"A serious slashfest is in the works, one without pardon."
Quote from The Witcher, taken completely out of context and twisted to suit my own perverted needs. ;)
I think my lack of activity in LJ hasn't gone undetected. Damn. :)
But, in my defense, I can list a couple of things that have been keeping me busy... So look out for a couple of semi-fannish things and a whole load of Real (personal) Life references.
1) The Witcher
The Witcher is the game that stepped straight from a game I had no idea about to the same class as Legacy of Kain, my one great love.
Quite a good reason for this, I suspect, is the fact that the fighting animations for The Witcher are amazing. It's nothing short of pleasure, watching Geralt, the main character, wield a blade. Or an axe, mace...
But then, said moves have been created with the aid of motion capture technology, performed by people who know their stuff.
The graphics are otherwise awesome, too, the day and night, the dusk and dawn so very beautiful... the people scurrying to take cover when the rain and the storm come. The smudged looks of the people in the poorer areas. The flowers. The finery of the nobles. The dryad who has a reason to look the way she does. The vampiress I fell in love with. The early morning in the swamps.
The name of the game and the books it's based on, comes from the group of mutant monster-hunters, part of whom Geralt is. According to the lore, a witcher comes for a child born while its father's absent, demanding the man to give him "what you do not know you have". They'll undergo witcher-training and at the end of it, undergo a three-part trial which mutates their body, enhances their abilities, makes them infertile.
There's also something to be said for the fact that the decisions a player makes affect the gameplay, the world, even when the choice doesn't appear to be of global importance. More often than not, the player is forced to try and divine which one of the choices given is ultimately the lesser evil.
Choose to let the witch live, and thus doom a villageful of people to death.
Decide to fight a band of non-personal threats, therefore saving the life of a man you haven't even heard of yet.
And the language complements the world, despite a couple of curiosities. People sound the way their looks would suggest. A king does not talk like a thug, a druid discourses differently from a sorceress. And elves talk Elven.
The world itself is a treasure trove, the critters populating it wonderful and terrifying enough for one to think twice before engaging them in battle. Werewolf is at least thrice the size of a normal human, wyverns are sneaky bastards who try to drop on you from the trees/sky. And for whatever deity's name you swear in, don't charge into middle of the room. Geralt has probably ended up dying at least a dozen times (so far!) in my game because of that stupid mistake...;)
The alchemy-system, creating potions, oils and bombs is something one might easily fall in love with, too. Harvesting flowers, roots, leaves, organs of beasts and mixing them with alcohol, grease and powders, considering the main ingredients as well as observing the presence of Albedo, Rubedo, Nigredo...It's all rather alluring.
Then, of course, there's the story...
Amnesia is, far as I've understood, more or less a cliché in fiction. In The Witcher the only redeeming quality for it is that it's the easiest way for the players to empathize with the protagonist. Geralt's as lost as the players when people who claim to have known him in the past pop up.
The curious thing is that even though he seems to have precious few clues as to who Geralt is (or was), he's still completely a witcher. The characteristics of that career are still present in the way he carries himself, in the way he acts, the familiarity with the blades, the smoothness of experience true amnesia, imo, would've stolen. The game is as much a quest for identity as it is a procrastination tool. :)
In the beginning of the game, all we know is that Geralt's been MIA for five years. Relatively soon, we learn that he's more or less supposed to be dead, but to reveal more would be telling. It's certainly a ride, trying to piece the puzzle, figure out if the story of Geralt's death is a ruse, who you can trust, how far the rabbit hole reaches. If the poor boys tailing you in the city are part of the conspiracy, the dogs sniffing your heels when you pass them by spies in cunning disguise. Who's looking to gain profit from your work, and who has 'higher values' in his heart...
2) Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
In short: I am not a fan* of Harry Potter.
You see, I jumped on this particular bandwagon because two of my dear friends had gotten hooked on it. And I was getting tired of trying to avoid spoilers which, in retrospect, is rather weird.
