Picspam Reaction: Supernatural 8.14
(Internet was down, posting in great haste, will likely edit later)
Warning: Contains profanity.
Spoiler and Theory Summary
It's intense, and maybe a little divisive?
That's it. O.o
Suspect a strong chance of Kevin though. It's been a while.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.14 - "???" "Trial and Error"
-Didn't hit the skip fast enough. Crossroads. OH CRAP. O.O
-Hi Kevin! Given the angle of daylight I'm thinking that's a 5 PM alarm rather than 5 AM.
-*record scratch noise* HOLD THE PHONE. THAT'S AN ACTUAL CONCRETE DATE BEING GIVEN BY THE SHOW THERE!!! O.O This is a thing which almost never happens, and will probably not mesh up with any attempts to guess at the timeline. SO! The date is January 11th, 2013 in show and... waitaminute. No, no, it's okay. Heh. Where I am, calendars are most commonly printed with the weeks starting on a Sunday, so for a second there, it looked like January 11th 2013 in SPN 'verse was a Thursday instead of a Friday and I would not put that kind of alteration past them, just because if you are going to have a messed up timeline, why not fry everyone's brains with it deliberately, but no, that calendar's weeks start on Monday, so the days do match up. Hehehe. If I was in the props department, I'd do it. But I'm evil like that.
-...although... considering that the boat is registered in Montana (which my very vague US geography from grade 4 tells me is landlocked but has some lakes, so maybe the boat's elsewhere) and on Jan 11, 2013, sunrise was at 7 minutes to 8 AM, and sunset was 8 minutes before 5PM (timeanddate.com, the answer to all global time and calender queries), there's no way that light angle was any 5 o'clock hour, unless the boat's at port somewhere much closer to the equator. SO. Kevin does like I do, and sets his alarm clock for a time that bears some odd mathematical relation to the real time, so that you have to do some math looking at the clock to figure out what time it really is, and in the process wake your brain up a little. (In theory. In practice, not as effective for me) So, we have a date, and no real time of day, except well past dawn and well before dusk.
-I appear to be distractible. Crap.
-Day in the life of Kevin. Coffee, aspirin, turning his brain inside out trying to make sense of a rock from the dawn of time, and a hot dog for one. Aw.
-Wall o'weird! \o/
-And bed 21 and 3/4 hours after he woke up. Aw.
-It seems January 12 was a three hot dog day. O.o
-Kevin: *scrawls "Death" on a sticky note and underlines* Me: *giggles for no rational reason* Hm. Would that be the 'end of life' death or the 'awesomest Horseman of the Apocalypse' Death? We haven't seen him lately, have we...
-It's the 31st of January now, and the calendar is from Manitowoc Marina, which is a real place, and that's their real logo. Whether that's where the boat is now or not is another thing entirely.
-February 7th and damn he must be sick of hot dogs by now. Is that one dipped in chunky peanut butter? Eaugch! I suppose it'd be too dangerous for his mom to pop in or send him a care package.
-And that is the look of a breakthrough, methinks!
-Props and art department, you rock.
-Nose bleeds after several solid months of arcane brain work, coffee and hot dogs is not a good sign though.
-And down he goes. And stays down. That's not good at all. O.O
-19 caps before the title card. I believe I have really missed Kevin.
-Meanwhile at the Batcave, the boys have organized their inherited record collection. Awwwww. Also, hello title. "Trial and Error." Hmm.
-OH. Oh, oh yes. Oh yes indeed. *chortles and claps*
-Aw. He's decorating, with guns. How very Dean.
-"Hey Mom." Oh. *wibbles*
-"I haven't had my own room, ever." N'awwwwwwwww! *flail*
-"Memory foam. It remembers me." There is something so funny about that, and at the same time so sad, given Dean's romantic history in general, and his history with Lisa and Ben ending in a memory wipe.
-*facepalm* And now they have 30 odd years of brotherly messing with each other's rooms to catch up on too don't they?
-Now there is an interesting display layout. The weapon he brought back from Purgatory, and all the guns are pointing right at it. There is some serious meta there. Or psychotherapy fodder. *nods*
-Lots of blank space on that wall, though I can understand not wanting to have guns and sharp objects balanced above the head of your bed, in case of earthquake, explosion, archangel landing or gate to whatever opening nearby and shaking them down. Pretty sure I recognize those knives from previous episodes too, which is awesome. Yay continuity!
-"Whatcha readin'?"/"Sort of, uh, everything." Heee! There's Sammy! *tousles hair*
-"You made these?"/"We have a real kitchen now." And the first thing he makes is burgers. I sense a new wave of 'Dean cooks things' fic inbound. Maybe janissa11 might do a Batcave fix-it coda for her awesome heart-destroying pre-series stories "Red Beans and Rice" and Lasagna?
-"Wow!"/"You're welcome." Eeeee! :-D
-AWWWW! Too good to leave behind in a crisis. Awww.
-I have a feeling I'm going to be taking a lot of screencaps for no reason other than "oh hey that's cool" also, I think I see a hatrack lurking.
-Written by Andrew Dabb, who is pretty damned awesome, Directed by Kevin Parks, whose name is semi-familiar in a non-director way. *quick cautious Google* He's done a lot of assistant director and second unit director stuff, but this is his first outing with the big hat. Doing well so far!
-Yeah, it's less of an external threat you can shoot and more of an internal "2.25 hours sleep for several months and eating nothing but hot dogs and coffee while turning your brain inside out" sort of metabolic mega-crash. On the up side, if somehow after all this Kevin manages to go back to a normal life and go to college, cramming for finals is going to be a freaking breeze. (Or if he starts working in income tax preparation. *eyes next several months* *sighs*)
-"I'm gonna feel dirty saying this but you might want a salad." Heeeee. Aw.
-"I've been getting nosebleeds and headaches, and maybe a small stroke, but it was worth it." *headdesk* HA. The looks from Sam and Dean.
-Figuring out how to close the gates of Hell gets you epic Dean hugs. As is entirely understandable.
