#It really throws me off when I try to mentally line up seasons with Lucifer 😂

[amtrak12]

Also how the fuck is 911 on S8 when it premiered in 2018???

[mxvladdy]

Hi! just finished reading your Tumblr request on AO3 and I just looooove your writing ;; if it's not a problem I wanted to ask how you imagine that Lucifer, Mammon and Beel would react to a MC who is usually very quiet and not very expressive, impossible to embarrass or make nervous, to suddenly, one day manage to make her blush for the first time (Also, English is not my first language, so I hope this is okey) I wish you a lovely week ❤

A/N: This is adorable! Sorry for the slow turn around, I hope you enjoy!❤

Lucifer

Stoicism is something he normally finds very attractive in a woman. To be able to keep such a level of calm outlook during even times that might even shake him. He loves the idea of a power couple, and the way you hold yourself. You definitely make one.

It does grate him that he can’t fluster you like you do him, especially during your time together in private. He tries multiple ways to even just draw some color to your cheeks. Flowers in the classroom, hand written invitations to private dining establishments and venues, he even went to the human realm just to find some kind of familiar comfort to give to you. You love them all he knows but he wants, craves to see an uninhibited reaction from you. He’ll get it one day, his pride depends on it at this point.

Luck graces him one evening after a hellish work day. A fight in the school yard leading to property damage he had to do extra paper work for. The only saving grace of that was it wasn’t one of his brothers, this time. Only followed soon after by a report of yet another racket engineered by Mammon. Then, to top off a horrible day one of Belphie and Satan’s little “pranks” blew up half his office.

All his loose or unprotected paperwork, gone. Nothing but smoldering bits of ash. He was now more than ever thankful to have you by his side. Before he could get his hands on the two you stepped in shooing him away to deal with the other fires that needed to be put out while you handled his office.

Things got done, in record time for once. He was able to rewrite his notes for the next council meeting, but at the cost of your weekday dinner together. A pity, but he knew you understood. Trudging up to his room he looked forward to perhaps a few hours of sleep before the next crisis struck. Then he found you.

He chuckles to himself quietly leaning against his door frame. You had beaten him to his favorite resting roost. You sat on his favorite armchair, rolled up tight in his comforter. All he could see was a tuft of hair and the very tip of your nose. Beautiful as always, but he wanted to rest. Well-two birds, one stone and all…

He scoops you up envious of how deeply you could slumber and places you on his lap. Kicking off his shoes he sighs blissfully before resting his head back on worn leather.

Mini fic

You didn’t expect to see Lucifer tonight. Today has been the absolute definition of a shit show, on nights like these it wasn’t uncommon for you not to see him at all. You would normally place your bets on him being unconscious at his desk. Though, he couldn’t really do that tonight. You pat yourself on the back mentally knowing that he would be pleased with the work you and the brothers did cleaning up his office. While you couldn’t get them to apologize to Lucifer you at least got them to clean up what was salvageable in his study.

After a few hours of cleaning his office was back in working order and your feet were screaming for a break. Bidding the two miscreants farewell and making them promise to hold off on the pranks for at least a week you let your body lead you to Lucifer’s room. The room was how you left it that morning. Your slippers next to his by the door and your robe tossed haphazardly on his linen sheets. You make a beeline for the only piece of furniture Lucifer loved dearly. How many nights had you snuck in only to see him melting into the old chain. His long legs sprawled out and tangled in his foot rest, while his body sinks into the imprints he has left from years of use like a lover's embrace.

Yanking the thin comforter from his bed you curl into the divots with a yawn. Before you know it your eyes close and the crackling of the fireplace lulls you to sleep. You awake with a jolt, confused and disoriented for a moment before your sleepy brain catches up. You fell asleep alone on the soft leather but woke to something unyielding beneath you now.

Lucifer sits underneath you snoring softly. His arms rest around your blanketed body. His head tilts down over you, his nose tickling your hairline. Like always he sports a mild look of annoyance. His lips were drawn in a scowl, brows crinkling in displease. You could tell his jaw was tense even while he slept.

Freeing your arms from your cocoon you reach up from him moving to cup his twitching jaw. With practiced ease you began to message the pin joints. You smile to yourself moving down to his tense neck and shoulders. This had become a nightly ritual for you when you shared a bed. When you knew he was asleep you would start trying to work away some of his tension from the previous day. You swear in the morning that he looks better on the nights you get the chance to.

This was your little secret though. You couldn’t bear the thought of him knowing you did this. Not that you thought he would disapprove. Lucifer appreciated acts of service, but just the thought of him knowing made your whole body heat in a flush. You push the thoughts away focusing instead on the extremely tight muscles underneath his brow line. It amazed you that he didn’t have any wrinkles after all this.

So engrossed in your perusal of his features you didn’t notice him stirring till his warm palm traps your hand to his cheek. Before you realize it his lips push a firm kiss into the flesh of your palm. Scarlet eyes meet yours crinkling around the edges. They were warm and radiant. “You’re blushing.” His voice was deep and husky from what little sleep he got.

“What?” You stammer.

Lucifer leans in tapping his forehead on yours. He studies your wide eyes and pink face for a moment before cracking a smug grin. “I’ve never seen you flustered before. Your blush looks good on you.”

“You caught me off guard.” He nods, kissing the tip of your nose tenderly taking impish glee in your squirming.

“Good-I will strive to do so more often. I wish to see you as undone as you make me.”

Mammon

Stoic MC? Rare pair? Rare pair. Mammon wears his heart on his sleeve. Nothing about him is slick. From week one everyone knew he had it bad for you. He is so open with his affections whether he likes it or not. Unlike you.

Honestly, how were you always so controlled. Ain’t the dame supposed to be all blushy and giggly too? It-it makes him think he isn’t doing something right. Is he not treating you right? Were you unhappy?

So he goes to do what he does best. Scheme. There has to be someway to crack that stoic disposition of yours. He gets clingy-well clingier now. He starts springing random vacations on you. Expect to skip class whenever he thinks he won’t get skinned alive for it.

He’ll take you anywhere all his internet research tells him to. Black sand beaches, crowded boardwalks to see the lights, deserted hiking trails late in the evening to watch the fireflies. He is sure it will work. But nope, nada. You love every moment of it and show him with a soul searing kiss and sweet words of praise. But damn you if you aren’t always so cool about it.

He is about to throw in the towel when he finally gets what he wants. At work no less. It was completely by accident but he isn’t one to complain. Perhaps he should go to work more often.

Mini Fic

“Pucker up!” Mammon’s make-up artist orders, squeezing his cheeks between her thumb and forefinger. “And for Diavolo’s sake put your phone down.”

“Shove off Cazzin.” Mammon sputters around the sour tasting lip stain and plumper. His eyes still glued to his screen. His freshly done nails swiping at picture after picture of fancy hotels and spas. Just thinking about taking you a private spring got his blood boiling in the best ways.

“Woooow.” Cazz whistles through her fangs looking at his screen. “Who is the lucky lady you are trying to impress this time?

“Mammon bristles, shooting her a murderous glance. The smaller demon blanches, purple skin turning ashy with fear. Her eyes drop to the floor immediately in submission, a sincere apology falling from her lips. “My girlfriend.” He says finally after cooling down. “I’m-I’m trying to impress her or something.”

“Well, pretty sure with a price tag like that anyone would be impressed.” Mammon only grunts barely glancing at the excessive amount of zeros on the page. Any other girl he knew would be a blushing mess after getting a gift like this. Hells, even Cazz was eyeing the site with open envy and excitement. Yet, this wasn’t the first time he had done something like this with you. Every time he did all he got was a blisteringly radiant smile and kisses that probably could send him back to heaven if he didn’t have a life long ban there. Not that that was a bad thing...but he just wanted more.

“You would think so…” He trails off clicking his phone off to focus on the rest of his routine. No sooner had his hair and make-up artist finished then his director was stomping and shouting down the hall for him to get his ass on set. Grimacing Mammon slides off his seat stretching to spare himself a few more seconds of peace. He stops at the door taking one last look at his get up for this shoot.

Damn, he looks good. It was time for a new spring collection, but more importantly, his most popular season. The light spring colors always brought out his best features. The pastel cotton shirt they “fashionably” threw him in hung casually around his frame. Buttons “tastefully” undone to show the smooth planes of his freely waxed and oiled skin. The linen board shorts and finishing touch of leather sandals gave him the perfect beach vibe. At top dollar mind you.

Hmmm-perhaps he could borrow this outfit for your next beach outing.

Unable to tone out his bosses shouting anymore Mammon makes his way to set. He thinks hard on what else he can go or take you to impress you, ignoring the poking and prodding of his camera men and set designers. His partners today, two incubus twins stood sourly next to him. They had been at this for hours and even he was ready for a break from the sweltering heat of the lights.

“Alright! Alright!” The director broke an hour later tired of the twins whining. He throws his hands in the air in exasperation. “We’ll break for an hour for lunch- lost the light as is.” He huffs stumping off for a smoke break.

“Finally,” Mammon sighs from his pose on the ground. “Think I got sand in my ass.” He gets up from the ground grimacing as he tries to brush the grit off his legs. “Shit starts to burn when they get hot.” One of the twins nods looking down at their own arms. Tiny burn marks showing on their fair skin, they will heal by the time the shoot resumes, doesn’t mean they will be happy about it.

“Want to grab lunch?” The twins ask tossing him a towel to blot at his sweating brow. “New food truck is coming in today.” Mammon shakes his head. You had packed him something to eat this morning and he kind of wanted to enjoy it in peace for once.

Waving the two off he hurries back to his room already salivating at whatever tasty food you got him. Halfway to the door he stops, the fine hairs on his neck standing up. Someone was in his dressing room. Devil’s please don’t let it be another rabid fan. He pleads before creeping forward to check. Whoever it was left the door ajar, peaking in he stares enraptured.

When did you get here? It wasn’t abnormal for you to just drop by while he was working, but you usually waited for him on set behind the cameras. You sit humming to yourself reading something on your lap, feet kicking out innocently while you wait for him. Flipping a page he gets a glimpse of what you’re reading. His feathers ruffle in satisfaction. He had plans on showing you these shots before their release date. They still needed approval from his director but he knew they were great. You flip through shot after shot humming or nodding at some. One shot makes you stop fully, eyes growing wide.

Mammon snorts to himself, knowing exactly which photo you stopped on. The next issue was focusing on “Elegance in the work space”, whatever that means. His designer for the projects went a little overboard with the cuts and designs of the business suites he was to model. The sketches and drafts she had thrust at him had made his head spin. They were all amazing in his opinion, but one had been killer, everyone had agreed on that. If he didn’t know any better he was certain that it would put him on the cover. By the way you were looking at it, he was hoping it would.

That suit really complimented all of his features. It was form fitting accenting his slim waist but hid the slight sloping of his shoulders. The gold of the threading of his vest was done up in soft floral patterns that popped against the dark navy blue of the suit's fabric. The dark blue really brought out the lightness of his eyes. The look was topped off with a bright yellow silk pocket square, polished leather wingtips and gold cufflinks. He was about to interrupt you when he saw it, that one thing he wanted more than anything.

The pink starts at your ears swiping across the bridge of your nose before blooming on your round cheeks. It was breathtaking. Thinking he was being sneaky, Mammon whips out his phone for a quick picture, no one would believe him unless he had solid evidence. But the flash gives him away.

“Mammon!” You jump caught, hands flying to cover your warm face.

“Oi! None of that!” Mammon moves quickly snatching your hands away from your face beaming. “I’ve been waiting for ages to see this face on ya, an’ all it took was a picture of me?”

“You- you clean up really nicely, Mammon.” His hearts flutter at your soft admission.

“Huh,” Mammon scratches his neck, feeling his own blush coming forth. “Well- I mean I could do that more often, so long as you keep looking at me like this when I do.” He picks up the stack of photos from the floor where you dropped them in surprise. “Ya know- I still got that suit.”

Your face turns molten- oh he was going to have a field day with this.

Beelzebub

Doesn’t even notice at first. He is kind of the same way with expressing himself too- unless food is involved. So if you are content then he is content, so who cares if you don’t show it on your face?

Well- he didn’t care, until Belphie brought it up. His twin didn’t mean anything by it; he knew that, but it made him wonder. He trusts you when you say you are happy, you have no reason to lie to him. But date nights, game nights, and family dinners you were always so impassive.

It makes him wonder, not enough to ask you though. Truthfully, he is a little embarrassed that he can’t read you as you do him. He won’t force it like his brothers might. He is patient and hopes one day it will just come naturally like it does for him around you.

Mini Fic

Beel watches you over his lunch. You two were silent as you ate, but that was to be expected on days like these. The school cafe was packed with students all jockeying to get a place in line for today’s special. He had gotten there early for the both of you to gap a few of the specials and sides before they were gone. “Are you ok?” He puts his fork down leaning in close to speak to you across the small table. It creaks dangerously under the weight of his elbows on it. You look up from your tea mug. He smiles at your perpetually mild expression, your eyes were hard but your lips and brows were relaxed giving away nothing.

“Of course.” You smile up at him, face smooth and controlled. “Just excited about tonight.”

Hmph, could have fooled him. Beel leans back, studying you intently. He hopes you were as excited as he was for tonight. A new arcade had opened on the edge of town last week and he thought it would be a great date night for the two of you. He had expressed to you on several occasions how he was looking forward to the roller rink and the hoop games. You seemed eager, giving him a closed lip grin every time he brought it up. “Me too.” Beel says finally turning back to his food. “Think we will win any prizes?”

You snort dismissively. “Us? The dream team? I would be surprised if we didn’t win something. Have you seen the plushies?” You pull out your phone and show him their Devilgram. “I want to try and get the hydra one…” You prattle on and scroll through all the cute prizes on their site. He nods along taking a mental note of all the ones that you pointed at, determined to get each and every one for you.

School goes by quickly, far too quickly for him. Each tick of the clock caught him by surprise, jacking his nerves up more and more. It wasn’t like it was his first date with you, but it never stopped the butterflies from starting in his stomach. After school he changes quickly and waits for you by your bedroom door. He fiddles with the zipper of his jacket until you finally open your door.

“Ready?” The smile you throw up at him is breathtaking. “Hope you don’t mind my get up. You mentioned a roller ring so I figured something sporty and functional would be appropriate.” You kick out a leg waving a hand over your bright sport leggings.

Beel chuckles offering you his large hand. “You look adorable as always.”

Being with you was as easy as breathing to him now. After all your time together in the house getting to know you you became one of his closest friends, even before you started dating. You shared many of his interests and wasn’t afraid to argue your point if you saw fit. You fill the train ride to the arcade with idle chatter, goofy selfies to send to his siblings, and annoying the other passengers with your ill-contained chuckles.

The place itself was packed but well spread out to handle the massive throngs of demons and beasts coming for drinks and a good time. “Come on!” You shout over the other very drunk and very loud customers tugging at his sleeve. “Let’s get some coins and find an empty station.” He lets you lead. You take full advantage of his impressive frame to part the crowds around you as you hunt for a free spot. “See anything?”

Beel peers over the heads of most of the demons and looks out. In the far corner sat a few jump rope games that were free. “Stay close.” He murmurs in your ear wrapping a protective arm your shoulders so you wouldn’t be swept away in the flow of the crowd. The games were...hard. Mentally Beel kicks himself. Of course an arcade in the Devildom wouldn’t be geared for humans. They were built for demons' fast reflexes and inhuman strength. You were a good sport about it though, cheering him on when the games began to move too fast for your senses. If a game broke in his zeal to get you tickets, well you were both fast walkers.

“Think we have enough?” Beelzebub asks hours later around a popsicle. His jacket pockets bulge with multicolored tickets screaming to be spent.

You hum around a scoop of ice cream. “Possibly-” Your eyes flick to the prize booth. “And extra, you want a plushie too?” He shrugs. No doubt the moment it got into his room Belphie will steal it to add to his horde.

You end up getting your stuffed hydra and a giant fuzzy minotaur to keep it “company”. You clutch them close to your chest, seemingly happy with your bounties. After that you spend a bit at the roller ring before you finally had to call it a night. Exhausted you lag behind Beel as you make your way back to the train station, feet dragging with each step.

Wordlessly, Beel stops just in front of you. “Here,” He squats, offering you his back, arms stretched out behind him. “I can take us the rest of the way to the stop.” He feels you hesitate for a moment before climbing on to his back.

“Thank you.” He thinks nothing of how soft your voice was, just barely a tickle at the base of his neck. Beel treks one once you are secure, stuffing his hands in his pockets to lock you in place. The rest of the walk was quiet but he didn’t mind it, your warm body and soft breathing in his ear was a comfort.

He stops at the benches with a few minutes to spare before your train. “We are here. Do you want-” He gasps quietly, cutting himself off before he could accidentally wake you. You sleep on unperturbed by his voice. Your hold on around his neck was tight, your head buried in his neck.

It seems only when you're sleeping do you let your guard down. A blush sweeps across your face, your lips pulled up into a serene smile. You looked-happy. Happy in a way he never saw before. He won’t say anything about it, he decides. He’ll cherish this tiny expression all the same. Perhaps one day he’ll see when you're awake too.

[ckneal]

I don’t like the ending of Michael’s story in Supernatural. The core idea fits, and I have nothing but respect for Jake Abel’s performance. That man was selling so hard, that I wouldn’t realize just how stupid some his lines were until after the second viewing, and even then, Jake needed to be off screen, because even when he wasn’t the focus, his body language and his expressions were all so on point. This man understood the assignment better than the people who wrote it, and you will not convince me otherwise. Because the thing about that last episode is that while the idea of Dean manipulating and sacrificing this fellow victim of the Good Son mentality to save the day may have been decent, the writing of this idea that should have tied off the dialogue about siblings and fathers and duty that we saw throughout the show, was lazy. When I look at it these days, all I can think is that they needed at least one more draft.

But I digress. Even knowing that Michael failing to overcome his trauma in the end was a perfectly serviceable ending to the series, there’s a part of me—the same part that looks at John Winchester and sees this tragic mess of a man—that really wishes it could have gone another way. Even though it would kind of mean John Winchester—Chuck’s representative in this little narrative he invented to amuse himself—stealing everyone’s thunder from off screen.

Because I fully believe that between John about everything relating to the apocalypse by the time of his death. And I’m not even linking that to the season 14 episode where he gets pulled forward in time and later wakes up thinking he had one crazy dream—I’m just looking at his dialogue with Azazel, the fact that he was looking into the demon kids, and his final order to Dean that he kill Sam if it become necessary. And the thing that I had always taken away from that, was that John knew what Azazel’s objective was, he knew what the demon children’s role would be, what Mary’s role had been, what Dean’s role would be—if Sam turned out to be the One for Lucifer, and I think that that was at the heart of his drinking. Yes, he was upset when he found out who Mary really was, and yeah, John had seen some stuff, but I think that what really, truly drove him to the bottle was the ongoing question in his head, “Could he fight destiny itself?” He was a mere man whose family was the cornerstone of the apocalypse—he wasn’t even important to the story, he was just a tragic background for the protagonists, and with Heaven and Hell both poised to wage war with his kids, John didn’t even know if he could fight it, but he couldn’t let himself not fight it either. That wasn’t in his character.

And while other things also played in, I’m sure, I really do think that being stuck in that position had a large part in what made John bitter. Because as he focused in on Azazel, Azazel being the biggest fish he knew of, he also had to continuous shutdown the alternate, unthinkable course of action: putting a bullet his son’s head. It was an impossible position for any decent father to be in, and we just happen to know that John, before his life went to hell, really did just want to be an average working class joe with a wife and kids, and have the kind of happy nuclear family that he was deprived of growing up, when Henry walked out one night and never came home.

