Winslow and her high-flying theories about fatherhood and brothers and…stuff. With these two stories, she hits the nail on the head that is uncomfortable for me. John is making bad decisions, for sure, but Dodger manages to find the justification behind them that makes sense to me. It makes me mad what the hell he’s up to, but in his mind, he loves his boys and is doing his best, he really is. He doesn’t understand Sammy at ALL, and understands Dean like the back of his hand and can you imagine how hard that must be not to love one son more than the other.

Dodger can just STOP with the Christmas stories aleady because I hate Christmas and bawled my eyes out reading this one.