-"The spell has to be spoken after you finish each of the three trials." Rest of season arc incoming!
-"A word I think means getting your spine ripped out through your mouth for all eternity." This is a word I think we all need to know. *nods*
-"You've got to kill a hound of Hell and bathe in it's blood." Greeeeeat. Sure. Giant invisible monster-dog. First trick is finding one. Hm. What's Meg up to? She had a few running with her a while back, didn't she? Oh, right. Crowley pulled her in at the end of season 7 and we haven't seen her since. She's probably on the other end of the Hell Hounds at the moment.
-"Awesome!"/"Awesome?" I second Sam's brow-crinkle of 'are you broken, Dean?' Though really, it's something they know where to look for, and have some idea how to kill (the Colt, an Angel sword, salt and iron nail bombs (*wibble*)) and blood does wash off after, which makes it all doable, so, yeah. Awesome.
-Yay they mentioned goofer dust! "Kid needs to eat something that's not ground-up hooves and pig's anuses." Urge to have a hot dog falling rapidly.
-"Not that there's anything wrong with that." Hee! Sorry, Dean, the squick-boat has sailed.
-*Kevin enumerating how crappy his life is due to the rock thing* "I need this to be over." Owww. Yeah, he's not exactly on vacation here, although sleep really would help more than going straight through. Brain needs downtime to sort and process. Of course you could move him into the Batcave which is a heck of a lot more secure than a rusty houseboat with sigils painted on the windows and infinitely less prone to sinking. Just a thought. Which I will keep mentioning until you lunkheads do it. *nods*
-"Did you know that there are like six thousand kinds of tomatoes?" Heeeeee. If Dean goes foodie because he's got regular access to a real kitchen, I may never stop grinning.
-"The blue ones are for headaches, and the green ones are for pep. Don't O.D." Not helping, Dean.
-HI CAR! Ooo, shiny!
-Do we know for sure that the knife works on Hell Hounds? I suppose it's worth a shot, but might be better to stick with a proven method.
-"You guys here about the job?"/"How'd ya guess?" Never refuse an obvious way in.
-"Ever worked a farm before?"/"Definitely."/"We're quick learners." Okay, I'm suddenly getting vivid images from a movie called 'Witness' of Harrison Ford trying to milk a cow. Could we possibly be that lucky?
-'Trophy Husband' here looks familiar. Has he been on the show before? Maybe the guard who got attacked by the Mummy in 'Monster Movie"?
-"He's right, we're swell." Their little faces.
-Hm, horseshoe with the ends pointing up, supposedly to keep the luck from draining out. Could be tradition, could be a sign of someone feeling their Deal clock ticking away.
-"It's crap work." As in manure. Ha ha ha.
-"I hate you." Awwww, and the horse looks away. Awww, Dean, don't be mean to the horses, it's not their fault they can't flush.
-"Ellie's the help, so that rules her out." I get the feeling that that's a rather quick assumption. Hard to say though.
-They both seem to be hearing that howl, so either it's wolf country, or they both made the deal, or one of them's a demon (except Dean got the ability to see demons when his clock was running down, so if the same holds true for all Dealmakers, then one of them can't be a demon or the other would know, unless Dean's special which I am fully willing to believe), but regardless, they're having their wine, cheese and grapes outside when there's thunder, so I'm not holding too much hope for their general sensibility levels.
-Ah, but the horses hear it too, so it's fine. Unless animals can detect Hell hounds. Can they?
-Subtle boys are subtle.
-Crap. Looks like you backed the wrong pony, guys.
-"You say his head was practically ripped off?" Again. Subtle. *facepalm*
-"This wasn't a wolf." Oh really? Do we have a former hunter here, or someone who knows some stuff? Or someone else who made a Deal?
-She's fine. "I know I shouldn't be because I loved Carl... I think, I just can't remember why." Oh crap, so Carl's Deal preceded the oil deal, and was to get her to love him. Really nice guy, Carl was. So, good news, more Hellhounds incoming. Bad news, more Hellhounds incoming.
-"We got any graveyard dirt?" What?? Dude, no! Even if it is to close the gates of Hell and you figure they won't be able to collect. Not worth the chance. Also, I don't know if they'd accept a soul that's already been sold. Also, it's Crowley's bag and he's not likely to let you have anything good out of it. Also, Castiel would be pissed.
-"When Crowley finds we're dialing up Hell, he won't send one Hellhound. He'll send a hundred." Well, yeah, that too.
-"I want to kill a hellhound, and not die." An excellent and admirable plan, if not in the strictest sense of the word sensible, but why start being sensible now?
-"How about you?" *intense staring* Oooo.
-Guy with big hat and big car tie report: String. Is it a stripe-less tie, or a tie-less stripe? I have no idea. Big shiny thingy at the top will not protect your throat from being ripped out by a Hellhound, should that be the plan of the evening.
-The whole family is nuts in one way or another, and doing things they may have done a crossroads deal for, including the youngest who the demon might have picked up on quota when she wanted to get away from her lovey-dovey newlywed sister's house and go to Paris. Whee!
-"I've been working on this farm since I was thirteen." Ahahaha. Yeah, I thought so. She's not off the list either.
-"Somebody's gotta man the grill."/"What kind of grill?" Hehehe. Fire and Dean, never far apart. Add that to his new foodie leanings and the masses of red meat usually involved, and Dean's a natural choice.
-"I do like a man who can handle his meat." HAHAHAHAAH, oh god. XD
-This Cassity relative is amazing, and everything she's said and done has made me snerk. She's very invested in her own identity.
-"Daddy caught them going at it in the barn." *snerk* And now Paris makes even more sense. I'm starting to think the only person who hasn't made a Deal of some kind is the widow, who seems far less pushy and irritable now that she's not in thrall to Carl anymore, which would make sense.
-"Get cancer and die, old man."/"You first, sweetie." There's something strangely adorable about that, and yet so wrong.
