SPN: Brotherly Manlove by Winchesters (11)
Chapter "Scarecrow" in the Catalogue of Touches between the Brothers Winchester. And in case you missed the previous installments:
Pilot. Wendigo. Dead In The Water. Phantom Traveler.
Bloody Mary. Skin. Hook Man. Bugs. Home. Asylum.
11.0
Type of Contact: Attention Hound
Deliberate?: Yes
Chick Flick?: No
Note: You realize this could should have been a shirtless scene? *sob*
(I just adore JP's expression here. "Curses! Foiled again!")
11.1
Type of Contact: One Upmanship
Deliberate?: Yes
Chick Flick?: No
Note: Reason #101 why I love Supernatural. Sam ignores the damsel in distress; heads straight for his brother. (This happened in Devil's Trap, also. A man slaps a woman, and his brother asks, completely without irony, "Are you okay?" It's not funny, but it kinda is, you know? So much of what they do is socially and/or morally inappropriate on the surface, and the summaries for some of these episodes could read very badly, but it all sorta works for them. And, yes, I realize that Dean slapping a woman was a show of him not being himself, thus Sam's concern. I just haven't seen many shows that would take that approach, demon!girl or not. Big damn hero slaps a bound and helpless female with no restraint, complete with the crunch of bones, and of all things his brother could say, he asks him quite gently: "Are you okay?")
11.2
Type of Contact: Herding
Deliberate?: Instinctive
Chick Flick?: No
Note: I owned a Border Collie some years ago, and he used to do this. When he couldn't gain control of the situation any other way, he would circle around that which he was herding, pressing it in with his body while he pushed himself forward into a position of better control. He did it to me all the time when we were walking, and he sensed some danger. In keeping his body in contact with mine, he can both ensure that his body is between myself and danger, and also nudge me out of its path if it draws near. That's what Dean is doing here, whether he realizes it or not. He doesn't know where danger is coming from, so rather than the hands-out, light-touch herding technique, he uses his body, blocking Sam in and danger out. Cutie.
There he goes again. Dean tries so hard to herd Sam and Emily, but those grumpy old people are blocking him in. I would screencap how he's acting here (it's enormously tempting), but this is a brotherly touching picspam series, not a herding!Dean series, so I won't indulge myself. (Hmm. Next spam project? No, I already have one in mind.)
(Random: Have you ever noticed that Sam watches the self-righteous bite the dust with a rather inordinate amount of glee? Whereas Dean has that "Whoa. Karma." face. Sam? It's sort of scary, hon.)
11.3
Type of Contact: Multilevel Caress
Deliberate?: Yes
Chick Flick?: Oh, yeah
Note: This isn't just one half-hearted joke of a hug. This is actually a multilevel caress. Observe:
(If you look closely, you can see Dean's hand near Sam's collar. Click for dorkiness.)
(He touches Sam once here. We can't see it in a cap, but watch it, and you'll notice.)
(And now his hand moves up to start to touch Sam's cheek.)
(Then it drifts down again to land on Sam's collar area, below. Multilevel.)
And what is interesting to me about this is: I think we've seen by now that Dean is a touchy-feely guy. He's been burned, though, by this time, and his touch in the manlove department is far more tentative than it's been in the past. Sam is the one who shrugs off the manlove, and that's also in-character; he's a talker, not a feeler. But he brushes Dean off softly here, going for the joke without the sting, and they both are a little more comfortable for it. Sam, for realizing that this is a sort of forgiveness, and Dean, for learning that he can reach out to Sam without getting burnt.
You know, it all of a sudden struck me, how much of a trapped feeling Dean must have in most of his interaction with his family...? This is almost a perfect opposite of their position in the pilot, where Sam asked Dean to call him when he found John. Dean drove off into the sunset in pursuit of family and in honor of loss, and Sam went back to his way of life. Here, Sam is in the position Dean had wanted himself in but finds himself unable to reach, trapped by John's direct orders. He's left doing what is the Winchester way of life and asking Sam to call him when he finds John. Coming or going, the view must always seem the same. Not on the outside, looking in, but on the inside, reaching out as they unfailingly leave him behind. He's all and only about family, either way, and it screws him over every time. How shitty must that feel?
And how sweet Sam's words must have felt? Putting aside how Kripke worded it as if Dean was the last available option for Sam. (Or my own opinion on how unfair this scenario was to Sam's convictions.) To have Sam choose to stay with him when he could just as easily walked away again and left Dean to dutifully tow the Winchester line by himself, that must have been, in its own way, not merely a fuller awareness of the concept of family first, but also a retraction of something quite personal between them. We don't know just how close they were before Sam left for college, but I think what we've seen over the season is their love growing not deeper or stronger, per se, but simply aware. Here, Sam may be on the opposite side of the shore from where he was in the pilot, but he's in the same stance. This time, however, it's not the fuzzy love of childhood memories and old battles; it's an adult love, an aware love. And when you care for someone as much as these two do for each other, and know that someone stripped bare down to all of his flaws and fears... you can't leave. Not if you're Sam.