And I have no doubt that if he could have gone after Michael, he would have. Hell, if he knew that Gabriel was running around on earth, John would have been on his trail every bit as relentlessly as he was Azazel’s, because he was desperate. 

I think that John spent the last few decades of his life raging against any every cosmic force he came across, trying to find some sort of wrench he could throw into this well-oiled machine that Chuck had set in place. And I really love the idea that in 1990, John could have thrown that wrench without even realizing it, when Adam Milligan came into existence with no cosmic planning whatsoever, and thirty odd years later it hit its mark when the archangel Michael turned on a spiteful god who had killed the love his life.

[casimania]

Next drabble idea I'll probably never write: AU season 4 where Lucifer still has to leave for Hell but it's Piercifer and he leaves Marcus behind who just... slowly spends more and more time at the penthouse until he's basically living there outside of work and moping around. Drinking, growing the depression beard back, cursing at Lucifer and God, badly singing sad songs and playing along with his guitar, just being a sad sack in general.

Except this is either also a Deckerstar AU (poly but a V with Lucifer in the middle) or Lucifer has been Chloe's closest friend and partner for years and she misses him, so one day she doesn't have Trixie and she just misses him a lot she sneaks up the penthouse. And there's just Pierce and his beard and a terrible bed head in his sweats and a t-shirt surrounded by empty bottles of not so cheap alcohol and half empty bottles of definitely not so cheap alcohol. And she's immediately backing away because she's good at second guessing herself and thinks she's intruding but he's like "He left you too behind, didn't he?" and waves a bottle in her direction. Cause of course she misses him too, and in a way they both remind each other of him. So she takes the alcohol and sits down. They don't talk much, just drink and sigh. She doesn't have it in her to leave when it gets dark outside so Pierce leaves her the bed since he's been sleeping there pretty much all the time. And he just throws his legs on the couch and passes out there.

[[MORE]]

... Okay I'm definitely making it a Deckerstar + Piercifer V, I just like the idea rn. Anyway, they go on with this routine for a while. Chloe comes over when Dan (or Dan and Charlotte together) has Trixie with him (they alternate whole weeks now, he's learned to do dad stuff in a timely manner finally). They drink and sorta grunt or sigh in each other's general direction and just amble around the penthouse. Sometimes Chloe puts a movie on to take her mind off things (stuff she watched with Lucifer) and a couple of times Pierce just sits down and read one of Lucifer's books and they fall asleep in front of the tv some of those ones.

One evening Marcus finds Chloe going through the freezer and she pulls aside a few ice cream tubs with like, unicorns or puppies on them (Marcus already saw them and was kinda "??", Chloe says Trixie likes the big screen and Lucifer playing songs for her so he bought some snacks for her for when she came over. She dives more into the freezer and they both pretend she's not suddenly holding back tears) she hits jackpot when she finds some ice cream with a fancy name and no cartoony animals or overly sweet flavours and she doesn't even both with a bowl, just takes a spoon (then goes back for another she throws at Marcus) . And she sits disgruntled in front of the TV and eats it. She's stressed over a case and just murders the absolute shit out of the ice cream, she pushes it Pierce's way a couple of times and he gets like the tiniest spoonfuls and then she's back at shoveling it back in her mouth looking absolutely miserable.

Pierce surprised them both by asking her about the case (they usually don't talk much in these moments). He knows the gist of it because he assigned it to her but she was decidedly in a better mood earlier. And she says it's not as much as the case being overly complicated, she has hunch, but for the first time she was in the middle of an interrogation or a investigating and she was suddenly hit with all the ways Lucifer could have influenced the situation. And then her brain just couldn't turn it off and she basically couldn't stop thinking about him. Going back to the precinct didn't help, he was always sitting on her desk. There's Marcus himself who Lucifer always made a beeline for a couple of times at least and he's looking like as sad as a saggy bowl of cereals too and that made her only think more about Lucifer being gone. She thought retreating at the penthouse could have helped but instead of being a comfort and making her feel like he's still somewhat around, it just makes her feel more the fact that he's not there and could never come back. And from there it's like, the gates are open. They start to talk about Lucifer. They get angry at him, they get angry at God, they get angry at the demons who came for him and at all the angels who didn't help and they it just ends up with them just talking about Lucifer in general. The hit he pulled that exasperated them, that was actually kinda funny or just so Lucifery you just took it as it came.

And it's a first for them. Not just talking about Lucifer or with each other at the penthouse. Just the two of them talking in general. They sort of exist in the same space because they both love Lucifer in this AU. But Chloe has to digest the Sinnerman thing. Cause I think she wouldn't hold onto the First Murderer thing because in her mind, ideally one would have had a trial and appropriate punishment in that situation. But between the time it was and who they were he got himself a literal Curse. He did a bad thing but she can't really wrap her mind around the punishment, people go to prison and never get out or people go to prison and then get out and try to live a normal life. He had God himself him Mark him as forever wandering the Earth alone and she's just... what does she do with that?? Biblical stuff is just too fucked up for her. She acknowledges that's stuff that happens 6000+ years ago and Pierce is gonna deal with that with Pierce and Lucifer. She had more of an issue with his more recent crime boss things. Lucifer skirts the line of what she finds okay, Dan went dangerously over some times, Pierce has been living on the other side for so long she's just no ok with that. But they all have a complicated situation. And in the 2 years he got to know Lucifer he sort of, dropped the whole thing (and may have been sort of ratting out some people because it seemed to make Lucifer happy because it made Chloe happy). She recognizes it doesn't make what he did retroactively better but look, she has a complicated love life. If what it took to make an old ass immortal man a little more nice and human is the Devil himself making puppy eyes at him and naming him feel bad about fucked up shit he does forth first time in millennia... she decides she can sort of deal with it. And for Marcus is sort of :/ over Chloe being a mortal, cause he knows it hurts losing someone to time and he can just imagine how Lucifer will suffer, especially since he feels just so much (and it takes him a while to get out of this mentality, that doesn't makes him think Lucifer gets attached to humans only because he's gotten to know them for so little compared to him, that with enough time they'll be the same, cause his is the only logical way of feeling over this). And in general he's got some deep seated fear that Chloe was put on Lucifer's path for nefarious purposes. They all have that little moment of doubt, like okay she has her feelings and takes her choices?? But what if God knew Marcus and Lucifer would have crossed paths and Chloe is there to prevent it in osns way? Or to be used to send him back to Hell? They reflect on it a little and get over it mostly, but Marcus still has this little voice inside him saying that maybe she's there for Lucifer to think "Why have him when I can have her?" the only things he seemingly brings in the relationship is immortality and understanding through that, but Lucifer lurks defying expectations and just went "BOTH BOTH I LOVE BOTH I WANT BOTH IF THEY'LL HAVE ME" and told them in detail what wonderful things they both brought to the relationship (Chloe needed that too. From her pov she's the one that can't fully get Lucifer and will just hurt him by dying in such a short time and maybe never see him again. But he proves both of their fears wrong). So yeah, until this point they were never really making comfortable conversation all the time and hanging out together. Just recognized each other as someone important to Lucifer that makes him happy and they were trying to work out if they could live in close contact when shit hit the fan and Lucifer had to go.

And from then they form some sort of understanding. They talk more about Lucifer. They get Eve, Maze, Dan, Charlotte, Linda and Amenadiel and try to make him contact other Angels and then shit happen with Azrael and Ella joins the Celestial-knowing club. They make concrete plans to get him out. They start being more like themselves and interact more in general.

Then one day Chloe is under the covers of Lucifer's bed and Marcus is on the other side and has kicked them off (it's easier than just taking turns, and while they never got to the point with having Lucifer time all together in an intimate way, they don't find it weird, sharing living spaces was something they had been considering before things got fucked up) and they suddenly wake up in a tangle of blankets and feathers and ashes and there's Lucifer looking absolutely terrible but he lights up like the Sun upon seeing them and they immediately pounce on him. He thinks he's dreaming and they tell him they've been just sort of living there together when Dan has Trixie and they want to know what's going on. Unfortunately it's not permantent, the demons are chilling enough he can fly up for a little while but he still has to go back if they don't find a solution. He mostly does it to get his Chloe and Marcus fills and cry a little about how much he loves them and wishes he didn't have to leave them and will find a way to come back to them permanently and he's sorry he left looking intend on not coming back (he tought it was the best option, but he just missed them so much).

And nothing. Shit's fucked but slowly maybe they find a solution. Didn't really wrote a plot. I just wanted Chloe and Marcus moping together over Lucifer and talking about him and helping each other get out of the dark pit of despair.

[elizabethrobertajones]

14x01 watching notes

RIP Kip, we hardly knew ye.

Well hey, returning friends and people who unwittingly clicked on this not knowing exactly what they're in for. Blowing off the dust and starting a new season of Dabb fuckery, which I spent way too long trying to think of a portmanteau for when I already have the episode downloaded

It's 5am, let's DO THIS.

-

So they start with Dean's Hi I Am A Cop On The Day Before I Retire speech re: hula girls and hawaiian t-shirts which is remarkably prescient of me to have been irrationally upset about that one detail after I binged most of season 13 last night to get me back in the mood. So now I have to elaborate on my one line textpost >.>

Because yes, that is the perfect note to start the season on: Dean thought the good times had rolled, allowed himself to hope, assembled himself a family with mom and step-pop (Bobby counts as a full father but AU Bobby is step-pop), brother, husband, kid... Said kid was promising A World Without Monsters aka Dabb's showrunning tagline for an endgame he teases them. And Lucifer was tucked safely away in an AU with the murderous Michael... And then in a series of events it all came crumbling down and with this amount of goodness in his grasp, he gave up what even when the real Michael was hounding him for it, he couldn't before.

Because in season 13 it is beyond obvious that Dean is tired, an Old Hunter, the best of his game but ready to bow out on that note, and yet for him it's not a matter of stepping back and letting someone else handle it because when Michael and Lucifer were involved, it was beyond personal. He and Sam only EXIST because Lucifer and realMichael wanted them to. And so there was no way this trouble would come to someone else's door, when it was the nasty angel on his shoulder and the devil on Sam's and we have Nougat as their collective responsibility who's the nexus of it all anyway.

-

Eeee the Road So Far text is glowy grace colour on a dark blue background. I'm JIZED for the title card.

-

Goodness, the Road So Far is a weird journey because we see Jack being all useful and magic and then callbacks to 13x01 and 2 where he was a messed up 2 day old and Dean just wanted to murder him.

I haven't outlined any expectations for this episode or even this recap but I suddenly realise that I should probably be wondering how much DeanCas we're gonna get in it, and this rage against Jack is subtextually motivated, for sure, but for me the first 6 episodes of Dean's grief arc were wonderful character stuff but removed from the main plot and therefore in my head I keep boxing them off like a bubble season, like 10x01-3 are, and I legit wasn't even expecting to SEE content from them in the recap, because brilliant as they are I sort of just forgot they were a part of this season despite watching them yesterday. The season for me became so much the Jack And Mary Search that this hiccup at the start didn't meet the requirements to be in season 13 :P

They're just That Time Dean Was Really Sad About Cas Then He Came Back And They Were Cowboys

-

Oh good there was "everybody we've lost" and then a recap of Cas dying and then - oh, we're recapping plot again? Er... everybody? Dean? Who else? DEAN?

this was the thinly veiled subtext of that line anyway since Dean waved off Mary and made it all about Cas anyways but. Yikes, editing team.

-

Jesus I watched season 13 yesterday and I forgot about Asmodeus. You know what, this is pre-coffee AND the 2 types of anti-brain fog medication I gobble in the morning.

But he's that much of a useless lump

Also too much Lucifer nipple on screen pre-coffee. Ick.

-

Nice recapping of Not The Levitating Fight.

-

NOW

Stock photo Nyoom of the season!! Hi Baby! You aren't in this episode because Eugenie said the car wasn't being used this season

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Sam's got his Vengeance Eyes on but he's all scruffy and grown up so I trust him 10000% to get the job done.

-

OW. FUCK. OW. OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. GOOD USE OF INTERSTITIAL MUSIC

Why were you even listening to Dean's tapes if they fuck you up that badly? IS THIS YOUR VENGEANCE PLAYLIST? I'VE BEEN WAITING 10 YEARS

Actually, I haven't, I binged 4-5-6 as one unit after thinking the show was cancelled during the writers' strike but the point is that Sam and his ipod in 4x01 is immediately in my head because he was listening to his own music and being a hipster douche, but now he is not on demon blood he has not installed an ipod dock because he's GETTING DEAN BACK, DAMMIT but at the same time he's also realising that this means a heavy toll that the only driving music in the car is Dean's stuff...

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Oh no, this must be the guy from the SDCC clip we hadn't seen because Osric Chau is banned forever for illegally uploading them all for us in the past, and all I know is that Deanchael is going to Fuck Him Up and I feel very bad for him

*raises my mug to Osric* I'm sure you tried, dude. And thanks for the previous years.

-

Hi Deanchael. I noticed in a promo pic that his tie has that sacred geometry type pattern on it which is a detail I made a mental note to type out literally anywhere in the like month between there and here and did not so here it is at a hopefully appropriate place.

Based on every other scene setting detail I suspect that this faithful man is actually still within the USA because this is literally the cabin set they re-use for everything. The spoilers made it sound like Deanchael was globe trotting to raise his army but now I see what's around us... Yeah no he's as focused on the US as every other big bad before.

-

Anyway they really specifically chose this prayer to Allah because of how pointed it was about being only for Allah and how he was the best, so I'm assuming Deanchael is here to be like yo God's gone and I'm your last chance of faith

-

Like just ruin his day and he got up at like 4am or whatever the first prayer is to do it and all

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I hope, like, no offence to any Muslim viewers or anything >.> They sure play fast and loose with a lot of this stuff because Christian cultures are full of bitter non-believers raised in the culture and looking to kick up at the big guy in the sky, which is not an impression I get that Islam is as used to cultural flippancy, regardless of personal beliefs of residents of predominately Muslim countries and cultures. I'm not 100% sure though, because the closest link I've got is my raised-Christian Iranian friend who applies Christian eye-rolling to the issues with being in Iran and heathen so I still get that perspective of middle fingers up at Organised Religion from our discussions about it all... anyway big diversion, still waiting for coffee to kick in :P I just swallowed the last of it so I can only get more jittery from here on out!

-

It's so fuckin weird to see Dean's face confidently reciting verse in Arabic

I mean you don't need the hat, sir. I get it. It's not you in there.

-

Well so far anyway he's playing on the fact that the guy does pray to god and his angels.

-

Lol @ this man guessing his way through God AND Gabe to Deanchael's annoyance that he's the 3rd guess and he has to clarify that he's the better one.

Man, Gabriel worked on his reputation. I wouldn't have been able to tell you who Michael was because there wasn't even a kid in my class with that name when I was age 4 busy portraying Gabriel in a nativity play with full impish glee that the real deal would have been proud of.

-

Uhoh things aren't looking good for Jamil D: Asking for peace and love is good, you funky little hippy.

Is Deanchael implying that the Syria insurgency is the route to peace? I honestly don't know enough about the American foreign policy politics to know what sort of stance this is though from a liberal leaning show (I mean come on Bobo is a card-carrying socialist, I've seen it on Twitter :P), though to an outside viewer well aware of how fucked up it all is should this have been said on a British program, this is a vast over-simplification.

But we know Michael's main traits are Likes War and then also Warmonger and of course, spoilin' for a fight. So this may be a personal judgement and as much as they're bringing politics into their show I'm just backing right on out and going with this :P That he thinks it is more honourable to stay and fight and that Jamil is a hypocrite for not sticking around to work for peace actively.

-

Oh Jamil hooked up with a woman called Darleen. He is FOR SURE in America.

-

It's so funny to me that Deanchael can fly anywhere and they could have set this anywhere but it still ends up being a wooden cabin in the US. This has to turn out to be a lead to follow with a news report about the poor guy or else this is just hysterical that they couldn't be arsed to mock up even a hint of another country :P

-

He knew all this about Jamil beforehand so I have to assume he's really just here to drag him.

-

Man, that throw was GOOD. I'm assuming they either spent all summer playing with wires and stunts or else they've gone back to the drawing board on all this flinging people around business.

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"A better world" oh we are so on for this World Without Monsters malarky still. This lines up with the clip from Dean they opened on so well - the dark irony of he and Michael working on the same project but from different angles. Dean wants to sort out monsters and bad things so he can go on a beach, aka his version of paradise, and Mikey wants to smush all the sinners, and clean up the planet, which is HIS version of paradise.

-

HECKIN GOOD TITLE CARD

now photoshop those wings on everyone

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I LIKE SCRUFFY BULLET MAKER FROM THE AU.

He's like so happy to be in a world where you just casually have resources.

Meanwhile poor Maggie has become the de facto nurse and hates it.

Ugh the Bunker is a place where people just show up who yell "Soup's on!"

In my redshirt betting pool, Soups On is the first guy who dies.

-

Promo sceeeeene

I'm so happy Sam and Mary are doing this together. Last season Sam was so upset that Dean got to have a relationship with her, and he had missed out, but without Dean around - no offence to him - Sam and Mary may be focused on FINDING him but this is the work they also need to do for their relationship to start to ground it in something real. It's taken this long with all the separations, but remember that Mary also worked through some of her issues about Sam only last season in the AU with 6 month old Jack. And if she needed that sort of reminder and relationship to warm her up for Sam, her suddenly-grown 6 month old, then there were still a LOT of underlying issues that dated back to the start for her to overcome. Hopefully this puts them on a level playing field, though there's a new conflict brewing for them, with Mary's determined optimism vs Sam's pessimism, born of that depression from last season that never really got treated or resolved, they just managed to power past its current main triggers. Of course now it all just shifts in a Deanward direction.

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I love how Ketch has been punted to London, at Buckleming discretion to drag him back. This wasn't even Bobo punting him out the door, and he and Buckleming have a violent back and forth over favourite characters, started in 9x06 with Bobo's very first episode when he banished Professor Morrison forever.

-

MARY TRIES MOMMING SAM TO GO TO BED

THEN SCRUFFY GUN GUY IS LIKE "CHIEF"

Chieeeeeeef.

Sam runs the shooow here and I love it. He's their badass MoL hunter leader, a scruffy saviour from another world.

Given Sam is wearing the same shirt and jacket in the promo pics I'm guessing he does not sleep, though I hope he gets to eat the soup.

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"Maggie can you hack the traffic cams?" "um. no."

I love and support Maggie. She is a normal person who happened to live in apocalypse world and she just wants to flirt with the guy from the Gas n Go who probably hasn't talked to her since that got blown up and Jack attacked him over her... I mean, this is better than the AU world but maybe she just wants to be normal? Did anyone ask Maggie what she wanted??

-

SAM. You can eat your soup and run things at the same time! Get back here and eat that soup!

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"yes sir"

Goodness, this is wonderful. Sam's doing what he was born to do, and then not because that was leading a friggin demon army, but then yes because he's got inherent leadership traits that he defers to Dean all the time because, well, he's there, and he's big bro.

Look, sometimes you need big bro to murder Satan's ass for you forever, but you also should be calling the shots. There's a balance here, where Dean can be the older brother, but Sam can be the boss. Work/life balance. Dean's got your back but you command an army of hunters, like we've all been salivating over since like season 8 when they first said the MoL ran the Bunker as the hub of operations dictating stuff to trusted hunters and the like.

