The Other Son: Chapter Twenty-Three

[revenant_scribe]

Title: The Other Son
Author: revenant_scribe

Chapter Twenty-Three: IRREVERSIBLE
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: R
Warnings: AU, wincest, semi-spoilers for 1.18 'Something Wicked'. Violence!
A/N: There is no new Winchester being added into the mix here. This is definitely not one of those fics. Please leave a review! It keeps my muse happy and makes my day!!
Summary:

Comments

[akasha_lilian]

Okay, this story is in so many ways awesome that I can't really explain all those ways.
I started with this story yesterday and I've just finished this chapter and I'm already waiting for more. Any more chapters soon? Please?
I love the background story, how Dean was snatched from John and Sammy at such an early age and how they meet through Sam's vision. I love Sophia's character and the whole smalltown of Fitchburg with its people, the diner, Paul's bar/Restaurant. Also the whole demon storyline, the reasearch on those other things, like the Hindu ones, whose name I can't recall.
I love a story with details and yours is so rich, because it's full of them. The way you build up the boys' relationship, but also including all characters like Bobby, Missouri or Ellen and Ash.
I was heartbroken, when Sam went through with the exorcism without talking to Dean first, because he really turned into his father in that moment. I'm also sure that there's a higher purpose for it, otherwise you wouldn't have gone through with it through Sam. But I can also understand why Sam would go through with it, if I think about those two hunters and Gordon. I'm also very sad that you snatched Dean away, just when John realized what he'd missed.
Anyways, to make a long rambling a bit shorter: amazing fic and I can't wait to read more!

[revenant_scribe]

Firstly, I just about squee'd when I saw your review. Thanks so much for taking the time to write something more lengthy, I always love reading through feedback.

It's great to hear that the detail is coming through. I tend to post before I've edited and smoothed everything out. As it is, I plan to go back and touch this fic up, so I am always self-conscious about my work when it goes-up. I really try to think about characters and motivations, and I think that is why I really enjoy writing alternate universes, because I can sort of figure-out how characters would be different under different circumstances, and yet still be themselves. It makes it fun and challenging, and so hearing that I am hitting near the mark is brilliant and just makes my day!

The exorcism, obviously (because of the vision), was something I had in mind from the start, and it was mainly to underscore the similarities between Sam and John. They are already incredibly similar in the show, but under these circumstances, without having had Dean as a buffer (either one), I think that both John and Sam would be more extreme in that regard, and because of that, the power-balance between Sam and Dean is more extreme.

Don't every worry about rambling, lol. Feedback is good. I love it, it is the fuel that feeds my updates. Seriously. It's the reviews that keep me pushing through RL sucking and characters not cooperating yadda yadda to come-up with a new post. And a new post there will be. I am working on the next chapter and hoping I get it up real soon!

[akasha_lilian]

I'm really glad I could make you squea! =) I figure that really good fics deserve lengthy feedback, because the author took an enormous amount of time of writing it, so the reader can damn well take about ten minutes to appreciate a good piece of work. That's my philosophy at least! ;-)

Oh it's absolutely come throught that you've thought about your characters. I also like the point that you had to make the resemblance between Sam and John more blatant, since yep, no Dean buffer in the middle.
I also liked the way you portrayed Dean as the more sensible guy due to his powers and yet still be somewhat stubborn, who doesn't like to be pushed around.
What I really liked was the dissonance between John and Bobby, cause that's something that could happen. Bobby likes John, but he's also got a problem with the way he's raising his kids, that's obvious on the show as well. So I really liked the fact that Sam turned to him for advice.
But I also liked the way you drew the picture of John, of the lone father, who's even more messed up, because he not only lost Mary, but also Dean. It's of course very cruel to make characters suffer like that, but oh well! ;-P

Just a tiny critique, cause you mention smoothing things over in your fics: there were some typos here and there through the chapters, which I was too lazy to point out I admit, but it's only because I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter! ;-P So reading it through again or maybe let it beta read might help make this story even more perfect! ;-)

I'm sorry RL is sucking, but when is it not? Okay surely it can't suck all the time, but nothing's perfect. Which is why everyone needs an outlet, you in writing this great fic and us reading it! ;-)
And I think that's even longer than your reply, plus it's way too late and I just watched the Statement with Michael Caine, which has made me even more rambly (I know that's not a word, so sue me! ;-P) than usual. And it's also quarter to one am. So there...;-P

[revenant_scribe]

My basic stance with Dean is that I disagree with what keeps getting said by various characters repeatedly in canon - that he is supposed to be a hunter. I think that Dean is less of a hunter than Sam, but that losing his mum sort of started him down a path that meant he got very much entrenched in hunting. Sam, on the other hand, I feel has a lot of traits that lend themselves to hunting, so that's something I like playing with.

