#spn don't call me shurley

[runawaydr3amerao3]

@brosinlove no you may not just leave the rest in your tags I won't allow it

Dean trying to breathe in the fog so he could go down with Sam too.

[monstermoviedean]

chuck should have played one of the fan fiction musical songs on his guitar

[shirtlesssammy]

Dean Winchester every day -- 238/326

Supernatural 11x20//Don't Call Me Shurley

[pranzill]

Ok, so. I received an ask that I really really really wanted to asnswer but life happened and I procrastinated (a lot). Some other asks got piled after that and now I want to answer them all, but tumblr hates me and the draft I created yeaterday for the first answer was unfortunately deleted, it was 2 am and I gave up.

Dear anonymous you asked to choose a pic from my gallery and share a hc/ficlet never explored before, and here it is.

--------

The door in Dean's room opened, and Sam's head tentatively peeped out: "Hey."

"Hey."

Dean could tell Sam would've preferred not finding him there, from his expression, so he quickly asked, guiltily: "You came here for this? I had to put it in a matchbox cause it keeps glowing...I guess with Chuck here and all..."

He knew Sam came there to collect the amulet he now was selfishly keeping without permission.

"Yeah. Uh...it's just, I got so used to it, I panicked when I didn't feel it in my pocket, two minutes ago. Then I rembered you kept it."

"You want it back?" Dean braced for the yes that was to come.

"Back?" Sam asked, astonished. "Dude, it was never mine in the first place."

Dean's shown his surprise, but he hid it quickly, fingers twitching around the matchbox, in time with Sam's lips, which pulled up, crooked, in the attempt of a smile.

Dean casted his eyes to the floor, contrite. "I threw it away." He mumbled, as he was reasoning to himself, disbelieving.

"Mh...I remember."

Sam went to sit next to him on the edge of the bed. They stayed like that in silence for a little while, then: "I know this doesn't mean anything, y'know."

Dean shook lightly the matchbox and then opened it, letting the white light flew out, landing softly on every form, caressing them.

"I don't have to rely on this to know that you're my brother, that you'll be there for me and I, for you."

Sam nodded, waiting, captured.

"But I regretted throwing it away. The next instant, Sammy, believe me. I did it with so much spite, I guess, I just aimed to hurt you in that moment. And then I...couldn't come back from that. I know this doesn't make you feel better. Sorry doesn't even cut it."

Dean closed the amulet back in the box and the room seemed suddenly too dark.

"But you picked it up and...man, you kept it for so long that...I can't..."

"I know. We've hurt each other a lot during that time...we still do sometimes."

Dean lifted his head and watched Sam, looking desperate, as he was begging no, don't say it like that, with just his green eyes, widened. But Sam, who was just being honest and direct, ignored his silent plee:

"I'd like you to have it back. I kept it for so long, only for you in the end...I don't know, hoping something, I guess. Some day like this...Heh."

"I don't think I deserve to wear it anymore." Dean said in a heartbeat, knowing inside his bones, that was the truth.

"Then don't. You don't have to. But don't give it to me, please. You can throw it away if it's really useless now. It won't hurt this time if I know you're doing it with the right purpose. I promise."

Sam had only mercy to offer, and Dean was a coward, a penitent from hell, and just wanted to take it all, constantly fearing the lack of it.

"I could never. No, not again."

"Then just...here." Sam closed his hands over Dean's, over the tiny matchbox. "It's yours, again. Heh." Sam's nervous little laugh was becoming too recurrent and Dean stirred under his fingers, fighting the craving to kiss it away.

He averted his eyes, away from their hands, from Sam. Moving his mouth to hide his chin trembling, he said: "I remember when you gave it to me Sammy. if I think of it..."

He shook his head and looked back at their joined hands, one over the other, over the amulet, bearer of the infinite promises between them. Dean had longed for it more than once, more than once excruciatingly beating himself up for leaving it behind.

Dean took a few ragged breath, than just lost it, letting a stray pair of tears fall, no sense in keeping them secret anymore.

"I never meant to despise...what we had. We just had each other back then, you remember? That didn't change. Tell me I'm not the only one that feels like that."

