bells pond | notes.
bells pond.
nota bene.
For a picture that spawned a 50K+ story, it's rather unremarkable, huh? It was provided by joans23 in a prompt post I had up and I glossed over it the first time. On a second look, the picture made me think of a single line:
He blew in with the southern wind; Sam felt the warmth of it on his cheeks.
From there, the course was set. Dean would visit Sam every year but only get one day to spend with him. Season five was angsty enough to change this from a short, beautiful story, to a long and winding study of what happens to Sam when he's left to his own devices. If he wanted out of hunting so badly, I was gonna give it to him. It was after watching "The Song Remains the Same" that I started to think about using Michael because, at that point, I really wanted to see Dean say yes. I thought that storyline would be incredibly interesting even if it was only a subplot to the character study of Sam.
Dean's journey is absolutely meant to be secondary to Sam's. I never intended to provide more about the seals than what made it into the story. You know what's going on, but you can fill in the rest of Michael and Dean's story however you like. I even threw Castiel a bone or two just so y'all would know I hadn't killed him off (though I was extremely tempted!). I apologize if you're a fan of Castiel as he serves absolutely no purpose in this story. Really, I like the guy.
I'd like to note that I had the idea of putting Lucifer back in his cage before it came up on the show, though I figured something similar had to be coming from Kripke soon. You can't kill Lucifer. A world without the Devil wouldn't be nearly as interesting. :) Fortunately, after that, the methods differed so I didn't run nearly as parallel of a course to the show. I also came up with Dean having "terms and conditions" for saying yes to Michael before Dean left Sam on the show. I'm not saying Kripke hacked my computer, but I didn't read episode spoilers and draw the ideas from those.
If you're a fan of Dean and wanted to see him play a much larger role, I would remind you that he's the reason Sam's in Bells Pond. Everything Sam thinks or does is because Dean sent him away and Sam spends the entire story coming to grips with Dean's decision. Just because he doesn't have as much face time as Sam doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about him as I wrote every word.
If you're a fan of Eric and wanted to see him and Sam together, I don't blame you.
And of note, Eric Close's taste in shirts is remarkably similar to Jared Padalecki's. They might get along well. But he's gorgeous and amazing (his last name in the fic comes from one of his characters so it wasn't adding an RPS character to the fic).
Talking to me at all over the last few months, you'd know that writing this was incredibly hard for me. Not only is my real life spinning at the pace of a Tazmanian devil, but the storyline got away from me and where I wanted to be. I spent months trying to get it back on track and nearly dropped out three or four times. But I'm blessed with such a supportive group of friends, they wouldn't let me doubt myself.
I wish I had more time on this story. There's so much more I could have done with the ending. I'm the first to admit that it's a little abrupt. But, the fic as a whole is ten times better than the rough draft I submitted and I must have added at least 15,000 words of essential storytelling (and porn, of course) between May 1st and now.
I'm proud of what I accomplished, nothing can take that away from me. I set out to write an epic story of first-time Wincest set in the current season and beyond, and I did that.
Next year, I'm happy to say, BRING ON THE FREAKIN' J2 TOP GUN STORY. I'm claiming it now, it's mine, don't anyone think about writing it or I will use my extremely complex knowledge of drugs and chemicals to turn your skin irreversibly blue like a Na'vi. Be afraid.
Please see the master post for my gratitudes and acknowledgments. Thank you all ♥
master post.