FIC: I'll never forget the way you look tonight (Supernatural, Gen, PG-13)
New fic! Written for unreckless for the latest apocalyptothon. Many thanks to rhythmsextion for reading it through for me.
Request: The apocalypse has nothing to do with angels, demons, or Winchesters. They just get to enjoy it.
I'll never forget the way you look tonight
Supernatural. 1500 words. PG-13. Gen. General spoilers to the end of season four.
"Sorry I was wrong about the aliens," said Bobby, cracking open another beer. "Never saw that one coming. Guess that's what I get for thinking I had this world figured out."
"Can't be right about everything," said Dean, putting his feet up on the porch railing and contemplating the half empty bottle in his hand. Bobby had a fair-sized stash, but at the rate they were going through it these past few days, it wasn't going to last. "Wow, I'm going to have to learn how to brew beer."
"That's what you're worried about?" said Sam. "The world ended and you're worried about the beer supply?"
"It didn't end," said Dean. "We're still here, aren't we? I mean, it'll probably get all Mad Max out there before long, but hey, we've faced worse, right?"
Sam didn't look convinced, but then Sam always did take these things a little more seriously. Okay, yes, alien fleets had leveled a bunch of Earth's major cities. Well, most. Probably all, actually, but they lost the last of the communications networks a week ago and had pretty much had to rely on what they could see ever since. That, and common sense.
"It's been a couple days since the sky cleared up," said Bobby.
Dean watched a cloud drift by and for a moment couldn't quite remember what the sky had looked like filled with dark, humming discs. It was more like the memory of something he'd seen in a bad sci-fi movie one time, two a.m. in a cheap motel with the glow of the screen the only thing illuminating the room. The sky now wasn't quite the one he remembered, but it would do.
"Yep," he said, instead of giving them a recap.
Sam paced in front of them, from the open doorway to the end of the porch and back again, hands in his back pockets, then front, then making vague, helpless gestures that looked like something in between shooing horseflies and praising an absent God.
:::
The first attack had been on London: one ship, one blast, one leveled city. Then the invasion disappeared completely, leaving global chaos in its wake. After a full day passed Dean began to think that was it, some kind of karmic retribution for the Spice Girls, but no. There was no way it could be that easy. It had to be more along the lines of testing out the Death Star by blowing Alderaan out of the sky.
It was weird to have a life that had more pressing concerns than aliens flattening a city of millions of people, but then Dean's life had always been a little skewed from normal. Little green men were out in the stratosphere - or whatever sphere it was - and Dean was feeding power bars and Gatorade to his detoxing brother while chasing a Hummer containing the Lord of Darkness up the coast of California.
:::
"Sit your ass down," said Bobby, trying to snag the edge of Sam's coat on his next pass. "You're going to wear a hole clear through my porch floor, and the guy I usually get to fix it up ain't around anymore."
"Shouldn't you be a little more bothered by that?" said Sam. "Shouldn't you be doing something about it?"
"Like what?" said Bobby. "Just what would you have me do, Sam? Seems to me we're doing the only thing we can right now. Sitting quiet and trying to get a handle on things before running off into the night."
"There hasn't been night in days," said Sam, like that was the point Bobby was trying to make. "Maybe it'll never get dark again and we'll all go insane."
"Well aren't you just Little Miss Sunshine," said Dean. "Makes me wish we'd stopped at the drug store before they took out Sioux Falls, stocked up on Valium or something so we could knock your bitch ass out for a while."
"Still trying to figure out why they bothered with Sioux Falls," said Bobby. "Sioux Falls never did anything to anyone."
"Come on, be honest," said Dean. "Haven't you ever wanted to level it? Just a little?"
Bobby snorted. "Got to admit, it probably won't be missed," he said.
:::
The first one they saw for themselves was Chicago, seven days after London. They'd stopped listening to the radio because every station - the ones that were still broadcasting, anyway - was nothing but panic and prayers, so they didn't know what they were heading into. All they knew was that signs pointed to Lucifer's minions moving this way and where the minions made their presence known, so went Sam and Dean.
They weren't in the city proper when it happened, but the shockwave knocked the Impala on her side.
Dean's shriek was almost as loud as the alien fleet that blew up the city.
:::
"Still demons out there," said Bobby. "Still got work to do."
"How do you know?" said Sam. "We know they can kill high-ranking demons without even batting an eye--"
"If they even have eyes," said Dean.
"--so for all we know, the petty ante demons, the crossroads demons and the demons that just go around possessing people for kicks, were the first to go."
Bobby shrugged. "I dabble a little in divination," he said. "But then, doesn't everyone?" Dean raised his bottle to clink it with Bobby's. "There are still demons out there, boys, and a whole lot of other things too that just got a brand new playground. It's gonna be a whole new ball game after this."
