Bright as a Gorgon’s eyes.
a March-Stalkers Mighty extra
Written: 15-19 March 2013.
Pairings: Castiel/Dean.
Rating: Mature.
Genre and tropes: Domesticity, some fluff, some h/c, virginity, oral sex, cuddles, cookie-dough fights, fairy tale.
Word count: 13k.
Spoilers: Plenty for March-Stalkers Mighty, none for the show.
Summary: Dean had always looked at him like that. He’d always looked at Castiel and made him into something new, something that Dean believed in so strongly that it became reality before Castiel had even noticed he was changing.
Warnings: Grief, and mention of character deaths that took place before the story opens.
Notes: Timestamp to March-Stalkers Mighty: key scenes and sequences during the action of MSM and after it, from Castiel’s point of view. Given this retells parts of that story but doesn’t detail the action in between, will make very little sense without having read the main fic.
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth.
Sonnet XX, William Shakespeare.
Look not upon me, for thine eyes are wounding:
Yet do not go away: come, basilisk,
And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight.
Henry VI part 2, William Shakespeare (III.ii).
[Love] adds a precious seeing to the eye:
A lover’s eyes will gaze an eagle blind.
Love’s Labours Lost, William Shakespeare (IV.iii).
... with Hector’s eyes glaring bright as a Gorgon’s eyes or Ares’, man-destroying Ares’.
Homer’s Iliad (Book VIII.
Now.
“You gotta open your eyes, Cas,” Dean whispered in his ear, breath huffing distraction down the side of Castiel’s neck.
“My eyes are open,” Castiel grumbled at him, and promptly made a liar of himself as Dean tucked his nose into the crook of Castiel’s neck and laughed, as Dean’s hand on his waist shifted with the horse’s movement and brushed warm against Castiel’s skin through the loose ties at the side of his tunic.
( Read more... )In Which I have too many WIPs.
Mar. 17th, 2013 03:00 pmFrom my Gabriel Big Bang, which is a sequel to La diritta via and therefore a Castiel-and-Dean-and-Gabriel-in-Purgatory fic:
“I knew this story was Sleeping fucking Beauty,” Dean muttered.
It wasn’t a cloud, the dark mass around the base of the tower. It was a forest. Specifically, a forest of thorns.
( Read more... )----
From the so-far-unnamed sequel to Losyngerie, and so an alternate ending to season 7:
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel’s gaze swung back to Sam, wary and so very tired that Sam ached with it.
“What, Sam?” he said, like the words were too heavy for him to lace them with sarcasm.
Sam wasn’t quite sure what he’d meant to say, but what came out was, “Remember the night before Elysian Fields?” And, as Gabriel’s forehead furrowed up and his mobile mouth twitched into something sour, “I prayed to you. You hear that?”
( Read more... )----
From a timestamp for March-Stalkers Mighty, from Castiel's point of view:
Now.
“You gotta open your eyes, Cas,” Dean whispered in his ear, breath huffing distraction down the side of Castiel’s neck.
“My eyes are open,” Castiel grumbled at him, and promptly made a liar of himself as Dean tucked his nose into the crook of Castiel’s neck and laughed, as Dean’s hand on his waist shifted with the horse’s movement and brushed warm against Castiel’s skin, through the loose ties at the side of his tunic. “This horse is too tall,” he complained when he opened his eyes again. He tried to scowl down at the smelly, inelegant beast between his thighs, with its coarse mane and the steady thud-thud-thud of its dish-plate hooves over the soft sod, but it was hard to build up a good scowl with the heat of Dean’s body pressed up warm against his back, nestled snug between his wings.
Dean’s mouth broadened into a grin against Castiel’s shoulder. Castiel knew exactly what that one would look like on his face, but he’d never felt it pressed into his skin before. “My angel, scared of heights?”
( Read more... )An Acorn Button
a March-Stalkers Mighty extra
All children, except one, grow up.
…
Wendy also said that she would give him a kiss if he liked, but Peter did not know what she meant, and he held out his hand expectantly.
“Surely you know what a kiss is?” she asked, aghast.
“I shall know when you give it to me,” he replied stiffly; and, not to hurt his feeling, she gave him a thimble.
“Now,” said he, “shall I give you a kiss?” and she replied with a slight primness, “If you like.” She made herself rather cheap by inclining her face toward him, but he merely dropped an acorn button into her hand, so she slowly returned her face to where it had been before, and said nicely that she would wear his kiss on the chain around her neck.
Peter Pan, James M. Barrie, 1911 after the play of 1904 (Chapters 1 & 3).
Pairings: Castiel/Dean, Gabriel/Sam preslash.
Rating: Teen.
Genre and tropes: Pre-slash. Fantasy AU. Dean over-reacting when it comes to his little brother.
Word count: 5700.
Spoilers: None - AU.
Summary: So, okay, it took a while for Dean to work out that it was even possible for a guy to want love and sex with another guy, when it came to him and Castiel. And what with having finally got his act together there, and this whole angel-human treaty business, he’s been a bit distracted, okay? Can’t blame a guy if he takes a week or two to work out what that realisation means for the way his little brother looks at Gabriel.