This wasn't a series I ever really looked forward to.
Still, I decided to read it because there was going to be only seven books, and then game over. Methinks there were worse things I could have done. And a whole heck of a lot of fans couldn't be wrong, could they?
Thus I plowed my way through Philosopher's Stone to Order of the Phoenix, with a couple of pauses. This was before I discovered what a wonderful venting place the Internet could be. :)
Half-Blood Prince left me with a raised eyebrow before the Next Sparkly Thing whisked me away.
And Deathly Hallows... *sigh*
Far as I can tell, my biggest problem with the books is language. In this case, I can't even fault the translators.
There's just something about the way Rowling writes that rubs me the wrong way. Grammatically it's all fine, but... These are not the books I can imagine reading aloud. Or figure out who's the target audience, because there are grim things in these books, deeds and descriptions, insinuations...and the language has a different rating.
What doesn't help, probably, is that when I read Philosopher's Stone, I was still giddy over the wording in Legacy of Kain-games. And now the delights of the Witcher challenged the Potters.
In fact, this reminds me of an anime I once watched called Elfen Lied. There are adult themes in that anime, definitely blood and gore (so was in Ninja Scroll, which I do like), nudity, questionable tastes. My problem, most likely, is the unsettling mix of adult and childlikeness. Nyu, the 'main' character is a kid with breasts. And not just because of the drawing style.
Considering my other paramours, I should've liked Harry well enough. Sure, he was a kid, but 'reluctant hero' is supposed to push my buttons.
Sorry, no such luck.
Still, Voldemort came off as too cocky to be likable, even if Tom Riddle seemed like someone who I do believe I cherish. Talking to snakes is always a plus. *covets Parseltongue*
Snape was a cool character, but...Someone I could really like didn't appear before Prisoner of Azkaban with the introduction of Lupin and Sirius. (Even without the slashiness.) Lets not forget Nagini, either. One should never forget Nagini. *adores*
Lucius Malfoy might have caused palpitations if they'd cast a slightly younger Julian Sands as him. Alas, that's not the case, so I have to just hold onto my fantasies alone.
Without Hermione, Harry would've died more or less permanently several times. And yet everyone cheers for Harry? *grumbles*
Nagini was the final nail, all things considered.
I love that snake. Humans be damned, but no one's supposed to hurt such a beautiful creature. Far as I'm concerned, Cahpter 36 of Deathly Hallows never happened, and Nagini's happily living with the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. And breeding like a bunny.
The relatively random mentions/appearances of people met in former books (Krum, Zacharias Smith, etc.) might be something fans probably enjoyed, but I found them mostly just distracting. Perversely, I enjoyed the nods to former incidences and stuff. And thus bemoaned in great detail the lack of Mirror of Erised, one of the things I do love about this series.
The Deathly Hallows could've probably been worse, but to a person who doesn't count herself as a fan*, this tasted too much like fan-service. I simultaneously both dread and await the film-adaptation.
*fan = a person who likes/adores/is infatuated with something.
3) December 20-something
Christmas is bearing down on us, as well as the fifth birthday of my firstborn, the 55th birthday of my father-in-law and the nameday of my sister-in-law's son. Add to that the sudden desire to finally get rid of all boxes and associated 'shtuff' still remaining from our move, I've been arranging our house, cleaning the corners, putting up decorations. Making this place 'ours'.
Methinks I'm besotted with our kitchen as it is. Black and red rule the scene, wood and white ever-present, borrowing themes and ideas from both Karelia and Japan. It's finally beginning to say 'Sade's kitchen'. :)
My father-in-law's mother is also coming tomorrow to teach me how to make Karelian pasties. Lately, I've begun to admire the elder generations, long to learn what they can teach me while we still share the same space...
