February 22nd excerpt:

He couldn’t read Dean’s face, despite it being almost all he could see. The intense look in those green eyes coupled with the dispassionate announcement planted a seed of doubt. If Sam and Jacob didn’t have as much influence as they thought, Dean could do whatever he wanted about it and Bowman could offer no resistance. His heart fluttered, but he tried to draw himself up to his full height anyway and lifted his chin defiantly. “Where are you taking me?”

Dean glanced down at the sprite as he tucked the jar against his side. “Away.”

Sam has a knife he can use to cut his hair. It’s perhaps not as precise as scissors, but he keeps it sharpened and it gets the job done. For the most part, he doesn’t cut his hair often, merely keeping it straight as it grows out.

Others will find sharpened scraps of metal to use if they live near humans. Those that live out in the wilderness often let their hair grow wild, or can use sharpened stones to cut it if it begins to get in their way, a problem while trying to survive.

February 21st excerpt:

Before they could drop back down into the pocket to get out of the way, Dean got a finger to tap against both of their heads, ruffling the messy bedheads of the smaller pair and generally messing them up more. Then, Dean patted his pocket, and that was the last straw that sent Sam tumbling down, off balance.

“I hate you,” drifted up at them from the bottom of the pocket.

You’ll all see more Brothers Saved for sure 😉 I have a bit of the next part sketched out, though it’s still between Sam and Dean at the moment, with John and Bobby to come back in during future parts.

Dean’s independence is going to have a hard time with letting Sam carry him everywhere, so we’ll have to see how he reacts!

There’s no real way to know how everything will go down without it written, so we’ll just have to wait and see! John, Dean and Sam are all strong personalities, it’s impossible to predict reactions prematurely.

A Village in Miniature

So, work has been a real pill for @nightmares06 and @neonthewrite both, with night especially taking on a lot of shenanigans that really suck the energy out of the entire day. It’s nuts, folks. We have the upcoming Zelda game coming out to look forward to, but in the meantime I (neon) decided to write a little fluff, and we’re gonna share it with you. Enjoy!


Dean walked briskly, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. So long as he didn’t dawdle on his way, people probably wouldn’t notice him. It was a tried-and-true method for sneaking around in plain sight. Dean was no stranger to that. He was no stranger to sneaking into places without paying the admission, either.

He’d never done anything like this before, though. The weight of the responsibility was a lot heavier than the small weight in his front pocket. He couldn’t mess this up.

He made his way to a secluded area that didn’t have many people around. A food vendor was the nearest sign of anyone else, and that guy was about ready to fall asleep under his shade umbrella. Amusement parks didn’t get as much business in the middle of the week during a school year. Kids who played hooky didn’t have anything new to see at the park, so they wandered elsewhere.

Not Dean. He didn’t care for the roller coasters stretching over the trees, but he just knew there would be something like this here if he managed to sneak in.

He found himself on a tidy stone path that wound its way through a miniature village, with tiny houses and miniature farmers tending their gardens. A little trickle of a stream wound around town halls and shops with hand painted signs, and under little bridges no bigger than his hand. Some of the paint was worn off the buildings in the little village, but somehow Dean doubted that would be a problem.

Once he was sure he was alone in the area, Dean found a place at the edge of the mini-village to sit himself down. Then, he finally nudged at his front pocket. “How’s it goin’, fellas?”

A quiet voice grumbled something, and then a teeny elbow jabbed into his chest. Dean watched a tiny shape in his pocket shift, and decided to help out by propping up the flap over it. He let himself grin at the sight.

Sam, not even three inches tall, was the first to climb up the side and grip the edge. His fluffy hair was sticking out at odd angles thanks to the static in the pocket, but it wasn’t nearly as messy as Oscar’s when he followed suit. The even smaller kid could look almost like a dandelion when he woke up in the morning sometimes.

Sam looked around them with wide eyes, while Oscar only barely peeked over the edge of the pocket. The little guy wasn’t quite tall enough to see out, and had to really hang on just to stay up there, but he looked around nervously anyway. Even when he was scared, he’d always tried to stick close to Sam.

“Dean, what’s all that?” Sam asked, looking up.

Dean almost shrugged, but remembered in time that it would jostle the tiny pair in his pocket. He was getting used to that. Somehow. “I figured I’d skip school today, just this once,” he began, heading off Sam’s scolding before it got started, “since it was so nice out. I knew they’d have something like this.”

“Wh-what is it?” Oscar asked, his voice shy and quiet. The kid had come a long way since his fearful glances and squeaks when interacting with Dean. Sometimes the teen wondered if the little guy was just scared as a baseline.

Dean offered him a smile anyway. “Oz, I think you might like checking this place out, if you wanna come out of the pocket,” he said. He pointed at the nearest miniature house. “It might be a little bit lame, but who knows until you look around?”

Sam was practically ready to climb out of the pocket on his own. “Yeah, Oscar, let’s check it out!”

Oscar’s eyes were wide and he glanced around them once more. No other people. It was just one teenager sitting on the ground with two tiny children keeping lookout from his pocket. “O-okay. Maybe just for a little bit.”

That was all the prompting they needed. Dean glanced around once more to make extra sure that no one was watching, and then lowered his hand into the pocket. Sam and Oscar let go of the edge so they could climb onto his curled fingers instead, clinging like the little climbing experts they were.

Dean lifted them out carefully. The contrast between the two kids was always stark when he took them out of hiding. Sam looked around with an innocent curiosity, putting his trust in his big brother to look after them even if he was still nervous about his new size. Oscar always tried to make sure he could hide behind Dean’s thumb or fingers. He wasn’t nervous about the size of everything. He was just nervous.