[/melodramatic fanwank, please ignore *blames Renault; stops reading Charioteer*]
Wow, Faith is finally next on the list. People have been waiting for that one. :)
(I'm half-way through now. *sniffle*)
Pilot. Wendigo. Dead In The Water. Phantom Traveler.
Bloody Mary. Skin. Hook Man. Bugs. Home. Asylum.
11.0
Type of Contact: Attention Hound
Deliberate?: Yes
Chick Flick?: No
Note: You realize this could should have been a shirtless scene? *sob*
(I just adore JP's expression here. "Curses! Foiled again!")
11.1
Type of Contact: One Upmanship
Deliberate?: Yes
Chick Flick?: No
Note: Reason #101 why I love Supernatural. Sam ignores the damsel in distress; heads straight for his brother. (This happened in Devil's Trap, also. A man slaps a woman, and his brother asks, completely without irony, "Are you okay?" It's not funny, but it kinda is, you know? So much of what they do is socially and/or morally inappropriate on the surface, and the summaries for some of these episodes could read very badly, but it all sorta works for them. And, yes, I realize that Dean slapping a woman was a show of him not being himself, thus Sam's concern. I just haven't seen many shows that would take that approach, demon!girl or not. Big damn hero slaps a bound and helpless female with no restraint, complete with the crunch of bones, and of all things his brother could say, he asks him quite gently: "Are you okay?")
11.2
Type of Contact: Herding
Deliberate?: Instinctive
Chick Flick?: No
Note: I owned a Border Collie some years ago, and he used to do this. When he couldn't gain control of the situation any other way, he would circle around that which he was herding, pressing it in with his body while he pushed himself forward into a position of better control. He did it to me all the time when we were walking, and he sensed some danger. In keeping his body in contact with mine, he can both ensure that his body is between myself and danger, and also nudge me out of its path if it draws near. That's what Dean is doing here, whether he realizes it or not. He doesn't know where danger is coming from, so rather than the hands-out, light-touch herding technique, he uses his body, blocking Sam in and danger out. Cutie.
There he goes again. Dean tries so hard to herd Sam and Emily, but those grumpy old people are blocking him in. I would screencap how he's acting here (it's enormously tempting), but this is a brotherly touching picspam series, not a herding!Dean series, so I won't indulge myself. (Hmm. Next spam project? No, I already have one in mind.)
(Random: Have you ever noticed that Sam watches the self-righteous bite the dust with a rather inordinate amount of glee? Whereas Dean has that "Whoa. Karma." face. Sam? It's sort of scary, hon.)
11.3
Type of Contact: Multilevel Caress
Deliberate?: Yes
Chick Flick?: Oh, yeah
Note: This isn't just one half-hearted joke of a hug. This is actually a multilevel caress. Observe:
(If you look closely, you can see Dean's hand near Sam's collar. Click for dorkiness.)
(He touches Sam once here. We can't see it in a cap, but watch it, and you'll notice.)
(And now his hand moves up to start to touch Sam's cheek.)
(Then it drifts down again to land on Sam's collar area, below. Multilevel.)
And what is interesting to me about this is: I think we've seen by now that Dean is a touchy-feely guy. He's been burned, though, by this time, and his touch in the manlove department is far more tentative than it's been in the past. Sam is the one who shrugs off the manlove, and that's also in-character; he's a talker, not a feeler. But he brushes Dean off softly here, going for the joke without the sting, and they both are a little more comfortable for it. Sam, for realizing that this is a sort of forgiveness, and Dean, for learning that he can reach out to Sam without getting burnt.
You know, it all of a sudden struck me, how much of a trapped feeling Dean must have in most of his interaction with his family...? This is almost a perfect opposite of their position in the pilot, where Sam asked Dean to call him when he found John. Dean drove off into the sunset in pursuit of family and in honor of loss, and Sam went back to his way of life. Here, Sam is in the position Dean had wanted himself in but finds himself unable to reach, trapped by John's direct orders. He's left doing what is the Winchester way of life and asking Sam to call him when he finds John. Coming or going, the view must always seem the same. Not on the outside, looking in, but on the inside, reaching out as they unfailingly leave him behind. He's all and only about family, either way, and it screws him over every time. How shitty must that feel?
And how sweet Sam's words must have felt? Putting aside how Kripke worded it as if Dean was the last available option for Sam. (Or my own opinion on how unfair this scenario was to Sam's convictions.) To have Sam choose to stay with him when he could just as easily walked away again and left Dean to dutifully tow the Winchester line by himself, that must have been, in its own way, not merely a fuller awareness of the concept of family first, but also a retraction of something quite personal between them. We don't know just how close they were before Sam left for college, but I think what we've seen over the season is their love growing not deeper or stronger, per se, but simply aware. Here, Sam may be on the opposite side of the shore from where he was in the pilot, but he's in the same stance. This time, however, it's not the fuzzy love of childhood memories and old battles; it's an adult love, an aware love. And when you care for someone as much as these two do for each other, and know that someone stripped bare down to all of his flaws and fears... you can't leave. Not if you're Sam.
[/melodramatic fanwank, please ignore *blames Renault; stops reading Charioteer*]
Wow, Faith is finally next on the list. People have been waiting for that one. :)
(I'm half-way through now. *sniffle*)