#dead end ishim

[angelicdudles]

God whenever I draw these guys it reminds me how far I’ve come as an artists and I start crying T^T

[ananke-xiii]

About Asa, Lily and Tasha (and Kelly).

There’s the experience of watching SPN by chronological order of the released episodes and the experience of watching it by specific writer and, as I once said, the latter is just a much better experience. I still stand by that. Incidentally, I think that this is one of the many reasons why the show went on for so long: since apparently writers rarely reached a consensus on the story and the characters’ internal coherence within a season, there’s a little bit for everyone’s tastes.

For instance, Steve Yockey’s episodes for s12 are a thing of Supernatural beauty. First of all I think Yockey was like “fuck the BMoL storyline AND I’m taking the boys out of that damn bunker” and I thank him for that. Secondly, he must have set his mind on weaving the (“bad”? “unconventional”? “simply flawed human”?) mother/(definitely absent)(surely dead) father central theme of the season with the “old” theme of human body/vessel/possession. And it’s sooooo great!

Asa Fox, Lily Sunder and Tasha Banes are the protagonists of his MoTW episodes and they’re such interesting characters! Two of them die at the very beginning of their respective episodes (the very parents of Alicia and Max, what a year for them, uh? Yockey you cruel, cruel man), while only one of them has her need fulfilled (well, more or less, although one might argue that the irony of Cas having his own son killed by God himself might be considered a sort of “karma’s a bitch” for him and a “win” for Lily).

Asa Fox is the absent father par excellence because well, he’s dead AND because we don’t know if he’s ever got to be a father or not. Jael says that Alicia and Max were too “frightened” to say that they came to say goodbye to their daddy and why would they be? Was it a secret? Lorraine didn’t know so I must assume yes. But… why? We don’t know. Lorraine is the “bad” mother who sabotaged her son’s gear and hid his gear and was generally unhappy about his son’s life choices. But Asa was also taunted by a possessive demon, Jael, who was probably in love with him (“Tell them what you took from me. Asa was mine”). Or maybe, as Lily Sunder would’ve put it, Jael was “obsessed” with him.

Now what I like about this episode is that Yockey was like: “I’ll remind you people that demons can actually be exorcised, you know? It might not always end well but hunters can and should at least fucking try”. By having Jael possess Jody (“this meatsuit you all seem to care so much about”), a beloved character, we’re reminded that possessed people are, you know, still people. Maybe dead people, though, but still, you should check, at least. And so the hunters try and succeed in exorcising the demon and all’s well that ends well (I mean, more or less, people still died but, you know, glass half full, man).

This dialogue between Sam and Mary is particularly delicious:

Mary: What are you doing?! She’s a demon. We kill demons. Sam: No, but she’s Jody.

Mary and demons… well, let’s say that I don’t exactly judge her when she forgets that demons are also possessing (possibly dead) people. But I like how her cold-bloodedness reveals the brothers’ hypocrisy (there’s something similar in this scene in s11 with Sam and Dean arguing about the vesselness (lol) of Cas).

Lily Sunder agrees with mother Mary: she kills angels. To be honest, I don’t judge her too, in her shoes I’d personally set the world on fire, but she does say “she is no threat whatsoever to humans” and she doesn’t want to hurt Sam and Dean, what with them being humans and all. Too bad that she does kill humans who are currently being possessed by angels. Oooopsie! Ishim didn’t teach her how to exorcise them, I guess (S4 was crazy for that, they established the idea that angels could be exorcised and then boom, forever forgotten).

I’m telling all this because it's Yockey’s writing that’s pointing it out. The episode starts off with Lily killing Benjamin and, a few scenes later, Cas tells this:

Cas: Benjamin is always very careful. Long ago, he found a powerfully devout vessel in Madrid, and her faith, it... she gave him everything – her trust and her body. Dean: Wait. So Benjamin's a woman. Cas: Benjamin is an angel. His vessel is a woman. But it – it's – it's more than that. She's not just his vessel. Sam: She's... She's his friend. Cas: Yeah. Benjamin would never put her in unnecessary danger.

So Lily killed Benjamin, the angel AND the “powerfully devout from Madrid” who’s first described as a vessel, a body, then as a woman, then again as “more than that/not just a vessel” and ultimately as a friend (with a romantic undertone to the word). So we GOTTA ask: when is a human being just a body? And when a vessel? Are there “vessels” and “not just [some angel’s]vessel”? And Lily Sunder, who’s a professor of Apocalyptic Literature and has sold her soul for Enochian magic surely knows that angels can be exorcised regardless of Ishim’s lessons in Angel Studies. But no, she wants to kill them, like send-them-to-The-Empty-kill them and, in so doing, I think she’s aware she’s also killing other humans in the process.

(can angels even be killed when they're not in a vessel?)

Paradoxically, this episode shows a Cas that’s very much “careless” about his “vessel-not vessel" and who's in contrast with the care his former brothers-in-arms extend to their vessels/friends. While Benjamin “wouldn't put himself in harm's way if he could help it.” and Mirabel and Ishim were not “careless” with their vessels, Cas is “impressed” that they have “kept [their]vessels all this time”. And isn’t it telling that’s Cas that uses the word “vessel” while Ishim says “but you, Castiel... I liked the old you better”? He doesn't say "your old vessel", he precisely says the "old you". Of course, Ishim's implying that Cas has changed etc, but I like when characters speak about vessels and everybody just sort of means different things.

First of all, just like Asa Fox’s death was foreshadowing Cas’death, Yockey is, again, foreshadowing Cas’ demise by the end of the season: he will be careless and he will put himself in harm’s way and he will die because of it. I used the word “paradoxically” before because Cas’ vessel is both a vessel and kind of Cas’ human (?) body. His “carelessness” cost everything to Jimmy Novak and the angel made a promise to him, twice, and yet he seems to be absolutely disconnected from corporeal reality to the point that he would easily throw himself in harm’s way without thinking. Benjamin wouldn’t do that. Hell, not even Ishim-Who-Hates-Humans would ever do that to his vessel (also, let’s bear in mind that possessed people suffer A.LOT. but also maybe let’s do like the show does and never go there again or we’ll just get ugly sad).

Going back to Lily Sunder, a character defined by her being a scholar and a mother. We don’t know anything about May’s father, but we do know that he’s NOT an angel (this is like the plot-twist of the episode). Akobel is the stand-in father/protector who, guess what? Dies! (just like Cas will die to protect his/not biologically his baby who’s also The Nephilim Of All Time after possibly Jesus himself, that depends if we consider him a Nephilim or not).

Ishim is in love with Lily (or so he thinks) but, just like Jael, he’s actually “obsessed” with her. He’s also convinced that Lily has “thrown him away" for Akobel, Akobel, who’s an angel but, we’re reminded, also a vessel (“Dispose of his vessel” Ishim says).

So what do we learn from absent/dead father/hunter Asa and vengeful/killer mother/scholar Lily's stories? Well, first of all that having a supernatural being as your stan will result in certain death, if not yours, the death of one of your loved ones. Which is a funny juxtaposition to Ishim's words: "You know why we're meant to stay away from them humans? Hmm? It's not because we're a danger to them. They're a danger to us". Second of all, angels and demons get quite possessive (haha I keep making this joke about possession I should stop) but this is not the rule, Benjamin represents the exception and, to a lesser degree, Ishim and Mirabel too. Believe it or not, angels have a vested interest in keeping their vessels alive and well, Cas is the only one who doesn't understand that and just keeps putting himself in harm's way.

What about Tasha Banes? Well, she's the one who's dealt with the "possession by another human being" card and I don't know if I can say that's the worst but yeah, it's the worst.

Tasha is a hunter, a witch and the mother of Alicia and Max. She seems like the cool mom, à la Lorelai Gilmore but we as audience are left to decide whether Alicia's anxiety is justified ("Mom usually checks in with us, but she's sort of disappeared") or if Max's right ("She did not disappear. She's busy.").

She is killed by an unnamed borrower witch who had made a deal with a demon and lost her soul as a consequence (not the same as Lily Sunder, but here we are again with the whole soul-thing). The witch wanted Tasha to take the deal upon herself, Tasha rejects it so she kills her and transforms her in a sort of creepy doll. The witch "possesses" Tasha and makes her a doll, a not-real but resembling body that acts and speaks like one. Soulless, bodyless, this Tasha creature is basically a memory.

Stripped of her sould and her body, Tasha (and later Alicia since Creature Tasha dies together with the borrower witch) is a puppet controlled by her master that will die when her master will.

She basically represents, imo, what all these anonymous meatsuits/vessels/not so much vessels/bodies are in the narrative: they're empty and unimportant unless they're contained by a powerful being or if they are loved and cared about by the hunters hunting these "things". And even the love of these hunters is not enough to spare this horrendous fate to these people: Max, a witch and a hunter, will eventually make the deal and transform Alicia into a "doll".

And I'm sorry but I cannot but think that this is not a coincidence if I think that the "doll" of s12 narrative is yet another mother, Kelly Kline, the point where the themes of motherhood and that of body/vessel/possession converge. She is THE VESSEL of the season, useful because she must give birth to the Nephilim and then easily discarded by the narrative. "Dispose of her vessel", Ishim might say of her.