-"When daddy invited that traveling salesman to dinner." *facepalm* Well, there we are then.
-"What was his name? Kenny?"/"*mumbles around* Crowley." At which point, Sam craps a brick. Yep, they're all doomed. Kind of odd for Crowley to do the rounds on his own ten years ago though, wasn't it? Maybe he was bored. It happens.
-"Or through an object scorched with Holy Fire." Ooo, handy. Like the angel-trapping oil? They've probably got some of that rattling around the trunk.
-"Get some sleep." That's one hell of a dirty look from Dean. What's going on there?
-Make sure the lenses are actually glass and not polycarbonate. Also, those frames will turn into silly putty if you try to scorch them.
-"Daddy's drunk and armed. Must be Christmas." I do not know why this character is making me laugh so hard, but she is.
-"You know anything about hunting, boy?"/"A little bit, yeah." Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa.
-Well, okay, that wouldn't melt them, but I don't know if it'd scorch them either.
-Dean in glasses. Not bad. Good thing he found some safety glasses rather than prescriptions or reading glasses, or the distortion would make it difficult to see anything, let alone invisible dogs from Hell. That's another thing. How do you know if they work if there's no invisible dogs to see when you check them?
-Ellie is also very subtle. Like an exploding brick.
-"So. I think you're really hot. Wanna go to my room and... have sex?" PFT. I may have overestimated the subtlety of Ellie. Although with a line like that I'm wondering if she hasn't been possessed and this is actually Crowley talking. XD
-Dean: "...what?" HAHAHAHAHA
-"Raincheck."/"This is one night only, sorry." OH SHE'S TOTALLY MADE A DEAL AND IS EXPECTING A HELLHOUND IN THE MORNING.
-Meanwhile in the woods, everyone's armed with guns that probably won't do a damn thing to a Hellhound and only two people might have a chance of seeing what they're shooting at. Recipe for disaster, we have it.
-*facepalm* Sam, do we need to have the 'wandering off alone is a bad idea' discussion again? Particularly when you can't see what you're hunting for, and there are two doomed and armed non-hunters running around in the dark with no flashlights looking for a wolf to shoot?
-Told ya. "Where's Marcie?"/"I thought she was with you."/"*scream*" *facepalm* The wandering off alone thing applies to people who aren't Sam too. Just FYI.
-You know, from that angle it has to look like Sam's shooting Marcie. Though considering she's currently being shredded alive by an invisible Hellhound, that might be a mercy for Marcie.
-Not cappable but it looks like he did hit it and it did get injured, so maybe normal guns are enough if you know where to point them?
-Poor doomed Marcie. You had an awesome sweater.
-"Poncy guy, about yay high, mountain of dicks." HA! XD
-"Don't play dumb."/"Yeah, I'm not playing." Okay then, good to be self-aware? O.o
_Yeah, Hellhounds and demons they're going to have a hard time getting a grip on. Start waving a gun around and they'll understand that. Probably in entirely the wrong way, but there you are.
-"Shut up and put these on." Because handcuffs will... help? Somehow? Okay. *steadfastly leaving all the comments about Dean and commanding people to put on handcuffs to others, because there really are far too many to be made there*
-"We're here to help." Which is why we're chaining you all to the furniture. Trust us. Really.
-Yay for goofer dust! \o/
-"I need you to be safe, Sam. That's what I need." *flail!* Guess that whole 'Sam goes off alone and gets magically diseased by a nazi necromancer' thing from last time actually did reactivate some old instincts for Dean. Aw.
-Not that Sam's going to go for that in any way at all ever. Still. Aw. *flail*
-"We both know where this ends. One of us dies. Or worse." Dude. Dean just meta'd the rest of the season arc. Mainly because when you spend your entire life getting jerked around by celestial and infernal forces and running the same pattern of events, it's hard not to assume you're going to run the same pattern again. And... *does some Winchester/adopted Winchester death math (John, Sam, Dean, oops started the Apocalypse, Jo and Ellen, Sam and Adam, Castiel, Bobby, Dean... I'm probably missing some)* Looks like it is most likely Sam's turn. Unless they semi-adopt Kevin or Charlie, or Castiel has another turn on the Winchester Death Roundabout, which... What's going on with Castiel anyway? The lack of info in that area right now is deafening. O.o
-"I'm a grunt, Sam. You've always been the brains of this operation." Dean, do not make your brother smack some self-esteem into you.
-"I'm gonna die with a gun in my hand." On second thought, Sam knocking you out and chaining you to the furniture like the rest of them is looking like an idea. Gotta remember, Sam's watched Dean get ripped to shreds by a Hellhound before. That happening again has got to be something that's damn high on Sam's "do not want" list.
-*Dean outlines his happy ending as being all about Sam living a happy, long, well-loved life* I'm just going to roll in the 'oh Dean' for a while here, don't mind me.
-"I'm gonna do these trials, I'm gonna do them alone. End of story." Yeah, much as the sentiment is admirable, I think Sam is going to kick your ass about this. If not now, then sometime before the end of the season.
-That faaaaaaace!!! How does he have that face? How is that face even real? Just, the eyes, aaaaah! *flails*
-"If you try to follow me, I'm gonna put a bullet in your damn leg." Because Winchesters demonstrate caring by giving each other survivable, yet painful wounds. Of one sort or another. Gaaaahhh. BOYS!
-Ya know, if you didn't see anything invisible before not because it wasn't there but because the glasses don't work, you're going to feel like a real doof wandering around with brainy specs on as the Hellhounds roll right on past you.
-Aaaaand now I'm remembering that this episode involves invisible ravening vicious dogs that are going to jump out any second and I'm wondering why I'm watching this right before bed, eeeeep. *burrows spine into back of chair*
-It's a barn party! Everyone's invited. Except not really. Because that doesn't really sound like a horsey whinny-screamy noise under the music so much as a woman screaming and Ellie hasn't been seen in a long while, hasn't she? *shivers*
-"Because you're a walking corpse and you're married to a centerfold." She speaks her mind. It's not pleasant, but she's up front about everything. That's oddly refreshing.
