Well, since I don’t know what you’ve read I can’t tell you what you’ve missed, but I do recommend reading the ending chapters. There is a very pivotal chapter that happens after the fight with the lich, along with important developments between Sam and Dean.
The story isn’t going anywhere, and the next story that posts has no relation to A Lich of Sense, so there’s plenty of time to read it!
Truthfully, between the brothers, Dean is actually the one with any ounce of sewing skills. Mallory always took care of it for her tall boys, and Krissy helped get Sam a few new sets of clothing when he was last at Trails West.
On the other hand, Dean dealt with being a hunter on his own for years before he met back up with Sam. Clothing rarely comes with the number of pockets he uses, and he has to repair his clothing a lot from being on the job. Bobby was sure to make sure a young Dean knew his way about a needle, both with clothing and skin, while he was growing up, and no matter how much Dean bitched about it.
Fights depend on a number of things, including circumstances, moods, location, what’s happening… and sometimes it can be hard to predict what’s going to happen!
You might find it hard to believe, but for the most part, when I write, I simply design an idea in my head for a story, and then when I actually get to the parts I’m writing, the characters tend to do their own thing. So I don’t control when they get into fights most of the time. I can sorta see it coming, but there are cases, like with my character Walt, where it just happens.
He’s the first person where I’ve sat there going “pls pls don’t get yourself killed… that’s a hunter you just yelled at what even pls stop”
Nor are all fights rational…
“You son of a bitch!” Sam shouted at the top of his lungs. An eerie echo accompanied his voice, the vase distorting the sound waves before they reached Dean’s ears. “What did you do to my brother? He’d never do this to me, I know it!”
The echo of the same words hit Dean like a punch. “Sam…” His throat was dry and his voice hoarse. “It’s me. You’ve been with me all day, remember?” He was almost pleading by the end, wanting his little brother back.
Sam snarled angrily, punching the wall again. Any sign of his calm, collected demeanor was gone, washed away like a sandcastle when the tide came in. “Liar! ”
All the stories with Bowman and Jacob featured in them are crossovers with Fairy Tales: Bowman of Wellwood. It’s a great read for anyone looking for quality gt, and hopefully in the future these babies will be published! I recommend (I being @nightmares06).
For the other sprite-related asks sent in (that don’t relate to Brothers Apart or our AUs), check out @neonthewrite, where they will be posted.
I’m more likely to boil the potatoes in tears, tbh. Mashed potatoes are my fave, even compared to french fries. Mmm. But yes. I am much more angst when I get salty compared to Neon, which is why I aim to be mellow and avoid controversy, arguments or fights. I get more worked up than she does.
I have a headcanon for what borrowers do, but the little guys in my stories, despite their resemblances, are not actual borrowers from the Mary Norton books. There are some differences, some that haven’t been revealed yet.
As for what my guys do with their dead in canon, we actually do touch on that in a few different stories. They don’t hold any religious beliefs themselves, so it depends on where they live. Each subgroup will handle it differently. The families living in the burrow behind Bobby’s have a place chosen beyond the tiny stream they live next to where they wrap and bury their dead. A tiny field of flowers grows overtop and if anyone misses their loved ones they can come and sit near the field and feel close to those they’ve lost.
( I’m glad you added in the part that you enjoyed the stories with the other characters because otherwise, I am salt on this entire topic after the times it’s been asked )
Okay, so. On Brothers Apart, as I’ve said in the past, I don’t plan on ever dropping the storyline. I have plans for several more stories, including the main arch with the witch, a few other stories with neon, my characters Barry and Xander along with Walt, Bree and the burrow. However, once again, I don’t have enough material or drive to keep up with a post a week for BA. So, I’ll be putting it in the poll just like the others to let everyone vote the story in if they want to read it.
I had a falling out with my editor last year because of Brothers Apart. Not only did they want to tell me what to write, it was a constant litany of “Did you finish a chapter? Can I read it? Are you done yet?” and I can tell you that is the worst way to approach any writer, and that’s a major reason that it’s taking me so long to write anymore. It caused writer’s block for months and I even had to shred an entire story when they wanted to run it. Anyone who brings this up, I’m gonna say now that you’ll probably get only salt for answers because I am not over it and I keep getting reminded, and it’s not helping things.
Another thing is, some of the AUs we wrote are done from prompts from our followers, like Brothers Lost and Brothers Asunder. We’re really hoping everyone likes what we’ve come up with!
So, you’ll see more BA, and hopefully plenty of it, but I need a break. I can’t post more than one story at a time because I have trouble keeping track of more than one and it was majorly confusing when I was posting Lich and Salt Lines at the same time.
Also!! Just because there are other characters in the story doesn’t mean my characters will be any different… It’s a nice change of pace to switch things up on them, and I personally love it. Neon is an amazing writer, and without her I probably wouldn’t be writing BA by now after the shit I went through, so you all might want to thank her.
( If I’ve been saltier in my answers than normal this month, I don’t mean it on purpose. For the last three days this week I’ve watched the temperature gauge on my car rise too high, and go to just the edge of overheating, and no matter what we do it looks like I’m gonna need a new car and I don’t have the cash for that. Plus work is extra stressful. Yaay. )
Sam would certainly be interested in these videos. He could watch them to learn new tricks, and find things to try around the motel room. Depending on the skill level of the people on the video, he might find it tame compared to what he considers normal and everyday acts. Dean would be wide-eyed at the thought of any of this being considered tame.
Bowman, by contrast, would be plain amazed at these feats. Wood sprites definitely don’t climb often, since they have wings to get everywhere, so some of the parkour tricks out there would be very impressive indeed. He can do aerial acrobatics, but as we’ve seen in Lich, even climbing out of a pocket is tough for Bowman.