Steve Yockey really understood the assignment.

Twigs and twine and Kelly Kline.

[shallowseeker]

re your carmen-silvia-amara post: i was talking to a mutual about carmen the other day and we were discussing where her name comes from. and i suggested the opera carmen and she suggested the model carmen electra. and now you suggested carmen 1983, which is very interesting!! that carmen has this pop culture track of being the hot and fun ideal woman. i don't think it's a coincidence they picked that name for her 👀

It's also a portmanteau of CAR-MEN. Two of the things Dean loves the most. 😏

//

I kid, I kid. I love this, though @fivefeetfangirl. Lots of pop culture swirling around this unobtainable idea of the proper dream-girl, huh?

The model Carmen Electra (and, idk why but that makes me think of Elektra by extension):

//

The opera CARMEN (1875)

//

Carmen 1983 - (A dancers' troupe take on the opera; vibes like Baby & Swayze from Dirty Dancing but with their real lives taking on the ironic beats of the opera)

//

There are so many takes looping back around to the Carmen opera. And another 1984 Carmen based more closely on the opera you mentioned, too, for what it's worth. :-)

///

Interestingly, Sylvia Jones functions as a reverse of the opera Carmen. Connor is her Carmen, who she kills out of jealousy. (And narratively, the Dean-and-Cas unit, like I said in this ask, functions as a committed, non-idealized foil to the Dean-and-Carmen ideal!)

On the flipside, Dean functions as Chuck and Amara's Carmen. Chuck, according to Lilith, was psychosexually obsessed with Dean. And Amara, according to Chuck, "wanted Dean to care about her, but humans let you down every time."

In the end, the things Dean cares about are the things Chuck specifically wants to kill. Friends, family, romantic attachments, comrades, you name it! He only resurrects them if (a) Dean becomes too uninteresting without them or (b) it can lead to further torment.

In season 11, when Chuck wraps himself in Dean's dead-guy robe and overfocuses on Dean's skin-deep performances, we see that, in parallel to Amara, Chuck doesn't really know Dean at all.

(Compare to Mary and Jack, two others who get wrapped in the gray MoL robe, and who understand Dean a little too well. And of course, Dean wraps Cas in a similarly-styled gray blanket in season 11.)

To Chuck, Dean is just a symbol of psychosexual obsession. Dean is as ghostly and unreal to Chuck as the djinn-Carmen was to Dean!

ADDENDUM: Lily Sunder is Ishim's Carmen.

[ao3feed-destiel-02]

Cobblestone Love

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/A5RTyHZ by Trenchcoat_Impala Castiel Novak was raised with only one purpose: to be King. With an arranged marriage between himself and Princess Megan Masters of a neighboring kingdom approaching, he finds himself wanting to spend a night in town, enjoying his freedom before his royal duties catch up to him. Dean Winchester works his farm by day and Ellen's tavern by night trying to make ends meet so he can put his brother, Sam, through medical school. When a mysterious stranger with dark hair and blue eyes, claiming to be a knight for the King, sits down at the bar, Dean's life is forever altered. Words: 3578, Chapters: 1/12, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel, Sam Winchester, Ellen Harvelle, Jo Harvelle, Charlie Bradbury, Benny Lafitte, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Naomi (Supernatural), Ishim (Supernatural), Gabriel (Supernatural), Donna Hanscum, Jody Mills, Crowley (Supernatural) Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Castiel/Meg Masters Additional Tags: royal au, King Castiel, Tavern worker Dean, Class Differences, hidden identities, Angst, Pining, Eventual Smut, injured!dean, Injured!Castiel, Love Confessions, this is all a bit chick-flick-y I'll be real, Doctor!Sam, dean has a hero complex low key, (but that's also because he doesn't care about his own life), Cas and Charlie bestism, dean and charlie bestism, dean and sam own a farm, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, (don't worry he's dead), Slow Burn read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/A5RTyHZ

[brownald]

Ok ok here it is

The Angels of Respite are officially a Blood Angels successor chapter (but they really don’t like the Blood Angels) that hail from the feral world of Kochav Leh’et. It’s a desert world with 20 foot tall scorpions, so the Imperium decided to start a Space Marine Chapter there.

Now, the Angels of Respite were doing fine for a couple years until the first of their number began to fall to the Black Rage.

“What the fuck.” They asked. “Do we just go insane after a while?”

“Lol.” Said the Blood Angels. “Lmao.”

So the Angels of Respite don’t like their dads very much. They stopped really talking, and the Angels became their own thing.

The Angels of Respite changed up their organization a bit from the Codex, in that there’s a final, bigger thing above a company: a battle-group. A battle-group is two companies that work in concert and can act independently of the Chapter at large, going on their own shticks and stuff. The Astartes of each battle-group elect one of the Captains as the Chief of the group, and the other one serves as his advisor. Unfortunately, there’s only one battle-group left after a series of unfortunate events.

Battle Group Ishim: 9th and 10th Companies stay on Kochav Leh’et, which is really inconvenient when it turned out to be a Necron tombworld. They aren’t alive anymore.

Battle Group Malachim: 7th and 8th Companies vanished during Warp travel. (Someone give me a better idea please I’m begging.)

Battle Group Elohim: 5th and 6th Companies tried fighting Word Bearers on their way to fight on Cadia. A lot of them ended up getting baptized, and the others are dead.

Battle Group Seraphim: 3rd and 4th Companies are somehow still kicking.

Battle Group Chayos Hakodesh: 1st and 2nd Companies decided to give family therapy a change, and tried helping out at Baal to fix relations. You can guess how that ended up.

What is Chapter culture like? I’m glad you asked. As the name scheme implies, they take after Jewish culture a good bit. Obviously the names, but the Chapter has its own dialect of High Gothic that is suspiciously similar to Biblical Hebrew. They speak it to each other as a rule, and have heavy accents that freak other people out as a result.

Remember those 20 foot scorpions from earlier? The final Aspirant trial is to kill one and bring back its stinger and venom. The stinger is carved into a knife which is dipped into the venom, creating a poisonous blade called a Sakhin which is capable of killing an unarmored Astartes in one stab. Each Sakhin is highly personal to the Astartes, and no two are alike.

They worship the Emperor as a God, and Sanguinius as his Son (just because they hate their dad doesn’t mean they can’t love Space Jesus). They love their bolters to a worrying degree, and if any one of them so much as touches a chainsword, they are considered to have fallen to the Black Rage.

Now, what do these Astartes do about the Black Rage? They are immediately sent to live with their Chaplain as part of the Chaplain’s Retinue. As part of the Chaplain’s Retinue, they pray to Sanguinius for a cure to their condition 25 hours a day, and follow their Chaplain into battle when they aren’t praying. If they die? They are no longer suffering from the Black Rage. If they don’t? Time for the Hakharbet Dam.

The Hakharbet Dam is a ritual sacrifice that every member of the Chaplain’s Retinue is prepared to undergo. When a member of the Chaplain’s Retinue starts seeing Horus, the entire battle-group goes to the Reclusiam and prays together as the unfortunate battle-brother kneels before the Chaplain for a final judgment. After absolving the Brother of his sins, the Chaplain stabs him in his second heart with the Sakhin the Battle-Brotjer made as an Aspirant, killing him nearly instantly. The Sakhin is then placed in the Chapter’s Library, where it will sit for eternally.

Uhhhh so that’s about it that’s my guys pls give feedback

BOO look at my Space Marines.

In descending order:

Captain Ak’her Blumm of 4th Company

Lieutenant Lav’hii Klayn of 3rd Company

Chaplain Zhu’toss Baier, Master of Sanctity

Techmarine Ha’aron Aysan, Forgemaster

Honored Brother Yez’ryah Alman, Honored Dreadnought of 4th Company

One like and I loredump (and you should take that as a motherfucking threat)

[ao3feeddestiel]

Cobblestone Love

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/jtK1Z5W by Trenchcoat_Impala Castiel Novak was raised with only one purpose: to be King. With an arranged marriage between himself and Princess Megan Masters of a neighboring kingdom approaching, he finds himself wanting to spend a night in town, enjoying his freedom before his royal duties catch up to him. Dean Winchester works his farm by day and Ellen's tavern by night trying to make ends meet so he can put his brother, Sam, through medical school. When a mysterious stranger with dark hair and blue eyes, claiming to be a knight for the King, sits down at the bar, Dean's life is forever altered. Words: 3578, Chapters: 1/12, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel, Sam Winchester, Ellen Harvelle, Jo Harvelle, Charlie Bradbury, Benny Lafitte, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Naomi (Supernatural), Ishim (Supernatural), Gabriel (Supernatural), Donna Hanscum, Jody Mills, Crowley (Supernatural) Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Castiel/Meg Masters Additional Tags: royal au, King Castiel, Tavern worker Dean, Class Differences, hidden identities, Angst, Pining, Eventual Smut, injured!dean, Injured!Castiel, Love Confessions, this is all a bit chick-flick-y I'll be real, Doctor!Sam, dean has a hero complex low key, (but that's also because he doesn't care about his own life), Cas and Charlie bestism, dean and charlie bestism, dean and sam own a farm, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, (don't worry he's dead), Slow Burn read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/jtK1Z5W

