It’s a good guess, but nope, the witch has not found Sam in this AU! I’m glad you’re excited for them, I’m gonna by dying of excitement by the time they’re all cleaned up and ready to post. And of course, maybe I’ll have even more AU’s by the time we get there.
So far we’ve got:
Hello, BA readers. I thought I’d go ahead and say hello myself, after such a lovely introduction by nightmares. I am PL1, though you’ve seen the other few names that’ll work just fine, too. I’m very happy to be a part of the team for Brothers Apart and the related AUs, whether it be writing collabs and contributing to the stories myself or beta reading and editing.
I especially want to thank people again for the response to Bowman showing up in the first chapter of A Lich of Sense. It’s great to see people are already excited! I know I had a lot of fun writing him opposite the Winchester bros.
Like nightmares06 said, if you have any questions about my OCs (including Oscar), you can feel free to ask about them/prompt about them either in the prompts here or over on my writing blog. I’ll do my best to answer them!
Oh, and by the way. You’ll notice, as the story unfolds, that Bowman can be a sassy little guy. Fair warning, I am his mommy and he has to get it from somewhere. 😉 I may only pack salt rounds but for the most part I’m harmless.
No, he is not going to do his song and dance and leave. What I said was after the contest I held last year (x) I asked PL1 to collaborate, and she agreed. This story is not for a contest. It is the tenth part of Brothers Apart, and canon in my series timeline.
There will be a contest soon, but LoS has nothing to do with it aside from being another of my stories.
As for what’s going to happen to Bowman, you’ll just have to read and find out.
A note from PL1: Bowman’s not much of a song and dance type.
In all seriousness, though. The contest last year was a grand time and I was incredibly flattered that it actually got nightmares to ask me to write with her. We’ve worked very hard on LoS, and hope you will continue to enjoy Brothers Apart. Thanks to everyone who gave Bowman such a warm welcome to the AU!
With the release of A Lich of Sense, I’m proud to announce that @neonthewrite is the official co-writer of Brothers Apart and the new co-admin of the Brothers Apart tumblr! We got a hugely positive response to the introduction of Bowman Leafwing and look forward to everyone’s thoughts on the cowritten story as it posts! This was the first story that we worked on together as a team!
She is also the official beta reader of Brothers Apart as well as of Adventures at Bobby’s and will be assisting with editing on the stories that I write alone. When we write a story together, we have the lovely @creatorofuniverses for a beta reader.
If anyone ever has any asks or prompts that concern her characters in the stories, they will be answered by her. I’m sure you’ve noticed the Oscar shorts and answers she’s done so far on the tumblr, and now she’s officially a part of the team. You will see neonthewrite on the posts that she contributes (I try to remember to put nightmares06 on mine, but I always forget). Give her a warm welcome!
For anyone unfamiliar with her work, she has accounts on the following sites:
Feel free to send her any prompts you think of for her characters!
Just a friendly reminder that if anyone has any prompts for Oscar and his adventures with the brothers, they are currently open! Remember, the more prompts and ideas we get for them, the longer the story will go for before it concludes. All rules for standard prompts apply, and you can find them here.
To catch up on the storyline so far, check out the series: Brothers Together.
Asks and submissions are open as always for all AU’s!
The earlier post about Oscar’s family, as many have come to realize, was misleading. While all of it is true, it doesn’t indicate the fact that around a year before Oscar met Sam and Dean in their motel room, his mother disappeared. She taught him everything he knows, but of course the lessons were incomplete because he was only seven at the time. Oscar is a lot tougher than he thinks he is, but he will always be a mama’s boy and he will always miss her.
On day twelve, his head was swimming from the pounding headache of hunger. His body was already frail and weak. Without enough food, he could barely see straight. He packed up a cloth bag with some supplies, and ventured out into the dark.
He’d never gone to one of the human’s rooms by himself before. But he had to.
His mom’s lessons played on loop in his head while he scoped one of them out. It looked like it was empty. Viewing the room from the vent near the floor, Oscar could see a few crumbled pieces of cereal under one of the beds, just in the shadow. His stomach yowled pitifully at him and begged him to run out and get the abandoned food.
He almost did. Oscar had one leg up and ready to swing over the edge of the vent when the bathroom door to the side flew open and a human stormed past, making a beeline for the front door. Enormous shoes stomped into the carpet, and Oscar felt the shaking from his hiding place.
He flinched all the way back to the far end of the air conditioning duct. Oscar sank down to sit against it and shivered, quiet tears racing down his cheeks. Humans were so big. He hoped he never had to deal with one in person.
His stomach whined. Oscar stood up and went back to the vent to peek out.
The human left. This time, Oscar waited and listened even harder to make sure there really weren’t any giants in the immense room.
