All in the details

[ratherastory]

Gah. Sometimes writing fanfic is a bit like smacking my head against a wall, especially when writing pre-series stuff.

I keep having to remind myself (as someone pointed out) that the Impala has no seatbelts. That even though cell phones existed when the teen!chesters would have been hunting, they were expensive and large and clunky and that only John would have had one, and only for emergencies. That Dean only invented rock salt-filled shotgun shells while Sam was away at Stanford.

So I get bogged down in trying to remember all of these details and then suddenly I don't remember what I was writing anymore. :P

Okay. I have a fic to finish, and once that's done I'm off to finish the latest installment of Fusion.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

Dean has a cell as of the After-School Special flashbacks.

You seen the 6x02 preview clips? If not, mind me talking about one of them? No plot spoilers, I promise.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember that, but I doubt that they would be using the cell phones for anything other than emergencies or keeping in touch with John when he's out of town. I remember my mother's cell phone from back then, and it was roughly brick-shaped. ;)

I haven't seen any of the clips. I am trying to be a really good spoiler-phobe this year (with varying degrees of success) because I find I enjoy the episodes more when I have NO idea what's coming. So, uh, can it wait until Saturday morning? :)

[alexseanchai]

Yeah, Dean's cell was about as big as Dean's head.

Bah.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

It really was! *g*

They were also really expensive. I'm curious about how John managed to obtain one. Probably with ill-gotten gains. ;)

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Really? I don't remember it being that big. He had it in his jacket pocket and it seemed about the same size as a modern flip phone. I think that ep was set in 1197, so it might have been a Motorola Startack:

http://www.mopo.ca/uploaded_images/motorola-724156.jpg

[alexseanchai]

It's Saturday morning east of the Atlantic! :-D

Dean: *sits in Charger*
Charger: BEEP BEEP BEEP
Sam: Seatbelt.
Dean: Seatbelt? What are we, in third grade?

oh for fuck's sake LJ STOP ASKING ME ABOUT SCREENING/DELETING COMMENTS IN OTHER FOLKS' JOURNALS.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I SAW! THEN I LAUGHED AND SQUEED BECAUSE MY CAR DOES THAT TOO!

Car: *beeps*

My mother: "What's that?"

Me: "Buckle your seatbelt."

My mother: "Really?"

Me: "Just do it. You're upsetting the Yaris."

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

And you wonder why I am daunted at the prospect of writing a fic? *chuckle*

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not so bad! You should try anyway! Fact-checking is why we have betas. ;)

[hsifeng.livejournal.com]

Slowly...slowly...

But at least I am doing research! Occult manuscripts, here I come!

*w00t!*

[bellatemple]

The salt-shell thing annoys the hell out of me -- both personally in my writing and in other people's when they forget it. Also of note: Sam didn't know that the demon showed up on his six month birthday until the end of season one -- nor did he know it was a demon until midway through season one.

But then, I'm crazy nitpicky about details like that. Most fanfic folk don't really seem to care, so you might not have to worry about them too much.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

See, that's such a big part of canon (Sam not knowing about the demon until the end of Season 1) that I never really forget it. It annoys me when it shows up in other fic, unless the fic is blatantly AU, which is fine.

I keep trying to write the salt-shell thing into my fic, because, really, I'm AMAZED not a single hunter thought of it before Dean. I mean, someone suggested it to me for one of my characters in an RPG ten years ago, so it's not that far-fetched. Anyway. Canon.

[bellatemple]

Dude, a farmer in an episode of Bones was firing rock salt. Non lethal and discourages trespassers, win/win for her.

I see people skip past the "Sam not knowing it's a demon" thing all the time. They'll just casually reference "the demon that killed Mom" in preseries fic. Drives me up the wall.

[alexseanchai]

How did Sam not know the demon showed up on his six-month birthday? He knew his birthday and Mary's date of death, right? I'll believe he hadn't known it was important that it was six months exactly, I'll even believe he hadn't realized it was six months exactly in the way I never seem to realize Christmas is coming until after my sister's birthday a week and a half into December, but I don't believe he didn't know.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

No, he knew it was when he was six months old, but he didn't know it was to the day. He found that out in Season 1. I find it hard to believe too, but then the Winchesters SUCK at communicating. ;)

[bellatemple]

From Salvation:

John: Yeah. The night of the kid’s six month birthday.

Sam: I was six months old that night?

John: Exactly six months.

It's possible, as you say, that it's simply something he hadn't connected before. On the other hand, I just recently (like, a week and a half ago) rewatched season one, and the fact that Jess dies exactly on the anniversary of Mary's death isn't mentioned. I think it's actually quite possible that Sam didn't know the exact date of Mary's death. Unlike John or Dean, he wasn't aware enough to remember the date precisely for himself, and though fanon tends to have John and/or Dean mark the anniversary yearly, there's no indication in canon that they did this. Sam also didn't know that Dean carried him out of the house that night until Home, and it's indicated that John had only told the two of them sketchy details.

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

My big problem with the salt shells is that they *already exist*. So on the one hand, they weren't using them, but on the other, they were dummies for not thinking of it sooner.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

LOL

See my response to bellatemple above. I mean, seriously? No other hunter EVER thought of that? Sheesh.

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

I mean, it's not like they're esoteric. Anyone that into guns must have heard of them previously. For goodness sakes, I've got a friend who makes it a policy to keep them on hand in case of bears! Though if I may digress, personally, in case of bears I'd rather have plain old shot, because I'd rather not *just* piss the bear off. (Bears are actually a problem where I live. One particular 700 pound one that's been terrorizing- well, vandalizing- my street for the last three years actually made the international news last spring).

[phx69.livejournal.com]

The Impala does have seatbelts. I've seen the car. By 1967, seatbelts were standard although they were not legally required to be used.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Gah. I give up. You and kasman can argue amongst yourselves whether or not the Impala has seatbelts. :)

[phx69.livejournal.com]

LOL! I work for a GM dealership and one of the first things I did was inquire into whether or not a '67 Impala would have seatbelts. I was told yes.

Then about three years ago I got to hang out with one of the Impala's they use on the show. A rare priviledge that I just lucked out on (unfortunately the pictures I took from my cell phone are crap... it was dark and raining but the lot guy let us have a look and oogle while they were filming at a location about a block away). And the car I saw did indeed have seatbelts. Lapbelts. I got to touch the vinyl where the boys bottoms sits and I was delighted.

Anyways so that is where I am getting my info.

However, fan fic is just that, so it really is up to you whether or not your car has seatbelts, because, like I said, they were lapbelts so it isn't something the viewer sees anyways :)

Sorry, I wasn't trying to make things more difficult.

[embroiderama]

I forget about, and have messed up, the salt shells thing. I do tend to think that somebody else would've thought of it before Dean, but canon is canon.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

That part of canon totally gets on my nerves, but I try to respect it.

[embroiderama]

Now, if I were writing a story that involved hunters other than the Winchesters, I would feel totally okay making it that they had salt shells since multiple people could have come up with the idea and then just failed to share it. :D