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So, what's the thing with Dean/Castiel?
I'm first and foremost a Wincester. I know that it's not everybody's cup of tea but I love it. But these days, a lot of Dean/Castiel stories are popping up. I haven't read any yet because I'm not sure what the "mainstream" in this part of the fandom is. I mean, Wincest? I love stories where Sam and Dean either "switch positions" or Dean's the bottom. There are lotsa stories like that. But I'm not sure about Dean/Castiel...
Does anybody on my flist read Dean/Castiel? What's the main trend in those stories? Dean on top? Castiel on top? Switching? What do you prefer? Do you have favorite stories? I love bottom!Dean fics but I'm not sure if that would fit this pairing...
Does anybody on my flist read Dean/Castiel? What's the main trend in those stories? Dean on top? Castiel on top? Switching? What do you prefer? Do you have favorite stories? I love bottom!Dean fics but I'm not sure if that would fit this pairing...
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If I were going to guess, I'd assume most Dean/Cas stories have Dean showing Cas what sex is about. I'm sure there are lots of first time stories.
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It's interesting to me as a mod to see the progression of themes in Dean/Castiel fic since the beginning of the comm. Initially, most fics featured Castiel rescuing or meeting Dean in hell, and then a lot of Castiel exploring the human condition (and a lot of innocent Castiel learning about sex from Dean for the first time). We have also developed our own tropes and cliches-- there's a huge niche for domestic and food related fic in the pairing, as well as (as you might expect) wing!fic. Sometimes there's a lot of religious themes as well.
Over time, after Castiel had more characterization in show, the fandom started branching out-- Castiel grew less innocent in characterization, dark!Castiel started being played with, and people started writing a number of exploratory vessel!fics (about Castiel's as-yet unnamed vessel) which of course became AU after The Rapture/ Jimmy. (Post-The Rapture, there's a lot of Jimmy fic as well... the fandom loves to play with the morality of Dean and Castiel in a relationship while Jimmy is present). Castiel started seducing Dean instead of the other way round, and so on.
Another common trope which has evolved over time as we got Anna was fallen!Castiel-- how Castiel might fall and become more human, Castiel being punished by heaven for his rebellion, etc.
There was a tendency to treat Sam during S4 as a possible evil!Sam in future!fic, now the trend is to write Sam as the sympathetic (or at least embarrassed) little brother to Dean and Castiel's relationship. There are Sam finds out and Bobby finds out fics. There's kid!fic where one or the other gets de-aged, and of course a lot of pwps with various kinks explored.
Episode 5.04 created other trends, we now have a tag for stories which take place in that au future or feature the future versions of the characters.
The comm has hosted two massive fic exchanges since the comm started along with a number of challenges, and those on the whole produced some really high quality fic.
I definitely prefer bottom!Dean stories, and I have favorites. I don't read everything that comes across the comm, there is simply too much VOLUME to do that. I can give you some recs if you like though :).
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Seeing the World in Blue and Green (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/276673.html) by
Castiel spends a day learning what it's like to be human. (There is also a pod!fic version.)
This was a relatively early fic in fandom and I think represents some of the best thematic elements of Dean/Castiel. Dean (and Sam) tries to teach Castiel what it's like to be human for a day
Lazarus Falling (http://rivkat.livejournal.com/204160.html) by
This one didn't have a summary, but it's a missing scene/ tag from 4x01. It reflects the certain sense of uncertainly fans of the pairing had about Castiel's motives at that stage of the game.
Love in the End of Times (http://bellajayd.livejournal.com/28539.html) by
This is how you fall in love as the world ends. These are not the moments of victory or of action; these are the quiet moments in between.
This one was actually written for me, so it is tailor made to exactly what I love about Dean/Castiel-- but a slow progression of Dean and Castiel developing feelings for one another, and plenty of crack.
Fragments (http://uselessplayback.livejournal.com/124940.html) by
Dean felt like he’d been dropped into the middle of a video game, the kind that cleaned up the bodies after the player’s character left the room.
Really fascinating and well done story. It's part casefic and part something else entirely, but I really loved the way
No Stranger in Your Dreams (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/939361.html) by
Dean and Castiel have been meeting each other in secret, in dreams. Something follows them one night -- something with teeth. And now Dean won't wake up... Dreams can be as dangerous as reality.
Excellent weaving of an ongoing Dean and Castiel relationship into the course of the S4 canon timeline.
Pomegranate Seeds (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/974275.html#cutid1) by
Heaven remakes the Earth in the image of Eden. Castiel spends the years of its reforging seeking to preserve the last shreds of humanity he can coax free.
Unusual apocafic with a really lyrical style.
Anywhere but Here () by
Dean Winchester discovers that the grass is always greener on the other side of the timeline.
Reverb (http://community.livejournal.com/leonidasden/30976.html) by
In which Castiel is most assuredly not a hammer ...
This was an early fic, fandom-wise. It explores the whys and wherefores of Castiel falling, and also of Dean and why Sam would aways come first with Dean-- but the twist here is that Castiel and Lucifer had a prior relationship (Castiel as the reason for Lucifer's fall).
The Uncomfortable Truth About Being Prophesized (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/883956.html) by
The Prophet Chuck knows all, and that really isn’t helping Dean’s valiant attempts at denial.
Pretty hilarious crack where Dean and Castiel sex life is cramped by Dean's realization that Chuck the Prophet knows and sees all.
Two Kinds of Light (http://gekizetsu.net/sn/twokinds.htm) by
Futurefic. Dean discovers that there’s light...and then there’s light.
