February Fandom Fest
My original plan for this was a fandom manifesto about the things I love about SPN. I wrote enough of it to be worth posting but then I had a better idea. SPN (and SPN RPF) is for me a) the show - which means enough to me that I get a little bit sappy and b) the fanworks created which I love.
So while I still want to do that fandom manifesto (it'll be up on the 24th), I realised I'd also like to do a more personalised project. So I went through my flist and picked a fanwork by each person who does fanwork. Mostly they're Sam/Dean and J2 but there's some very notable exceptions included. A few people I found it difficult - not because they're not fantastic creators but because I'm a total wuss in this fandom so any one reading this feels like the piece de resistance of their oeuvre has not been represented, that may be why! Blame my non-Elizabeth-the-1st-stomach.
There's a few non-SPN folk on my flist and in those cases I've picked a favourite fan-work by them that's non SPN. There's also a few folk no longer in the fandom and I hope they don't mind me including their past works.
It's done alphabetically of course!
agenttrojie Never done with killing time (I'd like it if you stayed) season three pre-death, always the best time for Sam/Dean to happen. Beautiful and touching.
alexisjane Meet in the Middle (J2) I love imaginary friends and this is a great spin on it.
alycat Our Reasons to Hide (J2) - who has two thumbs and loves upended a/b/o? Me! And this is a lovely example.
amberdreams Breathing in, bleeding out gorgeous art and associated words, that cut really deep and make you think.
applegeuse a podfic of sevenfists swing low I'm not much of a one for audio but this is immensely soothing in a hard to explain way
ash48 a vid 'We Will Rock You' this is the vid I often use to explain to people why I'm in this fandom. I love it.
ash_carpenter this is cheating but I don't care - the whole of the anti-kink 'verse is worth reading for one laugh after another (Sam/Dean, NC-17)
ashtraythief It's Not About The Tentacles (Adrianne/Genevieve) super-sweettentacle femslash porn, a string of words that don't go often enough together NC-17
badbastion playthings NSFW, seriously beautiful art and weirdly the lighting gets me everytime (and the sexiness obviously) Sam/Dean
beelikejJeff/Jensen, The First fantastic paper art, incredibly cute and creative (and I love the cupcakes.)
bertee hand to hand, J2, PG-13 incredibly cute superheroes and a smooshy ending to enjoy.
big_heart_june so. many. gifs. cannot choose. But I love the recs the most - you have great taste
cassiopeia7 Guilty Pleasures, Sam/Dean, PG, art. They're in a bath with bubbles and a rubber ducky. What more could you want? No, seriously, what more?
chemm80 Contact Gwen Campbell/Olivia Lowry femslash + hunting women is my favourite thing and this is done so neatly that I just want mooore.
cherie_morte Sam/Dean, NC-17 Behold, A Pale Horse. hearts? who needs them anyway. This is gougingly painful but worth every single second of it.
cillab42 Sam Winchester cries his way through sex a very sad look at a post s-3 Sam.
counteragent, Preparing for the worst, hoping for the best Dean/Sam, Mature. Doomsday preppers AU that gets to the characters hearts like counteragent always always does.
de_nugis I'm cheating again, it's a thing. Renovation 'Verse all the careful, slow fic you could want about Dean and Sam getting old together. Superb
deansdirtybb Show Them Dean/Sam, frankly, this is the way Bugs should have gone as an episode. NC-17
dear_tiger Love As a Hole In the Ground, Sam/Dean, NC-17 the atmosphere in this could drive you mad in the best possible way. Love it.
downjune Memory Foam (Dean/Sam) I have no words for the tender comfort this fic gives me. I'd probably roll in it if I could.
dreamweaver37 we sadly don't share any pairings in common but I always enjoy the tales of your life that you tell
emily_shore, Alec Deacon: Beta Surgeon (The Charioteer/Return to Night) A/B/O fic with all the worldbuilding bits you could want plus character development. Even if you don't know the fandom, I recommend it.
firesign10 A Tall Cool Drink (J2) funny and sexy and made me want summer to be here again.
ghostyouknow27 Diaspores, nominally Sam/Jo, but mostly Winchesters/dreadful things. Canon tone achieved in a big way, gives me genuine chills.
glovered Kevin Tran for President Sam/Dean. This fic makes me all gooey inside and gives me a smile. Insta comfort read.
homo_pink Antibody NC-17 Sam/Dean mortician AU and so creepily perfect it gives me a chill every time I read it. That last paragraph...
jacyevans this is a place where i don't feel alone (this is a place that feels like home) Sam/Dean PG-13 this does one of my favourite things - shows Sam and Dean never letting go.
