shallowstories

[shallowstories]

Who Framed Sam Winchester?

By queerwerewolf | @queerwolf79 Art by anyrei | @anyreiart

Coming to Ao3 on 12/27/2024

Rated Explicit | 29,180 words | No Archive Warnings Apply

Down-on-his-luck private eye Cas Novak gets hired by Angelic Studios president, Nick Vaught, to investigate a scandal involving an infamous literary character (Lit), Dean Winchester, and Vaught’s primary nemesis, Fergus Crowley. A devilish producer and prop designer who has his hands in every movie studio in Los Angeles. Crowley’s prop factory shares a wall with Lit Town, and worse yet, he owns the contract for every Lit. Every contract, that is, except for brothers Sam and Dean Winchester from the Supernatural book series. When Crowley is found murdered, Sam Winchester becomes the primary suspect and goes on the run. The villainous Judge Edlund vows to catch and destroy Sam, having discovered a means of killing Lits with a substance known only as “Pulp”. Desperate to prove his brother’s innocence, Dean demands Cas help him find his brother before the Judge does. Despite vowing to never work with another Lit after his twin brother's murder, Cas agrees. With a contentious start to their working relationship, Dean Winchester and Cas Novak begin to uncover an ever growing nefarious plot. Can Cas and Dean put a stop to this evil ploy? And more importantly, will their attraction to each other get in the way of saving the day?

[Keep reading for a sneak preview!]

“Cigars? Cigarettes?”

When I turned, it was to come face to face with Dorian Gray. Unsurprisingly, he hadn’t aged a day in about a decade or so. Now whether that was because he was a Lit, or that damned portrait… His cobalt blue eyes rivaled my own, although, if I’m honest, his were always prettier. His curly blonde hair was coifed in a pompadour and his scarlet lips were curled in a hungry smile. He was dressed in a form-fitting pair of charcoal pants and an even tighter black t-shirt that left little to the queer imagination, carrying a tray of different smokes.

“Dorian, what are you doing here?”

With a wistful, overly dramatic sigh, Dorian pouted his plush lips and said, “Work’s been slow for those of us with a little more… culture.” Which meant with how many contemporary novels were capturing the attention of audiences, any Lits from the 19th century or earlier had to get creative to make a living. This suited Dorian, considering his nature. “But I’m still exquisitely tragic.”

With a soft laugh, I nodded, reveling in his beauty for a moment, although I was far too old for him now. “Yeah, you are.”

The lights started to dim and a spotlight shined on the closed curtains. I caught Crowley in my peripheral vision, straightening his tie and sitting upright. He even pulled out a small bottle of cologne, spraying it against his neck. It reeked of licorice and cloves, the breath of a child that got into his father’s cigarette case.

I turned to Dorian with a bemused expression. “What’s with him?”

Dorian smoothed out a nonexistent wrinkle on his pants with a shrug. “Oh, Mr. Crowley never misses a night when Dean performs.”

“Got a thing for Lits, huh?”

At that, Dorian gave me a pointed look. “If I recall, you did as well at one point.”

I cleared my throat and grabbed my drink, gulping down half of it at the implication, feeling a warmth at the memories that comment conjured. The crowd grew silent and the band could be heard from the pit, warming up their instruments. Then a familiar intro began, an infamously upbeat Cole Porter song that had been slowed down from a jazzy little jaunt to something sedated, steady, and sentimental. Just as a soft beat began, the curtains jostled and a leg popped out, bent at the knee in skin tight purple pants.

“We’re all alone… No chaperone… Can get our number… the world’s in slumber… ” A sultry, deep voice sang in a pleasant register, masterfully turning jazz to a ballad. The curtains parted and revealed one of the most breathtaking creatures I had ever seen in my life.

“Let’s misbehave…”

[shallowstories]

My heart seems to be doing better and better, so I'm gonna ease into trying to restart last year's hobby. (Writing!)

