Imaginary storytelling, Supernatural edition: Places to come from, places to go.

[hannahrorlove]

This is for neotoma and tiny_antares. And everyone who likes fictional anthropology.

I had a moment of great jubilation when I got to the fourth season of Supernatural - not just because the plot was kicking into high gear, not just because of Misha Collins, not just because the effects budget had been increased to about $72 per episode up from $65. A lot of it was

Comments

[neotoma]

Starting a new thread because the old one was getting ridiculous...

I still need some sort of external conflict hang the plot on, something that parallels things that happened in canon somehow, so that it feels like it's an actual SUPERNATURAL story...

Maybe something about demons? Maybe angels can also sell their souls, and the demons that they become are ... more dangerous? more plotting and good at the long game? Or maybe angels can't sell their souls and can always see demons, so the plot revolves around hunters trying to recruit angels to the cause, except that angels don't even last as long as most hunters because they are violent the ways humans are?

[hannahrorlove]

That's assuming angels have a soul, which might be a characteristic unique to the human species.

If the plot isn't mostly focused on the exploration of Gabriel and Kali trying to form a sedoretu with Sam and Jess, and you want some external conflict that draws from the canon story, demons wouldn't be a bad way to go. It doesn't necessarily have to be a one-for-one parallel - I don't think exploring the impact Dean and Sam have on Castiel and, by extension, all other angels needs to have an apocalypse attached to it if the characters were written strongly enough. Drawing angels into a human conflict while they have related-but-not-identical concerns could be developed into something close enough to the lines canon drew to be worth looking into.

[neotoma]

Hmmm... I dislike the idea of angels not having souls, at least if they are physical near-human beings.

I obviously need to think on this. Because I don't usually write stories that are just romances, even if they have romance as a subplot.

[hannahrorlove]

Maybe they do, and the translation from Enochian is better rendered as "grace."

Seconded. The romance has to come from the characters and not be the sole reason for the story existing. Otherwise, we're only one step removed from the likes of Nicholas Sparks, and then only because we can write better sex scenes.

[neotoma]

I do like that. Not that angel souls might not be slightly differet from human souls in ways that make difference to angels...

Basically, I need something that would have been the overarching reason to warp Sam and Dean into the Winchester brothers as they are in canon, or something close. John still has to go off the deep end and make it impossible for them to have normal lives, until Sam rebels to go to college...

[hannahrorlove]

They're different in how they're considered by those that possess them, in what those possessing them can do with theim present within themselves, and and the cultural connotations of that ownership. Angels might see soul ownership as something less personal - though it's something that is unique to each angel, it can't be fully realized or made true without other angels to be there to establish the fact. Something like that, I think, might also tie in the sedoretu. Four angels, one complete soul

[neotoma]

Hmmm.... angels could definitely consider souls more as group property, or family property, especially if it comes out of their flocking instincts...

No, John wouldn't be a poacher, though he'd probably deal with people who were, at least occasionally. Especially if angel feathers/blood/what-have-you make for extremely useful magical items/spell components. Maybe the first time Sam meets an angel he's still a kid and John's just rescued one from a witch?

I do think Jess was the one to get involved in angels, and Sam just happened to specialize in something that made him useful to the center in an non-angel capacity, like property law or something.

[hannahrorlove]

It was one of the things that made initial angel-human relations difficult, this extremely different way of looking at the same thing - how can one human own something like that all on their own? And how can something be seen as something close to human when by their own admission they don't have their own soul?

All of an angel is useful, down to the gallbladder. Yes to that scenario, of Sam seeing an angel in his father's arms, shivering and weak. This witch was using renewable resources of feathers and blood, and had gotten desperate enough to make a power grab with bones. The angel had lost three fingers by the time John rescued her.

In the show, he seemed to be focusing on criminal law and procedural, according to the book in What Is And What Should Never Be. That could easily tie into something they needed help with that'd morph into a permanent position.

[neotoma]

Selling your soul if you're an angel not only dooms you, but ruins your family.

Of course all of an angel is useful. All of a human is useful, if you know what you're doing and are willing to do black magic.

Hmmm... Sam specialized in criminial law and it becomes important because he gets hired to advocate for angels who are victims of crimes -- made arguing for them to have the status of 'people' under the law?

[hannahrorlove]

And to a demon, buying one soul and getting four bodies is quite the bargain.

I can see that working - it's something that, very sadly, took a long time to be argued in Australia, for the legal status of Aborigines.

[neotoma]

otoh, buying one soul and getting three souls that will sear the demon into ash is kind of a disaster. The demon has to work to convince the other members of the sedoretu that they are contaminated, or to sell their souls too...

Oh, yeah. I think I'm going to be reading a surprising amount of Australian history for this one.

[hannahrorlove]

Demons are very good at collective bargaining agreements.

We're going to need to trade reading lists, I just know it.

[neotoma]

heee. A demon trying to make a deal with all of a sedoretu all at once would be in real trouble, because they'd unite against it.

Probably. I read "The Future Eaters" a few months ago, and it was interesting when it came to Australian native culture as it adapted to the Australian climate's unreliability.

[hannahrorlove]

A demon going after all four one at a time, using different strategies, just subtle enough to get all of them to agree for their own reasons - would still try to be at least ten paces away when the deal itself goes down.

I remember the post on that. Anything about the fauna of Australia is automatically worth knowing about, as far as I'm concerned.

[neotoma]

Yeah, that might work -- sort of a "Gift of the Magi" scenario. Deals with demons would tear a sedoretu apart, even if they didn't get all four angels. Maybe even permenantly scar the survivors/non-deal-makers

Not just fauna of Australia -- there was a lot about the climate and soil too -- I hadn't realized that Australia's soils were so depleted. It's ridiculous that Australia is a food exporter when you think of it

[hannahrorlove]

It was poachers who found Gabriel, but they're not why he was in that position to be found.

Australia's surprisingly delicate, as continents go. Although I find it a little reasonable they export certain things - after all, it's where my Vegemite comes from.