As far as the Bobby-John dynamic goes. I really feel (and canon supports this) that Bobby looks on the boys like his own, especially Dean, and I like believing that when Dean mentions that Bobby pulled a shotgun on John the last time they saw each other it was over something about the boys (or simply Dean). Maybe because of what happened, maybe simply because of his character, I really believe that Bobby has a lot more common with Dean, and John has more in common with Sam - in terms of values and such. I'm not making a lot of sense, I hope you still understand what I am trying to convey. As a result of all of that, I think Sam would appreciate Bobby's straightforwardness. Whereas John would just say something, Bobby would give more than an order. It sort of came out in the beginning when Bobby was hinting at why John really disliked Sam's visions, and disliked the idea of Sam following the visions.

As far as the spelling - thanks for mentioning it, but I am very aware of the errors. My writing process (which I am trying to change) goes that I write something through and then since I have no beta, post it right away because I am impatient for feedback and motivation to continue, and the editing happens in bits and pieces, and I go back (usually once the fic is done) to get the spelling and errors and any smoothing that needs to be done. It's not the most reader-friendly approach, but I'm working on it.

RL isn't really sucking at the moment, but I have had a rough time of it, and I say it's been really rough because it sort of messed with my ability to write (hence the diminished posts - there once was a time where I posted a new, long chapter every day). I am trying to get back into the swing of things, but it's slow going.

Also, I totally love your reviews.

[akasha_lilian]

You know you gave me a lot to think over and I've never seen the boys in that light before. But you're pretty damn right about Dean and Sam. Somehow I didn't think about it, since Dean got introduced as a hunter on the show and Sam was the one, who got dragged back into it.
I guess it's Dean's responsibility to hunt, but given the choice he'd probably give up on it easier than Sam. Especially if I take the whole demon blood thing into account as well...

Huh, Dean is more like Bobby than John...damn, a real eyeopener this comment! =))

There weren't that many mistakes, so it's mostly reader friendly by all means. I studied German and English and we had editor seminars, too, so I guess I'm more anal about these things or just more attuned to them, I suppose.
I'd offer to beta read, but right now there are a zillion fanfics I still wanna read (spn and due south big bang and all that) and for another I'm starting teaching again, so I won't have that much time. But if you like, I'd love to help for future chapters maybe and could go back to the older chapters at a later time! ;-)

A new chapter every day? Oh my, I really hope things in RL ease up on you, so you can get back to more useful things like please your readers with more frequent updates! ;-P Nah, egoistic, me? 0=) Not at all! ;-PPP

Hee, I'm glad, got the same compliment from another writer just yesterday! =) I hope they might even motivate you guys to write more! ;-P

[revenant_scribe]

I think Dean feels the responsibility to hunt because that was how he got through it. I mean, as a kid he learned to please his dad, but then when he started going on hunts I think it kind of became his coping mechanism. To concentrate on the fact he was preventing what happened to his family from happening to anyone else. I was re-watching S1 and I really got that sense. Whereas for Sam, since Dean was basically raising him, he had a good buffer between John and hunting and his own development so he can voice all the things that Dean cannot.

I am pretty irked by my typing errors. I get into the flow of the story and I don't really watch the screen or anything because I'm totally focused on the story, and then I go back and read what I've posted and feel a little silly when I mispell things and such. I usually do the editing myself (I've tried betas in my other fandoms and they haven't worked-out), it's just a matter of my getting around to it - like I said, I do spelling at the same time that I expand some scenes or rework something, but if you are offering to beta that next and future chapters of this, I would appreciate that, give me an email I can send it to when it's finished (if you are sure you want to do it, which it is totally alright if you don't) and I would definitely take you up on that.

I am trying to at least get some writing done every day, and the rest will fall into place. It's sort of easing back into it, I think. Things have been slowly working themselves out in RL. Though I do have a new kitten who thinks that my typing is fascinating and also dislikes my attention being diverted and thus tries to play with my fingers. It becomes a game, can I move my fingers before he swats them. It is useful typing-training, I believe typing schools all across the globe will soon be implementing attention-starved kittens into the program of teaching people to type faster...