In the 1970s, Dean Milligan, a background actor, dies in a huge fire that blazes an expensive Hollywood set. Dean, having only worked as an extra, holds no space in the local news.
35 years later, Dean Winchester is lucky to have everything he could wish for: fame, money, stardom, and a great life where nothing remains a dream. While filming for a movie at an abandoned set, Dean starts to experience flashbacks of himself from another life—memories of someone he couldn’t possibly be. As he uncovers the reality behind the visions, Dean stumbles upon the impossible truth: he was violently murdered in his past life—and worse—he was not alone. The same crime took someone else that night—Cas Shurley, a Hollywood star whom Dean Milligan had loved dearly. Realising that his reincarnation might have happened for a reason, Dean goes investigating his and Cas’s death. Thankfully, he has Castiel Novak, Cas’s handsome-yet-nerdy doppelgänger to help him with it.
Inspired by the Shah Rukh Khan movie: Om Shanti Om
Link to fic | Link to art
Pairings: Dean/Cas, past Dean/Lee, past Dean/Lisa, mentioned Cas/Mick, minor Cas/April, minor John/Mary, mentioned Charlie/Dorothy, mentioned Benny/Garth
Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, temporary major character death, homophobia, ableist language, parasocial relationships, murder
Tags: Reincarnation AU, 70s Hollywood, soulmates, Actor Dean, Actor Cas
please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.
you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.
first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.
now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:
in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.
and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.
and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.
it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:
• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.
• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.
• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.
• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.
• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.
• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.
and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.
what i'm asking:
if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.
if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.
india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.
Congratulations to all of the incredible authors and artists who took part in the tenth round of the Dean/Cas Pinefest!
This year, 19 teams gifted the Dean/Cas fandom a wildly impressive 974,977 words of pine-filled fic, and 71 gorgeous works of art!
Once again we've been absolutely floored by the depth of creative talent we’ve been spoiled with in this fandom, and we're so glad to see that love for Dean and Castiel is still going strong all these years after the show ended 💚💙
Speaking of which... we're still aboard this ship with the rest of you, and we'll be back for round eleven later this year! Make sure to follow us here on Tumblr so you don't miss the official announcement!
This year we've also been running the Evergreen Mini-Challenge in celebration of a whole decade of Pinefest, and you still have a few more days to fill as many Evergreen Mini-Challenge prompts as you'd like! Participation is open to absolutely everyone, whether you completed the main challenge or not, and you don't need to register to take part. Just head over here to see the details & tag us in your posts!
We'll share one last roundup of Evergreen fills on Wednesday April 8th, when we'll also award the 10th Anniversary Milestone Badges we teased back before this round began. Do these badges have any real value? No! But they're fun, so we hope you'll like them anyway 🌲
As always, we'll be sharing all of this year's masterposts again in the coming days and weeks, but in the meantime you’ll find links to every entry from the 2026 round under the cut or in the collection on Ao3!
Make sure to let the authors and artists know how much you enjoyed their creations with a like, kudos, or best of all, a reblog, rec, or comment!
Happy pining, everyone!
Enjoy the Silence
Written by LoversAntiquities with art by sidewinder
Notorious
Written by FriendofCarlotta with art by seidenapfel
Leave a Light On
Written by chaoticdean with art by entropic_saudade
Sleeping Hunger
Written by MatchaMilkshake with art by imogenbynight
Cats are Angels with whiskers
Written by Summer_Love_24 with art by Bucketofli
Sail Free
Written by Florianniss with art by Solstheimart
angel wing grooming 101
Written by mistyfeathers with art by blueeyesblueties
Crimes of the Heart
Written by one_more_offbeat_anthem with art by echo-is-bones
The Family Business Job
Written by mittensmorgul with art by hectatess
Score, Spin, and Triple Axel
Written by seidenapfel with art by golby-moon
a long way to go
Written by stayawake with art by TwinOne
The Better Part of Valour
Written by andimeantittosting with art by szlez
Effigy
Written by imogenbynight with art by saudade
To Keep From Drowning…
Written by BunheadKitKat19 with art by Solstheim
so you say you want a deathbed scene
Written by goldandtherust with art by @onowey
Statistically Improbable
Written by Tossukka with art by Hectatess
No Good Deed (Goes Unpunished)
Written by golby-moon with art by bucketofli
I Swear On Castiel’s Name
Written by June Sirius with art by daffodilsonaprettystring
King of the World
Written by Maxine with art by girlinthemirrorbluenight
And once you’re all caught up on this year’s Pinefest creations, there are 894 works of art and 279 fics (totaling over 10.5 million words!) to be found in the previous nine Pinefest rounds!
Now that everyone has had some time to catch up (or start catching up) on all the excellent Pinefest fics and artworks, as well as the creations shared as part of the Evergreen Mini-Challenge, it's time to award this year's participants with their 10th Anniversary Evergreen Milestone badges!
