#true vessels

[wetsocksinbed]

rewatching Tall Tales (2x15) and thinking about how Gabriel must have gotten such whiplash when Sam and Dean rocked up to the University. Imagine you’ve been on the run from your family for centuries, trying to avoid God, and the looming apocalypse, and suddenly the true vessels of Lucifer and Michael are on your doorstep pretending to be maintenance men

[samanddean76]

Title: When Angels Deserve To Die Author: @samanddean76 | Artist: @teeglass Pairing: Castiel/Dean Winchester Rating: Explicit | Word Count: 10,781

Tags: AU - Post Apocalypse, Reverse Verse, Hunter Cas, Angel Dean, Hunter Gabe, Angel Sam, Character Imperilment, Prophetic Dreams, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Angelic Possession, No Demons, Corrupted Humans, Dreams, True Vessels, Boy King of Heaven Sam Winchester, Hopeful Ending, Written for the @destielaureversebb, Original Art by @teeglass

Summary: Cas managed to survive the apocalypse. He watched the angels, who are little more than wicked, winged monsters, as they destroyed the world. He not only bears scars, but responsibilities to those who lived. But now he is faced with a challenge. Can he truly be the perfect vessel that will be used to right all the wrongs that plague the lingering remnants of humanity? If Cas believes in what the angel who visits him in his dreams tells him, he need only trust Dean long enough to save the world. But can he truly be that lucky?

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What happens when @friendofcarlotta and @hawkland get together and share a vision?!?! Amazing things! They combined forces to create a reverse bang that wasn't short or rushed and gave authors the opportunity to dive in and bring their incredible visions to life. On a server where a discouraging word has never been heard, they are the chief enablers that kept everyone's creative sparks flaming! And I want to thank them both, very much, for being tireless cheerleaders! (And yes, all of the other authors who have never been afraid to break out the pom-poms at a moment's notice and are far too numerous to list...)

I also need to thank @teeglass for hearing my vision and agreeing to let me run wild! This is not a standard reverse verse, and a lot of new lore was created. But the story will still feel very familiar. The gorgeous art that inspired me deserves all the love!

So, please. Buckle up and I hope everyone enjoys the story and the glorious art that inspired it!

Fic on AO3 | Art on Tumblr

[winchesterride]

In my opinion Alastair was lying to Dean and John could never break the first seal because Dean was Michael true vessel. The same way Sam was the only one that could break the last seal, that Jake guy couldn't

[writing-out-our-history]

More Dean/Michael and Sam/Lucifer parallels:

In the early seasons (which are really the only seasons I use for this parallel, thanks writers), Dean and Sam both show a startling lack of morals in regards to interacting with other people, but in different ways. Dean doesn’t seem to mind physically hurting people he thinks deserve it, nor does he mind telling impersonal and/or white lies. However, he goes out of his way not to fuck with people’s heads and he’s brutally honest when he needs to be.

Sam, on the other hand, doesn’t like the idea of being the one to inflict physical harm (though he does seem to enjoy doing it once he’s started, which is a topic for another post), and he doesn’t like telling “official” lies. He doesn’t mind manipulating people or telling personal lies, though, and he will spare people’s feelings at the expense of the truth. 

Later, in s5-6, Lucifer shows that he generally prefers not to get his hands dirty until the violence will have some personally satisfying aspect. He also is a master manipulator and lies left and right. Michael, on the other hand, doesn’t outwardly derive any enjoyment from violence, but doles it out much more readily and efficiently than Lucifer. He also has trouble lying, and, in TSRTS, goes out of his way to explain his reasoning to Dean and make sure he knows everything. 

[midnightsilver]

Michael!Dean and Lucifer!Sam for style comparison. 😋😉

[theriverscribe]

Lucifer, how do you feel about having a new sibling that used to be your True Vessel™? (Also; sidenote, please let him have peace.)

“Let him have peace?” Lucifer sneers, causing the cracks in his failing vessel to widen.  “And why should I allow him peace when I am granted none?  Answer me that!”

He walks slowly around the empty room that smells vaguely of death and decay. 

