[Rec] Recs for Fics About People Who Are Not the Winchesters
Carrying on my tradition of having really excellent titles and summaries for everything, I bring you a set of recs called.... "Stories About People Who Aren't the Winchesters"!
Also, I've sat my final exams, made for the wilderness, returned from the wilderness, and will catch up here/de-brief at some point in the near future! But, fic recs. Precedence over all, right? XD
1. Days Without Feathers by pyrebi
Genre: gen, outsider POV, angst
Characters: JESSICA MOORE'S MOTHER
Word Count: ~1000
Summary: It’s tragic, everyone says. A chance in a million-a shorted wire, an untended candle. When they get the news (one survivor, a young male), she puts a hand over her mouth and waits for the world to end.
This is one of those great slant-angle looks at the Winchesters and everything that seems to happen around them. I think one of the dangers of outsider POV is that these types of stories run the risk of turning into a pity-party, or over-herocizing/villainizing Sam and Dean. This one is so far from that it makes you forget that was even a risk. Jess's mother here is full, heartbreaking, and you believe the way she's pieced the story together as much as she does.
2. now truth is the pulse where her tongue used to be by missy_useless
Genre: gen (well, Sam/Jess, sort of), alternate timeline, horror
Characters: JESSICA MOORE, Sam, Dean
Word Count: ~1000
Summary: She comes back to life on a Monday.
Jess comes back. No one knows exactly how, or why, or what--and the real treat? They never do. They hardly ask. The acceptance of the impossible on both the parts of the Winchesters/Castiel and Jess herself plays beautifully into the late-season tone of the fic, as well as the observations Jess makes of this changed world around her.
3. Flyover Country by sistabro
Genre: gen, pre-series, character study
Characters: MARY, Samuel and Deanna Campbell
Word Count: ~3500
Summary: No demon or creature hunts until Mary turns sixteen. That's the rule. Or at least it's supposed to be.
The atmosphere sistabro creates for this story, and for Mary's entire adolescence, is vivid and palpable and one hundred percent a world unto itself. It's not so much about the juxtaposition of lifestyle and maturation (buying school clothes, visiting the relatives, making sandwiches) and hunting (by the way, werewolves, atlases) as it is the presentation of a lifestyle and maturation inextricable from hunting. It doesn't sound much different, but if you read the fic you'll realize it certainly is.
4. Shake your money maker by sistabro
Genre: horror porn
Characters: MEG (Meg!Sam)
Word Count: ~2293
Warnings/Spoilers: demonic possession, non-con masturbation, dirty talk luridly describing off-screen extreme underage non-con followed by murder and necrophilia, inappropriate use of a cellphone, highly disturbing. Prequel for 2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign.
Summary: Meg prefers female hosts, but for Sam Winchester, she'll make an exception.
2x14 is one of my very favorite episodes in terms of tag!fic potential, and it's always amazed me that Sam's time with Meg isn't explored more often than it is. But sometimes, one fic can take one good shot and nail it all at once; this fic is one of them. Meg burns through Sam with raw, unrepentant speed and brutality. Because that's who Meg is.
5. Small Creatures by gabby_silang
Genre: gen,
Characters: CLAIRE NOVAK; peripheral Sam, Jodie Mills, angels & demons
Word Count: ~1200
Summary: When she gets older, Claire goes looking for her father. Tell me about a few of the people she runs into on the way.
I didn't know what to say to this the first time I read it, and I don't know what to say to it now, except that I ADORE it and it is one of those beautiful things you have to read, because you are never going to get anything like it anywhere else. It's striking in ways that even other striking things aren't.
6. This Strange Flesh You Found by switchbladesis
Genre: gen, angst, character study
Characters: AMELIA NOVAK, Claire, Castiel, peripheral Sam and Dean
Word Count: 6669
Warnings: PTSD, some consent issues
Summary: There's a stranger in her house. He's wearing her husband's skin, her husband's clothes. It is not her husband. Castiel does his best to keep his promise to Jimmy. Amelia copes.
This is another story that creates an entire world out of cracks, draws atmosphere from moments, and characters from suggestions. Amelia and her family here are so rich, and Castiel dipping into their lives from the margins is heartbreaking, because it's just another reminder that after what the Novaks went through, there's really no going back. But this fic also pushes forward and makes new, and the result is stellar.
7. A Chance Meeting by wandersfound
Genre: gen, angst, character study, alternate timeline (potential timeline?)
Characters: AMELIA, LISA, Claire, Ben
Word Count: ~2500
Summary: A combination of "random hallelujah-we-survived-the-Winchesters folks" and "Lisa may not remember anything, but Amelia does. Conversations at a coffee shop.
This was written for a prompt I gave at spn_jimmynovak's Novakfest this past November. When I saw it, I about died--and I love the story even more than I loved the initial potential, by wide margins. The combination of Lisa and Amelia's innocuous meetings over coffee and the deeply insidious circumstances that draw them to each other is pristine. It's a story of violation--the abduction (and later, destruction) of a husband, the obliteration of memory. And it's a story of the absence of that--because these are the things you can never reveal, or the things you will never remember.
8. A Woman in the House by fannishliss
Genre: gen, character study
Characters: BOBBY, LISA
Word Count: 572
Summary: Bobby's appraisal of Lisa after Sam and Dean have gone back to hunt the djinn in 6x01.
Okay, so I prompted this one, too. And will seize every opportunity to prompt it again, because this rendition of the idea is gorgeous and perfect and I never want it to end!! Bobby's voice here is awesome, and his take on Lisa just makes me fall in love with her all over again. This is a short, sweet, unforgettable glimpse into a portion of 6x01 that canon forgot about.