[sunforgrace]

and the end of the day it really is well. dean and cas begun orbiting each other. can i tell you something if you promise not to tell another soul? I was getting too close to the humans in my charge. you. he has this weakness he likes you. at the end of the world word of god. i don’t think cas is going anywhere. laughing with cas it’s been a long time since i laughed that hard, years.

and dean “trying so hard to be loyal.” the emphasis made on the way their relationship breaks. dean is the one who picks up that coat, folds it, and clutches it in his hands. he’s the one who keeps it, moves it from car to car on the run until he’s the one who places it back in cas’ hands. he could always shake this stuff off but what cas did he doesn’t know he just can’t. all the flashbacks cas’ has coming awake from emmanuel of dean dean dean. i remember you. when castiel first laid a hand on you in hell he was lost.

dean chasing down monsters in purgatory to ask “where’s the angel” over and over. seeing cas on the road at the window believing it’s the product of a haunted mind. cas appearing to dean in the mirror. the true product of a haunted mind, the rewriting of events in memory to cope, to protect himself. you remembered it the way you needed to. cas being trained to kill dean. dean specifically. over and over. they were literally all dean. they were ALL dean. what broke the connection i won’t hurt dean. dean being the one to send a human castiel away and the one to find him again.

invested in his dates his sexuality “teachable moments.” dean praying to cas. praying is just like begging. don’t lose it for one man. for one man. you just gave up an entire army for one guy. to save dean winchester. you draped yourself in the flag of heaven but ultimately it was about saving one human right. amara seeking into cas and lucifer sharing a vessel to find dean. literally placing hand over chest to find his exact location. dean over and over again being shown to be fixated on getting cas back in a way that sam is not. the care still there yes but the intensity, the priority different. fixated on the language regarding his personhood and his vessel. dean being the one to try to call him to the surface and mocked for the way he shouts cas’ name. calling out for him again in the presence of amara. cas offering to go with him to his death.

the emphasis placed once again on the separation and tension between cas and dean’s relationship. ishim threatening to cure cas of his human weakness the same way he cured his own, by carving it out. dean lurching forward after cas and sam pulling him away as he shouts for him the way dean had to do for him with jess. dean screaming no when he’s killed. dean falling to his knees at his body. dean wrapping his body for the funeral pyre alone. dean praying to god asking for help, demanding his return, begging please, alone, himself. dean not being able to even say the words cas is dead in the same moment he’s just resigned himself to his mother’s loss and spoke it aloud. it got him dead. now YOU may be able to forget about that but I CAN’T. dean spiraling into grief in a manner we don’t see sam doing, and sam’s coping being focused on finding a way to get their mom back. dean winchester of all people, with mary winchester. and it is cas’ return that mends him. we got cas back.

i thought you two were joined at the everything. eileen as sam’s love interest. dean hasn’t been shown to have romantic involvement in years. once again the rupture. specifically between dean and cas. their reunification specifically between them. falling to his knees and crying in purgatory. crying so early on, season 4, when they didn’t know each other yet, crying in front of him that he couldn’t do it. the vulnerability. and then the culmination in despair and yet.

and this isn’t even the whole of it it’s just some highlights.

time and time again they showed - they demonstrably proved that dean’s relationship to cas is distinct. his grief for him is distinct. very genuinely it could have been the winchesters and their angel buddy that’s all there is to it, that could have very well been the way they played it out if they had so chose but. it wasn’t written that way. time and time again it’s shown that dean’s relationship to cas is distinct it’s not like the relationship sam has with cas, sam does not grieve for cas in the same way. whenever there’s frisson for the narrative drama with cas the emphasis is placed upon him and dean, their reactions to each other, the shift to their dynamic. they didn’t have to make the friendship, the connection, the separating, the grief, the intimacy distinct and yet.

[ambiguousdisorderken]

in your expert opinion what are some of the most destiel-heavy episodes of spn? i stopped watching around season 7 and have no interest in engaging w the plot of the show at all but i’m in the mood for some gay yearning ykwim

Hi anon! Thank you for reaching out to me about this, I’m, no-joke, very flattered. I’d seen a couple posts on this same question, very thorough and detailed lists on Destiel-centric episodes, but at the moment I cannot find any of them, that would’ve answered your request much faster. So, in advance, sorry, my reply is probably coming in extremely late, but I did write this from scratch, so yeah.

Even though storylines in SPN can be very shitty and hollow, I do feel that to get the full Destiel experience -that long-drawn yearning- one would have to watch the entirety of the show, even if Cas isn’t in the episode or if there’s no explicit mention of their relationship/bond because it gives you a better understanding of them as characters and of how their relationship affects the narrative.

Now, you mentioned you stopped around S7, which is completely understandable and justified given the Dick plot game was very weak and, in my opinion, annoying (so little Cas!). I’m going to start listing from S7 in case you want to refresh your SPN before jumping straight into unseen episodes. Also, since you mentioned no interest in the plot and are specifically craving those sweet crumbs of gay yearning, I’ll skip most one-sided / too subtle episodes and cut to the chase.

Lastly, I hate spoiling things, but you’ve probably seen it all on Tumblr. I tried to keep the episodes’ descriptions short, as it might come in useful. Stuck to key words, quotes and/or little comments.

 Season 7

7x01 – Meet the New Boss: Godstiel, sincere apology. Cas: “I'm gonna find some way to redeem myself to you.”

7x02 – Hello, Cruel World: Mourning. Trench coat melancholy. The heart-wrenching eulogy: “Dumb son of a bitch.”

7x17 – The Born-Again Identity: Emmanuel!Cas, reunion, longing, hurt.

7x21 – Reading is Fundamental: Honey!Cas, hug, hurt, reunion, that painful SORRY (board game) scene.

7x23 – Survival of the Fittest: Honey!Cas, forgiveness, adorable, wified Cas. Dean hits us with: “Nobody cares that you're broken, Cas!" but also “I'd rather have you, cursed or not.”

Season 8 (this season is so good and Destiel is the driving motor of it, I swear. If you can, watch it complete.)

8x01 – We Need to Talk About Kevin: Dean in Purgatory looking for the angel.  Cas is referred to as “your [Dean’s] angel.”

8x02 – What’s Up, Tiger Mommy?: HUG!!!, Purgatory reunion, face touch, very romantic. Monster: “ You'll find your angel there.” //  Dean: “Let me bottom-line it for you. I'm not leaving here without you.”

8x05 – Blood Brother: Cas vs. Benny cat fight lol. Dean: “Cas... we're gonna shove your ass back through the eye of that needle if it kills all three of us.”

8x07 – A Little Slice of Kevin: Cas comes back from Purgatory, but before that Dean starts seeing him in places. Very tragic; hallucinating your dead significant other trope. Has That boner scene. Dean: “I did everything I could to get you out! EVERYTHING!” Cas helps Dean see what truly happened in Purgatory and not his self-altered memories. PACKED!

8x08 – Hunteri Heroici: Hilarious, romantic, intimate. Dean and Cas have an heart to heart. They actually communicate. Cas “I’ll watch over you.”

8x10 Torn and Frayed: They work a case together, and when I say heart eyes…

8x17 – Goodbye Stranger: THIS. EPISODE. Dean “I need you.”

8x19 – Taxi Driver: Separation. Naomi to Dean: "You're hoping Castiel will return to you. I admire your loyalty; I only wish he felt the same way."

8x22 – Clip Show: Lack of trust, hurt, tense interactions. Romantic too (basically, Cas gets Dean an apology basket).

8x23 – Sacrifice: Meaningful conversation and a gay couple hit by Cupid parallel. Dean “So this is it? E.T goes home?"

 Season 9

9x01 – I think I’m Gonna Like it Here: Dean prays to Cas IN.A.CHAPEL. Worry, longing, separation. Dean “Please, man, I need you here.”

9x03 – I’m No Angel: Human!Cas and jealous!Dean.

9x06 – Heaven Can’t Wait: Human!Cas TEXT-BOOK LONGING. GAY AS FUCK. Gazing, touching, they even TALK (for real).

9x09 – Holy Terror: Adorable Cas, flirty vibes, happyish, funny. Cas: “Cas is back in town!”

9x10 – Road Trip: Cas comforts Dean, Cas and Crowley bitching at each other, overall protective!Cas.

9x18 – Metafiction. Cas finds out about the Mark of Cain.

9x21 – King of the Damned: Hug, strong boyfriends vibes.

9x22 – Stairway to Heaven: Cas gives up an entire army, for Dean. Metatron about Cas “He's in love………………………. with humanity.”

9x23  – Do You Believe in Miracles?: At this point, it’s canon stated that Cas will do anything and lose everything if that means saving Dean. Metatron to Cas “You draped yourself in the flag of heaven, but ultimately, it was all about saving one human, right?”

 Season 10

10x01 – Black: Demon!Dean and sick/brokenhearted Cas in a slutty robe missing his man.

