Here is Oz we've sprung into Spring (and the weather is just gorgeous!). The Northern Hemisphere has fallen into Fall and that's important because it means it's no longer summer and thus the spn_summergen reveals have been posted!

There were so many brilliant entries this year. If you haven't checked them all out yet, do yourself a favour and head over to the comm! I had the good fortune to receive an amazing, inspiring set of prompts from sophiap which really set the muse off and racing!  Thank you for such wonderful prompts! And thanks also to cassiopeia7 and frozen_delight both of whom recc'd the story! Deb, your rec made my day...staying quiet and anonymous was hard! :D

So anyway, here is my entry:

Originally posted by summergen_mod at Too long in the Wasteland



Title: Too long in the wasteland
Author: zara_zee
Recipient: sophiap
Beta: 9tiptoes
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: ~11,000
Warnings: Dean-centric, immortal!MoC!Dean, swearing, violence, attempted assault, hurt!Dean, natural disasters, post-apocalyptic world, suicidal thoughts,[This warning is a spoiler]major character deaths (with a happy ending!)

**Now also up at AO3 -- CLICK HERE**

Prompt: Such a great set of prompts that I really had trouble picking just one. So…I’ve done a sort of hybrid mash-up of a few of them and done some thinking outside the box! I hope it works for you, sophiap.
[Click to see prompts:]Prompt 4: I would LOVE a Sam and/or Dean piece based on James McMurtry's "Too Long in the Wasteland."
Link to Song
With a little bit of:
Prompt 5: Decades or even centuries after they're gone, how are the Winchesters remembered?
And a wee bit of this one too:
Prompt 1:The boys get caught up in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster. There's no hunting things involved, but there's sure a lot of saving people. Or needing to be saved themselves?

Summary: The year is 2015 and Sam and Dean’s battle with the Mark of Cain is suddenly overshadowed by a series of catastrophic natural disasters that devastate the planet and irrevocably change life as we know it.

The year is… actually, Dean is damned if he knows. He stopped keeping track of shit like that after Sammy died. He’s just trying to make it through eternity one step at a time, only ever venturing out of the Wasteland to trade, and to listen to the stories people tell themselves about Before.
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To be honest, I'm still processing the finale. I'm hoping that reading everyone's codas will help with that!
[Spoiler (click to open)]I'm excited about Rowena's storyline. Perplexed by the Darkness and the 'death' of Death. Cautiously optimistic that the boys appear to be together and on the same page and that S11 will see them as a united front and I thought Jared and Jensen were fantastic. Such intense performances from both of them, particularly Jared. It's really little wonder he was so exhausted and wrung out by season's end.
I have to say, I did roll my eyes a little when I saw Dean in the Tight Black Tee-shirt of Evil. And then I settled in to thoroughly enjoy watching Dean smash things up, wearing said tee-shirt.

So anyway, one of my goals for the year was to write a coda for each and every episode and I've done that!

It's been so much fun, not just writing mine, but also reading everyone else's. It has really enhanced my enjoyment of the show and I've loved my interactions with everyone! I'm sort of sad now that it's over.

I want to acknowledge all the peeps at spn_bunker who were so enthusiastic about codas and kalliel for starting spn_x, to give us somewhere specific to squee about S10 and share our S10 works.

I've also been incredibly impressed by the amount of support the members of this fandom give to the Show (the outpouring of support for Jared was just...amazing and awesome and impressive), and to each other. And to other things too, like fandomaid. I didn't do that love meme thing, but I did want to say that I think you're all amazing, genuine, generous people and I feel very privileged to know you all, even if it's just a little.

Alrighty, enough sap. Here is my last S10 coda. Probably the last. Unless further inspiration hits.

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Title: Today could be the worst day of your life
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.23
Word Count: ~1,100
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Title from The Chronicles of Life and Death, by Good Charlotte.

Summary: In which Dean is a rock star, Sammy closes his eyes and Death ruminates on life and death and everything between.

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There were a lot of things I loved about this episode.[Spoiler (click to open)]Competent, lethal Dean was one of them. So hot. I know, I know, shallow. Jared's brilliant performance was another. That man gives everything he's got to his performances and to this fandom and when you meet him he's so lovely and giving. I was so sorry to hear that he's struggling right now, but it honestly doesn't surprise me, given how much of himself he gives, so much of the time. It takes a toll.

Also, if you haven't read it yet, frozen_delight wrote an awesome coda to this episode, No matter how bad it gets which they kindly gifted to me. It's a brilliant and inspired missing scene (and has become my personal head-canon...this happened...it did) with the added bonus of also being a voicemail fix-it fic! I'm not gonna lie, I teared up a little reading it. So if you haven't read it yet, run, don't walk! :)

Here be my fic.

