Writing From the Inside

Unaplogetic by fig jam.

Slash.

I must be getting somewhere with all these fics, cause I came across another fic I’d read some time back and remembered liking. The plot is straightforward, Dean and Sam on the road, they stop at a truck stop that is actually a nest of succubi waiting for weary travellers. Dean is bitten, and the rest of the story follows suit. Succubi bites make you want to have sex, apparently, and Sam is struggling between trying to fight Dean off, or just giving in, becuase one of these choices is going to hurt less than the other.

This thought makes me shake my head. What kind of life do these boys lead if choices are judged based on how much they will NOT hurt you, rather than on how good they might be for you?

Some memorable lines, including:

“The people who said that you could never go home again hadn’t grown up with Sam. Sam went home with every cheap hotel room that reeked of sulfur, gun oil, scotch. Sam went home every time he picked up a gun and was struck by the memory of his father’s hands steadying his own, bracing him for the kick of the rifle that would leave bruises. Sam went home every time he turned on the television and was left with muted infomercials or the steady pattern of a network gone off the air. That had been his nightlight; the shadow of his father sitting by the door, watching, armed, had been his comfort.

Sam used to wonder why his father never slept. He knew now. ”

and

“Dad would’ve turned around. Then again, Dad would been at the bottom of a bottle by now. Dean didn’t have the luxury of alcohol-fueled reason. One of them needed to be clearheaded.” 

and

“Sam had been out of the business for four years. He wasn’t used to fighting anymore. He hadn’t slept.

Dean hadn’t. Dean was. Dean had.”

Factum Amoris by Lenore.

Slash.

I read this one a while back, when I had just started reading fanfic for SPN, to see if I could see what it was all about. At the time, I hadn’t liked the story, thought the premise of an enchanted sod house that trapped kids to sacrifice them for the harvest was a bit stretching it. Then, after reading many, many fics, I realized the theme of “we have to do it to save you/me/each other” was quite common. To shorten that title, I’ll call it the sex to save theme. Not badly done here, and their reactions after seem sane in that they realize that it’s not quite right what they’re doing.

Written on the Body by Traveller.

Gen.

Found another one by traveller. A character study of Dean that’s not a story, but contains some nice ideas. One is the last birthday party he remembers, from when he was four. Such a sad little memory, and he’s got nothing else. No other birthday parties. Then he starts marking birthdays in other ways, like by getting a tatoo. And the argument he has with his Dad over Sam almost getting a tatoo was pretty good too.

The Boy Who Fell by flipmontigirl.

Slash.

I think this is more a ficlet than anything, but it had me going, sucked me right in and made me love it. I’m going to stop for the night with this image in my head:

“Dean told him about Sammy, who wouldn’t talk, wouldn’t listen and never backed down.”

Plus One by the highwaywoman.

Slash.

I didn’t know you could fuck the hissy out of someone. This gave me a GOOD laugh.

Vocabulary by innie_darling.

Gen.

Help me. Oh, I want to write as well as this and think up brilliant ideas like this. Sam has an assignment from a teacher who wants him to complete the sentence that starts “I am….” Sam spends days agonizing over this, with choices like I am sixteen, or I am ignored, or I am weary. It ends with him realizing I am protected, and he knows it. There is love in the Winchester family, though it doesn’t often surface. This one makes me sigh. I love this story.

Undertow by whereupon.

Slash.

I am a lucky girl. This is one of those stories that had this LINE in it that I couldn’t banish from my mind, but there was no way I could plow back through all the stories I had already read to find it. No, it’s not the eyelash one, but it’s the other one. The first story were I ever read a phrase that described kissing like this:

“Sam leans up; Dean’s mouth brushes against his, just for a second, tongue flicking across Sam’s lips and a surprised noise in his throat.

Dean turns his head, steps back. He opens his mouth further, like he’s going to say something, and then closes it, turns away.”

I think I have, perhaps, found the perfect slash story. Clocking in at over 30,000 words, sex is the medium, not the message.

Shoot Out the Lights by whereupon.

Slash.

There’s no plot to this, no dialog, no structure, but man. The imagry. The character voices. The angst shoots out of this like rockets.

Here’s a tidbit:

“Because Sam’s jeans are low on his hips and the headlights are the only artificial light in sight. Cracked wet asphalt glitters like razors in the weeds. Dean runs a quick hand across his car and his smile is like shrapnel and then they get inside and Sam has never seen Dean broken, but he thinks it would look something like this. His head ringing with adrenaline. The sound of fear. His eyes stained with anger.

And Dean’s hands tighten around the steering wheel and he says, you know.”

You know what? What the hell is the writer talking about? I don’t know. I just know it hits me, somewhere deep inside.

Sharing a Room with His Brother by Roxie Ann.

Slash.

This one made me laugh from the start, because Sam is so annoying when Dean is trying to sleep. It was this:

“Dean crept into bed, years of experience and experiences (all bad) prompting him not to jostle and wake the person lying next to him. Though he highly doubted that Sam was asleep in the first place. He had to wonder if Sam ever slept. Or if Sam just pretended to because that was what they did. But tonight Dean was going to have hope. That Sam was as exhausted as he was and that they would both sleep through the night – peacefully even.

He should have trusted his gut instinct, because Sam hadn’t been asleep. As soon as Dean’s head hit his pillow, Sam’s eyes opened. And so did his mouth.

“We’ll have to get up at 7 if we’re going to be in New Mexico by the end of the day.”

This is so Sam. The rest of the story follows suit, but nothing is as strong as this opening.  

Out of Focus by shadow-shimmer.

Slash.

Want to smoke now. That is all. (Okay, it’s not. This story is so in character is scary. Dean is right on, the boys are having troubles, they argue, and the arguing turns to you know what. But they never drop character.)