10x03 – Soul Survivor: ICONIC. Angel on Demon action! Cas turns down Hannah because he’s too gay and in love. Intimate Deancas talk.

10x05 – Fan Fiction: No Cas, but Destiel references. 

10x09 – The Things We Left Behind: That.Lunch.Date. Deancas introduction to co-parenting.

10x14 – The Executioner’s Song: We get Daddy Murder aka Cain. This is a Pivotal episode to understand Dean’s character development. Plus, it has Deancas interactions.

10x16 – Paint It Black: No Cas, but Dean opens up in confessionary; repressed BISEXUAL AS FUCK.

10x18 – Book of the Damned: Charlie meets Cas. Gay energies everywhere. Cute domestic little scene.

10x20 – Angel Heart: PARENTING! Essential to understand Cas from this point forward.

10x22 – The Prisoner: Just… just watch it. One of THEE Destiel episodes.

10x23 – Brother’s Keeper: No Deancas interactions but it’s the finale, and I recommend watching it because next season takes off literally right from here. No time jumps.

 Season 11

11x02 – Form and Void: Could skip to the very end which is when Cas comes back.

11x03 – The Bad Seed: Cursed!Cas. Dean takes care of him, even wraps him in a blanket. He also cradles his face. Extreme Hurt/Comfort. Jacting joices rejoice.

11x10 – The Devil in the Details: Could skip but has Casifer in it. Interesting to see his dynamic with Dean.

11x18 – Hell’s Angel: Casifer. Dean "It? It's not an it, Sam, it's Cas!"

11x23 – Alpha and Omega: Huggg! Cas willing to go on a guaranteed suicide mission with Dean. Very tender and sad.

 Season 12

12x02 – Keep Calm and Carry On: ANOTHER HUG! Dean presents his boyfriend to his mom<3 Soft and romantic.

12x09 – First Blood: Reunion hug<3, Cas pining… as in he counts his every minute without Dean.

12x10 – Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets: Direct parallel with canon couple. Crystal-clear mutual affection. One of the best. Angel Ishim to Cas about Dean “I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna cure you of your human weakness same way I cured my own… by cutting it out.”

12x12 – Stuck in the Middle with You: A dying Cas confesses his love. “I love you. I love all of you.”

12x19 – The Future: We find out Dean gave Cas a MIXTAPE!!! Very romantic and full of yearning, also worry and what could be seen as a betrayal (ish…).

12x23 – All Along the Watch Tower: Hands down, one of the most distressing Destiel episodes. Cas dies.

 Season 13

13x01 – Lost and Found: This is the worst because you have Dean trying to assimilate Cas’ death. Core of Dean’s widow’s arc. Jack introduction, that’s their new kid.

13x02 – The Rising Son: Widow’s arc (you could skip it, but why would you?).

13x03 – Patience: Widow’s arc (you could skip it, but why would you?). Dean to Sam “He manipulated him, he made him promises, said, ‘paradise on earth’ and Cas bought it and you know what that got him? It got him dead! Now you might be able to forget about that, but I can’t!”

13x04 – The Big Empty: Continuation of widow’s arc and Cas wakes up in the Empty. The Empty to Cas: "I know who you love. There's nothing for you back there." // Dean to Sam “I need you to keep the faith, for both of us. ‘Cause right now, I… Right now, I don’t believe in a damn thing.”

13x05 – Advanced Thanatology: Suicidal and hopeless Dean gets his win. Cas comes back. Gives me the chills.

13x06 – Tombstone: COWBOY BOYFRIENDS!

13x14 – Good Intentions: Happy and fun Destiel scene. So Very Married.

13x23 – Let The Good Times Roll: Season finale, Dean talks about retiring (plans include Cas of course) and just very nice to see them interact.

Season 14

14x03 – The Scar: Reunion.

14x08 – Byzantium: Deanand Cas dealing with their child’s death, then bringing him back by Cas making a deal with the Empty. IMPORTANT EPISODE.

14x09 – The Spear: Cas uses the royal We – married behavior.

14x10 – Nihilism: Dean is stuck in his own mind, and Cas and Sam try to bring him back. Cas “Please, you have to -- you have to try to remember, because the people in your life -- in your real life, out there -- we need you to come back.”

14x12 – Prophet and Loss: Dean gets his very own Dr. Sexy, aka Dr. Cas.

14x14 – Ouroboros: Basically another date (their kid tags along) and They TALK. Very intimate and established marriage vibes.

14x18 – Absence: Shits starts to go south. [ Dean: “Who cares what Jack said? We don't know what happened! But I swear, if he did something to her, if she is -- (points to Castiel) Then you're dead to me. (Castiel looks crushed after Dean says that).]

14x20 – Moriah: Tense and very upsetting. Relationship very damaged.

 Season 15 (I would advise watching the entire season because it relies heavily on Destiel. They’re the heart and the emotional motor leading the plot onwards.)

15x01 – Back and To The Future: Deancas’ in the aftermath of their kid’s death. Tension gets worse.

15x02 – Raising Hell: Tension rises, this is very intense. Cas “Dean. You asked, "What about all of this is real?" We are.”

15x03 – The Rupture: Breaking point ends in divorce.

15x06 – Golden Time: Painful phone call which speaks volumes about the current state of their relationship at the time. Also, good to see where they’re standing and how they’re coping.

15x08 – Our Father Who Aren’t in Heaven: Strained relationship so obvious they’re offered couples’ therapy.

15x09 – The Trap: MASTERPIECE. Back to Purgatory. Can (and is) taken as Dean’s love confession (because it is). 

15x12 – Galaxy Brain: So married. Little domestic date, you can see LOVE written in their faces.

15x13 – Destiny’s Child: AU!Dean and Sam. Not a yearning episode per se, but AU!Dean? SO GAY.

15x17 – Unity: God reveals that the only act of free will in any universe he ever created has been Cas choosing Dean.

15x18 – Despair: Cas confesses his love to Dean.

[clairenatural]

destiel, 2k. mafia!Cas/Kingergarten teacher!Dean from an anon prompt for mafia!dean or Cas protecting the other at all costs. I’m not entirely sure what this turned into but it was fun to write so I hope it’s also fun to read :) it references stuff that happens in 12x10, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets.

“Sir, we have a problem.”

Castiel sighs. His five least favorite words. He glances up, frowning at Inias. “What kind of problem?” He doesn’t add that it had better be important to justify the younger man barging into his office like this, but it’s implied.

Inias takes a deep breath before stepping fully into the room, letting Castiel’s glass office door shut behind him. “The DA’s office is refusing to back down on the Ishim case.”

“And you paid them the standard amount?”

“Yes, sir. But one of the DDAs refused it.”

“Refused it.”

“He’s new. He doesn’t understand our arrangement.”

“Hm.” Castiel closes his laptop and leans back in his chair, considering both the situation and the man in front of him. They hadn’t had a problem with the DA in years—at least, not since Castiel had taken over. Their messes were less messy and they paid more generously for silence. “How much does he need to understand?”

“That’s the problem, sir. I don’t think he will.”

Castiel scoffs. “Anyone in power can be bought off,” he replies, because in all his years he’d never met someone who couldn’t be. Power corrupts, after all.

Inias shifts uneasily, and Castiel can tell he isn’t going to like how this ends.

“We’ve received word that he’s begun investigating independently.”

Castiel groans at this, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“But don’t worry!” Inias continues quickly, hurridly. “We can put our best men on the assignment, have him taken care of by tonight—”

“Wait,” Castiel cuts him off with a sigh. He forces his eyes back open. “I’m not mad,” he says before anything else, because Inias looks like a deer in the headlights and even after all this time his employees still need occasional reminding that he is not his brothers.

When he’d taken over for Michael he’d promised himself—he’d promised everyone—less bloodshed. He swore to defend his family, business, and territory from Crowley and his cronies, but he’d been determined to stop ending innocent lives. For some reason, though, innocents just love getting in the way. He sighs again. “What’s his name?”

“Sam Winchester.”

And, well. That certainly complicates things. He’d known when Sam announced he was going into criminal law that this was a possibility—in some ways, he thinks he should have expected this.

“Sir?” Inias asks, and Castiel realizes he doesn’t know how long he’s been staring at him. “Are you…do you know him?”

Castiel blinks back to reality and glares at him. “Call them off,” he orders, and cuts Inias off when he tries to protest. “Call them all off, Inias. Now.”

“But, sir, what about—”

“I’ll deal with Sam Winchester myself. Nobody else is to touch him.” Then, just for emphasis, “Until I say otherwise, consider him under my protection.”

Inias is still staring at him, baffled, but after a moment he nods, and Castiel is thankful that he’s decided not to argue. “Alright, I—yes. Understood.” He nods again before leaving the office and Castiel sinks deep into his chair, pressing the heels of his hands into both eyes.

His phone buzzes and Castiel watches as a text message lights up the screen, revealing the photo from his wedding he has set as his background. It’s a message from Dean, because of course it is, asking him what he wants for dinner and if he wants wine with it.

Castiel looks around his office, awarded to him based on his surname but paid for in blood, and he’s never hated it more.  

