For the prompt meme: one of my head canons is that "Ring of Keys" from Fun Home would absolutely destroy Dean. What did Dean's 'ring of keys' moment look like? OR, alternatively: Dean and drag and/or "Swayze always gets a pass" as applied to To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything specifically.
i love this prompt! and, also, reading it made me realize i would not survive a conversation with dean winchester because i have zero pop culture knowledge. however i just watched to wong foo this year bc my roommates know movies, so i went with that prompt :)
happy pride !!!
content warnings for:
- drug mention
- casually homophobic language in dean's internal narrative (no slurs)
- a description of the scene in to wong foo where sheriff dollard tries to assault vida [begins right under the cut, feel free to DM me for more details if u want/need 'em]
---
“Uh.”
Dean pauses the movie. Looks up. There’s Sam, mouth catchin’ flies, right in the door. While Dean’s tryin’ to have a night to himself in front of their not-haunted TV screen.
“All right,” Dean says, after waiting a nice’n generous stretch of time for Sam to finish his sentence. “Scintillating, man.”
“No, I just—” Sam clears his throat, and steps in, and Dean watches his mouth twitch. “I mean, drag queens?”
It’s chill. If anyone’s gonna be chill about this, it’s Sam. Still, Dean’s shoulders creep up even higher, and he can feel the tension in the middle of his shoulders. “It’s Swayze, dude,” he says. Slugs half a beer and adds, “Swayze always gets a pass.”
“Yeah, I mean—” Sam blows out a breath and says, “Jesus Christ, I’m coming at it all wrong. I just mean, you look fuckin’— tense as hell, sitting there. You don’t have to watch that stuff if you don’t like it.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dean tries to see it from Sam’s angle, but he can’t get it. Why the hell would he watch something he didn’t want to?
Sam freezes. He says, “Oh.” And he comes right over and sits next to Dean, taking up half the couch. His little brother got too damn big at college and Dean’ll never be over it.
Dean looks over, but Sam doesn’t look like he’s about to say anything else, so Dean puts his beer down and hits play again. Sheriff Dollard — the asshole — is feelin’ up Vida Boheme’s skirt, and Dean’s— Dean’s—
“You okay, man?” Sam asks, knee bobbing, while Dean hunches forward, shoulders angled towards the TV, stressed like anything.
“Just don’t want anythin’ bad to happen to ‘em,” Dean mutters, watching. And then — thank fuck — Vida kicks him off her, and he’s on the ground. “Ha. Got it comin’, asshole.”
“Nice.” Sam relaxes, too, leans back while the girls worry over what to do about the cop facedown on the ground. “You seen this before?”
“No, I.” Dean swallows. He doesn’t look at Sam. He says, “Jody recommended it.”
“Oh?” Dean risks a glance over, and Sam’s smiling a little. “That’s nice, man. Didn’t realize Jody was into that.”
“Into what?” Dean asks, prickly, even though— of course he knows. Sam didn’t realize Jody was into gay shit. The kind of gay shit Dean shouldn’t be watching, really, considering who he is. What he is.
Sam shrugs. “Drag, I guess,” he says. “Not like cops have a friendly relationship with queer people, is all.”
“You know all about it, huh,” Dean asks, as the girls recover at a rest stop.
“I did drag in college.”
What. Dean pauses the movie again. He looks right at Sam. “What?”
“I—” Sam laughs, and his hair sways with it. “I dunno why I thought you already knew that. Yeah, man. Like, I only got in drag twice, I think, but— half the people in law school are millionaires with coke habits and the other half are there for, like, humanitarian law or whatever. Drag queens fit in pretty well with both crowds.”
“The things you learn about a guy.” Dean swallows. Quietly, he asks, “You, uh, ever think about… pickin’ it back up?”
“Not really, no,” Sam says thoughtfully. “Not now. There’s a lot of— it’s a little too, uh, visible. Being on display. Not my thing these days.”
Dean thinks about that. He thinks about the idea of it— putting makeup on, seein’ someone he chose in the mirror. Wearing something beautiful and— and— and queer, Jesus, gettin’ on stage and having people look at him and think he’s a goddamn queer and think he’s beautiful for it. “Seems fun,” he croaks out, looking back to the screen. He can’t really say anything else about it.
Sam doesn’t say anything for a moment. Before Dean can press play again, though, he asks, “Do you wanna know how it ends?”
Aw, jeez. Dean looks at the screen. The three of ‘em, gorgeous in their own right, sitting hunched over in a rest stop with their broken down car the way Dean did too often as a kid. If it weren’t for Sam, Dean would’ve been Chi-Chi, he knows it, trailing around wide-eyed after anybody who’d tell him something true. His hands itch with it, with the thought of being beautiful on his own terms. “Yeah, okay,” he tells Sam. “In general, I mean, nothin’ specific. I mean. Is it a tragedy?”