Sam's response came without hesitations: "You're not the only one. Dean. You can have it, okay? Don't think otherwise, 'cause I don't. I always wanted you to have it."

"I'm not losing it again. Promise."

But he never lost the amulet in the first place. Faith. In Sam. In the two of them, against the world. Now he could see, how many times Sam had to lose himself instead, to gain Dean's faith in him back.

"Yeah, yeah. I believe you."

They stayed like that. Their heads leaning one towards the other, eating the space left between them, foreheads almost touching, hands entwined. But it was a fast beat, a flutter of eyelids and it was gone. They needed to hit the lore, now. They had a god -The God- to take care of.

-----------

They never gave us in canon a satisfying confrontation about the amulet when Dean finds finally out that Sam had it in his pocket all that "damn time".

This ficlet is a coda to Don't call me Shurley (and I absolutely not cried rewatching A very Supernatural Christmas just yestarday, so...).

This is not really a hc I never explored before, but one I never wrote about this much before, and it's very dear to me.

What better occasion to share it than Sammy's birthday.

[runawaydr3amerao3]

And then 10 years later, he does the same thing when Sam's been overcome by the Darkness's fog. He realises he can't save Sam, so he steels himself and takes a deep, deliberate breath of the stuff, because one thing never changes: If it's Sam's time, it's Dean's time too.

gotta say, fave wincest moment off the top of my head has got to be that season 2 episode where sam's ostensibly got a highly infectious disease that's gonna make him a monster and dean just... locks himself in a room with him, ostensibly waiting for them to die together.

[mittensmorgul]

this exchange from 11.20 explains every last one of chuck's motivations in s15 (and in the entire series, honestly)

METATRON: You want to sell the best-selling autobiography of all time? You explain to me – Tell me why you abandoned me. Us.

CHUCK: Because you disappointed me. You all disappointed me.

METATRON: (Stands up and looks at CHUCK with wet eyes.) No, look. I know I'm a disappointment, but you're wrong about humanity. They are your greatest creation because they're better than you are.

It rankles, because it's TRUE. Because Chuck might've pushed the Go Button on creation, may have nudged it here and there at his whims, but I'm still not sure he intended to "create" free will. And it's almost like his "punishments" for "disobedience" to his narrative are specifically tailored to try and crush any hope or art or dreams or love out of humanity. Because those are not just things that are "human" things as Hannah once told Cas, but specifically the things that make humanity better than Chuck himself. Because it took *humans* to invent them. Chuck just took them for himself, and never actually understood or *learned* from any of it.

Metatron *did* learn. We all know Cas learned. Later on, Anael will begin to learn. Even Amara dove headfirst into the wonder and experience of creation after forgiving Chuck for locking her away. But Chuck? He never has to face himself that way. He never relents or repents or grows or changes, just finds new and innovative ways to put his characters into situations to punish them for their supposed failure. And then turns it around on them and blames HIS issues on anyone and everyone else, as if that was proof of his thesis.

And he couldn't get his "win" until he could convince his characters to just stop fighting back.

(and 15.19 was proof of concept)

[icamehereformidam]

Chuck has a "worlds greatest dad" mug😭😭😭😭😭 mate put that AWAYY

[samepisodebracket]

Round 1; Group 17

[girls-gays-theys]

THE MUG?? HELLO??? world's greatest dad MY ASS

[monstermoviedean]

i've only seen dean ironing with beer out of context and to me it seems like something he is only doing to intentionally annoy sam. not a commentary on his ironing abilities.

