[RPF]: Just Don't Mention the "D" Word

[lemanya]

just don't mention the "D" word
by lemanya
art by celeste_abel

one || two || three || four || art
PDF

Pairing: J2, with a side of many others (non explicit)
Words: 28,202
Rating and warnings: NC-17, with swear words. Also, it's about reapers, so there is death, but handled in (hopefully) a lighthearted way, and my apologies if I offend or cause anyone grief. I did try to be careful.
Beta: The absolutely fantastic tesserae_
Disclaimer: Let's be honest, I don't own anyone involved as a character in this story, and I wish them all the best for their real lives. I have only used their names, with love and admiration.

Summary:
Jared always thought he'd die a hero's death. But he doesn't. Far from it, in fact. His afterlife though? As a reaper? Is pretty awesome, even if he is paired with the oldest and grumpiest reaper in existence, Jensen. Jared's determined to break through, and get Jensen to like him. He's just has to keep an eye out for the sexual advances of his fellow reapers, all the while learning how to be in the job, and to remember, to never, ever mention the "d" word.

Author's Notes and Thanks:
This year, for the spn_reversebang, I claimed the extraordinarily talented celeste_abel, who's amazing prompt set off a whole world in my head of life as a reaper. If you've ever seen Dead Like Me, you'll have some idea of how this fic might just go. Celeste was paitent and completely understanding toward the fact that RL kicked me over backwards and stole my lunch money these past couple of months in regards to writing this fic, and as a consequence, she never got to read the second half of this ahead of time. I hope you enjoy it, it was a pleasure working with you and your art just blew me away. Please, go check out all the amazing stuff she did and leave her some love too.

Much thanks to my beta, tesserae_, who stepped in with no knowledge of me or my writing, and still managed to fix my commas and dialogue punctuation with little time and only half a fic. Furthermore, she's responsible for every American spelling you see here. If there are any mistakes, ANY at all, they are completely my fault and when I get more sleep I'll go back and fix it up proper.

To the mods at spn_reversebang, thanks for hosting it again this year. You did a wonderful job.

Finally to you, the reader, I hope you enjoy this fic. It's officially my longest ever, and has taken the title of "my baby" in the process. Please comment, as comments are always welcome and brighten up my day.

The pdf is now available, here :). For people who DLed previously, I apologise, my numerous mistakes that I did not catch during editing have now been fixed :)

Comments

[aythia.livejournal.com]

Omg yes! I've been looking forward to this so much :D

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Eee! I hope you like it! :D :D

[maria9631.livejournal.com]

Going to go read. I loved "Dead Like Me"

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoy it! :D

[no-ones-sleep.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's great, I just downloaded the pdf-file. Thank you very much, I'll get back to you after reading (which might take a while)!

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Nice! Let me know how it goes, and how you like it!

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I reuploaded the pdf, because the old one had a bunch of mistakes that I missed during editing (and some that I didn't miss, but got changed back during the conversion to the internet).

My apologies, it's so embarrasing. Anyway, there's a new, better one, found here

[no-ones-sleep.livejournal.com]

Thank you for providing the new link! I can well imagine that one or the other mistake slips through in such a long story- I guess in the end you just don't see them anymore, even if you are looking right at them. And since I haven't started reading yet, everything's well (and would have been including the mistakes, too :-)). I have a monster fan fiction in my hands at the moment, well about 900 pages, and it takes time. And I don't like to mix my readings, the feelings for one fiction shouldn't interfere with the other...But I got you on my iPad, so to speak, and carry you around. Have a (de-)lightful advent!

[frost.livejournal.com]

I've downloaded the PDF; thank you! =)

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

No problem! Let me know if you like it :D

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I reuploaded the pdf, because the old one had a bunch of mistakes that I missed during editing (and some that I didn't miss, but got changed back during the conversion to the internet).

My apologies, it's so embarrasing. Anyway, there's a new, better one, found here

[frost.livejournal.com]

It's no problem, hon! =) Thank you!

[http://users.livejournal.com/tesserae_/]

Thank you! Seriously, it was so much fun working on this - if you look at my lj you'll see I said something to that effect the other day...

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

:D :D Thank you again for looking at it for me!

[farfadine.livejournal.com]

That was really great. I liked Dead like Me, and I love what you have done with the same basic plot.

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :)

[marlowe78.livejournal.com]

I just read it and I loved it!
The humor was just done right, I loved your Jared-voice and the characters you created. Eric as the Big D is a great choice, I think, if the Eric is Kripke and not some other Eric I don't know :-D

And anyway, it was really damn good! A cool ending, btw. I like this.

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it! :D

It was indeed Mr. Kripke there, because... who better than to be a Death-who-you-don't-quite-expect?

[trickling-sand.livejournal.com]

DLed the pdf, started reading and didn't stop until just now..

LOVED IT HUN!!!!!
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I absolutely ADORED the idea of 'Expired Enterprise' and what 'being a Reaper' entails. Was totally in love with Sandy's pink heels too ;p!

Sophia's 'adjustment' - I LOVE that girl's spirit!!
when she finds out its just some guy in what’s essentially a costume, she punches them both and curses them out.
Way to go, girl!! XD!!!

And Chad's reaction? Awww~~~~!!!!!

Misha and his comments/ costume ideas - :grins:

I love how you explored the theme of Death with a light-hearted look and yet it wasn't all sunshine and rainbow. The way you described Clara.. I was seriously choked up..