He dashed out across the floor, his heart pounding. He snatched up every crumb he could find, stuffing them all into his bag and finding that it wasn’t as full as he’d hoped it would end up. But that was it. He sprinted back to the vent, losing the nerve to check out the rest of the room. It was too big. The space around him was too wide and threatening.
Oscar saved the crumbs for as long as he could. If he ate later in the day, he might be able to go to sleep without pains in his middle from monumental hunger. He made it to late afternoon before he thought he might not even have the strength to pick up his bag. And then he tried more dethreading, but his hands were shaking.
He snuggled under the blankets in his mom’s bed again that night, desperately trying to keep himself warm. As he took deep breaths and tried to calm his fearful heart, Oscar went over the events of the day. He’d have to do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. He’d have to collect food on his own now.
She wasn’t coming back, and the realization brought on more tears than even the hunger did.
Oscar was alone.
The earlier post about Oscar’s family, as many have come to realize, was misleading. While all of it is true, it doesn’t indicate the fact that around a year before Oscar met Sam and Dean in their motel room, his mother disappeared. She taught him everything he knows, but of course the lessons were incomplete because he was only seven at the time. Oscar is a lot tougher than he thinks he is, but he will always be a mama’s boy and he will always miss her.
She tucked him into bed before she left. I’ll be back soon, she whispered to him. It was always best to go looking for supplies late at night, while the humans were sleeping. She kissed his forehead and her hair fell over his face, making him scrunch up his nose from the tickle.
And then, with her bag and her safety pin hook, she was gone.
Oscar thought he might surprise her. He crept out of his bed and into the small main room of their house. He would wait up for his mama to get home, so he could help her put away what she found and give her another big hug before going to sleep.
He clambered up onto one of the wooden spools at their table, seating himself comfortably on it. His legs kicked back and forth a little, since they didn’t reach the floor, and he propped his arms on the table to wait.
Oscar ended up falling asleep with his arms at the table, slumped over in exhaustion.
When he woke, he jolted a little to find himself still sitting up. Brown eyes blinked with confusion as he peered around. There was light peeking in from the one crack up in the wall, telling him that it was morning already.
Did mama go straight to bed and not see me? he wondered. Oscar hopped down from his spool and padded softly over to the curtained doorway to his mom’s room. Her bed was a little bigger than his, and the blankets were messy. But she wasn’t in it.
“Mom?” Oscar called curiously, looking around their small home. Of course, no answer came. Oscar shuffled around just in case, looking behind every curtain and under every blanket in both beds. He checked the pantry, but it was just as sparse as it had been before she left. There was only a few days’ worth of food left.
Confused, Oscar sat down on the ring box that they used as a chair. He picked up a scrap of cloth his mother had been using to teach him how to dethread human fabric so it could be used for them. He’d just have to do his chores while he waited for his mother to come home. This wasn’t the first time she’d taken a little extra time finding food for them.
~~~
Five days and five meals later, the pantry was empty.
On the seventh night, Oscar cried himself to sleep, exhausted by the hunger that burned him up on the inside.
On her eighth night away, Oscar picked up his blankets and moved them to the top of the pile on her bed, and then crawled underneath the whole lot. He could still smell her on the nest of foam and fabric that was her bed. He didn’t cry as much before drifting off to sleep.
On the ninth day, he got to eat, because the friendly mouse visited and brought him some stale bread. She had always been so nice. She let Oscar put his arms around her neck and bury his face in her fur, grateful for the present she brought him.
But his mom still didn’t come home.
Another bit of art commissioned from the very talented
over at Deviantart. This time, we have young Oscar from Brothers Together. I wonder where he got that match?
Right now, @gtridel is running a pay-what-you-want commission drive to raise money for rent, so pop on by her page and give her wonderful art a go!
In case you were wondering what Oscar looks like as a child, wonder no more. This photo is what the little guy would look like if he were properly fed. Let’s hope the Weechesters can get him looking more like this while they’re visiting the Knight’s Inn in Hershey Kisses and Salt Lines. Oscar must have more to eat! Get this kid some pie!
(Pictured is actor Logan Lerman from his role in The Butterfly Effect)
Sadly, Oscar doesn’t know much about his dad. The man was gone when he was just a very young (and extra small!) child. Asking his mom where he went didn’t get any straight answers, so he stopped asking. As for his mom, she ended up taking care of Oscar on her own after that, since the other borrowers in the motel are all on the other side of the building. Like Mallory of Brothers Apart, she learned to make thinner threads by fraying human-made fabric to make more comfortable clothes for her and Oscar. She also taught him how to climb a rope, and a few of the other skills someone their size needs to know in order to survive in such a tall world!
You’ll be able to find out more about Oscar’s family and home in the motel in future chapters of Hershey Kisses and Salt Lines.
Brothers Apart 