[castiellesbian]

Robbie Thompson:

7.06 Slash Fiction

7.12 Time After Time

7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo

8.04 Bitten

8.11 LARP and the Real Girl

8.17 Goodbye Stranger

8.20 Pac-Man Fever

9.04 Slumber Party

9.11 First Born

9.18 Meta Fiction

10.05 Fan Fiction

10.11 There's No Place Like Home

10.18 Book of the Damned

10.20 Angel Heart

11.04 Baby

11.11 Into the Mystic

11.16 Safe House

11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley

Eric Kripke:

1.01 Pilot

1.02

1.09 Home

1.16 Shadow

1.22 Devil's Trap

2.01 In My Time of Dying

2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two

3.01 The Magnificent Seven

3.16 No Rest for the Wicked

4.01 Lazarus Rising

4.10 Heaven and Hell

4.22 Lucifer Rising

5.01 Sympathy for the Devil

5.09 The Real Ghostbusters

5.22 Swan Song

6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much

[ananke-xiii]

There's a line from s11e20 "Don't call me Shurley" that got stuck into my little nogging and it's when Chuck tells Metatron "You were just the closest angel to the door when I walked into the room".

Now assuming that Chuck is a lying liar who lies I still like this line because it says way more about Chuck than about Metatron. Then Chuck goes on and delivers his cheap shot: "There's nothing special about you, Metatron. Not then… not now".

(Little aside: AND THEN Amara comes in a few episodes later and calls Metatron "The secretary"?! I mean, how can people not love her? Yes, she might have eaten a few souls so what? Sue her! He brother has eliminated WORLDS because Dean wouldn't bend the knee to him, who's the crazy sibling, huh? *insert a meta about Dean only willing to bend the knee to Cas in Purgatory and all the entendres intended*).

Anyway, for all his pettiness and shrewdness (Metatron is a great villain and I will die on this hill), Metatron replies with surprising grace:

"And I don't care if I was just the angel nearest the door. You picked me. Your light shined on me – Me! Oh, and the warmth. But then you left me. You left all of us."

My little fragile heart trembled a little to these words because... well, it's like the OG trauma, isn't it? To be chosen by your parents, to be loved unconditionally, to be somebody's favorite person... Oh, the warmth.

And so it hit me, I finally saw why I love SPN's angels so much. They are ALL (Cas included) a bunch of children screaming and kicking their feet because they want to be loved, thinking that if they follow their orders, if they fulfill their duties they will be loved.

They are all Lucifer minus the action and the mark.

These are Chuck's words to soothe Lucifer in "We Happy Few": I did. I was supposed to love all creation equally. I wasn’t supposed to have favorites. But you… You were mine. I gave you the Mark because I loved you the most, because I thought you were strong enough to bear it. And when I saw that I was wrong… When I watched my choice devour my most cherished son, I hated myself, and so I punished you. And I am so sorry."

Yes, Chuck is a lying liar who lies. Maybe he chose Lucifer because he was the one closest to the door. Who knows? Chuck doesn't care. Every angel's deepest desire is to be loved by God, to be the chosen one, to be his favorite. Which is both sad and... human? I guess it's a tragedy from the human perspective but maybe the human perspective is limited.

I don't really like the finale with Jack as God for a variety of reasons but, conceptually, the idea of a half-angel and half-human (Kelly Kline you will NOT be forgotten) becoming god is not that bad (Hello Jesus!). Especially if the half-angel part is theoretically (well in pratice too but I mean biology what amirite?)Lucifer's. Because, as Sam says in "We Happy Few": I-I can’t believe I’m actually about to say this, but… um. Lucifer is right.

At the end of the day, SPN as a narrative, did, in a very convoluted and maybe unintentional way, agree with Lucifer.

Like, Lucifer was right. And I know that if we put on our morality glasses Lucifer is evil incarnate etc but honestly? By the same lensens, the whole heavenly host is kinda evil. They ALL (Cas included) did a lot of pretty horrible stuff. All the horror and the pain for a God that doesn't care.

So I guess what should have been explored in Dabb's era was not so much nurture vs nature but more "what does it mean to be half-angel?" 'Cause really, ALL angels are a little bit like Lucifer. And if no angel really represents "good" what are we, humans, left with? Does the question "nurture vs nature" even make sense?

There's really nothing SPECIAL about any of us, humans, angels, demons, monsters. We ALL want to just be chosen and loved unconditionally. It turns out angels are not that different from humans, aren't they?

[doctorprofessorsong]

Destiel Fic Recs

Some more recs for your reading pleasure. This one is AU heavy, so enjoy the feast if that's what you crave.

