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2024 Year in Review

In the Year of Our SPN Obsession 2024, I once again wrote a lot of fic. I hope you enjoyed reading some of it, or that you will check out some of these works now that we're leaving the collective insanity of this year behind. I loved writing every single one of these stories and cherished the opportunity to collaborate with so many incredible artists. Here's to doing it all again in 2025!

Monsters and Men (50,783 words)

Summary: With Dad dead and Azazel out of the picture, Dean has been feeling depressed and directionless. Sam is pushing them from hunt to hunt, but Dean is starting to wonder what it’s all for.

When a shapeshifter case takes them to a small town in North Carolina, life takes a sudden turn for the better. The shapeshifter has been impersonating Castiel Novak, a handsome employee at the local science museum who has Dean thinking unusual thoughts about dating and settling down.

But Dean soon discovers that nothing about this case is straightforward. Getting to the truth will mean challenging his most deeply held assumptions — and discovering the true meaning of love.

With art by @seidenapfel

The Christmas Angel (7,534 words)

Summary: One lonely Christmas, Dean picks up an ornament: a small angel that reminds him of his mother. Over the years, the ornament becomes a fixture of his life, keeping him company through many difficult years.

For Castiel, the ornament takes on its own meaning - a reminder of the sort of life he wants and can never have.

Will the Christmas angel ever get a chance to take its rightful place at the top of a family tree?

With art by @witchy-worm

Code of Silence (56,842 words)

Summary: Hollywood, 1955: LAPD Officer Dean Winchester doesn’t mind throwing a punch or fudging the evidence if it means getting wife beaters and cold-blooded criminals behind bars. That approach doesn’t sit too well with his younger brother and colleague Sam, who’s been making enemies at the LAPD with his straight-laced, by-the-book philosophy.

Between trying to keep up with the job and looking out for his brother, Dean doesn’t have much time for happiness. Not until he meets Castiel, a handsome escort who is everything Dean never knew he wanted. Unfortunately, Castiel is also caught up in a criminal conspiracy that reaches far into the LAPD itself.

To expose the department’s corruption and save Castiel, Dean and Sam will have to put aside their differences — and reckon with a dark secret in their family’s past.

With art by @rezal-art

Taking Our Time (12,453 words)

Summary: It took getting into Heaven for Dean and Cas to finally express their feelings.

Or did it? When Jack frees all the deserving and penitent angels from the Empty, Uriel reveals that there’s a significant gap in Dean and Cas’ memory: the first time they found their way to each other. It happened all the way back in 2009, when Dean was fresh from Hell and Cas was just beginning to have doubts.

When Uriel returns those missing memories, Dean and Cas have some reckoning to do.

Based on art by @witchy-worm

This Impossible Happiness (50,548 words)

Summary: In one universe, Dean Winchester is pushing thirty. He’s just danced at his little brother’s wedding, he likes his job at the garage, and he goes on the occasional hunt with friends and family. He’s also desperately lonely for someone to share his life with. One day, he finds a mysterious package outside his door. It contains a news clipping about an urban legend that just might be real, and a book by Professor Castiel Novak, who happens to specialize in that same urban legend.

In another universe, Castiel Novak’s roadside motel is slowly dying, its business hollowed out by the interstate system. Dean Winchester, the man who asked him to run away together years ago, is only a painful regret these days. Until the day a mysterious letter Castiel doesn’t remember writing brings Dean back to his doorstep.

Out there in the multiverse, a man and an angel look for each other in all the wrong places. In the meantime, they might as well help a few other versions of themselves figure things out.

With art by @hawkland

Dean and Castiel vs. Evil (31,451 words)

Summary: Castiel is trying to survive a camping trip in the Appalachians with his annoying fraternity brothers. At a nearby cabin, Dean is trying to clean up the remains of his and Sam’s recent vamp hunt. Both Dean and Castiel wouldn’t mind exploring their mutual attraction.

But there’s a problem: due to a series of misunderstandings, Castiel’s friends are convinced that Dean and Sam are serial killers. The fact that Castiel's friends keep dying in increasingly grisly ways doesn't help matters. Is there really a killer on the loose? And will Dean and Cas ever manage to score some alone time?

