Oceanic: Art Masterpost
Title: Oceanic
Author: tacotheshark
Artist: tawg
Rating: PG-13/Teen
Pairings (in order of relevance): Castiel/Balthazar, John/Mary, Bobby/Ellen, Sam/Dean, Gabriel/Balthazar (very minor), Jo/Chuck
Other Characters: Castiel, John, Mary, Bobby, Ellen, Sam, Dean, Gabriel, Jo, Chuck
Notes: Trigger warning: eyeballs
Summary: (Future, human!AU) There is a man, who works in a factory-though, so much more than that, he would say, but really not much more at all Balthazar would think, because after all that is exactly what it is: a factory. Even when it produces not product but heart, mind, skin and bone and nerve. Even when never it has had the slightest problem with murder in the interest of its raw materials.
And there is a man, who works not in a factory but lives, heavy, on a certain one’s radar. Whose deep blue eyes look infused with the ocean itself, whose tan trench coat hangs loosely off his shoulders as he goes about his days with strength that fleets him.
So-what happens, when a worker takes interest in lovely lapis eyes, takes with them to a bond as strong as that of a tongue melded to its frozen metal pole-what happens, when those eyes are wanted, hunted for an experiment, and the two have no choice but to run?
Fic Masterpost | Fic on AO3
Chapter headers:
I knew as soon as I read the first draft of the first header what a defining image of the story would be - Castiel's eyeballs. This was actually the most fun of the three headers to do (despite several hours spent squicking myself at google image search results for "eyeball") because I got to change the colour of the iris, something I did a lot when I was back in high school. It's not the vibrant blue of Misha's eyes, but I'm certainly happy with how it turned out. As for the other two headers, I spent more time finding the prefect image to represent the second and third chapters than I did making the banners. I wanted to represent the genre shift from sci-fi/thriller in the first chapter to the sweet/domestic tone of the second chapter, and Castiel and Balthazar's first breakfast together was a perfect symbol of that shift. As for the final chapter... I wanted to stay away from blue because I felt that would be too predictable, but I wanted to stick with the theme of water. The ocean is in the final chapter, but also Castiel and Balthazar have made ripples - both in their new lives and back home - and I wanted that represented here.
Soundtrack:
Soundtrack and cover download
As far as the covers are concerned, I just wanted to represent the distance covered in the story. While Castiel and Balthazar do travel a physical distance, they also go on a long, emotional and mental journey as well. Balthazar, as the main character, changes so very much between the beginning and the end of the story, and I wanted to conjure up images of that journey with the cover, while also maintaining the eyeball motif to represent both the threat and the attraction that catalyses the whole story.
I knew from the first chapter that I wanted a largely instrumental soundtrack for this story - tacotheshark writes some beautiful scenes, and I felt that her story was very cinematic in places. I wanted to have a soundtrack that conveyed themes without having lyrics giving unwanted context. The one track that does have lyrics - Una Palabra - is sung in Spanish, and since I don't speak Spanish myself the voice just becomes another instrument (though, in all honesty, the lyrics do fit very well with the scene I allocated it to). My hope was to create a soundtrack that you could listen to while reading, and have the tracks line up with the scenes. Sadly, that is super hard to do and I ran out of time, patience, and skills - but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
I need to give a major thank you to emerald_embers who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of movie and video game soundtracks. She discovered tracks 3, 4, and 13, and gave me so much encouragement along the way. The star of track 14, infraredphaeton also deserves huge props for her newsreader performance. It was something that I really wanted to do, and she not only gave a wonderful performance, but did probably one of the fastest and most professional records that I have ever encountered. Since I was having fun making the covers, I decided to re-title each song to fit the moment it represents in the story, like an actual movie soundtrack. However, the tracks in the download file have their original names, and the actual track list is below.
Tracks:
1. My Angel Rocks Back and Forth - Four Tet
2. Impromptu for 12 Fingers - Michael Nyman (Gattaca soundtrack)
3. Violin Concerto no. 1 (Saxophone arrangement) - Phillip Glass (arranged and performed by Amy Dickson)
4. The Train Man Cometh - Don David (The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack)
5. The Road to Austin - Section Quartet (Whip It soundtrack)
6. Americana - Jay Gruska (Supernatural OST)
7. "Salmon Dean" in the heartland - Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz (Supernatural OST)
8. A Weekend in the Country - Anne Dudley (The World of Jeeves and Wooster)
9. Bach Cello Suite no. 1, Sarabande - J. S. Bach (performed by Mischa Maisky)
10. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Harold Arlen (performed by Kevin Busse)
11. Like a Bird - Tadao Sawai (performed by String Temple)
12. Una Palabra - Harry Gregson-Williams (performed by Carlos Varela)
13. The Beach - Hans Zimmer (Sapanglish soundtrack)
14. The Final Word - tawg (performed by infraredphaeton with instrumentation by Gustavo Santaolalla)
15. The Wings - Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain soundtrack; instrumentation for "The Final Word")
Author: tacotheshark
Artist: tawg
Rating: PG-13/Teen
Pairings (in order of relevance): Castiel/Balthazar, John/Mary, Bobby/Ellen, Sam/Dean, Gabriel/Balthazar (very minor), Jo/Chuck
Other Characters: Castiel, John, Mary, Bobby, Ellen, Sam, Dean, Gabriel, Jo, Chuck
Notes: Trigger warning: eyeballs
Summary: (Future, human!AU) There is a man, who works in a factory-though, so much more than that, he would say, but really not much more at all Balthazar would think, because after all that is exactly what it is: a factory. Even when it produces not product but heart, mind, skin and bone and nerve. Even when never it has had the slightest problem with murder in the interest of its raw materials.