juice817 slow erosion, J2, NC-17 okay this maybe changed my mind a little bit about hooker fic.You'll see why
kinkajou Cursed (Sam/Dean, NC-17 art) the colours, the story, Dean handcuffing himself to a bed so he can't do something bad - kinkajou knows the way to the heart.
lightthesparks art for springfling Gen, I love combos of art and words that pack a real punch and the colouring in this gets me every time.
lilliburlero A routine for everything (Charioteer/Aubrey-Maturin crossover) perfect crossover material where the crossover shines an actual light on canon and it works near seamlessly.
linaerys Io Saturnalia Coriolanus, Tullus Aufidius/Caius Martius Explicit. This is chock full of great moments between them and the last line is stunning.
meus_venator, Jay Skellington, the loneliest Pumpkin King, Jared/Jensen | NC-17 so good at doing dark fic and yet such a light hand with the light fic - it's great!
miss_morland wrote me a present of the best SPN troll fic you can imagine. Alternatively check out her absolutely amazing More Sense than Honour (Javert/Valjean)
novella34 Drink, Drank, Drunk cute J2 fic with very drunk boys (always good!)
peepingdru the greatest collection of porn gifs to illustrate comments with and very generous with them as well - what a great combo.
petite_madame, A song of ink and fire, Sam/Dean, R, art. Everytime I look at this it gets better. Shockingly good.
quickreaver, Sam/Dean art, gives as great a punch to the gut as the fic it was drawn to accompany does, and the colours.
riyku Slippery when wet (Sam/Dean, NC-17) how much do I love this? a lot of love. So many good fics but this one in particular resonates.
road_rhythm Redshift, Sam/Dean, NC-17 the absolute epitome of using sex to tell a story that rattles you to your bones
runedgirl Five Times the Winchesters Pretended They Didn’t, and One Time That Didn’t Work (Sam/Dean NC-17) I love stories that stretch over the Winchesters lives and this one made my grinchy heart grow three sizes bigger.
salacious_newt Fortune's Son (gen) Chilling look at a possible past for Dean, so sad and yet possible.
sanshal Dean's Birthday (gen) really nice little gen piece with a worried Dean and a determined little Sam
saraid, habanera Sam/Dean, NC-17 zombie Dean and determined Sam + zombie sex - a unique fic in the best possible way.
scarletscarlet: Sam gen art so much to choose from, but it's the fear in this one that gets me and the shadowed Ezekiel
siennavie Keep Holding On (gen art) this picture tells more than 10K words - the symbolism, the colours, the clutch. Also bonus rec for Hunter Owls which I badly need on a mug.
simplybeing check out her entire comm j2_recs. The sheer amount of work and crossreferencing is a work of art in itself.
snickfic, Long Way Home, Jensen/Jared/Genevieve NC-17 I'm a sucker for atmosphere (who'd have guessed) and this fic hits like a punch to the gut.
sonofabiscuit77 All in the Game, yo Dean/Sam NC-17 this has one of the strongest settings I've read and it's a super look at a Sam and Dean who still ring completely true in the essentials
steeplechasers, your children will come at you with knives (Sam/Dean) one of the most atmospheric fics I read in 2014
sylsdarkplace, Greasepaint and Fairydust sometimes you just need a cute get together fic and this is exactly that.
tdorian I'm still not over her superb Dean and tattoo art for the RBB of 2012. So gorgeous
tebtosca Heart Shaped Hole J2, NC-17, she gets me to read stuff that I'd usually be iffy on and turns it into something magical.
tfw_ftw Found & Lost NC-17 Sam/Dean/Castiel. A bittersweet look at Sam's hopes for the three of them rolled up in fluffy curtainfic.
tipsy_kitty Room Temperature J2 R this is cracky and funny and sweet all at the same time and also non-traditional vampire fic.
tryfanstone The Allegory of the Cave (Sam/Dean, M) one of the best case/first time fics I've ever read, the description in this makes me want to go to NY.
unsettledink Like you never dreamed Avengers gen. A different origin story for Steve and one that seamlessly integrates the things that would be different.
wendy An absolute building block/keystone to so many of the things I love - spn-j2-bigbang, salt_burn_porn and spn-meanttobe included. What a star!
That's not to neglect the people who read/consume fanworks either including andrea94, babyreaper, bluestar1820, dark_rebel84, eloraci, elsecarlass, kindaskimpy, legion11 linda2742, littlegirlvik, lupin_spirit, macaronielbow, nicky69, nomercles, novella34, rockyrace, secondfish, vicious_sanity, wildrosesings. I'm not going to speak for all fan-creators but I can certainly say for myself, knowing there's an audience out there is a great incentive to write. Thanks all for making the fandom a richer place to be in.
And if you'd happen to like to do me a favour? Point out the people I've missed - who should I be reading/following/enjoying, who you instantly spotted wasn't there? I'm shy sometimes so I need that shove.