#grumkinsnark

[greenhorn-art]

All The King's Horses | As You Are Now, So Once Was I by @samwpmarleau (grumkinsnark)

All The King's Horses [LiveJournal ch1] [Fanfiction.net ch1]

As You Are Now, So Once Was I [LiveJournal ch1] [Fanfiction.net ch1]

Fandom: Supernatural, Criminal Minds

Rating: Teen | PG-13

Category: Gen

Words: ~36,192

All The King's Horses: Protect and Serve. Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. To what lengths would you go to uphold those oaths? When it comes to a particularly brutal and unsolvable case, the BAU just may have to resort to some more unorthodox methods. SPN/Criminal Minds crossover.

As You Are Now, So Once Was I: Sequel to "All the King's Horses." When Dean catches J.J.'s press conference on the news about a current case and notices a few...inconsistencies, he realizes the BAU is definitely going to need his help. Again. ON HIATUS

About the Book

FORMAT: Letter quarto, flatback bradel binding, french link stitch, no tapes

FONTS: EB Garamond [via Google Fonts], Supernatural Knight [via DaFont], D-Din [via Font Squirrel], Daniel [via DaFont], Permanent Marker [via Google Fonts], Arial

IMAGES: Seal of the FBI [via Wikipedia], Dean's handprint scar [by greenhorn-art]

MATERIALS: 24lb Xerox Bold Digital paper (8.5"x11"), 80pt binder's board (~2mm), 30/3 size waxed linen thread, embroidery floss (DMC #721), 1.9mm cording, brown cardstock, black Cialux bookcloth, gold foil transfer sheet (came with We R Memory Keepers hot foil pen)

PROGRAMS USED: Fic exported with FicHub, word doc compiled in LibreOffice Writer, Typeset in Affinity Publisher, imposed with Bookbinder-JS, title pages designed in Affinity Designer/Photo

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I first read these stories on LiveJournal back in 2013, some time after I first encountered Tumblr, Supernatural, and the wider world of online fandom. Once I discovered SPNxCriminal Minds crossovers I devoured so many of them. Something about POV Outsider on the Winchesters, the existing connections with investigating monster vs human-crazy cases, and run-ins with the FBI... it's just works so well.

Of all the SPNxCM fics I read and enjoyed, All The King's Horses is among those that bookmarked themselves in my brain. Since it's been living there all these years, I thought it deserved a place on my bookshelf too.

(Rambling below)

Sourcing the Fic

I used FicHub to download the fics off of Fanfiction.net as HTML. Then I pasted them into LibreOffice Writer and created rich text documents of each fic, so I could Place them into Affinity Publisher.

The stories were crossposted, first on LiveJournal and then Fanfiction. I included the metadata from both sites in the appendices.

(It's fascinating to see the differences in the same work between platforms. FFN requires genres, so if the author doesn't add them on LJ then by default there's more info on FFN. But FFN limits listed characters to 2, so authors have to pick and choose the most important. Then there's the author's amusing disclaimers and spoiler warnings for these fics, which are only included in the LJ version)

Shoutout to the author for how they linked/listed their accounts on other platforms! Thanks to that I was easily able to track down all the tags/metadata for the fics, and find them here to express my appreciation for their stories!

Typesetting

Fonts

EB Garamond is my new favourite body font, 11pt as per my usual.

The title page is entirely Arial: 1) it was the closest match I have to the case file prop I was copying, and 2) if it was a government doc they wouldn't be using anything but the most basic fonts.

Headings and the the bullets bracketing the page numbers are set it Supernatural Knight, a free font in the style of Supernatural's title.

The location segments are in D-DIN, the closest free match to the font Criminal Minds uses (which is probably DIN).

Daniel is used for Dean's 'rushed but legible' note.

Permanent Marker for the 'thick black Sharpie' case file labels.

Artwork

Title pages designed as FBI case files, copied from a prop found online (specifically Etsy's propfictionstudios', but it's all over the web so no idea who actually created it). I had fun plugging in all the fanfic/bookbinding meta!

The ID# above the author's name is the FFN story ID, and the date is the date originally posted on LJ.

The handprint used in the headings of ATKH is Dean's scar. I traced off of a screenshot from s4e01 Lazarus Rising. I chose to use the handprint instead of the anti-possession tattoo or a Devil's Trap as my SPN art element because 1) it's specific to Dean, and 2) indicates/reminds that the story is not set during the season 3 Agent Henriksen/FBI arc.

Grabbed the FBI seal off of Wikipedia.

Construction

Both fics typeset and printed separately, then sewn together into one book. Title page for the sequel was tipped in like an endpaper prior to sewing.

Endbands sewn with orange embroidery floss (DMC 721) around 1.9mm cording. I chose orange because Dean's being in jail brought to mind the orange prison jumpsuits Sam and Dean wore in s1e19 Folsom Prison Blues.

