Crowley's Christmas Fic Exchange: The Christmas Cat for KIngstoken

[crowleysxmas]

Recipient: kingstoken
Author: fledge
Genre: Poetry, Gen
Word Count: 1,025
Characters: Sam, Dean, Castiel, Jack, Crowley
Original Prompt:  Cas finds a hairless cat in the snow and decides to bring it home for the holidays, Sam is unsure about this, and Dean is not impressed

Comments

[midnightsilvers]

Hurrahhhhh 🙌🏼😄🎉 bravo! This is wonderful! I started reading and enjoyed the ‘night before Christmas’ intro and then got to the end of the first paragraph before I realise: hang on a minute… it’s all in verse?? 😮😮🎉🎉🙌🏼🙌🏼😄😄😄 ahhhhhh 🎉 you rule, you clever person you!
Congratulations on your rhyming and meter. It flows beautifully! 🤗 and what a delightful story!
I laughed out loud at Dean’s repeated “that’s not a cat”! 😂😂😂 and:
“You won’t sneeze from this,” Sam reminded him smugly.
“Remember, it’s hairless!” But Dean quipped, “It’s fugly.” - 😂🎉 massive kudos on not only the use of ‘fugly’ but also rhyming it

[fledge]

Ahhh, thank you so much! So glad you enjoyed it! 😁🤗🥳 Believe it or not, it was actually easier to write poetry than to discipline myself to keep to a (very) short story - well you know what I'm like. But you can't let the muse run away with poetry, because there just isn't room.

I actually also spent some effort on keeping the thing to an exact 1000 words - although LJ for some reason doesn't seem to agree. I bet ao3 will come up with yet another total. It mystifies me how any of us manage drabbles for DEW...

No, you don't mess with kobolds! I suppose some time I'll have to write the story about why Crowley hates them so much. Of course, the Winchesters weren't supposed to know he brought Juliette - that was just insurance, in case they didn't want him popping round for a New Year's dram!

I had a lot of fun writing this, and wracking my brain for all the rhymes! Thank you for your lovely comment! 🥰🥂🎇

[candygramme]

Since you thought to write Kingstoken's story in verse
I'll respond the same way. (Though I'll need to rehearse.)
Gremlin fell on his feet -there's no doubt about that
And kudos to him for resembling a cat.
This kobold was really both tricky and wise
to appear as a cat. What an awesome disguise!
For as long as Dean feeds him he'll help with the chores
and although he loves meatloaf he'd rather have s'mores.
But a warning, if hungry he'll make life a misery
So keep that joint rotating on the rotisserie!

This was fun. This was clever. I really enjoyed it.
and now, no more rhyme-talk. I am going to avoid it!
There's only one other thing I need to say -
Next time we have a challenge, I hope that you'll play!

[fledge]

::Upstanding applause:: Thank you, and what a fantastic rhyming response too! 🤩🤩

You understand the kobold completely, this is good. Of course you do, you have three cats. On the whole, I think Crowley only dislikes them because they see right through all his machinations - and a cat (or a kobold) can look at a king, as they say. But you have guessed correctly that they don't have to look like cats; their only trouble is, whatever shape they wear, it doesn't have fur! So they look really awful in most forms. (I am wildly inventing a whole new monster class for the show, here.) I don't think Dean would have taken wildly to a hairless dog, either, so a hypoallergenic cat was just the ticket!

I'm always up for the Big Pretzel challenges! I might have had my fill of poetry for now though. Ooh, I have done art, (!) fic, a drabble and poetry for this comm - clearly, you challenge in more ways than one! What will I bring to the table next, I wonder...

[candygramme]

Ooh, I have done art, (!) fic, a drabble and poetry for this comm - clearly, you challenge in more ways than one! What will I bring to the table next, I wonder...

I'm pinning my hope on an interpretive dance! Bring it!

[fledge]

OMG don't tempt me! (Check out the icon lol... I made it!)

Dean says, as long as I don't make him dance, we're okay.

[swellison]

Wow, this was a wonderful way to start out the New Year, thank you! The poem flowed smoothly using the "Night Before Christmas" rhythm/scan and the imagery was amazing. Your characters were very much in character, I loved Dean's constant, suspicious "that's not a cat!" and the way everyone else ignored him, more concerned with the poor kitty's comfort. You managed to include and rhyme "fugly', too. Awesome!

[fledge]

Thank you so much, so glad you enjoyed it! It was huge fun to write. 'Fugly' oddly enough came much more easily than some of the rhymes in there, I had to wrack my brains over a few of them! =^o^=

[kingstoken]

Amazing! Great job with the poem format. This was so cute! Cas carrying it around in his trench-coat, and Jack, like any kid, claiming he will take on all the responsibility of a pet, and of course the guys can't just have a normal hairless cat, and poor Juliet, who didn't know what she was in for. I had to look up Kobold, I had never heard of them before, but that was a fun page on Wikipedia to read.

Thank you so much for writing this for me! I really enjoyed it.

[fledge]

So glad you enjoyed it! ^_^ I had the plot down right from reading your prompt - first reaction, Dean's "That's not a cat!" a la Joey Tribbiani from Friends - second reaction, well of course, he's got to be right, but not the way he thinks, because this is Supernatural... But I find it very difficult to write short pieces, and this was threatening to take over Christmas, so I hit on the idea of wrestling it under control with poetry. I'm a little surprised, but very pleased, it worked as well as it did!

I'm vaguely familiar with the legends of kobolds, as I'm a fan of folklore, but I have to admit my ideas conform to 'real' mythology a bit more than I expected! I just read the wiki article now and I'm really bowled over by this bit: "Should someone take pity on a kobold in the form of a cold, wet creature and take it inside to warm it, the spirit takes up residence there." I swear I never knew that before! Probably more than anything, I was influenced by the goblin pets in George MacDonald's "The Princess and the Goblin" - which

AAHHHHHHH

[1bad_joke]

This was the absolute CUTEST! There was so much more plot than I was anticipating and that twist at the end! I was laughing at Dean's quick turnaround on whether Gremlin can stay. From "fugly" to "Well, if he keeps hellhounds away" lol. I thoroughly enjoyed all the humor you injected into this. I heard every character's voice so clearly. This was truly a wonderful and successful iteration of Twas the Night Before Christmas. I know concise writing is a bit out of your comfort zone, but you did a fantastic job. Great word choice and wit. Congrats to you for tackling this project at such a chaotic time. It goes to show your talent and brains served you well in adapting!

Marvelous, marvelous poem! Such fun and so much humor.

Ps: I loved, loved, loved Jack in this! He was so sweet and full of childlike enthusiasm!

RE: AAHHHHHHH

[fledge]

Thank youuu! ❤️ I'm so glad the characters came through because with poetry, it's a bit harder to have them speak naturally, although that 'fugly' was inspired! Of course Dean warmed to Gremlin, any enemy of Hellhounds is a friend of Dean Winchester (and I think, secretly, he was pleased it liked his cooking).

I am really pleased that my time saving idea worked so well. I've always enjoyed poetry but it was a bit of a challenge at times to find rhymes for everything; great fun though, and less of a challenge, overall, than trying to write concisely. I suppose next Christmas I'm going to have to write a follow-up; obviously, also in rhyme!