————————————————————-

They get half an hour into the low-budget western Dean had insisted in watching before his husband sighs, pauses the movie, and sets his wine glass down on the coffee table.  “What’s going on with you?”

Castiel frowns up at him from where he’s lying on the couch, cheek against Dean’s thigh, his own wine glass barely touched. All things considered, Castiel thinks he’s been doing a great job acting like everything is fine. He forgets, sometimes, how easily Dean can read him.

“Work was…long,” he answers, and it isn’t a lie. Then, because Dean is looking at him like he doesn’t believe him, he follows up with “How’s Sam?”

It’s both a deflection and an answer to Dean’s question, but Dean doesn’t know that. Dean thinks he manages a hedge fund. Which he does. Technically. Legally, at least.

Dean knows he’s changing the subject but he doesn’t press it, and his face lights up the way it always does when someone asks about his brother. Castiel loves him for it. Dean starts on about Sam, how he’s doing with Eileen, how they just moved into a bigger house because they want to start a family. Castiel isn’t paying attention, not really, because Dean’s fingers are playing with his hair and he doesn’t really want to think about anything else.

“—I said I’d help him out, though.”

That catches his attention. “What? Why?” he asks, a bit too quickly, because even though he’s missed most of the context he can’t help the sinking feeling in his stomach.

Dean raises an eyebrow. “Come on, babe. I never get to use my degree anymore.” He shrugs. “And it sounds fun, you know? Helping my baby brother take down a corrupt criminal justice system. I feel like Serpico.”

“No.” It comes out more forcefully than he had intended and he sits up, turning fully to face Dean. “No, Dean, you need to stay out of it.”

Dean blinks at his husband, and Castiel immediately backtracks. “I mean, um. You don’t—you don’t have any evidence.”

“That’s the point of me helping,” Dean rolls his eyes. “I know I chose teaching five-year-olds over working in cybersecurity, but I still know my way around.”

“You’re going to hack into the DA’s office?”

“It sounds bad when you put it like that.”

“It is bad.” Castiel knows he’s being too insistent, is pushing too hard, but Dean can’t get involved, too. He can’t. “It’s dangerous. You don’t know who else could be involved.”

“I don’t care about that.”

“You should. You just don’t understand—”

“Understand what, Cas?” Dean snaps, and now it’s the fight Castiel didn’t want to have. “What could I possibly not understand that you do? A kid is dead and the DA is trying to cover it up and just maybe I can help figure out why.”

“There are things you don’t—” Castiel is already halfway through his next argument when the second half of Dean’s sentence catches up with him, and he stops. “Did you say a kid?”

Dean scoffs. “You weren’t even listening, right? Great. Yeah, some asshole killed his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend and her kid and the DA is refusing to press charges. Says there isn’t enough evidence. Sam thinks they were paid off.”

“No,” he says, quietly, because no. The daughter was never supposed to—that’s not what happened. He had been told that’s not what happened.

“What do you mean, no?” There’s less heat in Dean’s words, and Castiel thinks it’s because he himself has completely deflated.

He stares at his husband—the love of his life, the beautiful, generous, selfless man he doesn’t deserve—and realizes he’s never going to be able to talk Dean down from this. If he could, he wouldn’t be Dean.

He thinks about all he’s done to keep this part of his life safely tucked away. He cultivated a reclusive public image to keep Dean safe from being the husband of Castiel Novak, manager of the Novak Group. He expanded their territory to encompass the school Dean works at, something his family still holds against him as a waste of resources, to protect him from being the husband of Castiel Novak, leader of the crime syndacate. He’s hidden his marriage from nearly the entire family, labeling anything to do with Dean as the most privileged of information.

The only reason he’s still doing this at all, really, is Dean. He could have jumped ship when Michael died, when Gabriel left, when Lucifer took the fall and was sentenced to life, but that meant giving everything to Raphael, who promised to hunt both him and Dean down if he left. So he took the reins instead and he’s tried his best to keep his family safe while managing the business—both the above and underground aspects.

And now, despite all that, both Dean and his brother have somehow gotten themselves involved.

Dean is still staring at him, brows furrowed, and he doesn’t move away when Castiel reaches out to take both of his hands into his own. “I’m sorry,” he starts, and Dean looks taken aback but he doesn’t break the eye contact. “I love you. I don’t want you to end up in trouble.”

Something in Dean’s eyes softens. “Hey,” He squeezes Castiel’s hands lightly. “Come on. Have a little faith in me.”

And all Castiel can do, just like any time Dean looks at him like that, is smile back. And nod. And lean forward to kiss him, just once, softly.

“I do, Dean. I always do.”

Dean leans their foreheads together and Castiel can tell he’s still concerned, but he doesn’t want there to be any more yelling tonight, so instead he pulls back to lie down in Dean’s lap again. He hears Dean sigh before picking up the remote with the hand not still intertwined with Castiel’s, and then he restarts the movie, and Castiel tries not to think for the rest of the night.

 ————————————————————-

The next morning, though, he’s storming into his office, ready to lay into anyone involved with lying to him. He doesn’t get far—Naomi is sitting in his chair. At his desk. For a brief moment, he sees red.

“That’s my chair.”

His aunt regards him, cool as ever. “Is it?” she asks, and she stands, but only to walk around the desk and into his space. “And who gave it to you?” In her heels she’s taller than him but he glares anyway, refusing to be intimidated. He doesn’t respond.

“Why are you protecting Sam Winchester?” she asks after a moment of silence, still standing just as close.

“Why did you lie to me about the incident with Ishim?”

Naomi’s expression doesn’t change, but something close to surprise flickers across her eyes and she backs off to lean against his desk. “I suspect the answer to both of those questions is the same.”

“May Sunder was never supposed to die,” he presses, not backing down, and Naomi looks at him as if he’s being an unruly child.

“Yes, but her mother threatened to go to the police. Come now, Castiel, you’re old enough to understand these things.”

“I never authorized that.”

Naomi stands again. “You think you have to?”

This, of all things, catches him off-guard. “I—yes?”

His aunt steps forward, crowding him again, and he hates himself for taking a step back. “You’re a figurehead, Castiel. You’re in power because you’re Michael’s brother, people like you, and we thought you’d at least be loyal.”

“I am loyal,” he retorts, and she sighs.

“I’m not the only one who’s begun to question your sympathies, Castiel. Who are you loyal to?”

“My family.”

“Does that mean us? Or Dean Winchester?”

Castiel freezes, stunned. “How—”

Naomi cuts him off with a smile. “You think we don’t know? We’ve been letting you play house because it kept you distracted. Now, it seems, it’s making you weak. If you don’t fix this, I’ll have no choice but to cure you of that weakness.”

At last she steps away and turns towards the door. “You have an army here, Castiel. Don’t lose it for one man.”

And then she leaves.

And then, Castiel makes a decision.

In the next few hours, he makes several more—and then he’s driving home with all his family’s secrets copied onto a hard drive, the few items from his office that he actually cares about, and a plan forming on how to take the whole system down.

It’s almost funny, he thinks, the decision Naomi expected him to make—that she’d expected him to choose the family over Dean. That she’d expected him to choose anything over Dean.

She has no idea what’s coming. 

[angelicdudles]

I’ve come to the conclusion I am heart and spiky shaped

[mittensmorgul]

Hi, I have a question, and I hope it would be interesting for you too... Could we talk about angel's wings and feathers?..

I always thought that angel's wings were a part of their true form, a kind of energy which we can only see as a shadows or electric sparks or ash or something like this.

And I didn't think that it could be a real wings with feathers as bird's. Until, while rewatch, I've noticed that angel's feather were mentioned in SPN at least twice (maybe you've noticed more?):

1) In 8.12 when Henry Winchester time travels he uses an angel feather in spell. And then Dean tells that Henry stole an angel feather from the trunk of the Impala. So feathers are reall??? Why did the Winchestets keep the feather in the trunk of the Impala and where they get it? (ok, maybe they found it in the bunker)

2) In 12.13 Sam uses a white feather in spell returning Gavin back in time (we know this spell needs an angel feather)

So now we can see how the real angel feather looks like???

Does that mean that the angel's wings can be presented in physical world like a real wings with feathers and this is not fanfiction? I like this idea so much.

I think that the creators of the show didn't let us to see it, as many other great things, that is sad...

I would really like to know your thoughts about this.

(Sorry for my bad english, it is not my native language...)

Hi there! First off, your English is fine! (lol it’s my native language, and I just typed it “Inglish” by accident, so you’re already doing better than I am :’D)

ETA: DON’T REBLOGGY THIS YET. I forgotted something that @thayerkerbasy just reminded me of, and I’m editing this post... brb... okay NOW YOU CAN REBLOGGY!)

As far as I know, those are the only times in canon we ever see or hear mention of an angel feather, and both times it’s for the same exact spell. They reference that it’s Henry’s spell when they use it again in 12.13, but make no mention in dialogue of it being an angel feather. Yet Sam had a whole jar of fluffy little pin feathers, so the assumption is that they’d been collecting them for a while (unless those were either found in the Men of Letters’ spell ingredient stockpile when they moved into the bunker, or otherwise given to them by Cas at some point).