Dean lowered his hand towards the miniature house. He couldn’t help but smirk at the sight of the two kids scrambling onto the fake grass and standing near the front door. The miniature village was small enough that they almost looked like grown adults next to that house.

Sam bounded up the porch steps and pushed on the door. It swung into the little house, and Dean leaned down to peer into it with them.

“Oscar, let’s go in!” Sam said, turning back.

Oscar was still at the bottom of the steps, staring at the first one. “I-I never saw stairs that I could walk on!” he admitted.

Dean snickered and reached out to nudge Oscar’s shoulder. The little guy looked back at him, startled, but didn’t flinch away from the touch. Dean would count that as a win. “Just give it a try. There might be even more stairs inside.”

Oscar looked back at Sam, who waited eagerly for his friend to join him. Then, he watched his cloth-wrapped feet as they trekked up the few steps onto the porch. “Okay, let’s go see,” he said, letting Sam lead the way into the miniature house.

Dean leaned down further to watch them. He couldn’t hide a grin as Oscar paused in the doorway, swinging the door back and forth on its tiny hinges. The kid had never had anything like that. From what they’d gotten out of him, his door back home was little more than a block of wood he had to strain to push into place.

Oscar glanced out of the house at Dean and grinned. “W-we can go find more stairs and come see you out a window,” he suggested, before closing the door all the way.

Dean smirked, amused and relieved to see that the kids could still play around and be kids, despite everything. He’d make sure to take care of them, even if he looked lame just sitting around in a village of tiny dollhouses. “I’ll be waitin’.”

February 20th excerpt:

As his two little brothers returned to safety, Dean shifted in place with a content mumble. He briefly reached across to itch at the arm they’d climbed up, rubbing the fabric where Sam and Jacob’s path had been. Then, he rested the hand close to the pocket, a thumb draped over the bottom. Letting out a deep sigh, he sank fully back into sleep.

Sam wouldn’t have much reason to keep it a secret from Dean. They had a rocky start at some points, but he trusts his older brother to not bother others in the wall, and getting the recipe out wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Dean considers his burgers perfect, though, so it better be a good recipe.

image

( x )

Sam is definitely not a fan of knocking holes in the walls to get things out, though Dean is known to go this route if he has to– Even going so far as to prompt his hunter-in-training, Jacob Andris, to smash into the walls during a scene in

Brothers Lost.


Sam blanched. “Are you nuts?! ” he sputtered. “What if there’s people living here in the walls? What if the humans see the entrance!”

“There’s already a break in the wallpaper!” Dean said stubbornly. “It was the only way for me to escape!”

Jacob paused, unsure of what to make of Dean’s suggestion. He’d never once thought he would actually be asked to break into the walls like this, by one of the people who called them safety. He didn’t doubt he’d be able to, but all the same it felt like an intrusion. If there were people living hidden here, it really was.

His slightly muffled voice was hesitant when it filtered through the wall. “Well, uh. Okay, guys. Stay right where you are.”

“Holy shit, he’s gonna do it.”

The wall a foot and a half away from them practically exploded inward. Jacob’s boot retreated from the strong kick and the parts of the drywall that he’d splintered sagged. Light broke in and illuminated the angrily stirring dust. 

Announcement!

brothersapart:

This one is a little less exciting than the last announcement, and sadly completely unrelated to Breath of the Wild, but as @nightmares06 has recently had all of her responsibilities at her job increased, she also has less free time.

Because of this, we’ll be lowering the number of times we post chapters each week to 2 for the indeterminate future– it may change back to 3, or if the job remains as stressful, it may stay at 2.

Everyone gets to weigh in on what days of the week we post, so you’re welcome to participate in a quick poll to help us decide!

Vote here!

All dates will have a posting time of 9pm est.

One vote per person, any duplicate votes will be removed. Poll will end when votes stop trickling in.

New weekly schedule will take effect after Garlic and Cold Spots is completed.

After this posted, I realize I will not be able to post on Fridays because of RL obligations, so anyone who chose the Monday/Friday option, please feel free to go back and recast your vote. If you have any issues, please send me a message.

February 19th excerpt:

Bowman stared between them as he contemplated. Finally, his wings relaxed and stopped crowding the glass walls around him. His shoulders slumped and his exhaustion from a stressful day became more obvious. “You … you two live in that one’s pocket,” he said, gesturing at Dean. “Why would you wanna stay in there?”

Jacob paused, for a moment bemused by the thought of actually living in Dean’s pocket. “We use the pocket to stay hidden. We don’t want that other human to see us.”

You’ll see this exact scenario play out in Brothers Unexpected, when Dean runs into a certain tiny someone in his motel room a month after losing Sam!


The motion stopped and Oscar winced. Already his face was wet with tears, silently released when he was paying more attention to his rising prison. This couldn’t be happening, and yet it was. He’d been caught by a human, just like his mom warned would happen if he wasn’t careful. Now, that human had all the control.

Light broke in and Oscar looked up. There was a flash of one of those green eyes again before the hands closed, and he flinched.

Oscar pushed timidly against the hands around him. The thick skin had some give to it, but there was no chance of prying himself free. Oscar had his safety pin in his bag for climbing, but he knew that using it as a weapon would only anger the much larger person. He might draw a little blood before the pin was taken away. He couldn’t help but imagine those hands closing in and squeezing him between them as a punishment. There’d be nothing left of him.

He drew in a rattling breath, a desperate sob, and curled up again. It was too much. A low, plaintive wail escaped him as he began to cry in earnest this time. All consideration of silence left, and his voice came out reedy and terrified. “Please, please d-don’t hurt me!”