Title: Deliverance
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.22
Word Count: ~650
Warnings: Violence
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: Without your brother, you would’ve gone over the edge years ago.

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Denial. It's not just a river in Egypt. Nor is it the exclusive domain of the Winchester brothers. Since the last episode, it is also my preferred place to hang out.[Spoiler (click to open)]I love Charlie. I know she's not everyone's cup of tea, but I thoroughly enjoyed her character and would've been happy to see a lot more of her.

Image credit: http://i-cant-draw-irl.deviantart.com

It was a grief-filled discussion on cassiopeia7's journal that led to the idea for this fic. Thank you, Deb for starting this thought process. It made me feel a little better. And unless Show (or another fanfic writer) comes up with a better idea, this will be my Charlie headcanon from here on in... :)





Title: Catastrophic System Failure
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.21
Word Count: ~1000
Warnings: [Spoiler (click to open)]Canon character death
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: Every IT geek knows how important it is to have a plan for recovery from a system failure.

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I really enjoyed 10.17.[Spoiler (click to open)]There was Dean hustling pool in a dive bar and well-integrated storylines and did I mention the pool hustling? This episode was definitely up there with the best of this season. :)






Title: Snow Day
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.17
Word Count: ~1,200
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: A witch, a Winchester and the King of Hell walk into a bar.

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There were highs and lows in this week's episode.[Spoiler (click to open)]It gets a great big thumbs up for smart!Sam solving the problem with research and knowledge and for that lovely scene with Dean in the confessional. Jensen nailed the delivery--from the slightly comic oversell of Dean's shortcomings for the ghost's benefit, to his more serious revelations about his hopes for the future. I thought the lighting was particularly well done too; the way the shadows played over Dean's face like the bars on a cage was lovely.
Isabella's story and the Rowena/Olivette scenes I thought were very poorly integrated--jarringly so--and Rowena's storyline dragged. And I actually really like Rowena's character, so I can imagine that for those who don't those scenes must have been excrutiating.

Please writers, may we have more smart!Sam solving problems and kicking ass? And more Sam and Dean working together and supporting each other.

And now, here is fic:





Title: A tendency toward impulsivity
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.16
Word Count: ~400
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: His brother’s gung-ho, take-violent-action-first, ask-intelligent-questions-later attitude is how they got into this whole Mark of Cain mess to begin with.

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I've only watched this episode once so far. There were some things about it that didn't quite gel: [Spoiler (click to open)]The sloppy assumptions about the parasite. Cole's overuse of nicknames. The lost opportunities - for Dean to address the fact that Cole tortured Sam, for Sam to bond with Kit's wife, to talk about his feelings, for Dean to take his shirt off.

The ep did make me think a lot about Sam and Dean as soldiers in a never-ending war and the impact that must've had on them.

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Title: Combat survival
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.15
Word Count: ~500
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: Kit could’ve been saved. He hadn’t been turned; he’d just been infected.

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Another Hellatus! Ahhhhh!

Now that I've got that out of the way, I thought this episode was pretty solid.
[Spoiler (click to open)]Timothy Odmundson's performance as Cain was outstanding. He was frightening in a very other-worldly kind of way, and he looked good while doing it. :) I enjoyed Cas and Crowley and Rowena, because this week their stories were a part of Sam and Dean's story. Jared and Jensen knocked it out of the park, although I could've done with a little more of Sam. The scene where Dean admitted that he was scared, was it just me, or did that feel as if it had been cut? I felt like there should've been something more.

Anyway, I've tried something a little different this week. Just some snippets that I wanted to explore more. The POV changes part way through.

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Title: Remission and Relapse
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.14
Word Count: ~1,100
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: You don’t believe there’s a cure; you never have. And now, in the face of Cain’s spectacular relapse, how can you truly believe that you, with all your weaknesses and failings, will be able to do better?

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I didn't LOVE this episode, but I did like it quite a bit.[Spoiler (click to open)]It was a filler, but it was a MOTW filler with nods to X-files, so I enjoyed that. It didn't move the plot much, but it did give us a few character tweaks, and aside from the truly horrible portrayal of the vaccuous college students, there wasn't too much that truly irked me.
I did think that the boys deserved a face full of Mace for getting out of their muscle car and stalking a grieving widow while wearing flasher coats; writers please note: women are alert to giant men stalking them!! Even beautiful men who look like they might be filming a L'Oreal commercial!

Anyway, my Head!canon Dean got very angsty after this episode, so have some fic.  xx

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Title: Peace
Author: zara_zee
Beta: Not beta’d
Genre(s): Episode coda
Rating: PG-13, Gen
Spoilers:  Episode 10.13
Word Count: ~750
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing in the sand box.

Summary: Maybe it’s time for you to stop thinking of the Mark of Cain as a disease that needs to be cured and start thinking of it as a condition that needs to be managed.

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