Okay, I am late getting back to your comment, because my inbox has been swamped since I got back from L.A. Con, and I apologize. I try to keep on top of things, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?
ANYWAY.
Hurray for long-winded comments of doom! It seriously made my day, as I think I may have mentioned to you on Twitter. :)
1- The seafaring prompt totally caught my fancy when I was reading all of them. Not that the others weren't really cool, but I had never written an AU before, and suddenly I had visions of sailing ships and cannons and Davy Jones' locker, and... yeah. I couldn't resist. :)
2- Epistolary-style was a revelation I got when I was trying to figure out how the HELL to make this story work. My usual go-to of third-person limited wasn't really working, and omniscient didn't feel right, and I've never been overly fond of the first person when it comes to SPN (I couldn't tell you why). Plus, as you said, during sea voyages there are loooong stretches of cetology and whale processing and sperm squeezing and... yeesh. I hated Moby Dick when I read it. So epistolary-style saved my story for me AND gave me a way to get into Jimmy's head.
3- Suspense and KRAKEN! Cutting off the letter was a nifty little narrative trick to build up the sense of peril again, and I've been DYING to work a kraken into a fic for ages. So I got to do that! \o/ I'm also really pleased it felt Lovecraftian to you at the end, because I really was kind of going for that sort of feel. Things Man Was Not Meant To Know and all that.
4- I totally fell in love with all my AU characters, Jimmy especially, but Sam and Dean, who managed to stay Sam and Dean even though they really aren't the same tortured souls as in the series. Bound together by tragedy and still working with the same motivations as before. A few people found it weird that Dean was the doctor and Sam the captain, and so I'm REALLY pleased that you understood and appreciated the choice I made there, because it made so much more sense to me that wayé
5- I would not want to be Amelia in this fic. As you said: "Hi honey, things are awful and look to get worse. May die. Love you guys, bye!" It must have been nervewracking, to say the least. :P
6- And CAS! Your prompt actually gave me crazy!Cas as an idea, when you mentioned the Admiral had plans of his own. My original plan was to have Crowley be the main villain, but he served better as the precipitator of the story rather than the catalyst of the plot. Few people seem to have explored Cas' very real propensity towards fanaticism: the boy does NOTHING by halves in the show, and I think if he'd been nudged in a slightly different direction he might very easily have tipped over the edge into fanatical madness. It was a lot of fun to explore that side of him. I do believe you're right, though: he should have died along with the rest of his crew when his ship went down. There was nothing left of who he was after that.
In short, I am THRILLED you liked it. It turned into a hell of a beast as I was writing it, but I regret nothing! \o/
no subject
ANYWAY.
Hurray for long-winded comments of doom! It seriously made my day, as I think I may have mentioned to you on Twitter. :)
1- The seafaring prompt totally caught my fancy when I was reading all of them. Not that the others weren't really cool, but I had never written an AU before, and suddenly I had visions of sailing ships and cannons and Davy Jones' locker, and... yeah. I couldn't resist. :)
2- Epistolary-style was a revelation I got when I was trying to figure out how the HELL to make this story work. My usual go-to of third-person limited wasn't really working, and omniscient didn't feel right, and I've never been overly fond of the first person when it comes to SPN (I couldn't tell you why). Plus, as you said, during sea voyages there are loooong stretches of cetology and whale processing and sperm squeezing and... yeesh. I hated Moby Dick when I read it. So epistolary-style saved my story for me AND gave me a way to get into Jimmy's head.
3- Suspense and KRAKEN! Cutting off the letter was a nifty little narrative trick to build up the sense of peril again, and I've been DYING to work a kraken into a fic for ages. So I got to do that! \o/ I'm also really pleased it felt Lovecraftian to you at the end, because I really was kind of going for that sort of feel. Things Man Was Not Meant To Know and all that.
4- I totally fell in love with all my AU characters, Jimmy especially, but Sam and Dean, who managed to stay Sam and Dean even though they really aren't the same tortured souls as in the series. Bound together by tragedy and still working with the same motivations as before. A few people found it weird that Dean was the doctor and Sam the captain, and so I'm REALLY pleased that you understood and appreciated the choice I made there, because it made so much more sense to me that wayé
5- I would not want to be Amelia in this fic. As you said: "Hi honey, things are awful and look to get worse. May die. Love you guys, bye!" It must have been nervewracking, to say the least. :P
6- And CAS! Your prompt actually gave me crazy!Cas as an idea, when you mentioned the Admiral had plans of his own. My original plan was to have Crowley be the main villain, but he served better as the precipitator of the story rather than the catalyst of the plot. Few people seem to have explored Cas' very real propensity towards fanaticism: the boy does NOTHING by halves in the show, and I think if he'd been nudged in a slightly different direction he might very easily have tipped over the edge into fanatical madness. It was a lot of fun to explore that side of him. I do believe you're right, though: he should have died along with the rest of his crew when his ship went down. There was nothing left of who he was after that.
In short, I am THRILLED you liked it. It turned into a hell of a beast as I was writing it, but I regret nothing! \o/