4) Mish-mash of crafts
There's the baking and the cooking, the gifts and the projects I've longed to finish before the year changes, like my sister-in-law's pink and silver belly dance scarf, the earrings for one brother-in-law's girlfriend, the decorations and the sudden ideas one just needs to test, all quick-like, to see if they might work. :)
5) Random fic-ideas
I'd really appreciate it if my plot-bunnies/wolves/wyverns/puppies came with more than just a phrase here, another there, or a graphic I can't really put into words. *sigh*
When they do, I have no control over what they put the boys through, though, and end up with the likes of Sign Here and its upcoming sequel... ;)
1) Supernatural: Thanks to 3x07, revelations about what's needed to make a vampire and some desire for half-naked, bloody Sam... where this recent blood! and/or knife!kink comes from, I have no idea...
Vampire with a blade, mouthing over Sam's spine, never biting in, just licking at the cuts, and Dean with further angst over whether or not there's something more to his brother.
"Shoot me, then," the syllables slink off the vampire's curved lips. "But how sure are you that dear, sweet Sam won't be sharing my nature?"
2) Supernatural: (perhaps post-3x07) Sam dazedly staring at his bloody hands, murmuring the Communion rite...especially the part about blood of Christ... ;)
3) Supernatural: AU for post-3x07. Sam slew Gordon, cut off his head with razor wire. And thus exposed his wounded hands to vampire blood, becoming a vampire himself.
4) Supernatural: Rosary!porn with Ave Marias included. Hints of D/s, with command to go on, not break the rhythm of the prayers no matter what...Sam's hand on Dean's cock because that's too delicious image not to dwell on.
5) Supernatural: Sam and Dean get confused thanks to a wilderness-critter and lose their sense of direction.
My head insists that they're both hurt, too, when they happen upon a cabin inhabited by Sarah Blake (Provenance, 1x19) and a friend of hers, who freaks out once he/she recognize Dean. Set in S3.
6) Supernatural: Dean and performance anxiety. Because of the masses adoring his brother. Inspired by the wonderful folks over in sammessiah.
7) Supernatural: Sam as the biblical Samson. Because that'd explain why the boy refuses to get a haircut. ;)
8) Witcher: Geralt/Leo. It should be canon. Simply because every other character who "looks up to/admires/etc Geralt" ends up testing his stamina in bed. And Leo has that Spartan-ish 'boytoy' written over him.
9) Witcher: Geralt/Siegfried. Because not taking the paladinic Order of the Flaming Rose's side in the game makes Siegfried practically scream "We could've been a couple, but I see it's hopeless now." And no, you can't give him roses. Which you can give to practically any woman you stumble upon... *grumble*
Besides, Siegfried's a member of an all-male order, without a single whiff of a female presence in his life... Buddy, people have been slashed for less. Your very slight ladylike mannerisms don't help, either. Or your obvious mancrush on Geralt. Especially after that sword-wielding show he put up with that Cockatrice you had to be saved from. :)
10) Witcher: (possibly drunken) Geralt/Dandelion. They're old friends, Dandelion's a bed-hopping bard who, even though he's a human, is pretty enough to be an elf...and he's as easy with the bottle as Geralt.
There is no power in this world that can assure me they wouldn't have woken up some beautiful morning (noon?) in each other's arms at least once, after a night of drinking... ;)
11) Witcher: Geralt/Yaevinn. The sparks between these two, even if you choose to side with the elf... There would definitely be struggles for power, rolling around on feainnewedd-flowers, assertions of being an alpha and demands for submission...
12) Witcher: Yaevinn/Siegfried. The opposites attract-angle. Possibly prisoner of the war, too...
*glances over all that*
*headdesk*
I'm a lost cause, aren't I?
And don't even get me started on just how loose Geralt's morals seem to be... But being an infertile mutant immune to diseases probably helps his readiness to jump into bed with any willing lady. It also adds just that final touch to his dangerous drifter charisma which his nickname, White Wolf, already embodies.