Of course, if Sam is the Bobby here, then who is the AUBobby? I hope we see what's up with that soon, I've been wanting them to bristle those beards in an alpha way at each other for months, because AUBobby was their leader before Sam because Sir Chief.

-

"Sam."

"i'm good"

*mothering intensifies*

"i'm GOOD"

*mothering intensifies*

"How's Jack"

You aren't used to being mothered and it's murdering me completely to my soul. Dean's got SO MUCH MOTHERING all through the show compared to you. He even sees Jody as a mom friend while you crush on her like crazy so you haven't even got that!!!!

Because Chief Sam is the boss of this lot but at the SAME TIME he's getting all these soft tender mom moments he's never got to have before. It's a wonderful balance of nuances to his current life. He's overworked but surrounded by a supportive care team that respects him, gives him soup, and holds his hand, literally in Mary's case. And yet he's the scruffy macho competent boss who knows how to call all these shots, deputise, set up missions, but still knows more than them, how to do traffic cams, I'm sure years of lore over most of these hunters who only learned to deal with what got thrown at them in the apocalypse by trial and error because when do they get lore books? Mary and Bobby and other pre-apocalypse hunters would be few and far between to offer competent training to a populace suddenly all turned hunter.

-

Oh, AUBobby is beating up Jack. Perfect.

-

AAAH DIRECTED BY TJW

WAS NOT ADEQUATELY HOLDING ONTO SEAT

WARN A GIRL

-

I love finally seeing the training room but I'm deeply conscious that this is where Put Up Your Dukes starts and I can't get that fan fic out my mind so I'm just like, Jack, don't lie on the floor, your dads have banged there.

-

I'm so happy that AUBobby is nurturing a grandson, because this is the difference between him and Bobby - that our Bobby had that with Sam n Dean, but AUBobby never did. Though he DID have Mary Campbell to crush on, I doubt it would have softened him and rounded out the harsh places in his soul the same way raising Sam and Dean did, because he had an unrequited love and she hadn't gotten over John, while this recently widowed Mary Winchester actually has made better progress just because of the circumstances of the loss. Anyways Jack has no preexisting history with Bobby so there's nothing weird about him and AUBobby stepping into a nurturing relationship, that Sam n Dean would find uncomfortable in a way, given their relationship with Bobby. And Jack gets yet another strong figure to teach and guide him.

AUBobby looks slim and stands tall compared to Bobby, which I'm largely putting down to posture, and not being drowned in layers. I like this difference - Bobby almost never voluntarily dressed in 1 layer, but AUBobby has a more military slant, and this training sergeant routine with Jack is a good fit to show a difference in his character, that isn't surly old Bobby behind his desk, that he's involved in teaching Jack to fight, rather than helping hunters with lore and swigging whiskey.

I'd assume given the lack of availability in his AU, he's considerably less alcohol dependant, so this is a very different character thing. If Bobby were doing this training, and nothing else was different, he'd be taking a breather to pour them both a whiskey as he imparts wisdom.

-

Demon in nice shoes and dark sunglasses at night to indicate that yes I am a demon I have black eyes :P I assume this is a demon anyway not just because of this detail but pre-season spoilers

-

Ah hearing Cas's name is enough to make my heart pick up. MY GUY!

But then, "Castiel, darling"

Stop trying to make Good Omens happen, it's not going to happen. You can't just "darling" up to an angel and expect that good good romance. Crowley took years to wear Cas down and Cas never actually LIKED him, down to their last real interaction where Cas was just "WTF???? LEAVE ME TO ROT AND DIE" when Crowley saved him in 12x12

-

God I miss that

-

"Oh god."

Same, buddy.

You do, however, realise this is your first words of the season gifset line, though?

Someone ought to write to Dabb and inform him that people make first and last word gifsets and to be more careful.

Especially if in the last episode at the end of the season, Cas's last word is "Dean"

-

Anyway Cas has said 1 line and I can tell he's on top form. Unlike 10x01 he's in a hipster hogroast joint.

-

This demon, with dark black sunglasses inside at night (douchebag) just ordered a coffee, black. WE GET IT, ENOBY DEMENTIA DARKNESS RAVEN WAY, YOU ARE GOFFIC AND IT'S AS BLACK AS YOUR SOUL

-

LOL Cas is sitting under the JACK'S sign.

Demon douche sits under Schultz, which is the death beer. And lemme tell you, TJW is well-versed in this. So well-versed in it he's sat Cas in front of a classic El Sol flyer with the subtle touch required to tell Dean that Cas is his dream girl. He knows his shit.

-

This seriously seems to be implying that the rise of hipster food joints is an effort from Hell to spread chaos on earth

-

Cas sitting with his back to the fire is such an interesting visual, but this is just a note to self for later to guess what it all means

-

THIS FUCKIN DEMON TOOK  HIS BLACK SUNGLASSES OFF TO SHOW OFF HIS BLACK EYES

Dabb is so good at incidental characters, and making me hate this guy for nuanced nonsensical reasons is amazing. This is... art...

-

This is a callback to 5x08 and Dean ranting about hating procedural cop shows then him and sam taking their sunglasses on and off at night every time they made  a pun and I'm 100% convinced since 12x01 and Cas busting through that Mystery Spot sign that Gabriel has been subtly influencing events

-

Okay so we know exactly what is written on demon bathroom walls. I'm taking that as a sideways confirmation that Cain knew full well that Dean had his Colette because he'd seen crude doodles of them doing it

Anyway douchedemon just outright told Cas that all the demons assume he and Dean in particular are banging. Not that Cas bangs Winchesters, as some have implied, without knowing all the details. They've narrowed this info down.

I assume this is also in the Winchester Dossier that Barthamus studied from before meeting them. I love that demons probably do have a filing cabinet somewhere of all the notable assholes they run into in their work, and the Winchesters take up a whole cabinent, but the refresher file summarising them in a paragraph if you don't have time is like, Sam: Lazy boyking, will stab you. Dean: fucking Castiel, will stab you.

-

Cas doesn't even move an eyebrow. Incredible.

-

Cas rarely gets hit with these compared to Dean in the history of the show, and Dean is full of bluster or anger or confusion or alarmed eyebrows. Cas is like... no. fuck you. i'm party!Cas, I have my shit in order.

Though this is from a demon. It's an entirely different thing when Heaven is involved, as they also have their dossier on the winchesters.

Sam: abomination. will banish you. Dean: fucking Castiel. Will stab you.

-

*loud coffee slurp* "what's in it for moi?

Cas, stab him. Stab him now. This is not worth the information. You can find another guy.

-

I'm starting to think Cas with his back to the flames is his unwitting danger from this hellish hogroast place.

-

They use Shultz beer containers to hold the sauces and menus on the table. DEEEEATH

-

Cas speaking slower and threatening to burn him to ash "right here and right now"

this is a gifset that will get a lot of notes from thirsty Cas fans

-

Whaaaaaaaa the entire joint turned out to be owned by and filled with demons who would ever have guessed based on one open fire and that metal hogs head from the promo pics :P

-

Stop hurting him!!!! Misha can't stage fight! This is really unfair!!

I wonder how the poor new awesome fight coordinator took to Misha

"let's just... um..." "hide him behind all these demons?" TJW suggests The fight guy nods sadly.

-

Aww Sister Jo got back to work. Good for her.

-

Sister Jo has no fear and can stroll down a shady alley counting her money

*t-shirt meme* One fear: *flappy wing noises*

"Hey Jo."

-

GHOLY SHIT TRUE FORMS TYHUEOJDSHGFSH DS TRUE FORMS WE SEE WHAT ANGELS SEEE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD SCIENCE HAS CAUGH T UP TO THE DIVINE, SPN CAN FINALL Y SHOW US WHAT ANGELS SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

-

Holy shit I want the gif of this as my blog header. That's shitting amazing.

-

Burning HALO

ALL HIS CHI POINTS LIT UP EVEN WHEN IT MAKES IT LOOK SILLY TO HAVE HIS CALVES GLOWING

-

I wonder if this is what Danneel sees when she looks at Jensen all the time

-

"Why would he say yes to you?"

"Love"

I'm dying and I am dead. I gather that Dean is 100% absent from this episode, but that one comment puts him front and centre and I am in paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain. Everything happening around Michael and because of Michael is because Dean loves his peeps. From Sam staying up hacking traffic cams on vampires to Cas getting his ass handed to him by demons.

-

I bet Cas looks like that single glowstick he had on in the cave when angels look at him.

-

Party!Cas

-

I ruined the fun

-

Jensen gently touches Danneel's face and that's just rude because that's all his tenderness for his wife being turned into a scary villain move between Deanchael and Jo. Don't do this to them!!!

-

Oooof Deanchael pulls from Dean's memory of Anael about what she was like, describing her in the most Cas-like terms, then cuts through her hilarious bull about wanting handbags (this is so meta about sticking middle fingers in the faces of people who think she's a well-paid beard) and then starts telling her she wants love and a family.

Deanchael has used the word "love" twice in a scene and it's horrifying to see the word come out of his face, when Dean is so guarded. Now Deanchael is just looking through Sister Jo and analysing what she wants - and she's playing this game very well but this move of his might still beat her. Because ow. Telling her she wants belonging and family. When she's very much established as a Cas mirror by the reminder she ran away from Heaven and doesn't want to play by their rules.

"It's very, very human of you. And so disappointing." Did all those times Lucifer sucked her grace bring her close to feeling it? To the point of permanent damage? I only ask because I know another guy this might apply to.

-

I wonder how much Deanchael is projecting based on conjectures because he knows Cas through Dean's eyes.

-

"But if they're all these sad, lost, fallen things..." Ya, that's Cas too for suresies

-

SAM AND JACK SAM AND JACK

Jack sitting quietly in meditation, clearly unsettled. A parallel to 13x23 when Dean came rushing in to him having a nightmare, now Sam is having a crack at parenting the boy.

-

Jack lying about how things were fine. Nougat. Hon. You're human now. But not that good at being human. Sam knows your tells :P

-

Sam interrupted mid pep-talk by Mary with some nonsense.

Jack is always so ugh... accepting and kinda flippant. He knows parental figures can be disappointing and get dragged away mid peptalk by some business.

Which he's apparently not involved in. I guess after we see him going on hunts with them in 13x23, he's grounded until he goes through basic training so not only is he useless to help with his powers to find Dean, but he can't even do the easy hunter stuff because he's just a kid.

-

Aww my poor baby Nougat :( He's so angsty. He's a TEEN. Lookit him! All growed up!

-

Uuugh I guess this is Nick. "I didn't talk to him. I can barely look at him."

What I'm getting from this sequence mainly is the sound of Triss's rage at the Bunker layout.

-

*Mary pats Sam's shoulder supportively and walks off*

You're on your own, Chief.

-

Ugh I am not ready for this bull if it's Nick but I have to keep watching to be sure :P

-

Ew it is. EW. What does Mark P HAVE on you all.

At least TJW is shooting the heck out of this to show us how gross Sam finds this all.

Sam's shadow falling over Nick.

I really want to know how this bullshit happened. And yet. No, not really.

-

Oh gross AND they're making Mark P take off his shirt. The nipple I didn't want to see in the Road So Far was not warning enough.

Pre-season ugh speculation was that whatever Crowley did to Nick made him stronger and more permanent apparently even than Lucifer being stabbed out of him.

-

So yeah anyway I guess Jack is in part also sulking about this and I'm with him, because Sam being pulled away from their pep talk time to deal with Gross Man Associated With My Father But Not Actually Him Because Biologically I Am The Son Of A Non-Historical President...

-

Making Sam the one who has to care for Nick is utterly cruel. He has so many deputies. Maybe this is just his personal fear that Nick's still a bit Lucifery. Maybe he just sees this as a gross burden, a manifestation of the ongoing trauma from Lucifer, that even when he's dead he lingers.

-

Plus, it's giving us some reassurance that an angel can be ousted from a vessel without killing them, to throw some options into the Deanchael pot.

-

Still. Nick. Really.

-

I bet Jack is sulking because some little cosmic part of him regenerating deep down in his core, that one lil gold glowy chi point in his big toe, knows that Eugenie forgot his name at SDCC and called him "Nick" and this shit from your creator just weighs on you. Jack is an entity beyond Buckleming and yet born from them, and this is what they beget: forgetting their own child in favour of this old carcass.

-

bitter? moi? *sips coffee noisily*

-

Actually, that's not true but I need some tea because I'm sulky so I'm taking this ragebreak to go make some and then I will sip it noisily in Nick's direction. :P

-

Everything henceforth is under the jurisdiction of hot drink no.2

-

"I don't understand how Lucifer could die and I could live"

I hate you

Eurgh, I bet you anything Dabb pulled a Buckleming and just took the post-it note they gave him when he asked, er, HOW does this happen? and transliterated it into dialogue because 1: all the writers shade Buckleming all the time because I can literally see it ooze out of Perez and Yockey and Bobo's writing but this is the showrunner, guyses. 2: it's such a dumbass convoluted explanation that it only burns out the archangel but if you non-fatally stab it then the guy is fine.

Which begs the question of how the fuck is Gabriel because if we get anything good from this, that fucker is in one hell of an interesting vessel situation compared to Old Nick.

-

PS: I am not sure how culturally saturated this is so we are all clear that Old Nick is a historically used name for Satan and his name has been a joke since 5x01 thanks to Kripke, and now we have to actually deal with that.

-

And then Nick is actually sympathetic to how Sam feels looking at him. I guess Mark P really wants us to feel sympathetic to his new dude.

-

"And Michael... did he tell Lucifer anything about his plan?"

Listen, we NEED acknowledgement that for a month or so Lucifer and AUMichael roadtripped together to assemble from their AU the key of solomon, the fruit of the tree of life, and the blood of a most holy man.

There was a lengthy downtime while people settled in and Dean was allowed to think the Good Times were rolling, and all that time, the weirdest brother roadtrip show ever was going on in the AU, mad enough that I would actually find it hilarious to watch despite enduring Mark P as a result of it.

-

SAM DOES NOT DESERVE THIS

He's not allowed to rest, ever.

-

I bet this is douchdemon phoning him from Cas's phone.

-

"Hello Sam!" says a perky voice down the phone. It's INCREDIBLE how unlikeable this demon is making himself. He's actually my favourite character now.

-

Oh no, Nougat is wearing a different grey shirt. He's really depressed. Someone help him.

-

"He just told you he was a demon?" "he seemed proud of it too"

Sam hates him as well. I can't wait for Sam to come scowl at him.

-

"What do we do?" Maggie asks, completely wide-eyed. Oh honey. Poor, innocent, sheltered Maggie. What were you doing all apocalypse until we caught up with you? You aren't hardened, you're adorable.

-

AUBobby and Rufus (his gun)

-

"I'm coming too!" YAY JACK. Your father is in trouble, he's on a hunting trip and he hasn't been home in a few days, but what a different world all the rest is

-

"I'm not as strong, but I can help," he says, looking tiny beside Sam, bruised up from AUBobby's training, a single layer to make him look even smaller...

(we do not talk enough about how all these jackets are a sort of alpha being shoulder plumping thing like when you make yourself look huge to scare off a mountain lion but that's 100% what this is)

IT MADE JACK SMILE yey he's allowed to feel useful! Pop is allowing him to go on a mission to rescue Dad who was looking for Papa when this all went down.

Grandpapa is not so pleased, because AUBobby has been measuring how useful Jack is and I feel like lil Nougat bab is going to do something mildly heroic for Cas or else get pasted for his ongoing character development for the season...

-

"He needs this, Bobby."

-

Dear LORD does he not quit? We don't even know his name? "Are you sure I can't get you anything... hot... or black?" FUck OFF

No wonder by the promo pic Cas looked so utterly done. This is exhaustingly annoying for him. Cas's personal hell is just irritating people. A line of Crowleys and Lucifers and this jerkwad chattering at him.

-

And yet Dean runs his mouth all the time and Cas is in luuuurve

-

Oh lordy are we really doing this coffee metaphor now? "Coffee has no effect on me" (but he once acquired the taste, and it was a core part of him being human and learning to human in the opening shot of 9x06 for him as his metaphor for how he was learning)

"me either *sluuuurp* not any more. But it's like saltwater taffy or infants. I just like the taste."

-

"I'm just being a good host like mother would have wanted"

Cas stops mid eyeroll to eyeroll HARDER at meeting ANOTHER demon with mommy issues. Like, please. Don't. I like Rowena now but can we NOT.

-

Party!Cas of Dabb era is my favourite iteration of Cas by a country mile.

-

"Why are you using me as bait?" "it's kind of what you're for"

Oh Cas. Now he's just the damsel in distress, which I guess is a step up from being an attack dog, but still isn't that great for the ego stroking about his role and use within the Winchester family, an ongoing source of stress for him, this reminds us.

-

Cas's faith in Sam is wonderful. like, as soon as douchmon says he needs something from Sam, Cas just SMIRKS like, OH BUDDY. BUDDDYYY. No, I'm not gonna say it. I'm just - "you think he'd make a deal with you?" I'm ... I don't laugh as a rule but inside? Hilarious.

-

"Somebody asked me what it was that I wanted" You know, I think Deanchael is INCITING people. he's not killing any of them, just using the revelation of his appearance to motivate them - moving Sister Jo to do what she wants, which is to re-organise Heaven with the ideas she had as a button pushing functionary... visiting world leaders and holy men, and this douche...

To what end, though? Chaos? This is a roundabout way to make a better world.

-

"Destroying, Drinking, Defiling, you know, the 3 Ds" they absolutely have posters up in Hell with this on for the newbies to learn.

-

We've seen Heaven's staffroom, I DEMAND to see the break room in Hell, with all its lurid Destiel smut doodled on the walls and so on

-

Anyway it's a hell of a question, pun intended, because demons have no real purpose, even the named baddies have largely been slaves to someone else's will (Lucifer or Crowley) and Crowley could not have answered that question from the start of season 6 through to the moment he chose to sacrifice himself... I don't think any of TFW 2.0 or Bunker Squad could answer it fully. Cas can't, and that's the question that's been bugging him since 9x06 -

EPHRAIM Shh-shh-shhh. It'll be over soon. I'll take the pain away.

CASTIEL I want to live.

EPHRAIM But as what, Castiel? As an angel? or a man?

and it's what his entire crisis in season 10 was over... Who ARE you Castiel? What do you WANT?

-

Dean wants a Beach Vacation Ending. He figured it out and as narrative punishment, he's Deanchael. No one else has sorted it out, though, but Sam got close - he had his pizza dream and was immediately punished with being eaten by vampires and resurrected by Lucifer and all that drama... Sam's work isn't done. Though his growth has taken a huge leap, now he has to figure out what he wants in this NEW setting, and we're only just MEETING Chief Sam in this iteration, so he's got a lot of work to do.

-

"I gave it a good think and I worked out exactly what I wanted. Everything."

Deanchael definitely is planning for this, so watch out buddy.

-

SAM DRIVING, MOM IN SHOTGUN

RED ALERT

-

Uhoh Sam's snapped because of the optimism Mary exudes. Yep, he really was nearly at the last straw in their earlier convo when he scoffed at her attempts to cheer him up.

Look, she's trying to mom you with no experience except adopting Jack. Work with her.

-

Sam is spiralling with the depression, this time all the bad things that could have happened to Dean and how they're never going to find him, throwing these horrible scenarios at Mary to stop her trying to comfort him.

-

"I know. I know he's out there, scared and alone." She sees lil 4 year old Dean. Because, I mean, that is the soul Dean bears to her when they have moments sometimes. And her optimism is a wall against thinking of her toddler in this scenario.