Another early apocafic, this explores what would happen if Dean was eventually able to see Castiel.
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Castiel spends forty years in hell, searching for Dean Winchester.
This was also an early fic in the fandom and it was written for one of my prompts. It's not only an excellent Dean and Castiel fic, it's one of my favorite SPN fics of all time.
Also, Chrome (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/884351.html) by
This isn't any sort of possession he can recognize. There is no demonic force he can sense, no ghost slipped into Dean's skin. The only sense of a soul at all is just Dean's, quiet and muffled beneath an odd, cold gloss.
Dean gets possessed by the Impala, sorta.
Twist (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/879299.html) by
In his exceedingly long existence, the angel Zachariah has not often been surprised.
Dean/Castiel seen through the hilarious filter of Zachariah's POV.
A Long Year (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/1048929.html=) by
Keeping Dean alive is more difficult than Castiel ever suspected.
Castiel has no soul to bargain for a Crossroads deal-- he makes a deal with Lucifer instead and as part of the deal has to keep Dean alive for a full year (it's harder than it looks). By turns serious and cracky.
The Land of Unlikeness (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/920173.html) by
Once his brain stops turning circles in his skull, he tries to take stock. His gun is gone, and so is Ruby's knife. His body's a cacophony of aches and pains, small, stinging cuts where the sand has worked in. Give him twelve hours and he'll be a walking bruise and muscles that won't work right. Narrowing his eyes, Dean chances a look down the slope and figures, give him twenty-four and he'll be dead.
Post 4xx22, Dean and and injured Castiel are stuck in a kind of no man's land between the world and heaven.
Jesus, He Was a Handsome Man (http://hollycomb.livejournal.com/86130.html) by
Castiel lied about the man he was possessing.
This is quite a departure from the usual Dean/Castiel and it's almost more a Dean/OC, since the vessel portrayed isn't Jimmy. Interesting what if scenario.
The Shattered Ones by
Lucifer has always been a fan of tragic comedies. Even when no one else sees the humor.
This one takes place post 4x22 and has a punch in the gut type ending. (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/909305.html) ()
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It was never a question of if, only when.
This takes place as a missing scene post Heaven or Hell. Short. Most of the revelations in the story have since been proven different in canon, but I like the way it was handled here.
Every Word a Piece of my Heart (http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/882467.html) by
The war is over and Jimmy is finally free to go back to his family. Everything should be perfect – then why isn’t it?
Good example of how a post Dean/Castiel relationship Dean/Jimmy could work, and I like that the author didn't make Amelia a bitch in the process.
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http://trinityofone.livejournal.com/177145.html
it's called apocrypha and shows a sneaky naughty castiel, and a bobby that's a dick....
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in fact i was one of the very first to write smut for the pairing....
it all depends, sometimes cas is very niave and doesn't know about sex, sometimes cas is I'm thousands of years old excuse me whilst I throw you over the nearest table
one of the major appeals, apart from the nonwincest thing, is the way that castiel stares at dean, and how well he knows him, he sees straight through him. I mean you'd have to be blind to miss the eye-sexing that has gone on between the two. There are lots of little details like fingers lingering against each other, as opposed to the manly hugs between sam/dean.
It all depends on how the author percieves castiel, sometimes alien, sometimes frightfully niave, sometimes a bad-ass who is clearly not human, sometimes like a child. Misha Collins plays it that all of these are valid points and can be extorted by an opportunistic author
dean is not always on top! but there is the danger of falling always as a threat between them, and dean's epic need for self sacrifice comes into it and sam's jealousy
here's a reclist compiled by another author in the pairing
http://delicious.com/tracy_loo_who/dean%2Fcastiel+recs
although one thing I have noticed is that they tend to be more literate writers, there are more references to the biblical and literary, they have better titles and that they can be epic, even in teeny oneshots....
hope this helps
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lets take the scene in the whorehouse with chastity
he was openly terrified, suggesting he knows about the pleasures of the flesh we wonder why he's scared, several easy reasons, he's a soldier and he's out of his depth, these women have power he doesn't understand and he doesn't get the protocol of, he doesn't know what to do - and castiel doesn't work well without a chain of command
then he tries to put her at ease - reassuring her of her worth and that her dad was a flake, which struck me as old fashioned and sweet but criminally niave, he didn't know better that these girls don't care about these things, they're doing a job, he wanted her to feel better about herself....
so how castiel can top - easy
he's a bad ass soldier of the lord, he can take what's his
he may not know to flush the toilet but he knows what he wants
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probably less frightening than <lj user="tracy_loo_who"'s http://further-rex.blogspot.com/2009/04/castiel.html?zx=f8b81297ce0078bb
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And I think I'm one of the few people I know that truly doesn't have a preference as for who tops - Sam or Dean. I prefer equal opportunity guys - makes for many more variations - but if a story is all top!Sam or top!Dean, it's all good with me as long as the story is decently written.
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But my main problem with Dean/Castiel was that I didn't understand the dynamics of the pairing, what I would prefer. Though it's true that Castiel is very protective of Dean, when Dean's in danger Castiel actually kicks ass. And I could get behind that ;)
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But I did read this Dean/Castiel written by
The Shame Of It All (http://oselle.livejournal.com/389017.html).
And also, I can read Dean/Cas better if Sam were not around, like in 2014 for instance. Sam as a third wheel with Dean doing Cas ( or the other way round ), I'm too much of a Sam/Dean girl to take that!
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And thank you so much for the rec! I'm just the opposite. I prefer Dean/Castiel with Sam still there...