Don't get me wrong, there's a whole slew of other nifty things in the game. You can probably play through it without getting more than a handful of those pin-up cards... far as I know, there's just one side quest where it's unavoidable. But said cards are pretty and I'm a collector by nature...
Though now I'm hopelessly tempted to read the books. Alas, I'm about as fluent in Polish as magpie is in the art of writing...
6) Munchkin of a meta and a random note
(No, I do not know even the title of 3x08 or episodes after.)
I know I've run across somewhere in LJ the idea that the way out of Dean's deal is for him to die. Unfortunately, I can't locate that now, because it rubbed me the wrong way back then if only because it would be a little bit chafing... "Get 'em all!"-sort of thing. But...
What if, for whatever reason, Sam's the one to kill him? That what Ruby seems to be trying to do is benumbing Sam to the whole killing-thing for him to be able to pull the trigger on Dean?
The final thing for me to turn my boat about this idea was the realization that that would be, then, the third time Sam's done that (Asylum, 1x10 and Born Under A Bad Sign, 2x14 being the precedents). And three times the charm.
Note also that those two times before, Sam was possessed (at least sort of), by Stanford Ellicott and the demon formerly-known-as-Meg. And Dean survived, even the latter.
What if the third time, Sam's not possessed, nothing but himself...and Dean can't be dragged back from the brink?
One day I also realized that all the episodes featuring vampires have had 'blood' in their names. First there was Dead Man's Blood (1x20), then Bloodlust (2x03) and now Fresh Blood (3x07). Whether there's some cunning design at work here, I cannot say, but it was just, y'know, an interesting observation. :)
7) Demon Jesus 100. It's addicting. Sweet Lord, it's addicting...and so good.
That's all, now returning to fray... And, hopefully within the next two weeks, I'll be able to get around a bit more. Until then, my fannish activities shall include writing fic and dodging spoilers. Alas, I don't get to see 3x08 before late, late Friday night at the earliest...
*brandishes her mighty Shield of Spoilerphobes*
I think my lack of activity in LJ hasn't gone undetected. Damn. :)
But, in my defense, I can list a couple of things that have been keeping me busy... So look out for a couple of semi-fannish things and a whole load of Real (personal) Life references.
1) The Witcher
The Witcher is the game that stepped straight from a game I had no idea about to the same class as Legacy of Kain, my one great love.
Quite a good reason for this, I suspect, is the fact that the fighting animations for The Witcher are amazing. It's nothing short of pleasure, watching Geralt, the main character, wield a blade. Or an axe, mace...
But then, said moves have been created with the aid of motion capture technology, performed by people who know their stuff.
The graphics are otherwise awesome, too, the day and night, the dusk and dawn so very beautiful... the people scurrying to take cover when the rain and the storm come. The smudged looks of the people in the poorer areas. The flowers. The finery of the nobles. The dryad who has a reason to look the way she does. The vampiress I fell in love with. The early morning in the swamps.
The name of the game and the books it's based on, comes from the group of mutant monster-hunters, part of whom Geralt is. According to the lore, a witcher comes for a child born while its father's absent, demanding the man to give him "what you do not know you have". They'll undergo witcher-training and at the end of it, undergo a three-part trial which mutates their body, enhances their abilities, makes them infertile.
There's also something to be said for the fact that the decisions a player makes affect the gameplay, the world, even when the choice doesn't appear to be of global importance. More often than not, the player is forced to try and divine which one of the choices given is ultimately the lesser evil.
Choose to let the witch live, and thus doom a villageful of people to death.
Decide to fight a band of non-personal threats, therefore saving the life of a man you haven't even heard of yet.
And the language complements the world, despite a couple of curiosities. People sound the way their looks would suggest. A king does not talk like a thug, a druid discourses differently from a sorceress. And elves talk Elven.