"I know. I know he might not come back. Never think I don't know that. But I can't - I have to think about the good, Sam. Because if I don't, I will drown in the bad." I wonder who that directly relates to who is currently driving this car.

I really hope this is a bit of vindication for Mary - or redemption to the eyes of the people who don't like her - that she does care, and she's spelling out her approach to all this. In the start of season 12 when she was trying to keep afloat she used a lot of optimism and furious paddling on the surface, because she has been doing that her whole life. When she was being raised a hunter, when she was a housewife with no clue what she was doing, a mom but he marriage beginning to fall apart... And then thrust into the present day, and it's 360 degrees of combat and loss and sadness and a ill-advised hook up with Ketch... Furious doggy paddling on the surface.

"For Dean's sake, I can't do that. We can't do that." And she shows that she is prioritising Dean, that she's driven and motivated to keep going FOR him.

Come on, give her a chance.

-

Nyooom.

-

Meanwhile in the Jack and Bobby truck, Jack is the one angsting and Bobby is the one driving.

Jack is one years old and not legally old enough to drive.

-

Bobby peptalks him with the reminder that when Jack had his grace he did hero things for these people, which is why he can ride shotgun, and even if he feels useless now, they'll have his back, that he has earned this squad even if he can't be as awesome as he used to.

-

Maggie is like, I'm getting a reaction shot... Am I going to develop feelings for Jack? That would be super weird, he's one years old. I hope no one is implying this even though I'm in a bunch of scenes getting character focus.

-

Eeeeeeee Sam trusts Mary with the demon killing knife. I am sure they don't call it Ruby's knife to her and he has never, ever told her about that time that thing happened with Ruby.

-

This fucker had his back turned for Sam to enter just so he could turn around dramatically. God he's repellent.

-

An extra was hired to pat Sam down. What a job.

-

"The shoulders. The hair! You are my Beyonce!" I mean, same. Except. Cas is Agent Beyonce so this fuckhead has totally misread this situation.

This gives Sam a moment to look over at Cas and Cas silently says, yes I know he's a total fuckhead, I've been dealing with this all day. I'm so sorry bro, can you just stab him so we can go home and follow a different lead. I don't even care what this one knows, I can't handle him another minute.

-

"I'm more embarrassed than I am hurt" I understand this to my core, and I'm so sorry, Cas.

-

"Kipling. Kip for short."

"Cool. Kip. I'm here." Sam being exactly as "fuck you" as I wanted towards Kip.

Sam is now standing with his head in an El Sol sign. TJW what are you up to bud?

-

Oh no Jack and Maggie got caught skulking. Sam and Cas have the same "my boy!" reaction when they see Cas.

Maggie is here too, you monsters.

But Kip has missed Mary and AUBobby

-

"It's just late capitalism, you understand" Yeah, and fuck you Kip.

-

How is Kip so irritating that he can make tapping a stool somehow the most obnoxious thing a man could do? He's WONDERFULLY well-cast. I love this actor. He's chewing scenery and it's incredible.

-

"What do you want?" Ow, Sam being twisted into asking the same thing Deanchael asked Kip

-

"Ass-modeus Kentucky Fried" listen you are still the worst but that drew a sympathetic smile and I hate it and I hate you.

-

Oh, Sam just Sammed something from that side glance, random demon side-eye. Oooh. Oooooooh.

But yeah, Kip asking for the "Crowley Deal" as if it's a package that can be bought from the Winchesters, and not something that Crowley wormed his way into via much back and forth power plays and drama. The Winchester have always had a back and forth with Hell, and since Crowley there have been a lot of demons, like Bart, trying to figure out what exactly it WAS that they all had. But someone has to be in charge, and the Winchesters are the top dog destined hunters with their fingers  in all the world-saving pies, so clashes come naturally. Approaching them like this, first Bart, now this douchenozzle, is meta, presumptuous, overstepping what builds naturally... An attempt to leapfrog to the end where the equilibrium is established.

But Crowley had time to build a long game. These new pretenders are working in a world where the Winchesters' actions have devastated Heaven and Hell alike, and are, like Mary, just trying to keep afloat on the whole thing.

"We never gave Crowley that deal." Because yes, that's how it seemed to play out, and from outsider eyes that's how it may have looked... But each and every interaction came about naturally through the plot, there was no wrangling it. That's just how the Winchesters and Crowley ended up.

And that hole can't be filled by someone just leaping into the chair and asking for it.

Though it is nice if Motown Meats is the new seat of Hell on Earth instead of the outdated exterior asylum interior castle dungeon look Crowley set up.

-

"You're no Crowley. I know that. So do they." I think that was what Sam Sammed out of the demons, and also true, and ALSO is this the boyking accidentally exerting himself, knowing what's good for Hell? I always get a lil tingle in my thumbs when Sam gets too involved in knowing what's up with Hell.

-

Holy shit Kipling was a Mongolian warlord who rode with Genghis Khan in life. PLEASE survive this episode, I want to hate you all season. PLEAAAASE I BEG YOU.

-

Oh my god this insecure whinging asshole, chowing down on the scenery like there's no tomorrow. "I'D EAT YOUR HEART" *turns to weepy and quiet* "before I show you who I really am..."

This is Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending levels of scenery eating. He's gonna pick up a barstool and take a bite out of it now.

-

Sam is doing this all unarmed, which is something to remember, because this is the fucker who talked his way into killing the Alpha Vamp while MOSTLY unarmed for a majority of that chat.

-

Sam Fucking Winchester.

-

AUBOBBY AND RUFUS!!!!

Also mary.

-

But AUBobby gets a slow mo for Rufus shooting demons.

-

HOLY SHIT MARY'S SLOW MO

I am pregnant

-

MARY THROWING SAM THE KNIFE

-

TJW was like this fight is too fast, my guy. We need to slow it down.  You're so good at your job no one's gonna see what happened unless we go slow mo.

he and the fight guy high five

-

"Aw, balls."

Hey, Nougat tried. He's got a squishy hero centre.

Looks like he weighs nothing and now he's human he goes down in one punch. Owie.

-

"Here take this. You know how to use it?" "Uh! Stab them with the pointy end!?" "pretty much"

Maggie you precious girl why are you HERE. Why is Soups On or Gnarly Gun Guy not here?

-

Cas you fucking damsel in distress

-

Fight guy is like "uuuuh do I have to"

Misha is like "I'm good here, tbh"

-

SAM FUCKING WINCHESTER

(Aw, Kip's dead, he was fun)

-

"ENOUGH"

YES SIR

-

"There will be NO NEW KING OF HELL"

You are gonna get demon minions like fucking ducklings you ass

-

"Not ever. And if anyone wants the job, you can come through me" Sam is technically immortal so long as Rowena is alive and vice versa you know. Also, how long is he planning on defending Hell? Ever?

I'm stalling from how much I have to scream about how badass Sam was throwing down that declaration that he's now essentially the trial a pretender to the throne has to pass to take the job.

Because if I was a demon... FUCK NO would I want to tangle with this fucker.

-

Sam's file, updated: Current King Of Hell. Will Kill You. AVOID.

-

Sam is fucking terrifying. I love it. He scared demons out of their meatsuits. Sam walking into a room is now a reason to eject and abort mission. God. This guy.

-

Remember in season 1 when demons were scary? Oo er this isn't our sort of thing... halp.

Now Sam looks them in the eye and is like, fuck off. I'm scarier than any of you.

-

"That's what I thought"

Cas is literally giving you the reverse look of in 4x16 when you marched in and fried Alastair's brain.

-

SAM GOT A NEW SHIRT thank god.

I should amend: he did all this wearing blue plaid with orange stripes.

Sam Fucking Winchester.

The BMoL definitely didn't have the right birth certificate because that's his legal middle name.

-

Sam n Caaaaas my GUYS. I hope this is the 10x01 convo but, like, not. Flip flip flip those pancakes, Dabb my guy.

-

Cas, hon, you're still so beat up you have blood trails coming out of your nose. There's not really caring about your meatsuit because it heals eventually, but there's also washing your fucking face, because Sam's had time to change his shirt and get a beer so what were you doing?

-

Probably staring at a picture of Dean on his phone and sighing.

-

Anyway he's here to ask how Sam is, rather than care about himself. Symbolism.

"I've been better. And worse." Worse is 10x01.

Or 4x10's flashbacks. For sure those are the worstest.

Though, this time you are the king of hell and you're wearing a dark shirt and I don't think you have thought this through.

-

The most well-meaning accidental king of hell ever.

-

Sam and Cas share the "to find Dean I'd do anything" look. Be CAREFUL. Cas is literally choosing to wear hubris on his face because he feels bad about his fuck up with going to Kip.

-

Mary! Casual Mary chilling in the kitchen!!

Although, with everyone in the bunker, these rooms are taking on different meanings. The people are chasing out the heavy shadows and ghosts of all the oppressive silences Sam and Dean have filled these corners with.

-

Aw it's Mary and AUBobby. I was half-hoping we'd have her giving beer to Jack, but I guess we need to set up the forward momentum on their relationship for this season.

"Not bad today, old man." "you too, Sunshine."

You do realise that Mary is sitting in the exact same spot as where Dean was when he called Cas "Sunshine" You do know that right I mean you KNOW? This is TJW, he knows. He's a Destiel Shipper of the highest order.

-

Cas pops in on Jack, staring at his busted up face in a mirror, now filling more Winchester angst tropes to make up for lost time. "I'm fine," he says without being asked.  Because 10x01 or 10x02 was where Cas defined "fine" for Hannah and explained to her it's what humans say when things are really not fine but they can't admit it.

-

"You did well." "All I did was get punched. In the face."

I love snarky teen Jack.

"To be fair, we all got punched in the face," Cas says, still covered in hubris.

He has a POINT. He has full right to pull the "I should feel more useless than you" card on Jack.

-

Jack doing the "i'm useless" thing that Cas had to go through when he lost his grace, and Jack was allowed to stay in the Bunker. Is this how Cas would have felt had he not been kicked out?

-

Jack says Michael's out there and he still feels responsible to stop him. There's a very, very very very ver very weird Hamlet vibe from Jack, being forced into a position of emotional responsibility to kill his uncle, but Cas is his once dead now back and not a ghost father, and Jack couldn't kill Michael and so Dean got possessed... I mean, it's not a neat overlay, but Jack wants to kill an uncle, an AUncle, and I feel like in terms of uncle-killing narratives, AU Michael making off with Dean fits about as well to Hamlet's uncle marrying his mom as we're gonna get... I'd love to see how this shapes out because these family narratives since season 11 are becoming deeply shakespearean in the amount of nonsense going on. This sort of supernatural drama is a modern world way to have this kind of heightened emotion and the stakes you find in Shakespearean tragedies, and to force the sorts of reflection on the world and self... I really really dig it. Watching season 13 yesterday really hit me with this feeling all over and I'm delighted that Jack has this arc because I'm so amused/interested to see where this weirdo Hamlet parallel goes for him.

-

"I don't have anything." "Oh Jack" thanks Cas that's what I said out loud "you have me. You have all of us. You have your family." *SHOULDER GRASP*

No hug. Fuck off Cas, with your reassuring shoulder grasps. I know that's the language you've been taught but Dabb era is hug era and you suck.

-

I love that with all of Sam and Mary's doubt and Jack's lack of self worth, it's down to CAS. CASTIEL. CASTIEL WINCHESTER. CASTIEL FUCKING WINCHESTER. PARTY!CAS. to give the actual pep talk of the episode which has ANY conviction behind it. Cas has been fuelled with something MAGNIFICENT since the Empty, and he's turned it up to 11 for Jack here :')

-

Jack makes the smallest smile, then turns back to his mirror.

-

Sam opening the door to his bedroom, framed in darkness. 10x01 parallels again - this shot as well as the demon dean one were repeated a few times through the 3 episode arc, and the demon dean one became iconic but Sam did it too, to Dean's room. Now he goes into his own... empties his pockets... he still has the fucking engraved money clip from Tall Tales because Gabriel is not only not dead but telling this entire story for us... He has the phone, that's off, because Dean is not there, not communicating with him, blah blah. And he has the keys to the Impala. Because he's the chief.

Well, the King of Hell. Damn, it took 14 years to get him there. Azazel is fucking spinning in his grave.

-

Ooh, phonecall! Is it Deanchael? "What do you want?"

Nope, it's Sister Jo! :D She's been standing there ALL NIGHT weighing her options and working out what she wants.

SPIN THAT CHAOS, DEANCHAEL.

-

Deanchael approaches a vampire, and it's that purity of Purgatory, that just wanna eat that fuelled so much of the badass stuff in season 7 with the Leviathan, everything Dean's struggled with when it comes to the black and white world of killing monsters no problem that dates back to Gordon in 2x03, that draws Deanchael to them. Because this is Dean's safe space with Benny, a real relationship based on a bond forged in pure, kill or be killed, eat or be eaten purgatory. Deanchael has the same inner machinery as Dean, because Michael is the worst version of Dean, engineered to be Dean but without love. Dean as a monster. And so it all leads here... D:

-

Well this will be fun :D

[murphystartedthefire]

Conageddon: Richard Harmon’s Panel + associated stuff

Disclaimer from the last post: So it’s just my luck that immediately after posting my Richard/Luisa recap, a whole bunch of the Conageddon panels including that one became available online! I definitely encourage people to check them out!

Unfortunately the people who taped them missed Luisa’s solo panel and Richard’s solo panel. So I will still share what I remember and notes from those.

SUNDAY RICHARD PANEL

- I'll admit *I* actually missed the beginning of this because I was in the auto line for Bob with a friend. (”How’s Richard treating you?” were in fact the first words Bob said to me, which made me feel The Betrayal a bit, lol. Also side note, I went so blank on anything to say to Bob that I had to get up and ask a question at his Q&A later just because I thought of something after the fact.)

- Anyway uh... I did finally get over there, and he was wearing this.

- Via twitter learned one of the first questions was whether Murphy sees himself as a bad guy. He answered that Murphy does think he’s a bad guy, but he as Richard doesn’t think Murphy’s a bad guy. ;__;

- Asked if he could only use one word for the rest of the day, what would it be? He went with “cute” because you can use it a lot of different ways, say it sarcastically, etc. It became a running joke in response to things for the rest of the panel, he would just deadpan in an annoyed voice, Cute.

- His next project is a guest role on a show he didn’t name but it’s already on the air and has some of the same writers from “Continuum”. (Can anyone figure this out? “Van Helsing” maybe?) They offered him a multi-episode part as a villain and human trafficker involved in bad things.

- Someone asked a question about Murphy's relationship with alcohol, we've only ever seen him drink a little or when he was getting trashed in the bunker. SPOILER: Murphy being "drunk" a lot is something that we’ll see in season six. Then Richard -- green mustache and all -- actually went into a serious riff about how he drinks socially in real life but tries to avoid doing it for the wrong reasons, out of anger or sadness, and it sounds like that’s where Murphy is and that’s not a healthy coping mechanism for him.

- Someone opened a question saying Murphy is her husband’s favorite character and he proudly calls himself an asshole. Richard was like “your husband has good taste, and he [Murphy] is an asshole, nothing wrong with that.”

- Honestly the real gem of this panel was the long answer to the question of whether Murphy could be more stable if they were in peacetime again. This was the response I summarized on twitter as "talking soberly about mental health and the importance of seeking help while wearing a green mustache." Because it was very moving and I’ll try to remember the gist of it -- he was talking about how he likes to think Murphy could fight his demons because he is a fighter, in reality he probably needs therapy, but his answer as an actor is always that Murphy is more *fun* and interesting to play when he's dark. His demons are part of him, he's not a happy person. He went back to the "vial of poison" metaphor he’s used before, like Venom it feels good and keeps him alive when he lets the poison in.

- ...But also thinking about mental illness consciously as a part of Murphy especially since season 5, there's a responsibility that comes with talking about it. (Actually one of the con staff jumped onto the mic and was talking about how important therapy was to his family and Richard was like “yes, thank you for taking what I said that way.”) He likes Murphy the way he is but he never wants to give off the idea that real people are beyond help. He was very emphatically like: help is out there, life is worth living right and being happy, and Murphy isn't beyond that but he can't get it because it's a TV show and it's more fun for him to be fucked-up.

- An audience member commented about how well Murphy seems to work and have an interesting relationship with every character on the show, from someone like Emori who he has a long relationship with to Abby who he only had a couple of scenes with. Richard appreciated that and said he's always liked that about Murphy, that you can throw him in with anyone and he's a great accessory. “Leaving Emori out” (thanks, question-asker) who is his favorite person to play off of? He answered Bellamy. He repeated what he's said before about thinking if Murphy was going to die, he (Richard) would want Bellamy to kill him. Bringing it full circle from when they both wanted each other dead, now it would be different but Bellamy would still have to be the one to put him down.

- I remembered something else! He talked about McCreary and how he would’ve liked to do more exploring the parallel between him and Murphy, which he acknowledged they didn’t go that far with. He thinks that Murphy saw and respected him in a weird way. They have the same kind of poison running through them, but for Murphy it’s something he really is trying to keep under control.

- He talked about how he always saw Murphy as very smart. Even from the beginning when he was described in the script as an idiot, he didn't want to play him that way. He's not educated but he's a chess player -- however, sometimes he gets impatient and jumps ahead moves. An audience member said they thought Murphy would make a good FBI agent or something in the real world, but Richard said he could just as easily be unemployed because he’d never get past a job interview.

- Audience member compared Murphy to Loki (mythical, not the Marvel one), but Richard said the figure he really based him on in the beginning was Lucifer -- I can’t remember the whole answer, but being like the fallen/cast-out one who was alongside Bellamy and then wanted to overthrow him. And then later Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. ;)

OTHER RICHARD STUFF

- Like I said in another post, twitter user murphybeiiamy/Noemie had sold me her Richard Harmon VIP badge even though I was on a low budget since no one had offered her the ticket price for it. I am eternally grateful for that. I did witness the Memori Beer Pong thing in person. Other things included were the meet & greet which has its own post, solo photo and selfie... boy am I glad I chose to go for those on the right days, ‘cause I don’t think Emori + Insane St. Patrick’s Day Richard would’ve meshed as well as this: 

- I also got the Jealous Emori sequel to my UD photo op. They were so game for everything! They had taken their “honeymoon” picture shortly before this and left the flowers on for the rest of the session. *g* I should thank Lindsey Morgan again for the completely unnecessary wrapping-her-leg-around-me pose, because it’s the first thing they noticed in the picture and made sure to replicate it with Richard’s leg. XD

The next day I told him that I really appreciated everything he said on the panel about mental health and I feel the same conflict about just wanting Murphy to be okay but thinking then he's a better character *because* he is fucked up and that's why he's identifiable. I gave him the Murphy playlist, his eyes kind of perked up and glanced over at Luisa when I said I'd given her one too. I warned him his had more dark & sad songs on it than hers did (tbh I think his turned out better), and he was like that’s GOOD, he wants all the sad songs. So yeah... he seemed to be legit into it as a gift and I believe and hope he will also listen to it. <3

- Finally, if you made it to the end of this post, please watch this video of Richard Harmon and Chelsey Reist doing Jameson shots and casually donating $1000 between them to CURE Childhood Cancer. I love my chaotic-good son.

[mittensmorgul]

5.11, Sam, Interrupted. Right on the heels of seeing their roles in the story from an outside perspective, we shift in the complete opposite direction, into a deep internal perspective.

Still, there's a primary manipulative force. Only it's manipulating them from the inside instead of from the outside. And Sam and Dean "pretend" to be insane to get themselves admitted to a psych hospital believing they're actually in control the entire time, when they were basically screwed and being manipulated from the moment they had their intake exams...