❤️❤️❤️❤️

FIC WRITING GOALS (from the poll/WIP game, in terms of votes:)

⭐ For your crimes against the most high - Chuck tries to convince Dean that Cas was his self-insert; alt 15x19 Chuck Vs TFW + Michael = 20 minutes ⭐⭐Hopeless romantic - Harper & Jack road fic; Jack tries to break the empty deal by tapping into necromancy & divination = 40 minutes ⭐⭐⭐⭐The truth within despair - Dean misremembers the 15x18 confession = 110 minutes ⭐⭐⭐If wishes were horses - Lebanon AU/John lives = 70 minutes ⭐⭐⭐The golden calf - Jack in season 1 time travel fic = 70 minutes ⭐⭐Mary meta = 30 minutes Other misc stuff - Dean/Cas early intimacy/season 5 FTBYAM fic (Blackout on the eastern seaboard); Claire becomes Chuck's newest fixation (Wayward on main street); Gabriel and Lucifer stay in the bunker after Exodus (It takes a village); season 5 TFW meets season 15 TFW (Myrkviðr "The boy-king, the stag, and the widower"); putting oneshots on Ao3, etc.

P.S. If you were around last year, I started writing in September, and then by November my liver was failing, and by January my heart was failing! (Which was the thing stressing my liver, as it turns out.) What a wild ride!

Anyway, I've not deleted any of the things, but there are some hidden due to reorganizing and rewriting/renaming chapters going on. It was blocking meeeee.

For this month, I'm gonna focus on getting everything together in one place on my laptop. (Most of the writing from last year was done on the toilet-to-phone pipeline, and that phone is very much inactivated-but-charging, so I can get stuff off it this weekend.)

Other stuff I'm looking for:

Tiny cheerleading communities or other inexperienced writers

Beta, grammar, and proofreading resources

I'm already reading a book about editing (The Artful Edit by Susan Bell) but other suggestions are welcome

[shallowstories]

Read now on AO3!

The unforgiving waves pushed him further under, arms and legs flailing wildly. In his panic, he made the mistake of trying to breathe. To scream. All it got him was a mouthful of water and a burning in his lungs.

DeanCas HorrorFest presents:

A Word in the Mists

Author: Hiding Amaranth Artist: lamiasage Rating: M Word Count: 23,968 Tags&Warnings: Canon-Adjacent AU, Ship at Sea setting, Case Fic, Monster Hunt, Mystery, Suspense, pre-relationship Dean/Castiel, Dean & Jo, Isolated from the Outside World, Castiel and Dean Save Each Other, Sarcasm, Angst, Canon-Level Depictions of Blood and Violence, Minor Character Deaths (not TFW), Brief Hints of Suicidal Thoughts, Fear of Drowning

Summary: Mist as far as the eye can see. A gloomy ocean that seems to swallow up the sunlight like broken dreams. An old, rusty ship that creaks with every inch of movement. And a crew that could compete in an award for grumpiest people alive.

Dean really hates pretty much everything about this case, and would love nothing more than to call it quits and turn this ship around—if there wasn't the little issue of the disappearance of thousands of people across ten different ships on the open sea.

Saving lives is what he does… though he has to question if he isn't doing more harm than good when the disappearances begin on his own ship—and he still hasn't even figured out what kind of monster they're dealing with.

Preview: Nothingness devoured the horizon. Dean glanced back over his shoulder, but the wafts of mist were too thick to see anything beyond the ship's railing. A chill crept over his skin at the realization that he couldn't even make out the other end of the ship itself. The chain of friendly, orange lights hung across the deck didn't stand a chance, its brightness swallowed up effortlessly by the blanket of fog. It was a mirror to the way this blasted mission seemed to soak all happiness out of him.

Maybe coming up here had been a mistake. He'd hoped the fresh air would help him clear his head—that it could ease some of the tension that had stubbornly settled in his shoulders ever since he'd set foot on the Fate's Whisper. Instead, all he'd achieved by stepping out on the deck was that the tight knot of worry somewhere deep in his chest solidified.

Link to Fic Link to Art

The Apocalypse is nigh, and the Prophecy is false.