-Sam. Glasses. *snerk* Those frames are not going well with that pout.
-It's usually polite to knock, Dean.
-Doesn't look like she was screaming. Unless she was singing. Which is possible.
-She is very persistent. But, if she's about to get eviscerated by Hellhounds and had Dean Winchester drop into her lap on her last night on earth, persistence is entirely understandable.
-"There is something evil out there."/"I know." Yep. Knew it was her. Or knew she was one of them. Heck, Crowley probably got the whole family over the hors d'oeuvres.
-EEEYAAAAAAH!!! Shadowydemondogthing(thatdoesn'tcapwellatall)eeeeeek!
-Nice guarding there Sam. Though really, I'd be staring at the invisible dog from Hell too. Also, whichever of you two closed that handcuff needs some lessons or something.
-Ooo, that's handy. The glasses let them hear it too? I guess if the ear-pieces are scorched by Holy Fire too, they act as, uh, hearing aids to Hell? Sure. Let's go with that. *handwaves*
-"I did it for my mom, Dean. What would you do for your mom?" Heh, heh, heh. That is one a hell of a question to ask Dean Winchester.
-SHHHHIIIII-!!!!! Fffff- I FORGOT THAT ABOUT THE TIME RUNNING OUT THE HALLUCINATION FACE THING OH GOD WHY AM I WATCHING THIS BEFORE I HAVE TO TRY TO SLEEP? O.O
-Did he look behind him along that barn with the glasses on when he came out of her room? I think he should have looked behind him when he came out of her room. *continuing to burrow spine into chair back*
-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!H!!!! *hides*
-Much as I appreciate a good taunting, can you please just kill the damn thing and bathe in its blood or whatever already? Also, ranged weapons would be a really good idea. You have two more trials you want to keep Sam from doing, so not becoming Hell puppy chow again would be a really good plan here.
-Oh great. Now it's stalking you.
-And now there's screaming.
-And oh crap.
-Crap! SERIOUSLY, DEAN, I SHOULD NOT NEED TO POINT OUT TO YOU THE TACTICAL VALUE OF RANGED WEAPONS!!!
-I HEAR THERE ARE ELASTIC BAND THINGS THAT CAN PREVENT THAT TOO.
-Steaming breath and footprints and oh crap not again, SAM WHERE ARE YOU, COME SHOOT THIS FRIGGING THING OFF YOUR IDIOT BROTHER AND ONE OF YOU BATHE IN ITS BLOOD AND CHANT THE WHATEVER THINGY KEVIN GAVE YOU, AND THEN SHOUT AT YOUR IDIOT BROTHER ABOUT TACTICAL STUPIDITY AND LACK OF SELF-ESTEEM IN A PICTURESQUE HIGHWAY REST STOP.
-ANYTIME NOW.
-Thank you, Action Sam! \o/ Now gut the thing like a tauntaun and get to the picturesque yelling.
-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! O.O
-Gaaaugch! Ew. Now chant!
-Yeah, there's going to be a few varieties of picturesque yelling in a minute I think.
-"I've had worse."/"Yeah. He's had worse." Very directly and literally true. Poor Sam with the tight voice and probably more than a little bit of flashback to Dean's prior less successful close encounter with Hellhound.
-"Now we make a hex bag and you start running." And, if they manage to finish off the trials and close Hell off, she won't need to worry about it anymore. Except I doubt it'll be that easy.
-"Ka na ahm nadar. *looks around*" Of course, aside from Dean not being the one coated in hell-doggy circulatory tar, there's the assumption that there's going to be a noticeable flash or rumble or ping or Experience Points for finishing Trial 1. Assuming they've finished it. Sam doesn't look completely bathed after all.
-"I passed the test, and I'm doin' the rest of them."/"My ass you are!" *snerk*
-"I see light at the end of this tunnel, and I'm sorry you don't." Dean's treating it like a suicide mission, and Sam's treating it like it's not (even though it probably is, and Dean will YELL AT YOU SO HARD AND DO ALL THE INADVISABLE THINGS EVER TO STOP IT AGAIN SOME MORE), which means that Sam really is the more sensible of the two of them to do this because he won't be pitching himself off a cliff in his mind in advance of needing to do it to lock off Hell and fatalism can do bad things in a tactical situation. In the broader, "this applies to Dean for more than just this round of Fate meets Winchester" ...Damn. I mean, just... damn. When did Sam get so perceptive? Ooof.
-And ow. A whole lot of ow. The kind of hurt to heal ow. But still ow. Oh boys.
-"I believe in you, Dean. so please, please, believe in me too." Oh boys. Again.
-Apparently completing a trial is like getting a bad ice cream headache.
-Or worse. Oh crap. Oh, Dean said "Sammy." Ohhh...
-Um. Glowing. Glowing is... probably not good. O.O
-"I'm okay. I can do this." Oh Dean's face. Oh crap.
And now Dean's going to have to watch Sam do this, because it's apparently a one hero gig and whoever starts it has to finish it, and in all likelihood pull another swan dive at the end the way these fate things go (and let's face it, if you're closing off any dimensional gate permanently it's going to take more than a few token challenges that turn out to be as easy as this one was (even though the boys are operating on a far higher level than they were when they started out and in season 1 or 2 this particular task would have been pretty darn impossible), it's going to take something big), and, just, okay, the epic ow incoming just multiplied by a couple billion and this is like Dean's worst nightmare from since he was 4 again some more and there is going to be all the angst and shouting everywhere because they're trying to protect each other and save the world at the same time again some more again and just family and things and BY GOD, THE WINCHESTER BOYS ARE BACK. \o/
Oh and shiny new, "never worn the big hat before" director Kevin Parks? You can stay. Same goes for writer Adam Glass. Never leave.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO UNAIRED EPISODES IN COMMENTS! Any and all promo material for unaired episodes is considered to be a spoiler in this journal. The further definition of what constitutes a spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)
Warning: Contains profanity.
