Sam Winchester

When Sam Winchester grew up wanting a dog, he logically knew that it wasn't a good idea. They were constantly on the road, and animals need some sense of stability in their lives. The frequent moves wouldn't have been good for a furry companion.

That didn't stop him from wanting a dog, of course. Or constantly bugging his father about it. In retrospect, he knows that wasn't fair. John wasn't trying to deprive him of something he wanted for the sake of deprivation. But try reasoning with a teenager and see how well that goes.

Ten years down the road, Sam finally has a dog of his own. He'd adopted the puppy from the local animal shelter, naming the ball of golden fur 'Bones' the way he'd always wanted to. In the year and a half that Sam had had him, he'd grown into an 80 pound dog who never seemed to realize he'd quadrupled in size. He was still quite fond of attempting to be a lap dog, and given that he was completely spoiled, Sam usually let him.

Despite that, Sam had trained Bones very well. Knowing the size he was going to reach, having a well-behaved dog was crucial. So Sam put him through all the training levels the local pet store had to offer, and 9 times out of 10, he was a wonderfully obedient dog.

Except, apparently, today is that 1 time out of 10.

They're on their normal jog through the park, Bones directly at Sam's side while they jog. And then Bones seems to decide that he doesn't feel like jogging anymore, and takes off full-tilt. Sam loses his hold on the leash, and before he can even call out a warning, Bones is tackling some poor guy to the ground.

It isn't aggressive at all- the dog is clearly trying to be affectionate as he licks at his victim's face- but Sam has seen first hand that not all people know dog body language. The guy could very easily think he's being attacked, and that more than anything has him hauling Bones off the guy.

"God, I'm so sorry," he says, giving Bones a look that has the dog sitting without a word of instruction. "He never does that. I don't know what got into him."

Player Information
Player name: Rebecca
Contact: Plurk, AIM: BchemicalpanicG
Are you over 18: Yes
Characters in The Box Already: None

Character Information
Character Name: Sam Winchester
Canon: Supernatural
Canon Point: Season 5, immediately after the conclusion of Hammer of the Gods
Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive
History: History (Ends at the death of Gabriel, 5x19)

Personality: Sam never liked being a hunter. Unlike his older brother, Sam wasn't introduced to the world of monsters until his pre-teen years. His father and brother both tried to protect him from the truth for as long as they could, but the youngest Winchester's natural curiosity won out. And almost as soon as he found out about hunting, he wanted nothing to do with it. He hated the constant moving; he and Dean being pulled from one school only to be enrolled in another that they both knew would last a couple months at most. He hated that instead of spending his nights doing homework and hanging out with friends, he was reading up on lore and memorizing Latin exorcisms. Most of all, he hated knowing that he wasn't normal. All he ever wanted was to be normal.

John Winchester was never around- always busy with one case or another- and it allowed the boys to develop a very close relationship. Dean was both a father and a brother to him, and Sam loved him for it. When John was around, he and Sam never failed to get into arguments. Sam always thought it was because they were too different, but he came to realize that that wasn't the problem at all. They were too similar, both stubborn and strong-willed to a fault. Sam was never the obedient soldier his older brother was, always questioning their father's orders instead of following them, which only made high tensions even higher.

When he decided to apply to college (and got accepted with a full ride to Stanford) his relationship with his father hit a boiling point. Sam saw it as a way out of hunting. A way to have the normal life he'd always dreamed of. John saw it as him abandoning his family. He gave Sam an ultimatum: if he left, he wasn't allowed back. Sam grabbed his bag and walked out the door. College was everything he'd hoped it would be; he had a normal life with normal people and normal worries. Over time, he was able to let go of his past, though he missed his brother every day. When he met Jessica, he felt like the luckiest guy in the world. She was beautiful and smart and so normal. Everything he'd ever wanted. He'd been toying with the idea of proposing when the nightmares started. Sam ignored them- they were just nightmares- but something felt so wrong about them. When they came true, the guilt was instant and crippling. He'd seen it a dozen times in his head, but watching the woman he loved burn alive left a hole in his heart that still hasn't healed.
 
Sam's defining character trait is his compassion. Above all else, he is a person who cares deeply about the people around him, with complete disregard for how long he's known them. Sam loves quickly and unconditionally, which is shown most powerfully in his interactions with Madison. He fell in love after only a few days of knowing her, which made her death so much harder on him than it would have been otherwise. And tragedy like that- as prolific and devastating as it's been in his twenty-six years- has had a profound effect on the hunter.