It’s weird, because they seem like a very limited commodity, especially after the angels fell and their wings all burned up. Even after Cas got his original grace back, his wings never seemingly recovered. When we did finally see his wing prints in 12.23, they were still... not healthy... So my thinking is that any spell that would require them will become impossible to cast when their current supply runs out. All the other angels-- at the end of the series-- were either dead or locked in Heaven with their broken wings. We never learned any of their fates. Maybe they were all rendered obsolete under the Heaven Remodel?

A little behind the scenes from the early days of SPN as a bonus, since it’s tangentially relevant:

When they were filming the very early episodes of SPN, they had a lot of choices to make about what to show us based on what their budget would allow them to portray. Think of an episode like Wendigo, 1.02. One thing I see people say often was that it was a shame we didn’t see more of the monster, but only saw like... bushes shaking, or a vague form moving through the underbrush, or a blur. They made a stylistic choice right there to keep it within budget.

The options they faced were showing us a “dude in a rubber mask” type monster and showing it more, versus one really terrifying shot of a Proper Monster™ dying in spectacular fashion. Rather than go full-on cheesemonster, they chose to leave most of it up to our imaginations, giving us glimpses or hints of the monster.

They went back and forth on this a bit over the years, attempting to show us more on occasion, but most of those times the audience reaction has been varying degrees of wtf... Think about some of the scenes where they attempted to give us more than a glimpse at the supernatural, or a blood splatter, or whatever. It didn’t always work well. Think: the wire fight from 13.23...

I mean, it took us until 11.14 to ever see an angel “flap away,” when we saw Casifer zap Dean off the exploding submarine.

For the most part, I appreciate the fact that they understood the limitations of their own budget and didn’t give angels cheap little wings just to be able to show them on camera. Over time, only being able to see them as shadows, or as char after the angel died, became part of the lore of the show.

I blame Adam Glass for writing that spell, because he probably thought it sounded cool or whatever, that it was effectively a throwaway line because no other spell they’ve ever used has required an angel feather as an ingredient, and in story it was only linked into this larger Men of Letters Legacy plot that in retrospect feels like Chuck tying up loose ends and putting previously “deactivated” plotlines back into play.

I do find it kind of interesting that both iterations of this spell (the second resurrected by Bucklemming) were both tied to Abaddon. Henry’s spell in 8.12 brought her into the story from the past, she eventually travelled to the much further distant past to bring Gavin into the present (presumably with her own power alone, no angel feather required), and then after she was killed, they used the spell to return Gavin to his own time. So in a a way, the spell was part of a closed narrative loop, never to be referred to again.

Kinda wild that we’d never heard of angel feathers being a thing for spells until we learn that Dean apparently had some just stashed in the trunk, though... :’D

As for how corporeal angel feathers are/were, they exist in the earthly plane enough to leave char marks when they burn, when an angel is killed, so they must always have had the potential to manifest physically. I can’t imagine they ever would’ve had a budget to show us anything more than what we usually saw, though. It did give them a LOT of flexibility over how exactly they presented them to us when they DID show us. And I can’t even imagine the suffering Misha would’ve endured as an actor spending all those years wearing some weird wing harness rig. It would’ve been... impractical. And the CGI the show could’ve afforded-- especially in earlier days-- would’ve been... bad...

But what they were able to show us? Was often awesome. Remember when Raphael showed off his wings in 5.03? LIGHTNING!

And when we finally did see actual corporeal-appearing wings in 8.23... it was Dramatique™

And for More CGI Is Sometimes A Bad Thing Science, please have the attempt at Michael’s “true form” from 14.01:

It’s kinda a super-letdown after AU!Michael’s previous shadow wing displays from 13.01, but more specifically from 13.22:

those... were... badass... 

Even the pre-wire-fight wing shadows on Dean were badass:

But if they’d tried to show us more of them, to make them move through action scenes for example, it would’ve been... bad...

So what we’re left with is the knowledge that there is some sort of corporeal element to wings that we simply can’t see most of the time, but clearly angels have the ability to show or hide them at will, even from other angels. Could it be an act of will on the part of the angel that manifests a bit of their grace in the form of a physical feather? Honestly, that’s the theory I’ve personally adopted toward canon. In fanfic, I’ve read tons of various headcanons about what angel wings are and how they function-- everything from “a manifestation of their true form” to “angels share a lot of traits with birds” to “an extension of their grace,” and everything in between.

I personally, in canon, like to think of it as akin to how they’ve used angel grace for other spells. I mean, when we recall that angels haven’t been on Earth much for the last few thousand years (aside from at least a couple of known incidents where angels interfered with humanity, like Ishim and Company in 12.10, for example, and the presumptive extension that the Men of Letters knew of the existence of angels and likely summoned one up a time or two the same way Lily Sunder had, giving one explanation for how Henry Winchester knew of this spell and had an angel feather to use for it, but also recontextualized when Lily Sunder taught us that humans can use their own souls to power spells in the same way angels used their grace... which sort of makes the notion of needing an angel feather AND his own soul to charge that particular spell in 8.12 a bit redundant unless Lily’s knowledge of angelic magic was more advanced than Henry’s... hrmpf.... so much tangent... back to the point)...

We did eventually learn of other spells that required an angel’s actual grace, not concentrated in the form of a feather. The Angel Fall Spell in 8.23 being the prime example. Metatron took ALL of Cas’s grace for that one, even if he didn’t use all of it for the spell and left a “fragment” (Metatron described it as “not a lot, but enough.”). 

ETA: HECK. I have 9.03 on the tv right now and it’s distractedly made me disgusted enough to have forgotten something that Thayer just reminded me of: Lucifer’s “fossilized feather��� in 12.07. It held enough grace to restore and heal him after Rowena’s spell in 12.03 had degraded him. Which really only adds to the theory that “feathers” are simply bits of grace that have been rendered solid somehow, but that can be transformed back into grace as needed.

And then there was the Rift Spell for travelling to alternate universes that required archangel grace, as well as the time travel/ward breaking spell that Sam found in 11.14 that ALSO required archangel grace specifically. Would these spells have worked with an archangel “feather?” Possibly, if material feathers are somehow just crystalized bits of grace, but since we never got a full explanation in canon, and never even really saw corporeal feathery wings that dropped feathers or could be plucked, and never even had mention of corporeal feathers outside of their use in this single spell, it’s really up to our own interpretation. And I kind of like it that way, because that way we get to have fun little discussions like this one. :D

I know this isn’t a definitive answer, but it’s how it all makes sense to me, in the hand-wavey sort of way that all of canon works. :’D

[ms-rampage]

New Dawn: New Horizons Chapter 6 - Meet The Angels

Warnings: some language

Word Count: 2.3k

Summary: The kids take the new addition of the family. The Angels all find each other. Michael tells Gabriel some impossible news about his daughter.

Guest OCs: Just the usuals

Guest Characters: Michael, Castiel, Gadreel (Supernatural), Sam and Dean Winchester [mentioned], Chuck/God [mentioned].

Note: Far Cry: New Dawn and Supernatural crossover

This chapter was written by @athenalillystar. Hope y’all enjoy!! ❤❤😊

Taglist: @mrsladydiana @vicki-the-sinner @rabbitsoldier @wargames94 @maybeitslizzy

“That is enough you two” a voice tells them, coming out from the fog. The 4 of them look in the direction of the voice. They see three silhouettes walking through the radiation fog. As they walk closer, they see their older brother Michael along with Castiel and Gadreel.

“Michael, Castiel, Gadreel?!” Raphael asks in surprise, and relieved. 

“Uriel, Gabriel, Raphael, Lucifer” Michael greets his younger siblings.

“Are there any more Angels out there?!” Uriel asks.

“Probably. But we’re not 100% sure” Castiel replies, sighing. In his usual monotone voice. 

“Father did all of this. I can’t believe it” Michael says, looking around the radiated wasteland.

“I know. I know he told me that Mandy Winchester needed to protect Joseph Seed” Raphael says, disappointment in his voice.

“There might be more of us out there. Samandriel might be out there along with Anael, and Ishim” Gadreel adds.

“Is this coming from the traitor? The guardian of Eden?!?” Lucifer mocks him.

“That is news of the past Lucifer” the eldest Archangel steps in, “God betrayed us all. I guess that makes us all even now. Since we were all cast out of Heaven because he thought it was ideal to mess with the humans for his own amusement, then exterminate all of them”.

None of them know the real reason for their father, Chuck, causing all of this destruction to Earth, but many think it wasn’t an act of God, but nuclear warfare from another country. 

“He went back on his word. Mandy Winchester protected Joseph Seed, and some Deputy stepped in, ruined it all for every living being on Earth” Raphael tells them, “That Deputy was ruining what they had built. We needed Joseph protected because Father said so”.

Castiel steps in, “And look what happened. Chuck doesn’t care, he doesn’t care about the humans, he doesn’t care about us and certainly doesn’t care about his creations”.

Michael sighs, and says “Okay that’s enough” he walks over to the edge, and looks beyond. 

Looking off into the distance. His brothers stand behind him. “Father created everything. All of this, and he destroyed it because he was tired, annoyed, frustrated with the humans, and he went off and spoke to one about the end”.

