It wasn't much of a D/C story, so if it's touted as that I think it fails. If it's a story that also has D/C, then I think it achieves that unremarkably. But there's little reward in the relationship part of it--it's not a particularly interesting lead up, some of the reveals are kind of weird and random, and the final resolution of it felt anti-climactic to me.

Um, Misha getting comfy with married life and ready for a family (i.e. Misha's metabolism hitting adulthood and slowing the fuck down, I'm trying to be polite about weight gain. And not in the "he got fat!" sense, but the "he's settled and living a normal happy life without the stress of agents telling him he needs to look gaunt to get roles" way.

I don't know if you gain much weight when you marry your high school sweetheart. I'd imagine they had all the kinks worked out of that long before he got the role.

I don't ever think of him as other than the slimmest guy on the show (until Garth or Kevin show up), so I'm not really sure what you're responding to.

Do agents go around telling their male clients they need to be gaunt? Was he supposed to have been unhappy or abnormal in season 4?

I'm a little bummed to read your reactions to that fic, ita ! and Julie. The premise sounded intriguing to me, but not after some of what I saw in whitefont.

The art for that story appealed to me at first glance (and there are parts of it I like), but some parts seemed off. It looked like an experimentation in style that didn't quite get to where the artist was hoping.

In related news, I'm starting to panic slightly - I'm participating as an artist in the BB (what have I done? what have I done?), and my deadline is imminent. I'm happy with the base images, but my ability with font choice/placement sucks.

He was definitely a lot gaunter in season 4 than in 5 or 6 or 7. And I do recall Joss making Fillion lose weight for the role of Reynolds (and making Staite gain weight).

I don't think most agents tell their male clientele to do anything other than buff up, or lose weight if they're above average, which I've never seen Misha in any role. I'm pretty sure that Fillion's director telling him to lose weight didn't require anything extreme, basically because he never got anything extreme.

I'm not seeing a lot gaunter here than, say, here. I'd never draw them differently, that's for sure.

Oh, and if you click on the fic whose summary indicates that Dean and Castiel are both kittens and Dean needs to cuddle?

You get exactly what you deserve.

I really apologise for this, truly madly deeply, but I can't help thinking this [link] is a spoof of some sort.

I read the first chapter, and Sam is a royal douche who's king of the school, and Cas is a freshman who just wants his attention so he can be a cool kid too. Dean likes to hang out with Cas, and keeps assuring him his brother is an unrepentant asshole. I'm not going to read enough to find out what years Dean and Sam are, but I skipped to the end and Dean/Cas and Sam/Jess do a prom double date.

If you told me it was someone parodying the sort of work-it-through fic as an attempt to get over being bullied through high school and never getting a date I might believe you. But it can't be serious, and it can't be someone who gives a fuck about the show.

And we get language like:

Dean's expression radiated with joy, and a tear started rolling down his moderately scruffy cheek.

What do you call it when body parts gain agency? I grabbed some text from a crap fic when I was helping my sister design note cards, and Dean's nose was doing some happy nuzzling. And my sister was very disturbed and made me stop using that as my lorem ipsum.

I know there's no point overly associating that with SPN fic in general or D/C in specific, but Lord...

I think it was mostly just lighting/makeup differences. His face fullness hasn't changed at all, and he's still a slim bugger, but as they humanized him, the Mysterious Deep Dark Look went away.

Candid Misha looks about the same as he did during the S4 era.

What do you call it when body parts gain agency? I grabbed some text from a crap fic when I was helping my sister design note cards, and Dean's nose was doing some happy nuzzling. And my sister was very disturbed and made me stop using that as my lorem ipsum.

Normally, tentacle porn, but that's apparently intentional gaining of agency isn't what you mean.

he's still a slim bugger

Man, I saw a picture of him in this last Colin trip to Haiti--I know arms crossed can really help you look buff, but I swear those aren't Castiel's muscles. All Misha.

Aha. Here: [link]

Dude, if that's what's there, please put him back in the hospital V-neck, and have him just carry the trench coat around.