Taglist: @deancashorrorfest @lamiasage @samsrowena @suninjang @typicalrowena @jomybeloved @butch--dean @thefandomsinhalor

[shallowstories]

Watching my first watch through of SPN ever. I’m on season 9 and as someone who has been on tumblr since ancient times but didn’t actually get in to it, I think everyone DOWNPLAYED how crazy Destiel is. How did veterans survive that….. It’s just. What. What am I watching. Why does Deans voice get SOFT when he talks to Cas particularly??? Why did Dean ditch Sam to watch Cas at the supermarket???? I think because of the meme I was convinced it was cas who was the one obviously in love but. No. It’s Dean. And it’s embarrassing for him. This is crazy but Destiel fans weren’t crazy y’all were on to something all this time…..

[shallowstories]

late season cas and stanford era dean call that a finger blast from the past happy friday

[shallowstories]

fic set during s5 where dean prays to cas because he’s going a little crazy, alright, with everything that’s going on and at least cas doesn’t give him those looks that sam and bobby have been giving him lately, the ones that say are you really up for this, really, something happened to you in hell, didn’t it, and are you sure you can shoulder this? because dean is tired of that shit. course he’ll shoulder any burden that comes his way. that’s what he does, that’s what he’s for. but anyway for some reason he has a direct line to this nerdy angel who’s bigger than his body and all sizzling electricity and also a lot of adjectives dudes don’t use to describe other dudes. it’s not like anyone has to know.

anyway this angel sits next to him on the ratty old bed, they’re leaning against the squeaky, metal headboard and they have to kind of press up against each other to fit, and there’s no reason for him to be here, absolutely none at all, but dean….. yeah, dean is currently showing him his ivory grip colt. “dad let me pick her out when i was 17”, he says, voice scratchy, aiming for casual. he turns the gun over and over in his hands. pretty. lethal.

“oh”, cas says. “i guess i feel a… kinship of sorts with my blade, too. we’ve been through much together.” it slides out of his sleeve, smoothly. wordlessly they trade weapons and dean ain’t even… ain’t even worried about the fact that this supernatural being holds his gun carefully in his hands. dean wonders if he always touches things so gently. he shivers and wonders if the touch which left a handprint behind was of a gentle nature, too. outside, the sun is about to rise. he hasn’t slept. there’s a shoulder next to his and dean could rest his head on it if he wanted to.

he wants to.

[shallowstories]

Writing tool for your fight scenes.

[shallowstories]

Ficlet: The Castiel that Dean sees before him is a cold, dark statue

It's antithetical to everything Cas stood for

Jack's achingly patient and oh-so-sincere the way he pins Dean in place with a chilling stare. "You have to understand. No interference means no interference, Dean."

"B-but. Cas!"

The Cas doesn't even flinch. He's military straight. Chin up. Idling like an engine waiting to rev.

"He won't remember you."

"No..."

"If it brings you comfort, Dean. He...he doesn't remember me either."

There's no comfort in that.

Jack turns away, unbothered by Dean's presence. Distant. Dismissive.

"You can't stay here. And we have a mission."

"You and Cas have a mission."

"Yes."

"And what's that?"

"It doesn't concern you. You only get one life, and yours is over. It's time to rest, Dean."

"And what about Cas?"

Jack stares, uncomprehending. "?"

"He just gets chained to this? He keeps on working forever and ever?"

A flinch. It's the first flicker of Jack Kline Dean's seen.

"I'm chained to this, too."

Dean looks away.

"And besides, it's not forever. It's just until we end. Then, Castiel and I will go to The Empty. Together."

"Oh."

That hurts.

"That's the way of it. There will be order. There will be peace."

"That's not--"

"You shouldn't waste this. Dean. I told you once. You need to accept your life. Your whole life, even how it ended. Let that fire go out."

[shallowstories]

sextant

instrument for determining the angle between the horizon and a celestial body, used in celestial navigation to determine latitude and longitude

[shallowstories]

Who wants a miserable little deancas fic where they make out in the car during Heaven Can't Wait? Well I've good news for you! I just wrote one.

Here's a little teaser:

Cas doesn't startle when Dean starts to undo the top buttons of his shirt, but he does tense. His fingers come up to touch the back of Dean's hand.

"Dean." Cas says, with warning in his voice, but he doesn't stop him.

