I just checked my bookmarks, and AU is one of my top ten tags. Only 21, including 2 vids, so it's actually less than I'd have thought. And the college AUs (I know, I know) equal the number of the HS ones.

I have my limits.

And what interesting limits they are.

And what interesting limits they are.

I hope that's a good thing.

I hope that's a good thing.

It's a fascinating thing. I have AU issues, but they still fill something for me. I can't explain it. Just about everyone does Cas wrong, for instance (although I think the slavefic above does him plausibly right), but I still can't get enough.

I'm reading the slavefic now. It's my kind of AU because it at least hinges off the SPN world we know. It's not the best written thing in the world, but it's interesting, and I like both her portrayal of Cas and the issues around slavery, even if they have been softened by Dean's perspective (which avoids a lot of the messiest issues).

I'm having a hard time with Sam in this, though.

I just read a fic about a robot unicorn that shoots rainbows out it's ass. OMG.

which avoids a lot of the messiest issues

Yeah--totally not going to satisfy a proper slavefic kink. But it's my speed, because I have severe slavery issues. It's probably the closest thing I have to a trigger, although the printed word isn't as bad as visuals. Makes me anxious and stressy and irrationally teary if they are truly exercising the trope. NO idea why I started reading this--I was just flipping through open browser tabs and there it was. So I checked it out. Thank dog she wasn't hard core.

I'm having a hard time with Sam in this, though.

By the end I was okay, but he wasn't as awesome as I usually want. She does make it clear that he's a demon sympathiser and rescues them from abuse-- in the end that made him seem like a good person, since humans were evidently the worst beasties in this universe.

He just didn't feel like Sam to me.

This is the only kind of slavefic I can read, where the master is conflicted and concerned, or it's newly freed slaves who are figuring out how to be free. Which is not much of a kink, I suppose, but there are two fics that I've read along those lines which are some of the best I've ever read of any kind. (One is RPS and one is bandom, sadly, or I'd rec them. Although you could absolutely read the bandom one as an original fantasy novel if you had no idea who was being written about.)

He just didn't feel like Sam to me.

In the end I was more pissed they went with Jerk!John. There was enough John for me to be unhappy with his characterisation, but little enough Sam that I was able to imagine that he was being decent offstage, even if, you know, Ruby. And I would be interested in more in the 'verse, because I kinda wanted to know where that interaction with Castiel was going.

One is RPS and one is bandom

Do you mean that the bandom one isn't slash? Or do you file bandom separately from general RPF? These days, when I think of RPF, J2 comes to mind first, but up until that transition happened, musicians (generally boy bands) were the ultimate example of RPF. What's the RPF term equivalent to popslash? They didn't call it bandom back in the day, did they?

Yeah, the ending sort of startled me. I expected an epilogue, at least.

And yes, the bandom is slash! It's just called bandom now, in that fandom. (I feel like Seuss.) It's not popslash, it's the new wave of (mostly) boy bands that ... have little connection to each other, really. Like My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, although they were on tour together once. The biggies are those two plus Panic at the Disco, although it's expanded a bit.

Popslash was ... what? N'SYNC and Backstreet and that era?

I read this one last week (there's 2 epic DeanCas AU lists at swing-set13 livejournal -- [link] and [link] -- that I've been going through) and it wasn't completely horrific, but wasn't satisfying in any way. I read another one with collars and Castiel willingly submitting himself and John getting blown up by Gabriel, that, while not horrific in the expected manner, still left me grossed out and disturbed.