Black bookcloth for the cover, like the Winchesters' beloved black '67 Chevy Impala. (I'd wanted a Supernatural reference to balance out the Criminal Minds-ness of the FBI case files).

I'd originally planned to make lineart of the front of the car, and have it stretch across the bottom of the cover (maybe even wrap around to the back). Even found a useful reference to trace [from here], but it didn't look as good as I'd hoped. Instead I reused the FBI seal and swapped out its text with the titles.

(The effect of shiny foiled FBI symbol on small black book reminds me of one of those FBI badge wallets!)

The foiling process was an unnecessarily long and gruelling affair. My laptop served as a massive power bank for the hot foil pen as I spent 2hrs ever so slowly tracing the image, and then 15mins on the author name and touch-ups. Did it need to take so long? Moving slowly, pushing down hard, going over everything at least three times? I'm sure it didn't. BUT I did not want to chance peeling up the foil to check how I was doing and risk shifting it. It was worth it in my books (haha) ‒ I feel giddy and kick my feet like a schoolgirl whenever I see it!

New Things

Used 24lb paper for the first time, and I love it! It's a little thicker and heavier then regular 20lb printer paper, feels more substantial.

The page numbers & running/section headers are along the outer margin, instead of in the header/footer. This was my way around Affinity's buggy-ness regarding pinning things inline in master pages. (More about that below). If I had been thinking, I could have formatted them like the tabs on a file folder and cut the textblock to match. Oh well, the things you notice once it's printed 😔

This time I also started new chapters/sections using text flow & paragraph spacing settings, instead of using a master. As always, there are pros and cons.

Pro: much faster and less involved. (find chapter start, apply paragraph style VS working from the end cutting text, inserting a frame break, unlinking frames, inserting new pages with master, relinking, pasting, and adding chapter title to a different text box)

Con: images need to be added manually (whether by adding image directly, or by applying a master with the image). I forgot to do this for the second fic, so only ATKH have Dean's handprint scar.

Difficulties Encountered

Affinity Publisher is fighting me on pinning things inline on master pages. They like to disappear on regular pages I've applied the master to. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it only works on some of the pages. Idk what's up. (The bullet character only faces one way so I had use textboxes, flip/mirror one, and pin them inline to the page number).

So instead of having page numbers in the footer, bookended left and right by text boxes with Supernatural Knight's bullet, I put it vertically down the side.

Updated Publisher and all my paragraph styles' fonts changed/went funny. Something to do with the update's variable font support, I think. What was previously 'EB Garamond' regular, was now something along the lines of 'EBGaramond-Regular' which isn't a font. Issue seems to have ironed itself out in my original (near-complete) doc while I was busy remaking it. 😐

On the bright side, the update brought QR code generation to Affinity!

[autisticandroids]

outsider pov

time is fake. these are some outsider pov fics for @spnficrecfest. there's a lot of conceptual overlap here with my casefic reclist, since i'm such an enthusiast for law enforcement chasing the boys. any crossovers do NOT require familiarity with the crossed over material. all of these are gen.

in order of wordcount:

identity theft solutions by ivyfic, 1k

a guy gets a letter in the mail from a bank he doesn't have an account with about a credit card he's never used.

the glomourous life of john dillinger by dwarfankylosaur, 1k

henriksen and his partner have a bet. extraordinarily charming.

not long enough by gayeld, 1k

salmondean tell victor about the supernatural. in particular, meg.

the outsider by denihil, 1k

henriksen has some sympathy for sam.

breathe on, sister (they pass me by remix), 1k

henriksen puzzles over sam and dean saving people from a fire. i would read the fic it's a remix of as well, if i were you.

days without feathers by pyrebi, 1k

jess's mom sees sam on tv.

the mysterious cold oak murders by anonymous, 2k

buzzfeed unsolved does an episode on the events of all hell breaks loose part 1.

perseverance by grumkinsnark, 2k

henriksen interviews a series of season one characters in search of the winchesters.

paper weight by vaznetti, 3k

kathleen hudak, from the benders, pokes into the winchester case at henriksen's behest.

the death defying mystery of the brothers winchester by dyed_red, 5k

buzzfeed unsolved again, this time on our boys.

the angel killer by vikki, 5k

cas is caught by the cops, circa season five.

the henricksen files by ante down, 9k

technically abandoned, but it's more a series of codas and character studies than a story, so it being abandoned doesn't really matter. so old it was written before henriksen's name spelling was canonized. this fic is a series of henriksen-centric codas, following him as he follows the winchesters over the course of season two. it has some of my favorite henriksen characterization, actually.

no way out iii by kelincihutan, 21k, violence warning

criminal minds crossover. real feds meet fake feds, and problems ensue.

minimal loss (what a joke) by eden22, 26k

criminal minds crossover. the feds go into a hunter compound. they meet some hunter children, including ten year old sam and fourteen year old dean. they try not to cause another waco.

this fic is one of the ones that i revisit when i want to be reminded that fanfiction can be good. it's THAT good.

the right to remain silent by boundlight, 27k, chose not to warn

svu crossover. tfw are caught by the cops in new york. i lied, this one is destiel.

nothing to see here by innie, 30k

a canon divergence starting from in my time of dying. kathleen hudak chases the winchesters. a number of other things also happen. john makes a different deal.