♥ enjoy! ♥
Also, I've sat my final exams, made for the wilderness, returned from the wilderness, and will catch up here/de-brief at some point in the near future! But, fic recs. Precedence over all, right? XD
1. Days Without Feathers by pyrebi
Genre: gen, outsider POV, angst
Characters: JESSICA MOORE'S MOTHER
Word Count: ~1000
Summary: It’s tragic, everyone says. A chance in a million-a shorted wire, an untended candle. When they get the news (one survivor, a young male), she puts a hand over her mouth and waits for the world to end.
This is one of those great slant-angle looks at the Winchesters and everything that seems to happen around them. I think one of the dangers of outsider POV is that these types of stories run the risk of turning into a pity-party, or over-herocizing/villainizing Sam and Dean. This one is so far from that it makes you forget that was even a risk. Jess's mother here is full, heartbreaking, and you believe the way she's pieced the story together as much as she does.
2. now truth is the pulse where her tongue used to be by missy_useless
Genre: gen (well, Sam/Jess, sort of), alternate timeline, horror
Characters: JESSICA MOORE, Sam, Dean
Word Count: ~1000
Summary: She comes back to life on a Monday.
Jess comes back. No one knows exactly how, or why, or what--and the real treat? They never do. They hardly ask. The acceptance of the impossible on both the parts of the Winchesters/Castiel and Jess herself plays beautifully into the late-season tone of the fic, as well as the observations Jess makes of this changed world around her.
3. Flyover Country by sistabro
Genre: gen, pre-series, character study
Characters: MARY, Samuel and Deanna Campbell
Word Count: ~3500
Summary: No demon or creature hunts until Mary turns sixteen. That's the rule. Or at least it's supposed to be.
The atmosphere sistabro creates for this story, and for Mary's entire adolescence, is vivid and palpable and one hundred percent a world unto itself. It's not so much about the juxtaposition of lifestyle and maturation (buying school clothes, visiting the relatives, making sandwiches) and hunting (by the way, werewolves, atlases) as it is the presentation of a lifestyle and maturation inextricable from hunting. It doesn't sound much different, but if you read the fic you'll realize it certainly is.
4. Shake your money maker by sistabro
Genre: horror porn
Characters: MEG (Meg!Sam)
Word Count: ~2293
Warnings/Spoilers: demonic possession, non-con masturbation, dirty talk luridly describing off-screen extreme underage non-con followed by murder and necrophilia, inappropriate use of a cellphone, highly disturbing. Prequel for 2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign.
Summary: Meg prefers female hosts, but for Sam Winchester, she'll make an exception.
2x14 is one of my very favorite episodes in terms of tag!fic potential, and it's always amazed me that Sam's time with Meg isn't explored more often than it is. But sometimes, one fic can take one good shot and nail it all at once; this fic is one of them. Meg burns through Sam with raw, unrepentant speed and brutality. Because that's who Meg is.
5. Small Creatures by gabby_silang
Genre: gen,
Characters: CLAIRE NOVAK; peripheral Sam, Jodie Mills, angels & demons
Word Count: ~1200
Summary: When she gets older, Claire goes looking for her father. Tell me about a few of the people she runs into on the way.
I didn't know what to say to this the first time I read it, and I don't know what to say to it now, except that I ADORE it and it is one of those beautiful things you have to read, because you are never going to get anything like it anywhere else. It's striking in ways that even other striking things aren't.
6. This Strange Flesh You Found by switchbladesis
Genre: gen, angst, character study
Characters: AMELIA NOVAK, Claire, Castiel, peripheral Sam and Dean
Word Count: 6669
Warnings: PTSD, some consent issues
Summary: There's a stranger in her house. He's wearing her husband's skin, her husband's clothes. It is not her husband. Castiel does his best to keep his promise to Jimmy. Amelia copes.
This is another story that creates an entire world out of cracks, draws atmosphere from moments, and characters from suggestions. Amelia and her family here are so rich, and Castiel dipping into their lives from the margins is heartbreaking, because it's just another reminder that after what the Novaks went through, there's really no going back. But this fic also pushes forward and makes new, and the result is stellar.
7. A Chance Meeting by wandersfound
Genre: gen, angst, character study, alternate timeline (potential timeline?)
Characters: AMELIA, LISA, Claire, Ben
Word Count: ~2500
Summary: A combination of "random hallelujah-we-survived-the-Winchesters folks" and "Lisa may not remember anything, but Amelia does. Conversations at a coffee shop.
This was written for a prompt I gave at spn_jimmynovak's Novakfest this past November. When I saw it, I about died--and I love the story even more than I loved the initial potential, by wide margins. The combination of Lisa and Amelia's innocuous meetings over coffee and the deeply insidious circumstances that draw them to each other is pristine. It's a story of violation--the abduction (and later, destruction) of a husband, the obliteration of memory. And it's a story of the absence of that--because these are the things you can never reveal, or the things you will never remember.
8. A Woman in the House by fannishliss
Genre: gen, character study
Characters: BOBBY, LISA
Word Count: 572
Summary: Bobby's appraisal of Lisa after Sam and Dean have gone back to hunt the djinn in 6x01.
Okay, so I prompted this one, too. And will seize every opportunity to prompt it again, because this rendition of the idea is gorgeous and perfect and I never want it to end!! Bobby's voice here is awesome, and his take on Lisa just makes me fall in love with her all over again. This is a short, sweet, unforgettable glimpse into a portion of 6x01 that canon forgot about.
♥ enjoy! ♥