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.
( 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…
Aww, you’re so sweet! This put a big smile on my face. Keep writing and don’t let anything keep you back! And of course, keep reading >w> I’m excite for all these votes.
Now that things have settled down, this is just a public notice. Any fanart or fanfiction based on Brothers Apart is more than welcome! I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.
If you write a story based on BA (or any of the AUs), make sure to credit and link back to the original story so people can find it.
Send me a link because I loooove reading the stories people come up with!
If it fits into any of the AUs, I might ask if you want the story to be canon, and then will count it as part of the AU from then on!
The more the merrier, if you want to create your own AU, feel free! It’s addicting, I promise.
In that line of thought, there are two stories from contest that graduated to canon! I’ve talked with the writers, and they love the idea.
For Brothers Unexpected, the story by @neonthewrite, Pinky Promise is now canon. Sam found himself the tiniest man in his room, and a day later has to deal with being even tinier!
For The Incredible Shrinking Winchester prompt-verse, the great story from TorchMLP, A Dwindling Perspective is now canon. Check it out if you want to see a sliver of what Sam went through while his entire world grew too big to see!
Hopefully these aren’t the only two stories I get to include in the great AUs we’re building! Make sure to support your fellow artists and let them know what you think of those fics! Soon I will include links to them in the masterpost of stories for all to enjoy! Thank you all so much for everything you’ve done, and I wait excitedly to see which story wins the poll!
That’s good to hear! It can be hard when asking things over the internet, since facial expressions and tone of voice don’t come across at all. For BA, it’s definitely my first AU, but now BL is competing with it for story ideas and inspiration, and the others may catch up as well. Having someone to write with means the ideas will explode, and so far haven’t stopped coming. I think BL gives us the chance to try a few new ideas we’ve never played with, and you’ll all love them!
And of course, other AUs have very fun plans in store as well… horror story, anyone?
Hmm, this is a tricky question. I do have female OCs, but it’s not likely they’ll play a large part in this story at any time. Beth and Isabelle aren’t likely to be seen again in the story, and Evelina wouldn’t fit. Unless the story goes for a few more (Supernatural) years, we won’t be seeing Charlie much either. Of course, Mina and Celeste can appear back in the story at any time, so there’s a possibility for you!
It’s great to hear that you’ve enjoying the unique monsters!
There has been a vengeful spirit in the First Interlude story, it was simply glossed over so the short story could focus on their bonding. Plus we’ve got the demon and Celeste the witch hanging around on the outskirts.
However, there are going to be more spirits coming up as well, along with plans for vampires and maybe a werewolf on the periphery. Remember, this includes the AUs as well, so there’s no way of knowing what will turn up when, or who will turn up. Other Supernatural characters may walk their way in at any point in time.
Alright, I shoulda known it’s been too long since this question came up. Time to clear a few things in the air again.
First off, the other AUs are not to be confused with ‘side projects.’ I might consider a prompt a side project, or these asks. But the AUs are fully fledged stories that we put a lot of time and effort into and I will not accept them being sidelined.
For example, BA is at its tenth story.
We are currently writing the sixth part of BL with plans for plenty more.
These stories are actually going to be longer than the majority of stories in BA, since I have fantastic support and a great writing partner now. The ideas continue to flow and haven’t stopped.
On the subject of BA, since this one is a little more tender for myself.
During the fall, I had a falling out with my editor. I don’t like to spread anything, so the full story won’t be told. It boils down to the fact that they wanted to tell me what to write for stories I had already envisioned and they helped find a monster to fit the part. When they started to poke and prod for information on what I was writing constantly, not to mention wanting to tell me what to write, I had to tell them to stop, and later broke things off completely from what was becoming a toxic friendship.
Because of this, I hit the dreaded wall of writer’s block.
I’ve since recovered (mostly) from it, but BA is not being written as fast anymore. So though I do continue on with my planned storyline, I will not be able to support a chapter a week.
Also, I work a high-stress, full time job. Having more than one story posting at a time was a drain for me. Which is why after LoS is complete, we will not be switching back. The entire point of me switching to one story at a time was to reduce the amount of stress I have at home while I’m doing what I love. Don’t expect this to change.
The poll goes up tomorrow, so know that the story that is voted in will be what is posting next. Choose wisely, and know that many weeks of love and work went into them, just like for BA!
—Also, if anyone knocks @neonthewrite‘s efforts for these stories, please remember that she puts just as much work into them as I do, and her characters were invited in by yours truly.
Brothers Apart 