Hello, wraith!

(heh, and the creature I took my AO3 handle from, so maybe this gives folks some insight as to why I chose that name now... manipulating TFW and readers from the inside since 2015... my new catch phrase I guess?)

They're Sam and Dean get admitted for telling the absolute truth, about the apocalypse, monsters, angels, demons.

SAM: Okay. Look...um...last few weeks, you've kind of been worrying me. DEAN: (rolls his eyes) Oh, come on, Sam. Stop. Look, just because we're in the loony bin doesn't give you the right to head-shrink me. SAM: Dean-- DEAN: Ellen and Jo dying--Yeah, it was a friggin' tragedy, okay? But I'm not gonna wallow in it. SAM: Dean, you always do this. You can't just keep this crap in. DEAN: (chuckles) Watch me.

Yeahhhhhhh... that won't lead to problems down the line... I mean, we've talked for years about Dean's chats with his psychiatrist, who turns out to be entirely a hallucination on his part, and just how flippant he is about his own problems, so I probably don't need to dwell on that here. Or on the fact that this is a Dabb episode, wherein it's made completely obvious that the doctor who tries to separate Dean and Sam for their own good, because they're "dangerously codependent" is thought for a good while to be the monster, partly because of that assessment... when like... he was completely innocent and literally just doing his job pointing out the obvious. Their codependence has broken the world how many times now? Yeah... they definitely really could do with some time apart.

(throws up in my mouth a little bit thinking about the conversation I accidentally got myself wrapped up in a week or two ago with people who were upset at the thought that Sam and Dean wouldn't end up sharing a heaven and like.... hoooooly fuck we see this show from very different perspectives...)

Meanwhile, some of the narrative manipulation can be summed up quite tidily through some of their interactions with other patients:

--the girl who wanders the halls randomly kissing them, first Dean, and then Sam, because he's bigger... --Ted and the other patients in Sam's group therapy session: TED: (lowers his hand) I am calm. And I'd very calmly like to talk about the monster that's hunting us. DR. FULLER: Ted, we're not going to have that discussion again. It's not good for group. TED: I agree. You know what else isn't good for group? A monster eating all our faces off. DR. FULLER: Alright, fine, thank you. Now, anyone else? TED: I saw it...when it killed Susan. OTHER PATIENT: I did, too. It had big lobster claws. TED: No, it didn't. OTHER PATIENT: Yeah, and it was an alien, like on X-Files. TED: Stop it. Stop helping. Listen to me. We're all dead! DR. FULLER: That's enough. (leans forward, taking off his glasses) There is no monster.

"STOP HELPING!" Ted says. Because the lies aren't actually helping here. The other patients are just making stuff up, whether for attention or because they can't help themselves, but Ted is actually telling the truth, which gets drowned out and dismissed as just more delusional ravings. And then he ends up as the wraith's next victim.

Truth, lies, what's the real story here? And how do you see the truth? In mirrors.

YOU SEE THE TRUTH IN MIRRORS.

Except, sometimes the wraith can even affect what you see in the mirror-- both about yourself and others. For example, even Dean's entirely mentally invented doctor shows up in the mirror with him. She makes Dr. Fuller appear as a wraith, fueling their mistaken belief that he's the monster. And then when the wraith is closing in on them and knows they're on to her, she makes EVERYONE appear as wraiths in the mirror so she can continue hiding in plain sight, while also driving Dean's paranoia through the roof.

Dean, trying to convince the doctor he's fine, she starts throwing all the accusations he's had burning guilty holes in him for a long time:

DR. CARTWRIGHT: Come on, even you don't believe that. All this pressure that you're putting yourself under, all this guilt; it's killing you. You can't save everybody. You can't. (her voice becomes hard) Hell, these days, you can't save anybody, Dean. (turns to leave) DEAN: What did you say? DR. CARTWRIGHT: (turns back to him) The truth, Dean. You got Ellen and Jo killed. You shot Lucifer, but you couldn't gank him. DEAN begins to get confused and a little afraid. DR. CARTWRIGHT: You couldn't stop Sam from killing Lilith, and--oh, yeah--you broke the first seal. All you do is fail. Did you really think that you, Dean Winchester with a GED and a give-'em-hell attitude, were gonna beat the devil? DEAN gets a little more afraid. DR. CARTWRIGHT: Please. The world is gonna burn, and there is nothing that you can do about it. DEAN: Who are you? (voice rising) How do you know that stuff?

but it's then that he begins to realize just how bad he's been messed with:

DR. CARTWRIGHT: I'm not real, Dean. I'm in your head...because you are going crazy.

and he literally goes and huddles in a corner, having completely lost his grip on reality.

Meanwhile, Sam gets confronted by the real doctor, and has his problems listed off to him:

SAM: Yeah. Thanks. I, um...I just wanted to apologize. I feel horrible about what I did to you. I thought you were a monster. DR. FULLER: I know that. The question is, why? SAM: I was...It doesn't matter, um...because after what happened last night, I had a...moment of clarity. I realized...there's no such thing as monsters. DR. FULLER: Well, I'm glad to hear you say that, but, honestly? Monsters are the least of your problems. People can learn to live with delusions, but the anger I saw in you...You hurt those two men, and you were going to kill me. The look in your eyes when you came after me, I...It was like you were barely even human...like a man possessed.

like a man possessed... lol >.> Again, how much is is foreshadowed that Sam is due for Bad Things, and Dean will be left collapsed by his own guilt and loss by the end of the season? Especially as Dean sits nearly catatonic at a table in the corner while Sam starts an imaginary fight inside his own mind and gets himself dragged off to isolation. Dean, however, is still coherent enough to put together the clues and hunt down the wraith despite being drugged and manipulated by her.

At first he mistakenly believes they were infected by Wendy the random kissing patient, but they arrive at her room in time to watch the actual wraith attack her. Martin creates a distraction and tells Dean that he needs to go kill the wraith, but he's received a MASSIVE dose of her venom and can barely walk. Yet he is determined.

MARTIN: You've gotta get out there and kill that thing. I'll take care of her. MARTIN'S voice echoes in DEAN'S ears. DEAN: (shakes his head) I can't. MARTIN: You have to. You have no choice, son. The two orderlies walk in and grab MARTIN, who fights back. The orderlies are distracted by MARTIN. MARTIN: Go. Dean, run! Run!

And what the wraith tells Sam is interesting, too:

SAM: You did this to me! THE WRAITH: Well, I helped. But that rage? No, no, no. That's all you. I don't make crazy. I just crank up what's already there. You build your own hell, but I give you the Legos. And when you're ripe... I make all of your problems disappear.

And this terrifies Sam, because he knows she's right:

SAM: She was right. DEAN: No, she wasn't. She's dead, okay? Let's hit the road. I need a drink, or twelve. SAM: Most of the time, I can hide it, but...I am angry. I'm mad at everything. I used to be mad at you and Dad, then Lilith, now it's Lucifer, and I make excuses. I blame Ruby or the demon blood, but it's not their fault. It's not them. It's me. It's inside me. I'm mad...all the time...and I don't know why. DEAN: Stop. Stop it. So what if you are? What are you gonna do? You gonna take a leave of absence? You gonna say yes to Lucifer? What? SAM: No, of course not. I-- DEAN: Exactly. And that's exactly what you're gonna do. You're gonna take all that crap and you're gonna bury it. You're gonna forget about it, because that's how we keep going! That's how we don't end up like Martin! Are you with me?

So... pushing it all down, not the best strategy for long-term mental health, but pushing anger down specifically? That's something Dean's spent a lifetime doing. Sam, maybe not so much. When Sam's gotten angry in the past, he makes a plan and removes himself from the situation-- running away from home as a kid, running away to Stanford, making a totally new life for himself and just pretending the Bad Things didn't happen at all. Dean, on the other hand, just puts his head down and continues plowing through the bad things head first like a bull. And honestly neither of these are great coping strategies in real life, but the fact that Sam is just... so baffled as to the source of his anger, when he doesn't WANT to be angry but has so much legitimate REASON to be angry, is just heartbreaking. He thinks it's a personal failing, though, instead of a rational response to being so horrifically manipulated his whole life.

When Dean's anger reaches a peak, he just lets himself explode and doesn't feel guilty about exploding after the fact, you know? Which makes the manipulation he suffered via the wraith all the more painful for him. He just takes it and keeps on plowing through. He'll have a valid excuse to let that anger out sooner or later.

Meanwhile, his guilt over all of this will power him through to the next manipulative adventure the narrative has in store.

[renegadesrpg]

Dark Angels: Creation Part 7 Revelations and Plans

Bryn: Shock doesn’t begin to express what I feel, and I’m not the only one. None of us ever really talked about the lives we’d been recruited from, beyond the bare basics. To hear Sean’s laid bare so matter-of-factly was like having an emotional lightning bolt flash through the image I’d conjured. I’m no empath but it doesn’t take one to read this group. Sean normally leaks empathy like a sieve and helps all of us but he’s put up a wall I’ve never seen before. Adrian’s gone stoic. It figures. Spartan boys were taken from their families young, but that sense of loss never goes away. Sorrow had flashed across Sin’s face before he’d schooled it to settle back into his normal, analytical expression, but it was Zav that worried me. Deep lines had formed on his scruffy face and his eyes….totally haunted. We had secrets among us. The kind that left scars that no one wanted to break open and here we’d gone and done just that. As I walk around the table to Sean, I drop my hand on Zav’s shoulder and give it a brief squeeze so he knows that he’s among family, then drop to squat in front of Sean. 

“There are other places of power Sean. I’ll find another. Let your parent’s power rest until it’s time for it to find the new humans that call to it.”

Sean: Shaking my head, I interrupt her, “No. This is the place.”

I’d been 12 when they died, but I’d already known the responsibilities of power. My parents had raised me to it, and before she’d stood as sacrifice, my mother had told me she was doing it as much for me as for my father. That one day I’d need them, need what they could give, and this way they’d be there. And now they were going to be.

“My parents would want this. My parents both had the sight. They were prophets and before my mother died she told me this day would come. It’s been foreseen. I don’t know the outcome of this fight, but I know that when you screw with prophecy, it always goes sideways. So, yeah, this is the place.”

Easing down the wall I’d put up isn’t easy, but one of my contributions to this group is to help keep emotions from either freezing us up or clouding the issues and right now, I’m pretty sure they’re doing both, so time for me to work. With a deep breath and an effort of will, I put away the memories. If I feel like my mother’s smiling at me right now, I can’t help that, but I can use it to stabilize all of us. It’s a familiar feeling, warm and kind, and I can almost hear her voice telling me to trust myself, just like she used to when I was a kid. I use that now to focus myself on the task at hand, letting it leach out of me towards the others to replace the sadness I am drawing away. The weight of their emotions will stay with me for a brief time, but I’ve got broad shoulders and I can handle it. As the heaviness of the memories leaves each of them it’s like the entire room is taking a breath. Adrian and Zav visibly relax and Bryn, although she’d been very contained, also took a mental inhale. Sin is …well, Sin. Always in control but as I open myself I can feel a subtle easing of his tension. Focusing on the hovering image on the table, I take a breath.

“The power isn’t going to be an easy thing to tap into. I’m not sure it can be used the way you describe, Bryn. Once the megalith is freed it will look for its host immediately, so unless it chooses Sin, he can’t tap it and it won’t stick around. But adding that to Sin’s own strength, the Horseman’s power and stolen souls and Zav’s grace it might be like adding a stick of dynamite to the mix anyway. I’m not sure it won’t all explode even without adding the megalith’s stored energy. Now, the standing stones outside the circle might be useable since they were designed to guard the megalith, but you’ll still have to be careful. If the traps use magic sympathetic to what’s there, it will boost the spell to the point it could take us all down. And if it uses magic antithetical to my mother’s power…it will definitely take us all down.” 

Sin: *I feel the tension ease within me as Sean brings himself back to us, within all of us. We are all ancient creatures and the memories tend to blur, but some, the most painful ones and the most joyous ones, will stay with us until our final deaths. As he allows his gift to lift the sorrow from each of us, though I know he does it at cost to himself, a sense of calm confidence replaces it and it becomes easier to regain our focus. Rubbing my chin thoughtfully…*

There is that. And I think it would be wise to find a way to protect ourselves from the effects of the traps as well. Magick is your area of expertise Bryn, though we all dabble with it. What do you think? Can this be done?

Bryn: Narrowing my eyes as I think. There are options, but what will be powerful enough to combat the traps at the strength I believe I can generate with the help of the power already there? 

“Maybe” I begin thoughtfully… “Protection amulets. Something that lets the power of the trap flow over us, rather than try to repel it, or fight it… No, a bag or a bracelet? Yes, that would do it. I’ll need more than one type of stone and they’ll need to be inscribed with protection sigils or runes…” 

My mind works rapidly as I mentally list what would be needed… 

“Yes. I can do it. But if I need 200+, I’m going to need help. The crystals are just the first step. I’ll need help engraving protection symbols on them. And I’d be damned happier if we could tattoo a few on our people as well. 

Zav: --finally, something I can do besides be a “blood” donor”—

I can take care of both things. I can help with the engraving and I’m good with a needle gun.

-- looking at the raised eyebrows around the table—

What? A guy can’t have hobbies? Sean meditates; Adrian makes weapons; Bryn communes with the moon or something...

– dodges the potted aloe she mentally throws at me but I didn’t need to. It stops in mid-air and gently lowers to the ground—

Sin: *Mockingly chiding, as I mentally catch the plant and set it on the ground,*

Now, now children, Celia would not be happy if the bits of nature she puts around my home were damaged…

*I tilt my head at Bryn as she tries, unsuccessfully, to look repentant and catch her mental hiss as she communicates silently with Zav, declaring she would have nailed him if I hadn’t intervened and quickly put a stop to the repartee I /know/ he will throw back…*

Zav, are you skilled enough to tattoo the symbols clearly? There can be no mistakes if they are to work. Indeed, they could backfire completely if they are not exact.

Zav: --I smirked at Bryn. She’d always been a firebrand. It’d been why I’d proposed her as a recruit to Sin before I’d moved her soul on. She’d tried to spell her way out of being reaped and failing that, she’d tried to skewer me with a Roman spear. That kind of fight you can’t teach. Giving my attention back to Sin at the mention of my name….--

I’m good. You encouraged us to have other things to help us decompress, so in my off time I opened a tat shop in Miami. It’s got a waiting list. Whatever I put on us will be an exact match for what Bryn gives me. But the ink’s going to have to have salt in it for the symbols to last on reaper bodies and that’s going to hurt like a bitch, unless Bryn’s got some magick juju that can make the ink stick without it.

Bryn: Laughing a little at ‘magick juju’, because the Gregori has more magick in him naturally than most people who study an entire lifetime manage to attain…

“Not to keep the skin from rejecting the ink, no. But I can spell the ink to reinforce the symbols so I don’t have to be there to invoke them on each person after the tat’s done.

Sin: You will be there anyway. Not to oversee, or assist, if that is not needed, but you will be near enough to provide aid should an attack come. *Looking around the table, my voice growing low and intent.* From this moment forward, none of you will be without a partner at all times. We are entering very dangerous territory when we leave here and I will risk none of you. 

Sean: Cocking my head at this edict, I gotta ask…

“What about you? You’re the heart of this, Sin. He wants you bad enough to forge an alliance with Lucifer, and declaring open season on reapers includes you. You aren’t invulnerable to this.”

Sin: *A cruel smile grows on my face as my dark eyes grow cold*

The Horseman wants me because he fears me. As he should. And because he fears me he will not make an attempt upon me until he is certain he can win because in his heart he is a coward. When he believes he has the power he will try to trap me. That he has forged this “deal” with Lucifer to allow him to take reapers in return for more souls tells me he is not certain yet. So we will prepare and we will strike first. And no Sean, *sensing his protest and shaking my head* Lucifer will not set his demons upon me. This would not be his first attempt on me and it did not go well for him last time. It was made clear by my allies in the pantheons that they would take it amiss if he were to try again. He is not under their purview, but he has no wish to fight wars on multiple fronts. Yet. I will be quite safe on my own.

Sean: I nod, not quite convinced, but Sin is Sin and I’m not going to argue with him. I’ll just have a private word with those two watchdogs he calls servants.

“So Adrian, if Zav and Bryn are paired, that makes us partners in crime.” Grinning at him. “Mo Chapeton, what’s our assignment?

Sin: I want you two to spend time among the ranks and use Sean’s empathy to feel them out, so we can be sure who will be loyal to us. Tell those that are unable to fight with us there will come a day that you will message them to accept no calls from the Horseman or any being other than one of us. They are to find places to ward and prepare to seclude themselves. I do not want them in the line of fire. For those that will fight, you will arrange times and places to hone their skills as much as can be done in the time we have. Adrian, you are still in charge of preparing the duty rosters? *He nods, watching me intently* Then you can arrange for them to train without it being thought unusual. 

Adrian: I can go one better. I’ll put it out that we’re doing rolling boot camps again because of Bryn’s recent encounter with demons, and I’ll use the same excuse to pair some of those that won’t be in the battle with our weak links so none of them get tempted to try to score points with our internal opposition if they get suspicious of the changes. And if everyone is partnered, our partnering won’t create any gossip.

Sin: *nodding approvingly* A good plan. Once you have that established, the two of you will prepare a place of containment where our “weak links” will all be confined to ride out the battle.

Sean: I raise my eyebrow at this. A ‘place of containment’? He wants us to build a ….

“A reaper prison? You want us to build a reaper prison?”

Sin: *raising my eyebrow back at him, mockingly*

You have sufficient magic to ward a place, do you not? *I almost laugh at the outrage on his face, before taking pity.*

I’m not asking you to create structures. A well-warded cavern would probably be the best, as afterwards they will be dismissed from the reaper corps. *tilting my head at their unspoken questions* If we win, I will own their souls and may dispose of them as I wish. If we lose, they will at least be out of the carnage that I’m sure the Horseman will create among the corps. Which is why I want the rest to have well-warded bolt holes. *grimly* They can’t turn over to Lucifer those they can’t find.

Sean: Huffing a little at the playful jab Sin had taken, but I understand why he did it. He wanted me to remember that I’d brought more than empathy with me. I’d been a druid. The empathy was just a very potent manifestation of my power. But that power could be used in other ways and I’d had the training to be able to do it. I just hadn’t wanted to in a very long time.

“Then I guess we all have our marching orders.”

Sin: Do not go back to your usual places of rest or adhere to any formerly established routines. My safe house in Brazil is protected and has room enough for all of you. We will meet again in four days. I know that is not much time, but we do not /have/ much time. Until then, check in with me mentally every 12 hours. If you miss a check-in, I will assume something has gone amiss. I /will/ find you. That is a promise.

Bryn: Raising my hands over the still hovering image of the Stones of Callanish, I murmur softly

“Leig às Callanish,”

and watch the image of the standing stones shimmer into nothingness. Walking over to Zav, I slap my hand on his shoulder.

“C’mon partner. You need anything from your place? We can go their first, then go to my place to get the tools and materials I’ll need.”

Glancing at Sin questioningly, “I’ll have to rebuild my entire workshop in Brazil. I’ll need it all.”

Sin: *Folding my arms and nodding as I stand* That is not a problem. It is quite large. And if you should need anything do not hesitate to go into the town to search for it. The local populace is already convinced that it belongs to either a drug lord or a bruxa. Between you and Zav, they’ll be sure it’s both. 

Zav: --standing beside Bryn, -- Just a quick detour to my shop in Miami to pick up a few things for the tats. Anything else I need and Sin doesn’t have, I can materialize. Let’s hit it. 