The world itself is a treasure trove, the critters populating it wonderful and terrifying enough for one to think twice before engaging them in battle. Werewolf is at least thrice the size of a normal human, wyverns are sneaky bastards who try to drop on you from the trees/sky. And for whatever deity's name you swear in, don't charge into middle of the room. Geralt has probably ended up dying at least a dozen times (so far!) in my game because of that stupid mistake...;)
The alchemy-system, creating potions, oils and bombs is something one might easily fall in love with, too. Harvesting flowers, roots, leaves, organs of beasts and mixing them with alcohol, grease and powders, considering the main ingredients as well as observing the presence of Albedo, Rubedo, Nigredo...It's all rather alluring.
Then, of course, there's the story...
Amnesia is, far as I've understood, more or less a cliché in fiction. In The Witcher the only redeeming quality for it is that it's the easiest way for the players to empathize with the protagonist. Geralt's as lost as the players when people who claim to have known him in the past pop up.
The curious thing is that even though he seems to have precious few clues as to who Geralt is (or was), he's still completely a witcher. The characteristics of that career are still present in the way he carries himself, in the way he acts, the familiarity with the blades, the smoothness of experience true amnesia, imo, would've stolen. The game is as much a quest for identity as it is a procrastination tool. :)
In the beginning of the game, all we know is that Geralt's been MIA for five years. Relatively soon, we learn that he's more or less supposed to be dead, but to reveal more would be telling. It's certainly a ride, trying to piece the puzzle, figure out if the story of Geralt's death is a ruse, who you can trust, how far the rabbit hole reaches. If the poor boys tailing you in the city are part of the conspiracy, the dogs sniffing your heels when you pass them by spies in cunning disguise. Who's looking to gain profit from your work, and who has 'higher values' in his heart...
2) Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
In short: I am not a fan* of Harry Potter.
You see, I jumped on this particular bandwagon because two of my dear friends had gotten hooked on it. And I was getting tired of trying to avoid spoilers which, in retrospect, is rather weird.
This wasn't a series I ever really looked forward to.
Still, I decided to read it because there was going to be only seven books, and then game over. Methinks there were worse things I could have done. And a whole heck of a lot of fans couldn't be wrong, could they?
Thus I plowed my way through Philosopher's Stone to Order of the Phoenix, with a couple of pauses. This was before I discovered what a wonderful venting place the Internet could be. :)
Half-Blood Prince left me with a raised eyebrow before the Next Sparkly Thing whisked me away.
And Deathly Hallows... *sigh*
Far as I can tell, my biggest problem with the books is language. In this case, I can't even fault the translators.
There's just something about the way Rowling writes that rubs me the wrong way. Grammatically it's all fine, but... These are not the books I can imagine reading aloud. Or figure out who's the target audience, because there are grim things in these books, deeds and descriptions, insinuations...and the language has a different rating.
What doesn't help, probably, is that when I read Philosopher's Stone, I was still giddy over the wording in Legacy of Kain-games. And now the delights of the Witcher challenged the Potters.
In fact, this reminds me of an anime I once watched called Elfen Lied. There are adult themes in that anime, definitely blood and gore (so was in Ninja Scroll, which I do like), nudity, questionable tastes. My problem, most likely, is the unsettling mix of adult and childlikeness. Nyu, the 'main' character is a kid with breasts. And not just because of the drawing style.
Considering my other paramours, I should've liked Harry well enough. Sure, he was a kid, but 'reluctant hero' is supposed to push my buttons.
Sorry, no such luck.
Still, Voldemort came off as too cocky to be likable, even if Tom Riddle seemed like someone who I do believe I cherish. Talking to snakes is always a plus. *covets Parseltongue*
Snape was a cool character, but...Someone I could really like didn't appear before Prisoner of Azkaban with the introduction of Lupin and Sirius. (Even without the slashiness.) Lets not forget Nagini, either. One should never forget Nagini. *adores*
Lucius Malfoy might have caused palpitations if they'd cast a slightly younger Julian Sands as him. Alas, that's not the case, so I have to just hold onto my fantasies alone.
