#project backlight

Cakepocalypse!

Rating: Mature Word Count: 64k Relationship: Castiel/Dean Winchester Characters: Castiel, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Gabriel, Charlie Bradbury, Donna Hanscum, Jody Mills, Claire Novak, Jack Kline, Patience Turner, Rowena MacLeod, Mary Winchester, Billie, Naomi (and just... loads more) Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, spn 13.23 Coda Fic, Baker!Dean, TV producer!Cas, Alternate Universe - Reality Show, this is technically 13.23 coda fic and therefore canon, Friends to Lovers, Love Confessions, Cake, soooo much cake

Summary: “What the hell you tryin’ to sell me?” Dean asked, folding his arms across his chest. “Not selling, Deano. Buying. Or at least, renting for the duration of a limited season run,” Gabriel said, as Dean’s frown deepened. “Have you ever dreamed of being a Hollywood superstar?” Dean laughed outright at that and shook his head, turning around to pick up his coffee again. “Man, no way in hell. You got the wrong guy.”

Spoiler alert: He did not have the wrong guy.

I finally wrote a fic where it’s far more practical to just explain the thing than it is to give a preview in the tumblr post, so here goes:

This fic started back in March, when Lizbob made me watch a Netflix show called Nailed It. I'd seen about five minutes of the show when I sent her this message: "How could I fanfic my way through this baking show? or maybe I should just... write fanfic of this…" And about 4k words of chatting and plotting later, I started writing what (to my eternal shock) is essentially a Canon AU 13.23 coda fic... *tears hair and rends garments*

When I began writing, I fully intended this to be my entry into the DCBB this year, but when 13.23 aired, I knew I had to post this as soon as it was done. There's no way I could've sat on this until October/November. And it's clearly done, because here I am posting it. :P

There's further notes at the end, which are FAR more spoilery than these. In the meantime, if you question my tagging this as "Canon Divergent," just remember that Gabriel is a major character in this fic. That's your spoiler of the day. Now enjoy the cakes.

Oh gosh! First off, thank you for reading! I’m thrilled that you’re enjoying it!

(for reference, the whole ‘verse that starts with RotS is right here: Everything is Subtext)

And yeah, at the time I wrote this, back during s10 (I started writing it shortly after 10.16 aired, with the confessional scene, and... that may have influenced the story some... confessions and regrets). At that time, 9.03 was one of the biggest Awful Things that either of them had done, but the worse of it was that as awful as it was, DEAN KNEW 100% THAT THIS WAS AWFUL. He’d been blackmailed with Sam’s life, you know? It was awful all around.

But Supernatural is filled with Awful Things like this. The thing is, we the audience don’t see just the Awful, but also the emotional rationalizations that have driven each of the characters to regretfully (typical) make these Awful Choices under the belief that they are doing the Right Thing, either in order to protect loved ones or for the greater good, or because they had no other choice. That’s the way this show rolls.

We the audience are aware of a lot of the inner turmoil that all of the characters suffer through over these Awful Things, but often the other characters are unaware of these deeper, emotionally devastating reasons, and so can only see one side of the Awful Thing. And that just makes it all doubly Awful, you know?

So from each character’s pov, they feel hurt, betrayal, aaaall the angst. Until they finally get to air out a bit of their pain. Like, 9.03 was EXCRUCIATING. But the pain got flipped back around in 9.09/9.10. Dean paid The Big Price for trusting Ezekiel/Gadreel, Kevin was killed, and Cas was pressed into a situation where he’d cannibalized another angel’s grace to save himself. I mean... this was bad, and Dean confessed everything about how he was stupid, how he’d made the wrong choices, and Cas not only forgave him, but assured him he believed Dean had been trying to do the right thing. And we got the “less dumb, less ass” chat.

Honestly, the world sucks enough on its own today, and trying to continue thinking about The Worst Things, I’m gonna shut up and try and focus on things getting better, try to focus on the progress they’ve made over the years, and hopefully the progress they’ll continue to make in the future.

I just finished the draft of another fic that I was gonna enter in the DCBB, but it’s s13 coda fic and I think we all need more slightly angsty but absolutely fluffy feelings resolution sort of fic in our lives right now.

(don’t worry, I have another fic I’m gonna write for the DCBB, if I can get it done in time for the draft deadline, I just need to post feelings repair and general happiness right now...)

*stares into the middle distance for ten years*

there’s gonna be notes on this one. copious notes. anyone who attempts to read this deserves the full explanation. frankly, it’s entirely delightful. and highly spoilery.