Sean: As I watch Zav and Bryn mist out, I turn to Adrian,

“Well buddy, let’s go find our potential narcs so you can get down to that duty roster.

Adrian:--nodding –

I’m in, but, –looking at Sin— I meant it. Sean as my partner for now is good, but once this all starts, Sean is your wing man. It’s important.

Sin: I understand. *I do not have to like it, but I do understand it. Adrian’s seeing had been quite clear on that point. And because Sean had been correct. When you try to circumvent prophecy, nothing good ever comes from it.*

Fare thee well my friends. Keep to the check-ins and we will meet again in four days’ time.

*After Sean and Adrian have dematerialized I walk to out to the lanai and watch the moonlight glimmer on the waves. I fear that no matter the outcome of this battle my time in my own personal paradise is drawing to an end. After so many years I had found peace here. My thoughts drift back over the years. Certain people and times stand out in my long memory. Bella as a frightened child, and then as a confident young woman, fighting for her powers and finding her true mate, and my friend, Dean. Bast, my longtime companion and goddess whom I had restored to her pantheon. Comforting Danu after the death of her mortal son…. and Freya, severing my link with the Horseman and providing a safe house for me in Valhalla as I regained my purpose. The sons of my human life…Cain who slew his brother, Abel. Seth who rejected us for the twelve tribes’ version of our lives…and Ishtar, my beloved wife Ishtar. The first soul I had reaped, had taken to Elysia. I had looked for her reborn soul for thousands of years before I finally accepted the Fates had taken her from me forever. Would I see her when I, too, answer the Creator’s final call? Or was my eternity with her forfeit because I had sought vengeance for her that final day? And then I realize it is not just my time in paradise that is over. In this moment of clarity I know that my time as a reaper is also coming to an end. What comes next, I do not know. There is only one certainty. Everything dies.

#TBC

[shirtlesssammy]

13x02: The Rising Son

Then:

Protect this precious nougat roll

Now:

In Crowley’s former throne room, minion demons stand around, getting drunk, waiting for Lucifer to return. The lights flicker, the doors flies open, and Colonel Sanders appears ready to reveal all 11 herbs and spices!

It’s Asmodeus! Poll: who else has been pronouncing it wrong since last season when they pronounced it wrong on the show? Also note the white suit. Color is insanely bold and symbolic in this episode. He makes it clear to the eager minions that the “grand old days of fire and brimstone are back.” I laugh, but am willing to give him a chance. He might be a fun and cool character --he’s not annoyingly overly campy and bad; he’s just temporarily written that way. He calls some demons forward, and without reason kills the rest. Hmm. Is that really the best way to get your inherently devious and constantly borderline rebellious followers to fall in line?

After the title card we find Baby Cas Jack sleeping in the back of the Impala as Sam stresses about his broken brother and Dean drives away his grief.

Dean is still Jack’s #1 anti. His desire to end “it” hurts way more than it should after one episode with the kid. Sam counters that Jack might be their only way to get their mom back. Sidenote: Remember all our -now seemingly void-- spec about nephilim power bringing back Cas? I’m still curious if this is still in play in some fashion? The show is making it clear there’s a connection between Jack and Cas. If Cas is in the Empty, and God ain’t listening, then what ultra-powerful supernatural creature could still work his magic?

Meanwhile, Mary is on the worst nature walk of her life.

Mary thinks Lucifer will eventually kill her, but he wants to exchange her for his son. Suddenly, a giant fireball flies through the air, separating Mary from her captor.

Back at Crowley’s former throne room (which is in an insane asylum in Jersey, right? Am I remembering this right? They’re not in Hell right now?), demon minion #1 reports that Lucifer is nowhere -not even the cage. Uh, what? So peeps can just pop in and out of that thing like it’s Starbucks now?

Asmodeus wants Jack found as well. Colonel Sanders is kinda fun, ok. His Scar scars are courtesy of Lucifer. Eager to please, he once released the shedim --”Hell’s most savage.” Also, creatures of Jewish folklore. Might we need Aaron Bass to help with their eventual downfall later this season? Please?  

Dean starts hallucinating sheep on the road so Sam makes him pull over and they check in to the visibly dingy Black Hat Hotel. Jack thinks it’s nice though. PROTECT. Here’s some meta on the colors of the hotel. I was particularly drawn to Dean checking out the YELLOW bathroom --you know, the place that Cas often reconnected with Dean over the years. This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen Dean check the bathroom either. Sure, it’s probably a good idea to check a fleabag hotel’s bathroom, especially if you’re a neat freak, but what’s this new Dean thinking? His hope is gone --maybe it’ll appear in the bathroom?

Jack gravitates for the TV, much like his father before him. ALL THE Awwwwwwsssss. He’s even watching Scooby Doo --which only breaks Dean’s wall of hatred for a millisecond. Dean kicks Jack to the couch and throws a bible at him. Jack opens to Song of Solomon. The lifelong atheist in me didn’t know the significance, but my lapsed Catholic partner in crime knew all. Sam tries to be a good parent and offers Jack a bed, but Jack declines and starts reading the history of his very messed up family.

In between TOTALLY ADORABLE mimicry sessions, Dean, Sam, and Jack discuss Lucifer, God, and the world. It’s an awkward bit of exposition that’s still totally worth it just to watch Jack shadow Dean. Stop winning me over kid. It’s going to hurt too much to say goodbye. Sam wonders about everything Jack is able to do. Jack is uncertain. They ask if he can teleport. “If you wanted to be on the other side of that door, right this instant, what would you do?” Dean asks. ...and Jack proceeds to walk over to the door, and walk outside. And then knock to be let back inside. What a nougat. Sam concludes, “You know, it’s possible he’s more human than we thought.” Sam lets him back in and Jack couldn’t be prouder.

Jack’s Power Profile (Update)

Glowing eyes

Glowing healing ability

Sonic scream

Ability to highly manipulate his body / rapid aging

Powers manifest instinctively when threatened

A smol bean

Too precious

Sweeter than nougat

Meanwhile, in the hallway, a mysterious figure approaches the boys. Sam and Dean are on high alert --only to find Donatello, the soulless prophet! My theory that he wouldn’t really miss or need his soul to function in the world proved somewhat right. He does miss it, but his high intelligence quotient allows him to ask “What would Mr. Rogers do?”, thus allowing him to navigate his moral ship correctly through life. He was enjoying retirement when he was hit with a blast of Not-Quite-God feelings, and had to find the source. “Maybe less human as we thought,” Dean concludes. Sam realizes that angels will find them sooner than later so he needs protection.

To the tattoo shop!

Sam pulls a full on Obi Wan, proposing that Jack’s powers can be used for good. He just needs to learn to control them --as he completely blows out the tattoo artist’s machines. In Jack’s defense: “It hurt.” “Ok, so sometimes things hurt, so you just man up and deal with it.” *do not picture John telling this to a 5 year old Dean**do not picture John telling this to a 5 year old Dean**do not picture John telling this to a 5 year old Dean**do not picture John telling this to a 5 year old Dean*

Jack accepts his fate of a painful existence and gets the tattoos, but they quickly disappear (I was about to ask why Cas’s didn’t heal, but he was human then. I wonder if they’re gone now that he’s an angel again? I guess it doesn’t matter now that he’s dead. *crying in corner*)

Back at the hotel, Sam, Dean, and Donatello stand around talking about Jack like he doesn’t exist. (Dean also talks about the small, inane domestic things he did with Cas, like go to the dentist. Sigh. Dean, you’re in so much pain, even the dentist is a memory worth sharing.) Sam keeps advocating for the little half-devil, but Dean is so far gone there’s no reasoning with him. Donatello mentions the Nature vs. Nurture conundrum --which will hopefully be more fully explored in a later episode. Jack gets tired of confrontation and disappears. So much like his father.

He relocates to outside the hotel, thinking about his mother and Castiel. Sam finds him and tries to reassure him about all that’s happening. I like how the Black Hat hotel sign was positioned between them. Does Jack wear the black hat? How right is Dean? (Not very when his emotions cloud the situation.) And in an episode where the new Big Bad is wearing white, what does it say about black? Jack wonders if he’s worth all this trouble? (Oof, he’s more like Dean than Dean will ever realize.)    

Dean, meanwhile, is at his old hangout the Black Spur Bar (he had many a good time during his summer of love there). He chats with the friendly waitress but takes off before drinking too much. And as he leaves the camera pans down to the real waitress, dead behind the bar. Colonel Sanders is in disguise and now knows where Team Free Nephilim is.

At the hotel Donatello knocks to the tune of Shave and a Haircut and Sam invites him in. Donatello is bright and sunny, his cheerful morning persona apparently undented by his lack of a soul. Sam inquires after Jack who stayed in Donatello’s room due to Dean Bean’s righteous anger. Well. Since Sam brought up Jack...Donatello is Mister Curious and Sam fills him in on Jack: he’s not allied with Lucifer, he loves his mom, and Jack can be molded towards goodness. “Molded, eh?” Donatello asks with interest.

Back in the darkest timeline, Mary’s exploring the wasteland when a guy jumps out with a gun. He asks her who she is and she tells him her name and that she’s a hunter. “Doubt it,” he says. “Ain’t never met a female hunter. Not many women period since the wars began.“ Which. Okay. FUCK YOU, Buckleming for implying that women couldn’t hack the apocalypse. I don’t know why I’m quibbling about the friggin’ apocalypse except that this seems to me like such an unnecessary detail - as though ovaries are an inherent barrier to survival. (Fires rage flame-ball at the TV.) Anyway, OF COURSE there’s a rape threat thrown in here as well. (Throws another fireball at the screen.) Mary doesn’t even get to rip out his organs. Lucifer does it for her. (Throws yet another fireball at the smoking remains of my TV screen.) Anyway. Lucifer tells her that they’re all in this together, kumbaya, etc. He attacks her with stomach cancer, probably, since that seems to be a favorite of angels.

Back at the hotel, Dean walks in with coffees and pastries. Although he was super eager to jet the night before, they’re apparently enjoying a lazy morning of research and coffee runs. Sam sits Dean down and tells him that they need to get on the same page. Sam insists that they’ve been at rock bottom before and they can “fix this.” Donatello swans into the room. He’d like to talk to Sam about Jack. Sam’s a bit confused. Didn’t they just have a heart to heart about Jack’s mental state? Donatello disagrees. He was out grabbing breakfast burritos. The three head to Donatello’s hotel room to find Jack missing. They determine that fake Donatello has absconded with Jack and are trying to figure out what to do when Donatello’s god radar bleeps on. He knows where Jack is! Quick! Wave him around like a celestial metal detector!

Dean grabs their stuff from the other hotel room when a tiny sound alerts him to an attacker. It’s a demon! Dean fights him off long enough for Sam to sneak up and stab the demon. Then Sam and Dean head out to save Donatello in the hallway. Dean whips an angel blade into the demon’s throat.

Hold for just a moment. *Fans self and replays the blade throw*

Okay, I’m back! In a lovely prairie the fake Donatello (aka Colonel Sanders) tells Jack that he needs to train himself to use his powers. How, Obi Wan? Donatello tells him that God had powerful soldiers - the shadim - that were locked away in Hell, and that God wants Jack to free them. Jack totally believes him, the eager smol bean that he is. He focuses his mojo on the patch of earth in front of him.

Dean, Sam, and Donatello race towards Jack and Colonel Sanders. They’re headed into Jasper, Wyoming which Sam notes, “according to Dad’s journal, Jasper is home to its very own gate to Hell which leads to a place where unimaginable evil” is imprisoned - the shadim. Awesome. (My esteemed co-blogger points out that for some reason Sam is toting around their dad’s journal. With their essentially photographic memories, why would they need to carry that around with them? I feel like this is a cheap play for nostalgia.)

I don’t have time to grumble, because in the darkest AU, a flight of angels arrives tricked out in military gear to question Lucifer and Mary. They don’t believe Lucifer when he says his name because Michael, in their reality, killed Lucifer already. Lucifer rolls his eyes and kills them all with a snap of his fingers. Suddenly there’s a WHAM BANG CRASH and something barrels into the earth. An angel flashes its wings and a man strides from the smoking hole. He’s shocked to see Lucifer. The two brothers meet each other...again.

Meanwhile, Jack starts to crack open the shadim’s gateway while Colonel Sanders jumps around for joy. A taloned hand begins to climb from the pit when Dean, Sam, and the real Donatello come up. Dean shoots Colonel Sanders and he bursts into his true form, then Darth Vader chokes the interlopers. This breaks Jack’s concentration and the pit closes up. His eyes angrily glow yellow at Colonel Sanders - who hasn’t stayed alive for this long because he’s stupid. Colonel Sanders zaps the fuck out of there.

Back in frowny face land Lucifer and Michael continue to circle each other. They punch each other to the sound effects of thunderclaps. Michael tells Lucifer he isn’t going to kill him. He needs him.

Back at the bunker Dean and Sam process the recent events. Sam tells him that Jack saved them. Dean’s convinced that Jack’s reactions - his powers - are reflexes. Dean’s not won over. He heads to bed, then hears something odd down the hall. He goes to investigate and finds Jack stabbing himself (uuuugh) repeatedly and then healing. It’s pretty awful, not gonna lie. Dean busts in, takes the knife, and tells him not to be an idiot. Dean’s horrified and puzzled. Jack wonders what he is and worries that he’ll hurt someone. Dean tells him that Sam thinks Jack can be saved and we address that Jack knows Dean doesn’t believe that. Dean tells him that if he’s right and they have to kill him, Dean will be the one to do it. I get a sense that in Dean’s mind, this is a mercy that would be swift and as painless as possible.

You Don’t Know Jack About Quotes:

You’re on the couch, sport.

God. He’s in here too. Is he famous or something?

Who needs a prophet of God when there’s no God?

Sometimes things hurt so you just man up and deal with it.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[maximumsuckage]

Dreamscape, part 2

Link to Part 1: https://maximumsuckage.tumblr.com/post/167175722147/dreamscape 

Description: Sam, Dean, and Jack discuss the Norse death goddess Hela.  Across the country, a werewolf child turns up dead.

Word Count: 3125

A/n: I am so so so sorry if I ruin this by adding more, but tis the season of NaNoWriMo and this is the closest thing I've had to a plot in ages, so I don't care if it's fanfic and not original.  lemme know if anyone is interested enough to be tagged in updates, no worries if nah

  “So lemme get this straight.”  Dean wrapped his fingers around the coffee mug as he looked down at the book Sam had dropped in front of him.  “You have a dream about our old dead buddy the Trickster, only he’s a giant crazy monster, and he tells you some crap and sends you on a quest to find his freaky death goddess daughter to be the Jedi Master to your freaky angel padawan?”

Sam let out a slow breath.  “No, Dean.  I mean, yeah, but you’re ignoring the point here.  Jack isn’t the first archangel offspring.  It makes sense… we knew Gabe was Loki.  I just never realized he was Loki.  Like, the actual god.  He had a whole life outside of Heaven…”  He trailed off, looking down at the book, not for the first time wondering at how little they actually knew.  “And he wasn’t a giant crazy monster.  He was an archangel.  Without the vessel.”

Dean waved a dismissive hand and sipped his coffee.  “Whatever.  So monster Gabe wants you to find his freaky death goddess daughter.  And what, exactly?  We don’t exactly have a great record with pagan gods.”

“Yeah, but Dean, this could be an opportunity.”  This was pointless.  They were going in circles, still, like they had been for forty minutes already.  “I know that it’s a risk, but-”

“But nothing.”  Dean gestured with the mug of coffee.  “We’ve already dealt with Death himself.  We’re not getting the attention of one of his death god lackeys too.  Mr. Miyagi the kid yourself, fine.  But if we get her attention and she gets pissed…”

“Then we take her out too.”  Sam stood.  “We’ve taken out stronger things than-”

“Than an archangel Nephilim?  An archangel Nephilim who’s had thousands of years to hone her powers?”  Dean raised an eyebrow and sipped his coffee.  “Look, I get it.  The kid’s not all bad.  Might grow up to be a superhero.  Who knows?  But we do know that a goddess named Hell is not someone we want to tussle with.”

“Hel with one L, not two.”  Sam pointed.  “Or Hela, in this translation.”

“Hela then.”  Dean paused. “Wait, wasn’t that the bad guy in that new Thor movie?”

“Well-”

“That settles it.  No.  If she scares Thor, then I don’t want to deal with it.  Wherever she’s holed up, she can stay there.”  He downed the rest of his coffee, made a face at the dregs, and got up.  “Come on.  We’ve got a werewolf to catch.”  Without letting Sam have time for another word, he left the kitchen, heading back towards his own room. 

“I have a cousin?”

Sam jumped at the voice.  Jack definitely shared that little trait with Castiel.  He glanced at the direction Dean had vanished in, and sighed.  He had no idea how long Jack had been listening, and lying would only upset him.  “We’re not sure,” he decided on, sitting down and pushing the book towards him.  “I had a dream about Gabriel- your uncle- and he told me to look for this goddess, who, according to the lore, is his oldest daughter.”

Jack pulled the book closer and studied it, his eyebrows creased together.  “Gabriel,” he said slowly.  “He was in the Bible.  He told Elizabeth and Mary that they were pregnant.  He is good.”  He glanced up at Sam, worried.  “Right?”

“Yeah.  Yeah, he was good.”  Sam decided that they didn’t need to get into the semantics of good when it involved the Trickster.  He’d come over to their side in the end; right now, that was what mattered. 

“Was?”  Jack caught the past tense, head tilting in that painfully familiar way. 

“Lucifer killed him.”  He decided not to sugar-coat it, just ripping off the metaphorical Band-Aid.  “Gabriel was stalling so we could save people.  He knew he was going to be killed.”  He paused, figuring somebody didn’t go through the work of filming a pornographic suicide note if they didn’t know they were going to die.  “He loved your father to the end, I think.  He attacked Lucifer, but now that I think about it, I don’t think he could have killed him, even if he had the ability to.”

Jack looked back down at the book, considering the information, filing it away in what he knew of the world.  “But, he had children.  This goddess is my cousin.”  He touched the picture, running his finger down the sketch.  One side of her was a young lady, lovely if stern, while the other side was a garish image of rot and desiccation.  That didn’t seem to bother Jack, whose impression of the world was still fresh and new.   

It had, however, bothered Dean, who, when Sam had first set the book down, made a comment along the lines of, “this zombie freak your new girlfriend?”

“We don’t know that for sure yet,” Sam was quick to point out.  “Gabriel didn’t give me anymore information…”  Because he was too busy trying to bite my lips off, but Dean and Jack don’t need to know that and why the hell was he doing that anyways I’m not into him I’m straight straighter than Dean anyways like maybe we were friends at the end but only barely and… “and we don’t even know if she’s alive, or good or evil, or if she’s even his daughter.  Sometimes the lore gets mixed up over time, and things aren’t usually that accurate.”

Jack tilted his head.  “But it says here that she was.”

“Yeah, but that was written by humans.”  Sam settled in for a lecture on mythology, which could either go very smoothly or would throw Jack into a mental tailspin.  “A lot of the lore we have is based on old stories.  A long time ago, they were just told word of mouth.  Like… like I’m telling you right now.  And to keep people’s interests, storytellers would exaggerate.”

“Exaggerate.  A small lie.  To make it bigger than it really is.” 

Sam made a small agreeing gesture in his direction, not sure if Jack had read the dictionary or if Dean had covered that particular lesson.  Probably Dean, exaggerating away all the carbs he was drinking to hide the still-raw grief.  “So if every storyteller exaggerates the story a little bit, and then the inflated version gets written down…”

“It might be completely different from the truth?”  Jack looked up at Sam, hopeful, and Sam found himself smiling. 

