recs and links

Really nice look at the growing detente between Ruby and Dean in the wake of 4.09 and 4.10.

AU post-NRftW, Steve Wandell's daughter joins Sam and Bobby and Ellen in their quest to save Dean from hell, and avert the apocalypse Lilth is planning. Highly enjoyable, engrossing read with a fun original character, and a nice outsider POV of the Winchesters.“Fuckin’ A, Sammy,” Dean said. He tried to turn to evade Sam’s hands, but his efforts were pathetic, ineffectual. “You’re the one bleeding all over our new truck,” Sam replied. [...] “And Jo went through all the trouble of stealing it for you. Put that over your knee, dude. You want to hear something funny?” “Did you learn a new knock-knock joke, Sammy? [...] Not the orange one. Not again. You, Sam, are many things. But funny is not one of them.” “Oh, blow me. Anyway, at the hospital, they told me you were probably brain damaged from the lack of oxygen. You know what I said? I said don’t worry we’ll probably never be able to tell the difference.” “You’re hilarious,” Dean said, too weak to sound sarcastic.

This story hits so many of my bulletproof kinks that I am willing to overlook some of the technical issues (POV slips, epithets) and fanon (mating wtf?) that would normally irritate me. Max and Alec start sleeping together, but then Logan finds a cure for the virus, and Max chooses him instead of Alec, setting up years of angst and regret before she figures out what she really wants, because of course, they can't stay away from each other, either. For all its flaws, this story is excellent at looking at all the ways two people who love each other can inflict the most damage, but they can also find ways to overcome it. He hated heat, great sex aside, but it fucked up his head. She wasn’t ever going to be his, not even with his mark around her barcode. They could play at being in love for Logan, pretend they were together in every way that mattered, but it was just make believe. Heat screwed up the balance of things, made him want. Made him think he could have.

Lovely, ouchy story from Ruby's POV, about how she feels about Sam, about herself.

"This is America, Tony," Fury says, surprised. "We don’t murder people." Tony hangs up the suit. There are consequences. Spare, sharp, heartbreaking.

Six months after Freak Nation, Logan calls Alec out about his behavior, because he thinks Alec and Max are actually a couple, and he's seen Alec leave the bar with other girls. Could use fewer epithets, but nice pining from both Max and Alec, and also it feels in character that they'd be so clueless about each other's feelings.

"I've got condoms," Matt admits. "In my wallet." / "Hoping to get lucky tonight, huh?" / He looks up at her with all the seriousness in the world. "I kinda already am." Lovely missing Matt/Julie scene from "It Ain't Easy Being JD McCoy." Full of all the aching wonder of a first time.

Sad, achy, gorgeous story of how the boys got their tattoos, and how not okay Sam is after Mystery Spot.

Beautiful, achy crossover wherein Sarah Walker (from Chuck) meets Diana Prince in a hotel bar. The ache of loneliness is palpable, but at least they get to soothe it with each other. Lovely.

This is a fantastic look at exactly how they would have this conversation about Dean's feelings, post-hell, with Dean all coming in on the oblique and Sam just bulling right ahead. Oh, boys...

We say "secret identity," and adopt a series of cloaking strategies to preserve it, but what we are actually trying to conceal is a narrative: not who we are but the story of how we got that way—and, by implication, of all that we lacked, and all that we were not, before the spider bit us. Yet our costume conceals nothing, reveals everything: it is our secret skin, exposed and exposing us for all the world to see. Superheroism is a kind of transvestism; our superdrag serves at once to obscure the exterior self that no longer defines us while betraying, with half-unconscious panache, the truth of the story we carry in our hearts, the story of our transformation, of our story’s recommencement, of our rebirth into the world of adventure, of story itself.

When she thinks about it, Pepper knows that she probably should have quit years ago. No one would have blamed her really (especially later, after he came back from the cave and built a suit of armor to hide away in, because what sane person would have actually stayed?) but she didn’t, and she won’t, so it’s neither here or there. Just another part of the vicious cycle of give (mostly her) and take (always him) that they’re stuck in. Lovely, understated look at Pepper negotiating her relationship with Tony after Afghanistan.

Castiel and Sam have a conversation about faith and forgiveness. Lovely.

"I thought I lost you," he whispered. / "You didn’t." / "I thought you were gone and I… I didn’t handle it well." Max gets caught in a riot, and it's the start of things changing in Terminal City. I enjoyed this a lot.

Anne of Green Gables college AU. I was skeptical of the idea of Anne/Gilbert working in a modern setting, but it works really well. Anne is her confused, prickly, brilliant self, and Gilbert is Gilbert. *sigh* Lovely.

Sam goes evil, and Dean does what he can to bring him back. It may not be enough. Heartbreaking.

During the final battle, Castiel kind of becomes part of the family. Lovely. “I am an angel of the Lord who has walked a very long way and needs a hug,” Castiel said with a stern line between his brows.

The secret to the success of a wonky lesbian pundit with no TV experience? A Ph.D. from Oxford, a dry sense of humor, and the ability to be nice to Pat Buchanan.

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Sharp, lush look at Castiel and Uriel.

Dean helps Bobby when he needs it. Pre-series. Lovely snapshot of both men.

Sam is dying, and Dean asks Castiel for help. Beautiful and heartbreaking.

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"You have to stop lying about what you want, Sammy." Ruby thinks she knows what Sam wants. Sharp and heartbreaking.

"I’m the holder-upperer now.” / He grins as he works. "You’re always the holder-upperer, Potts." Lovely bantery, UST-filled snapshot of Pepper helping Tony out in the workshop, and feeling way out of her depth.

Dean and Bela, goading each other to sanity in hell.

girl!Sam AU where they were raised separately. Dean picks up a hitchhiker who has some secrets of her own. I like this sharp, bitter Sam, on her way to see her girlfriend at Stanford, and this Dean who can't seem to keep himself from getting involved with her anyway. (wincest)