"You're too..." buttoned up, is the intention, but it doesn't come out, "You..."

"What am I?"

Dean grips his shirt in a fist and pulls him in. Kisses him. Soft in the mouth but weighted deliberately, undeniable, powerful, like pressing on a deep bruise.

Read on Ao3

[shallowstories]

title: paradigm pairing: dean/cas tags: endverse, angst w/ a happy ending, slow burn, h/c

Four months after the Croatoan virus wiped out most of the world's population, Dean's sole objective is meeting his brother at their agreed-upon rendezvous point in Idaho. But when he encounters a mysterious, blue-eyed man in a barn, Dean's plans begin to change. The end of the world is no time for romance, yet there's something about Cas he can't resist. The problem is, Cas has a secret—and it just might prove more deadly than the Croats.

Posting starts August 1st on ao3

add yourself to the tag list here || fic playlist

tagging some friends to spread the word <3

@valleydean @friendofcarlotta @inacatastrophicmind @captainhaterade @jewishdeanwinchester

@bloodydeanwinchester @rauko-is-a-free-elf @saminzat @halevetica

[shallowstories]

Alternatives for "they rolled their eyes".

aka facial expressions/body movements to show annoyance/exasperation.

*warning bad writing; these are just ideas.*

*ideas are not separate and can be combined.*

• Their smile became strained.

• A hand came up to rub their face.

• Their expression fell.

• Their nose scrunched.

• Their forehead creased.

• They frowned.

• They lightly/heavily sighed.

• They deflated.

• Their lips pursed.

• They glanced away/sideways.

• They gave a deadpan look.

• Their tongue poked their cheek.

• They became tense.

• Their shoulders slumped.

• Their foot toed the ground.

• Their knee started bouncing (while sitting).

• Their hands curled into fists.

• They scratched their cheek.

• They took a calming breathe in.

• They looked up for strength.

• They turned/looked away.

• Their eyebrows rose.

• Their eyes squinted.

• Their head shook side to side.

Honorable mention.

• They pretended not to hear.

A/N: Just been seeing a lot of this phrase in books and ff which to me sounds sassy or even rude, which if you're going for that great! Otherwise it sounds a bit out of place. Lmk if you agree or hate me for this lmao. Or have better ideas too.

[shallowstories]

Larry Levis

[shallowstories]

Have you ever thought "What if the CW's Supernatural was about Meg Ruby and Ava?" Well. you have now. Since we're all on the same page, read the first two chapters of my Meg Ava Ruby fic, By Any Other Name. To be clear this is like a behind the scenes canon divergence not like, them taking on the roles of team free will. Here is a snippet:

"Your girl Ava, she believe in something?"  Intel never hurts. Besides, she is genuinely curious. What's got Azazel's number one gal barking up another skirt? 

"My girl," Meg's pride is obvious. One of those sins Ruby never really saw the big problem with. Along with gluttony, lust, sloth, envy, disrespect...it just doesn't strike her as all that fair. Then again, she is a demon. When's anything fair? "Ava believes, alright." 

"...anything you tell her?" 

Maybe Meg's just looking to brag about a skilled manipulation. Ruby kinda wants to brag about winding Sam up, but she can't talk too far into the plan. Better for Meg to believe she's a loser, even if it rankles. 

"No," Meg says, drawn out, teasing, then she skips a few steps ahead and spins around on her toes. There's an energy in her Ruby hasn't seen before, not in all their years side by side on the racks. Not that there's much cause for conversation down there. If you're caught slacking you might just end up back under the knife yourself, to be shown how it's done. That's why it's hard to trust a demon. The only thing that unites them is that they're all so fucking scared. 

"Spit it out, then."  "She believes in me."

Ruby laughs again, hysterical, unstoppable, cruel. She clocks the hurt on Meg's face before she shields it again, and that's even funnier. Meg thinks they're the same, and she's right, where it counts. That's how Ruby can gasp out, with perfect, unholy honesty: 

"You? You're nothing!"

Read more on ao3!