Based on art by @xfancyfranart

The Dean Show (96,919 words)

Summary: Since birth, Dean Smith has been the star of a TV show, surrounded by actors pretending to be his friends and family — but he doesn’t know it. When actor Castiel Novak is cast as Dean’s new best friend, the two fall in love, and events quickly spiral out of control.

Desperate to free Dean, Castiel enters into an alliance with Dean's real family and a few other behind-the-scenes supporters. But will The Dean Show’s creator, Chuck Shurley, ever let his protagonist go?

The Nature of Light (28,271 words)

Summary: Castiel belongs to a brotherhood of monks that worships the Light, a powerful deity standing in opposition to the Darkness. All his life, Castiel has been taught that witches worship the Darkness and are therefore the brotherhood’s natural enemies. Never mind the fact that the only witch Castiel has ever met is Dean Winchester, who was kind to Castiel when he needed help and has been the subject of Castiel’s most carefully hidden dreams ever since.

One day, a foundling child turns up on the brotherhood’s doorstep and is entrusted to Castiel’s care. When the child, Jack, begins to display signs of magical powers, Castiel knows what he must do: leave the brotherhood behind and trust that Dean will help him once more.

With art by @hexentaenzerin

Cas in Toyland (8,738 words)

Summary: Castiel is the shield. He is the guardian. He’s a ten-inch crocheted doll living with the Creator (also known as “Becky” or “Mom” or “hot stuff” depending on who addresses her) and her family.

When Castiel’s owner, Becky Junior, claims that Castiel is lonely and asks her mother for a Dean doll to keep him company, Castiel can barely contain his excitement. He’s always wanted to meet the man who seems so intriguing in the Supernatural books.

But when Dean actually joins Becky Junior’s collection of toys, getting alone time with him proves quite difficult — thanks to Dean’s well-meaning brother Sam and a pair of Dalek dolls intent on causing constant havoc.

Based on crotchet dolls and with photography by @doctorprofessorsong

Corner House of Horror (6,444 words)

Summary: Dean is doing fine. Sure, the safety record at his place of employment, the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, is pretty bad. Also, he’s starting to suspect his baby daughter is a homicidal maniac. But at least he’s got an amazing, sexy husband, a smart-as-a-whip kid brother and an older daughter whose pranks are pretty damn good. (That time she turned Cas’ hair blue while he slept was hilarious.)

But then people start hearing strange noises inside the corner house on Evergreen Terrace. Soon, it falls to Dean and his family to reveal a dastardly plot by evil power plant owner Dick Roman.

With art by @rezal-art

The Perfect Woman (5,448 words)

Summary: When Daphne Allen discovers that her vanished husband Emmanuel is in fact the angel Castiel and is happily dating a man named Dean Winchester, she decides to take revenge.

Step 1: Create a living replica of Carmen Porter, Dean Winchester’s perfect woman from a past djinn dream. Step 2: Watch Castiel’s relationship with Dean fall apart and dance on its ashes.

What Daphne didn’t consider is that Dean is immune to Carmen’s charms these days — and that Daphne herself is not.

Based on art by @kayliemalinza

The Long and Winding Road (13,230 words)

Summary: 1970: Sixteen years have passed since Dean and Castiel parted ways — separated after years of loving each other quietly and secretly at the boarding school they both attended.

Life took them along two very different paths, with Dean drifting across the country for years while Castiel launched a career in academia at Princeton. But now, a twist of fate is set to reunite them: as teachers at the same school where it all began.

Will they be able to find their way back to each other, or is it too late to start all over again?

With art by @thestarsmakemedream-art

Behind Enemy Lines (30,721 words)

Summary: 1936: Dean Winchester and Lord Castiel Milton have shared a quiet, contented life at Milton Hall ever since they met while flying covert missions together during the Great War.

But when Dean’s brother Sam, a scientist working for the American government, disappears during his honeymoon in Germany, Dean and Castiel take it upon themselves to rescue him and his wife Jess from the clutches of the German secret police.

Along the way, they meet danger, adventure, unexpected friends and an old enemy — all while grappling with the growing darkness of the Nazi regime.

Based on art by @artycee

Bullshit (35,468 words)

Summary: Cas is back from the Empty, and things are fine. Dean told Cas he loves him too, but also that he doesn’t want to be more than friends. (Which is a lie, but seems like the safer choice if he wants to keep Cas for the long haul this time.)