Without Hermione, Harry would've died more or less permanently several times. And yet everyone cheers for Harry? *grumbles*
Nagini was the final nail, all things considered.
I love that snake. Humans be damned, but no one's supposed to hurt such a beautiful creature. Far as I'm concerned, Cahpter 36 of Deathly Hallows never happened, and Nagini's happily living with the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. And breeding like a bunny.
The relatively random mentions/appearances of people met in former books (Krum, Zacharias Smith, etc.) might be something fans probably enjoyed, but I found them mostly just distracting. Perversely, I enjoyed the nods to former incidences and stuff. And thus bemoaned in great detail the lack of Mirror of Erised, one of the things I do love about this series.
The Deathly Hallows could've probably been worse, but to a person who doesn't count herself as a fan*, this tasted too much like fan-service. I simultaneously both dread and await the film-adaptation.
*fan = a person who likes/adores/is infatuated with something.
3) December 20-something
Christmas is bearing down on us, as well as the fifth birthday of my firstborn, the 55th birthday of my father-in-law and the nameday of my sister-in-law's son. Add to that the sudden desire to finally get rid of all boxes and associated 'shtuff' still remaining from our move, I've been arranging our house, cleaning the corners, putting up decorations. Making this place 'ours'.
Methinks I'm besotted with our kitchen as it is. Black and red rule the scene, wood and white ever-present, borrowing themes and ideas from both Karelia and Japan. It's finally beginning to say 'Sade's kitchen'. :)
My father-in-law's mother is also coming tomorrow to teach me how to make Karelian pasties. Lately, I've begun to admire the elder generations, long to learn what they can teach me while we still share the same space...
4) Mish-mash of crafts
There's the baking and the cooking, the gifts and the projects I've longed to finish before the year changes, like my sister-in-law's pink and silver belly dance scarf, the earrings for one brother-in-law's girlfriend, the decorations and the sudden ideas one just needs to test, all quick-like, to see if they might work. :)
5) Random fic-ideas
I'd really appreciate it if my plot-bunnies/wolves/wyverns/puppies came with more than just a phrase here, another there, or a graphic I can't really put into words. *sigh*
When they do, I have no control over what they put the boys through, though, and end up with the likes of Sign Here and its upcoming sequel... ;)
1) Supernatural: Thanks to 3x07, revelations about what's needed to make a vampire and some desire for half-naked, bloody Sam... where this recent blood! and/or knife!kink comes from, I have no idea...
Vampire with a blade, mouthing over Sam's spine, never biting in, just licking at the cuts, and Dean with further angst over whether or not there's something more to his brother.
"Shoot me, then," the syllables slink off the vampire's curved lips. "But how sure are you that dear, sweet Sam won't be sharing my nature?"
- 1a) Just any excuse to have Sam with his arms above his head, his back bare and stretched, every inch of it explored and teased.
2) Supernatural: (perhaps post-3x07) Sam dazedly staring at his bloody hands, murmuring the Communion rite...especially the part about blood of Christ... ;)
3) Supernatural: AU for post-3x07. Sam slew Gordon, cut off his head with razor wire. And thus exposed his wounded hands to vampire blood, becoming a vampire himself.
4) Supernatural: Rosary!porn with Ave Marias included. Hints of D/s, with command to go on, not break the rhythm of the prayers no matter what...Sam's hand on Dean's cock because that's too delicious image not to dwell on.
5) Supernatural: Sam and Dean get confused thanks to a wilderness-critter and lose their sense of direction.
My head insists that they're both hurt, too, when they happen upon a cabin inhabited by Sarah Blake (Provenance, 1x19) and a friend of hers, who freaks out once he/she recognize Dean. Set in S3.
6) Supernatural: Dean and performance anxiety. Because of the masses adoring his brother. Inspired by the wonderful folks over in sammessiah.