“Yeah.  Exactly.”

Jack nodded and looked down at the picture again, considering it through this new lens.  “But Gabriel is my uncle.  That’s not exaggerated.  And he does know her, because he told you to find her in a dream.”  He looked up at Sam, hopeful.  “How hard would it be to find her?”

“Well, I don’t know, and Dean’s scared of her.  He doesn’t want us to find her and then it turn out that she’s the bad guy.”

“Why would my uncle be friends with a bad guy?”

Sam really did not want to get into the gray morals that seemed to permeate Gabriel’s pagan lifestyle, and thankfully, he was saved by Dean’s walking in.  “Case,” he said pointedly.  “Wolf clan.  New York.”  He looked over at the book, then pointed at the image.  “Bad guy,” he said to Jack, like that settled it.  “You guys ready to go?”

Jack nodded, hopping up, eager to please Dean.  “Yes.  I had my bag packed last night.  And I didn’t forget extra underwear and socks this time.”

Dean frowned.  “Extra?  You had extra last time.” 

Jack grinned, pleased.  “Yes, for myself.  But I packed for you both as well.  When you wear the same pair of socks every day, it gets-”

“We get it.”  Dean rolled his eyes and headed for the car. 

Sam, for lack of a better response, patted Jack on the shoulder.  “Thanks, bud.  What would we do without you?”

“Probably stink,” he said, dead serious, and followed Dean, a spring in his step at being useful to his guardians, like a puppy.  A wolf puppy, Sam reminded himself, one that was loyal, but could bite. 

A week previous

Fairpoint, New York, was a pleasant little tourist trap in the Adirondacks, somewhere beyond Old Forge.  A main road led visitors to a plethora of family owned motels and campgrounds, winding through little shops owned by kindly retired folk or kids in their twenties irritated at being forced to take over the family business.  A lake nearby allowed for swimming or sailing, though it was quiet now that the season was beginning to turn.  This time of year, the draw was the beautiful shades of red and yellow and gold that graced the ancient trees, and hiking trails winding through the surrounding mountains allowed tourists the opportunity ample opportunities to soak in the autumn aesthetic. 

The only issue was the werewolves.  Those townsfolk who had lived there for more than a generation knew about them- the clan out in the woods, who feasted on deer and moose and bear and avoided civilization like the plague.  That was the original purpose of the village, after all.  Keep the werewolves in the wilderness, away from the more human haunts.  For a long while, the wolves had been quiet, and only the occasional foray into town for medicine or booze by one of their runners told the old folk that they were still active. 

But that had all changed when a child turned up dead. 

He was not one of Fairpoint’s- he was branded by the mark of the wolves, a symbol like four claw marks slashing the shoulder, and he was thin and gaunt, buried in a shallow grave that was unearthed by the excessive rains.  It would have been ignored by the local cops, who, as a rule, kept only to Fairpoint business, except for the fact that it was a clear murder: his heart had been ripped from his chest cavity.  The organ was missing. 

It had to be a wolf, because no fox or coyote or bear would simply take the heart and run, and besides, attacks by wild predators were excessively rare, saved generally for foolhardy hunters (real hunters, with deer and stuff- they had no idea about Winchester-type hunters) who got between Mom-bear and cub.  The thinness was a problem as well- though many wild populations were thinning, white-tailed deer refused to stop breeding, and their population boom allowed not only food for ticks, but for the wolves as well.  Any children glimpsed traipsing through the woods were well-fed, bordering on chubby if not for all the running and playing they did, so a dead child whose ribs were clearly visible?

That was foul play, for sure. 

So, it was with a great deal of nerves that Sheriff Harry Baldwin found himself hiking through the woods, sweating despite the autumnal chill, cop car left behind at the deepest hunting cabin he could drive to.  His twelve-gauge was slung over his shoulder, heavy now that he had to hike with it, and shot shells clinked in the pockets of his jacket.  The gun was only for protection from bears though.  He didn’t fear the wolves.  His family had been there for ages, and he had the feeling there had been a bit of interbreeding- every time the full moon rolled around, he felt peckish for bloody burgers.  It was a craving he didn’t share with anybody, but a very real craving nonetheless, and he liked to imagine the wolf blood in him (even if it was imaginary) made him a better cop. 

There was a stitch in his side by the time he heard a howl that clearly came from a human throat and not a coyote, and he leaned against a tree, panting.  “Hey,” he called out to the trees, knowing one of the wolves was there, even if he couldn’t see them.  “It’s me. Sheriff Baldwin. I need to talk to Alpha Melissa."

A wolf warrior stepped out.  She was a pretty girl, curvy with big eyes and an easy smile, wearing a deerskin jacket over a Doctor Who t-shirt and skinny jeans.  “Officer Baldwin!  Hi!  If we knew you were coming, we would have sent a truck out for you.  What’s up?”  Before he had time to respond, she darted off, and then returned with a bottle of water that she offered out.

He took it gratefully, draining it in a few moments, and then wiped his mouth.  “I’m here on business, Charlotte.  I need to talk to Melissa.”

Charlotte nodded.  “Yeah, of course.  I’ll call a ride to town.  Seriously, next time you need to come out here, just call one of us.”

A few minutes later, Harry was on the back of an ATV, clinging desperately to the waist of Travis, another wolf warrior who was a few ranks higher than Charlotte.  Harry wasn’t exactly sure how the ranking worked here, as the wolves were an independent nation it seemed, yet still had access to ATVs and Poland Spring and, apparently, Doctor Who.  Harry never asked.  He figured, that was their business and his business was Fairpoint. 

The town itself blended into the surrounding forest, log cabins trailing wood smoke into the sky.  A group of barefoot kids were playing soccer in a clearing that served as the town square, laughing and occasionally snarling at each other with teeth too long and sharp for a normal child’s mouth.  Occasionally, there would be a splash of blood on the hard-packed earthen ground, but that only drew more laughter.  Several deer were hanging from a pole, blood dripping into buckets on the ground.  Their glassy eyes seemed to watch Harry as he dismounted the ATV, waiting for the warrior to lead him to the pack leader. 

“Wait here,” Travis said sharply, and disappeared into the largest of the cabins. 

Harry obeyed, but it was with a frown.  He had spoken to Melissa many times.  She was older, a calm leader, giving off the vibe of a Victorian era queen rather than a werewolf pack leader roughing it in the woods.  Never had she kept him waiting. When he became sheriff, she had arrived in Fairpoint for the ceremony herself, congratulating him personally, and after that they had struck up a professional relationship that seemed to border on more than friendly (or at least, so Harry hoped.  He may have had a teensy crush on the pack leader). 

But never before had he been commanded to wait for an audience.

One of the children was on the ground, crying. Somebody had yanked one of her pigtails too hard, and now a few of the boys were jeering at her.  Harry took a step closer to break it up, but then the smallest of the girls snarled as she intervened first, her face twisting, hackles raising, hands twisting and breaking into claws with an audible snapping of bones.  The boys raised a laugh at her as well, but then the beast-child leapt forward, throwing the biggest boy to the ground with a thump.  He tried to change as well, but she slashed him across the face, and he stayed down. 

Harry stood, frozen, watching as the smallest hopped off the largest and walked over to the bullied girl to pull her to her feet.  The boy on the ground sat up, the scratches on his face already healing, and snarled at her, but it was weak and small and ignored.  The girl was alpha, and both knew it.

“I’m goalie!” she declared, human again, sprinting towards the two sticks that comprised the goal.  With that, the fight was forgotten, and the game was back on.     

“Sheriff Baldwin?” 

Harry turned away from the kids to the familiar voice of Melissa, the pack leader.  Middle aged, with a few scars across her face suggesting old triumphs, she exuded the aura of a warrior, despite her torn jeans and sky-blue sweater.  Harry always felt a little subpar next to her, aware that maybe he should put in some time at the gym and maybe avoid the pastries Sally Parr, the town administrator, brought in every morning.  “Yeah.  What’s going on?”

She gave him a thin-lipped smile and gestured for him to come inside.  He followed, grateful to get off his aching feet. 

“Whiskey?” she asked once he had been seated in front of her desk, which was little more than a homemade table.

He waved it off.  “I’m on the clock.  I’m here to talk about a murder.  A child, about ten, was found a few miles outside of town by a hunter.  Poor kid was starving before he died.  Heart ripped out of the body.  Coroner hasn’t told us whether it was taken out before or after he passed.”

Melissa’s brow creased as she turned back to the desk, a small glass of whiskey in her own hands.  That was new.  Harry had never seen her touch a drop of alcohol in all the time that he knew her.  Although, granted, it was more phone conversations than anything else. 

“Shit,” she said, and all hope that she didn’t know about the murder flew from Harry’s mind.  He hoped they weren’t going dark.  He had no idea what they were supposed to do if the wolves went dark.  That was on him, but half of Fairpoint didn’t even know about the wolves, so how would they fight-

Melissa drained the whiskey like it was water.  “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this,” she murmured, gazing at the golden drops clinging to the side of the empty glass.  “I prayed that it wouldn’t come to this.”

“Come to what?”  Harry leaned forward.  “Melissa, if any of your guys did this, you know I can’t protect you.  This whole settlement is already illegal.  If there’s murder too…”

She stood, slamming fingers that broke and twisted into claws into the wood of the table.  Splinters of wood flew to the floor.  “They are not my guys.  Not anymore.”

“Mel?”  He tested out the nickname cautiously.  “Something’s going on.  Tell me what’s going on so we can prevent anyone else from turning up dead.”

Now her teeth were elongating, and her voice dropped to a growl that resonated within Harry’s chest.  “A strange wolf came.  He corrupted some of our youth- now they wish to summon him.” 

“Him who?”  Harry sat back a little, trying to remain calm in the face of the half changed alpha in front of him.  “Mel, calm down, okay?  We’re friends here.  I want to help.”

She glared at him, normal cocoa-brown eyes now feral yellow, and then took a breath.  “Him,” she repeated, forcing her voice back to its normal register.  “The original Wolf.  Fenrir himself.”

[wingsoverbros]

“Stuck in the Middle (with you) - mainly because I don’t know where to go from here. Anyone got a map?” or “My Thought on SPN 12.12″

For previous episodes: 12.01 - 12.02 - 12.03 - 12.04 - 12.05 - 12.06 - 12.07 - 12.08 - 12.09 - 12.10 - 12.11

Now, on to Supernatural 12.12 - "Stuck in the Middle (With You)"

Shows that have been on for a long time frequently run the risk of growing stale. Once they've a large number of seasons under their belt, the style of the episodes becomes so familiar that a watcher could become bored. Supernatural has attempted to combat that over the seasons by occasionally throwing in episodes that experiment in the visual or storytelling style most commonly used for episodes. The episodes, although always interesting, are sometimes a mixed bag in terms of success. Sadly, for me, this episode is in the lower level of success, although I did like several elements in it.

"Stuck in the Middle" was an arc episode written by one of our new writers, Davy Perez, who also wrote "American Nightmare". It was clearly influenced by the work of Quentin Tarantino, which probably would have worked better for me had I been a fan of the writer-director's work. Sadly, although I appreciate his visual style, I usually find his storytelling style to be a bit incomprehensible. The disjointed timeline of many of his movies, which was used in a similar fashion in the episode, makes his movies a bit difficult for me to follow without a notepad. A girl shouldn't have to re-watch an episode three times with a sheet of paper and a pencil to figure out what happened.

(Public disclosure: The only film of his I’ve enjoyed is “Inglorious Basterds”)

Without the distraction of trying to follow the back-and-forth timeline of the episode, the influences of Quentin Tarantino works better. I rather enjoyed the everyday feel of the Diner scene. It reminded me a lot of the "fly on the wall" scenes of "Baby" from season 11, another episode with an experimental style that worked much better. If we could have just done the episode with the visual style and references but a more chronological (Linear) storytelling style, the episode would have been amazing.

Leaving aside the style of the episode, the episode was something I'd love to re-watch, just for what it added to the canon from previous seasons. For many years, the fact that the head demon we dealt with had the name of a rather notorious fallen angel bugged me, especially when the angels themselves became involved in the show. Leaving Azazel as just some sort of super-powered corrupted human when he could have been instead a link between the two opposing sides just felt like they were leaving some amazing possibilities discarded on the table. As he was the only one, though, I figured that it was not a possibility.

Over the years, they added characters that boosted my hopes, though. Abaddon, the spirited Knight of Hell from seasons 8 and 9, is listed in legend as "the Angel of the Pit". The show implied that she was as human as Cain had been, though, so that possibility petered out. The inclusion of Tamiel and the Grigori, the same group from legend that contains Azazel as a bad guy also raised my hopes for at least the possibility of characters that are essentially stranded in midair between groups. After all, I figured, Cas is suspended between Heaven, Hell and Humanity. There are bound to be others in the same position but without the support system that are good humans.

So imagine my joy when the episode shuffles Azazel into a specific category of demon, one that included the name of one of the other better-known Angels in legend. “Once Is Chance, Twice is Coincidence, Third Time Is A Pattern” The new category of the "Oldest of the old, after Lilith, turned by Lucifer himself" to "lead the armies of Hell in the war against Heaven" could be human, sure, but would newly turned humans have been able to fight angels? Very few of the demons in past seasons have been able to fight back against angels effectively, and most of those were only able to do so because of the power levels gained through advanced age, and even Lilith and Abaddon were vulnerable to demon traps. The greater possibility is that the "Princes of Hell" were in fact Lucifer's few angel allies, which legend states were tossed out at the same time. The show has never addressed them, so this is a perfect opportunity to both do that and extend canon opportunities.

Now wait just a minute, you say. He couldn't possibly be a corrupted angel, the angel blade didn't work. But we've got canon for that. Cas has been stabbed by an angel blade twice in his lifespan. The second time, as a human in "I'm no angel" in season 9, he died. However, in "The Man who knew too much" at the end of season 6, Sam stabbed Cas through the back with an angel blade. By that point, Cas had powered-up to such an extent that the blade did nothing. The same could be said about Ramiel. He's been changed, shifted into a new species. Not a true demon, as like Azazel, the traps and demon-trapping bullets didn't work (presumably, neither would holy water, similar to Azazel in "Devil’s Trap" in season 1,) but not an angel any longer either. I wonder if the holy fire would have worked, had he not been able to blow it out.

(Bonus thought: If Azazel was a corrupted angel, that makes Meg and her brother into corrupted Nephilim, which ties them into the current story-line and brings up some of the possible menace of a nephilim. Nephilim would make really dedicated demons, considering that the other side inherently hates them anyway.)

I also enjoyed the details the episode added to Crowley. Season 6 and 7 was never all that forthcoming about why Crowley needed Cas to help him, and when and why he decided to go for the throne. It was suggested at cons that some scripts had the details, but it never appeared in the final episodes, having been lost along the way. This episode, though, hints at the reasons. If Crowley was only on the throne because Ramiel literally handed it to him (and in the presence of a potential competitor), then there's no way Crowley had the strength to hold the throne for any length of time without a high-powered ally. The "Six years ago" segment couldn't have occurred more then a few weeks prior to Crowley approaching Cas in Lisa's backyard all those years ago.

Cas would have been a perfect ally. Desperate, easily controlled if Crowley brings up Dean's safety in the negotiations, and legendary to both demons and angels. Hell, Crowley might not even need to bring him in half the time, just threaten any misbehaving demons with the possibility of having to face a super-powered being that had successfully faced down the Devil. The episode suggests that Crowley may now be in a similar position. No real friends, potentially dangerous threats from others who want the throne, and no useful tools to fight them off. And now, he's been changed, given a brush with humanity and emotions and possessing a few personal weaknesses (being fond of family and friends can be a real danger, sometimes.) It'll be interesting to see what happens to Crowley over the rest of this season.

The episode continued the recent trend of revisiting an utter ton of past canon:

Lucifer is back, and he's back in poor Nick (I squealed. I admit it.) Surprisingly, instead of being in the cage in Hell, he's currently in the dog cage in Crowley's throne room. This is important, as the throne room is in the Needham Asylum in Fall River, Massachusetts. Question is, how did he get there? Is that where the spell put him?

Did Rowena know? And what's gonna happen now?

The location of the Colt has finally been answered. I'd always figured Lucifer had it, but at some point, Crowley must have recovered it. It's a shame Mary handed it to the British MOL, but hopefully, the guys can recover it. I also hope the MOL aren't planning on using it on anyone we know.

It's interesting to see that the older the demon, the most likely they are to prefer a quiet retirement to active involvement. First Cain, now Ramiel... Makes me wonder what a demon retirement community looks like. Have there been any cattle mutilations in Florida?

Crowley always has all the toys. I wonder how many hidden caches he has laying around.

Cas has been so much more sympathetic to human limitations since his bout with humanity. I wonder if he now mentally schedules in bathroom breaks during road trips with the guys?

Cas is still using the truck he stole from that poor country boy this season. It makes me think he probably did steal the Pimpmobile in season 10. (Sad. I much prefer the idea that he got it legally. My head-canon for that is the lovely but sad general fic "A Winter's Tale" by NorthernSparrow. Read it if you haven't, it's fantastic.)

Loved that Cas was listening to a sermon on the radio, bringing up thoughts of both Buddy Boyle from season 9 and Chuck in season 11.

Dean spent time in the diner scene pushing Cas towards a girl while Cas remains generally uninterested and a little confused. At least he didn't look as freaked out as he did the first time Dean did that. (Boy, April must have confused Dean.)

General observations:

"three humans with one good liver between them, and a broken angel?" - one? oh dear. I wonder who has the good liver. I'm thinking it's likely Mary. She doesn't seem like a real heavy drinker.

Dean gives Cas a "How you doing?" flirt head-bob. Did he recognize that, or was it unconscious? Considering Dean overcompensates so much, I'm thinking it was probably unconscious.

I liked the glowing box, a signature element of works by Quentin Tarantino. It and the diner were great. Not good enough to make me agree to the disjointed timeline, though.

Mary is a lot more communicative and appreciative of Cas then the guys. Probably due to lack of history with Angels and Cas. To her, he's still a bit of an unknown. Mary defends Cas from attempted set-up. Why? Cause Angel? or cause she realizes he's not interested?

Heh... Cas sniffed the waitress, to see if she did smell like food.

"My shy, but devastatingly handsome friend here..." - good of you to notice, Dean.

My favorite part of the episode? Cas's monologue on love and family. Finally, someone said it. And now Cas realizes he still has a family, and has heard that they return the sentiment with his own ears. He knows now he has a family and a home. Who needs the rest of the angels anymore.

                                          (Your move now, Dean.)

I'm happy for fandom to have it, too. Granted, most of us didn't need it, and the ones that do will never acknowledge it, but it was nice to have it none-the-less.

I loved that Sam was mystified by Dean's strange clarification about the good qualities of a waitress. "Why would a girl smelling like food be a *good* thing?" And he appears to be questioning why Dean wants Cas to try dating in the first place. He must be getting tired of watching them dance around each other. Same, Sam. Same.

I love that Sam's been digitizing the American MOL archives. Good boy. Upgrade for the 21st century. (from their typewriter, I doubt the British MOL have bothered to do that themselves.)

The makeup and special effects departments did a fantastic job this week. That decay effect on Cas looked amazing, and so did the all the effects associated with the Lance of Michael.

Once again, a great job directing by our resident Trickster, Richard Speight Jr.

