I'm in complete addict phase, so I'm clicking on everything that doesn't warn me off in the pairings or author's note. And, apparently, I don't always read those closely enough. My back button is getting quite the workout.

But really, if people would tell me up front they're writing dumb!Dean or bitchy!Sam it would save me a lot of wasted reading. Or just, basically, can't write an angel to save your life. That would be good to know up front. And I know there's a point in canon where it was just fine, but with hindsight I can't read nice!Ruby.

Just don't get bored and go clicking the bad tags on delicious.

Trust me.

Signed, this one time, ran out of rentboy fic and somehow wound up in the really, really wrong place for 24 hours.

I've stopped reading anything that isn't by an author I like or trust, or recced by someone I like and trust.

This. In the heady days when I first discovered fanfic I was on a bender and just read everything. But I soon found myself unable to stomach some of the out of character portrayals, or the storylines, or my God the spelling/grammar that floats around out there. And then I was reading an epic-length story that was actually compelling and well-written and got about two-thirds of the way through it and realized that there was no way it was going to end without the author killing Sam. Which, no. I checked the final chapter and sure enough, he was dead. And this had not been marked as a deathfic. I fully embrace an author's right to tell the story they want to tell, but I also have the right not to read deathfic. So from that point on I've made the decision to only read stories that are only by authors that I know I like or that are recced by people I trust.

Sometimes they can kill Sam and it's okay. But I'd really rather they start with him dead so I can decide about going on with the fic. I have bumped into far fewer dead!Dean fics, but the last one I read still hurts. I'm glad I read it, though. And it's not one where the author could have warned without giving away the ending, so I couldn't get mad at her.

I think I'd rather read dead!boy fics than when they're mean to each other or leave each other in pain. It all hurts, but at least one feels like they could go out in character.

Of course, now that heaven sucks, even that doesn't have a poignant peaceful feeling to it.

::goes back to plowing through the crossover tag on AO3::

For a while I was obsessed with dead!Dean fics, and exploring Sam's reaction to it. In the obsessed enough I actually wrote one way.

I've read less dead!Sam -- in fact, I can't remember if I've read any dead!Sam. I generally appreciate warning for death fics, too, though.

My vision of Castiel's bender has him zapping into a closed liquor store and leaving a store full of empties and a note saying, "I am an angel of the lord. Sorry about the mess."

The dead!Sam I've read is generally him turning dark side/accepting Lucifer and Dean having to kill him. It's pretty rough. But mostly he's already dead and it's Dean dealing. There's a kinda interesting CM crossover with him in jail for that and other crimes.

Then there were a couple where Dean took Sam out and then himself, which is wrong and sad and at least one was a time travel fic in which a version of them still lived. Author made it rough, though.

I should really have been bookmarking these fics, but I'm reading them so fast I can barely keep up with the ones I would want to reread. My bookmarks are mainly communities and challenges and other people's rec lists, and some crackfic.

Ginger, that made me spit up on my laptop screen. I'm imagining Castiel saying bitterly "I'm an angel of the Lord" an awful lot now.

Oh! I just read one recently where they make some kind of deal -- like Sam accepted Lucifer, somehow they manage to stave off the apocalypse, and the catch is they can't see each other except for one day a year, in one place, and they can't touch or hug or anything. It was vaguely 'cesty, but not really if you squinted right, and very melancholy and grave.

I've also read one or two where Sam is gone, but not dead, because he accepted Lucifer and it changed him. One where Dean was married with kids and Sam comes to visit, which was also really sad.

I've been bad about bookmarking, too, lately. It also fries me how many stories I bookmarked in the past that have been taken down or locked. Feh.

ita, if you find good cross-overs, will you share?

if you find good cross-overs, will you share?

Sure--any shows you're interested in? CM? Leverage? Anything else?

One where Dean was married with kids and Sam comes to visit, which was also really sad.

Any fic where one of the brothers has to visit the other is a sad ending to me, but I accept that as my dysfunction and move onto the next story. Luckily, lots of writers share the dysfunction (and many exceed it), so it's not that bad. Those people that want to heal them are just crazy.