[thorne-archive]

hi anna :) any fanfic recs?

Ohhhhh boy do I have a ton! But for what fandom? I have ones for PJO (mostly percabeth and jasper), TLC (for cresswell, kaider, jacinter, wolflet), and THG (everlark), and probably a few others!

A lot of these are mostly fluff since my poor heart can’t handle too much angst. Also, a lot of fics I read are set in alternate universes cause I get tired of the canon setting lol so just be aware of that :)

Anyways here we go!!

— PJO (it’s been awhile since I’ve read much fanfic from this fandom so this list is vv short)

How We Could Have Met (1 and 2) by forever-fangirl-pjo (contains oneshots of Percabeth meeting in different AU scenarios, I love love LOVE her later writing as it develops more)

Vivid by lesbabeths (a sort of AU where you see color when you meet your soulmate, obviously centers around percabeth but is set in the canonverse)

The Smart Match by greenconverses (the prose of this fanfic is just *chefskiss* so worth the read even if it’s quite short)

— TLC (this list, on the other hand, is vv long. oops)

1-800-CAPTAIN by lovelunarchron (a lengthy story centered on cresswell, contains some one-sided cress/jacin but it’s not endgame so don’t worry; it’s a very cute fic if you overlook some plot skipping but I enjoyed it nonetheless :)

The Lunar Café by lovelunarchron (another TLC fic, except this one is kaider-centric)

Till We Meet Again by secretink (a cresswell fic that I absolutely swooned over, its so cute asdfghjkl)

Side-Effects of Poetry by midnightsnapdragon (jacinter oneshot, very cute)

The Sun and Moon by Andromeda Writes (kaider oneshots)

Captains, Damsels, and Epic Romances by Andromeda Writes (cresswell oneshots)

The Party by Andromeda Writes (kaider college AU, a bit OOC but nothing one can’t handle, it’s worth it for the cuteness)

A Change of Heart by Andromeda Writes (cresswell college AU)

Storyteller by Canvas Constellations (kaider-centric AU oneshot, I’ve read this twice and cried both times, it’s that good)

Wrap My Heart in a Nest of Stars by Canvas Constellations (cresswell oneshots, I think some may be a bit angsty but they’re soooo good)

— THG (the first four are all from the same author, mejhiren, cause her writing is that good; her fics are usually rated M but I usually skip over the more saucy parts lmao)

When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun (unfinished, super long fluff-angst everlark AU in which katniss never participated in the hunger games and peeta was the sole winner)

The Threshing Floor: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (everlark AU in a retelling of the biblical story of Ruth and Boaz, very touching and cute)

Torchlight (AU fic set in the world of When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun, in which Prim develops feelings for Marko Mellark, Peeta’s brother; a little strange with the age gap but cute nonetheless)

Six Months to Strawberry Time (again set in the universe of When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun, Madge/Gale centric, cute but unfinished)

Five by JLaLa (very cute and fluffy AU oneshot of everlark)

Twelve by findingmymuse (AU everlark, I teared up reading this oneshot)

This Is The One by MTK4FUN (AU everlark, fluff with some plot)

Pet Names by xerxia31 (I just read this. And. It’s. So. Cute. Please read it, it made me fall in love wirh everlark all over again)

The Family Business by sponsormusings (this is such a cute fic asjdksksnsn so worth the read)

Build-A-Date by grumkinsnark (AU odesta oneshot and honestly this is so perfect I could scream for days on end)

— The X-Files (I just recently got into reading x-files fanfic so this list is short oops)

A Life to Remember by monikafilefan (this is a reallyyy long oneshot AU fic of sculder, includes my favorite friends to lovers trope and it’s pretty much pure fluff and makes my heart weep in happiness, highly highly recommend!!)

The Other Side of Fiction by slippinmickeys (AU university fic of sculder!! Mulder is such a softie here and I just can’t!! Also there’s some M rated stuff, but you can just skim like I do or skip the first half of chapter 3)

— ACOTAR (I haven’t actually read the books yet but I somehow got lost in the world of feysand and nessian fanfiction and I’m too obsessed to dig myself out)

Dear Darling by cuddlesandchocolatecake (super long feysand oneshot. this. is. so. cute. I cried shamelessly)

Roses by lexilindale35 (fluff, angst, the ending tore me open and I cried)

I think that’s it for now! I know there’s a ton more PJO fics I’d recommend (there was a punk!percy and girly!annabeth one I loved so so much but I can’t remember its name) but oh well, maybe I’ll think of them later. Anyways, I hope you enjoy, anon!