sn:/endemic

[eighth_horizon]

Endemic (It Takes a Soul To Hold It)

Dean and Sam check out mysterious underground deaths, and it all becomes too hard to resist in ways Sam wishes they had never discovered.

Gen, 7200 words, PG-13 for Dean’s mouth. Set in season 4, pre-Luci.

“We’ve allowed these…agreements…to go on too long. A wound like this should be cauterized, not patched.”



Photo credit goes to Wheretogowisconsin.

Comments

[trinity_clare]

Ooh, Wisconsin. *clicks* Wow, there really is a lot more freaky stuff per capita in my state.

I like the relationship between Sam and Castiel, or rather Sam's attitude towards Castiel. I liked that Castiel pulling Dean out of hell had repercussions beyond turning Dean into an emo kid, and the sense of responsibility that both Sam and Castiel felt as a result.

[blackcat333-99.livejournal.com]

Dean’s soul had been awake forty years longer than Sam’s, based on what Dean had told him, so it wasn’t hard for Sam to see how that weighed in. Their age difference had become vast, in a way.

I think the thing I love most about this is the honest way you stick to the changes the boys underwent during their time(s) in hell and the effect that that had on them in S4. Sam feels distanced from Dean, for several reasons. And his recognition of the fact that Dean has changed a bit, adding to the reserve, but not negating the love... so well handled. Those 40 years set so heavily on Sam, from a "my brother SUFFERED" POV to the "my brother CHANGED" POV. And some things were a fallback comfortable habit, and some were uncomfortable shifts -- Cas being both intruder and savior, Dean have some different reactions to things than he used to, etc.

So basically... kudos. I applaud your honesty in writing the boys as they were in S4, playing with sandbox but being true to it all the same.

[fufaraw]

I love a good casefile, and this is a good one.

I like the interaction between the brothers, and how concerned, worried, frantic Sam is. And I like the idea that Castiel is even more irrevocably tied to Dean as a result of this rescue.

[missyjack.livejournal.com]

Such an intriguing concept at the heart of this. I love capable wonderful, worried Sam here. And the role you have for Castiel is just wonderful. I lvoe how Sam's perspective on the role Castiel has too.

[tabaqui]

Ooooooh.
I love this. I love Sam's uneasiness about Castiel and Dean's connection, i love how amazingly creepy the burnt out hotel is, i love Dean's stillness even though it is, yes, the product of something we don't want to think about.

I love Sam thinking about how much *older* Dean is.

And contracts with things, that Castiel disapproves of, and Castiel holding Dean's soul in his hands, like water he can mold....
*shivers*

Lovely.

[irismay42.livejournal.com]

Season 4 boys are hard to read sometimes, but so much harder to write. But here you did the near impossible and made season 4 boys not quite as difficult, and you did that mostly by showing us how much Sam still loves Dean, how much he cares what happens to him, and although we still got that in season 4, you made it a whole lot more explicit.

The remains laid on top of each other like dead bodies in bunkbeds was truly creepy too!

[mackiemesser.livejournal.com]

Being stuck to the fountain would be a really awful way to die, I think. That was a great original, and very creepy, concept.

[riverbella.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this so much. Like all of your stories, it was wonderfully atmospheric and uniquely inventive. The idea of the fountain and the bodies patching over the thin place, and the idea that Dean was the right sort of soul for the job by virtue of his resurrection at Castiel's hands, was just the sort of intriguingly mystical take on things I often see in your work. Your stories always have so much depth to them. The feeling I got off this one was much like that of the 'Month of Open Doors' series (which now happily resides on my Kindle for frequent re-reading--along with 'Turn of the Wheel' of course). I also loved the perception that among all the other reasons Sam and Dean were out of step with each other in S4 was the age difference engendered by Dean's years in Hell. Sam's ambivalent feelings about Castiel were very subtly and well described, too.

It is a treat to find a new piece of Supernatural fic from you, always.

[dotfic.livejournal.com]

I really liked your Sam pov in this -- how you got the distance between Sam and Dean in S4, but also the underlying ties between them, that sense of them sort of puling towards each other as they're distanced. This has a really good sense of *place* to it as well -- the details are amazing and helped add to the whole atmosphere of this.

Also loved Sam not wanting to give in and call Castiel, and his reasoning for it, while at the end he's grateful there is another net to catch Dean.

[nickelmountain.livejournal.com]

Wow, I loved this. I'm always interested in Sam's perception of Castiel, and this was just lovely. You capture the otherness of Castiel so well in the way Sam regards him. Also, the Sam & Dean dialogue is perfect - the argumentative tone that Dean keeps going, and the contrast between their connection when arguing and their distance in Dean's silence. May I have your permission to podfic this story?

[eighth-horizon.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Absolutely - thanks for wanting to podfic this. I'd love to hear it when it's done.

[nickelmountain.livejournal.com]

I finally finished it! It's posted on my LJ and amplificathon. Thank you again for letting me record it!

[cybel]

http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/endemic-it-takes-soul-to-hold-it
http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/endemic-it-takes-soul-to-hold-it-audiobook

:-)

[twasadark.livejournal.com]

Just listened to the podfic of this and I really enjoyed it! You have such a thoughtful way of writing Sam especially - you're one of the very few authors that really conveys his intelligence and analytical abilities. Excellent work!