Maygra brings the creepy more than a lot of authors in the Supernatural fandom, and it never fails to make me happy. This is a little less on the creepy side than on the oh hey that’s cool side.

Reminders of Echoes

The Winchester version of a happy ending after they get the demon. This is gen but it could just as easily be labeled non-explicit slash. Such a lovely story, good characterization, interesting, well detailed.

the only people for me are the mad ones

Light on the slash and heavier on the introspection. This is a post-Devil’s Trap story with an angsty, lightly written touch.

and feel what it’s like to be new

So I don’t read a ton of gen in this fandom (or any other really) because I’m OTP enough to prefer to see Sam and Dean be SamandDean, but Trollprincess is one of those authors whose fic is guaranteed to be good no matter what. In this one Dean gets cursed with that ancient proverb: May you live in interesting times. This is almost a five Sam’s that didn’t exist type story and it’s really fucking awesome. The kind of story which would make for a damned interesting episode.

Interesting Times

Dude. Oneupmanship is one of my very favorite things in fic. And Dean and Sam are perfect for it because they’re brothers and they compete and play practical jokes and bicker. And I’m pretty sure I was just waiting for someone to write this story. I’m very pleased that was the one to do it too, because she pretty much guarantees a good read.

people livin’ in competition

Ladyjaida has always been particularly good with characterization in all of the fandoms I’ve read her in. Supernatural is no exception for that, Sam is very good in this.

And the First Two Don’t Count

Post-Devil’s Trap. A sorta pwp with just the right amount of complexity and outside meaning.

When it happens, they aren’t drunk or thoughtlessly looking to relieve morning wood. It’s barely dawn and Sam is stirring contentedly from a sunlit dream when he feels a wetness on his back where Dean’s cheek is pressed against it. He freezes, certain that Dean is crying and will never, ever forgive him if he turns around, when Dean snorts loudly and Sam realizes that his brother is merely drooling on him.

Deemed Salvageable

There’s Sam learning about his powers and Dean angsting as Dean does, and a Missouri we maybe sort of got a glimpse at in canon, and really, really good plotting.

Until I Can See Again

Set during one of the months Lyra wrote about in In Miles, In Laughter, In Strife this story is a brilliant, fun piece about what happens when a Satanist’s spell gives Dean angelic powers and Sam demonic powers for one month.

And we are here as on a darkling plain

So canon tells us that a year passed from the beginning of the season to the end of it. And Lyra fills in the blanks between all of the episodes we saw and all of the other stuff that must have gone on off screen. At times funny and at times serious, but always imaginative. I think that’s probably how I would describe all of Lyra’s writing actually: imaginative. And the Supernatural universe lends itself to that perfectly.

In Miles, In Laughter, In Strife

I’m not generally a fan of the idea of Dean and Sam having had sex pre-series, but for some reason it works for me in this story. And I like the author’s summary because it’s pretty true to the story: Sam doesn’t think it will ever go back to how it used to be. But mostly, any plot this has is really just an excuse for the porn.

Falling Like Rain

Artful, plotty and well characterized. This is set in the near future probably, and is slightly AU as it has no mentions of the season 1 finale events. Sam’s powers are developing more, the boys take a case in Michigan. It’s creepy and detailed and well characterized; basically everything you can ask for in a Supernatural story, with a lovely slow burn of relationship building.

The Flow of Darkness

A companion piece to Stumbling Across Its Bleak Ending (previously recced here) this is that story from Sam’s perspective. The contrasts between the two stories are what make this for me (you know, aside from the excellent writing) because where that story is all about Dean’s having left Sam, this one is all about Sam’s determination to get him back. And it’s just gorgeous.

Practical Men of the World

This is fantastic; I love the slow reveal of what’s really going on, and Dean and Sam’s subtle shifts in personality and action as time passes. Also, I am a huge sucker for unreliable narrators and this story totally rocked that; I loved Dean’s perspective and how we learn what’s going on at the same time he does. It’s just such an effective narrative style for a story like this; wonderfully suspenseful. Plus! Werewolves!

On the Banks of the Tiber

I am totally obsessed with stories that get into the circumstances around Sam leaving for college, and while I don’t often buy the idea that Dean and Sam ever had sex in the pre-college days, this is the kind of story I can buy it in. A refreshingly original take on the situation that so many fic writers have tackled. Much less about the sex than the relationship, this story is both heartbreaking and powerful enough to leave an imprint.

Light of a Match

Complex and perfectly heartbreaking. I love an author who doesn’t flinch at writing the fucked up complicated parts of the Dean/Sam relationship, because it can’t possibly all be puppies and bunnies the way the fall lines are drawn in canon.

and when they fall

Written after Salvation but before Devil’s Trap, this goes AU before the season 1 ending but it’s a gorgeously executed look at what could have happened if Sam and Dean hadn’t gotten to Papa Winchester in time to save him. Dean and Sam’s characterization is great in this; Sam and Dean always seem like the kind of characters whose best (and worst) qualities come out in times of crisis and Liz totally understand this.

Carry On by ; 2.287 words, NC-17.

This is just a short vignette without much plot to speak of but it’s just to cool. Logan and Dean, while not the first combination of characters that come to mind when imagining Supernatural crossovers, play off each other in some really interesting ways. This whole story is just delightfully inventive. And it all takes place at the Fitzpatrick bar, The River Stix, which is so wonderfully Dean to have picked that bar when he goes to Neptune.

In Harm’s Way

Stories that go into the whole Dean wants Sam to stay, Sam wants to go conumdrum fascinate me, and this one feels incredibly true to how I think, things should play out if the boys are ever going to find some common ground (and, you know, if they were having the dirtywrong incestuous sex now and again, too.)

Stumbling Across Its Bleak Ending

While I haven’t loved all of poisontaster’s writing, (she tends to go the dark, incest can never be right and Dean’s a bad bad man for thinking about it route more often than I prefer) I really like this series. All three are short, pwp style stories with a heavy emphasis on the public sex kink which, dude, I can totally get behind. Jerk off sessions in bathrooms and crowded bars? Hell yes. So if you’re into that at all, you will probably like this series as much as I did.

Helping Hands, On the Other Hand, Jazz Hands.