SPN Fic: Absolute Bearing

Sep 26, 2012 21:09

Title:  Absolute Bearing
Genre:  Gen
Characters:  Sam, Dean
Word-count:  3065
Rating:  PG-13 for language
Spoilers:  AU post-7.23
Summary:  Sometimes you only find what you're looking for when you've given up searching.  
Notes:  An immense thanks to nwspaprtaxis, who not only wrote the prompt ( here) that started this whole thing, but also gave me permission to tweak ( Read more... )

dean, supernatural, motel, gen, sam pov, s7, fanfic, sam, library, series: death by water

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Comments 16

sparrow_lately September 27 2012, 07:10:53 UTC
Oh good God, I could kiss you. I finally get in after one of the most singularly shit evenings of my entire life, and this? This is what's waiting for me, and it's incredible.

This is so fucking sad, and measured, and subdued, and good. Oh my word, you poor thing, you never get coherent comments from me, but I can't say how heavily this little story just settled over my heart. My heart broke for Sam in a way I don't think it has since...ever? And oh, the importance of that first truly treasured possession, and the inadvertent and irreversible damage John did without even knowing he'd done it by refusing to go back to it...and then the truly treasured position Dean occupies in Sam's mind and heart, and talking of irreversible damage...

I've stopped making any sense. Suffice to say you hurt my heart in a good way and I am blown away by this, I really am. <3

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prufrock_26 September 28 2012, 17:26:10 UTC
Oh, my. *patches your heart back together with smiley-face duct tape ( ... )

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sparrow_lately September 28 2012, 18:38:49 UTC
*is just going to give you a big hug right now*

The book bit absolutely slaughtered me. Seriously, it's so Sam and such a real and sad detail--like it seriously just makes my heart hurt. I know a hundred kids have written their names in books they later lost track of (and there's always something sad about that, opening a second/third/fourth hand book and finding some kid's insanely careful declaration of ownership), but something about the way you wrote this--the rich detail in describing the book, the starkness of the real-time narrative--GAH no words.

I haven't slept and I'm still bloody sick just try to take from this that I think you're awesome. <3

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tabaqui September 27 2012, 22:14:05 UTC
Oooh.
*sniffles hard*

Oh, Sam. Losing his book, and all his feelings of frustration and fury and longing.... And then finding it again, like some kind of talisman.

And finding DEAN....
*sniffles*

Lovely. Loved it. Good stuff. :)

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prufrock_26 September 28 2012, 17:30:24 UTC
Thank you! The book story is actually something that happened to my father, pretty much as written. I just...got carried away with lost-and-found parallels. I'm glad it worked for you. :)

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shoofus September 28 2012, 18:53:57 UTC
great interleaving there, and the end...powerful and hard

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prufrock_26 October 1 2012, 22:20:00 UTC
Thank you very much!

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borgmama1of5 September 29 2012, 04:28:18 UTC
I could taste the despair.

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prufrock_26 October 1 2012, 22:38:21 UTC
Thank you!

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galwithglasses September 29 2012, 15:27:40 UTC
This is one of the best Purgatory escape stories I've read. What a great job. I love how you weave the story of the used book and Dean together so well and they end up with the description of each face. Sam's thoughts on advertising are very insightful and delightfully cynical.

I really like this line:

The night leaks its summer warmth under his collar, cozying up to his body comfortably after the chill of the supermarket, and he leans his head back to look at the stars, swallowed up in murky clouds but poking through here and there as though someone's forgotten to erase them.

and the rest of the section that comes after it.

And the smell of old books and The Happy Hollisters.

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prufrock_26 October 1 2012, 22:43:19 UTC
Thank you so much! I'm glad that the interweaving of stories worked so well for you. (And, ah, the Happy Hollisters....does it show that I spent most of my childhood wandering around used book stores?)

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