Choices Seal Our Fate
Sammy Big Bang 2017
Fandom: Supernatural
Relationships: Gen - Sam Winchester & Jo Harvelle, Crowley & Sam Winchester, Jo Harvelle & Crowley
Characters: Sam Winchester, Crowley, Jo Harvelle, Ellen Harvelle, Dean Winchester, Bobby Singer, Castiel, Gabriel, Lucifer
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~81,500
Art: Masterpost on Livejournal and Tumblr
Summary: Dean and Sam Winchester split ways in the wake of Lucifer's rising. When his last conversation with Dean leaves Sam convinced there's no hope of reconciliation, Sam sets out to find his redemption in stopping Lucifer on his own.
Little did he know that he would find companionship with an old friend, Jo Harvelle, and the King of the Crossroads during his pursuit.
All 17 chapters + epilogue currently only available on AO3
Gratitude: HUGE thank you to MakingSafe, who willingly looked over and offered editing suggestions for this monster. I also was paired with the WONDERFUL artist @kuwlshadow, who made two lovely pieces.
Additional warnings: Please note that there is suicidal ideation and off-screen suicide in regards to Sam trying to avoid Lucifer. Violence and mature topics are on-par with the show's level, only the amount of swearing wouldn't be allowed.
Regarding canon
This story is based off of canon and characterization from the first five seasons of Supernatural. While I'm aware of what comes later, I'm still of the mindset that post-S5 is like... an extended universe. Anyway, bear that in mind as my Crowley is based on canon and fanon of the time many years ago — including his origins that are alluded to in this piece.
Since this is a S5 divergence/alt-take, there are a lot of canon events mentioned and included in the narrative. I did my best to avoid rehashing things in whole, but there are key moments that remain near the same, including some dialogue. There are also many canon events that are not addressed. You can assume that some of them take place on the Team Dean & Co. side of things. ("Abandon All Hope" absolutely does not take place.)
Relationships: While there are no actualized pairings in this story, there is a potential for some sort of Sam-Jo-Crowley thing. I feel like some of the tension's there, but there are a lot of other things for them to focus on. Romance is pretty much the last thing on anyone's mind.
Story's history
This story was written in two major chunks over the course of two NaNo projects (National Novel Writing Month). In November 2014, I wrote through the events of "Point of No Return" and had about 53k words during that zero draft. I spent many hours in November 2016 doing a first run of revisions through that, cutting about 4k, then finished the story. There was a single scene (it happens to be my favorite) that was written during my failed NaNo of '15. It's been a fascinating journey given that I haven't been active in SPN fandom since around the time season seven was airing. (Note: At the end of Nov. '16 this story was approx 86K words, making it the longest single story I've ever written.)
I can't remember how this story really came about, especially when considering I was active on the Gabriel/Sam side of fandom almost exclusively, but I believe it was a combo of things. 1) I've always been fascinated by the "What ifs?" potentials of seasons four and five. 2) I'm constantly frustrated with myself for not focusing enough on strong, female characters I love in fandom — apparently too often distracted by my frequent m/m favorite ships. 3) The Harvelles' death pisses me off. 4) The Winchester family is a nightmare of unhealthy interactions; and Dean's double-standards drove me nuts. 5) I started reading VivatRex's Falling Skies and became intrigued with the idea of trying my hand at writing Crowley.