Since things are completely fine, it shouldn’t be an issue for Dean and Cas to investigate a mysterious death together. There’s just one problem: in the course of their investigation, they meet a woman who can tell truth from lies every single time. Will the woman’s apparently impeccable “bullshit detector” pick up on what Dean really wants? And will Dean and Cas be able to find the monster before it kills again?

Based on art by @hawkland

The Manuscript (4,994 words)

Summary: Castiel Novak has spent years trying to unlock the secrets of a manuscript that has baffled even the most accomplished code breakers. When he finally succeeds, he's surprised to find himself suddenly in the company of a very handsome (and very naked) man named Dean, who had been imprisoned in the manuscript for centuries. Now it's up to Castiel to secure Dean's permanent freedom - using some rather... unorthodox methods.

The Prodigal (19,370 words)

Summary: Dean Winchester travels the wide-open country, looking for bounties to collect and doing odd jobs to make ends meet. Usually, he rides with his brother Sam, but they’ve had a falling-out and now Dean’s all by himself — until he meets Cas Novak, a preacher’s son in search of his missing father.

Cas believes his notorious outlaw brother Luke knows something of their father’s disappearance, so he asks Dean’s help in tracking Luke down. Dean figures there’s no harm in helping out, and he might earn himself Luke Novak’s bounty into the bargain.

All Dean needs to do is keep a lid on his growing feelings for Cas.

(aka "Free to Be You and Me," rewritten as a Western)

With art by aggiedoll

Master of Spells (26,274 words)

Summary: 1955: Man of Letters Castiel Novak is assigned to discover what killed the agents previously stationed at a remote chapterhouse in Lebanon, Kansas. It feels like a punishment at first, but it doesn’t turn out that way when Castiel meets Dean Winchester, the other Man of Letters investigating the case.

As the two of them settle into the underground bunker to conduct their investigation, Castiel finds himself growing closer and closer to Dean. But he soon realizes there is something else in the chapterhouse with them... and it's out for blood.

With art by @spn-fanfic-reblog-writes

The Angel Next Door (and the Zombie Squirrel) (9,264 words)

Summary: Dean’s life is fine. He might get a little lonely sometimes, but that’s to be expected when you’re a single guy in your forties. But then a new neighbor moves in next door — an extremely hot, blue-eyed neighbor who seems to be some kind of magnet for bizarre and miraculous events. (Listen, that squirrel was dead. Dean’s sure of it.)

Will Dean solve the mystery of the man next door?

Based on art by @jollyrolls

Another Kind of Memory (45,173 words)

Summary: Since a traumatic incident six years ago, Castiel Novak’s face has been disfigured by a scar. He’s resigned himself to being someone people can barely stand to look at, let alone love.

Except his heart doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. When Dean Winchester takes over the convenience store down the street from Castiel’s bookshop, Castiel falls helplessly in love with his new neighbor.

To make matters worse, Castiel’s sister Anna is also interested in Dean. Believing that Dean could never love him, Castiel decides to help Anna win his heart instead.

With art by aggiedoll

I'll Follow You Into the Dark (15,008 words)

Summary: It’s been months since the Empty took Cas, and Dean is no closer to finding a way to get him back. Until he realizes something: humans can’t get into the Empty. But demons can.

Based on art by @hawkland

Fortunate Son (154,980 words)

(Yes, this was in last year's recap, but it finished posting in 2024, so I'm counting it again.)

Summary: The year is 1966, the place is Kansas, and Dean Winchester and Castiel Novak are falling in love. But with Castiel under the thumb of his conservative parents and Dean set to ship out to Vietnam, there is no possible future for them.

As Castiel’s life turns upside down and the hell of Vietnam threatens to swallow Dean’s soul, it will take everything they have to find their way back to each other. But some things are worth waiting — and fighting — for.

With art by @basketcasebetty

Baby (It's Cold Outside) (5,932 words)

Summary: Dean has asked Cas over for a homemade dinner, hoping the evening might turn into something more. Cas is concerned that if he spends the night, people will talk. But with a snowstorm raging outside, Dean might just be able to persuade him to linger.

#<3 #i read a lot of them and I recommend them!!!#destiel

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