History Fanfic / ItsAllInTheDetails

* AdultFear: Past-Jimmy is just confused when his alternate future self comes to warn him not to accept the request to act as past-Castiel's vessel, but confusion shifts to fear when his other self reveals that Claire would be the next choice for Castiel's Vessel if he turned them down.

''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7002492/1/It-s-All-in-the-Details It’s All in the Details]]'' by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/118767/Colleen Colleen]] is a ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' fic based around the idea that Castiel’s plea for assistance from God in “The Man Who Would Be King” was actually answered, with the aforementioned answer prompting Castiel to go back in time and try to fix things before they became hopeless. As a result, Castiel ‘takes over’ before Dean can sell his soul to bring Sam back to life, with the presence of the mysterious ‘Cas’ significantly altering the Winchesters’ lives from that point onwards even before they learn his true identity.

!!''It’s All in the Details'' contains examples of:

* AdultFear: Past-Jimmy is just confused when his alternate future self comes to warn him not to accept the request to act as past-Castiel’s vessel, but confusion shifts to fear when his other self reveals that Claire would be the next choice for Castiel’s Vessel if he turned them down.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: When looking over Brady’s list of accusations, Henriksen muses that he would expect rape and assault from a demon, but insider trading seems surprisingly tame.

** Victor Henricksen not only survives what would have been his canonical death, but goes on to become a hunter and one of the few people outside of their ‘family’ that the Winchesters trust with Castiel’s true identity (even if he still doesn’t know about the time-travel angle and just believes Castiel’s undercover as a pagan god on God’s orders).
** Arguably applies to Jimmy Novak; while he has technically appeared as Castiel’s vessel throughout the show with only one appearance as himself, this story not only shows Castiel conversing with him, but [[spoiler:Jimmy even takes over for a time after a confrontation with Naomi’s angels forces Castiel to retreat into himself to heal]].

** Thanks to Gabriel’s efforts in creating a new background for Castiel he has a ‘valid’ identity as a pagan god, with the result that prayers to ‘Kaseva’ will actually summon Castiel (although he is not subject to the weaknesses of a pagan god).

* BetterTheDevilYouKnow: All-but-explicitly stated during Crowley’s first confrontation with ‘Kaseva’, as Crowley is informed that Kaseva and his most trusted followers are aware of his ambitions to be the King of Hell and it is made clear that Crowley is being left alive only because they would rather he got the job than any of the alternatives.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Gabriel might be the ‘nice’ archangel, but he’s still dangerous enough in a fight that [[spoiler:Abaddon chose to flee when their initial confrontation went against her]].
* CanonWelding: A minor example; Castiel’s safehouse cabin is next door to a cabin used by Colonel Jack O’Neill (''Series/StargateSG1''), but so far it appears that neither side will interact much beyond Jack believing that he has really weird neighbours.

** After [[spoiler:the death of Lilith, the role of the last Seal is transferred to Anna as she has raw power tainted by her decision to fall and become human, but this is later ‘transferred’ to Abaddon after she follows Henry into the present due to her power as a Knight of Hell]].
** Castiel is briefly concerned that the demons will turn to Adam as a substitute for Dean to serve as the Righteous Man who will shed blood in Hell, but to date nobody else in Heaven or Hell (save for [[spoiler:Crowley]]) appears to be aware of Adam’s connection to the Winchesters.
* CommutingOnABus: Essentially; [[spoiler:to give himself a useful ally in investigating the Winchesters’ continued survival, Crowley takes Bela Talbot off the rack and promotes her to become one of his immediate underlings in Hell]].
* CurbStompBattle: A few examples of these; Castiel may spend a fair amount of time operating undercover on Earth to create the impression he’s still purely loyal to Heaven, but when he’s allowed to assist the Winchesters in hunts, he easily tears through most of their demonic opposition, [[spoiler:to the point that Lilith only kills Dean because Castiel was occupied fighting off her hellhounds, and Brady only survives Castiel saving Dean and Sam from a group of demons because the amount of energy needed to banish all demons present would have caused significant collateral damage]].

* DeathByAdaptation: Castiel kills Ruby during the siege of the police station, and [[spoiler:Sam later kills Lilith with the Colt just as Dean’s deal runs out, thus ruining any plans for a future Apocalypse until a new last Seal is created]].

** The raising of Samhain was a significant hunt for the Winchesters as it was both a Seal and a very powerful demon, but while Samhain’s status as a Seal still makes the hunt a particular threat, [[spoiler:Crowley and the Winchesters prevent the necessary sacrifices and identify the witches before Samhain can rise]].
** Arguably applies to Alastair; he’s still a potential threat, but he and Dean only meet directly once, [[spoiler:and that encounter ends with Alastair being abducted by the angels, who end up killing him]].
* DramaPreservingHandicap: [[spoiler:When Abaddon appears in the present, Castiel has been forced to retreat into his vessel to heal from Naomi’s attack, so Jimmy is only able to let Castiel out long enough to trap Abaddon in a safehouse while he escapes with Dean, Sam and Henry, and has to keep him dormant for the next few weeks as the group work to re-establish the Men of Letters. On the other hand, Gabriel is able to do enough damage that Abaddon is forced to retreat to Hell rather than continue trying to catch the Winchesters, giving the Winchesters time to re-establish the Men of Letters and assess their new options]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: Naomi’s methods of ‘conditioning’ rogue angels are so extreme that even Zachariah is disturbed to see the angels she’s conditioned once she’s done with them.
* ExactWords: Castiel muses that he’s not good at lying directly even after his personal development, so he often attempts to phrase his answers or explanations in a manner that expresses the truth but leaves enough gaps for others to make certain assumptions themselves.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Seeing what Doc Benton has become on a spiritual level sends Bela into a screaming fit, Bela ‘calming down’ enough to confirm that she doesn’t want to become like him even if Hell is her only alternative.