[shallowstories]

to hell and back (read on ao3 here)

“Tell me the story,” Dean says quietly. It’s only under cover of darkness, with his head pillowed on Cas’s chest and their legs tangled together, safe and warm in their bed, that he’ll ever ask for this. Cas understands—it’s a story best told somewhere the demons of their past can’t reach them.

“We descended within minutes of you being taken,” Cas begins. He could tell this story by rote, if only because Dean has asked to hear it so often. But Dean always hangs onto his every word in these moments, so Cas chooses each of them carefully. “We all knew the fight would be tough, and it was expected that many of us wouldn’t return. I doubted I would survive, but it didn’t bother me. I believed whole-heartedly in the mission; the Righteous Man had to be saved.” Cas smiles when he says that, thinking that, in many ways, his mission has never changed. 

“When we arrived, it was madness. My garrison had countless battle plans prepared, but when faced with the realities of the Pit, they fell apart completely. So the new plan was to split up, and to get you in any way we could, at any cost.” Cas closes his eyes for a moment, remembers the flashing lights and the screaming, remembers the wild urgency of the mission and the way it matched every beat of the war drums. “My brothers and sisters couldn’t see you. No one could. But I could feel you.”

Keep reading

[shallowstories]

do you have any destiel horrorfic recs?? (prefferably longfics with little to no smut but i can skip smut scenes)

also i love ur account ive found some of my favs on here/gen <33

Here are a few that came to mind (most with very skippable smut):

A Complete Kingdom by komodobits (Explicit, 85k words)

The sea; it swallows me. It comes up to my knees and it swallows me. The boys owe Jody a few dozen favours, and so when her niece goes missing near an old fishing village on the coast of Maine, Dean, Sam, and a newly human Castiel agree to take the case on. They settle into an old abandoned lighthouse-keepers' cottage, and slowly the tide comes in. (post-s8)

Between Love and Agony by Duckyboos (Explicit, 53k words)

Dean Winchester is in love. Like, bonafide heart eyes and deep sighs, hung-the-moon love. There's just one problem: the lucky guy is his husband's identical twin, Castiel. The two of them have been having a kinky affair for years, burrowing under each other’s skin and setting up camp. Which is why, after Castiel goes missing, Dean’s about ready to tear the world apart looking for him. When Castiel eventually returns to him, he’s been through literal hell, managing to drag himself out, bloody and raw, for Dean. Together, they discover a way to make Castiel whole again — though the price will be gruesome… and there will certainly be hell to pay.

empty places by dothraki_shieldmaiden (Mature, 71k words)

There’s something outside the house. Something is moving outside the house, moving inside the house. Maybe moving inside him. Something is outside the house, and it wants in. After tragedy derails his life, Castiel Novak needs to escape. He flees to Lawrence, Kansas, where he answers Dean Winchester’s ad for a roommate. There, he tries to mend the shattered pieces of his life. But as he starts to become closer with Dean, Castiel finds that escape isn’t so easy. The past doesn’t want to be left behind, and there’s something inside the house. Something hungry. And it won’t be appeased until it has him.

Every Part of the Animal by Askance (doomcountry), komodobits (Mature, 47k words)

It’s their first case after the Trials, after Heaven has collapsed: playing back-up to another team of hunters taking out some werewolves in the mountains. It's a routine job, an easy job - at least until the radio goes silent. Sam, Dean, and Cas follow after, but the caves into which the hunters have vanished wind deeper and darker than they could have expected, and something is wrong. Cas can feel it. The Winchesters may not believe what he’s hearing, but there's something down here with them—and it's not the people they came here to find, and it's not the werewolves they've been tracking. It's something else, something older, something violent, and it knows they're here.

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies by Ariasune (Teen and Up, 13k words)

"Look, Charlie thinks the Men of Letters have something that can help you actually, you know, find this monster.” “Good,” Dean licks at his thumb to get the last of the chicken salt clean. “Cause right now it seems like we’ve got a monster that’s some 20, 000 leagues under the sea…” He stops. “This isn’t some 20, 000 leagues shit is it?” “It’s a submarine, actually.” Fuck, that sounds like a yes.

