Roundtable #2: Monsters and Mapwork

[hoodietime]

Our second themed roundtable discussion! :) As part of our on-going themed challenge this month, which highlights case!works, let's talk shop. Whether you're an artist, or a reader, a vidder, or a writer, or any and all of the above, to have a case!work, you need a case. So let's talk monsters. :D

WITH RESPECT TO THEIR H/C POTENTIAL…

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[kalliel]

ANY MONSTER THAT INVOLVES POISON.

ANY SETTING THAT INVOLVES THE OCEAN AND/OR ANY BODY OF WATER OF SOME DEPTH.

ANYTHING THAT INVOLVES BOTH A POISON MONSTER AND THE OCEAN.

[kalliel]

And, to add something more constructive, here's that poisoning porcupine fic I was talking about last week:

Weryl by mad_server

Tags: S2ish, poisoning, fever, delirium, pain, worried!Sam

And as an added bonus, here's a really awesome "body of water of some depth" case!fic I love, too!

In the Wells of Silence by glorious_spoon

Tags: S8ish, drowning/near-drowning, mutism, curse/spell

[philomathical]

I adore ocean/body of water settings! There aren't enough of them out there. (The first one that springs to mind is They Then Ate the Sailors. Pre-series Wincest, with drownings! Though contains some mistreatment of a female character.)

There is no escape from the water, nowhere you can swim to in order to avoid whatever's lurking in the blackness. You're not sure if it's just your imagination running into overddrive or if there is something wrapping itself around your ankle.

Getting pulled under and completely disappearing? Woooh, those are the best.

(I also generally like near-drowning hurt/comfort. Or being taken by something but that not being the end. Like, reminiscent of the Dead in the Water ep, except Dean never resurfaces. But he's not dead either.)

[kalliel]

If SPN ever does anything water-based (ghost ships in the distance, vampirate ships still moored at the docks, and a lake you only jump in once do not count! <--though I did enjoy that lake a lot) I can die happy, I'm pretty sure. But if fandom does it, I can die happy many times over. XD

I JUST.

I love that feeling when you're caught in a swell, and you can hardly tell which way is up, and it's cold as hell, and you realize, with the water giving you a very sound thrashing, that you're not sure if you're going to be able to come up before you need to breathe or not.

Er, well. I don't love that feeling at all. XD But I love things that recreate that moment, and am very intrigued by it.

Or like, when you can feel a tide pulling at you, and you know exactly how tired you are, and you're just like, well, this isn't good. I need alllll the fics like this!

Guh, yes. drowning/near-drowning. <3333 ALL THE WATER. If the Winchesters spent less time in landlocked states, I'd be utterly thrilled. Or again, if fandom went there with

[kalliel]

And having visited one this past summer, I think lava tubes would also be a really cool setting for something. Total darkness, close quarters, god knows what lurking deep inside...

[anactoria]

Ooh, that looks kind of awesome. Where did you visit them, if you don't mind me asking?

[kalliel]

IT WAS SUPER AWESOME. One of the highlights of my summer. XD Oregon is a great state for driving in the middle of nowhere and then randomly ending up places like this: Newberry National Monument

Who knew???

[boysinperil]

I love my state.

[geckoholic]

I'm a killer for urban settings. There's something to be said about suburban and rural settings too, of course, but I think we get a lot more of that on the show than big city vibes, and I kinda love the idea of idea of the guys hunting under the shroud of don't-know-don't-care and anonymity in a urban environment. IDK. I just really like it. XD

[kalliel]

Yesssss. I'm totally a rural kind of person, but there is just something really gorgeous about cityscape and the urban grunge fantasy thing--plus, building/architecture kink. Guuuughagh <333 And I love the idea of exactly what you said, the cloak of urban anonymity, but also perhaps the added issues of having to conceal weird shit going down when you're in a densely populate area and not the middle of some dense forest.

Like, how do you carry all your hunting gear around, what with the shovels and huge amounts of gasoline and salt and stuff? Where do you dumb the bodies? Avoid police action? Avoid running into all the other skeevy shit that is probably happening in the same dank areas as your hunt is? WHAT IF YOU'RE INJURED...

The list goes on! So yes yes, A+ urban settings.

[geckoholic]

As for monsters, I have a soft spot for anything that involves altering minds and evoking visions. Not being able to trust what your own head shows you, yes good, MORE OF THAT.

[kalliel]

Mmmmmm you know I'm in for altered states of any kind. And especially mistrust of your own perceptions, given how crucial they generally are to any sort of hunting. (And you know, just being. But especially hunting, when that's really all you've got in your bag of tricks as it is.)

[anactoria]

I liked the changelings episode, but I also felt like... well, if you've got protagonists who are all about family, it's a shame not to take the opportunity fairylore gives for some am-I-really-who-I-think-I-am headfuckery. ;)

Also, a bit of Lovecraft never goes amiss. That's one thing I'd love the show to do more with, but it's pretty incompatible with angels-and-demons mythology, so I guess it's unlikely.

[kalliel]

I did love the changelings episode very much! Though less for how the changelings were handled than for Lisa, I suppose. I totally agree with you--there's so much more to be fruitfully considered with them. mmmm wondrous prospect!

I'm not super familiar with Lovecraft, though I like the idea of all these tentacles. I can't even remember the import of the Lovecraft cameo in that one episode in that one season (lol, I REALLY can't remember, apparently!)--end of S6? But I feel like that would be a wonderful way to kind of get more into that, were anyone so inclined.

And I hope everyone is so inclined. :D

[anactoria]

I think it was that he'd managed to open a door into Purgatory or something? Which kind of fits the other-dimensions aspect of his work, but more generally it's all about the cold indifference of the cosmos and humanity's existence being a "jest or mistake," which is pretty difficult to fit into a framework of broadly Christian mythology.

That said, I'm definitely writing a 'Winchesters go to Innsmouth' fic sometime. That'd be one of the easier stories to work in, I think.

[kalliel]

Ohhhh right, that makes sense. But yeah, I can see how that would be really difficult to fit into a Judeo-Christian mythos. Unless, of course, it was in an alternate reality, and grappling with a world order that actually had nothing at all to do with Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, anything else they've been fending off for years was part of what they had to deal with...