* FutureMeScaresMe: Jimmy and Castiel each basically terrify their past selves when they visit them, Jimmy fearing for his family while ‘newbie Cas’ is horrified to witness the scale of Heaven’s corruption.

* HeelRealisation: Learning that the supernatural is real prompts Henricksen to evaluate more than his own beliefs about the Winchesters, acknowledging with hindsight that he was too fixated on them when tracking them to the point that he blamed them for crimes he should have realised they couldn’t have committed.

** Dean correctly anticipates that [[spoiler:Anna will want one when she learns that she has become the last Seal on Lucifer’s Cage following Lilith’s death]].

** Ruby never learns that ‘Cas’ is immune to her knife until she tries to stab him with it, allowing Castiel to take the blade and use it to kill her.

* InSpiteOfANail: Even with the new history unfolding, Chuck is still writing about the original events in the gospels that get published, only writing what’s really happening as an ‘alternate’ that he writes down when his new guardian angel isn’t looking.

'''Vessel!Jimmy:''' Because I’m you, you idiot.

'''Castiel:''' I’m you… dumb butt.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Believing that Alastair had become the new final Seal, Naomi and Zachariah abduct Alastair just as he is attacking Dean, but their efforts to complete a ritual that would fully restore the last Seal just cause Alastair to explode as the last Seal is actually Abaddon]].

* NotSoExtinct: After [[spoiler:Henry survives his time in the future, he discovers that the Men of Letters bunker even contains plans for how to restart after abrupt dissolution and years of inactivity, allowing him to induct Bobby and his grandsons into the new Men of Letters (Rufus gets the same offer, but decides to remain an affiliated independent as he isn’t a joiner)]].

* MonsterSobStory: Travis’s hunt for Jack Montgomery [[spoiler:becomes less tragic in this version of events, as Cas’s presence helps alert the Winchesters to Travis’s actions in time to save Jack and his wife, the angel’s observations reinforcing the Winchesters’ decision to let Jack deal with his hunger on his own rather than kill him because of what he might do]].

* CommutingOnTheBus: Essentially; [[spoiler:to give himself a useful ally in investigating the Winchesters’ continued survival, Crowley takes Bela Talbot off the rack and promotes her to become one of his immediate underlings in Hell]].

* DemotedToExtra: The raising of Samhain was a significant hunt for the Winchesters as it was both a Seal and a very powerful demon, but while Samhain’s status as a Seal still makes the hunt a particular threat, [[spoiler:Crowley and the Winchesters prevent the necessary sacrifices and identify the witches before Samhain can rise]].

* IronicEcho: When Castiel and Jimmy Novak talk to their other selves in the new timeline, their initial greetings are fairly similar, with the Jimmys greeting each other thus;

** And when Castiel is talking to his other self (who has taken Claire Novak as a vessel);

** Castiel is briefly concerned that the demons will turn to Adam as a substitute for Dean to serve as the Righteous Man who will shed blood in Hell, but to date nobody else in Heaven or Hell appears to be aware of Adam’s connection to the Winchesters.

* CurbStompBattle: A few examples of these; Castiel may spend a fair amount of time operating undercover on Earth to create the impression he’s still purely loyal to Heaven, but when he’s allowed to assist the Winchesters in hunts, he easily tears through most of their demonic opposition, [[spoiler:to the point that Lilith only kills Dean because Castiel was occupied fighting off her hellhounds]].

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Believing that Alastair had become the new final Seal, Naomi and Zachariah abduct Alastair just as he is attacking Dean, but their efforts to complete a ritual that would fully restore the last Seal just cause Alastair to explode as the last Seal is actually Abaddon]].
* NotSoExtinct: After [[spoiler:Henry survives his time in the future, he discovers that the Men of Letters bunker even contains plans for how to restart after abrupt dissolution and years of inactivity, allowing him to induct Bobby and his grandsons into the new Men of Letters (Rufus gets the same offer, but decides to remain an affiliated independent as he isn’t a joiner)]].
* OpenSecret: As ‘Loki’ refers to Castiel as his brother, the Winchesters realises that he’s an angel rather than just a trickster, but he refuses to divulge his true identity [[spoiler:until Chuck’s writings reveal the truth]].
* OtherMeAnnoysMe: When Castiel and Jimmy Novak talk to their other selves in the new timeline, their initial greetings are fairly similar, with the Jimmys greeting each other thus;

* TrickedOutTime: Referenced; where past attempts to change history with time travel were thwarted because they tried to make one big change and hope for the best, Castiel takes steps to increase his own chances of success as he simply makes more gradual changes stemming from his original actions in the past, with most of the Winchesters’ non-apocalypse-themed hunts unfolding as they did before (although Cas does take steps to ensure someone else is available to deal with the Sandover Bridge & Iron Company haunting).

* HoYay: In their ‘first’ meeting (in this timeline), Dean kissed Castiel believing that he was a crossroads demon, with Dean being later embarrassed when Sam and Bobby learn about that kiss from Chuck’s records.

* NightmareFuel: When Bela and Castiel are perceiving the spiritual plane, the immortal Doc Benton looks so horrifying that it sends Bela into a screaming fit and makes Castiel want to throw up despite that being impossible for angels under normal circumstances.