They all stand in silence, looking off past what was once the Silver Lake. The day went by fast, the evening sun is just about to set on the horizon. 

“What do we do now?” Michael asks, almost in a whisper.

“The compound” Gabriel mumbles. Michael, Castiel and Gadreel look over at him.

“The what?” Castiel asks, in his classic monotone voice. 

“The compound where I’m living at. With the Winchesters” he tells them.

“The Winchesters?” Gadreel asks, “Sam and Dean?”.

Gabriel shakes his head, “No, their cousins Paige and Kate Winchester. They live here in Hope County, they have a compound, and there’s enough room for all of us”.

Lucifer scoffs, mumbling in a mocking tone “That’s because you're sleeping with Kate”. The youngest Archangel glares at his older brother. 

“Sleeping?” Michael questions his younger brother, “Gabriel? Sleeping with Kate Winchester?”.

“He married a Winchester” Lucifer shouts.

They all stare back and forth at each other. “You married a human?!? How did that happen?!?” Gadreel asks.

He steps away from the others, and says “When I fell and landed here”. He turns to face his brothers, “I went to the Winchesters. The only ones that I can tolerate. Sam and Dean have been dead for years now. I’ve been living with them for the past 17 years. A lot of things have changed. I lost the majority of my powers, and I’m pretty sure, all of you lost most of your powers. Yeah I married Kate Winchester”.

Michael steps forward, “You married Kate Winchester?!. The true vessel to Lilith. The sister to the true vessel of Abaddon. I hope there is no Nephilim in this!”.

“They do have a daughter Michael, but she is not from Gabriel” Uriel explains, coming to his brother's aid, “She’s from Kate Winchester, and the younger brother to Joseph Seed. John Seed”. 

“That still doesn't make it any better” he exclaims, “If he was around when she was carrying the fetus then she will most likely inherited some of his angelic grace”. They all stare at their older brother in shock and confusion. Exchanging expressions. 

“What do you mean, that Daenerys might have inherited some of my energy?!?” Gabriel asks, slowly approaching his older brother. 

Michael lets out a soft sigh, “Were you there when she was pregnant?”.

“Yeah” he responds, confusion in his voice. 

“How far was she?” he asks.

“7 in half weeks” he answers. Gabriel isn’t ashamed that he married a human, he knew from when he met Kate all those years ago, he would end up with her. So fathering her child is something he loves and appreciates. Because he loves Kate and Daenerys, he loves being a part of their lives and a part of their family. 

He hangs his head down, sighing softly, mumbling to himself. The eldest Archangel lifts his head up, “There is a very slight chance that she might’ve inherited some of your powers”.

Gabriel scoffs, “That’s impossible!. Daenerys has never showed signs of angelic powers, or even wings for that matter. She came out of Kate as an infant, not fully grown like Jack did with Kelly”.

He immediately responds back, “And even if she did that still wouldn’t be any better. She would still be able to inherit your powers. She would be dangerous to those around her, that includes you Gabriel. Even if she‘s not from you. Also keep in mind she’s from Kate Winchester, Lilith’s true vessel, and she still carries demon blood”. 

Starting to grow irritated by his brother's criticism of his new family, none of this makes sense to him “That still doesn’t make any sense!!. Does that make her a Nephilim?”.

“It makes her a lower class Nephilim. She can still have the basic powers of an angel, while remaining a normal human”. The other Angels stay silent as Gabriel and Michael have their debate on what type of species Daenerys Arya Brienne Winchester is. 

***

The kids make their way back to the compound with the new member of the family sitting on Daenerys lap. Blocking her view from everything in front of her. 

“Didn’t mom want us to get intel on the twins?!” Jeff asks them. 

“There wasn’t any” Tom tells them, “Plus it’s getting dark, and you know how dad feels about us going out at night”.

They make it back to the compound, the front gates opening as they pull up to the property.

Exiting the car, Timber jumps out, sniffing the ground. Kate sees them, and an unfamiliar dog.

“Where did you get the dog?!?” Kate asks, walking up to them. 

“We found him at the Meatfort” Daenerys answers, “They were gonna eat him”.

“Eat who?!?” Paige asks, as she comes downstairs, and sees the dog “A dog?!?”.

“They found him at the Meatfort” Kate tells her. 

“The Highwaymen were gonna eat him” Bianca tells her mother.

Paige furrows her eyebrows at her kids, “They eat dogs? They really are shitty people”.

“I really hope he’s clean” Kate says, trying to put on her strict mother face.

“He has to be if they were gonna eat him” Jeff tells her.

There’s a silent few second pause between the kids, and their mothers.

“He can stay as long as he doesn’t piss, or shit inside the house” Kate tells them before going back inside the house.

*****

Later that night, everyone is in bed, asleep, Timber is sleeping in Daenerys’ room, she gave him a bath with the help of Bianca and their uncle Mark’s daughter Courtney. 

Kate is in bed, reading her fathers journal he wrote over 45 years ago, flipping through the pages, reading about the monsters he had hunted alongside his brother Brent. Hoping her uncle, aunt and cousins are still alive after all these years. She closes the book, setting it down on her nightstand, shuts off her lamp and goes to sleep.

A few hours go by, and she’s still not even fully asleep. Tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable. She suffers from insomnia, ever since the bombs dropped and even before that with her nightmares involving Lilith, Abaddon and Hellhounds. She gets a soft knock at the bedroom door, “Yeah?” she responds, her voice restless. Still laying on her side, eyes closed.

The bedroom door opens, and she hears, “I have the Kielbasa you ordered”.

She immediately sits up, and sees Gabriel wearing a fake mustache, while holding a silver platter.

“What are you doing?!?” she whispers, trying not to laugh at this Archangel's weird Trickster games.

He takes off the fake mustache, climbs onto the bed, hovering over her, aligning himself with her, she places her hands on his shoulders.

“We found them” he tells her, “We found the other angels that fell”.

Her eyes light up, “Really?!? Who did you guys find?!”. 

“Raphael, Michael, Gadreel, Uriel and Castiel” he tells her. 

“Castiel? You guys found Cas?” she softly exclaims, trying to sit up, but the Archangels weighs down on her.

“Yeah but there’s something I really need to tell you. It’s about Daenerys”.

Feeling her inside shake, numbing coldness runs throughout her body. “Wha-What about her?!”.

“Michael said that she might've inherited some of my powers” he tells her, “That she might be dangerous. Even though she’s not from me, she might have inherited some of my powers when you were pregnant with her”.

She shakes her head, “No, no that can’t be. She never showed any angelic signs, or any of that”.

He nods his head in agreement, “I know, I know but he thinks because” he stops for a brief moment, “Because of your demon blood”.

Her eyes widened, “No, no that can’t be. Sam, Dean and Paige cured me from that years ago. Before I even moved to Hope County”.

Taking a deep breath, “I know, but Michael thinks it’s a possibility, but it could also mean because of the bond Daenerys and I share. That it could be possible that she might’ve gotten some of my powers from our bond, or because you once had demon blood”.

Kate sighs, looking away from her Archangel husband, ��So where are the other feathery boys?”. 

“They’re over by what was once Drubman Marina” he tells her, running his fingers through her hair.

“Isn’t that a radiation zone?!?” she whispers loudly, her eyes widened. 

Nodding his head, “Yeah, well we’re angels. We’re immune to radiation, poison, mustard gas and all that crap”. 

He kisses her on the lips, Kate runs her hand through his hair, “So where are they gonna stay?” she asks. “I was thinking here” he replies.

Her eyes widened once again, looking at him with her classic Winchester family bitch face.

He explains himself before she could protest, “I know, I know Paige wouldn’t like that. I know you two want the kids to not be involved in this whole demons, angels, vampires and ghosts fiasco. But they’re more human than angels. You know that honeybuns”.

He kisses her again on the lips, but she pulls him in for a deeper kiss. He breaks it after a few seconds, “Okay, well I gotta get back to them. I just needed to tell you about this, and now I need to tell the others, and bring them here”.

“So what’s the plan?” she asks, “How are you guys gonna do this??”. 

He groans unsurely, “I’ll get back to you on that because we still need to work on that”. Before she can ask him anything else, he disappears from the room. It’s been awhile since he's done that. When Dany was a child he used to disappear like that whenever they would play hide and seek. He would “hide” by disappearing like that. 

****

Not long after leaving the compound, Gabriel has his angelic grace restored with the help of Castiel. Teleporting back to the radiation land. Needed to let Kate know about their finding, getting his brothers back on the same team, stopping the Highwaymen and putting an end to the twins' wrath on everyone in Hope County. Then hopefully getting their father’s, God’s attention. He’s back with his brothers in the radiated Henbane.

“Okay I’m back” he tells his brothers, “So we’re all good to go”.

“Took ya long enough” Lucifer sasses him. They all turn to face him, “So where do we go?” Uriel asks.

“Winchester-Smith compound it’s in the south part of Hope County” he tells them, “But none of them, mainly the kids, can know about you guys being angels because Kate and Paige don’t want them to live that life, or know they exist”.