Spoiler and Theory Summary
It's intense, and maybe a little divisive?
That's it. O.o
Suspect a strong chance of Kevin though. It's been a while.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.14 - "???" "Trial and Error"
-Didn't hit the skip fast enough. Crossroads. OH CRAP. O.O
-Hi Kevin! Given the angle of daylight I'm thinking that's a 5 PM alarm rather than 5 AM.
-*record scratch noise* HOLD THE PHONE. THAT'S AN ACTUAL CONCRETE DATE BEING GIVEN BY THE SHOW THERE!!! O.O This is a thing which almost never happens, and will probably not mesh up with any attempts to guess at the timeline. SO! The date is January 11th, 2013 in show and... waitaminute. No, no, it's okay. Heh. Where I am, calendars are most commonly printed with the weeks starting on a Sunday, so for a second there, it looked like January 11th 2013 in SPN 'verse was a Thursday instead of a Friday and I would not put that kind of alteration past them, just because if you are going to have a messed up timeline, why not fry everyone's brains with it deliberately, but no, that calendar's weeks start on Monday, so the days do match up. Hehehe. If I was in the props department, I'd do it. But I'm evil like that.
-...although... considering that the boat is registered in Montana (which my very vague US geography from grade 4 tells me is landlocked but has some lakes, so maybe the boat's elsewhere) and on Jan 11, 2013, sunrise was at 7 minutes to 8 AM, and sunset was 8 minutes before 5PM (timeanddate.com, the answer to all global time and calender queries), there's no way that light angle was any 5 o'clock hour, unless the boat's at port somewhere much closer to the equator. SO. Kevin does like I do, and sets his alarm clock for a time that bears some odd mathematical relation to the real time, so that you have to do some math looking at the clock to figure out what time it really is, and in the process wake your brain up a little. (In theory. In practice, not as effective for me) So, we have a date, and no real time of day, except well past dawn and well before dusk.
-I appear to be distractible. Crap.
-Day in the life of Kevin. Coffee, aspirin, turning his brain inside out trying to make sense of a rock from the dawn of time, and a hot dog for one. Aw.
-Wall o'weird! \o/
-And bed 21 and 3/4 hours after he woke up. Aw.
-It seems January 12 was a three hot dog day. O.o
-Kevin: *scrawls "Death" on a sticky note and underlines* Me: *giggles for no rational reason* Hm. Would that be the 'end of life' death or the 'awesomest Horseman of the Apocalypse' Death? We haven't seen him lately, have we...
-It's the 31st of January now, and the calendar is from Manitowoc Marina, which is a real place, and that's their real logo. Whether that's where the boat is now or not is another thing entirely.
-February 7th and damn he must be sick of hot dogs by now. Is that one dipped in chunky peanut butter? Eaugch! I suppose it'd be too dangerous for his mom to pop in or send him a care package.
-And that is the look of a breakthrough, methinks!
-Props and art department, you rock.
-Nose bleeds after several solid months of arcane brain work, coffee and hot dogs is not a good sign though.
-And down he goes. And stays down. That's not good at all. O.O
-19 caps before the title card. I believe I have really missed Kevin.
-Meanwhile at the Batcave, the boys have organized their inherited record collection. Awwwww. Also, hello title. "Trial and Error." Hmm.
-OH. Oh, oh yes. Oh yes indeed. *chortles and claps*
-Aw. He's decorating, with guns. How very Dean.
-"Hey Mom." Oh. *wibbles*
-"I haven't had my own room, ever." N'awwwwwwwww! *flail*
-"Memory foam. It remembers me." There is something so funny about that, and at the same time so sad, given Dean's romantic history in general, and his history with Lisa and Ben ending in a memory wipe.
-*facepalm* And now they have 30 odd years of brotherly messing with each other's rooms to catch up on too don't they?
-Now there is an interesting display layout. The weapon he brought back from Purgatory, and all the guns are pointing right at it. There is some serious meta there. Or psychotherapy fodder. *nods*
-Lots of blank space on that wall, though I can understand not wanting to have guns and sharp objects balanced above the head of your bed, in case of earthquake, explosion, archangel landing or gate to whatever opening nearby and shaking them down. Pretty sure I recognize those knives from previous episodes too, which is awesome. Yay continuity!
-"Whatcha readin'?"/"Sort of, uh, everything." Heee! There's Sammy! *tousles hair*
-"You made these?"/"We have a real kitchen now." And the first thing he makes is burgers. I sense a new wave of 'Dean cooks things' fic inbound. Maybe janissa11 might do a Batcave fix-it coda for her awesome heart-destroying pre-series stories "Red Beans and Rice" and Lasagna?
-"Wow!"/"You're welcome." Eeeee! :-D
-AWWWW! Too good to leave behind in a crisis. Awww.
-I have a feeling I'm going to be taking a lot of screencaps for no reason other than "oh hey that's cool" also, I think I see a hatrack lurking.
-Written by Andrew Dabb, who is pretty damned awesome, Directed by Kevin Parks, whose name is semi-familiar in a non-director way. *quick cautious Google* He's done a lot of assistant director and second unit director stuff, but this is his first outing with the big hat. Doing well so far!
-Yeah, it's less of an external threat you can shoot and more of an internal "2.25 hours sleep for several months and eating nothing but hot dogs and coffee while turning your brain inside out" sort of metabolic mega-crash. On the up side, if somehow after all this Kevin manages to go back to a normal life and go to college, cramming for finals is going to be a freaking breeze. (Or if he starts working in income tax preparation. *eyes next several months* *sighs*)
-"I'm gonna feel dirty saying this but you might want a salad." Heeeee. Aw.
-"I've been getting nosebleeds and headaches, and maybe a small stroke, but it was worth it." *headdesk* HA. The looks from Sam and Dean.
-Figuring out how to close the gates of Hell gets you epic Dean hugs. As is entirely understandable.
