Velveteen by Eponine (PG-13)
Title: Velveteen
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural
Categories: Supernatural, crossover, family, the W word.
Length: Medium (9,300 words)
Author Website: Twisting the Hellmouth author page.
Author's Summary:
In which Xander hates being the bearer of bad news, Bobby hates uninvited guests, Dean hates witches, and Sam should have known better than to use that word.
Review:
How many of you know the children's story The Velveteen Rabbit? Good. And how many of you have put that together with the Winchester brothers and are now hiding under your seats? Clever people.
It turns out that when Halfrek died, she left everything in her will to her best friend, Anya. That includes the contracts for a number of ongoing wishes made by children that Hallie thought needed her special brand of justice.
All these contracts duly passed to Xander on Anya's death. He has no idea what the wishes were or how Hallie granted them, but he has a list of people affected and a deal with D'Hoffryn allowing him to dissolve whichever wishes he thinks were over the top. He has spent months travelling around talking to people who talked to Hallie, undoing some wishes and leaving others. Now he has arrived at Singer Salvage to chat with Sam Winchester about a conversation with his guidance counselor at Stanford, and by now you really should be hiding under your seats.
This is a beautifully written story. Eponine's language flows nicely, showing us clearly the complex flow of emotions that rocket around this story. She has the characters pitch-perfect as well; I can imagine all the dialogue being delivered by the actors as if I was hearing it. That's absolutely essential to a dialogue-heavy character piece like this, and Eponine pulls it off very well. It's just a gorgeously heart-wrenching read that somehow manages to fit the tone of both shows. It's also rounded off just enough to be believable, without hitting the metaphorical reset button at the end. Dean and Sam's relationship is changed in the course of the story, and while calling them OK at the end might be a bit of an overstatement they are at least coping with those changes.
Read it. But maybe hide under your seat first.
Velveteen
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural
Categories: Supernatural, crossover, family, the W word.
Length: Medium (9,300 words)
Author Website: Twisting the Hellmouth author page.
Author's Summary:
In which Xander hates being the bearer of bad news, Bobby hates uninvited guests, Dean hates witches, and Sam should have known better than to use that word.
Review:
How many of you know the children's story The Velveteen Rabbit? Good. And how many of you have put that together with the Winchester brothers and are now hiding under your seats? Clever people.
It turns out that when Halfrek died, she left everything in her will to her best friend, Anya. That includes the contracts for a number of ongoing wishes made by children that Hallie thought needed her special brand of justice.
All these contracts duly passed to Xander on Anya's death. He has no idea what the wishes were or how Hallie granted them, but he has a list of people affected and a deal with D'Hoffryn allowing him to dissolve whichever wishes he thinks were over the top. He has spent months travelling around talking to people who talked to Hallie, undoing some wishes and leaving others. Now he has arrived at Singer Salvage to chat with Sam Winchester about a conversation with his guidance counselor at Stanford, and by now you really should be hiding under your seats.
This is a beautifully written story. Eponine's language flows nicely, showing us clearly the complex flow of emotions that rocket around this story. She has the characters pitch-perfect as well; I can imagine all the dialogue being delivered by the actors as if I was hearing it. That's absolutely essential to a dialogue-heavy character piece like this, and Eponine pulls it off very well. It's just a gorgeously heart-wrenching read that somehow manages to fit the tone of both shows. It's also rounded off just enough to be believable, without hitting the metaphorical reset button at the end. Dean and Sam's relationship is changed in the course of the story, and while calling them OK at the end might be a bit of an overstatement they are at least coping with those changes.
Read it. But maybe hide under your seat first.
Velveteen