Good Bones by emmbrancsxx0 (Mature, 39k words)

An apple pie, white picket fence American Nightmare. Dean and Cas, married and semi-retired from hunting, move into their first house together in a sleepy, secluded town. After a few run ins with the ghost that haunts the place, they must come face-to-face with the house's grisly past.

like a thief in the night by kingdumbass (Mature, 28k words)

Plagued by nightmares since the death of his mother as a small child, Dean Winchester is no stranger to grief. After the sudden death of his brother and the unexplainable disappearance of Sam’s fiancee Jessica leave Dean reeling, the former detective turns towards alcohol to cope with the loss, but when the news of another missing peron’s case all the way out in Pontiac, Illinois jogs Dean’s memory of an old unsolved case with possible connections to the mysterious note his brother left behind, he feels compelled to pick up where he left off. Though once he rolls into town, he encounters more questions than answers. Namely: what’s real and what’s delusion? And how is the creature from his nightmares tormenting the residents of this small, suburban town?

On the Cutting Room Floor by callsigntango (Mature, 23k words)

In an Arachne hunt gone wrong, Dean "wakes up" in an AU style world as what he'd gone undercover as for the hunt: a journalist. But when he shows up to cover what should be a routine story on a suspicious death in Kansas, the world around him starts to unravel in horrific, painful ways. The appearance of a man claiming to be an Angel sends Dean into a tailspin -- but just as something about Cas begins to spark very real memories in Dean, Cas seems to be losing his own grip on what's real and what isn't. And as they struggle to free themselves from this distorted web of reality, something sinister is lurking just beyond their reach.

The Elevator Game by bexgowen, xfancyfranart (Explicit, 88k words)

The game is simple. Get in an elevator, and follow the rules. If you follow them correctly, the elevator will rise and when the doors open, they will open onto a world that is not your own.

the gardener by captcas (Explicit, 17k words)

Dean loves the gardens at 918 Westview Lane. And if that has something to do with the gardener there that just so happens to be easy on the eyes? Sue ‘em. Too bad he hasn’t had the guts to actually talk to the guy. Cas doesn’t take too kindly to people who disrespect the objects of his affection but he does love gardening. AKA the one where Castiel gives us all a lesson in ultra-specialized begonia fertilizer

the inexhaustible silence of houses by Askance (doomcountry) (Teen and Up, 31k words)

Almost two years after the world doesn't end, Castiel falls from grace—and loses his voice in the process. It is the impetus for confession and change; before long, he is settling into a loving relationship with Dean, the Winchesters are tired, and hunting for a place to land has taken precedence to hunting anything else. Dean and Castiel fall in love with the strange little house on the end of Swallowtail Drive, and for a little while life is as it should be—sweet, affectionate, and beginning afresh. But more and more Castiel sees and hears things in the house that beg the question of whether or not a place itself can be alive. The walls and rooms seem to shift and grow and breathe, and one night, Dean comes home from a hunt changed in a way that Castiel cannot explain. In the months that follow, their domestic bliss takes turns for the dark and sour, and the confusion of their circumstances will ultimately test everything Castiel knows about the man he loves, and everything he believes to be true.

These Violent Delights by SomethingBlue42, xfancyfranart (Explicit, 43k words)

Dean Winchester, war vet and functioning alcoholic with a life that’s going nowhere, takes a job at Baltimore Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Dean had never heard of Dr. Castiel Novak notorious serial killer and cannibal given he’d been dodging bullets and performing field triage during Novak’s sensational trial. Seasoned orderly Rufus lays out the rules: Do not touch the glass. Do not approach the glass. You pass him nothing but soft paper - no pencils, no pens. Use the sliding food carrier only, no exceptions. If he attempts to pass you anything, do not accept it. And most importantly: don't tell him anything personal. But Dean was never much for following the rules and Castiel has a way of making Dean feel like he isn’t the grade-a loser his hot-shot FBI agent brother thinks he is. Then, a senator’s daughter goes missing, setting forth a chain of events that put Dean on a path that forces him to choose where his loyalties lie and just how far he’s willing to walk into the dark.

There's also our horror tag which you can check for more fics like these.

Additionally, there's the DeanCasHorrorFest filled with amazing destiel art and fic that might interest you.