Warnings: Passing reference to xenophobia or homophobia. Dean being a bit of a dick. Brief teenage angst.
And Sam… Sam was over there, looming by the feed shed, with his eyes practically shining. That fond knowing smirk of his was half-hidden behind his hand, like he could see what Gabriel was doing and every one of his flaws all at once and still wanted him for his hero.
And hold on. Hold on just one freaking second. Dean recognised that look, but not from Sam: he knew it because it was what he saw on Castiel, in Castiel’s eyes when he looked at Dean.
They were thy brothers.
a March-Stalkers Mighty extra
She wished to give her brothers pleasure, and plucked the twelve flowers, and thought she would present each brother with one while at dinner. But at the self–same moment that she touched the flowers the twelve brothers were changed into twelve ravens, and flew away over the forest, and the house and garden vanished likewise. And now the poor maiden was alone in the wild forest, and when she looked around, an old woman was standing near her who said, “My child, what hast thou done? Why didst thou not leave the twelve white flowers growing? They were thy brothers, who are now for evermore changed into ravens.”
Grimm’s Household Tales, The Twelve Brothers.
Word Count: 6800.
Pairings: None, though it might be read as pre-Gabriel/Sam in the context of the whole series. Mention of past Gabriel/OFC, past Gabriel/Lucifer/Michael.
Rating: Mature, mostly for Gabriel’s state of mind.
Warnings: (Mouse-over individual warnings for mildly spoilery details, if desired.) Hermaphrodite character. Mention of trans/gender confusion. Angst, and grief. Violent thoughts, mental and emotional instability. Memories of kids being bullied, handling weapons, being attacked by monsters, and facing the start of a civil war. Mention of unprotected sex – I’m pretty sure Terry Pratchett’s is still the only fantasy universe with condoms. (Withdrawal is not an effective contraception, kids.)
Spoilers: None (AU).
Summary: This summary assumes you’ve read the main story. Gabriel’s mind is jumping wildly all over the place here and his disjointed thought process will make even less sense if you don’t know what's going on; and besides, there are a lot of details about his family and the situation of angels in general that are assumed knowledge here which are only discovered by the humans later on.
Told from Gabriel’s point of view. Takes place after the events of Passus II, pes dexter (i. e., after Dean meets Castiel, drags Sam out of bed, and confronts Gabriel in his cage in the barn to demand answers about how angels can possibly be people). Dean having left, Sam re-enters the barn to get answers to his own questions. Gabriel, raw with the shock of hearing about his brother’s death and with his imprisonment, struggles to retain his grip on reality and on sarcasm.
March-Stalkers Mighty: Deleted scenes
Oct. 23rd, 2012 10:29 pmScenes that never made it in, or were substantially altered. As, for example, the scene in which Gabriel did actually get to throw a book of porn at Dean's head, rather than sending Anna to do it on his behalf.
The greatest change made after the first draft was complete was a major reshuffle of the events of the second half of the story, starting when Castiel, Gabriel, Sam, Gwen, and the other angels returned from outside. The problem was that the denouement took too long: Castiel wasn’t injured by the demon that was possessing Dean, the angels stayed outside the town for a few weeks, the meeting in the field was the first time that Bobby and Jody and Rufus and so on had met them, Lucifer attacked and was defeated (wounding Castiel’s wings badly in the process), and only after that did the angels (all of them, including Gabriel) move into the town as Castiel recovered. This meant that almost all of the wrapping up of the emotional plot and all of Dean’s realisations about his feelings happened well after the conclusion of the demon plot, with the result that the “finale” dragged out over several chapters. Obviously, several scenes were substantially rewritten in this process, or dropped altogether. These are they!
Jump to:
Alternate ending to the scene in which Sam, Gwen, and the angels return.
In Which Gabriel Throws Porn About.
The meeting in the field.
Clowning muddily in Ellen's outhouse.
( Read more... )So, Pelion was originally going to be much longer: one scene from each of the weeks that Gabriel, Sam, Castiel, Gwen, and Rachel were Outside, told in such a way that they conveyed a sense of what had been going on throughout the rest of the week. But that one central scene, with Gabriel and Sam, just kept getting longer and longer, and I didn't have much free time. The other problem was, of course, the one scene with Gabriel and Sam is fairly simple, and doesn't need a lot of context, but start introducing the other characters and their various grievances with each other and discussions about plot, and suddenly I'd be needing to provide a very hefty summary. And this was intended for the Sabriel minibang, and therefore needed to stand on its own.
So, here's the sketch for the other weeks. Only week 1 is complete.
Also there is a sketched attempt to make the massage scene turn porny, but the boys weren't up for it. So to speak.
March-Stalkers Mighty: Author's notes
Oct. 20th, 2012 09:59 pmAuthor’s notes and readers’ questions.