Do these badges have any real value? Probably not, but who doesn’t like a lil badge graphic for bragging rights? Take them, slap 'em on your blog or on your fic/art post, print them and eat* them... it's up to you!
(*maybe don't do this... printed badges contain very little nutritional content and might actually be toxic depending on which ink and paper you use.)
Without further ado, congratulations to everyone who took part this year, and bonus congratulations to everyone who earned a badge! You'll find them under the cut ❤️
The Hyperion badge is awarded to the author who submitted the longest fic, the artist who submitted the most art for any single fic.
This badge goes to:
Author: @mittensmorgul who wrote a whopping 182,630 for The Family Business Job
Artist(s): @golby-moon and @bucketofli, who both made seven pieces of art for Score, Spin, and Triple Axel and No Good Deed (Goes Unpunished) respectively.
The Seedling badge is awarded to all participants who completed the challenge for the first time in the 2026 round! Congratulations to all of these new Pinefest creators -- we loved having you in the challenge!
This badge goes to blueyesblueties, BucketofLi, echo.is.bones, saudade, MatchaMilkshake, mistyfeathers, chaoticdean, JuneSirius, Alina Summer, duckchips19, Florianniss, and goldandtherust!
The Bristlecone badge is awarded to long-time Pinefest participants who have completed five or more rounds of the challenge! We love seeing what you come up with every year 💜
This badge goes to girlinthemirrorbluenight, Hectatess, imogenbynight, seidenapfel, sidewinder, Tossukka, TwinOne, Mittenwraith, FriendofCarlotta, LoversAntiquities, andimeantittosting, and one_more_offbeat_anthem!
The Greenwood badge is awarded to authors and artists who returned to the challenge in 2026 after a year or more away! It was so great to have you back, and we hope to see you again next time.
This badge goes to stayawake and Solstheim!
The Sugarpine badge goes to artists who created four or more artworks for any one fic, and authors who wrote over 40,000 words in the 2026 round! These authors and artists doubled (or more than doubled!) the required minimums, and we loved seeing their work!
The Ponderosa badge goes to the participant who completed the most Evergreen Mini-Challenge prompts over the course of the challenge, and was handily won by @friendofcarlotta, who wrote a whole 31k fic to fill every single prompt.
The Pinecone badge goes to any fic or artwork that contains or refers to a literal pine tree... or part of one.
This badge goes to golbygloom for no good deed (goes unpunished), to imogenbynight for effigy, to mittenwraith for the family business job, to chaoticdean for leave a light on, to loversantiquities for enjoy the silence!
And last but not least, the Pineapple badge goes to any fic or artwork that contains or refers to a pineapple, because we thought that should count for something.
This badge goes to Maxine, for King of the World!
We hope you all enjoy these little badges, and make sure to read, share, and comment on everyone's Pinefest fics and artworks! See you at the next round 💚💙🌲
Summary: While trying to get Cas back from the Empty, Dean finds Cas in another dark realm instead—one which its inhabitants euphemistically call “The Upside Down.”
Monsters, psychic kids with “evil blood” inside them, an eldritch being who tries to groom children into being vessels, heroes targeted by a clueless and misguided government, the existence of multiple worlds, monologuing villains, the needle drops for the apocalypse, the confession of love forced by an otherworldly entity that is then awkwardly addressed by the confessor’s best friend…
For all the ways this universe is strange and vastly different from his own, it’s also not at all.
It looks like Cas and Dean have work to do.
I remember when people were ignoring that Obama was bombing Libya. They even cheer for it. A polite president would just make you people sleep on multiple genocides and wars.
My art for this year's @deancaspinefest for the fic King of the World by Maxine. If you want drama and love that spans eras, check out this awesome fic based on the movie Om Shanti Om. It was such a blast drawing the boys in these 70s styles. I'm slowly making my way through every decade with them haha.
In the 1970s, Dean Milligan, a background actor, dies in a huge fire that blazes an expensive Hollywood set. Dean, having only worked as an extra, holds no space in the local news.
35 years later, Dean Winchester is lucky to have everything he could wish for: fame, money, stardom, and a great life where nothing remains a dream. While filming for a movie at an abandoned set, Dean starts to experience flashbacks of himself from another life—memories of someone he couldn’t possibly be. As he uncovers the reality behind the visions, Dean stumbles upon the impossible truth: he was violently murdered in his past life—and worse—he was not alone. The same crime took another life that night—Cas Shurley, a Hollywood star whom Dean Milligan had loved dearly. Realising that his reincarnation might have happened for a reason, Dean goes investigating his and Cas’s death. Thankfully, he has Castiel Novak, Cas’s handsome-yet-nerdy doppelgänger to help him with it.