Supernatural takes risks to keep us entertained, and although they sometimes pay off, the success of this one depends on your point of view. I didn't really think it did, but if you're a fan of Quentin Tarantino, you might have a different opinion. It had good moments and lots of great details which makes it worthwhile to at least try it. It wasn't my cup of tea, but I continue to look forward to what they might have up their sleeves this season.

[coaldustcanary]

2016 Fanfic Masterpost

I’ve seen some posts from folks I follow in a number of different fandoms doing a bit of an end-of-the-year writing roundup, and I really like that idea, so here we are. 

I’ve been fannish for a long time now - over 20 years at this point, which is more than a little terrifying to consider, let me tell you. But my fannish writing has been very intermittent over those years for the most part, and my participation in fandom was relatively narrow, particularly when I was working on my PhD. Through 2014 I wrote, on average, one fanwork a year for the previous 5 years, as usually I could be counted upon to participate in at least one A Song of Ice and Fire and/or Game of Thrones fanfic exchange, but not much beyond that. I also wrote a smattering of fic prior to 2009, much of it lost to the ages besides some random pieces I managed to get up on AO3. (I really need to take some time to go back and properly back-date those older works, oof. And dig up a few more on LJ communities that I couldn’t find when I did my original looking, if I can.)

But in the past year and a half or so I’ve come back to fandom in a much more enthusiastic way than I have since I was a teenager, thanks to falling hard for the Dragon Age games and then faceplanting into Once Upon a Time fandom. And in the past seven months I’ve written if not a lot of fic, definitely more than I have in a long, long time. It’s been a trip, in both good and bad ways, but I’m glad to be doing it.

The master list in chronological order with brief commentary:

Always Already (Dragon Age: Inquisition) Incomplete Planned eventual M rating, nothing above T in the current chapter tumblr link, AO3 link, 6025 words The Academic Conference AU that started it all this summer. I just could not let this headcanon go until I wrote this first chapter. I haven’t touched it since then for a variety of reasons, but even if I never get back to it I’m pleased with the chapter that exists and it got me back writing. It’s meant to be a massive DA:I ensemble AU, with this particular multi-chapter story involving some eventual Female Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford, but mostly I just want to finish this particular arc so I can just write snippets in the AU every time I need to say something cathartic about working at a university.

Hunger (Dragon Age: Origins) Rated G, Gen, Alistair & Female Brosca friendship tumblr link, AO3 link, 1835 words A short, introspective piece about one of my Dragon Age OCs. When you grow up without enough food, hungry all the time, what happens when the effects of blood magic make you even hungrier? Natia thinks about her life and her choices and finds common ground with her fellow Grey Warden.

Before a Fall (Game of Thrones) Mature, Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen, GoT 6x09 post-ep scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 2698 words Written for the Game of Ships Seven Hells Challenge based off of the prompt “Pride”. I watched 6x09 on the Sunday night when it aired and swooned over Yara and Dany’s interaction. I wrote this intimate encounter the following Monday evening in one sitting. I ship Iron Dragon so very, very much. This fic took only about a month to become my most commented and kudosed fic ever on AO3, and I’m pretty happy with it.

Savior Fair - Princess (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Captain Swan tumblr link, AO3 link, 2501 words My first OUAT fic, based on the August 2016 OUAT positivity challenge that tlynnwords put together. (I put all my pieces for this in a single work on AO3 called Savior Fair, since they’re Emma-centric.) Fluffy CS pillow talk set post-S5 before I’d much looked at S6 spoilers. I like this fic’s premise and flow, but I totally missed the mark with Emma’s voice in it. Her voice is tough for me, but I think I’m getting better.

Savior Fair - Smile (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, SwanFire tumblr link, AO3 link, 938 words My goal with the OUAT positivity fics was to focus on the best parts of Emma’s relationships with other characters. I think Neal is a fascinating character (and though I don’t ship SF, I’ve been a fan of Michael Raymond-James for a long time and I think he brings a lot of interesting nuance to the guy) and I think a lot about the time they spent together and what it would have meant to 17 year old Emma to have someone smile at her and mean it.

Savior Fair - Heart (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Captain Swan, 4x12 missing scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 1274 words I needed a scene to bridge the gap between the conclusion to the showdown in the clock tower and Emma replacing Killian’s heart in his chest. Just a little feels-laden ficlet. (Apparently the original script had a line in the latter scene with Emma saying she felt strange holding his heart, and Killian replying that she’s already held it for ages, though I didn’t know that until after I wrote this bit, and it tends in a similar direction.)

Savior Fair - Trust (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Emma & Milah, 5x14 missing scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 1647 words The last of the positivity prompts I got to (August is a tough time with the semester beginning, so much for my ambitions) and the one of which I’m the most proud. I have A Lot of Feelings about Milah and the way she’s treated in a many corners of OUAT fandom, and I’m still really mad about 5x14. Emma and Milah needed more time to talk. So they mostly talk about what they have in common. (And, honestly, Killian is only a small part of their similarities.) I am certain they would be friends, given the chance.

Steadfast (A Song of Ice and Fire) Rated T, Stannis Baratheon/Davos Seaworth, canon divergence/future fic AO3 link, 4071 words I did three fanfiction exchanges due in September this year, and I wrote this fic for thedevilchicken for the Game of Thrones exchange. Despite the name, this one is open to both book-verse and show-verse fics, and this one is an AU of the former. For some reason I seem to really like writing Stannis-as-king future AUs with a Davos POV, and nothing says Stannis/Davos loyalty than a retelling of a shockingly sad Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a broken toy that is loyal to his distant and unattainable love until he’s melted into scrap. (Spoiler alert: This version has a happier ending.)

Distracted (Dragon Age) Explicit, Anders/Karl Thekla AO3 link, 3094 words Smutty roleplaying with spanking written for green_sphynx for The Black Emporium, a Dragon Age rarepair exchange. Playful and porny PWP set sometime well before everything was terrible in Dragon Age 2.

Starstruck (Agent Carter/Doctor Who) Rated G, Gen, Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble, Peggy Carter & Angie Martinelli tumblr link, AO3 link,  3425 words Written for Grey_Cardinal for the Crossovering exchange. Ten and Donna cause a bit of a scene at the restaurant where Angie works. I quite like the premise of this fic and it was fun to write, though I really ought to have come up with more for Peggy to do in it.

Spectator Sport (Once Upon a Time) Rated G, Gen, Hooked Queen friendship, future fic tumblr link, AO3 link, 1063 words After having a really crummy day a few months back, I asked for some fic prompts (pairings and a word/idea) to take my mind off it and my lovely friends delivered. This is just a little vague future fic based on mryddinwilt’s prompt for Hooked Queen + parenting. However much they viciously snark at one another, I think they understand one another pretty well, too. And the mental image of them enduring discomfort to watch Henry’s high school soccer game was too good to pass up.

Wrapping (Game of Thrones) Rated T,  Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen, University AU tumblr link, AO3 link, 1379 words Written for the Game of Ships “Until Hell Freezes Over” holiday/winter-themed event. I’m actually the advisor for a service learning club at my university, and those valiant students get run ragged as they try to finish up the term and also do good for their communities. Somehow I imagine that Dany would be that kind of overachiever, and Yara would just as clearly be her dubious but devoted girlfriend. I’ve been leery before of writing student AUs because I’m a teacher and it feels a bit odd, but I liked this AU a lot and might come back to it for writing more Iron Dragon because I’m sure canon is going to be a shit-show next season.

Clarity (Lucifer) Rated T, Gen, Linda Martin & Mazikeen friendship, 2x07 missing scene AO3 link, 2785 words I participated in Yuletide for the first time this year (yes, I know, I’ve somehow been in fandom for-freaking-ever and never done it before) and I matched on one of my newish fandom delights, Lucifer. Though this fandom is growing and probably won’t be eligible next year, sign-ups were before most of the season had aired, and my recipient, Lenore, requested Linda and Maze having a conversation about Heaven and Hell. Well, without getting too deep in to spoiler territory, canon pretty definitively implied that such a conversation occurred sometime between 2x07 and 2x08, so I decided it needed writing. Linda is my favorite character on Lucifer, and Maze is an utter gift. Writing this was a bit stressful (I was making last-minute edits the night before reveals from a hotel room) but I’m happy to have written it and received some lovely comments from folks, including the recipient.

So, all told, per my AO3 stats page I wrote 32,736 words of fanfic this year, which is far more than I’ve ever written in a year before. I also am starting to get a grip on what my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer, which is pretty wild but also motivating. My general approach to writing has long been “use deadlines as motivation, panic at the last minute, write frantically, throw it at the world like a grenade and take cover” and while I’m a good enough writer for that not to be as terrible as it sounds, I know I could be a lot better if I continue to change my approach to writing and write more frequently and steadily. Honestly, because I’m an academic by trade, this applies to my professional writing as well, and fanfic is good practice for me to refine my writing habits, which have vastly improved this year, even if they’re still not where I want them to be in the end. Here’s hoping I can keep it up in 2017.

[wingsoverbros]

"Lost and Found - please check with security for misplaced objects" or “My thoughts on SPN 13.01”

A new day, a new season.

Welcome back, folks. It's been a fairly quiet hiatus, thankfully, peppered with a small number of happy spoilers to help raise the low moods left by the season 12 finale and a rather unhappy offline summer for many (1, 2,  3, 4). Here's hoping that the rest of this year goes better, both in Supernatural and in our everyday lives.

As with last year, I'll be linking the episodes here at the top. Since this is the Premier, well just go right into it.

For previous episodes - Season 12 - Season 13: 13.01

Now, on to Supernatural 13.01 - "Lost And Found”

Not many shows run quite as long as Supernatural has. Considering its age and the number of times the people in charge of the story have changed, its not that surprising that some of the show elements have an air of "been there, done that" to them. It takes an exceedingly clever or talented writer to spin a show this old in a new (but good) direction. Although Dabb is not a horrible show-runner/writer, he's not the greatest, either. The premier episode definitely has a blend of recycled ideas and themes, but hopefully, they can learn their lessons from the mistakes of previous attempts and make something decent out of it.

In a show as old as Supernatural, especially one that runs via long dramatic story arcs, it's perhaps inevitable that plot elements and monster tendencies will begin to repeat themselves. Supernatural makes its seasons run on the idea of the unknown "Big Bad", and have had the "no one has ever seen this before" type of monster several times in recent years. This year seems to have the possibility of at least 3 headliner monsters in the season, with only one of them introduced in the premiere episode. Interestingly, Jack doesn't seem to be that bad, like a much more innocent and friendly version of Amara. Both grew at an accelerated rate, aging rapidly in both physical and mental development, although the fact that Jack didn't have to eat the souls of innocent bystanders to do so pushes him a bit farther into the "potential Good Guy" range then Amara was, in my opinion.

The episode attempted to capitalize on the "is he evil or isn't he" by giving us a scene reminiscent of another scene in season 7. From the music, the lighting, the set-up preceding the scene and the fact that it was a sheriff walking through a deserted location to find the others, I half expected for Jack to have eaten the son of the Sheriff. I'm glad that instead, we found them engaged in a much more innocent candy binge, reminding me instead of Jack's connection to his fan favorite uncle. I can only assume this was intentional, an attempt to throw watchers off balance. Will Jack become more like the characters we dislike, like the Leviathan of season 7? Will he be more like his Great-aunt Amara, who redeemed herself, but was still hell to deal with? Or will he be more like his Uncle Gabriel and Uncle (and apparently foster-father) Castiel, who can be a little hard on the local population on occasion but still have their best interests at heart?

When we first got news about how they were going to write Jack as a pivot point of a character, I must admit to not holding out much hope for the character. They tried to do a neutral character before with Amara, but the way they wrote her made her more of a weird bad guy then a neutral character. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how they handled Jack in this first episode. He definitely gives off more of the characteristics of Kelly and Cas then he does of Lucifer. It makes me wonder how Lucifer was before the mark was placed on his arm. Could he have been similar to Cas?

The previous documented Nephilim, when attacked, showed signs of being more powerful then a fully-powered Angel. She was, however, vulnerable to a common angel blade. Jack seems to be invulnerable to your common angel blade, as well as being (mostly) immune to banishment. The anti-banishment reaction makes sense, as you can't banish a human and Jack is half of one. Jack being pushed over and overwhelmed with glowing veins was an interesting effect, though. His total lack of reaction to being turned into a kabob did give me pause, but it isn't that much of a stretch, if you take into account his decent from an Archangel. Gabriel made a big deal out his own personal blade being capable of killing him, and Cas stabbing Luci with his rank-and-file angel blade only really ticked him off. Jack being part Archangel would make him resistant to almost everything, short of a few select items (Archangel blade, Michael's Lance while intact, and perhaps the Colt if the human side is vulnerable.) The episode Nephilim details work, but do have the unintended effect of putting a dent in fan-canon in regards to Jane's parentage. It's far more likely, given her subsequent death from a rank-and-file Seraphim blade, that her celestial parent was also a rank-and-file member of the Host.

I was interested in the fact they're portraying him as having fairly clear neo-natal memories and consciousness. The idea that humans (or partial humans) might have some form of concrete consciousness and personality at some point before birth is usually ignored by most mass media programs, probably due the the fact that it's a touchstone in the usually very contentious fights surrounding pregnancy and choice. No one wants to get involved in that yelling match. I wonder where they'll go with that, and how soon they drop that aspect? It was a neat way to bypass the learning phase, and a great way to explain how come he's so clearly influenced by Cas, since Cas is only distantly related genetically.

Speaking of choices, I find it endearing (and a little sad) that Jack had decided pre-birth to reassign his role of "Father" to Cas, rather then his actual genetic contributor. It'd make sense, as Cas would be far more likely to protect and guide him without trying to use him for his own gain then Lucifer would be. Cas being constantly around during the end of the pregnancy would also make Jack more likely to impress on him like a baby duck. I find myself wondering what would have happened if Kelly had been around the guys more. Would Jack be more or less trusting of the guys? For that matter, what will Jack's newfound connection to Cas do to how he and the guys interact? (And where is he gonna sleep in the bunker? Will he get to stay in room 15 (the room assigned to Mary or Cas, whenever either is there), or is Dean gonna be kinda touchy about Cas's things for a while?) And what will happen when Cas comes back?

Over the seasons, Cas has been treated a variety of ways, depending on the season, plot-line and writer. Much of the time, sadly, the treatment has been on the negative side of neutral. The most dramatic difference in how Cas has been treated is actually displayed in a similar situation to this episode. In season 7, Cas was in a similar situation: He'd gone off without the guys on a self-determined path, and made choices under the influences of an outside party. This path lead to his death both times.

In season 7, the show-runners had decided, much like now, to strip all the immediate backup from the guys. (The fact that they later killed Bobby for the same reason makes me doubly glad that Jody in attached to the attempted Spin-off.) At that time, they had little regard for Cas or the fanbase that is so attached to him, so their attempt to get rid of him was rather clumsy. It paid little attention to the idea of maintaining the characterization of either Cas or the guys during the arc, and was wholly unsatisfying, especially as the season dragged on and the other plot elements proved unworkable and uninteresting. The series and the characters suffered, and the season is now considered a low point in the series history.

This season, although a similar situation has been set up, the show-runners seem to have taken a bit of a clue from the fanbase reaction. Throughout the arc, Cas has been carefully portrayed as a good guy, having only the well-being of humanity at heart. Everyone so far has been in character, and even the unknown potential bad guy as being portrayed as a fan of Cas. They even learned from the season 7 fan backlash about the lack of information, ignoring the inevitable plot spoiler that was accidentally spilled by Jared and including some small amount of detail in the interviews about what would be happening to Cas. Although they could definitely do better (not killing him in the first place, for one. Not being all "well, you never know" to the fanbase at first, either.), they still have done better then the poorly-advised actions the show-runners engaged in that horrible summer.

Hopefully, Jack proves to be an interesting character and story arc, and the stress that Cas and the fanbase have gone through this summer are worth it. But then, very little could be worse the the Leviathan and the endless dick jokes of season 7.

I notice that over the years, Dean has initiated a surprisingly large collection of law enforcement buddies into the hunter community, and inherited a few more. I thought back over the list, and was amused to realize that unlike the show at large, the members of this collection were more likely to be alive if they're female. The bystander this evening, Sheriff Barker, seemed to me to be modeled of of the example set by Jody Mills - No nonsense, compassionate, parental, and able to take shocks and surprises with little ruffling. I'm glad she survived, and I hope her son does as well. I look forward to watching to see if she pops up in the future, either here or in "Wayward Sisters". Heaven knows, Jody and Donna could probably use some help from fellow law enforcement. They don't have the advantage the guys have of being able to run and hide if caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The three angels in the episode actually formed a spectrum example of all the angels in the series. I was pleased by the sympathetic angel, as the show has previously put forward that there weren't any angels sympathetic to Cas's plight left in heaven anymore. I really hope she lives. I can stand to lose the Angry Angel, though. Of the two negative angels, the second one confused the hell out of me. I could see her drunk rant about Becky being a ruse to get close to Dean and all, but the fact she continued the rant after revealing her identity implied that her obsessive rant was real. Why would an angel be all bitchy about a college roommate? Did she spend season 9 hiding in her vessal's collegiate experience? If so, she clearly didn't have a good time.With her, the demon riding Channing in season 8, and Brady in season 5, I wonder how many supernatural creatures hide by taking over a college student, and how many explain away the personality changes from the take-over by blaming stress or mental heath issues?

The funeral pier was a sad but lovely scene, everything we wanted and never got back when 7.02 aired. Sam's small speech to Jack about what you say to those you lose was heartwarming, as was Jack's earnest inquiry. The look on Dean's face, though, was heartbreaking. He was lighting the pier for someone who was one of the closest people to him he's every had, outside of Sam and his parents, someone who saved him when he couldn't save himself and promptly began a lifetime of suffering for it, someone who repeatedly gave everything he had for Dean and his family, and someone who always came back before. This time, to his knowledge, he's not coming back, and there's nothing Dean can do to fix it.

I must commend Jensen Ackles for his acting in this scene and the episode as a whole. His slow unraveling during the episode was just what I hoped for after the shock of the last 5 minutes of 12.23 wore off. He definitely made it feel like the loss of Cas was one of the major factors for Dean's responses (while not discounting the equally stressful strain of Mary's probable death), but still remaining true to the characters tendency to bottle up his emotions. It also felt like a logical and cohesive continuation of the final reactions of last season. He has my admiration.

Other observations:

In past years, whenever they had an issue, they'd contact Bobby. Once he passed and the series calmed down, they'd contact first Garth and then Cas. For the last few seasons, it's been Jody they called. It's official, Jody is the new Bobby. And boy, am I glad they assigned her to the potential Spin-off series, considering what all has happened to most of the others they tended to call.

I was rather amused that Dean referred to Jack as "Damien". It fits his love of pop culture (I was rather surprised he didn't do it last season), and it has been my favorite name for Lucifer Jr for a while.

Supernatural has a bad habit of inserting cliffhanger scenes in big episodes. This one was no different, with them inserting a scene of Lucifer toying with Mary in the dusty alternative apocalypse world. Unfortunately, the question I find myself wrestling with is not "What is Luci planning to do with Mary?" The question occupying my attention is actually "Do I care?"

The season 13 premier involves a lot of recycled elements and themes, but it has potential. The episode itself was fairly decent, especially in comparison to the season 12 finale. Whether they can take the potential the episode showed and run with it or end up letting it crash and burn is yet to be seen. (I thought 7.01 had a great deal of potential too, and we saw how the rest of that season turned it into crud.) Hopefully, Dabb, Singer and company learn from the show's past mistakes and the upcoming season ends up closer to the top of the "good season" list then the bottom.