Sam shakes his head. “No,” he says, grinning. Dean relaxes. “It has a happy ending.”
Random, but: have you read orange_crushed's Bellarke fic that Tumblr will not let me link to (All Tomorrow's Parties)? Because she is a heart-rending genius and it seemed like something you might appreciate. Anyway, I love your blog, keep up the good work! :D
Hi, hello, sorry for replying so late! I must have passed out when I saw your ask, because 1) someone very nice messaged me!!! thank, and 2) orange_crushed wrote a Bellarke fic at some point, and I didn’t know, whAT
I’ve read their other things, primarily for SPN, of course - I found Fearson’s Floating Cigarette absolutely charming, the PWP verse gave me a focaccia kink that I will take with me to the grave, and Fata Morgana is, to this day, one of my absolutely favourite s10 fics/demon!Dean fics, along with Kintsukuroi by snarklyboojum (strongly recommended, the way it’s written, demon!Dean’s narrative voice, the scene when Dean sees Cas with his demon eyes? I’m getting shivers just thinking about it, and it’s been a few years already since I read it), ANYWAYS, thank you for bringing to my attention, in the middle of the coronavirus quarantine no less, the fact that the fandom legend orange_crushed has written a Bellarke fic, and it looks perfectly pain-inducing, thank you, T H A N K Y O U
(It’s shocking how hard it was to find an “ew, David!” gif. I’m gonna have to reteach myself how to make gifs just so I can make one myself, aren't I. Le sigh.)
But in the meantime, please come talk to me about Schitt’s Creek. It is my happy place. As shows (and movies) have let me down over and over again all summer, I just keep returning to it, because it’s amazing and hilarious and makes me feel good about the world when nothing else does. Everyone should be watching it and we should all rejoice. And get Moira Rose her Emmy, goddamnit.
24: Which fic of yours do you wish people would ask about more? Why?
waaoww big question !! i just went back to my work list to review ... I would be happy to answer questions about any fic at all! sometimes I wish people would ask me more questions about Thesis 5, but tbh i am already spoiled with very nice fic commenters and anons.
also i would definitely talk about love and miracles if anyone wanted to, but it's also an old (and long!) fic and i've probably spent too long looking at it to know if it really holds up or not
Okay, so I've been watching BoJack Horseman on Netflix, and I feel compelled to ask if you have seen it? Not only is it shockingly good, with some Mad Men-level psychological realism, but also, one of the main characters is an anthropomorphic Golden Retriever. I think you would have strong Feelings about Mr. Peanutbutter.
Hello, friend! Man, it’s been ages since I got an ask. How delightful! And you know, I keep hearing about BoJack Horseman? But no, I’ve never seen it and know very little about it. I’ve had tremendous trouble getting into new shows, with a few exceptions. But your recommendation certainly speaks to its favor, and perhaps I’ll give it a try. I am always here for golden retrievers in any form.
(Also I’ve finally been watching Brooklyn 99 - I did say there were a few exceptions :P - and is Mr. Peanutbutter perhaps related to Sergeant Peanut Butter? …by which I mean is he a horse.)
18. Is there some headcanon you’ve included in more than one fic?
Dean being bi, and Sam having no idea.
26. What fic are you proudest of?
Honestly, I still can't believe I'm 60k words into Can't Find the Light Alone, which makes it more than twice as long as anything else I've written. And I'm even happy with most of those words!
How about 2 and 12 for the movie asks? I'm really enjoying the Purgatory fic!
(movie asks)
2. A movie you think is underrated
I think the fact that Jacques Demy's Donkey Skin is not regularly talked about as one of the all time great fairy tale films is criminal. Maybe the french speaking thing is a big barrier for some people. Or the incest. Idk.
12. A performance you think is underrated
I saw Trust recently and Adrienne Shelley genuinely moved me, such an incredible mix of strength and vulnerability. Julianne Moore in Safe is another favorite performance that I don't see talked about enough.
viridiandecisions replied to your post: 10 Songs on my mind
Oh wow, “Collide” certainly takes me back to 2004!
Hee hee, excellent! I’m pretty sure I didn’t come across it until 5+ years later, but that’s typical for me :) I like the acoustic version better than the radio version, but that’s also typical! This started out its life in my mental song catalogue as a Kara/Lee song, largely due to this really well-made Unfinished Business vid, and then when I found the acoustic version, it morphed into a Javert/Valjean song, largely due to this lovely fic where Javert plays guitar.