7) Supernatural: Sam as the biblical Samson. Because that'd explain why the boy refuses to get a haircut. ;)
8) Witcher: Geralt/Leo. It should be canon. Simply because every other character who "looks up to/admires/etc Geralt" ends up testing his stamina in bed. And Leo has that Spartan-ish 'boytoy' written over him.
9) Witcher: Geralt/Siegfried. Because not taking the paladinic Order of the Flaming Rose's side in the game makes Siegfried practically scream "We could've been a couple, but I see it's hopeless now." And no, you can't give him roses. Which you can give to practically any woman you stumble upon... *grumble*
Besides, Siegfried's a member of an all-male order, without a single whiff of a female presence in his life... Buddy, people have been slashed for less. Your very slight ladylike mannerisms don't help, either. Or your obvious mancrush on Geralt. Especially after that sword-wielding show he put up with that Cockatrice you had to be saved from. :)
10) Witcher: (possibly drunken) Geralt/Dandelion. They're old friends, Dandelion's a bed-hopping bard who, even though he's a human, is pretty enough to be an elf...and he's as easy with the bottle as Geralt.
There is no power in this world that can assure me they wouldn't have woken up some beautiful morning (noon?) in each other's arms at least once, after a night of drinking... ;)
11) Witcher: Geralt/Yaevinn. The sparks between these two, even if you choose to side with the elf... There would definitely be struggles for power, rolling around on feainnewedd-flowers, assertions of being an alpha and demands for submission...
12) Witcher: Yaevinn/Siegfried. The opposites attract-angle. Possibly prisoner of the war, too...
*glances over all that*
*headdesk*
I'm a lost cause, aren't I?
And don't even get me started on just how loose Geralt's morals seem to be... But being an infertile mutant immune to diseases probably helps his readiness to jump into bed with any willing lady. It also adds just that final touch to his dangerous drifter charisma which his nickname, White Wolf, already embodies.
Don't get me wrong, there's a whole slew of other nifty things in the game. You can probably play through it without getting more than a handful of those pin-up cards... far as I know, there's just one side quest where it's unavoidable. But said cards are pretty and I'm a collector by nature...
Though now I'm hopelessly tempted to read the books. Alas, I'm about as fluent in Polish as magpie is in the art of writing...
6) Munchkin of a meta and a random note
(No, I do not know even the title of 3x08 or episodes after.)
I know I've run across somewhere in LJ the idea that the way out of Dean's deal is for him to die. Unfortunately, I can't locate that now, because it rubbed me the wrong way back then if only because it would be a little bit chafing... "Get 'em all!"-sort of thing. But...
What if, for whatever reason, Sam's the one to kill him? That what Ruby seems to be trying to do is benumbing Sam to the whole killing-thing for him to be able to pull the trigger on Dean?
The final thing for me to turn my boat about this idea was the realization that that would be, then, the third time Sam's done that (Asylum, 1x10 and Born Under A Bad Sign, 2x14 being the precedents). And three times the charm.
Note also that those two times before, Sam was possessed (at least sort of), by Stanford Ellicott and the demon formerly-known-as-Meg. And Dean survived, even the latter.
What if the third time, Sam's not possessed, nothing but himself...and Dean can't be dragged back from the brink?
One day I also realized that all the episodes featuring vampires have had 'blood' in their names. First there was Dead Man's Blood (1x20), then Bloodlust (2x03) and now Fresh Blood (3x07). Whether there's some cunning design at work here, I cannot say, but it was just, y'know, an interesting observation. :)
7) Demon Jesus 100. It's addicting. Sweet Lord, it's addicting...and so good.
That's all, now returning to fray... And, hopefully within the next two weeks, I'll be able to get around a bit more. Until then, my fannish activities shall include writing fic and dodging spoilers. Alas, I don't get to see 3x08 before late, late Friday night at the earliest...
*brandishes her mighty Shield of Spoilerphobes*