Tag: avenue of life

Just saw the AoL snippet, and it made me remember that I had meant to send in an ask about if wee Stan considered the brothers his owners. Guess that answers that!

On By nightmares06In sneak peek, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s a definite misconception between Stan and the Winchesters!

He doesn’t quite see himself the way they want him to…

It took seconds for Stan to grab the clip near the top of the pen and haul it all the way back to Sam, panting a little from the effort as he stepped back to give the human room to take it.

Sam was frozen in his search, not having expected Stan to suddenly shoot off in a different direction while they conversed. Seeing how much effort it took Stan to drag the pen over to him drove into Sam how different they were in size, making him feel obnoxiously oversized all over again.

Dean had an identical look on his face, not knowing how to react.

“S-Stan,” Sam managed to get out, delicately picking up the pen. He’d been looking for one, but– “You can just… tell me where the pen is, okay? You don’t have to go through all that work, I can just grab it.”

The ghost of a proud smile that had found its way to Stan’s features for finally making himself of use melted when he saw Sam’s reaction. Now he was confused all over again, worried that he’d done something wrong.

“But… you wanted it…” Stan trailed off awkwardly, trying to think of a way to fix it. But there was nothing to fix. The pen was fetched, Sam already had it. He didn’t understand why the brothers seemed so averse to his actions, but he resolved to do better next time as soon as he found out.

“That’s… not what I’m saying…” Sam said, his conviction fading at Stan’s reaction. “Just… If I want something, you don’t have to get it for me.” It was so hard to come up with words for what he meant. “I don’t want you straining yourself.”

“You’re not a pet,” Dean interrupted, putting it far blunter than Sam would have done. “You know that… right?”

Avenues of life?

On By nightmares06In sneak peek, Uncategorized2 Comments

And, after a long time full of guesses and fun, we have a winner!

In Avenue of Life, Stan Baker has to decide what to do with his life, now that it’s been given back to him. After being enslaved by a witch, the future is completely open, and that’s a terrifying notion for someone new to freedom.

How many roads must a man walk down?

–The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Time for a sneak peek!

“Well,” Sam started, having difficulty beginning, “you see…”

“We’re not going to make your decisions for you,” Dean interrupted, taking over for Sam. He folded his arms on the table. “As far as we’re concerned, your life is your own.” That statement was near and dear to his heart. After seeing the borrower’s mistreatment at the hands of the witch, Dean wasn’t about to be a party to anything like that.

“So if you want, we can keep you with us and find your old home,” Sam offered, listing out the choices the brothers had come up with during the long ride, “or we can find you somewhere else to live, somewhere away from humans.”

Dean shrugged, hampered slightly by the way his arms were crossed. “Or you can skip out on us now. We’re not keeping you a prisoner just because we’re bigger.”

Stan blinked, a confused frown pinching his brow as his attention switched from brother to brother as they spoke. The notion of being allowed a choice for his life was a foreign concept that didn’t process fully in his mind. To him, it made no sense. Sam and Dean were bigger, much stronger, therefore they held Stan’s more insignificant life in their hands. That made him theirs.

Didn’t it?

“I-I,” he stammered when he realized they were waiting for a response from him. He really didn’t know how to answer.

His only other experience with humans was Nicholas, and the witch would occasionally ask him questions that sounded like the answer would be an opinion or a choice, but there was only one true answer that would make him happy. What the brothers were offering didn’t sound so dissimilar to those, and even if they were otherwise different from Nicholas in almost every way, he didn’t want to make them unhappy.