-"The spell has to be spoken after you finish each of the three trials." Rest of season arc incoming!
-"A word I think means getting your spine ripped out through your mouth for all eternity." This is a word I think we all need to know. *nods*
-"You've got to kill a hound of Hell and bathe in it's blood." Greeeeeat. Sure. Giant invisible monster-dog. First trick is finding one. Hm. What's Meg up to? She had a few running with her a while back, didn't she? Oh, right. Crowley pulled her in at the end of season 7 and we haven't seen her since. She's probably on the other end of the Hell Hounds at the moment.
-"Awesome!"/"Awesome?" I second Sam's brow-crinkle of 'are you broken, Dean?' Though really, it's something they know where to look for, and have some idea how to kill (the Colt, an Angel sword, salt and iron nail bombs (*wibble*)) and blood does wash off after, which makes it all doable, so, yeah. Awesome.
-Yay they mentioned goofer dust! "Kid needs to eat something that's not ground-up hooves and pig's anuses." Urge to have a hot dog falling rapidly.
-"Not that there's anything wrong with that." Hee! Sorry, Dean, the squick-boat has sailed.
-*Kevin enumerating how crappy his life is due to the rock thing* "I need this to be over." Owww. Yeah, he's not exactly on vacation here, although sleep really would help more than going straight through. Brain needs downtime to sort and process. Of course you could move him into the Batcave which is a heck of a lot more secure than a rusty houseboat with sigils painted on the windows and infinitely less prone to sinking. Just a thought. Which I will keep mentioning until you lunkheads do it. *nods*
-"Did you know that there are like six thousand kinds of tomatoes?" Heeeeee. If Dean goes foodie because he's got regular access to a real kitchen, I may never stop grinning.
-"The blue ones are for headaches, and the green ones are for pep. Don't O.D." Not helping, Dean.
-HI CAR! Ooo, shiny!
-Do we know for sure that the knife works on Hell Hounds? I suppose it's worth a shot, but might be better to stick with a proven method.
-"You guys here about the job?"/"How'd ya guess?" Never refuse an obvious way in.
-"Ever worked a farm before?"/"Definitely."/"We're quick learners." Okay, I'm suddenly getting vivid images from a movie called 'Witness' of Harrison Ford trying to milk a cow. Could we possibly be that lucky?
-'Trophy Husband' here looks familiar. Has he been on the show before? Maybe the guard who got attacked by the Mummy in 'Monster Movie"?
-"He's right, we're swell." Their little faces.
-Hm, horseshoe with the ends pointing up, supposedly to keep the luck from draining out. Could be tradition, could be a sign of someone feeling their Deal clock ticking away.
-"It's crap work." As in manure. Ha ha ha.
-"I hate you." Awwww, and the horse looks away. Awww, Dean, don't be mean to the horses, it's not their fault they can't flush.
-"Ellie's the help, so that rules her out." I get the feeling that that's a rather quick assumption. Hard to say though.
-They both seem to be hearing that howl, so either it's wolf country, or they both made the deal, or one of them's a demon (except Dean got the ability to see demons when his clock was running down, so if the same holds true for all Dealmakers, then one of them can't be a demon or the other would know, unless Dean's special which I am fully willing to believe), but regardless, they're having their wine, cheese and grapes outside when there's thunder, so I'm not holding too much hope for their general sensibility levels.
-Ah, but the horses hear it too, so it's fine. Unless animals can detect Hell hounds. Can they?
-Subtle boys are subtle.
-Crap. Looks like you backed the wrong pony, guys.
-"You say his head was practically ripped off?" Again. Subtle. *facepalm*
-"This wasn't a wolf." Oh really? Do we have a former hunter here, or someone who knows some stuff? Or someone else who made a Deal?
-She's fine. "I know I shouldn't be because I loved Carl... I think, I just can't remember why." Oh crap, so Carl's Deal preceded the oil deal, and was to get her to love him. Really nice guy, Carl was. So, good news, more Hellhounds incoming. Bad news, more Hellhounds incoming.
-"We got any graveyard dirt?" What?? Dude, no! Even if it is to close the gates of Hell and you figure they won't be able to collect. Not worth the chance. Also, I don't know if they'd accept a soul that's already been sold. Also, it's Crowley's bag and he's not likely to let you have anything good out of it. Also, Castiel would be pissed.
-"When Crowley finds we're dialing up Hell, he won't send one Hellhound. He'll send a hundred." Well, yeah, that too.
-"I want to kill a hellhound, and not die." An excellent and admirable plan, if not in the strictest sense of the word sensible, but why start being sensible now?
-"How about you?" *intense staring* Oooo.
-Guy with big hat and big car tie report: String. Is it a stripe-less tie, or a tie-less stripe? I have no idea. Big shiny thingy at the top will not protect your throat from being ripped out by a Hellhound, should that be the plan of the evening.
-The whole family is nuts in one way or another, and doing things they may have done a crossroads deal for, including the youngest who the demon might have picked up on quota when she wanted to get away from her lovey-dovey newlywed sister's house and go to Paris. Whee!
-"I've been working on this farm since I was thirteen." Ahahaha. Yeah, I thought so. She's not off the list either.
-"Somebody's gotta man the grill."/"What kind of grill?" Hehehe. Fire and Dean, never far apart. Add that to his new foodie leanings and the masses of red meat usually involved, and Dean's a natural choice.
-"I do like a man who can handle his meat." HAHAHAHAAH, oh god. XD
-This Cassity relative is amazing, and everything she's said and done has made me snerk. She's very invested in her own identity.
-"Daddy caught them going at it in the barn." *snerk* And now Paris makes even more sense. I'm starting to think the only person who hasn't made a Deal of some kind is the widow, who seems far less pushy and irritable now that she's not in thrall to Carl anymore, which would make sense.
-"Get cancer and die, old man."/"You first, sweetie." There's something strangely adorable about that, and yet so wrong.
-"When daddy invited that traveling salesman to dinner." *facepalm* Well, there we are then.