First Response to Love by Briston and Whitster_lizzy @whitster-lizzy (Explicit, 98k)

This crack taken seriously rom com is an absolute delight. You will be giggling the entire time at this one.

Cas is stuck in a dead end reporter job at a failing station in the unfortunately or hilariously (depending on your level of middle school humor) named town of Uranus.

When Cas' cat gets stuck in a tree, his panicked call results in the fire department (and half of emergency services) showing up - including his wet-dream-slash-crush Dean Winchester. He recognizes Dean from a charity calendar, and he may be just a smidge obsessed with him. Like owns a bunch of merch with his picture obsessed. But what he doesn’t know is Dean also has a massive crush on Castiel. Like an embarrassing, watch DVR recordings of the man over and over crush. Dean manages to get it together enough to ask Cas to report on a public safety measure and what follows is a very public and adorable courtship that just might save the station.

Expect mutual disaster idiots, lots and lots of humor and a delightful cast of residents. But also this fic has an underlying softness that will have you unable to put it down. Also, a developing friendship between Balthazar, Gabriel and Crowley that is the best thing that has happened to me personally in a long time.

Seriously, it's a delight.

Linden by fleeceframe @tasteslikevelvet (Explicit, 76k)

Look, fleeceframe has this incredible ability to write gorgeous, gentle stories that take apart your heart like a 500 piece puzzle and put it back together. This one is both particularly soft and particularly beautiful.

A fairytale AU, this tells the story of Cas, a shy and lonely honey merchant who falls in love with one of the Swans, local celebrities, who as a result of a curse, turn into swans. There are wings. There is gorgeous worldbuilding. But most importantly, there is just this gorgeous love story between two very lonely men who feel invisible.

They don't just accept each other, they cherish each other. It’s gorgeous.

The Handyman's Special by Carrieosity @carrieosity (Explicit, 51k)

If you want a good laugh, this is the fic for you. I was cracking up the ENTIRE time.

Dean, a professor with minimal construction experience and a shoddy home inspection, buys a fixer upper that's more like a money pit. But he can’t face the "I told you so" from Sam, so he hires a contractor in secret. And then to keep that secret, he lies and says the contractor, Cas, is his boyfriend.

What follows is a disaster-Dean rom com with a lot of heart. The angst never gets too angsty. It's fun and sweet and hilarious.

Too Hot To Hunt by Englandwouldfall (Teen, 19k)

A canon fix-it case fic that reverses the fuck or die trope. Dean and Cas encounter a monster that attacks couples during intimacy. Which means two things: 1. Dean has to reveal to his brother that he and Cas have been an item since he came back, and 2. Dean and Cas may have to use their words instead of hiding behind sexual intimacy. So that’s not awkward at all.

This one is just immensely satisfying, digging into all of the things that make Dean and Cas so bad at communicating. It's soft, awkward, and mildly angsty in the best way.

Jurassicatural by anyrei and queerwerewolf @anyreiart @queerwerewolf @the-real-anywolf (Explicit, 34k)

A delightful mashup of Jurassic Park and SPN, this one is just really fun. Chuck Shurley had created a new theme park for long extinct monsters, but his investors have one requirement before opening: sign-off from experts on the creatures.

Enter the Winchester brothers, a Paleontologist and Paleobotanist, and Dr. Cas Novak, Historian. But life finds a way and so does trouble.

In addition to just being fun, this one features an instant obsession between Destiel that is really fun to watch, a delightfully moody Claire, a sunny Jack and some really fun monsters.

Fata morgana by orange_crushed (Teen, 6.6k)

This is a short read but woof. It really packs a punch. A canon adjacent story in Hell told from the perspective of Bela Talbot, it's the kind of fic that will make you want to munch on the shower door.

There's an angel in Hell and Bela is going to find him. The angel? Cas seeking out Dean, the King of Hell.

This one plays with the lore in an extremely satisfying way. It's justice for Bela, though not in a saccharine sweet way, and also some really lovely Cas stuff.