The 2nd Archangel clears his throat, “Umm you forgetting something?”. They all turn to him.

“Remember, Cristina has seen, and met me!!”.

“Who’s Cristina?” Uriel asks.

“She's Paige’s eldest daughter” Castiel answers.

“Lucifer, the eldest Winchester has seen you?” Michael asks.

He nods his head, “Yep, and she knows I’m the devil”.

They all exchange looks, and agree with the Winchester kids not knowing what kind of entities they are. They all teleport out of the wasteland of the Henbane, and arrive outside the compound. Morning sun barely peeking over the horizon. The sky is an orangish blue color, animals running through the forest, grazing at the flora. Early hours of the day. Everyone is still asleep, or just lying awake in bed. 

[ao3feed-destiel-02]

Cobblestone Love

Cobblestone Love https://ift.tt/fwbkrye by Trenchcoat_Impala Castiel Novak was raised with only one purpose: to be King. With an arranged marriage between himself and Princess Megan Masters of a neighboring kingdom approaching, he finds himself wanting to spend a night in town, enjoying his freedom before his royal duties catch up to him. Dean Winchester works his farm by day and Ellen's tavern by night trying to make ends meet so he can put his brother, Sam, through medical school. When a mysterious stranger with dark hair and blue eyes, claiming to be a knight for the King, sits down at the bar, Dean's life is forever altered. Words: 3578, Chapters: 1/12, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Dean Winchester, Castiel, Sam Winchester, Ellen Harvelle, Jo Harvelle, Charlie Bradbury, Benny Lafitte, Garth Fitzgerald IV, Naomi (Supernatural), Ishim (Supernatural), Gabriel (Supernatural), Donna Hanscum, Jody Mills, Crowley (Supernatural) Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Castiel/Meg Masters Additional Tags: royal au, King Castiel, Tavern worker Dean, Class Differences, hidden identities, Angst, Pining, Eventual Smut, injured!dean, Injured!Castiel, Love Confessions, this is all a bit chick-flick-y I'll be real, Doctor!Sam, dean has a hero complex low key, (but that's also because he doesn't care about his own life), Cas and Charlie bestism, dean and charlie bestism, dean and sam own a farm, John Winchester's A+ Parenting, (don't worry he's dead), Slow Burn via AO3 works tagged 'Castiel/Dean Winchester' https://ift.tt/xHnCpzb July 22, 2024 at 07:01PM

[irrlicht-writes]

“...or he’ll just end up as a bloody smear on the wall.”

In all honesty, Castiel didn’t know. He saw Dean crouching there, his hand extended across the banishing sigil. He should activate it. He couldn’t possibly defeat Ishim. Ishim was fully powered up, and Dean was just a man. Castiel was a liability. He should activate it. By the time Ishim would come back, they could be long gone. Lily Sunder would find the angel again; and it wouldn’t be the Winchester’s concern any longer.

What about him, though?

There was a high chance that Ishim was right. Being this weak, the sigil could vaporize him. But Dean had to do it. On his own, he stood no chance against Ishim. There was no way of letting Sam know he had to hurry back.  Cas wanted to tell Dean to do it. He needed to. He could buy himself time; they could run. They could regroup, fight him on their turf. Lily Sunder could help them fight and - and with Castiel dead, her revenge would be complete, wouldn’t it?

Dean had to use the sigil. And yet, Castiel wished he wouldn’t do it. But of course, Dean did.

-

Opening his eyes seemed like an impossible task. He didn’t think he could feel anything of his body. Did he still have it? He tried flexing his fingers but he couldn’t tell if he succeded or not. What happened? Where was he? Castiel thought that maybe he gulped. But he couldn’t be sure. Was he still alive?

Dean must’ve used the sigil. Castiel wondered where Ishim went. Hopefully Dean was okay. Sam would come back to the church and he’d bring LIly Sunder with him. Then they’d find Ishim in no time and kill him. All the while, Castiel lay here, useless as ever. But he could get himself back to the Bunker. He could do that. He could save Dean time.  But in order to do that, he needed to move. Maybe he should start trying to feel the place around him. Was he lying? What was he lying on? He didn’t know. He needed to open his eyes. If he could figure out where he was, then he could do something.  Dean. Dean, please.

Why did Dean activate the sigil? Hadn’t he worried what it could do to Castiel? Dean cared about him. Dean cared about him. Dean cared about him. He had to. Had to care. ...right?

Dean would come. He just needed to wait. Dean would come and pick him up. Dean would apologise to him and get him into the Impala and they’d drive home.  He just needed to open his eyes; and then Dean would be there, waiting for him.

[cassiecasyl]

how the most dangerous thing is to love

prompts used:

Suptober Day 22: I cursed the gloom that set upon us, but I know that I love you so Whumptober Day 7: I’ve got you + Alt 10: Nightmares Poem Prompt: “I would know him by touch alone, by smell. I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the Earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” - "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller

warnings: temporary character death title take from Achilles, Come Down by Gangs Of Youth

Read on Ao3.

✯

in death is where we met so death can’t do us part you were damned in debt way down hell’s town at the start

but in touch we were found corrupted & lost, fallen in love heavenly cursed & profoundly bound angelic faith & human weakness, twelve years of star-crossed allegiance 

✯

“Kill him, Castiel,” Naomi’s as it echoed through his mind, joined then by Hannah’s, and it tasted like betrayal. The answer was a quick defiance, something he didn’t even have to think about. Never. 

“I will not hurt Dean Winchester,” he stated proudly, narrowing his eyes at the angel in front him. She sighed exasperatedly, disappointed like a parent in their child. Castiel blinked. Something seemed off, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. 

“I thought I’d fixed you,” she spouted, bashfully. It was the feeling of falling, Cas then realized, the fear and uncertainty he felt when he truly fell from heaven that he now experienced. Rejection. 

Pain snuck into his body, bruises and cuts were painted on him, one by one, by invisible hands. The scenery was broken and shifted to something else. Castiel was laying in an old church now, so different from the clinical whiteness of Naomi’s office. “I will cure you of your human weakness,” Ishim promised, so sure of himself that this was the right thing to do. 

“No,” he weakly defended, but it only earned laughs.

Ishim stepped away, revealing an equally beaten up Dean. Their eyes met, and next to fear was a promise. We’ll get out of this. It was something he admired humans for: their devoted belief that everything would turn out fine. It was even found in humans like Dean, who had been through apocalypse after apocalypse. It was humanity’s unstoppable determination. 

Ishim tsked and shook his head at their wordless conversation. Then, he walked forward and grabbed Dean’s by his hair. With one swift motion, his blade slit Dean’s throat open, and Castiel felt like he was pulled away, down under, into hell. His hope was bleeding out, dying, and he had to return where he did not belong to. Not anymore. 

With a startled gasp, he awoke. Warm arms stalked around him, pulling him into a hug. “Nightmare?” Dean asked, wide awake yet sleep in his voice. Castiel only nodded, searching and listening for the hunter’s steady heartbeat. It was the soundtrack that would calm him down. Dean was safe and alive, defying every threat thrown at them, always. Castiel had to believe that. 

The dream’s imagery faded, leaving only dull hurt in the angel’s gut. It was okay, though. Hearing the constant thumping of Dean’s heart, he could breathe. Its cold was defeated by the hunter’s body heat, into which Castiel readily melted. Here and now, he wasn’t Eurydice anymore, who looked at her lover's face in her doom, as his dream had suggested. He wasn’t Romeo anymore either, finding his love dead. Here, Castiel was safe. 

“Wanna talk about it?” Dean asked, suppressing a yawn. Castiel hummed, looking for the words in the fields of his mind, and if they wanted to come. 

“You are not a mistake,” he simply said, leaving Dean to his own assumptions. It was the only thing the doubt had infected, that hadn’t been washed away by warm cuddles yet. It was dark in the room, but their shared body heat underneath the blanket was all Cas needed to feel content. 

The memories still echoed through his mind, riddled with ideology he once assigned to. Dean could be a liability, Cas could agree to that, but he was more than willing to take that chance. In their eyes though, he was corruption, causing a respected angel to step out of line. It was rebellion, betrayal, and above all, human. 

Castiel smiled into Dean’s chest, pulling him closer. Here was where he belonged, it was plain as day to see. Heaven mourned the loss of a soldier, and the staging of their grand play, but Castiel would never dare to regret his decision. He felt the power their love brought, even underneath the disguise they tried to put it into. After all, if it truly was weakness, what had they to fear?

Tag List: @luciferstempest @nightmare-in-plaid @starrynightdeancas @gnbrules @aniridescentdreamer

[thysparrowsdrew]

i guess the two big theses of “prayer of the possessed” are:

1. vessels are their own people and should be seen as such (everything is from margarita’s perspective; we hear from several dead vessels; characters acknowledge that akobel’s vessel didn’t deserve to die for akobel’s crimes; ishim’s vessel is the one who ultimately takes down ishim)

2. just because you move on from hurting someone, that doesn’t mean they’ve moved on, and it doesn’t mean the hurt has gone away (benjamin and margarita aren’t over how the war ended; josephine isn’t over being ripped away from her daughters; lily isn’t over may’s death)