-"What was his name? Kenny?"/"*mumbles around* Crowley." At which point, Sam craps a brick. Yep, they're all doomed. Kind of odd for Crowley to do the rounds on his own ten years ago though, wasn't it? Maybe he was bored. It happens.
-"Or through an object scorched with Holy Fire." Ooo, handy. Like the angel-trapping oil? They've probably got some of that rattling around the trunk.
-"Get some sleep." That's one hell of a dirty look from Dean. What's going on there?
-Make sure the lenses are actually glass and not polycarbonate. Also, those frames will turn into silly putty if you try to scorch them.
-"Daddy's drunk and armed. Must be Christmas." I do not know why this character is making me laugh so hard, but she is.
-"You know anything about hunting, boy?"/"A little bit, yeah." Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaa.
-Well, okay, that wouldn't melt them, but I don't know if it'd scorch them either.
-Dean in glasses. Not bad. Good thing he found some safety glasses rather than prescriptions or reading glasses, or the distortion would make it difficult to see anything, let alone invisible dogs from Hell. That's another thing. How do you know if they work if there's no invisible dogs to see when you check them?
-Ellie is also very subtle. Like an exploding brick.
-"So. I think you're really hot. Wanna go to my room and... have sex?" PFT. I may have overestimated the subtlety of Ellie. Although with a line like that I'm wondering if she hasn't been possessed and this is actually Crowley talking. XD
-Dean: "...what?" HAHAHAHAHA
-"Raincheck."/"This is one night only, sorry." OH SHE'S TOTALLY MADE A DEAL AND IS EXPECTING A HELLHOUND IN THE MORNING.
-Meanwhile in the woods, everyone's armed with guns that probably won't do a damn thing to a Hellhound and only two people might have a chance of seeing what they're shooting at. Recipe for disaster, we have it.
-*facepalm* Sam, do we need to have the 'wandering off alone is a bad idea' discussion again? Particularly when you can't see what you're hunting for, and there are two doomed and armed non-hunters running around in the dark with no flashlights looking for a wolf to shoot?
-Told ya. "Where's Marcie?"/"I thought she was with you."/"*scream*" *facepalm* The wandering off alone thing applies to people who aren't Sam too. Just FYI.
-You know, from that angle it has to look like Sam's shooting Marcie. Though considering she's currently being shredded alive by an invisible Hellhound, that might be a mercy for Marcie.
-Not cappable but it looks like he did hit it and it did get injured, so maybe normal guns are enough if you know where to point them?
-Poor doomed Marcie. You had an awesome sweater.
-"Poncy guy, about yay high, mountain of dicks." HA! XD
-"Don't play dumb."/"Yeah, I'm not playing." Okay then, good to be self-aware? O.o
_Yeah, Hellhounds and demons they're going to have a hard time getting a grip on. Start waving a gun around and they'll understand that. Probably in entirely the wrong way, but there you are.
-"Shut up and put these on." Because handcuffs will... help? Somehow? Okay. *steadfastly leaving all the comments about Dean and commanding people to put on handcuffs to others, because there really are far too many to be made there*
-"We're here to help." Which is why we're chaining you all to the furniture. Trust us. Really.
-Yay for goofer dust! \o/
-"I need you to be safe, Sam. That's what I need." *flail!* Guess that whole 'Sam goes off alone and gets magically diseased by a nazi necromancer' thing from last time actually did reactivate some old instincts for Dean. Aw.
-Not that Sam's going to go for that in any way at all ever. Still. Aw. *flail*
-"We both know where this ends. One of us dies. Or worse." Dude. Dean just meta'd the rest of the season arc. Mainly because when you spend your entire life getting jerked around by celestial and infernal forces and running the same pattern of events, it's hard not to assume you're going to run the same pattern again. And... *does some Winchester/adopted Winchester death math (John, Sam, Dean, oops started the Apocalypse, Jo and Ellen, Sam and Adam, Castiel, Bobby, Dean... I'm probably missing some)* Looks like it is most likely Sam's turn. Unless they semi-adopt Kevin or Charlie, or Castiel has another turn on the Winchester Death Roundabout, which... What's going on with Castiel anyway? The lack of info in that area right now is deafening. O.o
-"I'm a grunt, Sam. You've always been the brains of this operation." Dean, do not make your brother smack some self-esteem into you.
-"I'm gonna die with a gun in my hand." On second thought, Sam knocking you out and chaining you to the furniture like the rest of them is looking like an idea. Gotta remember, Sam's watched Dean get ripped to shreds by a Hellhound before. That happening again has got to be something that's damn high on Sam's "do not want" list.
-*Dean outlines his happy ending as being all about Sam living a happy, long, well-loved life* I'm just going to roll in the 'oh Dean' for a while here, don't mind me.
-"I'm gonna do these trials, I'm gonna do them alone. End of story." Yeah, much as the sentiment is admirable, I think Sam is going to kick your ass about this. If not now, then sometime before the end of the season.
-That faaaaaaace!!! How does he have that face? How is that face even real? Just, the eyes, aaaaah! *flails*
-"If you try to follow me, I'm gonna put a bullet in your damn leg." Because Winchesters demonstrate caring by giving each other survivable, yet painful wounds. Of one sort or another. Gaaaahhh. BOYS!
-Ya know, if you didn't see anything invisible before not because it wasn't there but because the glasses don't work, you're going to feel like a real doof wandering around with brainy specs on as the Hellhounds roll right on past you.
-Aaaaand now I'm remembering that this episode involves invisible ravening vicious dogs that are going to jump out any second and I'm wondering why I'm watching this right before bed, eeeeep. *burrows spine into back of chair*
-It's a barn party! Everyone's invited. Except not really. Because that doesn't really sound like a horsey whinny-screamy noise under the music so much as a woman screaming and Ellie hasn't been seen in a long while, hasn't she? *shivers*
-"Because you're a walking corpse and you're married to a centerfold." She speaks her mind. It's not pleasant, but she's up front about everything. That's oddly refreshing.
