Supernatural Gen Drabble: "Where Shades Of Gray Now Bleed" (Dean, Ruby, PG)

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04 March 2009 @ 10:04 am

Title: Where Shades Of Gray Now Bleed
Author: HalfshellVenus
Characters: Dean and Ruby (Gen, Drabble)
Rating: PG
Summary (Season 3): Dean knows how demons are, or at least he used to.
Author's Notes: Happy Birthday to

sierra_fox, who tried to kill me by asking for Dean's conflicted feelings about himself and Ruby after she saves his life in Malleus Maleficarum. :)
Also for

supernatural100, this is "Reversal."

x-x-x-x-x

She actually saved them, but why? Their options were gone. Why not let the demon side win?

Ruby—her name is Ruby. The word burns at the edges of his mind, a name too earthbound for a demon, like Janice or Daniel or Bob.

Or even Dean.

"I remember what it's like," she'd said, "being human," and God, he didn't—couldn't have—why did she have to tell him?

A year ago, all demons were evil and Dean killed them without thinking twice.

Today he learned there are layers and degrees, and worse yet: someday, the demon could be him.

-------- fin --------

Tags: birthday, drabbles, my_fic, sn_gen, spn_ep_based_fic, spn_s3_fic

18 comments | Say what you feel

18 comments —

( 18 comments — Say what you feel )

shaitanah on March 4th, 2009 07:04 pm (UTC)

Oh, I remember Dean's terror at the thought that he could turn into a demon one day... It was so palpable. And considering what we've learnt from Season 4, very understandable.
Wonderful drabble! I actually love Ruby and her dynamics with Dean)))
LOL, now I imagine a demon named Bob! That's gotta scary)))

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halfshellvenus on March 4th, 2009 07:26 pm (UTC)

Oh, I remember Dean's terror at the thought that he could turn into a demon one day... It was so palpable.
That was the most shocking-- and fascinating-- revelation of that episode. It had such awful implications for Dean (unwillingly becoming what he hates, and then also the question of how many others he might have killed who never chose to be evil). I even wrote a backstory for Ruby because of that episode.

LOL, now I imagine a demon named Bob!
It seems so wrong, doesn't it? Nothing villainous should ever be named "Bob."

This also brings to mind something that I personally find a little weird, which is when pets have "people" names. I read a book years ago where someone named his cat Bobby Seal, and I knew a guy in high school whose family cat was named Martha. I've known actual Marthas-- that's just wrong!

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tsuki_no_bara on March 4th, 2009 07:34 pm (UTC)

did you ever watch dead like me? there was one episode set partly in a vet's office, and one of the guys waiting had brought his rabbit, whose name was eddie. eddie rabbit. heh.

i don't think giving your pet a person's name is that weird, altho, like,

wrenlet's name is casey, and i absolutely cannot call her that because my parents' dog is named casey and it's wrong. they're even both blonde. but the family dog when i was growing up was named max, and that seemed perfectly normal to me. the dog in my icon is named jeffrey.

(and now i'm going to leave a comment for the drabble like a normal person.)

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halfshellvenus on March 4th, 2009 07:53 pm (UTC)

I loved Dead Like Me! Terrific show.

the dog in my icon is named jeffrey.
?!? When I was growing up, pets were named things like "Tigger" (one of our cats has that name now) or "Ginger" (color) or "Fluffy/Spot/Lady/Duke/Rex," or some kind of attribute.

Not so much with the "Martha" or "Jeffrey" or the "Lily the cat" I once knew.

Of course, my husband's father's cat was named "Kitty." :0

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tsuki_no_bara on March 4th, 2009 08:40 pm (UTC)

my most recent roommate's cat was named kitty too. altho the roommate before her, her cat was named ernestine. (we called her ernie for short.)

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tsuki_no_bara on March 4th, 2009 07:40 pm (UTC)

oh dean, if you only knew.... i remember when his thinking switched over and he started to see all the shades of gray and realize what exactly he'd gotten himself into by selling his soul.

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halfshellvenus on March 4th, 2009 07:54 pm (UTC)

What an awful revelation, and how horrible to question all those things you've killed and what it might now mean.

And yet, how fascinating for the viewers!

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cass404 on March 4th, 2009 08:12 pm (UTC)

Oh, Dean. You and your pain are just too intriguing to me. And your fears.

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halfshellvenus on March 4th, 2009 09:43 pm (UTC)

You and your pain are just too intriguing to me. And your fears.

Total word. What a compelling package they make!

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merigirl on March 4th, 2009 08:17 pm (UTC)

loved it....especially the last line!

I have a cat named Alys (welsh spelling of Alice as she came from a tea shop in Wales)and a cat named Starbuck (x-files reference).. my parents have a dog named Sherman.. that would be an intresting demon name..so I'm not bothered about pets with people names.. people with pet names now thats a whole diffrent story...

*wonders if Wendel would make a good demon name*

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halfshellvenus on March 4th, 2009 09:47 pm (UTC)

I'm glad you liked it! What an interesting coda we got in that episode-- so many terrible implications for Dean in it.

I like the name Alys (and sadly, "Alice" is out-of-favor as a human name, at least in the U.S.). We have a Tigger and a (used-to-be-Lightning) Whale/Tubby at our house, both cats. My parents were stuck on the Danish names for their Great Danes forever (Grana, Greta, Odinsee), but moved onto Welsh ones (Morwen and Morgan).

I could see a "Wendel" as a demon. I love "Alistair," though-- it's so overblown compared to usual names. And really, Balthazar Getty is a person who sounds like he's named after a demon. :0

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(Deleted comment)

halfshellvenus on March 4th, 2009 09:47 pm (UTC)

Thank you, Rinne! :)

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cordeliadelayne on March 4th, 2009 11:52 pm (UTC)

Ooh, very good :D

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halfshellvenus on March 5th, 2009 09:03 pm (UTC)

Thank you very much! :)

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erinrua on March 5th, 2009 06:16 am (UTC)

Wow. Beautiful words that twist like a knife at the end. I adore your thinky, artistic brain. Beautiful Dean-snapshot, and it captures the very essence of what I imagine his internal conflict must have been.

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halfshellvenus on March 5th, 2009 09:05 pm (UTC)

I'm glad you think it was true to the scene-- that was such a huge thing for Dean (and the viewers) to find out, and I really wanted to highlight horror and conflict inside him at that moment.

Thanks, Erin! :)

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sierra_foxx on March 6th, 2009 09:43 pm (UTC)

*claps hands together with glee*

Oh thankyou, Karen, this is fabulous! And I didn't mean to kill you with this prompt, lol, but I'm glad I suggested this because you've tapped into Dean's horrifying realisation that things are not always black and white in the demon world beautifully. His fears were riveting to watch, and I loved how this little detail from Ruby changes everything for him. I remember watching Jensen's face during Ruby's words and he showed Dean's mind shift perfectly.

Today he learned there are layers and degrees, and worse yet: someday, the demon could be him.

Gah. Love it. Thanks, so much!

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halfshellvenus on March 8th, 2009 07:38 am (UTC)

His fears were riveting to watch, and I loved how this little detail from Ruby changes everything for him. I remember watching Jensen's face during Ruby's words and he showed Dean's mind shift perfectly.
That was really one of the most vivid moments of Season Three for me, when Dean found out that 1) it doesn't "end" upon going to Hell (and you can still see how far you've fallen), and 2) he'll become what he hates.

Such exquisite agony, finding those things out!

Well, I'm so glad (and relieved) that you liked it and that it wasn't a disappointment! :D

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