"How are you talking about it like we're just going to go on?" said Sam, starting up his pacing again, in a tighter circle this time. He was going to get dizzy and puke soon if he wasn't careful, just like he did this one time in a parking lot in Cedar Rapids, spinning in circles till he fell on his ass.
"Because it's better than not going on," said Dean. "You get that, don't you? Usually it's the world going on and us getting beaten down. This time we're sitting pretty and the world's a mess."
"And that's a good thing?"
Dean grabbed hold of Sam's coat and yanked hard, pulling him onto the bench next to him so he wouldn't have to keep talking at his thigh or his hand or his ass.
"Have a beer," he said, "and enjoy the quiet. Because you hear that? That's something we haven't heard in a long time."
"It's not my fault you crank up the AC/DC every time we get into the car," said Sam.
Dean popped the cap off a cold, sweating bottle and shoved it into Sam's ungrateful hand. "Bitch," he said.
"Jerk," Sam said back.
:::
Lucifer died in Idaho, struck down when the mothership - a mothership? Maybe a steroid-pumped drone? - leveled Boise. Dean and Sam saw it from the I-84, a flare of light way up the highway, a reverberating boom, then nothing.
Apparently angels and demons, gods and devils, were no different to their alien invaders than the swarms of people upon the earth, and when they congregated they were just as easy to dispatch.
Carrying on into the city no longer seemed like the best possible plan so they turned right around and started for South Dakota. The way things were going they didn't even know if they would reach it, but if anyone was equipped to ride out the end of the world as they knew it, it was Bobby Singer.
:::
"I wonder if anyone's going to get the phone lines up again any time soon," said Bobby, looking mournfully at his phone bank through the open window.
"I'm not gonna hold my breath," said Dean. "You'd be better off hoping for a network of Ouija boards, or maybe a resurrected pony express."
"You boys are welcome to half the stash of gasoline in the back," said Bobby, which Dean knew was pretty substantial. It seemed generous, to offer half, but then this was Bobby. He probably had another half dozen stashes all over the area. "You're going to be needing it."
"Probably," said Dean. "But not today."
"You think they're ever going to come back?" said Sam, finally putting his boots up next to Dean's.
Dean shrugged. "Either they will or they won't," he said. "Either way, we'll still be doing the same thing, right?"
"Saving people, hunting things."
"And avoiding alien death rays," said Dean. "I don't know about you, but I was always doing that. It's just a little harder now than it used to be."
"You watched too much television as a child," said Sam, but he relaxed and looked up at the amber sky and Dean figured there were worse things.
Request: The apocalypse has nothing to do with angels, demons, or Winchesters. They just get to enjoy it.
I'll never forget the way you look tonight
Supernatural. 1500 words. PG-13. Gen. General spoilers to the end of season four.
"Sorry I was wrong about the aliens," said Bobby, cracking open another beer. "Never saw that one coming. Guess that's what I get for thinking I had this world figured out."
"Can't be right about everything," said Dean, putting his feet up on the porch railing and contemplating the half empty bottle in his hand. Bobby had a fair-sized stash, but at the rate they were going through it these past few days, it wasn't going to last. "Wow, I'm going to have to learn how to brew beer."
"That's what you're worried about?" said Sam. "The world ended and you're worried about the beer supply?"
"It didn't end," said Dean. "We're still here, aren't we? I mean, it'll probably get all Mad Max out there before long, but hey, we've faced worse, right?"
Sam didn't look convinced, but then Sam always did take these things a little more seriously. Okay, yes, alien fleets had leveled a bunch of Earth's major cities. Well, most. Probably all, actually, but they lost the last of the communications networks a week ago and had pretty much had to rely on what they could see ever since. That, and common sense.
"It's been a couple days since the sky cleared up," said Bobby.
Dean watched a cloud drift by and for a moment couldn't quite remember what the sky had looked like filled with dark, humming discs. It was more like the memory of something he'd seen in a bad sci-fi movie one time, two a.m. in a cheap motel with the glow of the screen the only thing illuminating the room. The sky now wasn't quite the one he remembered, but it would do.
"Yep," he said, instead of giving them a recap.
Sam paced in front of them, from the open doorway to the end of the porch and back again, hands in his back pockets, then front, then making vague, helpless gestures that looked like something in between shooing horseflies and praising an absent God.
:::
The first attack had been on London: one ship, one blast, one leveled city. Then the invasion disappeared completely, leaving global chaos in its wake. After a full day passed Dean began to think that was it, some kind of karmic retribution for the Spice Girls, but no. There was no way it could be that easy. It had to be more along the lines of testing out the Death Star by blowing Alderaan out of the sky.
It was weird to have a life that had more pressing concerns than aliens flattening a city of millions of people, but then Dean's life had always been a little skewed from normal. Little green men were out in the stratosphere - or whatever sphere it was - and Dean was feeding power bars and Gatorade to his detoxing brother while chasing a Hummer containing the Lord of Darkness up the coast of California.