-Sam. Glasses. *snerk* Those frames are not going well with that pout.
-It's usually polite to knock, Dean.
-Doesn't look like she was screaming. Unless she was singing. Which is possible.
-She is very persistent. But, if she's about to get eviscerated by Hellhounds and had Dean Winchester drop into her lap on her last night on earth, persistence is entirely understandable.
-"There is something evil out there."/"I know." Yep. Knew it was her. Or knew she was one of them. Heck, Crowley probably got the whole family over the hors d'oeuvres.
-EEEYAAAAAAH!!! Shadowydemondogthing(thatdoesn'tcapwellatall)eeeeeek!
-Nice guarding there Sam. Though really, I'd be staring at the invisible dog from Hell too. Also, whichever of you two closed that handcuff needs some lessons or something.
-Ooo, that's handy. The glasses let them hear it too? I guess if the ear-pieces are scorched by Holy Fire too, they act as, uh, hearing aids to Hell? Sure. Let's go with that. *handwaves*
-"I did it for my mom, Dean. What would you do for your mom?" Heh, heh, heh. That is one a hell of a question to ask Dean Winchester.
-SHHHHIIIII-!!!!! Fffff- I FORGOT THAT ABOUT THE TIME RUNNING OUT THE HALLUCINATION FACE THING OH GOD WHY AM I WATCHING THIS BEFORE I HAVE TO TRY TO SLEEP? O.O
-Did he look behind him along that barn with the glasses on when he came out of her room? I think he should have looked behind him when he came out of her room. *continuing to burrow spine into chair back*
-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!H!!!! *hides*
-Much as I appreciate a good taunting, can you please just kill the damn thing and bathe in its blood or whatever already? Also, ranged weapons would be a really good idea. You have two more trials you want to keep Sam from doing, so not becoming Hell puppy chow again would be a really good plan here.
-Oh great. Now it's stalking you.
-And now there's screaming.
-And oh crap.
-Crap! SERIOUSLY, DEAN, I SHOULD NOT NEED TO POINT OUT TO YOU THE TACTICAL VALUE OF RANGED WEAPONS!!!
-I HEAR THERE ARE ELASTIC BAND THINGS THAT CAN PREVENT THAT TOO.
-Steaming breath and footprints and oh crap not again, SAM WHERE ARE YOU, COME SHOOT THIS FRIGGING THING OFF YOUR IDIOT BROTHER AND ONE OF YOU BATHE IN ITS BLOOD AND CHANT THE WHATEVER THINGY KEVIN GAVE YOU, AND THEN SHOUT AT YOUR IDIOT BROTHER ABOUT TACTICAL STUPIDITY AND LACK OF SELF-ESTEEM IN A PICTURESQUE HIGHWAY REST STOP.
-ANYTIME NOW.
-Thank you, Action Sam! \o/ Now gut the thing like a tauntaun and get to the picturesque yelling.
-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! O.O
-Gaaaugch! Ew. Now chant!
-Yeah, there's going to be a few varieties of picturesque yelling in a minute I think.
-"I've had worse."/"Yeah. He's had worse." Very directly and literally true. Poor Sam with the tight voice and probably more than a little bit of flashback to Dean's prior less successful close encounter with Hellhound.
-"Now we make a hex bag and you start running." And, if they manage to finish off the trials and close Hell off, she won't need to worry about it anymore. Except I doubt it'll be that easy.
-"Ka na ahm nadar. *looks around*" Of course, aside from Dean not being the one coated in hell-doggy circulatory tar, there's the assumption that there's going to be a noticeable flash or rumble or ping or Experience Points for finishing Trial 1. Assuming they've finished it. Sam doesn't look completely bathed after all.
-"I passed the test, and I'm doin' the rest of them."/"My ass you are!" *snerk*
-"I see light at the end of this tunnel, and I'm sorry you don't." Dean's treating it like a suicide mission, and Sam's treating it like it's not (even though it probably is, and Dean will YELL AT YOU SO HARD AND DO ALL THE INADVISABLE THINGS EVER TO STOP IT AGAIN SOME MORE), which means that Sam really is the more sensible of the two of them to do this because he won't be pitching himself off a cliff in his mind in advance of needing to do it to lock off Hell and fatalism can do bad things in a tactical situation. In the broader, "this applies to Dean for more than just this round of Fate meets Winchester" ...Damn. I mean, just... damn. When did Sam get so perceptive? Ooof.
-And ow. A whole lot of ow. The kind of hurt to heal ow. But still ow. Oh boys.
-"I believe in you, Dean. so please, please, believe in me too." Oh boys. Again.
-Apparently completing a trial is like getting a bad ice cream headache.
-Or worse. Oh crap. Oh, Dean said "Sammy." Ohhh...
-Um. Glowing. Glowing is... probably not good. O.O
-"I'm okay. I can do this." Oh Dean's face. Oh crap.
And now Dean's going to have to watch Sam do this, because it's apparently a one hero gig and whoever starts it has to finish it, and in all likelihood pull another swan dive at the end the way these fate things go (and let's face it, if you're closing off any dimensional gate permanently it's going to take more than a few token challenges that turn out to be as easy as this one was (even though the boys are operating on a far higher level than they were when they started out and in season 1 or 2 this particular task would have been pretty darn impossible), it's going to take something big), and, just, okay, the epic ow incoming just multiplied by a couple billion and this is like Dean's worst nightmare from since he was 4 again some more and there is going to be all the angst and shouting everywhere because they're trying to protect each other and save the world at the same time again some more again and just family and things and BY GOD, THE WINCHESTER BOYS ARE BACK. \o/
Oh and shiny new, "never worn the big hat before" director Kevin Parks? You can stay. Same goes for writer Adam Glass. Never leave.
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO UNAIRED EPISODES IN COMMENTS! Any and all promo material for unaired episodes is considered to be a spoiler in this journal. The further definition of what constitutes a spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)