Inspired by the Shah Rukh Khan movie: Om Shanti Om
Keep reading for a sneak preview!
Cas’s polished shoes reflect the glimmering lights around them as he steps out of the limo, with his usual wide-but-shy smile brightening his entire face. His dark hair is almost purposefully mussed, and his sharp black tuxedo is paired with a blue cummerbund which brings out the colour of his eyes, with a pocket square to match.
He turns around and helps April out—she’s in a sleek black dress, an embellished blue silken wrap covering her shoulders. The wrap is the exact colour of Cas’s cummerbund, as though reminding the world that she and Cas are one. The jewels at her ears, wrists, and neck glimmer as Cas twirls her, smile widening when she giggles. April takes the wrap off, revealing rhinestone straps, and proceeds to drape it around Cas, much to the delight of everyone around them. Cas accepts the offering graciously. They link arms as they begin to walk the carpet, waving at the hooting, cheering crowd.
If Dean could pause time to live this moment forever, he would. He can’t believe his luck—the fact that he’s so close to Cas after loving him from afar for so long. There’s so much he wants to say, so many questions he wants to ask—things he’s only spoken of to Cas in his dreams, that he cannot possibly say out loud.
But then Cas turns away and Dean falls quiet, limp as he watches the interlinked arms and Cas moving on… until he feels a tug at his wrist. For a moment, Dean isn’t quite sure what happened, but then there’s yet another tug, stronger than before and he stumbles, hobbling out of reach of the bouncer. His bracelet—the lucky charm that Adam gave him, is entangled in one of the embellishments on the wrap that had been draped around Cas.
Dean tries to call out to alert Cas, but his throat doesn’t work and he can’t seem to undo the knot. There are irate yells behind him as he fumbles around trying desperately to free himself from the unaware couple before him, until one of the bouncers in the front finally alerts them of Dean.
Cas turns around, amusement on his features as he realises what is going on. Dean is shaking too hard trying to undo the knot but Cas gently pushes his hand away. Dean’s skin tingles at Cas’s touch and he stands there, frozen, while Cas’ eyes squint as he works to separate them. Cas is so close to him again—Dean thinks he’s going to pass out then and there. Finally, the knot comes undone and Cas winks at Dean—the sexiest wink ever, and Dean can’t even respond as he continues being lost in those blue eyes. As Cas pats Dean on the shoulder and walks away, Dean is grateful to have the bouncers lead him back to his spot because his knees are too weak and his heart is going too fast.
God, he’s in love. He’s so in love.
This fic is some of the most fun I’ve had. Can’t wait to share it with everyone, and the incredible art to go with it! Also! Check out that amazing banner!
The time for public claims has arrived!
We have a few wonderful art pieces with prompts still available, now open to those who have not registered for this year's DCRB!
Go here to view the remaining gallery of art and prompts available. Make sure to read the rules and schedule, then please register first before you make your claim!
I was so lucky to claim my friend Maxine's fic as one of my DCBB arts this year! You're in for a heart wrenching treat <3
I had done a simple illustrated GIF for a fic once before, but I got to practice some more while doing art for Maxine's fic, where Dean's vice is Angel's Envy, a real whiskey with an iconic angel wing brand on the front. To show how Dean is drowning in his grief when he relapses, I shoved him in a bottle of Angel's Envy and painted two different fluttering wing sets on their own layers to toggle on/off, and painted the alcohol level going down as its own layer, toggling them off and exporting the image after each change to slowly reveal Dean. In the end, I had 19 frames exported into Canva, and I set the time for each frame and exported the final product as a GIF.
I did two versions of Cas in the hospital, one with his turban bandage:
And one with his smaller bandage, and the stubble on the side of his scalp slightly grown out as he starts to recover more:
There's a GIF'd transition form of these two images I made that you can see in Maxine's fic -- the file was too big for Tumblr, and if I try to resize, it converts the file to a JPEG which defeats the purpose.
Lastly, I did some flowers: a forget me not spray for the banner to use as angel's wings, another I did off a reference that I belatedly realized were not in fact forget me nots but they were still pretty, an illustration of each flower mentioned in the fic as being part of Cas' garden (violet, lupin, butter-yellow hydrangeas, marigolds, a red rose) that I combined to look like the garden was growing throughout the fic, and one for the final chapter header (a datura flower, aka Devil's Trumpet).
Please leave a comment here or on Ao3 if you enjoyed, and please go read @maxine1703's fic and give it all the love it deserves! Grab your tissues, you're in for a gorgeous, heart-wrenching, but ultimately hopeful and happy fic!
Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, missing minor person, presumed dead, minor character death, traumatic brain injury, disability, suicidal ideation, medical details, mental illness (schizophrenia, PTSD, panic attacks), alcoholism, ableism
Tags: Alternate universe, angst with a happy ending, established Destiel, missing persons, hurt/comfort, grief, heartbreak, hurt Cas, selective mutism, addiction
Summary: A month after Jack goes missing, Dean and Cas are in a huge fight. That night, Cas walks out of their home and vanishes without a trace. Dean spends the year searching for his husband and son, only for Cas to turn up suddenly one night, gravely injured. As Dean cares for Cas, he ends up discovering parts of Cas’s past that he never knew existed, leading him to question everything about his husband and the life they built together.
IT IS DONNEEEE. Please leave the awesome, amazing, talented @entropic-saudade lots and lots and lots of praise because the art is seriously so amazing. They truly knocked it out of the park! What beautiful pieces! Thank youuuu, saudade, you're the best.
Debuting with a whopping 0.0 rating on Goodreads, and nonexistent on the New York Times Bestsellers List, the @deancashorrorfest publishing house presents...
DARK INSPIRATIONS by saudade
Cover design and illustrations by @zissie
Editor credits: @maxine1703, @feargach
Rating: Explicit
Wordcount: ~34k
Major Archive Warnings:
Graphic Depictions of Violence, (Implied) Major Character Death
Tags and other content warnings:
Dark Academia, Possession (Ghostly, Demonic, Angelic), Aftermath of Possession, Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors, Blood and Violence, Injury, Animal Death, Manipulation, Gaslighting, Dubious Consent, Vomiting, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Canonical Sexual Abuse (Bela Talbot), Implied/Referenced Cannibalism, Self-Worth Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Family Issues, Dean Winchester Cries During Sex
Summary:
Be careful who your muses are...
Dean Winchester put a lot on the line when he decided to quit working in his father's auto shop and pursue a degree in creative writing: his family’s respect, his future, money, time. If he doesn’t impress his advisor with a solid thesis idea soon, he’s screwed. It doesn’t help that he’s outperformed by his cliquey peers from more privileged backgrounds.
When one of said peers invites him to an underground workshop, he discovers that the secret to their success lies not in their own merit, but in the entities they summon to work through them. Invoking the muses is a tradition going back to the Ancient Greeks, they argue. Dean is skeptical, but after his first night of offering himself up as a medium, he’s hooked. He lets himself be subject to various influences, each darker than the one before, reveling in the work they make together. There’s no going back—not even when a particularly bloodthirsty demon named Alastair latches onto him, wanting to be his personal mentor.
Until one night, when Dean becomes host to something no one in the group has ever been possessed by before: an angel of the Lord, who warns them to stop before they lose themselves to muses much worse than Alastair.
Pairings: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Charlie Bradbury/Stevie (background), Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore (background)
Length: 36857
Warnings: n/a
Tags: coffee shop AU, ASMR YouTube Channel, shoe shining, Castiel Owns a Coffee Shop, charlie meddles, Dean is a former tailor, Minor Character Death, Grief and Loss, Explicit Sexual Content, Mutual Pining
Summary: Dean Winchester thought he was doing the right thing by moving to Vermont to help his aging grandfather at his tailor shop. But after Henry passes and leaves nearly everything to John, Dean is at loose ends. A fellow shop owner on the small town square takes a chance on Dean and that’s how he comes to work beside Castiel, who looks at him like he’s somebody special and Dean…isn’t really sure what to do with that. With Castiel’s encouragement and a whole lot of meddling from their friend Charlie, Dean comes to realize that his old fashioned skills aren’t as useless as he thought and may even lead to online fame.
Pairings: Chuck Shurley/Naomi, John Winchester/Kate Milligan, Sam Winchester/Jessica Moore, Weems/Nicky Mermaid, Brief Dean Winchester/OMC
Length: 27000
Warnings: Major Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence
Other Content Warnings: Ableism, Homophobia, Recreational Drug Use, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Vomiting, Mentions of Animal Feces, Theft, Arson, Police Brutality, Smoking, Strong Language
Tags: Alternate Universe, Inspired by Dinner in America (2020), Punk Dean Winchester, Singer Dean Winchester, Secret Identity, Neurodivergent Coded Characters, Family Issues, Delayed Coming of Age, Happy Ending
Summary: Dean Winchester is on the run from the cops after a series of petty crimes. While looking for a place to hide, he catches the eye of his former junior college classmate, the socially awkward Castiel Shurley, and asks to crash at the Shurleys’ house.
Unbeknownst to Cas, Dean is the face behind John Q. Public—the anonymous frontman of a local punk band—with whom he has been sending suggestive photographs and love poems for the last few years under a pseudonym.
But secret identities are the least of their worries when the police are closing in, the band’s next show is drawing near, and the Shurleys refuse to let Cas fly the coop. They grow close as they rail against the expectations that stifle them both, teaching each other what it means to be a real punk rocker.