“Look at me!  On the run with barely enough grace to hold myself together in the decaying vessel of a decaying rockstar.  Do I look like I’m prepared to throw a ‘welcome to the family’ party for that…brat?!

“You ask me how I feel about having Sam as my newest little sibling,” Lucifer’s steps slow and his shoulders drop with a sigh.  “I don’t really know, honestly.  Part of me is angry–angrier than I’ve been in eons.  But I am also…intrigued.  Father has not been involved in the affairs of men or angels in a very long time.  I do not know what it means–why would he decide to make a new child now?

“I have no desire to continue this fight.  I have no desire for anything anymore.  I will grant the Winchesters ‘peace’ for now,” Lucifer turns, a smile splitting the skin of his cheek, “But should I find my desires rekindled, that may change.”

[heavnofhell]

Do you think Gabe and Raphael (and maybe lower ranking angels too) have True Vessels? Or was it just a one-time apology gift thing for Luci and Michael from God, for all the shit he's done to them?

I’m not sure that I’d call it a “gift,” but I do think it’s unique to Luci and Mikey. Every angel has a “bloodline,” I believe, or certain people who are more compatible with their Grace, but none of them seem to burn through their vessels as Lucifer did, regardless of how long they possess them. 

That probably has something to do with Michael and Lucifer being the two most powerful Archangels in creation, as well as their “destiny” playing into God’s penchant for overreacting (and just being dramatic, in general). It all stems from the “As it is Above, so, too, shall it be Below,” ideal, with Sam and Dean’s paths paralleling those of Lucifer’s and Michael’s so closely. 

It also seems to suggest that God did, in fact, keep some control over his supposed plan, as, with two True Vessels being preordained, the sequence and timeframe of events were far easier to pinpoint, given that Sam and Dean would need to be alive, and their relationship in a certain state before anything more became possible. 

“Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up here.” If we consider how certain both Michael and Lucifer seemed to be about how things would end, it seems that little was left to chance. I’d even venture so far as to say that Michael’s indifference toward Dean was, in part, due to the knowledge that he had another option at his disposal. 

As for the gift thing... I think, in Lucifer’s mind, Sam being his True Vessel was a gift. It was one of the few things his Father promised him in the way of hope -  the one light at the end of the dark tunnel he had been cast into. For Lucifer, Sam was a chance to finally have someone who understood him and understood that he was constantly struggling with his own heart, and that he was not just a monster bred of hatred. But, as we’ve seen, that hope he put into Sam backfired on him horrifically, if only because Sam didn’t have the promise of being rewarded for his patience. To Lucifer, Sam was a God meant to save him, and for Sam, God was a man who told him no one else would care if he was saved. 

So, yes, in sentimental ways, having a True Vessel had been a gift. Logically, however, it was just another way to bind the Archangels -  to contain their power at a certain time and place, so that they might have a chance at being controlled and predicted. It also served as a way to reiterate the importance of Free Will (something Lucifer has always treated with reverence), making consent absolutely essential, and putting into check and, perhaps, even humbling two powerful creatures who were accustomed to simply taking what they wanted. 

Maybe God had hoped that, with these intimate connections to two humans, his sons would learn to appreciate humankind - to see them as something more than just careless, mindless monkeys, and I think it could have worked, if only Sam and Dean had considered attempting to reason, rather than to fight (not that Michael probably would have listened to much reason...).  In the end, none of it seemed to make a difference, and it’s hard to say what God really had in mind, if anything, at all. 

{{I’d say we might learn more in S13 with the AU world...  but let’s face it -  post S5 is irrelevant to the true Archangels, so far as Kripke’s work is concerned.) 

[gatergirl79]

Okay, so I was thinking earlier today.

If Dean is Michael's true vessel, and Sam is Lucifer's (because of the bloodline thing) then doesn't that mean that Adam is actually Gabriel?

And if so, does that mean that Gabriel's vessel - whoever he may be. - is somehow related to Sam and Dean?

And in which case what does all this mean for Sabriel? 

I am suddenly feeling very concerned about my their ship.