And there is a man, who works not in a factory but lives, heavy, on a certain one’s radar. Whose deep blue eyes look infused with the ocean itself, whose tan trench coat hangs loosely off his shoulders as he goes about his days with strength that fleets him.
So-what happens, when a worker takes interest in lovely lapis eyes, takes with them to a bond as strong as that of a tongue melded to its frozen metal pole-what happens, when those eyes are wanted, hunted for an experiment, and the two have no choice but to run?
Fic Masterpost | Fic on AO3
Chapter headers:
I knew as soon as I read the first draft of the first header what a defining image of the story would be - Castiel's eyeballs. This was actually the most fun of the three headers to do (despite several hours spent squicking myself at google image search results for "eyeball") because I got to change the colour of the iris, something I did a lot when I was back in high school. It's not the vibrant blue of Misha's eyes, but I'm certainly happy with how it turned out. As for the other two headers, I spent more time finding the prefect image to represent the second and third chapters than I did making the banners. I wanted to represent the genre shift from sci-fi/thriller in the first chapter to the sweet/domestic tone of the second chapter, and Castiel and Balthazar's first breakfast together was a perfect symbol of that shift. As for the final chapter... I wanted to stay away from blue because I felt that would be too predictable, but I wanted to stick with the theme of water. The ocean is in the final chapter, but also Castiel and Balthazar have made ripples - both in their new lives and back home - and I wanted that represented here.
Soundtrack:
Soundtrack and cover download
As far as the covers are concerned, I just wanted to represent the distance covered in the story. While Castiel and Balthazar do travel a physical distance, they also go on a long, emotional and mental journey as well. Balthazar, as the main character, changes so very much between the beginning and the end of the story, and I wanted to conjure up images of that journey with the cover, while also maintaining the eyeball motif to represent both the threat and the attraction that catalyses the whole story.
I knew from the first chapter that I wanted a largely instrumental soundtrack for this story - tacotheshark writes some beautiful scenes, and I felt that her story was very cinematic in places. I wanted to have a soundtrack that conveyed themes without having lyrics giving unwanted context. The one track that does have lyrics - Una Palabra - is sung in Spanish, and since I don't speak Spanish myself the voice just becomes another instrument (though, in all honesty, the lyrics do fit very well with the scene I allocated it to). My hope was to create a soundtrack that you could listen to while reading, and have the tracks line up with the scenes. Sadly, that is super hard to do and I ran out of time, patience, and skills - but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
I need to give a major thank you to emerald_embers who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of movie and video game soundtracks. She discovered tracks 3, 4, and 13, and gave me so much encouragement along the way. The star of track 14, infraredphaeton also deserves huge props for her newsreader performance. It was something that I really wanted to do, and she not only gave a wonderful performance, but did probably one of the fastest and most professional records that I have ever encountered. Since I was having fun making the covers, I decided to re-title each song to fit the moment it represents in the story, like an actual movie soundtrack. However, the tracks in the download file have their original names, and the actual track list is below.
Tracks:
1. My Angel Rocks Back and Forth - Four Tet
2. Impromptu for 12 Fingers - Michael Nyman (Gattaca soundtrack)
3. Violin Concerto no. 1 (Saxophone arrangement) - Phillip Glass (arranged and performed by Amy Dickson)
4. The Train Man Cometh - Don David (The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack)
5. The Road to Austin - Section Quartet (Whip It soundtrack)
6. Americana - Jay Gruska (Supernatural OST)
7. "Salmon Dean" in the heartland - Jay Gruska and Christopher Lennertz (Supernatural OST)
8. A Weekend in the Country - Anne Dudley (The World of Jeeves and Wooster)
9. Bach Cello Suite no. 1, Sarabande - J. S. Bach (performed by Mischa Maisky)
10. Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Harold Arlen (performed by Kevin Busse)
11. Like a Bird - Tadao Sawai (performed by String Temple)
12. Una Palabra - Harry Gregson-Williams (performed by Carlos Varela)
13. The Beach - Hans Zimmer (Sapanglish soundtrack)
14. The Final Word - tawg (performed by infraredphaeton with instrumentation by Gustavo Santaolalla)
15. The Wings - Gustavo Santaolalla (Brokeback Mountain soundtrack; instrumentation for "The Final Word")