:::
"Sit your ass down," said Bobby, trying to snag the edge of Sam's coat on his next pass. "You're going to wear a hole clear through my porch floor, and the guy I usually get to fix it up ain't around anymore."
"Shouldn't you be a little more bothered by that?" said Sam. "Shouldn't you be doing something about it?"
"Like what?" said Bobby. "Just what would you have me do, Sam? Seems to me we're doing the only thing we can right now. Sitting quiet and trying to get a handle on things before running off into the night."
"There hasn't been night in days," said Sam, like that was the point Bobby was trying to make. "Maybe it'll never get dark again and we'll all go insane."
"Well aren't you just Little Miss Sunshine," said Dean. "Makes me wish we'd stopped at the drug store before they took out Sioux Falls, stocked up on Valium or something so we could knock your bitch ass out for a while."
"Still trying to figure out why they bothered with Sioux Falls," said Bobby. "Sioux Falls never did anything to anyone."
"Come on, be honest," said Dean. "Haven't you ever wanted to level it? Just a little?"
Bobby snorted. "Got to admit, it probably won't be missed," he said.
:::
The first one they saw for themselves was Chicago, seven days after London. They'd stopped listening to the radio because every station - the ones that were still broadcasting, anyway - was nothing but panic and prayers, so they didn't know what they were heading into. All they knew was that signs pointed to Lucifer's minions moving this way and where the minions made their presence known, so went Sam and Dean.
They weren't in the city proper when it happened, but the shockwave knocked the Impala on her side.
Dean's shriek was almost as loud as the alien fleet that blew up the city.
:::
"Still demons out there," said Bobby. "Still got work to do."
"How do you know?" said Sam. "We know they can kill high-ranking demons without even batting an eye--"
"If they even have eyes," said Dean.
"--so for all we know, the petty ante demons, the crossroads demons and the demons that just go around possessing people for kicks, were the first to go."
Bobby shrugged. "I dabble a little in divination," he said. "But then, doesn't everyone?" Dean raised his bottle to clink it with Bobby's. "There are still demons out there, boys, and a whole lot of other things too that just got a brand new playground. It's gonna be a whole new ball game after this."
"How are you talking about it like we're just going to go on?" said Sam, starting up his pacing again, in a tighter circle this time. He was going to get dizzy and puke soon if he wasn't careful, just like he did this one time in a parking lot in Cedar Rapids, spinning in circles till he fell on his ass.
"Because it's better than not going on," said Dean. "You get that, don't you? Usually it's the world going on and us getting beaten down. This time we're sitting pretty and the world's a mess."
"And that's a good thing?"
Dean grabbed hold of Sam's coat and yanked hard, pulling him onto the bench next to him so he wouldn't have to keep talking at his thigh or his hand or his ass.
"Have a beer," he said, "and enjoy the quiet. Because you hear that? That's something we haven't heard in a long time."
"It's not my fault you crank up the AC/DC every time we get into the car," said Sam.
Dean popped the cap off a cold, sweating bottle and shoved it into Sam's ungrateful hand. "Bitch," he said.
"Jerk," Sam said back.
:::
Lucifer died in Idaho, struck down when the mothership - a mothership? Maybe a steroid-pumped drone? - leveled Boise. Dean and Sam saw it from the I-84, a flare of light way up the highway, a reverberating boom, then nothing.
Apparently angels and demons, gods and devils, were no different to their alien invaders than the swarms of people upon the earth, and when they congregated they were just as easy to dispatch.
Carrying on into the city no longer seemed like the best possible plan so they turned right around and started for South Dakota. The way things were going they didn't even know if they would reach it, but if anyone was equipped to ride out the end of the world as they knew it, it was Bobby Singer.
:::
"I wonder if anyone's going to get the phone lines up again any time soon," said Bobby, looking mournfully at his phone bank through the open window.
"I'm not gonna hold my breath," said Dean. "You'd be better off hoping for a network of Ouija boards, or maybe a resurrected pony express."
"You boys are welcome to half the stash of gasoline in the back," said Bobby, which Dean knew was pretty substantial. It seemed generous, to offer half, but then this was Bobby. He probably had another half dozen stashes all over the area. "You're going to be needing it."
"Probably," said Dean. "But not today."
"You think they're ever going to come back?" said Sam, finally putting his boots up next to Dean's.
Dean shrugged. "Either they will or they won't," he said. "Either way, we'll still be doing the same thing, right?"
"Saving people, hunting things."
"And avoiding alien death rays," said Dean. "I don't know about you, but I was always doing that. It's just a little harder now than it used to be."
"You watched too much television as a child," said Sam, but he relaxed and looked up at the amber sky and Dean figured there were worse things.