Sam no longer thinks he deserves happiness of any kind. After getting so caught up in his desire for revenge that he trusted a demon over his own brother, he has trouble trusting his own judgement. Lucifer rose from the Cage because Sam was focused more on vengeance than what was right in front of him. Sam left hunting briefly because of this, believing that if he was involved, he would find a way to screw things up. Somehow, he's always found a way to do that. He holds himself responsible for all his past mistakes, refusing to forgive himself for most of them. More importantly, he believes that his brother hasn't forgiven him, and that's more devastating to him than the weight of his own guilt.

Despite Sam's large heart and understanding nature, he's also prone to bouts of strong anger. A lot of it traces back to his stubbornness, but it is also frequently related to the relative safety or danger of his brother. When Dean's life is at risk, Sam is an unstoppable force until his brother is safe. That being said, he can (and has) made reckless decisions when it comes to the safety of innocents. His life has always been secondary, in his mind, to the lives of others, and that feeling has only gotten stronger with time.

Unlike Dean, Sam has never seen the world in black and white. To him, there's more than just good and evil. A lot of this stems from his own experience. He's always tried so hard to do the right thing. He wants more than anything to be a force for good in the world. And yet despite all his best efforts, it always seems that the darkness in him is what shows. The yellow-eyed demon changed him that night in his nursery, feeding him demon blood and fundamentally changing him, and he's been fighting his dark nature ever since.

Items on your character at canon point: Demon-killing knife, handgun, cellphone

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses: After the death of the yellow-eyed demon, Sam lost any and all supernatural abilities. He no longer displays any psychic or telekinetic abilities. Sam was trained in hand-to-hand combat from a very young age. Unlike Dean, Sam is more prone to using strategy than brute force- though he possesses plenty of the latter. At 6'4" and more than 200 pounds of solid muscle, Sam is a force to be reckoned with.

Sam's biggest strength is his intelligence. He's always been the bookish type, always the first to remember a little-known piece of lore. And if he doesn't know something, he never hesitates to pull out his laptop and look it up. "Knowledge is power" is definitely a saying that applies to Sam.

Dean is without a doubt Sam's biggest weakness. He's the only blood family Sam has left, and there isn't anything he wouldn't do for his brother. The best example of this is Ruby. He loved his brother so much- was so desperate to save him from going to Hell- that he trusted a demon when demons had always proven themselves to be anything but trustworthy. The other main weakness Sam has is his heart. He's quick to love, and only slightly slower to trust, which can be a dangerous thing in their line of business. With a history of putting his faith in the wrong people, the person Sam trusts the least is himself.

Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample: Action Spam Sample
Prose Log Sample: Sam will never get used to the fear. He's spent his entire life fighting monsters that are only bad dreams to most people. He should understand fear more than the average guy. But something about this place is worse than anything he's ever had to endure. Even the memories of what happened in Cold Oak don't scare him as much.

It's not even the lack of weapons. He's had to face enemies unarmed before, and yet he's never been this afraid. It's easier to pretend he doesn't know why. Thinking about it brings the image of that large sign to his mind. And the words so crudely written on it. Just remembering it makes his chest hurt. Makes his head hurt. Because he's standing right here. He's alive and breathing and so very, not dead. And yet clearly printed on the board- the one that lists deaths that have happened here- are the words SAM WINCHESTER. And right next to that? DEAN WINCHESTER. He hasn't seen his brother since he was brought here, but he refuses to believe that he's dead.

That doesn't stop him from worrying. Every second that he goes without seeing Dean is another second that something could be happening to him. Another second he could be in danger. If Dean's here and Sam doesn't get to him in time-

No. He won't even think it. He'll find Dean, and they'll both be alright. Sam takes a long moment to pull himself together. He's no use to his brother if he doesn't have his head on straight. When he feels like he has a handle on his emotions, he tightens his grip on the long, thick branch he'd nearly impaled himself on during his- rough, violent- arrival. It's not much, but it's something.

Don't worry, Dean. He's coming.

 Sam knows that. He's known from the moment he met the hunter that Rhys is one of those people that can truly be depended on. And that was before all his other feelings for the hunter got mixed in. He's always cared about Rhys. Always known he was friendly, and loyal, and good, but now? Now he gets to express it with his body as well as his words.