A Demon Like Him by EllenOfOz @ellen-of-oz (Explicit, 24k)

If you are looking for some fun worldbuilding, this fic has you. Set in a world powered by magic, Dean is on the cusp of graduating and becoming a warlock. It's everything his father has ever wanted…and now he has to admit nothing he actually wants. Dean is determined to fail the final exam - to summon and bind himself to a demon - so that he can finally be free. Unfortunately for Dean, he fails at failing and instead summons an incubus, Castiel.

This one has some gorgeous nods to canon and it's simply a fun, sizzling read. The angst isn't too angsty. Cas is basically a sex God. It’s good, dirty fun. On top of that, Dean and Cas have some absolutely gorgeous soft moments.

Dark Side of the Moon by imogenbynight @thevioletcaptain (Mature, 37k)

An astronaut AU similar in some aspects to the Martian: after Dean's crew is killed in an accident on the moon, he's left alone and traumatized. Cas volunteers to help retrieve him, but can they make it in time and what will they find when they get there?

This one has a nice balance of horror elements, trauma, and humor. It also has just really likeable cast of characters. Even though you know it will all end well, there are some delightfully tense moments and the immediate bond between Cas and Dean is a delight.

See my other fic recs on my new sideblog @riversrecs

Tag list

@varlysca @naturallyathief @greatbigbugger @fandoms-and-things @cascodedtech @you-cant-spell-subtext-without @deanwasalwaysbi @fellshish @valleydean @raspberry-tooth @the15yearhatecrime @sunglassesmish

[unhinged-jackles]

SPN Best Episode per Season

Masterpost

reblog for sample size

[ardentpoop]

if you're still answering these, my fave episodes are don't call me shurley, the monster at the end of this book, our father who aren't in heaven, unity, as time goes by, baby, simon said, and tall tales. I gave you a million sorry. also you're one of the coolest spn blogs on tumblr as a btw!!

love the range here very interesting choices

non-shipper/primarily invested in brother bonding. perhaps started out as a d/c shipper or is only casually interested in it sometimes.

really likes chuck as a character and as a storytelling device (disagrees with people who hate the meta episodes)

enjoys all or most of the time travel episodes

prefers the mid-to-late seasons over the early seasons in terms of atmosphere and entertainment value

no strong preference between the brothers (which most likely means you have an unexamined dean bias)

open to consuming a variety of fan perspectives rather than sticking to a particular pocket of fandom

favorite season is s11

also thank you 💞

[dothwrites]

i'm gonna say it now: don't call me shurley is possibly one of the best spn episodes ever filmed. i just LOVE this episode. I don't know whether it's the turn of metatron from villain to unlikely hero, the revelation (we done knew) of chuck as god, rob singing 'fare thee well' or just the "everybody lives" vibe at the very end of the episode but... it's a damn good episode. it's DAMN good

supernatural's obsession with the author and the author's intent and then the death of the author is really something. first we had chuck, and then metatron, and then chuck again. and i can't help but think that this theme came about because of the fanbase and their determination to make "the secret good supernatural"

in about twenty minutes of screentime, rob benedict and robbie thompson did more for theology than centuries worth of clergy members.

"i've rebuilt castiel more times than i can count and look where that got me" chuck knew that he needed a love interest for dean, so he had to keep on rebuilding cas

rob is SUCH a good actor. he's just a liddol guy and YET somehow he manages to be menacing to EVERYONE "you were just the closest angel to the door" is perhaps the cruelest thing god could have ever said to metatron. and damn you robbie for making me feel FEELINGS about metatron

metatron's speech about humanity is a MASTERPIECE. had you asked me pre 'don't call me shurley' i could have confidently informed you that there was no WAY i was ever going to feel anything except seething hatred towards him. but he delivers his speech about humanity and disappointment, and you remember that he was actually on earth for thousands of years, reading all of our stories, and yeah, maybe he did find something to appreciate during that time. well done robbie thompson and well done curtis armstrong because that's a MASTERFULLY delivered monologue.

the final montage really is delivering "just this once rose... just this once, EVERYBODY lives!" vibes. especially when you see the deputy and her husband reuniting. that's a kindness that supernatural hardly ever gives us and i have to wonder if robbie did it because he already knew he was on his way out.