I need to apply for jobs, but fannishness is EATING ME.
I was just reading a rec for a Jack/Daniel SG1 story (because that is what I am reading now. Yup yup yup. Obsessed with the MASSIVE back-catalog of an off-the-air fandom even though I still have SPN and Dr. Who and Torchwood and BSG on the air still) and ANYWAY, I read this:
Jack and Daniel pass the desert island test, which is much more stringent[than the broccoli test]. (Since I just made it up, I suppose it's unreasonable to expect you to know what the desert island test is, so - if two people can spend the rest of their lives trapped alone together with no entertainment or distractions or conveniences, and at the end of thirty years they're both alive and as sane as they ever were? They pass.) I've often said that lost-earth (either it's gone, or they can't get to it) stories are not sad endings in SG1, and, as Destina proves here, neither is the desert island scenario. The obvious ending for a story like this is, "Yay! They're improbably rescued shortly after they find true love and hot sex!" I in no way object to that, not at all. But I love Destina for doing the brave thing here, skipping the deus ex machina and showing that, really, for some pairings, the desert island is a happy ending.
The story being reccd was A Heart for Every Fate by desina, reccd by thefourthvine, which I haven't read yet (and I can't really vouch for this concept applying to Jack and Daniel. Heh.)
It made me think of The Last Outpost of All That Is by eighth_horizon, which is the best thing to come out of spn_apocasmut and one of my favorite apocalypse stories of all time (Sam/Dean NC-17 longfic). And it really struck me- THAT is why I love that story. Because, for Sam and Dean, the desert island is a happy ending. The end of the world, being the last two human beings left on the universe, is not a horrible tragedy that the author has to fix. It is an ending better than most they could have hoped for, where they can be happy. In thiry years, they will still be alive and still be sane and still love each other. They are the last two humans on the planet- but they have each other.
That sounds so damn sappy, put that way, but it really isn't about Twoo Wuv 4ever. In fact, with normal, healthy romantic attachment between to people, the desert island ending is a TERRIBLE fate. But Sam and Dean are not a normal, healthy, romantic attachment- they are each other's whole world, and so if they become literally each other's whole world- what's the harm?
THAT is why Wincest is the only 'cest pairing I actually ship, and THAT is why I'm so drawn to it, and that's why I tend to dislike fic that paints it as some kind of healthy, fun, ongoing fuck. It's not. It's two deeply warped psyches so oriented towards each other, so wrapped up in each other, so fundamentally distorted from normal, that being the last two people alive in the universe sounds like a pretty good way to go. THAT is why stories where Sam damns the entire world to save Dean twist at something way down in my gut.
Sam and Dean totally pass the broccoli test, by the way. Sam knows Dean wants broccoli, but he's pissed off that Dean won't just TELL him, and refuses to get it until Dean TALKS to him, and then finally gives up and gets in anyway. Dean, in the meantime, knows Sam wants broccoli, but he gets pie instead because he knows Sam will like that better. Then Sam gets pissed at Dean for not knowing he wanted broccoli, and Dean can't admit that he knew about the broccoli but got the pie instead to try to make Sam happy (because that's completely girly and emo), so he just pretends the pie was for himself anyway. I think that counts as a pass, in its own warped way.
Jack and Daniel pass the desert island test, which is much more stringent[than the broccoli test]. (Since I just made it up, I suppose it's unreasonable to expect you to know what the desert island test is, so - if two people can spend the rest of their lives trapped alone together with no entertainment or distractions or conveniences, and at the end of thirty years they're both alive and as sane as they ever were? They pass.) I've often said that lost-earth (either it's gone, or they can't get to it) stories are not sad endings in SG1, and, as Destina proves here, neither is the desert island scenario. The obvious ending for a story like this is, "Yay! They're improbably rescued shortly after they find true love and hot sex!" I in no way object to that, not at all. But I love Destina for doing the brave thing here, skipping the deus ex machina and showing that, really, for some pairings, the desert island is a happy ending.
The story being reccd was A Heart for Every Fate by desina, reccd by thefourthvine, which I haven't read yet (and I can't really vouch for this concept applying to Jack and Daniel. Heh.)
It made me think of The Last Outpost of All That Is by eighth_horizon, which is the best thing to come out of spn_apocasmut and one of my favorite apocalypse stories of all time (Sam/Dean NC-17 longfic). And it really struck me- THAT is why I love that story. Because, for Sam and Dean, the desert island is a happy ending. The end of the world, being the last two human beings left on the universe, is not a horrible tragedy that the author has to fix. It is an ending better than most they could have hoped for, where they can be happy. In thiry years, they will still be alive and still be sane and still love each other. They are the last two humans on the planet- but they have each other.
That sounds so damn sappy, put that way, but it really isn't about Twoo Wuv 4ever. In fact, with normal, healthy romantic attachment between to people, the desert island ending is a TERRIBLE fate. But Sam and Dean are not a normal, healthy, romantic attachment- they are each other's whole world, and so if they become literally each other's whole world- what's the harm?
THAT is why Wincest is the only 'cest pairing I actually ship, and THAT is why I'm so drawn to it, and that's why I tend to dislike fic that paints it as some kind of healthy, fun, ongoing fuck. It's not. It's two deeply warped psyches so oriented towards each other, so wrapped up in each other, so fundamentally distorted from normal, that being the last two people alive in the universe sounds like a pretty good way to go. THAT is why stories where Sam damns the entire world to save Dean twist at something way down in my gut.
Sam and Dean totally pass the broccoli test, by the way. Sam knows Dean wants broccoli, but he's pissed off that Dean won't just TELL him, and refuses to get it until Dean TALKS to him, and then finally gives up and gets in anyway. Dean, in the meantime, knows Sam wants broccoli, but he gets pie instead because he knows Sam will like that better. Then Sam gets pissed at Dean for not knowing he wanted broccoli, and Dean can't admit that he knew about the broccoli but got the pie instead to try to make Sam happy (because that's completely girly and emo), so he just pretends the pie was for himself anyway. I think that counts as a pass, in its own warped way.