Whatever happens from here on out, it won’t hurt her.
Instead, he asks, ‘Can we be with her?’
Oh hun!!!!!!!!!!!

And Death? I mean, Eric? He's AWESOME!! Especially his weepy, drunken rambles - I love “all the little minions that do [his] bidding” too ;p!!

I love the 'resolution' between Jared and Gen at the end too. It just makes thing more.. complete.

In fact, I just LOVE your supporting cast! They all have their little stories too and I love how you weave that into the J2. I love the little detail, their interactions with each other. And I think I sort of fell in love with your library - all 3 floors and comfy chairs and all... it just sounds so.. cosy!!

Now, to the J2 (FINALLY!!!). I LOVE how you develop the relationship between them. How Jared could see that Jensen wasn't really anti-social, just sort of shy and awkward around people. And how Jared, being his usual adorkable self, equipped with rainbow shoelaces, slowly brings the smile to Jensen's face. That night shift with the Pink Panther theme? I was in tears!!! XD!!!!!!!!

Jensen's story breaks my heart but it also explains so much about him. And I seriously didn't expect the 'Jeff Twist'!!! I'm just glad the Js have each other now ;)!

Actually, I don't know if my comment will make much sense - I feel like I'm just randomly squealing over different examples I can remember while what I really, really want to do was to try and convey how much I enjoyed this fic without the flailing and the high-pitched squeals, which seems to be all I'm capable of at the moment ^^!

So, if nothing else makes sense - thank you SO MUCH for all of the effort you put into this. I hope you enjoyed writing it half as much as I enjoyed reading it, because this? Your baby? IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Heh ;E!!

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, thank you, hun, for such a wonderul comment! It's possible you made me a little teary with how happy I was that it you liked it! Granted, I've been a little weepy at all the positive comments, but whatever.

So thank you! It's so nice to see you've taken the time to point out bits and pieces and leave such nice words.

I enjoyed the hell out of writing it, and I'm realy glad you enjoyed reading it :D :D

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I reuploaded the pdf, because the old one had a bunch of mistakes that I missed during editing (and some that I didn't miss, but got changed back during the conversion to the internet).

My apologies, it's so embarrasing. Anyway, there's a new, better one, found here

[trickling-sand.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about it, hun - and thanks for the heads-up. Re-DLed ;)!

<3

[bleedforme17.livejournal.com]

Your fic has been recced here (http://saltandburnrecs.tumblr.com/post/13474595507/pairing-jared-jensen-rated-nc-17-word-count)
at Salt and Burn Recs (http://saltandburnrecs.tumblr.com). Please contact us if you would like the post removed.

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm honoured :)

[calijirl5150.livejournal.com]

The PDF DL is not working ?

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Intriguing... it works for me.

Did you save the link earlier but are only just now trying to download? Because I uploaded a new version a couple of days ago, and you might be accessing the old link...

I'm not sure what else to do, so if you PM me an email, i'd be happy to email you a copy.

[calijirl5150.livejournal.com]

Now it worked, of course LOL ;p

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Yay! Good to know :D

[b-lessed.livejournal.com]

I took the pdf and loved it! Couldn't stop reading once I started :D

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad you liked it! "D

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Downloaded the PDF ages ago and finally got to read it yesterday - it was very sweet! I loved the whole idea of this community of reapers, and Eric was a lot of fun!

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! And thanks for coming all the way back to comment!

And I hope you have the updated pdf... To my shame and horror the file reverted before I published it as a pdf, so I went and re-uploaded it, hence my little message up there :)

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice anything odd in the one I had so I guess so...

[enablelove.livejournal.com]

Oh I LOVED this. They way they gradually fell for each other, Jared making Jensen less uptight, the 'soul mate'-ish aspect, all of it!

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Why thank you! I'm really glad you enjoyed it :D

[kruel_angel_lj]

Just stumbled across this today and downloaded the pdf. Absolutely loved it!

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Thank you for letting me know! I'm really glad you liked it :D

Fic recs

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User matchboximpala referenced to your post from Fic recs (http://matchboximpala.livejournal.com/108388.html) saying: [...] way to a happiness neither was even looking for? Just Don’t Mention the 'D' Word [...]

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD, how did I miss this for soooo long? Thank god for recposts, seriously, that was some awesome romantic and totally fantastic story. LOVED how you messed around with the dead-like-me canon and seriously ERIC lol. Wow, I wish you so much luck for this years reversebang project, we're in great company *g*

[lemanya.livejournal.com]

Haha, I'm just pleased to be getting comments a year later :D

I loved Dead Like Me. I remember seeing the prompt and immediately thinking of the opening credits, with the reapers doing those ordinary mundane things, and I was like "oh hell mother****ing yes!"

I'm excited for this years challenge, though I'm also nervous. I really love this fic, haven't written in months, and I've got all possible appendages crossed that I'll be able to top (or at least equal) this fic. I have my hopes up though, cause I claimed something truly fantastic.

And thanks! You too- do you have plans to make more art for this year's challenge?

[mangacat201.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'll be fine, sometimes one just needs a nudge and then things get going again!
But I'm probably not making more art, since I can't do any 2D stuff like banners or so and two vids for one fic would seem strange I think. I might tinker with the one I have a little bit, but that's it. Really looking forward to it though!