Supernatural: Groundhog Day (Sam/Dean) and recs!
freedom! glorious freedom!
a couple of awesome things in case you haven't seen them yet:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
barkley and destina's new vid Sell My Soul. omg SAMMYYYYY :'(
pocketfullof's story Pierce It (Sam/Dean, nom nom nom, Jus In Bello spoilers)
eta: lovely lovely library drabble for me bylynnmonster!
and here is new story, yay, because any plot worth doing is worth doingtwice three times:
Groundhog Day (3,483 words)
Sam/Dean, adult, explicit
Spoilers for Mystery Spot (3x11)
The next day, Sam just sat next to Dean and watched through the whole movie from start to finish. "Okay, so," Dean said, looking over, "what's next? Caddyshack?"
( Read the story )
a couple of awesome things in case you haven't seen them yet:
barkley and destina's new vid Sell My Soul. omg SAMMYYYYY :'(pocketfullof's story Pierce It (Sam/Dean, nom nom nom, Jus In Bello spoilers)eta: lovely lovely library drabble for me by
lynnmonster!and here is new story, yay, because any plot worth doing is worth doing
Groundhog Day (3,483 words)
Sam/Dean, adult, explicit
Spoilers for Mystery Spot (3x11)
The next day, Sam just sat next to Dean and watched through the whole movie from start to finish. "Okay, so," Dean said, looking over, "what's next? Caddyshack?"
( Read the story )
There was always the threat, the knowing that Dean was going to die gruesomely no matter how much or how hard Sam tried to prevent it, and that tension, that awful expectancy, profoundly impacted the tone. I think this definitely meshed well with atmosphere of the episode.
I'm always impressed by how deftly and masterfully you use language to create a story. It's so beautifully expressive and perfectly picked; succinct yet profoundly evocative.
You've done an amazing job with this, as always. Thanks so much for sharing it.
Wonderful story, so sad and depressing, but still hopeful after the loop ended. (And I guiltily have to confess that it was funny too, all the stupid things killing Dean made laugh while still feeling awful for Sam.)
(And IMHO there can never be enough time loop stories, ever :)
Edited at 2008-02-26 06:29 am (UTC)
There REALLY CANNOT. *nods*
Dude, I needed this so bad today, you don't even know. <3
Congratulations on your glorious freedom. Use it unwisely and joyfully.
Oh, I was hoping so terribly hard that you'd feel inspired to do the Groundhog Day thing again, after seeing the episode! Fantastic!
And I loved that it ended with Sam thinking about saying please and just choosing to wait for it, instead.
I love the story. How Dean dying can be so hilarious and tragic at the same time, I don't know, but yeah. My favorite death is when he backs off the balcony to escape the kissing. Heh. Also equal parts funny and heart-breaking is Sam's methodical seduction. Because, yeah, that's exactly how Sam would approach the "problem."
I think the only thing it was missing was dean chocking on popcorn/ actually dying laughing at the absurdity of the movie end
I was wondering- someone on my friendslist mentioned to me that you're a published author. I'd love to read your stuff - is there somewhere we can find it, or do you usually not discuss your real-life work with fandomish people?
*sniffle*
Yeah.
*scrolls back up to see about those other links at the top of the post*
The story succeeds brilliantly at being both funny and horrific, sickly funny and ghastly sweet, and you maintain a forward progression even as the timeline keeps looping. I love watching Sam slowly getting to know Dean better and better, and the way Dean's own feelings and motivations are revealed as through a glass darkly, through Sam's perceptions, leaving it up to us to interpret them -- perhaps differently from, perhaps better or worse than, Sam does.
I love that Sam keeps pressing him sexually, even when Dean is pretty clearly conflicted or reluctant or not all that into it; this isn't rape by any means, don't get me wrong! but there's a brutal determination to Sam here that the show will probably never show us in a sexual context but that fits perfectly with the darker side of his character. Another way to phrase "Sam slowly getting to know Dean better and better," after all, is "Sam working out, piece by piece, how to manipulate Dean, how to successfully talk him into bed from a standing start within a day." To misquote Dean from "Punxsutawney," Sam has now known Dean a lot longer than Dean has known Sam; and recall that Sam replied to Dean's original comment, about a woman, with "We're not friends because I learned how to play her like a violin."
And I can't stop thinking about how messed up sex and death -- Dean's death -- must now be in Sam's mind, making all those times Dean died at Sam's hands even worse. I cringed and felt sick at the axe in canon, not for the death so much as for Sam, Sam being responsible; even if he understands intellectually that he's no more responsible for Dean dying than the desk was when it fell on him, it still feels horrible to be the instrument of it, and to have his love and his sex be the instrument of it -- ohgod.
And another big difference between this story and "Punxsutawney," of course, is that the emotional/sexual breakthrough isn't the key in this one, isn't the answer, is brutally irrelevant to the trap; "I love you" and Dean's eyes bright and wet and his fingers tight in Sam's hair, and then he's shattered on the bathroom floor again and Sam is waiting numbly, rigidly to wake up. Again.
[continued in next comment]
But -- a third way to phrase "Sam slowly getting to know Dean better and better" is to say that Sam has been learning, painfully and carefully and mistakenly and over and over, what it is that Dean wants. Not "how to make him want it," but how to give him what he wants, even if he doesn't realize or won't admit that he wants it -- even if he didn't want it until he realized he could have it. This is why the word "please" is so dramatically important: Dean does like it when Sam takes charge, it does make him all tingly, but if that's all he feels Sam doing, then he lies there, breathing deeply, and gets up to take a shower afterward; or shuts his eyes (god, you are the queen of the telling detail dropped in passing) and shoves in. I read this story as ultimately romantic, as schmoop in angst's clothing, if you will: no, nothing Sam learned about Dean (or about himself) was any use in getting them out of the Trickster's loop, from that perspective it wasall futile; but it was building something else, something unrelated, something that Sam now knows how to build lastingly. Sam's learning and using what Dean likes isn't manipulative, it's caring, it's why sex with a lover gets better and better over time; that's what you do with, and for, someone you love. Did I say that you are the queen of the telling detail? Dean's hand "strong and firm on the wheel" is the opposite of his passive acquiescence, his angry resentment.
I have to say that, having written that paragraph, I'm now imagining the first time they have sex post-loop, and Dean being pretty much blown away by how perfectly Sam plays him, fingering him just to the point of pain and stopping, not letting Dean put him off the rimming (and maybe a murmured "Give it up, Dean, you know you love it, let me, oh, let me"), and when he comes back to himself afterward, sweaty and amazed, he's going to say, "Christ, Sammy, didn't know you had it in you. When'd you get to be such a stud?" and Sam's going to be tonguetied for just a crucial second too long and Dean will be all "You-- We-- How many times? Jesus fuck, Sam!" Hee hee hee...
Um. In case it hasn't been made abundantly clear -- I really liked this story.
[edited to fix a typo, as though I hadn't read this over five times before posting or anything. Sheesh.]
Edited at 2008-02-26 03:52 pm (UTC)
Which, uh, I realize now doesn't sound like very nice feedback. But that's a GOOD thing! I loved it!