In which I ramble. There are a few issues here that I felt like addressing, and some links to replies that questions that readers have asked in comments. If you have any questions - about the story, about the verse, about authorial decisions, about what happened off screen - leave a comment to this post and I’ll probably notice! The links to questions asked in comments may take you to LJ, AO3, or DW, as I post on all three.
Notes:
On sexuality.
On monsters and the mediaeval.
On the chapter titling scheme.
On the images.
March-Stalkers Mighty: Extras
Oct. 20th, 2012 08:44 pmExtras.
All timestamps , world-building notes, and deleted scenes will be linked from here.
Note that I add a comment to this post whenever I do add a new one (mostly timestamps), so if you want to know if I add to this verse, this may be a handy post to follow.
As with all my fics, you can find any of these on AO3 as well.
Timestamps (in chronological order).
They were thy brothers.
Gabriel’s point of view. The scene between Gabriel and Sam in the barn, that first night.
Pelion, with all its woods.
Sam’s point of view. Sam wakes up in Gabriel’s wagon, newly human-shaped again. A.k.a., That Thing That Happened Which Dean Didn’t Get.
An Acorn Button.
Dean’s point of view, with brief Sam coda. Set just after the main fic: Dean works out that Sam has feelings for Gabriel.
Bright as a Gorgon’s Eyes.
Castiel’s point of view on events of the main story, including some new scenes with Dean, Rachel, and Gabriel, and carrying on to about three weeks after the main fic.
Every Fertile Inch.
Six Castiel/Dean sex scenes, one per week, for the first six weeks after the end of March-Stalkers Mighty. Alternating points of view between Dean and Castiel. Basically, lots of fumbling awkward how-do-we-do-sex-and-also-this-relationship learning.
Timelines.
Authorial timelines, and Jody’s entries in the town annals for the first few months of the story.
Deleted scenes.
In which the boys make Ellen’s bathhouse muddy.
In which Gabriel throws porn at Dean’s head.
In which Castiel is not injured by demon!Dean and that whole scene ends rather differently.
All the unfinished scenes from Pelion, plus attempted porny massages.
Poll.
Regarding which timestamps or ficlets you’d like to see, once I get the time to do any.
Essay on Beowulf.
This is the academic paper I wrote on Beowulf a few years ago, from which I drew the themes I refer to in March-Stalkers Mighty. I expect it to have a tiny tiny audience. :) The post is friends-locked (both on here and on livejournal), because do you know how many hits my academic blog gets when I so much as mention the word 'beowulf' from people searching for 'beowulf essay download' and 'beowulf paper'? The answer is 'many'.
If you've an LJ/DW account, feel free to friend me even if we don't know each other - I just use 'friend' as a list of 'people who write interesting things' myself, so I've no objection to other people doing it. If you don't, and really really want to read this essay for some reason, send me a message letting me know your email address and I'll get it to you.
You might also want to take a look at the author’s notes and readers’ questions for this verse.
Pelion, with all its woods.
a March-Stalkers Mighty extra
Proud of their strength, and more than mortal size
The gods they challenge, and affect the skies:
Heaved on Olympus tottering Ossa stood;
On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood.
Homer’s Odyssey, trans. Alexander Pope. (Book IX.)
Written for the Sabriel mini-bang, 2012. Artwork by machidieles.
Word Count: 10800.
Pairings: Gabriel/Sam, background Dean/Castiel.
Genre: Slashy pre-slash.
Rating: Mature.
Beta: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kototyph
Warnings: Slight elements of PTSD. Hints (without details) at intersexual characteristics.
Spoilers: None (AU).
Summary: If you haven’t read the main story:
The Winchesters live in a small, very isolated town in the middle of the barren monster-ridden marches, which has very little contact with the outside world. The second-worst of the monsters that inhabit their lands are the demons. The very worst are also the most newly arrived, and they are the angels. Dean and Sam have both buried the memories of the silent boy with black wings whom Dean had used to play with as a child, years before any other human every saw an angel. But when Castiel returns to bring an end to the war, and the familiar pedlar Gabriel turns out to have been an angel all along, things get messy - and not only for them.
The hunters, including Sam and Dean, turn on Gabriel and lock him up in the barn; Castiel is shot out of the sky and almost dies before Dean and Sam find him; and finally, Dean has to help the archangel escape and make a wary ally of him, to save Castiel’s life.
Sam has, in the course of the main story, been turned into a dog by tripping an old curse, and has fled the land with Gabriel and Castiel to avoid a kill-or-be-killed situation with the other hunters. Together they’ve just come up with a solution: the curse can’t be lifted, but it can be transmuted, so that Sam is now a skinwalker.
And now that you’ve read the main story, or the summary:
This story is told from Sam’s perspective, while he is out in the wide world with Gabriel, Castiel, Gwen, Rachel, and the other angels. Sam returns to consciousness, human-shaped again after a month on four feet, with Gabriel at his bedside. Gabriel’s fumbling attempts to soothe the pain of transformation tumble them hard and fast towards emotions and vulnerabilities that neither is ready to deal with.
