Fic: Today's Tom Sawyer SPN/DA ch 2/2

[ladyjanelly]

Title: Today's Tom Sawyer
Chapter: 2/2 (complete)
Fandoms: Supernatural and Dark Angel
Pairing: None  
Characters: Sam and Ben
Rating: PG-13 for violence, some language
Spoilers: For Pilot to Dark Angel and Season one of SPN
Feedback:  Crit hard.  I like it that way.
Notes: The title comes from Rush's song "Tom Sawyer"
Special thanks to

Comments

[haunted_attics]

Damn, I love this.

It's because we know what happens to Ben, that he's not quite right at the end of his life, and because Sam has a lifestyle that's not going to help him fix that.

I love the connection to Dean and I love Sam struggling to keep it together and the way Ben interprets pop culture.

[ladyjanelly]

Yeah. Ben's always gonna be buckets-of-crazy. The best Sam can possibly accomplish is to keep that hunter's instinct pointed in a constructive direction.

I'm really glad the link to Dean showed through. He'll always be a part of Sam's life. Ben's too, now.

I sorta wanted to avoid some of the cliches of kid-fic. Ben works well for that since he's very adult in some ways, and younger than 9 in others.

[em16]

Wow, I really enjoyed this. The canon of both shows mesh so well. I remember watching Pollo Loco, and immediately thinking 'DEAN!' when Ben says 'I'm a good soldier'. The Sam-Ben dynamic is great. I'm definitely looking forward to a sequel, if there's one in the works :)

[ladyjanelly]

Yay, glad you liked it. They really do mesh nice. Wrote the scene when the Pulse happens today at work.

Poor crazy chicken. He broke my freakin' heart with that one, he really did.

I always wondered when they cast Jensen as Alec...Did they know he was gonna be Alec when he was Ben, or did he just do such a good job that they decided to make them twins so they could use the same actor?

[ladyjanelly]

They came up with the clone-sibling thing specifically so that they could get Jensen back to play Alec.

That's so cool. Jensen's just that good, man.

I loved the sibling/parental relationship between Sam & Ben, which seems to be a combination of Sam's experience of parenting from both his dad and from Dean.

Dad and Dean's style is all he has to work with, and the Winchester upbringing is a damn good fit for our little soldier. Sam surprised me, when I was writing the end of this chapter. A part of him keeps going "Dean would have wanted his son to learn this." It's like he's making sure Dean has a legacy. Like he's bought into the "Dean's son" thing, just a little... When I wrote Sam telling Ben to tell Bobby he's Dean's kid, I honestly couldn't have believed anything else he might have said right then.

and (just as importantly) enough love & affectionThis, I think, is the part that makes them best suited for the partner/teacher/father/brother sorta relationship they have at this point. That Sam has limits to how he

[alieneyes]

The characters seem solid in this; Oh, I really want to read more. Yay Ben, aiming his craziness into hunting Nomiles and not Priests.

Thanks for sharing.

[ladyjanelly]

Glad you enjoyed it.

I felt that in Pollo Loco, that Ben just wanted to feel safe. He wanted the Blue Lady to be strong so she could protect him from the things he couldn't fight himself, the confusion, the loneliness, the memories of Manticore and the fear of the Nomlies.

[rinja_pirate]

*parades for more*

I would love to see you continue this, if you're ever up to it. HOMG the characterization is beautiful, and I had little trouble imagining this in my mind. *SQUEE.* Thank you SO much for sharing it with us! :DD

By the way, do you mind if I recommend and link to this story from my personal site? I have a list of recommendations going (the actual page is still under construction, but I've still been adding stuff to it when I find a gem like this one). :3 If you'd rather I didn't, I'll gladly comply with your wishes, but I think this is a very nicely-done story and would love to give it a rec.

[ladyjanelly]

Rec away. I'm flattered. I'd love a link to the rec page too, since I'm sure there's something on it i haven't seen yet.

Of all the things I've written in the past few years, this had the most cinematic feel for me. It was like writing the novelization for the movie in my head.

[rinja_pirate]

Sweet!

Sorry it took me so long to reply; been away from the house a lot this past weekend. Blegh.

Anyway, you can find my recommendations page here, though most of it is anime/manga related for now... I'm fairly new to TV fandoms, so expect more of those kinds of sections to grow. Your story is listed under the Crossovers section, in case you have trouble finding it. :) Thank you so much for letting me recommend it!

[ladyjanelly]

Excellent. Thanks. :)

Sorry it took me so long to reply; I was in NC for work this past week and very few of the people I was staying with had internet.

[tigriswolf]

Oh, Ben and Dean are my favorite characters ever. I really like this story, though, of course, I wish Dean weren't dead.

Well done.

[ladyjanelly]

Honestly? I'm not sure I'm funny enough to write Dean without putting something in his life to angst him down. Sam and Dean and Ben would kill me, I swear. I'm also not good at writing scenes with 3 active, equally important characters.

At least I know my weaknesses.