notes for "The Lemon Song"
notes for The Lemon Song:
+ I wrote this fic because I was sad and stressed out, about a fandom thing but mostly RL; it helped A LOT. So thank you, fic! The first scene I imagined was Sam coming over to Dean's room with his pillow; the rest of it was getting him there without doing Sam a sappy, unethically fluffy disservice post-9x12. It's titled after "The Lemon Song," which follows "What Is and What Should Never Be" on Led Zeppelin II, not because it's rife with citrusy sexual innuendos (or is it?), but because it's what comes after the dismantling of a fantasy.
+ Geographically, this fic really only makes sense if Sam only starts narrating TEN HOURS into the drive. Which is unlikely, but I wanted them to be driving through Kansas, so I didn't fix it. Wevs, man. I don't even care. XP
+ This is why Sam was upset about the computer in the motel lobby: [Antique PowerPC processors, lol]
I'm honestly not even sure you'd be able to hook this thing up to 2013-era dial-up without more technical futzing than the motel owner would have cared to do, but I wanted to go for the "comfortingly but irreconcilably old school" deal.
+ I played with a lot of circles in this, though hopefully they weren't overly-apparent circles. I didn't want to overdo it and make them, like, gross SYMBOLIC circles or anything, because then that'd just be silly. But the subconscious idea of circuity, to go with the old school vibe? Mmmm. <33 So there are round hay bales, cylindrical irrigation things, Wheel of Fortune… And a second mention of the round hay bales via the infomercial that follows Wheel of Fortune, because to have round hay bales, well, you need a round hay baler! :D? Also in keeping with the old school/circuity tint: the Stanford wheel of fortunist/the description of the motel room as being like a dorm room/Sam dating his experience of impossibly ambivalent major decisions to being eighteen years old.
+ And as the counterbalance to circuity, the idea of division: Sam's half and half harvest omelet that he's pretty sure should have been mixed together; the lack of snazzy SPN dividers in the motel rooms. Again, though, none of that's really meant to stand out as some stark symbol. A poorly made omelet should also just be a poorly made omelet. And the "no dividers" thing is mostly a joke, because most REAL, contemporary motels do not have that divider thing, yet the Winchesters accept and expect that that layout is totally normal. XD (e.g. "No Asia." / "Yeah, I know. This station sucks." …Because on any given morning, one should always expect to hear Asia on the radio. Totally. XP)
+ I almost gave Sam a Nokia because I thought the Sam/Samsung thing might be too much, but I really liked how Sam and Samsung lined up on the page, so I just kept it.
+ My favorite thing about this fic is Sam not having any of his stuff when he left his car in Wisconsin and got in the Impala with Dean. I'm a huge sucker for the "wait, but what about the AFTERWARD of this dramatic scene?" stuff. As an added bonus, it gave Sam a chance to do some minor innovation and have slightly more interesting stage business. But in the end, I just love writing about Sam and Dean and their Stuff. (Itinerant lifestyle + perfect teeth? Hell yeah they're packing a toothbrush alongside their firearms!)
Also, caranfindel wrote a really great sequel, Bring it on Home, with an ending scene (and ending line!) that makes me all emotional just thinking about it. ("Bring it on Home" follows "The Lemon Song" on Led Zeppelin II!)
+ I wrote this fic because I was sad and stressed out, about a fandom thing but mostly RL; it helped A LOT. So thank you, fic! The first scene I imagined was Sam coming over to Dean's room with his pillow; the rest of it was getting him there without doing Sam a sappy, unethically fluffy disservice post-9x12. It's titled after "The Lemon Song," which follows "What Is and What Should Never Be" on Led Zeppelin II, not because it's rife with citrusy sexual innuendos (or is it?), but because it's what comes after the dismantling of a fantasy.
+ Geographically, this fic really only makes sense if Sam only starts narrating TEN HOURS into the drive. Which is unlikely, but I wanted them to be driving through Kansas, so I didn't fix it. Wevs, man. I don't even care. XP
+ This is why Sam was upset about the computer in the motel lobby: [Antique PowerPC processors, lol]
I'm honestly not even sure you'd be able to hook this thing up to 2013-era dial-up without more technical futzing than the motel owner would have cared to do, but I wanted to go for the "comfortingly but irreconcilably old school" deal.
+ I played with a lot of circles in this, though hopefully they weren't overly-apparent circles. I didn't want to overdo it and make them, like, gross SYMBOLIC circles or anything, because then that'd just be silly. But the subconscious idea of circuity, to go with the old school vibe? Mmmm. <33 So there are round hay bales, cylindrical irrigation things, Wheel of Fortune… And a second mention of the round hay bales via the infomercial that follows Wheel of Fortune, because to have round hay bales, well, you need a round hay baler! :D? Also in keeping with the old school/circuity tint: the Stanford wheel of fortunist/the description of the motel room as being like a dorm room/Sam dating his experience of impossibly ambivalent major decisions to being eighteen years old.
+ And as the counterbalance to circuity, the idea of division: Sam's half and half harvest omelet that he's pretty sure should have been mixed together; the lack of snazzy SPN dividers in the motel rooms. Again, though, none of that's really meant to stand out as some stark symbol. A poorly made omelet should also just be a poorly made omelet. And the "no dividers" thing is mostly a joke, because most REAL, contemporary motels do not have that divider thing, yet the Winchesters accept and expect that that layout is totally normal. XD (e.g. "No Asia." / "Yeah, I know. This station sucks." …Because on any given morning, one should always expect to hear Asia on the radio. Totally. XP)
+ I almost gave Sam a Nokia because I thought the Sam/Samsung thing might be too much, but I really liked how Sam and Samsung lined up on the page, so I just kept it.
+ My favorite thing about this fic is Sam not having any of his stuff when he left his car in Wisconsin and got in the Impala with Dean. I'm a huge sucker for the "wait, but what about the AFTERWARD of this dramatic scene?" stuff. As an added bonus, it gave Sam a chance to do some minor innovation and have slightly more interesting stage business. But in the end, I just love writing about Sam and Dean and their Stuff. (Itinerant lifestyle + perfect teeth? Hell yeah they're packing a toothbrush alongside their firearms!)
Also, caranfindel wrote a really great sequel, Bring it on Home, with an ending scene (and ending line!) that makes me all emotional just thinking about it. ("Bring it on Home" follows "The Lemon Song" on Led Zeppelin II!)