May 31st excerpt:
It didn’t take long for Stan to grimace; through the door that led to the rest of the house, the muffled barks of Stan’s German Shepherd could be heard. She often got excited when people came home, and he could only imagine how terrifying such a sound would be to Dean, let alone the sight of a relatively enormous dog.
May 30th excerpt:
Dean’s grip tightened on the cardboard, and he rested his head against the wall of the box. The car had rolled to a stop, and above him Stan moved, the shadows outside the slim window shifting around. Dean couldn’t see anything of the guy out his window.
The window to the side showed some of Stan’s designer clothing, the front was only the footwell of the car, and in the back all Dean could make out was the fabric the box was leaning against. He couldn’t even be 100% certain of the box’s position from what little he could make out.
May 19th excerpt:
Stan’s grip shifted slightly around the box as he settled in the driver’s seat. Without moving it, he tilted his head to look at the side where there was a thin gap in the cardboard so its passenger wouldn’t get stifled. Green eyes widened when they caught sight of something contrasting with the muted color of the box.
Fingers. Absolutely tiny fingers were holding on to the side of the box through that gap.
May 18th excerpt:
The opening of a car door gave Dean only a second’s warning before the floor dropped out from under him and the box plummeted as Stan sat down, but it was slower than the other motions. Dean was able to catch himself and push back up against one of the side walls next to an air slit.
While Stan talked, Dean curled his fingers around the opening, trying to anchor himself in place in preparation for any other movements that might come, trying to calm his breathing and focus, but focus was hard to find. He caught a glimpse out the side of the box of a window far overhead, and could only guess that he must be in a car from the way it curved. He clenched his hands on the edge of the air slit, using his boots to push himself securely into the corner.
Artwork by @wolfie180g!
May 17th excerpt:
From within, he could just make out the scene as the box was handed over to the man who had bought his fate on a whim, and he grimaced through the jolt while a new grip settled around his container. Hands much larger and stronger than the girl’s– not that hers weren’t strong enough where it counted, as he knew all-too-well– closed around the box and pulled him closer to the man’s chest, blocking out the light on one side.
Stan’s voice boomed out from above, and Dean’s eyes were wide as he stared up where the human was.
What have I gotten into?
May 16th excerpt:
“Name?“
"Dean,” Stan replied to the attendant sitting across from him with a clipboard in her lap.
She gave Stan another strange look but smiled and clarified, “I meant your name, sir.”
“Oh. Ah, Stan. Stan Baker.”
(2/2)
The new au takes place in a world where borrowers are known and are treated as pets. When Dean was cursed, he was caught and shipped to England and put in a pet store. The lady we see handling him in the snippets isn’t the one who captured him, but simply a person who works there. Stan happens to walk into the pet shop and sees Dean.
@torchmlp asked:
AFIN – Both Sam and Dean are cursed. Sam and Dean are captured and shipped over to Europe at some point in their lives. Borrowers are well known in this world and are caught and sold as pets. When Sam and Dean are captured, Dean is separated from Sam in some way (bought by someone, moved to different location?) and Dean is put up for sale in a pet store where Stan comes and finds him
This is it! The background for Brothers Kept!
In Kept, borrowers (my supernatural-style borrowers) were discovered in the ‘50s. Ever since then, they’ve become highly sought after pets for the wealthy and rich (anyone that can afford the high costs of adopting a living, breathing person).
In America, borrowers are a very uncommon sight due to their rarity. American borrowers are even more costly than regular ones. The Winchesters grew up on the road with their father, not paying much mind to the little people. They knew they existed, it was just that borrowers were so rare they didn’t consider them in their day-to-day lives.
Until the curse.
When they tried to find help to seek out John Winchester, they were caught and shipped overseas, processed for sale. Sam, being young and impressionable, didn’t take long to sell, while Dean, angry, betrayed and mouthing off, got stuck in the store for… years. Constantly put down, disciplined for bad behavior, ignored by customers…
Then one day Stan happens by the store and discovers a borrower in a leather jacket and jeans with scratched out messages on the side of his cage that are a cry for help, and can’t turn his back on him.
We’ll have a second preview later on this week since the story name was guessed as well, A Friend in Need.
His gaze shifted again to regard the other cages and the patrons perusing them. The people of both sizes that he saw appeared entirely different than himself and Dean. Most of the borrowers were dressed in bright outfits, practically bouncing at the front of their cages to catch someone’s eye. The humans were all enamored of them, a child further down prodding his fingers against the glass to tease one.
Dean was visibly very different from the rest. His clothes were darker, almost as though they were advertising him as an edgy biker character of some kind. Yet he was clearly unused to the attention Stan was showing him, and was less than comfortable with it.
A cold spike shot through Stan’s insides when he noticed something in the back corner. Tucked behind a hamster water bottle where the average patron would miss it, there were little tick marks scratched into the glass. Stan tilted his head and noticed words put there and scratched through. Words that broke Stan’s heart to read.
Please save me
Kill me
Stan’s brow pinched together as he reached a numb hand to lightly touch a fingertip to the glass on the other side of Dean’s scratches. He wished he could wipe them away, fix all that had made the poor bloke so miserable.
~~~
Dean couldn’t look away from the man.
Green eyes that put Dean’s to shame, a shock of red hair that looked perfectly wild and a pale complexion that nearly matched the borrowers who never saw the sun, the man touched the glass near Dean with a long finger that outsized the borrower.
Captivated by the intense gaze, Dean couldn’t help but lean forward and flatten his hand against the side of the glass to see the sheer difference between them. Compared to Stan’s fingertip, his hand was too small to fill the entire area, the tips of his fingers falling just short. He could make out every crevice and crack, the whorls of a fingerprint clearer than the words Dean had carved into the wall of his cage.
Dean was small. Insignificant. Nothing, a voice whispered in his mind.
A shock ran through Dean and he drew back from the fingertip like the glass had burned him, quickly pulling his sleeve down over his hand and trying to scrub away the scratches like the leather could possibly fix the mess he’d made.
Everything in this story was inspired by @wolfie180g‘s picture of Dean and Cas!
You will go down as the best name-guesser for the story acronyms! (Other sneak peeks on the way during the week from the rest of the guesses we got)
AFIN is indeed A Friend in Need, but since this is a completely new AU, before we give the full sneak peek, can anyone guess what’s going on in the story? Because this is different than what we’ve tried before, and we’re excited to hear what everyone thinks!
Dean was small. Insignificant. Nothing, a voice whispered in his mind.
A shock ran through Dean and he drew back from the fingertip like the glass had burned him, quickly pulling his sleeve down over his hand and trying to scrub away the scratches like the leather could possibly fix the mess he’d made.
April 22nd excerpt:
In a rage, Dean stormed out of the corner, unable to contain himself any longer. He grabbed the stupid silver bell and whipped it through the air, slamming against the glass to bounce harmlessly off. “Son of a bitch! ”
April 21st excerpt:
Green eyes that put Dean’s to shame, a shock of red hair that looked perfectly wild and a pale complexion that nearly matched the borrowers who never saw the sun, the man touched the glass near Dean with a long finger that outsized the borrower.
Captivated by the intense gaze, Dean couldn’t help but lean forward and flatten his hand against the side of the glass to see the sheer difference between them. Compared to Stan’s fingertip, his hand was too small to fill the entire area, the tips of his fingers falling just short. He could make out every crevice and crack, the whorls of a fingerprint clearer than the words Dean had carved into the wall of his cage.
Brothers Apart 