[lol literally months later - thank god for Gmail bookmarking!]
I really love that first image of the alien bed. It's this motif and sensory memory-experience that seems very tied to moments of adolescent transience--whether that transience can be owed to something as charmed as summer camp, or as loaded as very different kinds of familial disruption. Or being a Winchester, which is a whole 'nother beast. The way that Sam first registers this bed, and then goes on to consider it in terms of the fact that it's not like there's a familiar home to contrast it with, and yet, is really effective.
I also really enjoyed this idea that even though their lives take a very different exit in this fic, there are certain moments and milestones that seem almost locked in history: College/the big world's draw for Sam, versus Dean's reluctance to alter or leave whatever it is they have (however disparate these circumstances might be--hunting into adulthood with John vs. this alternative, small town life without him). And, of course, even as these things are locked into history, this doesn't preclude them from playing out against expectation, perhaps, or precedence, destiny/fate, etc.
AND, OF COURSE. ALL OF THE REQUISITE POMPOMS FOR PRE-SERIES SAM NARRATIVES! \O/
Re: brightly-lit pre-series 5.5k
I really love that first image of the alien bed. It's this motif and sensory memory-experience that seems very tied to moments of adolescent transience--whether that transience can be owed to something as charmed as summer camp, or as loaded as very different kinds of familial disruption. Or being a Winchester, which is a whole 'nother beast. The way that Sam first registers this bed, and then goes on to consider it in terms of the fact that it's not like there's a familiar home to contrast it with, and yet, is really effective.
I also really enjoyed this idea that even though their lives take a very different exit in this fic, there are certain moments and milestones that seem almost locked in history: College/the big world's draw for Sam, versus Dean's reluctance to alter or leave whatever it is they have (however disparate these circumstances might be--hunting into adulthood with John vs. this alternative, small town life without him). And, of course, even as these things are locked into history, this doesn't preclude them from playing out against expectation, perhaps, or precedence, destiny/fate, etc.
AND, OF COURSE. ALL OF THE REQUISITE POMPOMS FOR PRE-SERIES SAM NARRATIVES! \O/