( Lots of good questions, as all of them have been, in truth. However, I think we are getting a tad bit off topic, seeing as all of this sprite lore is from my original work. I think any future questions on this track should go through my writing blog, and any more questions relating to just my sprite lore without relations to Brothers Apart will be posted there. )
I sure did forget a thing. Unacceptable.
It’s also a hard question. I will stick to wood sprites for now, since my other sprites don’t necessarily fly the same way (some can’t fly at all). Wood sprites don’t have a set “style” of flying. Their wings are very bat like, so they can wheel around like bats if they want to, but they can also glide along pretty skillfully, too. They can dive like hawks or flit like sparrows.
Baby wood sprites do not become lactose intolerant after they’re weaned, but that’s not because they have a supply of the stuff in their diet. This comes back to the wood sprite metabolism question, and the fact that they can process so many things. They could digest cheese, for example, even if they’ve never had it before.
In Wellwood, they don’t eat eggs, but there are plenty of wood sprite communities out there that would happily gather eggs to eat, assuming they can sneak up without the parent birds noticing.
They’d really like cotton candy and they’d be zipping all over the place on so much unfettered sugar.
Fruit sugars are much better for them.
(Art by the wonderfully talented @mogadeer )
( For the misunderstandings, I know it can be hard to phrase things over the internet, so I did ask two other people to look at the asks before I answered them to be sure of my interpretation. I’m not trying to snip at anyone, I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page. I dislike conflict to the point that I’m more likely to hide than answer if anyone wants to start a fight, as neon can attest to. )
Sam and Dean both have very strong personalities. It’s inevitable that they will clash at some point or the other, and this has actually already happened in the stories a few times. Misunderstandings, as well, arise when there’s such a huge discrepancy in size.
In Shadows and Reflections, they spend most of the story misunderstanding each other, the Second Interlude, of course, Sam feels like he’s being ignored and he has no way to leave on his own, and the big argument goes down in The Schism of Fire and Water when Dean feels like he’s being ganged up on and forced to do something he is absolutely against. A byproduct of these arguments is the fact that Dean is indeed over 115 feet tall from Sam’s point of view. If you see someone that size getting mad at you, you’re going to be intimidated, especially near the beginning of getting to know them again.
Over time, Sam’s getting better at both realizing he’s fine no matter how pissed off Dean gets and hiding it if he does get intimidated. There will always be arguments between these two, because what two brothers don’t fight? However, the dynamic of the fights will continually change as well depending on how their relationship is doing at the time.
Of course, Sam’s current solution to Dean being ornery is sitting on him until he talks, which worked pretty well considering Dean doesn’t want to just snatch his little brother up. He is pinned.
A brief look back at The Schism of Fire and Water to remember the most volatile fight they’ve had:
Practically growling, Dean sat back. “I don’t like this. How are we supposed to kill Ilyana if she’s in a container this big?” He held his hands spaced about two feet apart. “I can’t exactly shoot her without shooting through the container and that ruins our entire play.”
Bobby and Sam shared a silent look. Either Dean was the only one who hadn’t figured it out, or he was desperate for another option…
“Dean…” Sam said quietly. “It has to be me. I’m small enough to be trapped with her. I can do it.”
Dean’s eyes lit with anger, glancing between Bobby and Sam with a look of betrayal. “No.”
Bobby tried, “Dean…”
“No!” Dean stomped to his feet, slamming his chair in against the table angrily.
Sam was knocked from his feet, landing on the table next to Nixie with a fearful look in his eyes at the huge, angry human. He’d never seen Dean like this before. He took a shaking breath. He could do this.
Sam scrambled to his feet again. “Dean… it’s the only way. You know I can handle it.” Sam gave Dean his most pleading look.
Bobby joined in with Sam, trying to calm the other hunter down before he did or said something he’d regret. “Dean, I’m just as worried for Sam as you are. But you know as well as I do he’s more than up to the task.”
Dean backed a few feet away like a cornered wolf, almost snarling at Bobby. “Hell no! I’m not signing up for my brother’s funeral! As soon as he’s trapped with her, he’s at her mercy! She already tried to blow him up!” He paused, staring straight at Sam with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Or worse. She doesn’t blow him up. She grabs him and zaps them both off to god knows where and we never see him again!”
Sam was shaking his head. “Dean, she’ll be trapped. She can’t just ‘zap off’ with me the way she wants to. This will work.” Sam put all of his emotion, all his trust into that sentence. He couldn’t convince Dean if he couldn’t convince himself.
Dean wavered. Sam could see it in his stance, the way he held himself uncertainly. But before Sam could call himself victorious, the glint in Dean’s eyes hardened again. “No. I’m not offering you up as a sacrifice. We’ll find another way,” he growled, stomping over to the table. He put his hand down right next to Sam. “We’re leaving, Sam.”
Sam stared at the hand like it was a snake. Dean saw his hesitation. “Well? Aren’t you coming?” he snapped.
Sam edged away from him, towards Bobby. Surely Dean wouldn’t just grab him up. “No… I’m going to stay here and do some more research.”
Past the anger in Dean’s eyes, Sam saw remorse and betrayal. Like Sam had taken a chunk out of him in his refusal. Please… you have to understand, Dean. I need to do this.
I’m the only one who can.
“Fine,” Dean growled. He stomped towards the stairs. “But don’t expect my help if you plan on using my brother as bait!”
A door slammed upstairs, rattling the table. Sam’s shoulders slumped, amazed at the amount of fear he’d felt at the unexpected anger from Dean.
Remember, that’s an angry Dean Winchester, over a hundred feet tall! Not many people could stare him down and win at that size!
I think Sam’s method of dealing with him is pretty effective, all things told…
Wonderful art by @little-miss-maggie!
Brothers Apart 